Trick of the Dark- shoot 6

Here it is boys and girls, the last one, the final TOTD shoot, and what a scene to end on, the romance scene between Scott and Susie. I was originally referring to it as a sex scene but this really is over selling it, its basically just two people in a sleeping bag kissing and the rest is implied. The scene itself was once again in the cave and the reason I was shooting this scene was to give Alex more of a motive to attack Scott in the final cave scene because without this Alex is angry but its unclear what tipped him over and to be honest from an audience perspective it seems a little bit much, but with the addition of this and with Alex seeing the romance of the two and getting jealous he has a reason to react as his does when you couple it with them being trapped and tensions rising from this.

There weren't many production still taken on this day so Im using this rather nice one of Brad I took in the cave as a place holder as this is technically him producing on set. Back to the shoot, I went in with my shotlist but not storyboards, this was a conscious decision because my storyboards weren't made with the cave space we had in mind and as such they were less accurate to what I wanted to shoot than my shotlist was. With this in mind we reconstructed the set from the shoot we did in the cave just over a week ago and then set up an LED to mimic the cave opening as we did in previous scenes. We then got the actors in position and I levelled with them that this was my first time shooting anything even remotely intimate, to which they said it was a first for them too. This was actually useful because it meant there was no expectation from anyone to get this right first time an it relieved some of the awkward nature of the scene. In terms of coverage, we shot quite a few angles and distances in a relatively short amount of time, from memory we shot two wides, a selection of two shots as well as some over-shoulders before we started working on some shots that included movement. In terms of direction I do feel I was awkward at first, but after a few takes and seeing how comfortable the two actors were with each other I got into my stride a little bit and creativity from everyone on set started to flow, I got a bit more adventurous with shots and got much more comfortable with what I was asking the actors to do.

 Andrew was on sound for this scene and we found that the best pace for him to do this was on the ledge of a rock shelf in the cave which he climbed up to and planted himself in, this was ideal as it meant he was directly above the actors a could get the best sound without interfering with the shot because he was always above the camera but close enough that the sound was crisp and clear. In terms of camera work, for about half we were on a tripod and then the other Liam shot handheld due to limited space, however, this did not affect the shot in any way, he was always shooting from a stable position so the shots were in no way shaky beyond use or anything on that line. We also shot a few of the shots on the slider which proved to be a bit of a pain because the tension on it had been turned up before we picked the equipment up so the slider track was a little stiff which meant at times there was undesired camera shake as a result, but all in all this didn't prove too problematic, it just meant we had to do extra takes.

Like I say, I haven't received the production stills as of yet so here's a spider web in the cave with dew on which I liked the look of. After getting the shots from my shotlist we deliberated for a while about whether this was the time to call it a wrap or not, after a while we decided there were shots we could get which added to the other scenes, namely the scene where Alex is decided his action as he fixates on the knife while they sleep near him. So we got a shot of Susie turning over in the night to cuddle Scott and we also got a regular static of the two sleeping together for coverage, these were easy basic shots but I do feel they will prove useful so in this sense it was worth me and Liam talking over whether we should shoot more because we had the time and resources so it made sense to try and make more in case we needed it, it is a bonus in a way that the shots turned out so nice. However, all things must end, this shoot and the film in general are no different and with that it was wrapped and we set off back to the car and ultimately to the edit suite to make this film happen. It had certainly been a journey to shoot this film and it proved to be both challenging and fun at most points along the way. I will leave with this parting image of the crew walking along Blackhall beach one last time to return the equipment.

I would like to also just say that I had an amazing crew on this and I don't know if we could have pulled it off if we didn't have such a skilled and hard working group all pulling in the same direction, while this was my film because I wrote and directed it, it is just as much theirs because they made it happen as much if not more than I did and I am grateful for each of them. If the shoot went as well as I feel it did, we will have a good film on our hands and everyone should be proud of what we made.

Trick of the Dark- Shoot 5

Shoot 5 for TOTD, the final stretch is at hand for sure, this was the penultimate shoot and it marks the first instance of me taking advantage of the week long extension that I was given. So basically these scenes were in the original script in order to A break up the cave so the audiences weren't bored of one location and to B flesh out a relationship between Scott and his wife so that she didn't appear as some random woman at the end of the film who is visiting him in a hospital. In the original script this was their purpose, although in the reimagining of the film which Andrew created from the footage we had up to this point instead their purpose was slightly different though basically the same, it was still to establish a relationship between the two but in this case it was more vital as there was no prior mention or view of her before now so it was vital to get at least one scene of her to establish that she is not random. And while she is there to break up the cave, this is no longer as vital because the hospital footage was now also being used to do this.

