Exhibiting our work

Our module stated that our film needed to be submitted to a film festival, which should have fallen parallel in with another Bath spa module which involved organizing a film festival, which was called Line Up. However, the dates did not quite match up which meant that in order to fulfil the course we would need to find an alternative festival to submit it to. It is fortunate that for the past three months Elspeth and Myself had been doing work experience for a local company called Suited and Booted which involved distributing their Club Flix young people films to free festivals. This meant that we were familiar with the process of trying to find festivals. However, all the festivals that we were familiar with had already passed their deadline dates, which meant that we needed to look for other potential options. Myles and Gus stated that they wanted to submit the film to one of their local film festivals back in London called Crystal Palace Film festival. Elspeth and myself decided that we were also going to send it to the local Bristol film festival called Encounters. It is unfortunate that this one now contains an entry fee that was £10, which when considering that this will be split between 5 of us, it works out to be a petty £2.

The other event that was organized was the Premier screening night at the Little theatre cinema, which was organized by Mike Johnston, our module lecturer. This was a very successful night that was very enjoyable. There were a few minor technical faults, which unluckily affected our film screening. This was brought about due to the fact that Mike was unable to play the films straight from a hard drive, which meant that he had to compress them onto a DVD format. This meant that the true quality of our camera (Canon 7D) would not be seen, and that due to the fact that we filmed on this great camera made if difficult to compress as it was filmed in a 24fps, which altered from the Sony Z1. Despite these technical problems, the audience awarded our film on the night as the best film. We won a bottle of Champagne, which was amazing, considering all of the time, and effort that was devoted to this film.

Here are some pictures of us after the event.

The edit.

At the beginning of my first year when I had signed up for a practical film module I decided to purchase Final Cut Express, as it would enable me to perform editing. Many of my lecturers said that it would be sufficient for editing. However, before we went on the Easter break, we all decided to do our own edits of the film. I bought a Lacie hard drive, so I could drag the Footage, and the synced audio and footage. However, when trying to edit it in my current version of FCE, it refused. After much research we found that this was due to the fact that Apple encouraged their customers to upgrade to the full FCP version, but however stopped people going back down the 'ladder'. This was extremely frustrating, especially as I was unable to perform an edit over the easter when I had FCE, and a suitably fast laptop. After much thought I decided to get the whole FCP version as it is something I was planning before finishing Uni anyway. Over the break I became very familiar with the software, completing In my opinion, a very tight edit. However, again I faced problems when trying to cut parts of my edit into the Uni machines, and this was because I had bought the latest version of Final Cut Pro, being the 7 edition. The one at university was the 6th, again I faced the problem with transferring my edit back down the 'ladder'. I am not impressed with Apple, all they are interested in is money!!!

We all had to do a complete re-edit on the uni machine. We incorporated the best parts of each edit, making it into one. Although we faced some big problems regarding the sound, due to the tape recorder not working. We had many booking with Richard Wood, trying to sort this. It's done now, but its not 100% perfect. I guess you learn from your mistakes. I certainly have anyway.

The filming weekend

We had secured the filming at the old Bristol Police station for the sunday, which accounted fro the majority of our film. However, we were not going to waste the Friday and the Saturday doing nothing, as we wanted to be completely prepared for the Sunday. As a group we had decided that we would be able to designate the whole of the Friday on getting all of the stills done. This was a very important element of the film as we were inspired by the short film shown to us in class called La Vie d'un Chien.

On the Friday we arranged with Ed to meet up at the campus to take a number of stills that we could use in the same way to the film above. Mark and myself both had SLR camera's which was handy as the other one could be taking pictures for the blogs as well as getting some potential back up pictures. Our first location was in the SU shop, where we wanted Ed to be snapped trying to take all of the coke off the shelves. This location was pretty hectic as we had actually scheduled to be there at the most busy part of the day...lunch time. We managed to get the shots that we needed though. We then moved onto the next location which was down in the library, as we had managed to get permission to use one of the office of the library workers. It was at this time that Mark actually needed to break away from this task in order to secure the lighting equipment for the Sunday. It was in this situation that it really helped having another SLR that I was able to competently use. After these pictures were taken We were able to call it a wrap for the day. I then went home and desaturated the pictures, to get a good idea of how they will look. The day was very relaxed, and was a good chance to actually get to know Ed, who was really nice. Looking back in hind sight, I think a little more thought could have gone into the schedule, as being in the SU shop in primetime made our task a bit more of a challenge. This was a small problem, especially compared to the ones we were to face on the filming day on the Sunday.

