AV13: Finished Film and Assessment

We screened our films at student organised event called AV13 [Audio/Visual 2013], where everyone on the course had to get involved in where they could to help run the night.
I was one of the presenters on the night, with two other students, whereby we introduced the films and were in charge of making sure the crowd knew what was happening at each stage. Although it was scripted we kept everything really light, after some advisement from Chris. It was an..... interesting and fun role and it was nice to have an event like this that showcased our work, and seeing everyone really get into it by clapping and dressing up etc.

This is our final film that was screened at the event:

The Making Of Ridley from SHU Film & Media Production on Vimeo.
[https://vimeo.com/82270334]

Reception of the film:

The film was well received and I got a few comments about it afterwards from my pees, everything else went fine. The only thing I would say as a negative of the film, is that seeing it on the big screen the bits towards the end where Dean is slowly separating himself from the character Ridley, which is portrayed over three shots (left, right, centre) it looks as though we shot it wrong because he has/doesn't have a blazer one when really it was planned and is supposed to portray the two sides of him, the one internal video blogger and the external craziness.

The Art & Science of Screenwriting with Susannah Part 5

This session was a mixture between Susannah finishing up on the fundamentals in the Narrative Matrix and Ron talking about the use of Sound in film.

We first looked at My Childhood by Bill Douglas
From this we considered what the scene was doing, in terms of its cinematic point. How it was necessary to understand what your dialogue is doing and interrogate it if it's not doing what it should be/is not as effective.

Dog Day Afternoon Directed by Sidney Lumet (The Julia Scene)
There is a certain texture, rhythm and musicality. Each character has their own distinctive voice, and it's hard to try and capture that as everyone starts writing how they speak which then means that every character sounds the same. When in reality that isn't true and would make for a very one dimensional film.

I liked this scene as we skipped between seeing how the conversation was going from both people perspectives and how the.... sort of wave of dialogue progressed as she found out about the situation, when he finally blows up at her and how he eventually put down the phone. It was all very smooth and felt musical, especially with the speed of how she was speaking. Ironically enough dialogue can also be about not saying anything, and we saw that when the man in prison, tried to jump into the conversation and the silence allowed his anger to build and bubble until her blew up then eventually gave up.

Dialogue ties in heavily with other points of the narrative matrix;
It helps with understanding the mood of a character and why they are a certain way.
Its essential in plot progression, as normally it's when a character finds something out that pushes the narrative forward.
Emotional tone: How the characters are saying what they are and what that could possibly signify about the situation and their feeling.
Dialogue is a good way of increasing/decreasing tension, with something as small as a witty one liner to one harsh word.

We next looked at this clip from Children of Men Directed by Alfonso Cuarón [0:44-End]

 An effective technique in dialogue, is when the scene is blocked and we see a characters facial reaction to hearing other characters talk about them. I really liked the idea of this as I think it's an interesting way to explore two sides to a story. For example, the unseen character who is being talked about; if they were to stay quite and listen, and act as if the moment never happens then there must be a some sort of truth to what they are saying. However if they were to burst in and interrupt and make it clear they heard every word then either they have something to hide of the person portraying them is being heavily inaccurate.
As well as all of this there is normally a clear or at time underlying theme in these situations, in this case the scene acts not only as a backstory but as a understanding of Faith vs Chance, which could be foreshadowing a major event.

Sue gave us a few writing exercises to do that would help enhance and consider how we write dialogue
-Write the opposite in terms of literal and tonal i.e: Saying something happily/sadly.
-Have the characters describe on another.
-Have a character rant and other be very quite and selective with their words, and then reverse this to see how it would change things when the roles have been reversed.
-Have a character describe a narrative event, kind of like in the Children of Men Clip above but more plainly in this scene we watched from Hunger Directed by Steve McQueen


Storytelling in an accountability way which allows the audience to step away from the visual element of story telling and step back into the imaginationary part, letting them do the work. I really liked the idea of this, and if not a monologue like shown in Hunger, then something like the visual storytelling of faith vs chance in Children of Men.
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The session was more interwoven between sound and dialogue but I have spilt it up here so everything could be grouped together.

We mostly spoken about sound and thought about it in consideration to how it effects your piece as a whole. The thing that stood out to me the most was when Ron said: Sound starts from the script and ends with the credits. Granted we all take sound for granted and think of it more as an after thought. Therefore when we have the script I am going to plot a separate one for sound, because I so far know that I want an orchestraic and theatre felt element to it. We also considered how sound is used to help us see the images the way we want the audience to. To me this meant thinking what each section made me feel and how I would portray that by use of sound, sort of like association between sounds and feelings.

One clip that we did look at for a way to consider how sound is used as an effective way of storytelling was Them by David Moreau and Xavier Palud. 
The scene we watched involved a mother and daughter driving down a deserted road at night when something jumps in front of the car making the mother crash into a tree and the car break down. The mother goes to fix it and our view from inside the car with her daughter is obstructed by the bonnet. The mother disappears and the daughter searches around the car calling her name to try and locate her. Eventually the response she gets is someone mockingly mimicking her, and so she runs in fear back to the car where she tries to call the police. Scared and alone with something out to get her.

This scene made me realise how important it is for sound association for the audience. It puts you off guard way when you are hearing something you cannot place. In this case it was a weird clicking sound. As well as this nature played a big role as the sound of the crickets etc seemed so surrounding and distracting that it was hard to focus on the overall silence beyond that. The repetition of the daughter calling to her mother, gave you the hope of expectancy in an eventual reply and again highlighted how alone the character was.
Finally in the car as she calls for help and the sound of the police station on hold is an uplifting happy go lucky beat which is an opposing sound to the thiller-esque situation. This then allowed sudden sounds to then produce a scared reaction in the audience making them jump.

