A Good Kick Up The Backside...

...that is what I felt I got this year. Or a slap in the face. However you would like to phrase it.

I have found 2nd Year, uninspiring, frustrating and depressing. Not being one to hide my feelings I let a few of my tutors know this and was encouraged by the wonderful staff on the Film and TV Degree. I was also encouraged to attend the end of year degree show for the screening of the 3rd Year films.

Excellent advice.

They say you need to read in order to be able to write.

I suppose equally, you need to watch in order to make a film.

Watching the short films that were screened really inspired me. They made me think about next year and what I should be aiming for.

Before the screening even began someone came up and asked me, "Have you started writing your 3rd year film yet?"

Luckily I had, a few days ago. Purely because I have had such a difficult year I was panicking about next year's project and felt the need to be prepared.

The screening has cemented what I was already feeling pushed towards. To focus everything I've got on the character of my film.


It was not surprising that the overall winning film was brilliantly written and focused on...character.

Daffodils for Dad was a very clever film. It drew you into the world of the character and really made you believe you were there.

It was really good to stay and hear the judges critique of the films too. Almost every negative comment had to do with not enough development of character. All the judges were very interested in knowing the story of the person on screen.

On a side note, last night made me wish I could ring up Tom Gutteridge whenever I have a new film idea and pitch it to him directly. That would separate the sheep from the goats rather quickly. Sometimes you just want that guy who won't spare you any sympathy.

Give me brutal honesty over flattery any day.

The Finish Line...a few suggestions to the gods of modules

One PDP essay and an Advanced TV Studio assignment to go...and then finished for the year.

Second year of a three year degree almost over. That went quickly.

If I could give feedback to the Course Makers here are a few things I would say:

• The technical skills taught in Group Production/TV Studio should have been taught in the 1st year. They are very basic skills such as composition, using a camera, two and three point lighting etc., and students should have them drilled into them for the entire first year. I am quite sure there are some students who still have not even picked up a camera - mostly because they have not been forced to and are afraid to. This lessens the amount of people to choose from later when looking for good camera ops

• In group work, group numbers should be monitored. By that I mean, when the lecturers say only 6 people are allowed in one group, they need to check that is actually being observed and step in when the students have allowed too many people into the group. This will have usually occurred because they don't want a fellow student to lose the grade just because they couldn't be in a group. 

• The modules 'Group Production' and 'Advanced TV Studio' cross over too much and seem too similar. The work load is also too close together.

• Seminar groups were a mess this year. Nobody knew (and I am sure still does not know) which group they were in for which module

• There should be optional assignments for people who want to focus on specific roles. For my PDP I was told that I had missed opportunities for directing (which I agree with) when I could have taken on directing roles in university assignments. When there are only a few projects and they are compulsory group projects - how is everyone who wants to be a director meant to get the experience of being a director when there are lots of students who haven't had a go yet? Are we supposed to be dog-eat-dog and steal opportunities off other people just to be able to write a good PDP? I hope not. I really hope that is not the attitude of the university. If your role is director there is no way you will have been director on every assignment throughout the year. Should we be penalised for letting others have a go?

• 'Production Contexts' is not a good name

• Peer to peer marking. What are lecturers for?! Why do teachers have to take a whole year to do a PGCE and we are being asked to grade each other? If someone has a grudge against someone else you KNOW they will mark them down regardless of their work. 

Iowa - Group Production

Group Drama Deadline 29th April 2013

This week we have been shooting our group drama "Iowa." We started on Thursday in the miserable cold and rained, but finished the principal shooting yesterday in the sun. What a lovely day to finish on.

Iowa is at heart a romance. It is the first time I have ever been involved in filming something where, when the actors play the romantic scene, we all got goosebumps.

Good acting and good actor chemistry is essential. Connor Chambers and Manon Goetschel were fantastic to work with, never got grumpy about the cold and the waiting around and put all their energy into every performance.

Some observations from an outdoor shoot:

• Have every prop for every scene with you on each shooting day, even if it's not scheduled for that day. You may have to switch scenes around on the day. It's very annoying when you do and realise you left the prop at home

• Make sure you have extra gloves

• Use a boom mic. The sound is so much better.