Anyway, on Saturday we had organized a time in the afternoon where all of the actors could get a change to meet each other, and go through the scripts. In the morning, we finished the stills which took place a victoria Park. It was also the time when we captured the sound for the opening. We first decided to get the stills for the sequence when Ed would chase the jogger in the park. We then went through a few run-throughs with just the sound, which we recorded straight into the sony Z1 which we had booked for the weekend. Everything in Victoria park went really well. The afternoon of rehearsals was also another great success as the actors went through the script, discussing and changing their lines to fit better. It was good to receive feedback from people who were not involved in the film, especially as they pointed out certain changes that we could make in the script. Obviously we didn't have to accept the changes, although in many cases we did. They were only little developments in slightly changed phrases. Myles and Elspeth went and got some food for the actors, to help break up the three hour rehearsal session. When everybody felt happy with the script we decided to call it a day.

The Nightmare on Sunday.

The sunday seemed to get off to a good start, as we managed to find our way to the location without any problems in a convoy. It was also fortunate that the parking on the Sunday was only £1, because this could have potentially been pretty expensive as we had three cars. The location was great, and we were given total freedom over what we did. The person who let us in was really helpful by helping us find props (tables ect). We seemed to breeze through the first few hours of filming, making great progress. We decided to call time for lunch, and gave ourselves an hour. However, when we returned back from lunch, everything seemed to go wrong. Firstly, as we were using Ciaren's Canon 7D, it meant that we did not have enough space to record onto his 16g memory card. He obviously accounted for this, and booked out a University laptop. However, when we tried to move the footage from the card onto the Uni laptop, the computer seemed to find it hard as many of the takes were very long and large. We tried Myles's laptop, but again it struggled and crashed. This was disastrous as it only left us with a few options.

1. Go and Buy a new card in Bristol.
2. Get Ciarens laptop from Bath.

The reason for Ciaren not bringing his laptop was down to the fact that he was not insured for the amount of his laptop and camera totaled together. He assumed that there would be no problem with the Uni computer and thought nothing else of it. This left us with the option of going into town and finding a new card, which was not ideal as the card would be so much more costly on the high street compared to the internet. Although this worry about the cost meant nothing as Ciaren and Gus both spent a good three hours walking around the whole of Bristol looking for the right card. It was Sunday after all, which meant that the possible retail shops that might have sold the card were closed. This was a frustrating three hours. There was little we could do apart from trying to delete bad takes, trying to make more room. I managed to get one of my friends to pick up Ciaren's laptop at his house in Bath, and drive it all the way to Bristol for us, obviously this did cost me, but trying to re-schedule another day with all the actors, crew and location was not really an option. After getting everything back on track, Ed needed to go back to Bath to go to work. This meant that we had to rush through his scenes and shots first. After he left, we then went on and all stayed much later than intended to get the filming done. We had to drop some of the shots on the shot-list, but got all of the important ones done.

Another disaster that happened was the tape recorder breaking. This rules out a number of shots that we wanted as some of the close ups of the tape player now have to be scraped, as we cant cut to it working from a shot where it is not on. This in affect also had some impact on the sound it was making. I am worried that this will bring some inconsistency in terms of verisimilitude.

When we finally got the film footage onto the laptop, I was truly amazed at the quality of the camera. The colors were so good, and it was crystal clear. When looking back over the events of the weekend, everything went to plan, apart from a small problem. This problem caused such a head ache though. I am very pleased and impressed with how we dealt with it, still managing to call it a wrap at the end of Sunday. Everybody did an amazing job! The commitment of the actors and the crew. Made me pleased to be in a group with people so committed.

