Social Networks

I tried doing this online networking at the end of the college 2nd year, but i didn't have much work to shout about. My showreel was very weak and unimpressive. However, within a few months my showreel has become much better. The new college equipment has helped loads, you can shoot anything and it looks beautiful.

Mike and Annabeth kept telling me last year I have to get more short films under my belt. I never understood how I could fit this into my schedule. When practicing with the equipment this year Mark, Graeme and I shot two little sequences. They were silly, but fun and I now realise that this is what Mike and Annabeth meant by short film. When I hear short film I think 0f a 5 to 30 minutes, when actually 30-120 seconds is enough. I learnt so much from shooting these two little films, the very basics of filmmaking. The current project we are working on is similar. Two short sequences to learn new techniques. I wrote a post a month or two ago about how great these are.

I've story boarded three new short sequences. I don't think you can call them short films. I'm going to start advertising for actors over the next week. Hopefully I can have them shot before the end of the year, or at least in January. The great thing about these shorts is you can rehearse and shoot within a working day.

Going back to the networking. If I can keep producing these shorts then it gives me something to upload. I think the key to success on the net is being consistent.

Making short sequences will improve my skills, showreel, and hopefully get me a following.

I'm members of most the common social sites, but I bet there are loads out there. I'll post links at the bottom of the page, please add or subscribe yourself to my profile. If you know of any other sites please comment this post.

On the video sites I have set up groups dedicated to Leeds filmmakers to hopefully get a network you the area going. So far it hasn't caused much of a buzz, but starting it is the first step I suppose.

Anyway the links

YOUTUBE
VIMEO
DAILYMOTION
BLIP
MYSPACE
DAILYBOOTH
TWITTER

I know of a few others but I haven't set them up yet. On the video sites instead of uploading the same shorts on each of them at the same time, I'm trying to vary them to keep it interesting. On daily booth I've started to take screen grabs of the shorts or pictures of me on set. Thats worked very well. I'm not sure what to do with myspace, Its a hassle to add people. After 10 people you have to start putting in codes, and I haven't had much response from it yet.

I am however enjoying setting things up and receiving comments. Its very rewarding.

Cheers.

As Promised

I promised sometime ago to upload the silly shorts we made whilst practicing with the new equipment. They been on my youtube page for a few weeks, just forgot to post them here.

Any constructive criticism is welcome.

Enjoy.

Production Crit.

The order of the next few posts will be a bit topsy turvy. I've fallen behind a bit with blogging, and have lots to yell about. I've got many half written blogs and will probably get uploaded in the wrong order, but fingers crossed they'll all get done by the end of the week despite.

In this post I will be talking about the Production Crit we had at college today. I should probably save this for when I've caught up with the unfinished posts. However it's fresh in my mind.

I've spent the last week or so making foley sound. I created over 100 sounds, using various material (there will be a video blog for this when I've finished). Never done any foley really. On The Payoff we tried recording everything in mic on set, which was a massive mistake. Researching foley I realised how big apart of filmmaking it is. I know the basics of sound recording from being in a band and recording bands. I don't have much sound equipment. I pieced together a micro studio by lending the Boom mic from college, my old mini mixing desk and garage band. The Boom mic is great for dialogue, but isn't the best for picking up the detail. Anyway there will be a video blog explaining all this.

I went into the Crit rather happy, the visuals look nice and very close to what we planned and story boarded, the rough edited is almost there, colour isn't finished but the in camera colour wasn't bad anyway and I was very pleased with the progress I made with the sound.

Thinking about what was said after we showed the two sequences I cannot think of anything constructive about the feedback. I felt demotivated, I think I feel like this because I was happy with the progress and knowing where we are with a little over two weeks left means we can really make them look special.

My sound got very critised which was upsetting, knowing the time spent on it and being the first attempt at making our own foley. On reflection I feel I've achieved a lot. To say I started out with no sound, and now the whole piece is alive. Yes of course it isn't going to be perfect, because its a first edit, but I felt it deserved some recognition for even attempting to make our own sound. In this era it is so easy to use archived samples or pluggins or download somebody else's work from the net.