The second main point to the sections we had on sound was to see it as a way to bring physicality to the screen.

Last Phase of Post Production

The picture cut was finalised on Wednesday, and even though we had bled into the sound design time I had no fear that we would still get everything done in time. Editor and I sat together and went through every clip that was in the sequence and I carefully debated each one in terms of meaning and character/story development and through this rigorous process we finally had a final cut in place. This process worked really well as it meant that there was a reason behind every cut and once we had finished there was no question about it being done.

We immediately handed the finished copy to the sound designer to get started on ASAP, I left him too it and came to check on his progress on Friday whereby I listened to what he had done and made sure everything synced up. As previously mentioned there was nothing really extravagant to add to the soundtrack of this piece as it would take away from the basic simplicity of the piece, but the sound designer still managed to come up with a few soundscapes that worked well for building the tension of the film throughout. I commented on placements for new sounds and how I wanted the sound adjusted and then left him to it again. We communicated again over the weekend with my checking his progress and making suggestive adjustment here and there before eventually signing off on the sound design and the project itself. It was necessary to get everything agreed on by Sunday because even though our deadline wasn't until Friday we needed it to be finished in preparation for the AV13 event on Wednesday.

Marketing Our Film

I started by doing a little bit of research to know what specific elements needed to be in a movie poster I simply searched "Movie Poster Conventions" to get a general outline, an example of some of the stuff I found.

 

I then went more specific and focused on movie posters based on the psychological thriller genre, looking at some of the films that I described as being similar to the film that we wanted to make. eg Black Swan, The Secret Window. These posters and many other had the characters face as a primary image either looking right at the camera or just off to the side at the off-screen space. I didn't think this conventional method would work well and so wanted to try a different approach. 

In the end I came up with two movie posters. One of which followed the more conventional Main Characters Face method, and the other I chose to do because I thought the image worked well as a subtle implication of the films underlining theme. Despite the similarity of the layouts that I found, I played around with different positions and chose what I thought worked better for the poster.

The conventional poster was inspired by Trance (2013)  [D: Danny Boyle]

Mine had slightly less of the picasso element but I really liked the technique of the Trance film poster and thought it would be fun to try and attempt to duplicate it. I thought the coloured sections denoted the characters fragmented state of mind and having the raw emotion of the character on the poster made you pay attention and want to understand his fury.

The second poster I personally preferred as I thought it was a much more simple and stylistic approach, especially in conjunction to the way the film itself is simple. The interlocking hands I though denoted the character trying to keep the two sides of himself together. 

The text was chosen because its the standard scriptwriting format and the date is the night of our AV13 screening night. The tagline was hard to conceive as I came up with a few that was either incredibly tacky or too long winded. I eventually decided on this one as it was the most simple and to the point which I think worked well.

I showed the two posters to a range of people to get a general consensus of which they thought was best and why as I know that my view was more than bias.
Making the poster was a simple enough process and not being the slightest bit proficient on Photoshop I chose to put it together on a much simpler software before exporting it as a high quality image to be printed and put up on show for the AV13 night.

The whole AV13 night made me think about how I would market my film if it were being shown in a film festival.
The first thought was something that had been mentioned in one of my sessions over the semester and that was: Who do you want to see your film/Who is your film for? What is your film? I went about answering that question and from there
For this short in particular I would aim to get it shown at Student focused film festivals such as
Exposures Film Festival (which sadly in taking a gap year) and Cinematique! whose ethos is to show student films in a comfortable environment without the worries of entry fees and major competition. It's a way to build up confidence and courage in student filmmakers and their films. It's hosted in June/July in London. In terms of who I want to see my film, I want it to be like minded individuals who I could then form a team with to collaborate whilst doing entry level jobs in the industry. This because the "What" of my film is simply a student film.

I felt that a brochure has too much space for marketing a short 5-7 film, and normally when you go to a festival there will be a programme with information about every film, and so it's about standing apart from that. Instead of a brochure I fashioned a leaflet/flyer that would market the film. I thought this would be more effective to an audience as it's less daunting and easy to hand out. Even if it was stuffed in a bag, you eventually take a brief look at it, as I as well as many others have surely done. And for all those that do discard it there are even more that will take it into account and remember it.

The leaflet still contained all of the necessary brochure information such as: Film synopsis, longer outline, production still and cast and crew details,

The above is a screengrab of my finished product. The one on the left is the front of the leaflet and the one on the right is the back. Being doubled sided meant that I could include all the information in a spacious and easy to read manor. It includes all the elements of a brochure with a few added elements such as contact information and searchable social media.

All this marketing research and making was important as once we leave and are still trying to build a reputable name for ourselves we need to understand how to do all of this in order to reach people.

My Directors Notebook

After speaking to my tutor we thought it would be better to show pictures of what is in my directors notebook for a few reasons. The first is that it is very thin, as we only had one day of production, and secondly as I would also be using it document my process as a director for the semester two major project, which we had already started doing.

I chose to use an A5 sized book because it's easy to carry around and whip out, I did originally want something A6 but after having a look I deemed it too small.

So the first page in my notebook was a breakdown of what every role needed to bring with them on our production day. I personally love lists as it's a lot easier for me to keep track of everything that's happening both individually and as a whole when I spoke to each crew member before the shoot. 

