The Filming Weekend.

Day 1: the living nightmare.

Sometimes life can be cruel, especially mother nature. It was the first day of our filming weekend and everything had been set up. I thought everything would run smoothly and that it would be a breeze. But how wrong I was. I didn't notice how bad the weather was until I was loading the Z1 into my car. I didn't have an umbrella as I usually bare the rain in a hooded coat, although I had never been solely responsible for a £3000 Sony Z1 before. I thought that other members of our group would have a solid umbrella, especially as half of our team are females. I'm not being sexist, but it is a known fact girls usually have amazing umbrella's due to their hair. But not in this case. All we had were small delicate fold down ones that did not stand a chance in these conditions.

Anyhow, the first location on the schedule that Abi had drew up was the Post office. So at least we would be inside for our first scene. In the post office everything seemed to go well, apart from the constant flow of customers. But we managed to find a gap and get the shots that we needed. The ladies in their were lovely and polite, however, it was only the first scene of our two day filming weekend and I already knew that nobody else apart from Abi and Yaz would contribute to any decisions regarding the scenes and shots. In fact, rather contrary happened. As the weekend unfolded it became a constant battle to keep the attention of all the crew. At points I felt like Abi and myself were like school teachers, struggling to keep to the schedule due to other members of the cast distracting our actor and other members of the crew.

Moving onto our worst scene of the whole weekend. This was the scene outside the Job centre when the weather was at is climax. What made things harder was the fact we were still very much ammeters in setting up the equipment promptly. It was hard for me as the director to pay attention to the framing due to the worry of the Z1 getting wet, especially as droplets kept collecting on the lens. Many of our shorts on this scene had flaws, either the umbrella was falling down into shot, or their was reflections of members of the crew in windows (Yaz's white coat). I like to think that these mistakes would not have have slipped through given a normal filming environment. I hope that even in these early scenes I would have spotted these silly mistakes. However, everything improved from this point. I am proud that we covered so much ground and did all the hard slog in our first day. We finished off at my flat to complete the end of the first day. Everything seemed set for the second day. Abi had previously arranged actors for the final day, and Mike contacted us to inform us he was going to be meeting with us early the next day.

Day 2: Town

The weather was so much better than our previous day on set. However, this was another day I was dreading because I imagined that there would be at least one member of the public looking at our camera in every take. Although, looking back in hindsight, things were not as bad as I had envisioned. There were obviously takes where people did look into, but on the whole...it was good.

On the downside, everything was a struggle due to the fact both of our actors did not show up and Treds was closed when we had scheduled to film. However, we did manage with these problems by simply shuffling around the schedule and filling these acting performances by members of the cast, with me included. I do like the idea of appearing in this film as both Hitchcock and Tarantino both make performances in all their own films. Generally, I am really pleased with today, especially considering how we have overcome certain problems.

This weekend!!!! My Official Directorial debut

This week has been mental as weeks go. I have so much other work to do from other modules as well as all the troubles that have faced us about our film.

Abi did not have much luck with any shoe shops as they all said that they were unable to allow filming to take place. Luckily I had spoken to one of my friends Elspeth who had managed to organise a filming slot with the newly opened Treds in Southgate. I decided to go into the shop in person and managed to talk with the area manager who said he was happy for us to film their, permitting we did not take up much room, were organised and did not disrupt his trade as it was going to be a busy weekend. He also wanted us to show the brand name in our film (i.e. the brand on the bag). This was such a result, especially considering that is was our last possible option of finding an actual shoe shop to film in.

Another location that has caused us a headache is the Job centre. I have been trying to organise a meeting with certain members for weeks now, but they don't ever seem to be around. I had eventually give up and passed the number onto Abi. She had more luck as they said it would be fine for us to film, although they would not be open any time over the weekend of our film. They did give us permission to film outside though.

In terms of Post office, Yaz managed to sort this out weeks ago. We had also arranged to use Yaz's garden for another scene. Abi has also arranged some actors from the drama department to come down and take part in our film which is great.

One aspect that really annoyed Abi and myself was the fact that Chris had not taken on any responsibility outside of the classroom, but had also failed to show up to the Camera demo, which was his only commitment to the project.

Luckily, Mike had arranged a practical workshop earlier this week which really helped put everything into perspective, and also allowed us a chance of a mock run through. It also provided Chris a chance to practice and pick up some key points in using the Z1.

The Demo's...

The first demo I was booked in for was the the camera demo. We had the opportunity of using three video camera's which included a standard Panasonic home camcorder, the Sony A1 or the beastly Z1. In the first year I made a short film, however, we were encouraged not to delve into the semi-pro equipment and to stick with the more simplistic Panasonic. This was due to the staff and their ability to help us with the more advanced camera's and also the difference in the price between the Sony's and the Panasonic. In the first year we were heavily marked on our narratives and stories and not so much how we explored the medium. This means I am new to this level of camera and would there for be in desperate need of the Demo given by Richard.