Anyway, I won't take it personally. Criticism is great, but it needs putting into context.

Twilight, My thoughts on the Book and The Film.

Just a quick one, in case you can't get enough of my writing.

I finished the Twilight book the other night. Its taken some time to finish because I've been reading it on and off. I saw the movie first, I never even realised it was a book, till the film came out.

I didn't see the film at the cinema, to be honest I thought it looked terrible, I only watched it on rental because my girlfriend wanted to see it. To my surprise I actually enjoyed it, it was immensely cheesy, but well made. The acting was good, but a little wet, the sets and costumes were really good, even the cinematography was top. Thats my thoughts of the film in a nutshell. I could go into more detail, but it would probably just bored you. It was decent entertainment, it starts of slow, but it is a romantic drama. The vampires are the twist, and its a good concept. Imagine if you met the love of your life, but there is a chance they could eat you. It's definitely worth a watch if you have a spare two hours.

I was searching for a new book to read and whilst scanning through Play.com I saw there was an offer on the first three Twilight books. The book have a massive following and fans of the book would die for it, so I had to check it out. I'm not one to buy into hype, but I like to see was the fuss is about and make my own decision.

I bought the first book, read a few chapters and enjoyed it. I didn't take a chance on the other two books going up in price so I bought them too, after reading a few chapters I thought if I get really into this I'll be gutted to pay out £10 for the next book when I could have got it for £3. And, if I didn't enjoy it they'd make good presents.

My thoughts on the book, yeah, I liked it. It isn't the best thing I've read, but it's nowhere near the worse. It's a girly book, it started off well, when Bella didn't really know what Edward was and she was scared that he might kill her. Then in the middle it got really wet, when they're declaring their love for each other. This when I stopped reading it, I put it down for a couple of months. It was only recently on a sleepless night that I decided to push through the lovely dovey and see what the ending was like. Also the new film is out and I'm not sure whether to see it or not.

Reading the weekend reviews have all been bad, which has put me off reading the next book.

The good and the bad. The good, its very addictive. I usually read on a night to tire my eyes to help me sleep, but this just got me hooked. I can't explain the reason, because I wasn't really enjoying it that much. But, it was easy to read and a nice idea. The characters are well written and I began to feel for the main two, some of the other characters I couldn't give a fuck about. The Bad, it was very wet. Bella and Edward have this amazing true love for each other, but all they do is argue and disagree. This could be how Stephanie Myers describes how they say their lines, or maybe its my interpretation. I know there is a fine line between love and hate, but this is a little too close.

The conclusion, if you like reading give it ago I'm sure you won't be disappointed. The film is worth watching. I've read film reviews of New Moon and the verdict so far is its shit, not heard anything about the book.

After reaching the end of the Twilight book I wasn't in a desperate need to run to my book shelf for New Moon, which isn't a good sign. I'll definitely read it, whether I read it next I don't know. I have Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Trainspotting, I quarter left of the Watchmen graphic novel and as said New Moon. Oh, plus a load of filmmakers books.

The Eighties Club

I'm going to start my updates with The Eighties Club.

I'll add some links to the bottom of this post.

What is The Eighties Club? This is a web series I've been slowly setting up about 80s cinema. For some reason I've got a great fondness for this decade. I love all cinema, but the 80s were something else.

I watch a few people that do these web videos, to name a couple of my favourites Angry Video Game Nerd and Ashens. For awhile now I've been wanting to do my own, but could never find my style. I did some film reviews over the summer of the films I saw at the cinema. I did a voice over a trailer I downloaded from Itunes. This worked alright, but I'd like to be able to pick out certain parts to talk about. I've deleted these reviews now as I wasn't happy with them.

This is a project I'm wanting to start at the end of next year (2010), about this time next. I'm going to start it with a top five Christmas film special. I've made the decision to start it next year because over the next 12 months it gives me time to write the scripts, gather the footage, shoot, edited and export the videos. This should hopefully put me 12 months ahead, whilst I'm uploading the completed videos I can start creating new ones.

