The Last Post

It seems a lifetime, rather than a half-year ago that I sat in the first MAF class. Our goal throughout the year was to make a short film, write an original script, and to keep a blog - for which this will be the last entry.


So what is a short film? Hurbis-Cherrier defines short films in Voice & Vision as being “thirty minutes or less...tight, simple and efficient...usually revolv[ing] around a single, simple idea, recognizable characters, and a sharp turning point to make one moment resonate.” For the module, our films were to be five to eight minutes long.


Early lectures involved learning the basics; loglines, outlines, shooting scripts and later in October, storyboards. Loglines are a one sentence summary of the film designed to intrigue the viewer. Outlines differ from the logline in that in an outline the full story is summarized, culminating with the ending; nothing is held back, whereas the log-line ends with an implicit question - what happens next?


I was already concerned even at this early stage-- I'm much less comfortable with new technology than younger students who have already worked with similar equipment, and the effort of mastering the technology and trying to learn the principles was considerable, given the other demands on our time. In future older (but inexperienced) students might be advised when they select the module that there is a range of specialist equipment to master, and that they should arrange extra tuition.

In late October, we scouted Bath for locations- filming was scheduled for the third week of November, and we made a trial film using the script of The Eager Student. Most of November’s posts were taken up with pre -and post- production; I only managed one during the actual weekend, on the second day. I also laid hold (via Megan) of a copy of one of the previous year’s entries, which showed me the level that we had to aim for.


By late November I had posted initial reflections on the first film, such as the desirability of casting Performing Arts students (rather than amateur actors) for their greater professionalism. We received feedback on our initial blog entries. I now realize that my earlier blogs were too short, lacked an upsum, and had few links to technical terms or sources of information. I did consider rewriting earlier posts to benefit from the feedback, but felt that that would distort the narrative of my progress. On a lighter note, I posted the behind-the-scenes footage from the set...



In the run up to Christmas we spent several weeks revisiting scriptwriting, which took me back into a comparative comfort zone. I exchanged lengthy correspondence with Mike Alexander, an American writer of science- fiction short stories, in which we discussed my adapting his short story “Ware of the Worlds” under a Creative Commons Licence as an entry for the second film. However, it quickly became clear that although Mike wanted a less student-y orientation for the second film, a screenplay that called for a post-apocalyptic Bath, a survivalist protagonist who drove a humvee and lived in an isolated log cabin wasn’t going to be viable without changes so drastic as to make it unrecognizable. Also in December we reviewed all seven different versions of Choices, which we renamed Doorways to differentiate it from the other versions




Over Christmas, we each had to think of ideas, so –on the principle expounded in the class on idea generation that only one idea in every three will go anywhere- when we reassembled in the New Year to swap ideas, I floated the post-apocalyptic storyline, and a rather silly idea of magic sweets that make people invisible as my disposable ideas. I also brought my one serious idea (which I finally wrote as my script), The Other Woman. This was the story of a wife leaping to conclusions when she sees her husband with another woman, with laughable results. It featured older characters, with may have deterred the other groups.


To choose our script for the second film, each of our team listed their three favourite films from those available; we ended up with five films, of which two were common to almost everyone. They were Silent Disco, and Heads or Tails. In the end, we probably played safe in choosing Heads or Tails, our concern with the other film beiing that we would be reliant on finding someone who knew sign language (I suspect that most of the groups who chose Silent Disco had someone in their group or knew someone who could sign). Daniel volunteered to adapt the script –we had decided to be much less reverential of the source material, after witnessing how freely other groups adapted the script for the first film. By the end of January we were ready to start working on it.

We had a slightly different team from Doorways; Daniel had replaced Teagan and Megan -who was very good with the camera, so Julia and I agreed to share the cameraman role. I pre -and post- produced with her assistance, while Jaeeun directed, and Baylea was sound person. Following a lecture on editing, we agreed that Daniel not attend shooting except in emergencies, to maintain a Walter Murch-inspired detachment between the process and the end footage.

We were determined to learn from our experiences on Doorways, and to start work as quickly as possible on finding locations, casting, and getting permissions from interested parties such as Bath Film Council and the University; up until about two weeks before filming –which was scheduled for the 26th and 27th of February—everything seemed to be in hand. With hindsight, we should have taken that as an omen....