• Having two separate people on headphones and boom makes it physically easier to move the camera and allows the two separate jobs to be focused on easier.

• Shot lists are a pain and a hassle. Write them. Even if it's just the very basic. It means that anyone can take over shooting a particular scene and cover all angles.

• If you can, have someone on continuity. It really is difficult to keep track of changes in scene and costume when you're already thinking about a million other different things. We didn't and there are a few errors

• Utilise your whole cast and crew - we all had roles but we all helped each other and one of our actors even doubled up as sound guy while he wasn't on camera. 

• Shoot in good weather when at all possible. The first two days were awful compared to the last and most of that was purely down to the cold making everyone grumpy and wanting to get home asap. A bit of sun slows everything down and makes the set a fun place to be. I would even suggest (unless it's a university deadline) not shooting in any season but summer. Unless the look of your film asks for winter, of course

• Locate yourselves near a friendly local cafe where you can buy hot drinks for cast and crew. Ours even threw in a plastic tray to boot!

• WATCH the rushes back EACH DAY. Especially if you don't have a big monitor everyone can see while shooting. Checking your shot scenes lets you know it's all there and tells you whether you should be re-shooting the next day or grabbing extra shots. You will kick yourself if you finish the whole shoot, get to the edit and realise you need an entire new scene

• If you have a small acting part that is emotional, such as a death scene or a crisis, use a real actor and a  good one. We got the jackpot with actors. Our small death scene was played by Jasmine Granton, who managed to be a huge presence in the few minutes she had to portray fear. Makes all the difference to the whole production.

Find The Sound Bites!

Audacious.me

A few weeks ago, I was asked to make a short 60 second video for a startup website called Audacious.

The site is focused around the bible. It has a bible reader and an article creator. The site was created so that it could work out what you wanted to know about the God or a particular area in the bible and then provide you with a whole host of resources to answer your questions.

When I first heard about the site it was described to me as ' a scrapbook.'

That's all it took for me to get the visual spark for the video. Who doesn't love sticking bits of paper into a diary? Or hiding letters between the leafs of books? There is something very romantic about it.



Audacious.me from Audacious on Vimeo.

Something Tactile

I have often noticed that the best videos about something, don't so much document what the something is, but make the something part of the video. The reason I signed up to Twitter was because I watched an animation telling me how ridiculous Twitter actually was as a concept. It was designed to make fun of the social network but it turned out to be a great advertisement. It got me hooked!

Car adverts. They are never about the cars. This one is about cake! Yes! I would love a skoda thank you!

That is why, instead of always showing the website with the articles online, I turned it into an actual physical letter. All the resources on the site are being pasted into an actual notebook. We like to feel paper under our fingers and we love the sound of pages turning. Which brings me to...

Hidden Sound Bites

It made me smile when someone came back to me after watching this video about 5 times and said, "Oh I just noticed the sound of..."

I took a lot of time making sure certain images had certain sound effects. That's what we live by. We don't just see something cool. We hear it. Sound is one of the most important agents to making video come alive.

What can you hear in the video?

Always Throw An Animal In (no animals were harmed in the making of this video)

The horses tied up in the nearby field were a gift for me. Despite the fact that they charged us (yes, horses do charge) I did feel they added to the piece. Animals make people smile. Hence the Andrex puppy. Let's face it there are very few humans you would want to cuddle if they were rolling around in a roll of toilet paper and chewing on it.

Creative License

I was, mercifully, given a LOT of creative freedom and license with this short video.

I am starting to notice that the more freedom I am given and the less the people who want the video made get involved in the creative process, the happier I am with the result and the more other people seem to like it too.

Lesson to be learned here?

Jay quote: "It is much easier to make a video about something when you actually like the something."

IP-UP-WeAllPP

I am currently sitting in my room, my little electric heater on full blast (which apparently costs me £1.74 a day) feeling miserable with the cold and editing my IPP showreel. 