These pages were from our day of production, and though it started off very organised it ended up being a little haphazard, which is fine for me as I of course understand my own though process but as a body of work it would need a bit of annotation to make head or tail of it.
1. At the top under the heading: 1:30/1:45 refers to the time we would start filming, as that is when our actor was due to arrive
2. Breakdown of shots, in what order we intended to film, based on producer/cinematographer thoughts, especially because of the varying lighting changes if we had filmed chronologically. This way was decidedly more time efficient.
3. The crossed out numbers were me breaking down the shots that aligned with the morning and the evening, as well as noting how many additional close ups we had to do before we changed the lighting to move on to the evening shots. I noted which ones we purposely skipped/altered for when time was fast spent. This would be useful for the editor when it came to putting everything together. This continues at the top of the second page.
4. Jotted at the top 5:30-6:30 is the time that we had to be finished for as the actor needed to leave.
5. The reference to neighbours/house-mates was something that I asked the actor to add to the script as at the time of filming we could hear conversation and movement from the people above us, and it went on for quite some time. This then meant that if it proceeded we could make an excuse for it early on in the story.
6. The list of costumes I had to jot down because, we had no art director and secondly because towards the end I had planned on interlacing certain outfits to show the delusional state of the characters mind.
7.There were a number of things we had to adapt to because of the location change and scene 7 shot 22 was in reference to that. I wrote it down not only for our benefit but for the editor.

I didn't get to meet with the editor as often as I liked for various reasons on their part but when we did meet I kept a list of the suggestions I had made and changes that needed to be implemented so that I could confirm that they had been made when we were to meet up again.


This is all that was in my notebook. As stated when I researched into the content of a directors notebook everyone works very differently. As well as this I had the shot list and marked up script with me on the day and often made notes, or ticked things off on their as well.  For me personally a directors notebook is where you can keep track of certain thoughts during the shooting process that either help you keep organised or creatively expand on what you can have.

The Art & Science of Screenwriting with Susannah Part 4

In this session we focused on audio visual style of Opening Sequences we started off by looking at the following openings;

Gummo [Harmoney Korrine]: Set up the character and let us know some of his personality as well as his cultural background and how that could go on to influence the rest of the film. The music as well was very well chosen, in its jovial, the music reminded me of stereotypical hill-billies which worked well as a backdrop for the character set up. There was also something very sinister about the type of text they decided to use in the opening.




Paris Texas [Wim Wenders]: Was picturesque and intriguing through the unfolding scenes as it plagued the audience with questions about this silent character in the desert.

The Full Monty [Peter Cattaneo]: The opening to this film was used almost as a background story in order to show the stark contrast to then and now. The opening few scenes set up some of the themes that the film would be addressing such as Gender stereotypes and unemployment as well as setting up key characters and how they interact with one and other.

Se7evn [David Fincher]: The opening built up the anticipation, so that even if you didn't know anything about the film you already had a sense of foreboding about what was to come next, and once you have watched the film you realise that the opening has a lot of clues to the plot.


The Hunger [Tony Scott]: The very beginning was done like a music video, and the use of monkies and lab equipment was a form of foreshadowing to the plot of the film

Lost Highway [David Lynch]: Very simple whereby the titles whizzed towards us like an oncoming car and were the undeniable yellow or road paint.

Europa [Lars Von Treier]: The hypnotic voice over and the shot of a close up train track soothed your mind and was used a tool to deposit the audience into the film-scape.



These openings were a range of experimental and mainstream, each had a different technique to their styling, it was either to directly tell something to the audience or suggest/foreshadow the events of the film, or even to put the audience in the right frame of mind for the films genre. These clips allowed me to consider what I would do for the major project opening sequence. I had to be clear about what I wanted to show and understand what kind of viewing I would be giving the audience, and that it was okay to step out of a linear/related audio/visual tone and theme for the set up.

We then did an exercise to think of what opening sequence we would use for our major project. Some people already had something they had planned to do in mind, I just made mine up:

I wanted to have a shot of an oscillating music box placed on a stereotypical stage actresses' make up station. The music box would either be a Carousel  or a circus tent with the curtains opened up. As this music maker spun one way the titles would spin the other way. In terms of audio I wanted to either have the expected delicate music box sound or the circus theme or heavy metal (Inspired by the opening of Michael Haneke's Funny Games). Which ever sound I had would end with a woman's long and piercing scream (This is how the major project starts according to the first draft of the script). At this the music box would stop turning and so would the titles. An additional thought of showing this sequence with an overlayed mirror effect occurred to me, kind of like how clogs interlock and move in varying directions. This effect would symbolise the characters two minds/states. There's a strange beauty about the idea and imagery that I had that I really liked and it feels like a short story within a story which I guess in a way os what an opening sequence can be.

Lastly we looked at graphic matching and how it can be used to foreshadow and mirror we looked at some clips from Fish Tank [Andrea Arnold] Walkabout and Don't Look Now [Nick Roeg] and finally The Graduate [Mike Nichols] the montage/graphic matching scene followed the seduction one that we looked at in the last session.
My favourite was the Don't Look Now  [Nick Roeg] I thought that the graphic matches were very smooth and even caused a sense of unedgeness just watching it which was interesting.

Major Project Development

Today me and the producer (who is also the scriptwriter) met up today as he had recently written the first draft which I'd had a few days to look over. I talked about a ups, downs and possible developments of the script which he made a note of to consider when he did the second draft. As well as this, now that we had a framework we discussed how many actors and locations we would need and a where we could get them.

It was a very brief meeting but it felt good to have things moving already in motion for the semester two major project.

Now that the script for the major project has been outlines, I can explore where I want to go stylistically over the Christmas break. So far there was only one film that immediately jumped out at me at me that we could perhaps use as a base point, Fight Club. There of course other elements to consider such as what audio visual stylistic approach I want to take and how I want to dress the set and the actors. But as said I have a while now to debate an answer to these points. I will also be speaking to my cinematographer about what came to mind when he read the script so that we can come up with a good few films between us to critically analyse together. 

