Drama no.1 dad

So, the film is finished! And very happy with the result I am too. I think the whole group is. I think that it fur fills the vision that we had of it.

The process of making this film has been long but also enjoyable. As producer, when we got the final idea down I was keen to start planning as soon as possible, wanting to avoid a last minute shoot.  So I spent a lot of the Easter holidays tracking down actors so that we were able to audition them as soon as we got back to Uni. This meant that we had a lot of rehearsal time as well as plenty of time for the actual shoot.  Also sorting out the location was a slight difficulty. The original plans fell through but luckily we were able to shoot in the Bar where Katie (editor) works. Pre production was all done with in the allotted time and we were more that ready to start shooting.

The shoots, four spread over the week all went very well. The planning I think was integral, every one worked well together, to get the shot lists, story boards, props/costumes and schedules ready so that we could be as organised an efficient on the day as possible. I am very pleased with how well everything went. We got all the shots we needed and we were not panicking or in any mad rushes. We were able to be calm about the production and were able to enjoy it.

The edit also went very well. I was not as involved in this side as it was mainly the job of the editor-obviously- and the director. ‘Too many cooks...’ and all that. I went in a couple of times to see how it was going and to discuss ideas and changes that might need to be made.

So in general the process of this film’s fabrication was smooth and I feel that we have created a film that is entertaining and effective.

Our starting point of the script was a great one. It was a very strong and well written which made the whole process easier. It did almost come alive on the page and it wasn’t hard to visualise what it would become. When I saw the script I was very happy and I think that it contained everything we wanted in terms of story, mood, and theme.

The style of the film is very over stylised. For example the sound effects are very pronounced, which gives this idea of hyper reality. This is present in the dream sequences which help to reinforce that they are fantasy. The idea that things are always more amplified inside your own head is something that I think will resonate with the audience. This is one way in which we have tried to create this mood of tension with in the fantasies and to convey how Jack is feeling. The idea that everything seems amplified or worse inside his head shown by the over stylised way in which we have created the film helps to show how worried he is. The snappy editing also adds to this. It shows Jack’s thought process, each time something happens it is very quick and almost methodical, yet still ‘too much’. This shows the chaotic way in which he is thinking, reinforcing that he is scared of what the outcome is going to be. This style of editing is also comic and comes very much from the conventions that can be seen in the works of Edgar Wright. His films are probably the perfect example of over stylisation and hyper reality. However it always works because he uses them well. They have both a comic effect and an impact on the audience much like we were trying to give to our film.

The tone of the film is overall rather comic. The scenarios that Jack imagines are obviously over the top and the way in which the film is constructed lends its self to that. It is as the fantasies he is getting more and more absurd which it’s self is a comic idea. The scenes in the Gallery are also slightly comic. This is due to the relationship between Jack and George and their reactions to the situations. I think this is important or else I think the film could get a little on the dark side, being dragged down by Jack’s worry. Although this worry is completely justified and what a lot of teens would feel coming out, it’s not something that we wanted to convey in a way that was depressing or dark. I think the scenes in the gallery and the banter between the boys keeps the mood light. Again here the over stylising of things also adds to this.

The comic side of the piece I think is very important. Lucy (director) had a friend compose some music for the piece and personally I think that it really adds to the film. It works as punctuation and also helps to keep the mood light. There are a few musical ques, which I think really help to make the piece more effective and which help the audience to be drawn in. It also flows with the mood of the film ebbing and peaking with the scenarios and action on screen.

The mood of the film does have an ark. It builds as the scenarios get more and more ridiculous, building the comic element. However it then comes back down when Jack realises that he could lose his father. This helps the film to stay grounded in reality with out going too far into the realms of fantasy. It also shows that we do have a point to make with this film. That coming out is a serious issue and is not easy for some people.  However I really like that this film has a very positive out come. I would have been all to easy with this brief to come up with something that was dark and grey and depressing. Unanimously this is something that we agreed we did not want for this particular project. We wanted to do something different and fun.

 I honestly believe that we have achieved this. The film is funny and snappy and it still carries a message and has a strong story behind it. For these reasons I am incredibly happy with the result.

Gallery shoot

Gallery shoot.

Well, the weather is against us. But after all we are in the north of England in April, it is to be expected. We have ended up shooting the Jack and George scenes in the Graves gallery. This was a last minute change to the plan so it was not as well planned out as I would have liked. The shot lists had to be re done and therefore the original schedule was no longer applicable. Therefore we had to rework it, in order to get everything shot as we only had 10-3 which are the gallery’s opening hours.