So we had three scenes to shoot, though having seen the edit and had conversations with Andrew about what we needed to add to the film in terms of scenes, it seems that not all of them will be used but I wanted to shoot them all the same because it is much better to have them and not need them than it is to need them and not have them. That being said, the first scene was an early scene where Rachael is put through to Scott's answering machine and leaves a message saying that she hasn't heard from him all day and that they should 'go out or something'. This scene is important because it is an establishment of their relationship but also it highlights that something is awry. The scene itself was shot in my back garden and originally was where you see the above shot, however, we had to move to a different part of the garden.

So the reason we moved is because the area we were using would not stay lit, the security light we were using was on a timer and no amount of movement we tried would keep it on long enough, however, the side light which lights this shot would stay on indefinitely, no idea why but it worked. The reason that we had to use the security lights was that we had not gotten the LEDs that we had booked out, I did not pick up the equipment so as such cannot comment on why this happened but it meant we had to adapt and as such we decided to use the security light and the fading light of the day, luckily my garden is south facing so gets light for as long as possible. So we shot this scene with the lighting available and got a three shot coverage on Alicia of a Mid, a Wide and a Close-up, in doing this it meant we had ample coverage that would make a scene, which in all honesty would only be a few seconds when edited together. We then found that there may be a lip syncing issue so we started to shoot a reverse of the mid shot from behind Alicia as a safety shot in case we needed to cut away from her mouth to sync the sound.

This is where we encountered a potentially shoot ending issue, the camera died. Now this was a big issue as we had no spare battery and no charger. So, to adapt to this I borrowed my Dads DSLR, which coincidentally is the same model of camera we used to shoot Inheritance and Alice so the crew and myself were familiar with its operation, the only issue being the footage quality suffered because of the camera change and as such the footage we did take may be unusable due to the change, but again it was better to have it and not need it than to not have it and need it. This was the first scene done and as such we moved into the kitchen to get a second scene which in the original script adds tension because she is now more frantically trying to get through to Scott, this was a single short line over the phone which we got in one freehand Mid shot because there was no need for more coverage on this. Then we got the final of the intended scenes at a bus stop just outside my house. The reason for the location was that it was Rachael on the phone to the doctor and we assume from the location and the conversation that she is rushing to see him, in hindsight this makes little to no sense because when she sees him in the hospital it is clearly day and at the point of shooting it was very dark so it wouldn't match, in addition to this, there probably wouldn't be buses running at that time. All that being said, Liam did a beautiful shot where he started on the bus stop light and then came down to see Alicia on the phone, this was really nicely shot and the visuals in the scene looked great, though the issue remains that the footage in all likelihood wont match the black magic footage but we will have to wait and see.

Final Major Project- Learners Agreement Evaluation

Now that the module is drawing to a close I would like to take this opportunity to evaluate my performance in comparison to my learners agreement that I wrote at the beginning, this is a chance to look at my performance in the module next to my expectations for the module and to see how I did compared to how I wanted to, I will spend the remainder of this post looking at specific statements and then looking at how they turned out in practise, so without further ado, here we go.

So first up is the fact that I would be serving the role of director and producer on Trick of the Dark, the former of which I found a lot easier than the second role. Directing I found easier as this was the creative element, I found it relatively easy to shot list and storyboard the film as well as to script it, although there were some script changes to be made which did put us back a bit and I must say that while I did have a clear visual vision for the film in my head, I didn't do enough practise with the shots to make sure I could achieve the visuals I wanted, so to evaluate my role as director on this film I feel that I did well and had clear creative ideas I just should have done more practise shoots but this is on me and in all honesty, we did practise some of the more complex scenes so it isn't a massive problem. My role as a producer was somewhat less successful if I am being honest, though perhaps in hindsight I did do what I needed to do it just took longer than it should, particularly I am referring to casting, because this took a while it meant that everything else got pushed back (some of which shouldn't have but I talk about that in my evaluation). The next part of this I talked about was dealing with isolation and mental health, a subject which is very much in the public eye with the current 'campaign against loneliness' campaign that is going out. I feel the film holds true to the messages I set out to convey but they are perhaps not as clear as I thought they would be. Although I certainly achieved my goal of not covering them in a tasteless or offensive way, so in this sense I was successful. The final aspect I focused on was my cave, as you have seen in my research and blog, this is something we took great time in trying to nail. In the end we ended up going to a cave that we had visited many times but it was the way we shot it that made it in the end, mixing the studio and cave together proved to be very successful and I feel really sold the trapped feel of the film.