I've already set up a blog, twitter, youtube, blip and Dailymotion. It would be much appreciated if you could follow, join, subscribe or whatever it may be. There won't be much activity on with the video sites, but I'll be updating the blog and twitter.

Look forward to hearing your feedback.

Get ready for some Updates

Well, well, well... It's been awhile since the last post, That means I've been really busy... well it should mean that.

I've got loads to update you on, I could do it all in this one post, but you'd get very bored and it would be unfortunately long. This post will be like a contents page, I'm just telling you what to expect over the next week or so.

There is a few things to tell you about the current productions, we've finished shooting. Jon and I have taken loads of photos, which I'll upload. I've almost finished the foley sound for the torture scene and I will be starting the suspense sound on monday. I filmed myself doing it, which I'll edit together for your viewing. I'll have probably done the edit and colour by the end of next week too.

I've started the Major Project, new blog, practice shorts, making of videos. Lots of interesting stuff there to tell you of.

The Eighties Club, a web series I've been working on about 80s cinema.

Starting up the social networking sites again. Towards the end of my 2nd year I started doing the social network sites, trying to get my work viewed. Over the summer I lost interest in it, mainly down to the fact I didn't have a lot of work to shout about. Anyway, I'll save it for the post.

I think thats about it, the current production and the Major Project will take up a few posts. So get ready to do some reading!

It took sometime but I got there

I started to right this on the 20th October, and its really not that interesting, but needs documenting. I left uncompleted having it mind to come back to it, however I've completely forgotten about it. Also there have been some changes in the production, half of this was written when I was directing and the other half is when Graeme is directing. It may come across inconsistent with the way I word it.

Anyway try to get through.

If there is one thing about film that really baffles me its sound. On set sound. Picking up the Dialogue clearly seems impossible. We really screwed the sound up on The Payoff and I had a nightmare trying my best to clean it up, but there are some sounds you cannot remove without distorting the actors voice.

Today Mark, myself and a good friend Simon, whom is a qualified sound engineer, we played about with the equipment we had at college. I was under the impression that we had much more sound equipment than we do. I really wanted to get everything and anything that records sound, mainly so that I've tried and tested myself to document it. Also to experiment, I love playing about with equipment and seeing what odd things they do, sometimes you can stubble across something great.

However, Matt (AV Supervisor) assured me 110% that the only way to record dialogue was with the Boom Mic. He said that I would only be wasting my time by testing the other stuff, I think he meant wasting his time...

Saying that he did let me have a few bits, Boom Mic, Clip mic, an external recording device and we brought along a big vocal condenser mic.

I'll start with the external device, real name M-Audio Microtrack 2. This appeared to be a nifty bit of kit. It had Phantom power, which is essential for high powered mics. It recorded with high quality, you could change the bit, EQ, hertz, etc settings. Monitoring looked simple, had a left and right volumes, easy it find and adjust. Plus it was pocket size, great for traveling. However, my first fears with it was when I realised it didn't have any XLR inputs, just a mini Jack and a left and right large Jack. This meant we had to use a converter.

Once we were plugged in and set up, it didn't record well at all. The levels were hissy and the dialogue sounds like it was coming from the other room. I think with none of us having any knowledge with this piece meant starting from scratch was a NO, NO!

We resorted to plugging the mic straight into the camera and monitoring the sound and recording from that. I was hoping to avoid this, the camera gets full with the appropriate crew round it. Adding another head watching two tiny metering icons seems inappropriate.

On to the Boom Mic. Matt says this is the only way to get good on set sound. My main problems with it are; it has to be connected to the camera. There is a device to meter the sound away from the camera, but it seems nobody has got good knowledge of it. We tried using this (forgive me I've forgotten the name of it) on The Payoff. With us only using one Mic the second input (left or right, which ever your not using) left a distorted track. This was easily deleted in the editing room, but left us with some horrible feeling when viewing it back. We also couldn't get a hang of the volume control, it looked simple enough, but there wasn't any consistency with it. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. I would definitely not use it again until we have better knowledge of it.