So we began at ten o’clock not wanting to lose any time. While the rest of the crew were getting ready to shoot and getting the actors ready and briefed on the changes to the shot list and what they would have to do, I sorted out the admin. Making sure we were covered legally, getting a location agreement form signed by Chris, the gallery’s representative that I had bee in contact with. Also we had to make sure none of the pictures in the gallery that we were shooting in were under copyright. None of them were but if they had been we would have obviously had to plan around avoiding getting these on camera.

When the shoot started we managed to get on quite quickly. We didn’t need t use the lights to begin with as the skylights, and lighting in the gallery looked good on camera with out us adding any. All it needed was a reflector at some points. However when it came to the close-ups we needed to use a Kino as the shot looked a little dark. As we were unable to stick all the cables to the floor, in order to avoid a health and safety nightmare I stood over the cable making sure that no members of the public tripped over it. I had allowed for this in the risk assessment.

The fact that once again we had planned well all be it rather hastily meant that we got all the shots we needed. Ro my mind there is nothing worse than getting to edit and finding out you are missing shots from a location you might not be able to reshoot in with in the time frame. Also if we had to reshoot it would be cutting it fine with postproduction time.

In general I’m very happy with the results of this shoot. The Gallery looks good on film and I think that in Place of the park it works well. I’d have preferred the park, but there is nothing t be done about that. The gallery had a lot to offer us in terms of aesthetics. The shot went well also considering the fact at how quickly we had to change plans. The rushes look good and we worked effectively as a team on the shoot. Once again I’m happy with how everyone worked. Also I’m very confident at how well the project is progressing. 

pre production

Pre production (30^th March-20^th April)

For the Drama project I have undertaken the role of producer, Therefore a large proportion of my work has been during preproduction. As a group we began panning this project very early, having a production meeting as soon as we were set the brief. This was incredibly productive as by the time we were finished we had a fully formed idea, which was them taken by James and crafted into a script over the Easter holidays. It was definitely to start planning early as if we hadn’t we could have ended up in the horrible situation, that during the Easter holidays we’d be trying to plan and with people being all over the country and working etc, being left with one week for preproduction. To my mind this would have been a nightmare. As we had started early it meant that I could start planning actors and locations over the Easter holidays, giving me more time to sort things out. When I got the script, I felt that it was number one a great piece of work, nut secondly achievable in the timeframe we had. Reading it as a producer, I saw nothing that would cause any massive difficulties> from my point of view it was important that due to various constraints including time and budget the script was doable and would still be a great piece of work. However at the same time it was snappy, interesting and entertaining.

Now we had a script we had to plan to make it reality. The first hurdle was locations. The living room was the biggest problem from my point of view of trying to find one. There was no way we would use any of our living rooms, using the sterile environment of a student kitchen/living area would have ruined the aesthetics of the film. And as far as we were concerted you there is not really a completely effective way of set dressing that disguises it. There is also the unwritten rule of never shooting in student halls. One option we had was to shoot at my godparents’ house in Chesterfield. It is close enough to Sheffield to be a feasible location, and it also had the right ‘look’. The kind of homely feel that we wanted to create with in the film. Unfortunately, we were unable to match up schedules, even though they were more than happy for us to film at their home it would have been too late by the time they were available. Luckily the bar where Katie (editor) works, is allowing us to film there. So with a few minor changes to the script we have managed to overcome this problem. The park scenes have presented no problems thus far. After a location scout we have decided to use Weston Park. It is an incredibly beautiful location, lending itself to the ‘look’ that we are envisioning for the film. Lucy (director), Ben (Cinematographer) and I did a location scout that we could work out where we wanted to film in the park. Also they were planning in terms of setups, shots, blocking etc. This means that on the day we’ll be able to be efficient in our filming. Ben will be able to plan a more effective shortlist and I will therefore be able to create a realistic and more detailed schedule.  In my opinion planning is everything. The bedroom scenes will be shot at Ben’s house, the attic room is plenty big enough, and with set dressing will look convincingly like a teenage boy’s bedroom. So there we have it 3 locations sorted and ready for filming.

