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

Casting

Introducing the male and female leads of Heads or Tails:

I've just realized that I never made good my promise (or was that a threat?) to introduce the cast of Heads or Tails. To avoid overwhelming you with new faces and names, I've kept it to the male and female leads. However, I'm awaiting b & w shots from them, so for the moment it's text only -- but as soon as I can, I'll update the blog post to show pictures.

First off, Ben Fuzi plays Ben, the main protagonist's boyfriend. Ben played a solo choir boy in a promo for BBC's Last Choir Standing, and is also interested in producing and directing his own work.

Sophie Pearce plays Hannah, the main protagonist. Sophie has appeared in the Phoenix Theatre's productions of both Guys n Dolls and The Tempest, as well as the intriguingly titled Cinderella's Interstellar Adventure, and has also performed as part of the Edinburgh Fringe. What was very noticeable was how much more accomplished they were as third year actors, versus the first years that we cast in Doorways. It just goes to show how much actors can develop in just two years of regular performing. In fact, Sophie managed the remarkable achievement of appearing in 3 of the 4 films, including two filmed the same weekend -- just how she managed that is unclear.

Looking Back At Filming Heads or Tails

After a three week break, I finally have the right frame of mind to look back at Four Eyes' production of the short film Heads or Tails.



Gulp; it's another of those moments when as a blogger, one looks at the date of the last post and thinks "Three weeks! It can't be!"



But on the plus side, these blogs are meant to be reflective, and one can't reflect without perspective, and for that one needs distance. Even the week after we finished filming, when our lecturer Mike asked me how filming went, I struggled to give him a considered answer.



I think I can do that now.



Three weeks ago we were ready for the off. Just twelve hours away from starting. Kate gave me a lift into the uni on the Friday morning, which were spent anxiously pacing up and down. I got there good and early, as did Jaeeun, who was frantically finishing off the storyboard.



The others were delayed due to their bus not running, which upped the tension still further, but we finally reached our opening location, the SU shop. With hindsight, we should have done some unofficial filming the day before, since we were all so anxious that we seemed to develop an extra set of thumbs instead of fingers. However, we were equally paranoid about running the battery down, so had decided against it. The cramped nature of the shop meant that some of the scenes were tricky, and when we finished it was more with a feeling of relief than actual satisfaction, but off we went to Jaeeun's rooms to film the next scene.



It was only when we reached the Hobgoblin that I began to relax into the process and even enjoy it. Darren --the landlord-- was a revelation as the bar manager and really got into the part.



The cafe scenes on the Monday went well for the most part. In fact the only problematic session was the lecture scene that had to be finished off during our last session on the Monday. By this time energy levels were low, shots needed to be made from specific angles to hide the fact that we had lost the audience we'd had shots during the early (thereby raising potential continuity problems) and everyone was feeling a little tired and stressed.



It was only after some days after my conversation with Mike that I realized that it was this difficult last session that had so jaundiced my view of the whole experience. Most of the time filming went much more easily than it did for Doorways because we knew what we were doing, but ending on a low left a poor impression of the whole process. It shows how endings --even ones in real life-- can affect the impression of what's gone before.

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.

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.

Miscellaneous Friday Post

Should I blog about Let The Right One In here --or elsewhere? Meanwhile, I've learned a few more things about filming this week, especially the role of producer and paperwork.

Last night's core lecture, a screening of the original Swedish version of Let the Right One In, throws up an interesting dilemma. Do I discuss it here? This is -after all-- a blog about film-making. But it was a core lecture, and I'm keeping a journal so I'll do that.

But here's a link to the trailer:


Meanwhile, I've learned a few more things about filming this week.

One of them is that the next time I fill in a PasC (Project as Completed) form, I need to do it on my own machine, rather than one of the uni ones. It's a summary that takes about half an hour to an hour to complete, with lots of detailed information. It's mandatory for completion. And I lost the damned thing, through saving it into the editing suite in error.

On the subject of paperwork which I'm now starting to link inextricably with film-making, the last couple of weeks have taught me a lot about the role of producer, about how hard it is to complete (seemingly-)tedious documentation when the cast and crew are in full creative flow. No wonder the great studio bosses were all complete bastards. But it's hard to say, "Hold on, let me tick this one off the list before you go onto the next shot."

Another learning was that we need to allow more time next time for each scene. And to road-test the next film as a screening.

Next time, I'll finally move onto scripts.

Watching Choices

We watched seven different vesrions of Choices, five of which kept the name. We changed our version's name to Doorways. Modesty aside, I thought that ours was about the third best, behind one called Exit, and Team Awesome's Choices. But there were learnings to come from all of them.

Yesterday we watched screenings of the seven different short films made using Abi Green's script Choices.

With stunning lack of originality, five of the films were called Choices; only two of the groups actually changed the title. The first group called theirs Exit, while we changed ours to Doorways.

We opened with Exit, which was one of the best films, largely because they dispensed with much of the admittedly clunky plot devices, and concentrated instead on exploring the emotional effects of finding oneself able to jaunt. (I've deliberately used [the pictured] Bester's term for teleportation, because it carries within it the emotional consequences) Exit was also very well edited, used a whole load of locations, and was comparatively under-acted compared to later offerings. Against that, the ending was a little murky -- I got the impression that there was some kind of emotional equilibrium achieved, but I'm not sure exactly what the girl had to do with it.