Other Creative Ideas

Something that I have always wanted to do is explore the use of dance in my film as both a visually stunning element as well as a way to explain the story in a completely oblivious way.
Although I am into Drama filmmaking over Documentary, I always want to try and add an experimental element in my films as I feel it gives me another dimension to play around with.

Films such as Anna Karenina D: Joe Wright and Black Swan D: Darren Aronofsky I think best construct elements of my personal view of filmmaking





I believe working on the film Ridley is a good starting point as elements of delusion is in play which allows me to explore a more experimental take on the film. We are also shooting a number of scenes in a theatre space which is fantastic because I love the idea of theatrics in films and the  stereotypical notions behind them.

Although I am not writing the script I think I can still have some influence on what is in it and it gives me some experience on what it would be like in the industry as a director as it's not always that the director is the writer, especially in TV.

Audio Visual 2013

At the end of the semester our finished films would be assessed during a group organised event called, we all joined and filled up roles of our preference. I chose to be one of the MCs on the night that would be responsible introducing the films and bringing people in from the bar/waiting area after intermissions.

I wasn't able to make the first two meetings, but I made sure that I asked someone to put my name down for the MC team and caught up on what was discussed by reading the minutes that were written up and posted on the facebook group that was set up to help us organise the event.

I also met up with Joe one of the other MC's to discuss what the plan was for the night in terms of introducing and gathering in people, and we decided that the nest thing was to keep it simple and divide our roles based around the three intermissions. e.g; First one person would introduce the first lot of films while another person was making sure people who needed to be in attendance were around and the final person would help oversee everything that way we got a balance of doing it all.

I managed to make it to the third meeting where we talked a bit more about what was left to do and what we needed to have done by specific dates such as posters, final cuts for the editors etc. Also Joe mentioned that the night was supposed to be scripted so me Joe and Katie discusses a time we could meet to script the night.

Professional Practice Research

Having Known what I've wanted to be for a few years now I have been slowly accumulating a range of websites and books on a range of subjects from finding entry level jobs and graduate schemes to making your own films. The professional practice study module has helped me to now slow down and formulate all that I have previously gathered and articulate them into a structured process. 

I'm normally the sort of person that knowns what's about to happen next in a film and is rarely ever shocked by a twist or the ending and so that being said the directors on my list of favourites are there because they have surprised me in a film or done something I thought was visually stunning. As beautiful framing is one my guilty pleasures. To name but a few;

Joe Wright: Pride and Prejudice which is one of my favourite books, but from this film it was the way in which he chose his shots. It was a mixture of careful consideration and spontaneity which I learnt from the directors commentary of the film. From there on I watched more of his films and became interested in his directing style and approach.

Martin Scorsese: The Departed is the film that made me really interested in his films and exploring how to shock the audience and have simultaneous storylines in one plot.

Alfonso Cuaron: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban had such a distinctive tone and colouring that set it apart from the other films in the series. Although Cuaron's approach to the adaptation was pretty on the nose other elements such as the soundtrack and camera movements and colour pallets and even acting almost made it seem like it was a work of it's own. Being a reader and a film student the thought of adapting novels is never far from my mind so Cuarons technique enabled me to see ways in which you can claim ownership as a visual art whilst still keeping close to the text.

My goal is to be a writer/director and I know there's a long way to go before I get there and so through all the above mention approaches looking at who I admire and why, what is out there when I have finished and what I want to do I can find the most suitable approach for me to get there.

Post Production

Jess had been ill recently so I wasn't we haven't been able to meet up in uni, so I went over to her house instead as she has been editing on her mac. I watched through the piece and commented on what I liked and didn't like as well as suggesting alternatives. At this point the film was around 8 minutes long so we talked about certain sections we could get ride of.

It was difficult as the script flows in such a precise way that every scene is relevant in the development of the character, it just so happens that our actor speaks quite slowly and so that meant there was more than there needed to be. Jess took notes on what I said but I also told her to do what she thought worked best for the edit of the film and we arranged to meet again on Tuesday as it had been agreed that she would hand the edit over to Owen on Tuesday to allow her as much of two weeks as was possible as it wasn't her fault thaht the production process got delayed.

Rough Cut Screening

Because we missed the first screening last week we came to this one with a rough edit. The feedback we received was pretty neutral and some very good constructive criticism was given. Something that Ron said about sound allowed me to have some clarity. As per my working process I normally have some sort of feeling or understanding of how I want a piece to sound but so far nothing had been coming to mind for this piece. Ron talked about the simplicity of the project and that he couldn't really think that any sound had to be added, and it occurred to me that silence is a sound and that maybe nothing was needed. This doesn't really leave a lot to Owen to do other than add foley sound here and there, but there will definitely be a lot more for him to work with in the final piece.

Post Production

Jess, our editor, had had the footage for a few days now and had made a very basic rough draft that I looked over. We talked about where to go from there and I addressed any issues she had with the script/takes etc.

The Art & Science of Screenwriting with Susannah Part 3

This week we analysed Scene and Narrative Structure

The first we looked at in the session was Andrew Thomas Huang’s; Solipsist a piece that I have come across a few times before that still never fails to captivate me. 

We looked at this experimental piece of filmmaking in order to understand that the three act structure to filmmaking can be applied almost anywhere. We talked about how the audience subconsciously bring is with them when they watch a move and with this in mind if we wanted to veer away from the structure to do it with caution, otherwise use it well.

We then tried to articulate our own films in terms of structure on graph, based on the highs, the lows and the plodding along of the plot. When plotted my was a big like a roller coaster; waves/hills going up and down. It was suggested to make it more “peaky” like a mountain so that events were more dramatic and the audience could differentiate between two sides on an enticing incident. Susannah also mentioned that due to the plot of my film I should try and take into consideration the triangle we were talking about last week whereby you as a Filmmaker play with the Character and Audience expectations.