Another problem with the Boom is shadows. The bastard thing leaves shadows over your cast. You have to get the boom as close to the actor as possible, but not create a shadow. When you've got three or four lights lighting all angles it can become annoying. A lot of the time you don't realise it has created a shadow until your viewing the footage, because on set your not looking for it. Your mind is too busy concentrating on the actors, that is where you need extra crew.

The boom did have the best sound quality, but it picks up everything around it. If your in a room with air-con or any sort of fans your in the shit.

We also checked out the Clip Mic, code name Audio-Technia AT803B. You usually see these on TV presenters. The sound quality was superb, very clear and rich sounding. The Problems, hiding the dam thing. Being a clip mic you have to clip it to the actor. You can't really hide either, because anything that rubs against it will create a sound. This brings me on to movement. You cannot do any heavy walking, jumping, that sort of thing. Anytime the mic moves it creates a sound. If I was ever doing a documentary or a piece to camera than this would be great, but not for a movement shot.

That sums it up, we did use the vocal condenser, but it gave a similar effect as the boom, but not portable.

My conclusion is to get reference sound on the day and then bring the actors back to a sound treated room and dub it. Thats the only way to get crystal clear sound.

Going, Going, GONE!

This week we have come to terms with having to cut out the horror sequence.

This sequence was my favourite at the start of the project. Drag me to Hell had really inspired me with sound. However, due to location and actors scheduling dates it just doesn't seem like we can pull it together to happen within the next week. Any longer than that would just mean we have less time for the edit, colour, Visual Effects and the main area Sound.

I cannot see why we should compensate the sound and effects, and rush! ourselves to make this happen. I would rather say we have failed now and concentrate on getting the other two right.

This sequence never seemed to take off from the word go. We could talk about the visuals, but getting them down on paper, both script and storyboard seemed far too difficult. I honestly don't know why we struggle so much with pre-vis. It should take no longer than a few hours to storyboard sequences of this length, I am not trying to place blame on Mark because I've tried story boarding this scene myself, and failed.

I think the problem we have is, we have lost sight of what we indented to do on this project. The sequences have grown and grown, and have become short films, rather than short sequences. They shouldn't have been anymore than six to nine story board cells. We have become so fixated on the narrative that we have let the projects get the better of us.

The sequences were about action, art direction and sound. Is the location needed to get a action sequence right? It makes it look better, but it only adds strain to the goal. I got so worked up about making a set that the seance sequence has fallen apart. Do I need a set to make good sound? The only location we needed was for the art direction and that is the one sequence we didn't try and find a location for! and have ended up using our last option (our own house!).

I can hold my hands up and say I've completely lost direction on this project. I don't even know what the project is anymore, I'm not 100% sure whether I'm still apart of it, because I ain't done too much recently, except point out what we've done wrong. The only thing this project has done for me is doubt my abilities as a filmmaker. I have no control over this project. I started out as the director and now I am nothing. Hopefully in post I can pick up the editing and colour, which I was indenting to do. But as directing goes I do not feel comfortable with these sequences anymore.

I feel I'd much prefer to be part of the crew on set and observe how somebody else would go about directing. I think I would learn much more from this experience having never seen anybody else in that situation.

The journey I have been on during this project has been long and hard, luckily I still have my hair. With me not sleeping anyway its make it hard to loose sleep over anything. My aim now is to complete the task, but put more effort into the dissertation and major project. Before this week I have barely thought about them. That is not saying I'm not going to try on this project, because that is not my nature. I do my best at everything, and I have no doubt that these two sequences will look better than anything we have done before.

As I am writing this I have asked Graeme if he would like to direct, he said yes. I am really looking forward to seeing his approach to the shoot and compare it with what I would have done. I am also a little scared that he will shout at me on set...