I began the process of recruiting actors as soon as I had the script and knew what we were looking for. The first port of call was the casting info on blackboard. I began by emailing all the performing arts students who had registered their interest in being in student films. I received two replies from this. After discussion with the group, and looking at the previous films they had been in we decided to get one of them in for audition. As well as this there are some friends of Katie’s that had shown an interest so we got them in for an audition also. After auditions it was decided to cast Mike and Mark in the roles of Jack and George respectively, as they seemed to fit the roles best. Casting the role of the father was much more of a challenge. After contacting as many am drams, acting society’s theatre groups as I could find in the local area, I had no luck either there was no reply of it was a no. After asking around I was given the information of some online casting agencies. After putting a few ‘adverts’ I received a few replies. At this point we were running out of time, and were auditioning Tom. The actors that had got back to me were unable to fit with our schedule and after the audition Tom was pretty much perfect for the role. After the casting we went into rehearsals, wanting to see how the actors would work together and to let them get used to each other, the script and working with us. It also meant that shooting would go much smoother as people knew what they were doing, and with a limited time for production, this was very important in my view.

               Now we have actors and locations we have to sort out the finer points of planning and scheduling the shoot. Firstly I put together a week by week schedule going by who was available when and when we could use locations, by making different checklists, matching up availabilities, I was easily able to draw up a schedule to email everyone to make sure it fitted in with everyone. To my mind it is paramount to be well planned and organised in advance. The idea of being left in a complete panic an hour before a shoot is supposed to start is not ideal. In fact it is to be avoided to at all costs. Next it was important that I had the shot lists so that I could plan out the day’s shooting. The only slight difficulty with this is until we actually get onto set I’m not entirely sure how long setups will take with lighting and so on. However after the first shoot in Maggie Mays on Monday 23^rd April, I’ll have a better idea of how long it’ll take meaning that further shoots will have a schedule closed to actual set ups times. For now I have taken considered decision as to hoe long things will take from previous shoots and the rehearsals. Effective scheduling is definitely an important factor when working in a film shoot as you have to get everything done. Especially when you have extra constraints of limited actor and location availability.

As a producer I was incredibly Happy with how organised we were as a group and I feel that as we go into production this will pay off.

Location Scout Weston Park

location scout.
We decided that we wanted to the scenes between George and Jack in Weston Park as we knew how pretty it is. We then went on a location scout to find places that we want to use for the film.

 Cherry Blossom tree under which Jack and Geoge will lie while having a conversation.

Bench where George could be sat when Jack is pacing. Alternatevley where George is reassuring Jack.

Could shoot under here if the weather turns bad.

Pond, which can be shot from multiple points. Will give a great variety of points of view as they can move around the pond and we can also have them feeding the ducks, which will look loveley. Also they can have them walking over the bridge which we have experimented with blocking for.

Pudding Bowl

Pudding Bowl is gorgeous little story about a little girl and her hair. The character of Ivy the little girl was a really interesting protagonist even though she only spoke about three words. Her Character was well established. The opening shots of her cutting and pasting pictures of glamorous Hollywood stars into a scrap book. Her environment is easily recognisable a typical British 1950s home. Therefore the first conclusions we can draw about her character is that she has a fascination for the far off, exotic glamour of movie land. What it can also mean is that she is looking to escape from the dreariness of her surroundings. The beige hue of the set helps to reinforce this point. The colours here are very drab, lending themselves t let the viewer draw similar conclusions about Ivy’s daily life. That it is dull, surrounded by the grey mizzle that seemed to permeate 1950s England. So we can draw the conclusion from this that she sees the glamour of Hollywood as an escapism from the rather monotone reality of her daily life as she sees it.

The character of her brother is typical mischievous school boy. And the Mother a stereotypical Buxom 50s house wife. There close up of the meat grinder, reinforces this idea of the dull tedium, the daily grind, the relentless turning of the cogs, symbolises the repetitive nature of the life portrayed in the film. The one thing for the character f Ivy is her hair, decked out in a pretty red bow she is obviously very proud of it. Therefore when her brother tips glue over it and her mother cuts it all off into an awful bowl cut she is obviously devastated. This is reinforced by the fact that age actually speaks on this art of the film, the only words that she utters through the whole film. Therefore it is obvious how much it moves her, therefore how much her hair means to her.

When she sees what has happened t her hair and puts the stocking on her head and applies the red lipstick, it is another nod to the idea of escapism. Which it is pretty clear by now is the film’s main theme. This is made explicit when after Ivy rides down the road on a bike chases by her brother and his friends she Begins to day cream about being older, an attractive young woman with long black hair being chased by a bunch of besotted boys. What this does is cement the idea of escapism as she has obviously gone into a fantast. This is made clear by the soft focus which is widely accepted as showing it to be a dream sequence. The glowing slightly unearthly effect it gives is invocative of a dream.