One of the things that I learned from Doorways was to always have a Plan B. If the leading man is late for filming, revise the shooting schedule. If the preferred location is suddenly no longer available, have an alternative location. When we were working on Heads or Tails, we tried to cover every contingency; so for each part when we were auditioning, we had a back-up actor under consideration, we looked at fall-back sites, alternative music, even back-up crew. However, when our entire cast withdrew in the space of 24 hours because we were competing with a rival –and for our primarily 3rd year cast mandatory- production, we learned that there are some blows so catastrophic that no amount of Plan Bs, Cs -even Zs- will cover them; at such times it’s necessary to change the entire game plan.

We agreed with our lecturer that we would film on Friday and Monday, the 25th and 28th of February, with a smaller cast and the crew filling bit parts. Since both those days effectively fell during Reading Week, we would have an empty lecture room, so we agreed with Mike that we would film one scene on Monday the 21st, after the guest speaker he had booked. But because my request was unclear (learning; if you need access to facilities, be specific about what you want, and when you want it) we still had to finish the lecture scene the following Monday. Apart from that hiccough, the actual filming went remarkably smoothly, perhaps because we had all worked together before, and had confidence in each other. Unlike the filming of Doorways we made sure that we got plenty of spare footage, we finished within schedule, and almost everything seemed to be in focus. But the words “It’s a wrap!” still came as considerable relief....

I deliberately limited my involvement in the post-production phase to that of completing the production folder and the PASC document, although I was happy to offer opinions and/or suggestions to Jaeeun and Daniel, who did an excellent job in editing. Simple pragmatism dictated that risking precious time was an indulgence we could hardly afford, given that the film is worth almost a fifth of our entire marks for the year across all subjects. And Daniel and Jaeeun proved more than adept at editing (I’ve learned there is only so much than one person can do, and any team must use their strengths). Even as we shot the film I felt that we had much better performances from the actors to work with, and the music added to the sense of 'mood' that we were trying to create. Once again, this film was all about decision making, but this time the narrative arc -I felt- was much clearer.

When we came to preview the rough assemblies in early April, we were surprised at how difficult the audience found it to grasp points that were obvious to us, though. One key scene involved the toss of a coin and the protagonist’s call, and caused the audience serious problems understanding the film's outcome and theme.

Also, despite shooting plenty of footage we found that we’d failed to include any external shots of the Hobgoblin to create a scene break. To rectify the confusion I travelled into Bath and took some extra shots. Both points show how over-familiarity with the script can blind those involved to flaws that are obvious to outsiders.

It seems a lifetime ago that I sat in that first class. I’ve learned how crucial teamwork is to filming, that any group is only as good as its weakest member, to have back-up plans, and communication is vital (even things that are ‘common sense’ -such as listing everyone’s phone numbers listed- may not be obvious to everyone). I’ve also learned that at heart I’m less of a film-maker than a scriptwriter, and I’m less of a scriptwriter than a novelist. It’s been fascinating and while I’m never going to be the next Roman Polanski, I feel proud of our team and our achievement

Preview Time

Last week we previewed all the films made by our Film group, with slightly surprising results.

This blog is running about a week behind, but if I hadn't mentioned it few of you would have realized. It's easy for filmmakers to forget that the audience aren't party to what they know. It can be used to one's advantage, but for most filmmakers at our level, it's as much a liability as an advantage.

This manifested itself last week when we attended a preview of all of the the films made by our Film group. The purpose of this was not to allow us to bask in glory (or more likely to cram our fists in our teeth with embarrassment) but to allow each group to watch the other's films. The results were surprising.

One of the other groups pointed out that they were unsure whether we were using the same location for two different scenes. We were, but realized that we needed to insert some sort of break scene to differentiate them (we had deleted an intervening scene).

A more serious concern was that the audience's understanding of one key scene was the opposite of what we were striving for. Some serious tweaking was needed, and that's now been done. But it really rammed home how easy it is to assume that audience are following the story ("but that's obvious!" is the usual reaction from those involved in the making of the film) and how dangerous that can be. It's easy to assume from familiarity that the story is transparent - so it's necessary to have strangers who don't have any preconceptions to watch a preliminary screening.