We then had a look at the seduction scene in the movie The Graduate.

This showed how the director used the three act structure within one scene. The framing and shots were all very tidy and although it was filmed in a hotel room the space doesn’t feel small due to the angles the camera was placed in.

We talked a little about a shooting schedule and what to film on certain days. In this example we were discussing within the realms of a five day shoot.

Day1: Minor shots to get everyone warmed up as this is where the most mistakes are made that you learn from, the cast and crew get used to one another.

Day 2/3: Where you would film the major scenes and biggest chunks of acting as everyone in in their stride after getting through the first warm up day/s.

Day 4/5: Move on to smaller scale things, such as filming in a studio and doing effects as by now everyone can see the finish line and morale sags a little as people want to be finished

Finally we looked at a scene from the script “Magnolia” where we analysed how the dialogue played out between the two characters and how there was a sort of push and pull cat and mouse effect, as one character would say something and their demeanour would change depending on the response. We need to fully interrogate our scripts and always know the answer to any question thrown at it and know the reaction you want from people in terms of what they see and how they feel.

Research: Framing

Master Shots by Christopher Kenworthy

This book is great because it visually describes the types of camera movements and what effect they have on the viewer. Suspense is something that I want to create for the major project next year, and it's something that I'm unsure how to construct. Referring to a section on Anticipated Motion in Chapter 4: Suspense, Searching and Creeping.

This example will show me how to construct the scene to give my audience the feeling of tension. This book also has a number of other sections such as Fight Scenes, Revelations & Discoveries and Dialogue. It will make a good referral point for when I am unsure of how to shoot a specific element.

Production

Although it had been worked out that we could get all the filming done in a single day we still had a short time frame on the shoot day to get everything done as we were working within the actors availability.

I did learn a lot from this day of production for example when the actor asked what part we were doing next I would refer to it by a scene number forgetting that he didn't have a shot, and no such number appeared on his script. Something to remember for the next script, add the shot numbers perhaps with the scene headings so that communication flowed a lot easier between cast and crew.
The marked up script was surprisingly more useful than I thought it would be. Although I understood the mechanics of why we would need it, actually putting it into practice worked even better as a tool for understanding.

There were a number of problems that we had along the way which I think I managed to solve and remain calm and level headed throughout.
The first problem was with the camera, where wave/ripples were appearing on the screen. Unsure of if this was a screen issue or an actual technical problem I told Chris to record a little then transport the clip to a computer to see if it was still there.
It was and while Chris was trying to figure out what was wrong I gave him a time limit to find and fix the problem other wise we would have to borrow a camera from Tengs friend who lived around the corner. I assure you this sounds a lot harsher than it was, but I felt it was important not to dwell on the problem for too long especially within the time constraints that we had. Luckily Chris figured out the problem and we were soon able to start filming. Luckily as we picked up the problem whilst we were setting up we didn't eat in to more than 10 minutes of film time where the actor ran through the script as a warm up in the mean time.

The second problem was that the people upstairs were making noise during filming and after checking with Owen he said that it did come through on the marantz. To solve this I asked Josh (The actor) to pause mid way through his lines and look up and say "Sorry, housemates/Neighbours" just in case the noise persisted during a later point in filming.

Unfortunately towards the end things got a little rushed as the actor was pushed for time, I decided to prioritise and get all the main shots done and only get in a couple of the close ups.

Something that I had to be aware of was costume changes. Even though the character only had three I had to try and account for what he wore when, as we didn't have an art director to keep track. Also the space we were working in was very crammed and it was hard to keep track of my papers

In some ways wish that we required a few more days in order for me to use what I learnt and improve with each new attempt, but overall I think we were all happy to get started after the delay and it worked out to be a successful day of filming.

Side Note: Before the actor arrived and as everyone was setting up the space me and Chris went to the corner shop and bought some snacks and drinks for the lot of us including the actor. After we finished shooting the day scenes and was setting up lighting for the night scenes the actor got a little break and was grateful for a few things to much on as he went over the next scenes.
[Mentioning in reference to a website I quoted earlier in the blog about having food on set for cast and crew http://jensmajorproject.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/directing-research.html]

The Art & Science of Screenwriting with Susannah Part 2

Continuing from where we left off in last weeks session we looked at the Audio/Visual style of the Narrative Matrix.
The elements that this includes is; DOP, Sound, Art Department (Costume/Make-up)

CRAP                                   MEDIOCRE                               AWESOME  |_________________________|_________________________|

Using the above scale we talked about what would put us in the "Crap" region or the "Awesome" region in terms of the Script and Teamwork as well as the flaws of a "Genius" Filmmaker

Script: Preparation, and by this keep writing until it's perfect

Teamwork: Prepare by briefing the department heads on what you want from them//the film. Keeping everyone on the same level of understanding. Communication.

We also talked about how every filmmaker thinks they're a genius (No objections there) but how there is a difference between being selfish and closed minded to the suggestions of the departments and ultimately trying to make the film alone and only using the people around you as tools and just being confident and making decisions carefully.

We then analysed to films. Wings of Desire and City of Angles, whereby the latter was based on the former.

We watched the opening of both of these films and then pointed out the differences in the audio/visual style of each of them.
For example in WOD the wings themselves are present in the opening to allow us to immediately associate him with being an angel. In COA on the other hand, we can guess that he is an angle, no such obviousness is required, whether that be because the audience can predict as much from the films title or by knowing and understanding the rules of angles. Another interesting point in terms of costume that I picked up on is how they wear black, which is normally associated with darkness/death/the grim reaper.