Another point to make in the way Ivy seems to stick out is her red dress that for some part of the film is hidden by a beige cardigan. So with the ideas of a beige and colour that have already been established the idea of Ivy throwing off this cardigan symbolises that she is throwing off the drudgery of her life and going into her fantast world which she does.

I really enjoyed this film, like Sign Language it is light hearted and leave the audience with a nice feeling.

Once again I would say what we would take from it as a group would be the idea of having a light hearted piece. One that engages the audience through a heart warming  story rather that a hard hitting one. 

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Sign Language

'Sign Language' Oscar Sharp (2010)

I really enjoyed this film, it was something a little different and it brought a fresh spark of humour. It was also sweet and touching.

The genre, is sort of ‘mockumentary’. It follows the conventions of a short documentary. The protagonist talking to the camera in a way which is conveying their story and 'factual' information. Although here it is obviously a fictional premise. I like this style as I find that it is a window to so many other genres, they mostly cross over with comedy but they can be more than that, they can be satirical or romantic or even action. There have been fictional films made in the style of documentary that don’t necessarily fall into the ‘mockumentary’ category. I think ‘Sign language’ is very close t the boundary of mockumentary. They usually aim to poke fun, where as I don’t think that was the filmmakers aim here. The film tells a nice story, of one man and him moving from one place in his life to another. Of him moving up in the world. But also it tells a love story, al be it one that happens off screen but it is obviously there none the less. This film encompasses a lot with in five minutes.

In terms of the characters, the main character, Ben is a very likable guy. The filmmaker has introduced him very effectively and quickly. From his dialogue it is clear how enthusiastic he is about his job. Clothing can also tell us a lot about a character. It’s human nature to draw conclusions about a character from the clothing, so Ben’s costume is important. His gloves are the part of his costume in shot most often, the multi coloured wool gives the impression that he is maybe a ‘hippy’ type character, according to the stereotype people dressed in his style of dress are seen as ‘hippy types’, probably vegetarian, part of green peace e.t.c. This is not the truth but still, looking at films in a critical light one should no ignore when a character is conforming to a stereotype, weather it reflects reality or not. Also it matches the dress of the love interest; this according to codes tells the viewer that they are well matched. Their colourful dress also helps them to stick out from the rather drab grey streets of London in the rain. It helps to reinforce the idea of this character being a very happy individual. Again this reinforces the how real the character feels to the audience. In a short film there is not a lot of time to establish a character, so every detail is important when creating a believable, three dimensional character that the audience can relate to or sympathise with.

A lot of the framing is very close, there are a lot of shots of Ben that are very tight on his face, where as the other characters are seen in the wide from Ben’s point of view.  This conveys that he is possibly lonely as the other people are only observed from afar. What it also does in reinforce the idea that we are seeing the world from his point of view. The camera never moves from him or where he is stood while he is Oxford Street. This does give a feeling of isolation, but when at the end of the film where his fellow sign guys show that they do care and he should talk to the girl he walk out of frame. This signifies moving on, he’s been stuck in this same place for year but now the promotion has given him this push he has needed. The walking out of frame is important as though out the film the tight framing has enhanced this idea of being in one place and cut off and then walking out of the frame is a visual signal that this is over for him, that he is moving on.

The music, a gentle acoustic guitar track serves two purposes as far as I’m concerned. It help to create the mood of the film, it punctuates the emotional moments of the film. It is slightly melancholic, reflecting that Ben is a little sad at it being his last day before he moves on. It is odd because it does have a slightly sad edge but at the dame time the rhythm is slightly more chipper and the chord progression are in a major tone, giving it a happier feel. In general the sound design is quite normal. There is a layer of atmos which gives context to the scenes, shows where the characters are and makes it seem more real. Then there is the dialogue which is a monologue. Then there is the music which helps to establish a mood quickly in a short piece of work.

In terms of how this will influence our piece. I don’t think that its style is something that we will draw on as we have a very clear idea of what styles we want, which have been discussed in our production meetings.  However we did like the tone of this piece. There is a tendency with British drama, coming from the social realist traditions, to be rather depressing. This piece is light hearted and does not take itself too seriously. In our production meeting it was unanimous that we did not want to make a film that left the audience feeling sad o with a slightly more pessimistic view on life than they started with. There is an abundance of ‘hard hitting’ short dramas out there, and we want to do something with comic elements and that leaves the audience felling a little more optimistic. In my view this is what sign Language does and I think that is something we will definitely take from it.