The Z1

This demo was a lot more detailed than I thought it would be. I am lucky though due to the fact that I enjoy photography and pursue it as a hobby. This meant that have some experience with the terminology, exposures and so on. The demo was structured in a way where we all were shown the basics of the general set-up of the equipment (tripod etc) as a group. We were then asked to go and set up the equipment outside as a group. This is so we could help each other if there were points and elements that we were not so sure about. It is also helpful to get some hands on as we had spent the first hour just trying to absorb as much key points and detail as we could. In the next session we were then given a more complex tutorial on the sound equipment and other techniques that included shot transitions. We were then meant to receive a test to finish, however, after Myles had finished his, Richard said that we all seemed pretty confident and that he felt there was no need for all of us to do the test. He also made sure there was no areas that we were unsure of before sending us home.

Other visited tutorials...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNVsOTsho2o

and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbC5W_PVOhI&feature=related

Final Cut Pro

The final cut demo is one that I was booked in for but had to cancel last minute due to my part time job roping me in. I was meant to rebook another demo but found it difficult finding a time that would fit my weekly schedule with Richard's. It was not the end of the world as I have Final Cut Express on my computer and therefore had experience using it. Although this is not ideal, I have been trying to book myself on an official Apple certified Final Cut Pro course since the beginning of the year. I am currently on a waiting list, hoping that a position becomes available. Not re-arranging a demo with Richard is one of my biggest regrets of the preparation for this film.

Here is a link to the basics of Final Cut Express that are posted on Apple's website...

http://www.apple.com/finalcutexpress/tutorials/

These links really helped with the basics.

CeltX Software...

Celtx

what is it?

Celtx is free media pre-production software designed for creating and organizing media projects like screenplays, films, videos, stageplays, audio plays, documentaries, machinima, comics, games and podcasts.

The client-server application gives independent filmmakers and media creators an integrated and non-linear approach to the pre-production work phase, providing support for industry standard scriptwriting, story development, storyboarding, script breakdowns, production scheduling and reports. It also allows writers to attach images, videos, and audio files to a project, and provides features for collaborating with others online.

Using Celtx to write a script

Celtex is easy to use as it gives a format option for every type of text whether its character dialogue, Scene heading, action and transition. Whatever format you need you just select it from the drop down pallet and select before writing.

Another great aspect of Celtx is the fact that you can create a story board where you can add photographs of the type of shots in mind. This is going to be great in the next few weeks once we have re-witen the Script. When we can get out and start considering locations.

The best thing about Celtx though is the fact that it is free!

The Re-Write of the script.

When I took this course on the main aspect I was interested in was the practical filming side which involved using the camera's, sound equipment and Mac's for editing. I didn't think that every member would be as involved in the script writing phase. When found out that we all had to perform a script re-write I was gutted, especially when finding how fundamental the formatting general aesthetic look played such an important role. Format and punctuation has never been one of my strengths.

We were all told by Mike that for our first film we had to all use the same script due to the fact that we are new to script writing, and it would be good to manipulate a pre-existing script rather than starting off from scratch without any foundation. Mike sent everybody this script unformatted and asked us to re-formatte it using Celtex. At first it seemed really daunting, but because Celtex is so simple to get to grips with, it didn't take long. All I needed to do was to highlight the text and select the format from the drop down pallet (like I posted in last blog). However, the text did contain certain commands that should not be in a film script. These were commands that the director as power over, not the script writer. It was highlighted that the main role of writing a good script was to please the Director or producer by making sure it was formatted perfectly, with no comments at how it should be shot. The script is simply an idea they can work with. This is another element that I really don't like about scriptwriting is that the script can be changed as much as desired by the producer/ director once the copyright has been passed. It seems so disrespectful to change something that has had so much effort and time put into it. This point has also been highlighted in two another module's I have taken this year; Film noir and Hollywood. They both highlight how little control the scriptwriters have, especially in the early stages. It has been highlighted that the most common script writers came from the journalist industry as they are used vigorous edits to their work.

Now Back to the Team...

Now that we had our teams and we had all performed the re-write of Pascha's text individually, we needed to come up with a group version. On our first meeting in the class we talked about different ideas, but struggled because we didn't know how much freedom we had over changing the script. We found from other groups that some of them had made some drastic changes, keeping one underlying theme that they thought the script was about. The theme of desire was one that kept creeping up around the class. One weakness of the script for us was the fact that the main teenage girl character was painted to be a very hard worker that seemed to work for what she wanted, this is a trait that I personally respected in her. However, in the second part of the script she is described to have taken a purse and then buy the shoes she was working for with the old lady's money. I felt that the script contained two different characters, which is something i could not understand as the only motive was the fact that the old lady was snobby and rude. This in my opinion was not strong enough to convert the girl into what the actions that she later carried out. I could not see the young girl we had been introduced to being the same girl that took the purse and money.