And that applies to blogs as well...

The Waiting's Almost Over (I Hope...)

So it's almost here - assuming none of the nine various bodies that affect us don't throw one last tack in the way...



So it's almost here. My Making A Film e-mail folder has 305 RECEIVED messages alone. I've spent over 22 hours in the last week (and that doesn't include the sleepless nights where I've been trying to keep track of everything) working on this project. We've had shouting and breakdowns and Uni Departments clashing over timetables.

Tomorrow, all being well, we hope to start filming. That's assuming that any one of the nine bodies (yes, NINE -- Bath Film Council, Highways and Police; the management of the Hobgoblin pub; the management of Matty's Cafe; the landlords of Waterside Court; Bath Spa University Estates management; BSU Film Department; BSU Drama Department) that can throw a spanner in the works don't do so.

If you want to see what practical effect this is having, just take a look at my main blog.

Bring it on.

Meet the Team

The teams have assembled, the scripts have been chosen, and the cast are being auditioned today.

We've been given the scripts to choose from to make our second 8 minute feature. This is the important one, the one which will be marked (Choices, which became Doorways -- was made to teach us how to make films), and which is worth 55% of our marks.

The dates for filming are the last weekend in February and the first weekend in March. We've gone for the earlier dates, since several of us have commitments the following weekend, which makes the timing even tighter -- but this time we have an idea of what we're doing.

We chose a script called 'Heads or Tails,' which was written by Lucy Baker. We really liked 'The Good Listener,' but had reservations about the viability of finding actors who could sign and would commit - in the space of a week.

The team making it --Four Eyes Productions (we all wear glasses) is very similar to that which made Doorways.

The one addition is Daniel Dearing who is adapting the script, with input from all the team. Daniel will also be one of the editing team during post-production, and is finding us the music.

The other four of us are the same team that Doorways, less a couple of people who have joined other groups.

Baylea Hart is responsible for scouting locations and casting during pre-production and sound on set and co-production during post-production.

Baylea will be co-producing during post-production, so with me will have the job of gathering the reams of permissions, release form and various scripts (original, final and shooting) into some sort of order.

Julia Hien is also responsible for scouting locations and casting during pre-production. On set she will take over as producer, and be co-camera person.

She'll be one of the three-person editing team post-production.

Finally, Jaeeun Jung is a Korean student studying English Language and Literature.

Jaeeun is going to be storyboarding during pre-production, will take over as Director on-set, and will be one of the editing team during post-production.

Today we have auditions, so I'll be able to introduce the rest of the team next time.

Script Example -- The Usual Suspects

How to make a film, using the opening of The Usual Suspects, and how not to make one, using some extracts from student scripts.

One of the best Making A Film seminars yet saw us study the script and film of the opening few minutes of The Usual Suspects, one of my favourite films of all time.

TUS -as I'll call it from now on-- was made on a shoestring budget. Since Bryan Singer went on to direct big budget X-men and other big budget films, I assumed it was a major release. It just goes to show that big budgets do not necessarily make better films.





A script is available here; it's worth noting that if a script is very, very close to the finished film, the chances are that it's actually been written after the film was shot. In the case of the date on this script, it's actually about 12 - 18 months prior to release date, and the script is a little more bare bones -- Keyser Soze doesn't appear in the script version of the opening scene.



What's striking about the opening sequence is the music clearly identifies the film's genre (thriller), and the judicious use of sound with the striking match, the fizz of the petrol catching and the stream of urine as Keyser Soze puts out the fire.


The opening five minutes provide a textbook example of providing an arresting opening, while the next five are an equally model example of pipe-filling, to use an industry term for setting a scene. In this case it's through a montage of action scenes.


But to contrast all of this this, we also looked at examples of badly written scripts, from detailed lists of camera shots (scripts aren't there to tell the director which shots to make but to outline action and dialogue), scripts littered with typos, to those written in past tense.