Myles has made a good video highlighting the weekend.

The Interview Before The Interview (Myles McAuliffe) from Myles McAuliffe on Vimeo.

Actors and our roles

Being heavily involved in film, especially in the creative, practical process is something I have always thoroughly enjoyed. In the first film of the year Soleless, I was given the opportunity to direct the film. Building on that experience with this film is something I would have loved to do, especially as I knew that all the members of the group were so committed. I would have been able to rely on members to perform the roles assigned to them. However, as I have had the opportunity at Directing, I felt it would only be fair at leaving the role to somebody else. It was Gus who decided to go for the directing role, Myles and Elspeth both decided to co-produce, Mark said that he wanted to be camera operator as it is where his passion lies, which meant that I was left with doing the sound. It is a role I have not done before, which meant that I did not mind doing it, as I would be learning another aspect of the practical filming process. I also have a passion in playing the Bass guitar, which meant that I would have an opportunity at writing and having complete control over the sound of the film.

Gus: Director

Myles + Elspeth: Producers and Stage management

Mark: Cameraman

Me: Sound and Music

This was an area that predominantly involved Myles and Elspeth, as they were both co-producers. Obviously we all had a say over who would be involved in the film, but it was these two that had the challenge of finding people who would play a role in our film. The typical avenues that they initially pursued involved approaching Chris Jury, and his Creative arts section. One problem Myles and Elspeth had with looking internally at Bath spa possibilities was the ages of the potential actors. Being police detectives, we were ideally looking at the mature actors, especially as we had achieved the great location in Bristol. Elspeth contacted the Theatre Royal and asked if there were any possible actors whom might be interested in our project. Luckily they responded positively and put a young actor called Ed Browning in contact with us. This was a breakthrough as he had done things on television before, and had worked on camera at a high professional level. Myles knew Duncan Roe and asked him if he was interested in playing a role in our film. A mature student called Guy was an older actor who was put in touch with us through Cris Drury. Now that we had our cast, we needed to decide who did what. We decided that Ed was the best option for our main character Luke Philips, and that Duncan should be detective Charlie Vincent, while Guy played the unstable Detective Eric Stansfield.

Duncan Roe

Ed Browning

Guy Smallwood

Location

Finding the right location is fundamental, especially as it contributes enormously at the final aesthetic of the film. I was very against shooting in a location which the class might recognise as I felt that this would have brought the level of our film down. This is one problem I find when watching University films is that many of the scenes are often shot in student homes, on campus or even in town, which being in bath is especially a problem as it is so unique looking with the colour of the Georgian stone.

So finding an independent location for our film for me was paramount. As we had decided to shoot our film in a police station, it meant that we would be moving away from places that fellow classmates might recognise, unless they have a criminal history. For the initial scene of the main character in the cell, our options were narrowed to actually finding a Police station. Gus, Myles and Elspeth started to pursue local Police stations, which included Bath and the local villages. We were waiting for about a week for a response from Bath station at giving their verdict as to whether we could film there. I have a cousin who is a armed response police officer in Bournemouth, although this is not ideal for commuting, it was a possible option at filming in an official station, and away from Bath. Luckily the station in Bath got back to us with a final answer, and although it was a disaster at the time, it helped us find our actual location. The police suggested that there were a few old stations in Bath that were no longer used, but still had cells. This opened up another branch of possibilities, as it was not something that we initially considered. Finding an old police station meant that we would not be under the same time constraints, as we would face filming in a current one. It also gave us the option of organizing lighting a dolly tracking.

Elspeth contacted the Bristol film office and asked them if they knew of any locations in Bristol where there were some old cells. Luckily they informed her of a location that which was now an art gallery, which had also been used as a location in various television productions like Being Human.

This was perfect, as they were so relaxed with dates, times and above all…everything. Elspeth, Gus and Myles visited the location, and judging by their excitement, it was ideal. Here are some of the pictures that they took on the initial visit.

