Production Meltdown!

I have a few other posts that I am working on, but I thought I'd add a quick update.

We have basically taken a week off the production. We have had a week of college, known as "reading week" where as you can guess you catch up on your reading. This year we have our biggest writing challenge, the dreaded DISSERTATION! where we need to read a whole lot of fucking books. So we scheduled to get the majority of it done this week. I can personally say I haven't done anywhere near as much as I should have. I cannot say if the other have, but I'd take a guess that they're in the same situation as me.

The dissertation is be coming a real pain in the arse. I'm not forgetting about it, it's always in the back of my mind. But, I'm not doing too much about it either. Next week is probably my last chance to start it with ease. After that it'll become very difficult, especially once mayor project and PPD start.

BACK TO THE CURRENT PROJECT>

As I said production has taken the back seat for the week. But I think we've still been doing it, plugging away. It's strange although we live in the same house I haven't seen much of either Mark or Graeme this week. Starting to think They're avoiding me or I've pissed them off. It's been a pretty bad week for everything. On the production side we had to re-schedule most of the shoots by pushing them back a week, or maybe two. Props are starting to become a problem to locate. On the upside crew still seem enthusiastic, Graeme and Mark had a meet with them on Wednesday. I unfortunately couldn't be there, I'm not sure what else I could have added and I also think it will help me direct if I know little about the crew. If I start becoming friendly with them it'll make it hard to tell them what to do. I'm a worrier anyway, and I don't want to be worrying about what they want and don't want to do on set. I want to go in and not give a shit and do a good job. The house had problems, the heating and hot water disappeared . Luckily it is now fixed. We had a party for Marks birthday last Saturday and the house is still a bit upside down. I've had problems, bunged up nose and head aches. Money is a massive issue for me now. I can go on record for saying Student Fiance are absolutely terrible. I'm starting to think I'll never get my loan, then I will get kicked off the course and have to get a full-time job at Morrisons to pay the rent.

Pluses, there ain't been many this week. Watched a few movies, and it's Halloween tomorrow. The plan is to watch horror films from when I wake up till I go to sleep, and have a few breaks in the middle. I have some friends coming round, so that should give the week a real lift.

Need a production meeting on Monday, set the targets for the week, and really get the project going again.

More blogs coming very soon.

Need more hands on deck

I've mentioned this in a previous blog, but I'll refresh your memory. On The Payoff the three of us took on far too many jobs, which made concentrating on our desired job very difficult.

For example, how am I suppose to direct a performance and view it if I have to push the Dolly? Same for when I'm monitoring the sound, we did loads of jobs like that, which interfered with our main response ability. This also caused us to argue on set.

It was evident that we needed more hands on deck. To primarily do the less glamourous jobs.

Graeme took it on board, being the producer. He came up with some good ideas to install some help. The obvious one is to ask friends, but we wanted help with better technical knowledge of film. Graeme had seen that Eddie AV suite guy from the lower building was trying to set up a film club. He emailed the lot and we got a few responses, he also did the same with years below on our course.

We aren't looking for a lot of help, but we do need four or five spare hands. Not only will it give us the help we need, but also give us experience managing a crew.

Short but sweet.

FUCK YOU iPHONE!

We've been given Moleskin notebooks from our tutors. If your unfamiliar with Moleskin's they're pocket size pads, come in a variety of plain, lined, square etc, have a pocket in the back, a bookmark, and a piece of elastic to keep it closed.

Absolute perfect if you have a lot to remember or out and about.

They are quite expensive, this as put me of in the past, but I got this one for free and one for my birthday. So I'm OK for awhile.

I've put mine to great use. So far I've taken it everywhere with me. This has made documenting much easier, usually I'm relying on my brain to remember all what I've learnt in the day. I have to admit I have a great memory, but sometimes the little things slip. By writing a quick bullet point it helps refresh my memory, on a project like this it is essential to keep making notes.