A great morning which makes we want to get hold of TUS and watch it again, leavened only by sadness at the loss of Pete Postlethwaite, whom I met briefly in a pub outside Chichester in 2000. I can't claim anything profound was said, but he seemed a genuinely nice, down-to-earth guy.

Feedback On Doorways

Feedback from Mike our tutor, together with some initial thoughts, including the danger of not looking carefully at the background, and finding it unexpectedly intruding into our story.

Our group has feedback from Mike (our tutor), and I thought it might be interesting to share it with you together with commentary -- not because I want to argue with Mike or to score points, but because his feedback may well change how you watch the video (or indeed, reinforce how you already feel) and my comments back will -hopefully- explain how we ended up in that situation in the first place, and maybe how we prevent a recurrence.

For example, it never occured to us that the Beatle shot might look as if Dan is morphing into a fifth member of the group. It was just a poster on the wall, a rather innocent looking poster...now watch the film again... and we'll look more carefully at background walls, etcetera in future. Unless we actually want to create an effect, it may be that we'll default to blank walls wherever possible.

Mike commented that we needed some tension if Dan and Greg are actually robbing something, and asked what shots would have created this. The answer is that while I knocked on the door once, we should really have repeated the knock --perhaps more urgently—and then cut to Dan or Greg’s face and showed some fear to raise the tension.

Mike commented that the story opens with an office scene, then there's dialogue, then Dan comes through the door. None of this immediately signposts the story. Where is the door from? Does a new viewer know that the dialogue has just happened and that the robbery is ‘now’ and this is now a flashback?

The answer in short, is no. Greater clarity is needed. I know that Mike doesn't like captions like 'ten minutes later,' etc, but in this case if we were to use just one caption, it would be just as the voiceover argument kicks in.

Mike commented that the garden scene looks great but how might it be interpreted? The music said ‘creepy’ the light said ‘Police’? The music changes to more of a ‘police action theme’ and Dan hangs around in the garden for 50 seconds.

He’s right – we collectively fell in love with the scene, whereas we should have cut 30 seconds from the film. I'd never even thought of a blue light signifying police. I feel as if there are great chunks of film symbolism that I'm missing at the moment!

Mike said that the cut transition back is not obvious. We needed to establish the ‘device’ to make the story understandable to the audience, within the logic of the film. We see a ‘footfall’ then you cut to a CU of Dan’s face for the ‘realisation’ beat. ("Careful there’s a laugh here, possibly unintentional, when it looks like he’s joined the Beatles! We need to be aware here that 3 minutes into the film we don’t want to take the audience ‘out’ of the film.")

Oh Gawd, we never even thought that it might be taken that way...just goes to show what unintentional consequences come out of being too close to the film.

Mike said that the scenes in the SU needed better planning. It was very static and since the coverage is all quite wide the actors’ performance seemed rather stop/start.

Unfortunately that was all the footage we had. That scene was the first shooting that we did, and if we’d had our time over I’d probably have suggested that we shot it again. Hey ho; one always has 20/20 vision with hindsight.

The city centre scene is confusing initially since [the narrative] cut to an empty frame and Dan and Greg walk into shot. Don’t they need to step in? The previous 2 transitions the foot fell into shot. "It’s your device but you need to be consistent with it to aid audience comprehension."

He’s right. If you look at the step in on the street scene it’s different from the others.

Mike asked, "Why use the caption ‘The next day’. Why not straightaway? Maybe because Dan has a jacket on now? Maybe because they have swapped positions? Either way it weakens the cut. If you had a close up and then cut to the wide it’s unlikely anyone would have noticed."

The caption was to show that time had elapsed to have the idea. I’d never thought of that particular shot transition.

Mike commented, "If Olivia and Teagan were playing ‘maltesers’ in the same position as the fantasy, you could have visually made the same point without the lines “I’m so glad you saved me the other night.” This is really ‘on-the-nose’ dialogue, narration. "

Good point. For the rest, again it was the first afternoon’s shooting. It shows how much one can learn in just two days.

Mike commented that in the office scene Greg disappears and Dan says “ Greg, Where are you?” Mike notes that it’s a small office, and asked how we might have shown the “where are you Greg beat” without dialogue?

Panned around the office, of course. Easy to say now.