The purpose of this exercise was to show what different connotations you can get from two similar films with different audio visual agendas based on audience.

We then watched two clips, one is taken from Alejandro Jodorowsky's The Holy Mountain [The Conquest of Mexico scene] and the second from Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan [The Omaha Beach scene]

By looking at these two different scenes we then talked about the different forms of chaos and the psychology within the. What effect they can have on the audience.
For example in Saving Private Ryan, despite all the craziness going on around them, the audience have an anchor, which is Tom Hanks. By reverting back to him and his reaction the audience don't feel so lost amongst the chaos. As well as this the way that the audio is muted puts us in the same mind scape as the character we are anchored to.
Jodorosky's method is going from silent calm to enraged bloody violence out of the blue, which will shock the audience, and force them to keep it in their mind, voluntarily or otherwise.
We then thought of our own films and renvisioned a scene based on the Jodoroswky or Spielberg method.

The last few points we looked at in the session:
Using one good shot to help elevate the entire film
Can you loose the dialogue and tell it visually?

Even though I'm not writing the script for the major project, when I get a look at what Tom has written I will be able to go over it with these points in mind and whilst working with the cinematographer I can determine the best ways to portray certain events.

Production Set Back

Today we were supposed to film our piece, but there was a problem with the Location that we had in mind to use and we couldn't find anywhere else to use that last minute, so we had to abandon all hopes of filming, the next time that our actor was available to film was Wednesday afternoon so we rescheduled with him for then and went about finding a new location.

The downside to this was that obviously that we couldn't film and wouldn't have anything to show for the review session the following week (As we would be filming while it was on). I wouldn't necessarily say that there was an upside but we there was definitely a learning curve in that we should have double checked the room that we booked.

For next time I would just have to make sure that everyone was on point for the following Wednesday when we try again at shooting.... and that we have a solid location.

The Art & Science of Screenwriting with Susannah

Using Philip Parkers book as a point of focus we talked about the elements of screenwriting, namely inspecting The Narrative Matrix which he talks about in Chapter 2 of the book

(pg.13)

Susannah's version was slightly different but she said that she had adapted it slightly to include Tone and indicated that the style section should be in relation to audio/visual. 

These are the elemenst that make up a script/ film and the white all around in the creative space.

We're planning to study a few of these elements from week to week, this week we looked at Form and Tone.

Form is how we view the film in a then and now sense. Different kinds of Form include Linear, Associational, Episodic and Circular the final two mainly being linked to television but can also apply to film. Episodic is how each episode is different but has underlying overall link. Most crime shows are like this, they have a major crime that needs to be solved but each episode they have a separate case on top. Film wise what came to mind for me was Valentines Day(2010), New Years Eve(2011), Love Actually(2003) having a six degrees of separation type movie is one of the many things on my long list of types of movies that I would like to make.

I mentioned that I was confused with the definition of Tone so we went through some of the parameters.

     TRAGIC                                            DRAMATIC                                   COMEDIC

          

Death & Disaster                                      Bit Of Both                                   Life & Success

Comedy has little bits of tragedy in it between so that it can bring you down before bringing you back up

Tragedy needs to have comic elements punctuated within it
Drama  is dramatic because it needs to incorporate the other two factors as well.

________________________________________________________________________________

For the second part of the session we looked at Miracle Fish by Australian Director Luke Doolan.

I personally found the film predictable, having picked up on certain shots and just by the vibe of the film but I am rarely ever surprised by movies. I did think it was very good and would class it under the "Dramatic" Tone point. It wasn't comedic but it had a lot of soft elements that would I would put under that category.

Then using information taken and adapted from the UK Film Council: Introduction to Screenwriting workshop we placed this short film and our own within two criterias

Major Themes: The desire for justice, The pursuit of love, morality of individuals, desire for order, pursuit of pleasure, fear of death, fear of the unknown, desire for validation.
Story Types: The romance, the unrecognised virture, fatal flaw, the debt that must be repaid, the spider and the fly, the gift taken away, the quest, the rites of passage, The wanderer, The character that cannot be put down

It was clear that although some fit within the boundaries others did not..... such as the film for my major project; Ridley It's not a bad thing that it didn't fit but just a point of thought we were asked to consider: If it didn't fit, why, what would you change to make it fit? Would it work?

Lastly we looked at the relationship between the Filmmaker, the Character and the Audience

                                                                Filmmaker



                                     Character                                           Audience

We have to make the audience feel like they have the upper hand are in complete light about the situation with the director over the character. It is then the filmmakers job to the change expectations by revealing an unforeseen event that then puts the Audience and the Character one the same page, a peg below the director.

Research: Directing a Crew

Although I have directed a few student projects this time around would be different as it will only be me "in charge" whereas before even though we were all supposed to have definitive roles we all just jumped in and helped with every aspect. I researched a number of texts on the best way to direct a crew to try and prepare me for the week of production.
[http://www.lavideofilmmaker.com/filmmaking/how-to-direct.html]

Key sections for me was How to Direct the Cinematographer and How to Direct the Music composer. There was nothing on directing the editor but here is the section on How to direct: general principles 

1. Know exactly what you want. This needs a lot of preparation!2. Be polite and low-key with everyone — it is worth repeating.3. Know every aspect of the project inside out: camerawork, design, overall tone — absolutely everything.4. Directors are leaders. Believe it or not, actors and crew members LOVE directors who have a clear vision and communicate it clearly. They want to be directed, so do your homework and direct!

One good thing is that I had the chance to explore each role over the past three years and so I at least understood the restrictions and capabilities of certain aspects which at least meant I wasn't then going to ask for something that was impossible to achieve. Something that I do struggle with is articulating my words, and so more often than not end up making vague hand gestures and expecting people to catch on to my self playing game of charades. I need to know what I want inside and out and find a way to express it in words easily. 