This meant that we could go all out with lighting and time ect. This was also the bulk of our location. There where some other locations that needed securing, but this was only for the stills. Elspeth contacted the Bath film Office and got permission cleared for the stills planned for the Saturday at the Park. Mark organized the locations for the stills at the Bath Spa University campus, including the SU and the Library office. Although this went against what I wanted, we could manipulate the still images in a manner that would disguise that they were taken on the Uni campus.

Re-mold of the script, making it ours

We held a group meeting at Myles and Gus's house regarding ideas of a re-write. Mark was unable to make the same time as Elspeth and myself, so he went earlier and discussed some of his ideas with Myles and Gus. Elspeth and myself arrived about 15 mins before he left. We were informed that they were very keen on the idea of us showing the protagonist losing his mind in the form on an interview. Many of our ideas run very close to Luke's actual original script, as we where looking to show 'a day in the life' of this character with him losing his mind. However, our main idea was based on him trying to get a job interview.

I suggested that we have an extra character that he would bump into at the beginning, which he had not seen for a long time. This extra character could be with him through the day, attending all of the interviews with him. The film could have been shot from his their perspective throughout the film with this extra character prompting him to say certain things. The final image of this film would be the first perspective of an outsider who sees what appears to be this main character on a park bench talking to himself. We could then have cut to back to seeing them both talking on the bench on old times, and the days events. I thought that this was how it could have visually looked from one perspective...

However the general group feeling was that this would be too predictable. So we went back to the drawing board...then it hit me. We could put a twist on the interview with it being him getting interview by the police about a series of events. The group liked this idea, Myles thought of a good introduction, Starting from the cell and heading for the interview room. Initially I thought that this interview could be shot from our protagonists perspective with him trying to explain his events which lead to his arrest. We could then have shown these two police characters leave the room and showed them discussing how the character they had just interviewed made no sense. The final shot could have been one from a CCTV camera looking in showing the character to be mad. In affect, this film would have been in two, an initially coherent interview where our main character justifies everything rationally, which is from his perspective. Finally we would have jumped into a rational stance of the police...highlighting that nothing the insane character was saying made any sense. Gus and Myles again ruled this out...as they used a CCTV in their last film and didn't want to use the same idea.

Group Decision: Picking the Script

After reading trough all of the classes scripts there were a few that really stuck out. Our group organized a meeting where we would discuss the scripts that we thought contained good potential. As a group we finally narrowed the potential scripts that we could use down to three. These were three very different scripts that provided us with three very different films. Here are the three scripts that tickled our fancy...

1. The Industry- Liz Scott’s script is a mockumentary, which is set on a film set. One problem with this option is the comedy element. Our group where very split about this, as Gus and Mark thought that this would be a style and look that we would be able to achieve. I on the other hand felt very uneasy in taking on a documentary, especially one that relied so heavily on humor, for if we failed with the humour elements, the film would be a disaster.
2. A Justified Presumption- Lyndon Mcgukian’s script is about a friendship that is formed between a boy and an old man. The old man has a bad reputation when paedophilia is implied. The old men ends up dead, but was this murder? Or was he a miss-conceived individual that was simply isolated to an outcast? This strongest element to this story is also its weakest, the ambiguity. It would also be difficult to find the older actor as our provisional actors option are predominantly younger.
3. The final option is Luke Phillips story of a young man suffering from schizophrenia called Treatment. This is probably the strongest option, as the story seems to be the least worked, but also contains a strong theme that could lead us into many options. All of our group are also film students, which means that we are very interested in the aesthetic of the film. Schizophrenia is certainly a topic where we could do a lot visually to amplify the protagonist’s state of mind.

After much discussion we ruled out the Mockumentary because I felt very uneasy on making a comedy. This left just Lyndon's and Luke's, one being very deep and emotional with the other being about mental health. We decided that out of these two options that Luke's had the best potential in terms of us making it our own, especially visually. It contained a topic that gave us great possibilities of re-working the script. It was final, as a group we decided to commit to The Treatment. Now onto the re-write and making it ours.