Mike concluded with "The film is a good group effort and a positive start of the module."

Nice to know, and the group have tried to learn as much as possible from the outing.

Doorways Now Online

Finishing off the films at last and moving onto new ideas for scripts for the next film.

This morning's lecture covered two main areas. The first was finishing off Doorways, our short film. The mark doesn't count towards the overall assessment, and Mike admitted that he'd marked us hard, but I must admit that 58% is a frustrating mark, just short of a 2:1 -- but better than I'd feared.



There were a lot of positives to come out of the feedback, which I hope to be able to post on the blog. But in the meantime, here's the actual film:

I've also posted links to the other two films made by our group, Choices(2) and Exit.

The second part involved us floating ideas for the next film. Of the five of us in our group, every member had at least one good idea, so it will be fascinating to see how these ideas develop.

Behind The Scenes

Upsum

I've posted a couple of blogs already introducing the team and outlining some of the issues involved in the making of Doorways, our adaptation of Abigail Green's screenplay.

I've now added a behind the scenes film shot (mostly) by Teagan on Megan's camera. By some nifty footwork I managed to stay out of most of the footage (I hate seeing myself on film or hearing myself talk), although the sneaky bugger got everywhere and inevitably he got me. But it'll give you some idea of the chaos involved around people not turning up, and what goes on as people sit around for ages waiting to do thirty second's worth of film.



More in a day or two.

Some Reflections on Filming

Films are geared toward working in clusters of pre-production, production and post-production activities.

Most students want to work on a little of everything, but it seems to me that films are operations much better geared to batch working. So there are the pre-production aspects -- scriptwriting (without which nothing much can happen) casting, obtaining permissions, writing risk assessments, and obtaining initial music selections.

Production involves five main crew parts; the producer (like the one working hard on the right), director, sound engineer and camera-person, with the clapperboard operator an optional fifth in cramped conditions (in cramped conditions there's no reason why the producer couldn't double up.

Post production involves editing and sound editing (the first one involves the actual film).

More thoughts another time.

Meet The Team

A brief introduction to the cast and crew of Doorways, our short film, including who did what.


While we wait for the editing suite to save the first reel of film to the computer, I've got time to start a blog post.

It seems a good point to introduce the people with whom I've spent most of the weekend, from left to right Sound Engineer Jaeeun Jung and Exec Producer Baylea Hart (while off to the right is the unit's director, Julia Hien)

Cameraperson Megan Kelland;


Runner (and part-time actor) Teagan Lucas

And lastly, our three main actors, Joe, Matt & Emily - Joe is a musician who has done some
acting, while Matt and Emily are first year drama students; all of them turned in outstanding performances.

More tomorrow...

Hanging Around

Last night's post held over this morning, due to poster fatigue; hanging around is surprisingly tiring. Instead I'm going to do a small post, and another on Tuesday.




I was originally going to open with: 6pm on Saturday night; we’ve just finished for the day after8 ½ hours on set.


But it's now 9.40 am on Sunday morning, and I've got half an hour before leaving for the today's filming (which I hope is the last day). Fatigue caught up with me last night...so instead of a post last night and another today, I' doing a short post today and another on Tuesday (tomorrow I have a nine-hour day at uni plus travel time, which is not conducive to blogging).


As you have deduced, we got our permissions on Friday. However, the lead actor had a lecture which he couldn't get out of, so we started later than planned on Friday afternoon. The SU team were -as always- incredibly helpful, and having started two hours late, we managed to finish only an hour behind schedule.


Saturday was another story. Started late (the other male lead was late this time) and just got later.

Filming is an incredibly time-consuming and at time time-wasting process. Perhaps film crews get used to being at the mercy of the public, stopping to allow through traffic, smart-alec pedestrians who ‘know their rights’ and delivery vans – lots and lots of delivery vans...or maybe if you're the BBC or Miramax, you just hurl a wodge of money as compensation to all affected, and have the street closed off.

So if you think you’ll need two hours, allow four. Get ready to do it over and over again --one five sentence exchange required thirteen takes, partly because of Joe Public, partly because it was getting toward lunchtime and energy levels really do drop, meaning that people make more mistakes.