Its also good for making to do list and group meeting notes. With the three of us living in the same house we usually get together on a morning and discus what needs doing and re-tweek the calendar. I observe and make notes in the meetings and throughout the day. If I see a problem I can then bring it up in the morning.

This sought of note making has made my job far easier. Especially with blogging, I usually forget to blog. I make a page dedicated to a list of blogs to write throughout the day and then tackle them when I have free time.

MOLESKIN MAKING LIFE SIMPLER EACH PAGE AT A TIME.

FUCK YOU APPS!

I will (or Graeme, should I say).

Over the last week or so we have been auditioning actor. Well, they weren't your typical audition. We wasn't asking them to perform, we wanted to have a chat and see if we got along on a personal level. Also it was a good opportunity to ask them other question not related to the project.

We asked all of them if they do any writing, we've found it hard to find writers and I imagined a lot of actors would write or at least know what sought of scene they would like to be in. Even if they didn't write it, they are at least feeding us with ideas to create with them.

A lot of them said they did a bit of writing and we pressed them to have ago at writing a short film, or at least a scene. I will (or Graeme, should I say) definitely chase them up about this.

Most of them just wanted screen experience, this made me think that short sequences, 30-120 seconds are great. Even smaller than the ones we are doing for this brief. We don't have to go all out with locations and sets, but try and look for locations around us and stage a scene there. This would give the actor vital experience and another piece for their showreel and in return gives us another opportunity to use the kit and work with actors. We are all getting massive amounts of (KEY WORD) experience from it.

We interviewed a fair few actors, but can only use possibly five of them, however we weren't just interviewing them for this brief. We are trying to start our own network.

After each interview I've been trying to think of sequences for the actor. What I've realised this week and as I said before screen experience for semi/unprofessional actors is essential. We are looking, in a way to take advantage of that. £10 in travel fare for them is nothing for what they are getting out of it.

Its hard to find time to breath and shit.

Its scarily coming together.

I say "scarily" because the more dates we confirm the closer the shoot comes. Its become very clear that we have set ourselves big, big tasks. Looking over the calendar last night its hard to find time to breath and shit, I've really packed the schedule tight for pre-production. I've tried taking what the other two say on board and find time to work and practice on the certain areas we are less comfortable with.

I have been constantly re-visiting the stories after we have practice techniques. Sometimes the ideas we story-boarded work straight away, other take longer to get use to, and some just don't work. This as means we have to adjust the story-boards to fit.

To help get use to the camera we came up with some little sequences. Mark is the cinematographer so it is vital for him to know the camera blindfolded, filming anything is good practice, but putting a story behind it gave us something to aim for. Graeme and I were the actors and the three of us came up with the shots.

Being in front of the camera was brilliant practice for myself. Knowing what it feels like to be an actor, I was constantly thinking about the shot, which parts of my body were in shot, where could I move. Feeling this pressure first hand now makes me know to let the actors aware of these little details, which should ultimately make them feel more comfortable.

PLUS,

These sequences will give me something to edit and colour. I haven't edited a narrative piece since The Payoff. Over the summer I did a lot of editing, but it was all corporate work. Getting back into practice is something I am looking forward to.

I have final say!

Pre-production is a strange place for me, being a director it feels like I aren't doing that much, but at the same time completely stressed with how much I've done and will be doing.

I'm involved with everything, but aren't finalising anything. I'm there but, not.

Doesn't make much sense to me either...

Ultimately I have final say on everything! And that I like.

I feel my part is to steer us in the right direction, to set and complete tasks on time.

As well directing the projects I'm also editing and colour grading. Being the editor helps me direct because I'm always thinking about how to shots will edit together, rather than shooting lots of takes and passing them on to someone else.

I've always said good colour and sound can make a piece shit look good, I should know I've filmed shit before.

A director in a nutshell.

I am a director so deal with it.