Sign language is a film that I really enjoyed and I think it has a broader message. The Character who has an all be it ‘lousy’ job, is incredibly passionate about what he does and is happy. I think that the film conveys a great message about life that it doesn’t matter what you do as long as you enjoy it and it makes you happy.

Priduction meeting no.1 experimental film

Planning session no.1
So, yesterday evening, Charlotte, Stephen and I held our first planning meeting for this project. Beforehand each of us had done our own research and come up with a few different ideas. In addition to this we each brought our own ideas of what experimental film meant to us. As it is such a wide spectrum it was important to us that we made sure we were on ‘the same page’ so to speak.
We each showed a few examples that we had come across in the process if our research. This gave us all an idea of what the others had in mind when it came to experimental film. It also helped to give some context to the ideas. By doing this before we got into the real ‘nitty gritty’ of the planning process we gained a good bedrock for what we were talking about. We all knew what we were dealing with which made life a lot less difficult. One overriding thing e got from this discussion was that in our film we did want a strong idea of a structure. Some films we had seen had seemed to come under the banner of being a lot of random images placed together. In some cases this does work and work well but or us it is important to have not necessarily a narrative but some strong thematic structure.
When we had shared our examples we discussed them. Between the three of us we picked out what we did and did like about them and also began to discuss what we wanted our film to be about. Also how we are going to approach the idea of ‘experimental’. Obviously for us as with most if not all experimental filmmakers it involved working outside generally accepted filmic conventions.
As the brief stated we should base the film on either a word, an object or a poem , having read a short poem ‘how many miles to Babylon’ and always having had a fascination with sleep and the dream world it leads to I was keen to do some thing with this. When Stephen mentioned the idea of Lucid dreaming I was happy to interject my ideas at this point. From this we came up with several different idea that all revolved around the ideas of dreams and gaining control of them. For us this is an exiting route to go down, as within the grounds of experimental film there is a large scope to really explore the dream world without being tied down with such conventions of a narrative structure that makes complete sense. Dreams after all are usually lacking in this department.
So after a good few hours of a Skype call we have a strong idea to start from, we have decided to go off and individually come up with a few different ideas based on this.

Mind Maps

Having finally worked out how to use my scanner, i can now post the mindmaps that we did as part of our planning

analysis/Inspiration

After listening once again to many of the folk records I grew up on, I can hear many element in them that create a sense of space.

Here is an example of one I found particularly effective, "'Ouses, 'Ouses. 'Ouses" by the imagined village.


The way in which the song is composed is very interesting in terms of a sense of space. The beginning is very quiet, the accent and the words of the narrator giving it context. We know where and when the story is coming from. The fact that it is at the beginning a single voice and quite quite gives the connotations of peace, which then translates to the picture of the ares that the song is painting. We are hearing about a time long ago, devoid of the modern noises, vast open spaces of natural beauty and peace, this is anchored by the very faint and calm strings.
As we get more and more into the story, and it gets further int the future, the music gets louder and louder which denoting the movement from old to new, as the land becomes more industrialised and busier in terms of people and noise. The fact however that the music is still acoustic and pure at this point, show that it was still a peaceful empty place of farm. This then creates the sense of being in the country side sparingly touched by human hands, only where necessary.
This however changes in the next part of the song. Where there is an introduction of more modern and industrial music and sounds. The use of music is very interesting, we have gone from the organic strings and pure voices to a heavier beat driven piece. This more electronic and processed sound reflects the words. The sense of how this place has changed and indeed how it has changed. It has gone from an empty, beautiful land into an industrialised, busy town. This is reflected both in the crescendo of the song and the more modern music used. There is a sense of how the area had been disturbed by this. This is further enforced by the use of sound effects such as a police siren, shouting and helicopter blades. There is now a very different sense of space from the beginning of the song. The composition here paint a busy, dangerous place full of people and noise. It also hints at what the area is like, it in probably troubled due to the sound of sirens and helicopter blades, that linking into the siren could be seen as a police helicopter.
So then, in terms of a sense of space, The Imagined Village's "'Ouses, 'Ouses, 'Ouses" paints an effective portrait of one spaces change through the years.