Either way, we wasted an awful lot of time, and for those not involved in the shoot, it can actually be more tiring than those doing the filming and acting. Partly because we have to keep focused for when we are needed, or to keep an eye on the bags.

As producer I combined overall responsibility with guarding the bags, keeping hold of the shot list and interveing in the film-making as little as possible. There were times when I felt a second explanation to the actors about how they needed to approach a scene helped, but I did try to minimize it. It's not particularly sexy, but just as every film needs spear carriers, so every crew needs runners. Only time will tell whether it was the right approach....

T Minus 80

An hour and twenty minutes to go. Either we get the equipment released, or we don't -- it's as simple as that. And if we don't, I have no idea what we're going to do.

80 minutes until we meet our Film Lecturer; my conscious brain is saying don't panic, there's no way he's going to fail you on the course, to rob six people of a chance of a BA for want of an e-mail is overkill.

My hindbrain is screaming eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!

I'm not sure which one is winning at the moment. Every few minutes I check my in-box for the missing e-mail; my mouth is dry and I'm likely to fly into a rage with the washing machine or any other inanimate object that baulks me.

The problem is that as producer, it's my role to arrange permissions for our unit over the weekend. So we had to obtain agreement from the Student's Union Bar (which included filling in a risk assessment form), the pub where we'll be filming, the campus authorities and Bath Spa Council. In the case of the latter, they can literally stop a unit filming in the street (it happened to Al Pacino in New York on one occasion).

Because film companies must get written permission to film on both private and public property to cover them against potential legal action, it's mandated for the course as well. So it's understandable that it's a requirement, or the course wouldn't reflect industry practice.

The major problem is one that I didn't even realize was a problem until this morning. The pub, The Raven, has given us verbal permission, but they haven't confirmed it. So, how late are they going to leave it? And what are our chances of walking away with the kit?

It's now T minus 65 and counting down...

Paperwork

We have little time to get all the permits that we need, from permission from the council to film in the street, to written agreement from the pub; fortunately the Student Union bar is a little more media-savvy...

We only have five days until filming is due to begin and we're getting into what Alec Ferguson calls 'Squeaky Bum Time.' Our group has to have all the paperwork in order to be allowed to start filming, and we have very little margin for error.

As producer, responsibility for procuring the paperwork lies with me. Yesterday I learned that some of the salient details had fallen off the application form that I had sent to the Bath Film Office. Without their permission in the form of a permit, we can't film in the city's streets.

Fortunately, they were agreeable to issuing permission, pending us providing them with a risk assessment. They wanted evidence that we had thought about the perils inherent in filming on location.

Meanwhile, I'm still chasing The Raven for their formal agreement; having been taken around the pub by their team, there's no doubting their commitment. But their priority is running a pub, not filling in release forms for a university film crew -- but I shall nag them.

Fortunately, the Student's Union bar is proving more amenable, but they have experience of these events, so filling in permission forms is second nature.

I've left Megan and Julia to get permission from the University, but if the get any problems, I'll help them out.

Late Submission

Forms and deadlines wait for no man...

Even allowing for my certainty that we had very little time until shooting was due to begin, I've still been on the hop by that oldest of problems -- illness.

With two weeks to go, I should have had the forms asking Bath Spa Council for permission to film in by last Friday; by that time I had already gone down with a viral infection, so I rang the Film Unit in Bath and was reassured that the form didn't need to be in a full two weeks before, that Monday would be acceptable.

The problem was that I wanted to get the others to look the form over first to see if I'd missed anything, or got it wrong, but the virus delayed my getting it out to them until Monday, so it was late Tuesday before I got the form in -- effectively first thing Wednesday.

I can only hope that they'll cut us some slack. Without that bloody permission, we can't film at all. We'll just have to see.

Location, Location, And Once Again...

A good afternoon in all, with a couple of nice surprises thrown in...

We all met at the Hobgoblin in Bath this afternoon at 1pm -- the first time all six of us have made a meeting at the same time. Darren (the landlord) was as helpful and supportive as ever, but we had arranged to look at The Raven so we trooped off there.