The deadline for submission is looming and I need to get my act together. Firstly, know your enemy. Here are the IPP Module Handbook Learning Outcomes:

On successful completion of this module, the student will be able to demonstrate:

• a professional understanding of the production process
  
• a facility across a range of the concepts of production techniques
  
• an ability to evaluate personal skills and production knowledge in a
  reflexive manner
  
• Know, use and critically review the major production processes and
  technical applications of television and film production
  
• Initiate, develop and realise distinctive and creative work within television
  and film production
  
• Operate ethically in situations of varying complexity and predictability
  requiring the application of a wide range of techniques
  
• Demonstrate competency in the skills of equipment handling, image and
  sound acquisition, post-production and delivery requirements on a variety
  of media platforms.
  
• Can work productively in a team, showing abilities at different times to listen and contribute effectively within a production team.

I chose 'Director' as my specific role for the IPP Module. It is what I have always wanted to do and the longer I study the subject of filmmaking, the more I want to direct. 

My plan

The plan was to film one scene from a play and show that I can get a different performance of the same scene out of the actors. I wasn't going to focus on clever shots or elaborate sets. I was interested in the performance.

The Memory of Water is a play written by a woman whose name I cannot pronounce but it is perfect if you want to experiment with actors and especially if you are tired of an all male cast (which I am)

Filming these scenes was probably the least stress I've had in production and thinking back it's probably because 

a) the actors were very intuitive and easy to work with
b) they did not feel the need to exert their authority by constantly telling me how I should film.

Breath of fresh air.

The Production

We had a read-through rehearsal in the Stockton ARC cafe one evening and then about a week later we met at my house, trooped upstairs to my room and shot the scene, quietly and determinedly, in two different tones. It was a very simple establishing shot, single shot, single shot set up but it worked. I could have perhaps filmed a few cutaways but I didn't. I chose not to.

The Cut

What I am in the middle of looking at now are a couple of scenes, 2.15 minutes long, that create two totally different atmospheres. 

I'm looking at the learning outcomes and wondering whether I have met the criteria. 

Allow me to analyse:

"A professional understanding of the production process"

I cast actors. Planned a rehearsal. Found an appropriate location. Dressed the location. Arranged costumes. Decided on equipment and camera. Went as low budget as possible. This was all a process. The fact that I self-shot saved time, money and stress.

"A facility across a range of the concepts of production techniques"

If this sentence was in English perhaps I could answer it...

"An ability to evaluate personal skills and production knowledge in a

reflexive manner"

I am doing that now aren't I? I assume this is referring to the presentation we have to do after submitting our showreel. I know my skills and how deep my production knowledge goes. Reflecting on what I can and can't do is how I spend most of my life so it should be alright

"Know, use and critically review the major production processes and technical applications of television and film production"

I think we might be repeating ourselves here might we not, oh module handbook writer?

"Initiate, develop and realise distinctive and creative work within television and film production"

I believe I already have a certain style to my productions, which is distinctive. I think I could definitely develop the creativity of it more. In all fairness, I have picked a play to produce as a TV/Film medium which could be considered creative and distinct in itself. The character motivation I gave each actor was creative...in my humble opinion...

"Operate ethically in situations of varying complexity and predictability requiring the application of a wide range of techniques"

I suddenly realised that the wine could not actually be wine otherwise I would get my actor drunk without her consent which would have been unethical. So I changed wine into coke.

"Demonstrate competency in the skills of equipment handling, image and sound acquisition, post-production and delivery requirements on a variety of media platforms."

I framed the composition quite well, which I believe takes equipment handling. In that same vein of thought I used a tripod. I think I am a good editor and tend to edit on emotion and cut to the emphasis of the performance. I can export different formats. Is that what delivery requirements refers to?

"Can work productively in a team, showing abilities at different times to listen and contribute effectively within a production team."

This is where I may fall down since I did not have a cameraman, boom operator, producer etc., My team was my two actors, essentially. If we go on that basis then yes, I did work productively in a team. I listened to how they were responding to the script and contributed by guiding them when I felt they needed it. They in turn contributed to the production by questioning motivation and props and costume. Part of the reason I wanted these actors is because I know they add to the overall production.

That makes me feel better, I think I have covered as best I can

A Chocolate Company Predicted Skype...