I've spent the last week depressed or soul searching. I felt like I didn't know where I was heading. But after some heavy thinking and picking at other peoples brains I've realised that I've been acting as the director much better than I thought. I've never known what a director actually does, you just think he's the man behind the camera shouting at people. The way I can explain a director to myself is, the director is like the manager of a football team. The producer is the chairman and the cast and crew are the staff and players. Being a big football fan I probably know more about the ins and outs of managing (from playing sim games) than I do about directing. Switching the knowledge over is very easy, in a strange way they're very similar. The manager has the vision, he picks his staff and players carefully to achieve that vision, and ultimately he has the final say and match day. I assume (not having been a football manager) that he also picks up all the parts nobody else wants to do.

I've not realised until this week, but I've been playing the directors role very well. I'm going to take it up a notch, Its hard when your working with friends to be an hard arse, but thats my job. Its also my jobs to keep morale up and make sure everyone knows what is going on.

I feel I have learnt a lot this week about the pre-production stage, myself and my future.

Cinematography

I've re-visited a few films lately with absolute beautiful cinematography. This kind of thing reminds me why I want to make

movies, the hard work seems easy when the final product is so good.

The films, Vicky Christina Barcelona, The Fall and Benjamin Button.

These are mainly location films, and its the jaw dropping sceneries that make the com

positions exquisite. Being a filmmaker I pick up on these things a lot, sometimes its a little annoying because I miss parts of the story. The colour in these movies is again stunning. They have a golden colour scheme, creams, browns, this to me is perfect filmmaking. The composition and colour are absolute key.

Home made Studio!

Robert Rodriguez puts these amazing film schools on his DVDs. RR is a maverick filmmaker and he gives out his secrets on these bonus features. He has influenced me a lot, but I don't think he is always right. What I do like from these bonus features is how he makes it look all-so-easy. He gives you great confidence that if you work hard and have a goal it can be achieved, but also achieved on a budget. I would love to see a lecture with him.

There a lot of good tips, but what I'd like to chat about is a feature he did on his home. He has converted his garage with a few extensions I imagine into his very own studio. It not quite Sky Walker ranch, but very impressive. He has a massive editing and sound mixing desk. A section to record music and ADR/folly. Editing station. A sound stage, with green screens. Not in his house but not far away he has an effects house, but in his house he has a computer and phone with a direct link to it. There are some other parts too. Thats my dream. My ambition is to have a ace setup like that. I like to be involved in all areas of production and get kicks out of pissing about with equipment. Especially sound, I think this passion comes from being a musician. I'm still very much interested in playing and recording music, but with film I'm fascinated with folly sound.

I don't really know where I'm going with this post, but it as some meaning. Recently I have been doubting my ability as a filmmaker, I think it might be a creative dry patch or not having a clear direction where I'm going. The perfect dream would be to leave college and be-able to work on films only. Realistically thats not viable, the three of us (Graeme, Mark and I) have been chatting about starting our own business. Graeme and I did some work over the summer, but I can imagine if we did a lot of that corporate work I'd start hating filmmaking. Maybe not though.

Think I need a confidence boost about the whole thing.

Looking at Reservoir Dogs and Hostel 2

One of the sequences we are planning is a torture scene. We wanted to do this because on The Payoff we tried adding a tussle between Brandy and Charlie. We quickly realised that without proper choreography the actors couldn't comfortably do the performance. A simple punch, kick or slap can look convincing with some clever angles and editing, but needs preparation.

We looked at the classic ear cutting torture scene from Reservoir Dogs. This scene is probably the most memorable of the film, for reasons you never see. Its funny how many people can remember the horrible graphic ear slicing, well in truth you never get to see it.

The whole scene is shot as if your head is the camera. All the shots are shaky, I first thought that this might be because they were on a low budget, but after we discussed it as a group it came evident that it was purpose. At the ear cutting point the camera turns away to a wall, as if the audience is too scared to watch it.

I think this is really effective, it leaves it open to the audiences mind, let them fill in the gaps. Sometimes the audience will think of something much worse than what the director was going to do. It also works in the films favor, with it being less graphic the age rating might stay down.