Almost as good was Team Awesome's (So modest!) Choices. The acting was better than most -- the killer apart-- although the default reliance on swearing rather weakened it. The denouement was well worked out and was probably the best and most positive outcome. My only criticism of that was it should simply have ended when Dan and Olivia appeared, rather than the 15 or 20 seconds of Greg afterwards, which was unnecessary, and rather weakened the effect.

There was also an intermittently funny comedy version which unfortunately misfired badly at times. Parts of it were hilarious, parts of it not so.

And then there was ours, which yes, did spend too long on the night scene but had superb end credits, both courtesy of Jaeeun, who did a brilliant job, and Teagan. No one commented on the music, but I thought ours worked well, and the actors generally managed not to overact or swear. There were valid comments that it was unclear whose voice the v/o belonged to.

There were three others that weren't so good, but I'd rather accentuate the positives, and pass over the others. What came out of it was that we all needed someone to take a look at the next film we make prior to screening, to ensure that we've explained plot points adequately, and that we all need to exert stronger control over the cast -- although I thought we worked ours fairly well.

Hopefully at some point we will be able to post links, so people outside the class can take a look.

You Should Be Dancing...

Christmas is coming, time to show one of the very best ads of the year, even though I can't quite put my finger on what it is that makes such a very good film - be it characterization, music, or just...fun.



It's Christmas, a time for (self-)indulgence. After all I've been faithfully linking to short student films all term -- now it's time for some me-time...and this is a short film...even if it's shorter than usual and has about a million times the budget of most of the films I've profiled this term.



Purely as an ad, the M&S campaign is brilliant, and shows what can be done if one has almost unlimited resources. But more than that, on a personal level I can't help but smile when this comes on the tv. And last night I tracked the ad down in it's entirety....





I'm still trying to work out why it's such a good ad. Part of it is the nostalgia that any track from the summer of 76 evokes, let alone a landmark disco track; part of it is the embedded conflict between Peter Kay's character and Twiggy. Part of it is the sheer fun that everyone seems to be having.

Writing For Films

Our latest lecture covered writing from a film-maker's perspective, which includes some themes that are unique, but also some that are universal. One in three ideas will be good, another (maybe) worth persevering with.

This morning our Film Making lecture covered writing for films. Although it was presented from a film-maker's perspective, there were themes that were universal.

From a film-maker's perspective, one in three scripts will be good, one will be so-so, and one will be not worth persevering with. That rule of thumb seems to apply across the board, so it's generally worth outlining three ideas simultaneously.

Very little in film is truly original, so there's no need to add pressure to oneself by looking for originality at the expense of characterization or other key elements. That's not to say that genuine innovation is bad, merely that it's not the be-all and end-all of scriptwriting. The key elements in filmic writing -certainly in Hollywood- are Character, Desire, Obstacle and Goal.

In terms of Character, we are given a character with whom we can identify. It may be that we are shown a Nice Guy.

What -or whom- does he Desire? It may that he is in love with the girl next door. The Obstacle may be the thug with whom she is going out.

The Goal will be how this inherent conflict is to be resolved. Either our hero gets the girl, or if he is beaten up by the thug, he may walk away from the girl, as the hero of Casablanca walks away from the girl, in the process achieving a new Goal.

One key text in this morning's lecture was James Webb Young's A Technique for Producing Ideas. The author is a former advertising executive hired by a major company to generate ideas, and he has some interesting points to make. I may well come back to this in more detail in a future blog, but Idea Generation is for a separate blog.

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...

Timekeeping

My first ever three-way blog post, covering a detailed analysis of my work patterns, including writing for publication, blogging & reviewing, reading...and my four university subjects.


This will be the first time that I've written a cross-blog post that covers all three blogs --my general one, my specifically SF blog, and this one- but since the exercise that it relates to covers all my activities as a writer, and a creative writing student, it's particularly appropriate. There won't be many occasions though, when my SF blog and this one will overlap.


I've often quoted the hours that I work in broad approximations, but starting on the 1st of November, I started to keep detailed records covering writing (for publication), blogging, reading and 'other,' (ie everything that doesn't fit in those boxes) and of course, my four uni subjects. I've been as honest as I can be, since it's really for my own records.


I'll post up the results at the end of the month when I've correlated them all, but the interim results at the mid-month mark are surprising...perhaps even shocking. But you're just gonna have to wait, aren't you?

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.

Last Year's Model

This is what you can do at our level...

As recommended by Megan, here's one of last year's films.


I particularly like the use of music, which really fits well -something that's really hard to do at student level, and the nightmarish way that the perspective keeps shifting; just who is the voyeur? Is it the Claudia? Stuart? The silhouetted man? Or is it each of us that watches it?

If the film has a weakness, it's that the sound on the crucial dialogue is of very poor quality, and that that whole section, when Claudia breaches the fourth wall, is completely out of the blue. They've clearly not heard of foreshadowing -- that, or they felt that it wasn't needed.

And on a lighter note, I recognized that archway through which Stuart ran...we were filming there ourselves ten days ago!

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.