I also found and looked at [http://nofilmschool.com/2013/07/directing-tips-seth-hymes/]
key texts I took from this article....Basic Personality AwarenessEven though this example is talking about a hired crew and being able to fire people and we don't have that luxury it was still applicable in how it talked about knowing and appealing to the individual personalities of your crew members and working with it.

Beware of the demands you will be placing on people 
Making sure everyone is doing their own specific role and not crossing over into areas that aren't their speciality, and if so questioning why that is happening
Quite often, simply maintaining an upbeat attitude and acknowledging your team for doing a great job is half the battle
You shouldn't forget the crew are people and not tools, if you over work the they won't look forward to working with you again and so show them some appreciation.

The Power of Good Food
The point is in the title, providing things fr people to eat will keep them motivated and focused, and will also call for a shortened break if everything they need is on shoot.

These tips all made for good starting points but I do know that each individual has their own technique and style of directing and I known mine is based around certain aspects of my personality whereby I am more than happy for everyone to give their opinion and if it doesn't take away from anything then I am more than happy to allow it, but at the same I have a clear directive and end point. In some ways I have already been directing the crew throughout the pre production stage and as long as everything stays on that same level of communication I can't see there being any real problem.

Group Meeting (04/11/13) (06/11/13)

(04/11/13)
We met again briefly to make sure that everyone booked out what they needed to for the following week of filming, then later on I met the actor Josh and did a little practice run through of the script with him.

(06/11/13)
Today was just me and Tom and we went over a few final details for the following week making sure everything was booked and the actor had the final script etc.

Documentary Filmmaker Jeanie Finlay

Jeanie Finaly is a documentary filmmaker who has made films such a The Great Hip Hop Hoax, Goth Cruise and Sound It Out amongst other.

I had done some research on her prior to her talk and watched The Great Hip Hop Hoax and enjoyed her style and the sort of topics she chose to make movies from.

In this session we talked not only about specifically making documentaries but aspects of filmmaking that apply across the board no matter what genre you were interested in.

The three top commissioning questions
-Who Are You? What have you made and why you have made it
-What Is It? Say in the most eloquent of words what the film itself is about
-Can We Afford It? How much do you want and can you account for it.

She talked about learning to talk about your film (Description happens to be one of the things that I am not very good at) her tips were to not over complicate the brief and have a specific sentence/tagline that you can personally use as a synopsis.

The importance of good sound over visuals
Get it finished and move on
And lastly that the word "No" can sometimes just mean "Not Yet"

I think that overall it was good being able to talk to someone who is out there making films and she gave me a lot to think about that I hadn't even considered past the "Finished Film" point. Such as where it would be shown and even getting the money to finance making your films once you leave the system and just how long it can take to get made.

Final Documentation

Script

The Making Of Ridley 2 Final

Web Link: [http://www.scribd.com/doc/183973813/The-Making-Of-Ridley-2-Final]

Marked Up Script

The Making Of Ridley Marked Up Script Final

Web Link [http://www.scribd.com/doc/183973815/The-Making-Of-Ridley-Marked-Up-Script-Final]

Shot List 

Shot List for The Making Of Ridley Final Draft
Web Link [http://www.scribd.com/doc/183973814/Shot-List-for-The-Making-Of-Ridley-Final-Draft]

Note: Chris (Slater) drew the storyboard where I just confirmed what he had done or clarified anything he didn't understand from the Shot list. I wrote the script and comprised the shot list.

Audition Tape

Tom already had a person in mind to play the lead role, and he was available but he still tried to find someone else who would be interested. Sadly the other alternative said they were no longer available so I had my first "Audition" with Josh.

                

It would have been good to have a few more people to audition as after I had finished I realised a few places that I could majorly improve on. I did use some of the tips that Rachel had suggested during the working with actors session but not really anything from Film Directing Fundamentals which I was looking forward to putting into practice. Either way it was my first time auditioning somebody and there was definitely a lot I learnt and a lot left to be learnt that I can put into practice when it comes to auditioning for the major project.

Films that use video blogging

Easy A


Protagonist Olive Penderghast is using a video blog as a form of storytelling unlike my next example it is a key element to the plot as using this technique allows for a multi linear structure as she tells a linear unfolding story of the past in the present. Olive uses her video blog as a confessional whereas our character starts by using it as an "Acting exercise" but as things develop it turns into a confessional/personal understanding format. 


Avatar [1:00- 1:107]



This trailer only shows a brief insight into how a video diary is used in this film [No other more explanatory clips could be found] Through Jake Sully's video blog we can see the progression of his personal character, as he goes from being a man on a mission to a man questioning his reality and beliefs, and even though we can see this through the acting, the video diaries feel much more powerful as he shows vulnerability and compassion that he can allow no one else to see. This is something that we want to create in the piece, our character has less time for the change to take place, but we hope to show the change in character and change back in the time we have.

Video diaries are very uncomplicated as it is a single shot to make the audience relate with the storyteller. This method is bias as the audience have no one else to form the same sort of connection with, the claustrophobic sense will be useful in our piece as it mirrors that of the characters, who is almost "cooped up" within a "Frame" allowing his delusions to consume him.

Chapter 10: Working With Actors

I have already look at one section of Proferes' book Film Directing Fundamentals: See Your Film Before Shooting, but now I will be analysing a section that we briefly looked at in session; Working With Actors.