We also watched parts of Hostel 2. Never seen the whole film and really don't want to from what i saw (shite). However, I wasn't watching it for entertainment. The sound effects and art direction you could say are near perfect for the style of film. The film gives the audience what they want, and a little more. I couldn't tell if the torture rooms where sets or locations. At a guess I would say sets. They looked like a dirty mechanics workshop, the torture weapons looked the same. The scary thing about the weapons are most of them you can find in your average tools box/shed. Bringing that sense of realism, thats the real scare for the audience, the chance that it could be real and happen to you, or does it happen and if so where?

In the same night we also watched Misery for suspense and Frighteners for sound effects.

NEW BRIEF. Thoughts and feelings

So, I tried starting a new blog for this final year. However, on publishing my second blog about research Tumblr crashed whilst uploading and I lost my post. Very, very, unbelievably annoying. I started that day just wanting to catch up on blogging, since moving house we have been without the net for 2 months, hence why there hasn't been any posts. But, after Tumblr failed it demotivated me and I couldn't get myself back in the mood to write.

Back to Blogger, my trusty friend. There are aspect of blogger that really annoy me, images don't upload where you left the cursor, they load at the top of the post and if you have a long post its not the easiest to drag it where it should go. And, if your wanting more than one image, your fucked.

Back to the College project (sort of), they idea in a nutshell, the usual three (Graeme, Mark and I) are planning on making three short sequences to develop our filmmaking techniques. On the 2nd year FMP we did really well with casting, locations, script, using the camera and equipment available. We far exceeded our expectations, and I think maybe our peers and tutors too. It was a massive project for 2nd year students, But thats who I am, If it comes easy its not worth doing, I aim big, but I don't mind failing big. That frame of mind might change once I'm in the industry and nobody wants to fund my big ambitions.

This is a big nutshell by the way.

The final outcome of the three sequences should be film quality, thats the aim. Getting that is a bonus, the real project is in the preparation. We did so many good things on the 2nd year FMP, but we also did many things wrong. The art direction was next to none, we mostly tried to find locations to fit the scene, and as we grew closer to the shoot we had to use what came available (office scene), I don't think we purposely brought anything to the shoot to improve the shot. We did a little bit of rehearsing, but without storyboards or a shot list it made matters difficult on set. We had a few crew members helping us with sound, but between the three of us we had 40 crew members jobs, which personally made directing a nightmare, on reflection I didn't think I even directed the cast very well, just told them there markers. It was lucky we did a day of rehearsing were we got the actors into character and they did the rest themselves.

From that paragraph you can see we didn't really prepare for the shoot technically, some of the camera work and compositions are terrible. Thats not to blame one person, its the fact we didn't have time to set lights up correctly, reset the white balance, find the best composition. Due to all this it made the shoot feel long and stressful. I should add I enjoyed it thoroughly and it was vital experience.

So yeah, in a nutshell, where just practicing.

This will be essential to the FMP, there are a few other techniques and sequences I want to tryout before the FMP. I haven't told the other two yet, it will be a nice surprise, I have however put them in the calendar.

I have a lot of back paddling with blogging. We are already into the fifth week and we have done so much, it'll be hard documenting it all correctly but i'll do my best. I really wanted to video blog it all, I tried it on the 2nd year FMP but it got too much to edit and export it whilst working on the project. Video blogging is something I want to get in the habit of, I think it is a great why to document and can make for interesting viewing. I had the idea of recording 20 seconds a day and then collating the footage at the end of the week, like a diary, or a miniature making of. 20 seconds isn't a lot, it shouldn't take up much of my time or effort. But starting it seems really hard, Am I just being lazy? I can't decide whether to use my isight cam for connivence or my DV cam, but then you have to capture the footage and buy a new tape. This could be a great opportunity to use OnLocation, this is a piece of software that came with the adobe production suite. I've never opened it, but what I've read about it sounds good, basically you can use it as a hard drive, but you can also manage the sound, colour and other various key components when shooting. The down side is that you can only use it with other adobe software. I have premiere, but prefer Final Cut. Might be worth looking into though.

So that the brief and a little more...