Well my Production Contexts (terrible name) Essay is in much better shape than I thought it would be by now. I have read many books, countless articles and thought a lot about the existence of television in the last few weeks.

One of the online articles I had to read for this essay but couldn't really cite from boasted an amazing image:

How cool is that? A chocolate advertiser predicting Skype 91 years before its time!

On Thursday we got a nasty shock with an introductory lecture to Advanced TV Studio when we suddenly realised a whole extra heap of productions were being handed to us. Apparently we have to make a music video and a theatre production.

So as well as making a short film as a group for Group Production, we also have to plan and produce a few studio productions in different groups - at the same time.

I do think the Group Production and Advanced TV Studio modules are too similar and cancel themselves out a little bit.

Anyway.

I have finally got my head around the IPP module. For that I am directing one scene from a play in different ways. I am quite excited about that one now. I get to work with two great actresses and play around with performances too.

As well as this I am working on my 3-5 minute pitch for Making It In The Media 2. You may say, well that one is just a pitch - but - there is a good chance that is the short I will make in year 3 AND you have to put as much energy into the pitch as you would when directing it.

Looking Up

After my little outburst yesterday at the mumbo jumbo hooey that is Year 2 a little 'ping' in my inbox cheered me up and gave me hope.

Mark has left a comment on your post - "I got used to this around the time of 2nd year - keep at your lectures when in doubt and you'll get through fine"

Relief. A fellow sufferer. This comment gave me enough of a boost to sit up, despite the flu and take stock.

One of the assignments that has been looming over me is The Pitch.

In February we have to pitch our 3rd Year Project Idea. And we are assessed by Sir Tom Gutteridge (No, he is not a sir but he may as well be)

The trouble is, I feel I have been swayed too much by the Film and TV department's sudden hype around the big "T" (Transmedia) and making flashy, clever projects that link into websites and phones and pop up in your alarm clock while sending related spin-off stories to your wrist watch.

I liked the idea I pitched in 1st Year. I was passionate about it and I loved the story. Unfortunately not too many people like musicals these days.

I went to see the recent film production of Les Miserable at the IMAX cinema in Kingston over the weekend and I was astounded. They hadn't even bothered to disguise the musical as a film! It was a musical that had been filmed! And it worked! I kept looking round at the audience to find discontented figures quietly leaving - but no! They stayed. Hooked in fact. And at the end - they clapped!

It reminded me that I should make what I want to make. Not what everyone else thinks will work.

I mean, looking at Les Mis I wonder how Tom Hooper's pitch would have gone...

Tom: "I am planning to make Les Miserable the musical into a feature film, starring Hugh Jackman as Jean ValJean and filming all the performances live."

Producer: "Live?" *raises eyebrows*

Tom: "Yes, live."


Producer: "So what will happen during the scenes where the characters are singing their solos?"

Tom: "The camera will stay on them. Quite close mostly."

Producer: "The camera will stay on the character?" *nervous glance toward financier*

Tom: "Yes."


Producer: "And how will this musical film version differ from the live musical?"

*dramatic pause*

Tom: "Well...this will be a film." *rolls eyes*


When I think about the pitch I want to do, the one I did in first year, I get excited at the thought of making it into a film. When I think of it as simply a pitch I get cold feet. Same old same old, they've heard it before, nothing special...

All these assignments we do - are they to see how far fetched we can be and how much we can experiment - or are they to see us produce good work and train us in what we want to do in the first place?


The other module I have been so worried about I finally made a start on:

Production Contexts: The Essay

If anyone in power is reading this can I just say that (a) 'Production Contexts' is the most uninspiring name ever thought up and (b) Audience Behaviour, Participatory Culture, Fan Fiction and Transmedia are not topics that send anyone's mind racing beyond the boundaries of inspiration and excitement. Nor do they strengthen your skill as a storyteller or filmmaker.

In fact, analysing how an audience works is the grizzly monster that eat storytellers alive. Rework this module. For the sake of those to come. Please.

Despite my indifference I finally found an essay question and resources that may help me on the way to writing 2,500 words about the most uninteresting subject on the face of the planet.

At least I get to read a book by Sugata Mitra. Sugata Mitra is awesome.