Initial signs weren't good -- the bar staff were busy and to be honest we felt a little like interlopers, even when some of us ordered food and drinks. However, when Rod took us all down to the cellar, we noted much more enthusiasm -- even to the extent of his making suggestions.

Out of that came the news that the pub has cctv -- if we can splice that feed into the edit, then we get a win on the editing. And he has an office which he's agreed that we can use.

So we're happy -- we've solved two of our three outstanding location issues.

The Turning Point

In which things change, decidedly for the better...

I mentioned that something very good happened on Monday.

We managed to nail down the script to the point at which it was possible to start storyboarding it, and at that point Julia, Baylea and Jaeeun have stepped up to the plate. As Julia is directing, this makes a lot of sense, and was a welcome respite at a time when I was in serious danger of being overwhelmed by work of one sort or another.

It's a similar situation to the Murder Mystery Evening last year, when Mark similarly took over, and I think it's a very healthy sign. If we can overcome the technical constraints, we should have a pretty good chance of finishing the project.

Move Over, Brad Pitt

A New Star Is Born...

(The main title was ironic, by the way -- as you'll see below...)

I didn't manage to blog yesterday, despite putting in a marathon 12 1/4 hour stint, that finally ended at 8.30 last night. Today won't be quite so long - at least, I hope it won't.

All things considered though, it was a great day.

On the downside, I made my screen debut in a filmed version of The Eager Student. I may have overdone the tired and washed out bit, so that it might have to be retitled The Knackered Old Student. :)

It was genuinely weird, seeing myself as others do. I have a mole on my neck just below my right ear, but I'm used to seeing it below my left. Odd little things like that make everything look a little surreal.

It was slightly unpleasant, if I'm honest. I have fairly low self-esteem which I manage to hide most of the time; maybe if I was used to it, had glammed up, etc, it wouldn't have been so bad...but hey. It's all about the experience.

What I found hardest was not looking at the camera, and having to try and do everything the same from take to take. It's much harder than it looks.

And the upside about yesterday?

Oh no, you don't get all that in one day. I'll post about that tomorrow...

The Eager Student

The results of our groups' storyboarding exercise...

So our mission, intrepid reader, was to take a one or two page script and to work out what camera shots were needed. Then we needed to calculate how many different set-up positions there were for the camera.

Then, to test out the robustness of our calculations, we had to actually shoot stills using a test actor (so we picked Baylea, who hates having her picture taken!).


By folding them into a celtx file, and putting one still per shot, we then have an idea of how many shots are required.

This theory is slightly compromised by needing more than one still per shot for zoom shots. And to be honest, technical glitches mean that some of the text was lost somewhere along the line...but it does show what can be done to flesh out a script into a storyboard using still photography.

Unfortunately, celtx doesn't seem to interact at all with any programs available to Blogger, so after an hour and a half of trying, you'll just have to take my word for it...

Night Thoughts

In which our intrepid hero wakes in the night with a feeling of impending doom...

Awake at 3am aware that I hadn't posted, and mentally started writing this blog post. I'm really, really questioning the wisdom of taking this course.

It's not simply that the work is alien to me and I have to absorb a huge amount, while all the while time is even at more of a premium; finances have forced me back to the BEH at a critical period and I'm worried that Film Studies is becoming such a time sink that it's adversely affecting my other subjects.

But on top of that I'm reliant on five other people whom I've not worked with before, and that's posing an even bigger challenge.

I haven't posted the storyboard yet as I promised on Monday -- I'll try and get to that tomorrow...or Friday, since I'll be on my way back from London tomorrow.

Just Another Mental Monday

Shot Lists, Scene Lists & Storyboards

I worked six hours today without a break, because my lunch break had to be sacrificed for another group meeting. This subject is a bigger time sink than the other three combined -- and I do not exaggerate. I came straight home after my last lecture, and aside from a half-hour dinner break I've worked ever since, and have had to cancel going out tonight.

Grumble over.

We had to work out where we going to shoot each shot in a simple script that we were given, and then take stills from each position. It took us about an hour and several false starts, but we eventually got our pictures. The simple story board that came out of that exercise will be up on here tomorrow.

And in the meeting, we managed to nail down an ending...score!