Preparation for Weston Rock

At first look producing the group project “Weston rock” seemed a daunting prospect. Andy explained the function of roles within the project and the division of work. Although we were each given primary roles that we are ultimately responsible for its still expected that we each try out different roles on the project.

Shooting “Weston Rock” is a massive undertaking and it felt like we had bitten off more than we could chew but Andy then went on to explain the processes behind shooting a film. As a group and individually we spent the morning working on what is known as a shot list. This is a break down of the script scene by scene detailing each shot with a thumbnail sketch. In the absence of a story board it’s a great way to get an idea of how a shot will look and what will be required of cast and crew, its also a good way of seeing if a shot will actually work at all.

The second process is known as a shooting schedule. The scenes are grouped together into shoots. They’re grouped together to make shooting as efficient as possible although that can mean that scenes are not shot in sequence.

Murder Mystery Reveal

I was given the quicktime files for Murder Mystery with instructions to "make something!". The material was clapper boarded and so in the absence of a shot list I used that to sequence the film into a rough cut. Once the rough cut was done I was then able to begin the process of tweaking and cutting and tightening the video, shaping it into a finished piece. I was amazed just how much I could cut from the piece without affecting the storyline, although It is a Murder Mystery so suggestion is a big part of the piece. I had great fun using effects creatively especially on the dream sequence where I effected both using desaturation on the video and delay on the audio in an attempt to give the clip the feeling of a day dream flashback. I also colour treated the whole film to give it a more sinister feel. This make the outside scenes appear quite stark and the indoor scenes monotone which I think adds a feel of oppression to the film. This was a great exercise for me especially in light of my role as editor for our major project.

Shooting Interviews

This week we worked with some of the first year drama students filming mock interviews in preparation for filming our main group project "Weston rock". The idea behind these interviews was to give us time working with the cameras and also to give us the opportunity to experience directing actors. I feel this was a good 1st attempt but on reflection and after watching some other professionally shot interviews on the BBC I believe mine would definately have benefited from more medium close up shots to gauge reaction and show the emotion of the subjects more clearly.

Creating characters

We were asked to create three characters detailing their lives as thoroughly as possible, their background, beliefs, morals,likes and dislikes and any facts significant to their character.The more details included the easier it is to come up with plotlines and stories for the character. I imagined a time (present day) and place (Harlesden) then created three characters, Jonah Kwame (a youth worker), Dean Sperry (offender) and PC Andrew Blythe. The latter character is the one the group suggested would be the most interesting character and have the most scope for story lines and character development.

This is PC Blythes character

53 year old Andrew owns his own taxidermy shop in North London. He’s also a Special Constable working from the Brixton branch in South London. Andrew Can not stand South London. He lives with his wife Jane in Islington. They have a 17 year old son Paul who’s at boarding school. Andrew drinks heavily, his marriage is loveless and his wife is having an affair with another man. Andrew loves the police force. It gives him a sense of control that he lacks in other areas of his life. He’s against drugs and has a zero tolerance policy on crime. Andrew is not a racist but does see things very black and white and have stereo typical beliefs around race and sexuality.

Things he would and wouldn’t do

He would bent the truth if he felt it would get a conviction.
He wouldn’t talk about his feelings. He wouldn’t hand over his wallet if he was being mugged. He wouldn’t sunbathe. He would have a savings account

Facts about Andrew

As a child his father beat him. The RAF refused him entry because of his poor eye sight. He was bought up on an estate in Wiltshire. He once took part in a sponsored walk from john o’ groats to lands end in aid of the RSPCA. He has no sense of smell.

Shot plan for animation "wrong trousers"

A shot plan is just that, a plan of the shots in each scene. Having a shot plan greatly improves work flow not only for the production crew, camera crew and Sound and lighting crew but also in post production. I was editing a short film about a murder and although it was clapper boarded I did have some difficulty with scene order that would have been aided by a shot plan.

This page shows the plan of the scene in which Richee's belt does itself up.Click on the image to enlarge.

I have found that shot plans really helped to bring the film together in my mind before we began the shooting.Shot plans are a very important part of the proccess in pre-production.

The Writers Room

Writing Scripts for film and TV can seem daunting to the beginner, Luckily though websites like the BBC writers room are here to help. The writers room has lots of information available to help aspiring script writers from the submissions checklist which also deals with the subject of format to the writing tips section which deals with things like style guides.

How a script is formatted could make the difference between a script ending up in the bin or being considered by the writers room for commission. Script format is a more or less a universal standard and simply put is the way in which a script is laid out. I think script format is a great tool as it leaves less room for ambiguity and allows communication in a recognised standard.

Style guides are also a valuable tool in script writing. Style guides show how genre conventions can guide a script. They give an insight into what a production company would expect from a script writer who’s writing for a particular genre like drama, horror, thriller or comedy. These tools are the basic bread and butter for the novice writer.

If like me your looking for help with script writing you’ll find this site invaluable. Go check it out!!

http//www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom

Trailer Mashup

For this mash up I took two trailers from different genres, comedy and drama, and edited them together to create an action style trailer using the constraints of that genre. Things like choppy edits, cheesy box wipes as seen in the A-team and heavy rock music lend them self well to the genre.

The right trousers

Pixilation is a stop motion technique where live actors are used as a frame-by-frame subject in an animated film, by repeatedly posing while one or more frame is taken and changing pose slightly before the next frame or frames. The actor becomes a kind of living stop motion puppet. This technique is often used as a way to blend live actors with animated ones in a film, such as in The Secret Adventures Of Tom Thumb by the Bolex Brothers, which used the technique to compelling and eerie effect (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixilation).

We watched some short films to get some idea of how Pixilation works, one of these, “Neighbours” is an award-winning 1952 short film by Scottish-Canadian filmmaker Norman McLaren.

"I was inspired to make Neighbours by a stay of almost a year in the People's Republic of China. Although I only saw the beginnings of Mao's revolution, my faith in human nature was reinvigorated by it. Then I came back to Quebec and the Korean War began. I decided to make a really strong film about anti-militarism and against war." — Norman McLaren

I found the film surprised me, I was expecting something for children and because of that was genuinly shocked by the violence in it. The pixilated technique lent itself well to the fight scenes as the jarred movement created by the stop motion filming created a feeling of agression and a sense of discomfort.

McLaren Based his film on a single idea, we used this method in the creation of our own pixilated video animation although it has to be said our idea was not exactly politically motivated, ours was based on the idea that our clothes are not inanimate objects but alive!! Really though it was just an excuse for Richee to get half naked!?

For the sound I wanted to mimic the jagged random feel of the peice. Glitch a dance music sub-genre lends itself well to this form of animation. I created the sounds using reason 3.5