As a group we talked through different ideas and then delegated Yaz as the re-writer as she enjoyed this aspect and was most competent with Celtx. One of the common ideas that we all agreed with was the idea that get to the point in the story just before she takes the purse (when she first notices that the old lady has left it). We thought about showing two different snapshots of her imagination of each scenario, her running the purse outside and getting treated really badly by the old lady when she gave it back to her, and the other of her taking the money, quitting her jobs and having the shoes. We all felt that this would strengthen her motive to take the money, while adding a little more complexity to the narrative. We also thought about using voice over to help define what was happening. Although this was something that Mike discouraged us away from, he said that short films should be showing and not telling. He said it's better if the audience can get everything visually. I personally still favoured the idea of a voice over though, who wouldn't if we had an amazing voice like Sir Ian McKellen. In my head i just imagined a voice over performance similar to the introduction of Stardust. None of us could think of anyone with a voice like that, so we decided to drop the voice over idea. Although I guess we could always use the voice over is everything does not seem to go to plan in Post production. It could be our safety net. Anyway, we are a long way off as we still need to form a group script. Without this script our project is motionless. We have planned to meet up later this week with the script so we can start organising locations, cast etc.

I feel a lot of pressure as much of our group keep making jokes about how important my role is. I hope everybody chips in in the production stages of this film because I don't feel every member of this group is giving it the same amount of effort.

Meeting on the script.

Yesterday in class we all met and have the final film script in which we were all happy on. Everything we talked about last week was included in the script as well as some really good ideas surrounding the reappearance of the charity woman. Everyone in the group seemed a lot more at ease as we could really get the wheels in motion now. Abi and myself started to take control over delegating roles to each member of the group. We decided to talk about possible locations in class that we would apply for permission. I said that I worked at Pret and that there was a high chance I could get us permission to film in their. I also said that I lived right in town and could approach the Job centre. Abi said that she would try to find a shoe shop that we could film in, Soletrader, Clarcks and Russel and Bromley as possibilities.

We also talked about the scene in the Post office.

There were two possibilities in both Twerton and New Bridge that would could approach. Yaz only lives 5min walk away from the New Bridge one and said that she does not mind sorting that out. Chris and patrick have been unreliable as they have not seemed to put much effort and enthusiasm towards this film outside of the classroom. One example of this is the fact that Chris was booked onto the Camera demo with me and did not show up. So we have not given them anything to do outside in terms of organising locations because we just want to get it sorted. However, if they asked for the responsibility we would have shared it with them.

Directing...

For me the idea of being a director would be a dream. It is what I one day want to aspire to be, but only with a collection of experience. I am currently arranging some work experience with producers and directors along with small publishing companies. I decided to study Film Studies over a more practical course because of my favourite directors, all of which have developed their own styles in relation to periods and directors within film history. Many of them are extremely educated in film and relate many of their scenes to a style, with film noir and expressionism as a key example of Tim Burton's iconic style. Love or hate him, Tarantino is another great example of a contemporary director who packs his films with film references.

Anyway...bring back to my blog point. This is a role I don't feel ready for yet, however is something I aspire to be maybe one day. Earlier this week we were divided into groups and asked to consider roles that we would play in our first film production. I initially put myself forward as a camera man as I wanted to get my hands on some more hands on action (One of the drawbacks of deciding to go for a non practical degree). When we all asked about who would go in for each role, nobody put themselves forward for the main role of director. Three of us all wanted to do be camera man. I briefly thought about it and through that as I am going to probably going to be making a film with my friends the next time, all of which will probably want to be director, this would be my only chance to go for director. It would also enable me to get hands on with all the areas, enabling me to book demo's in the camera and editing with Final Cut. So I put myself forward and everybody seemed happy. Abi took the role of Producer, Yaz said that she liked the idea of being the Stage Manager wile Chris and Patrick decided to split the Camera and sound. This is a real opportunity, especially considering how Mike is approaching and treating this film, with real professionalism. It's a good insight into the process and roles that the professionals undertaken every day in the industry.

At the end of this weeks workshop, Richard came in to organise the demo's. I wanted to book in for everything (and was also encouraged due to my role as Director). Chris and Patrick both wanted to take a more prominent role in the post production phase of editing and there fore both booked in for the Z1 and Final cut demo along with me. Abi wanted to do everything, but due to the amount of people booked in, she couldn't.