If the directors main concern is with the camera, the actors can be made to feel like orphans. It is much wiser to make them feel like they are the centre of attention - that the director needs them ans is counting on them. (page 130) This a point that I am fully aware of but just because that is the case I still need to be constantly reminded of this in my head. Beforehand when I have worked with actors, it was a little different as they were friends with someone in the crew, and so they wouldn't necessarily always feel out of place amongst the crew. In this case they won't be familiar with anyone and so I have to be the one to make sure that they are comfortable and are completely clued into what's happening and assure and direct their acting whilst directing the crew. This can get very complicated and I know that itf I'm not careful I may get to focused on one aspect. I need to be able to balance all of my responsibilities.

I really enjoyed 'The Kazan Method' in the paragraph headed Speak to the Character; where it talked about how director Elia Kazan a Greek-American Director who worked with the likes of Natalie Wood and Marlon Brando. Kazan would address the actors as their characters for example in between certain scenes/shots, he would pull them aside and talk to them separately. Saying things like "Are you going to let her walk all over you like that?" to one of the actors and "If this guy had any respect for you...." to the other. (page 128). I think this method is a fantastic and fun way to get actors engaging with their roles and hopefully allow them to perform to the best of their abilities with every take.

Lastly the section entitled What are you looking for? The following casting consideration to keep in mind and it's subheadings; Is the actor right for the part?, The actors attention to simple reality, Can you work with the actor? (page 126) Were very useful as it allowed me to know what to bare in mind while I went through the casting stages aside from whether or not they can act. Don't get me wrong an actors acting capability is a fundamental element, but as I've come to realise through this chapter, not the only element to consider.

*Tutorial with Neil

Neil Tom and I discussed where we were currently at with the pre production work for the semester one brief. I had also previously sent Neil the Shot List and Script that we had, then we talked about the Major Project as Neil hadn't seen the pitch and only had the treatment to go off as a starting point.
After we had talked it through he gave us some pointers that would help with character and story development as well as topics we could look at for research...

Look at characters that occupy space with face, such as Mads Mikkelson who plays the titular character on Hannibal (2013)

Location for theatre space in Sheffield
-Lantern Theatre and Merlin Theatre (No pictures available)

I like the look of the Lantern Theatre because it look Moulin Rouge theatrical and it is small enough that we could fill seats with a small audience without it looking forced, also a smaller space feels more claustrophobic and daunting. It's just a matter of whether we can use the space and going on a recee up there.


Lastly Neil suggested looking at actors who embody their characters.... how they get into the role and their methods.
Jack Nicholson for example switches his charcter on and off with the camera whereas

Daniel Day Lewis will be charcter from the moment he signs on to the point the director yells That's a rap. 

By then exploring these methods it will help us paint a better picture of how Ridley may behave.

Malcom McDowell on A Clockwork Orange is also an interesting character to explore as there is something about his face before you even know that he is a bad guy that puts you off.

Group Meeting (29/10/13)

We went over the script and discussed specific elements with each role.

Producer: When is the actor/all of us free? Is there a space booked?

Camera: What camera would you be using and is it available? What types of lighting do we need?

Sound: What equipment that he would need on the day and anything additional that he would need to create.
Editor: Days that she was free to edit (As she is working on two projects) and in turn the days that I would want to see progress by.

Art Direction: As we do not have one we talked about the props taht we would need and who could bring in what to make the space look more realistic
Unfortunately we then later found out that the camera that the cinematographer wanted to use wasn't available so we postponed filmming to the second week prescribed.

Tutorial With Annie

The tutorial took place during the last week of the pre production stage.

I had left my Directors Notebook at home but I had explained the concept to Annie
-A list of props (As we didn't have an art director)
-A time frame and the aim of how much I wanted shot
-A clear lunch break and restarting time
-A page for things that may have needed to change in comparison to what the shot list/storyboard says.

I didn't have a chance to catch up with Chris for him to hand over the Storyboard but they had been completed.

What I did have to show was the marked up script and the shotlist.

The Making Of Ridley Marked Up Script.docx
Web Link: [http://www.scribd.com/doc/183377772/The-Making-Of-Ridley-Marked-Up-Script-docx]

Shot List for The Making Of Ridley.docx

Web Link: [http://www.scribd.com/doc/183377764/Shot-List-for-The-Making-Of-Ridley-docx]

So far everything was on track for filming next week.

Stylistic Development

I found it hard to search for films that used video blogging aside from the ones that I had personally watched (Avatar and Easy A ), and so I turned to the best resource hub, YouTube. I looked at a range of video blogs on YouTube, from fiction to non fiction some of which I have heard about and some of which I used to watch; The Lizzie Bennet Diaries and LonelyGirl15 to JacksGap and AlexDay as 











Visual Style
I wanted the shots to be really tight, only having a few scenes of looking at the space as a whole through an establishing shot, as you can see from the vlog clips above they a much wider framing than what I have in mind.

Post Production Visual Style

The biggest difference between the blogs that I have researched on YouTube and the one that I want to create is that the character isn't 'Editing' his entries, it is as it is. I chose to use this method because although I could have had a lot more flexibility in being able to play with the characters deteriorating sense of reality I felt that it would have seem to 'Staged' if the audience was then led to this analysis through the cutting.

Audio Style
This was hard to define as the piece is so simple and as it is essentially a conversation between character and audience, albeit a one sided conversation I felt that adding to much non dietetic sound would take away from the realistic I wanted to portray. As well as that from what I have seen from a range of the video blogs that I have watched music isn't really a key element, it's used as an intro or outro, if anything sound effects are used to emphasise points or as a form of humour.


Throughout this process I had this one image in my head to sort of help me keep focus...

For me this picture says that the character is both suspicious and paranoid, he holds these feeling in but he is very close to breaking point. He almost has a nervous calm about him which makes you feel uneasy. This is some of the characteristics I feel needs to be embodied by the character and what I am going to try and push for during the filming process