Just as there was not a lot to be said in my original learning agreement, there is not a great deal to be said about the production now, this is because what I do have to say is in my evaluation and there wasn't an awful lot I can say about how I performed in terms of sticking to my agreement. That being said I will evaluate how I feel I did in comparison to the small amount which I did write in my agreement. So firstly I was right about what my primary role on this film was, and that was paperwork, I was mainly responsible for the production logs which I did on the majority of shoots and I believe proved useful when it came to the edit. I also did a few risk assessments when I was required and got the actor's contracts sorted to upload to the VLE as proof of them signing to appear in the film. Beyond this I had little to do in terms of grade-able work, I tried to make myself as useful on set as possible and at times was like a runner, which I have no issue with as I enjoy physical work. The other role I assumed on set was on set photographer, we had a distinct lack of production stills in the early shoots so I took some and handed them over to Lee to edit so they could be used for promotional purposes for the uni and for the film. I was also correct in my prediction that this film would be of academic use in terms of working in a larger crew as it was interesting to see the division of work between departments and to find my place in all of that.

First off with regards to My Name is John, my role did become more clear and defined and I was as expected, there to give guidance for the most part and I also played my part in preparing the actors and getting them into character ready for the camera for when Sarah wanted to start shooting, this was ideal for me as it was what my minor project was centred around so I was going at this with a degree of expertise on the matter. I will say that I feel the film benefitted from the work I did do on characters, however, due to the tight schedule of the film and the fact that I was on holiday in Sweden during the bulk of filming (because it took place during reading week) I do feel that my input on this film was severely cut down because of this schedule of filming while I wasn't able to help out. However, there is no one to blame for this, it is just unfortunate that we only had John for such a small amount of time with John Archer (the lead) so on the whole I feel I contributed well but lament over unfortunate timing that I sadly couldn't give more.

I would now like to evaluate my performance on each of the three learning outcomes.

LO1

New creative practises is a strange phrase I feel and I am unsure exactly of what it means in terms of what that looks like within the module, however, I experimented with new sound techniques in using the radio mics and a boom mic, I also did ADR for the first time as well as attempting to build a cave (which is guess is experimentation) we also were using a new camera so there was a whole new list of challenges that we solved with smaller cameras but would have to be sorted again with a new, heavier camera, one that comes to mind is the fact we could no longer use the steadicam.

LO2

Demonstrate a critical and contextual understanding, I feel there is no issue with this as my film deals with mental health issues and family issues around isolation, so I feel I have covered this.

LO3

There have been a great many problems on Trick of the Dark which I feel have been resolved so I feel I have this covered with no problem. I have also conducted a great deal of independent research so I again feel I have no issue in covering this learning objective.

To quote a famous poem "The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry", this plan was in almost no way at all followed, the location and casting of the film took a long time and as such held everything up, I tried to do what I could up to this point but the film was inevitably delayed due to my inability to cast and my indecision in terms of what cave to use for the film. Now that that has been said, I feel that the issues we had in following this plan ultimately were ironed out or perhaps more accurately dealt with in that we still managed to make the film and make it well, perhaps not as well as we could have and unfortunately I did leave the crew with a lot to do but to go through this and still come out with a good film is somewhat commendable I feel and while I have been hard on myself for not following the action plan, I have given reason as to why and shown that I still managed to make the film despite the issues that came.

A lot of what I have glossed over will be covered more in my evaluation but that was a useful exercise I feel in gauging how I have done in terms of following what I set out to do.

Trick of the Dark- ADR

Having seen the things we shot edited and put onto a timeline with the sound synced up I realised two things, firstly that Andrew Rogers is one hell of an editor, completely of his own creativity he managed to put together a good film with some fragmented scenes and sections that didn't seem to have any way to fit together. And secondly, that we needed some ADR (truth be told, I knew I needed this anyway as at the very least we needed to record the closing line) but having listened to some of the cave scenes back there is other voices in the background of the scene from some people on the other side of the cave wall. That being said we had to get the three actors in to do some dubbing of the scenes, which I must admit was my first attempt at this but Ryan (who is on sound and in charge of the mix) has done it before so I was blessed in this sense to have his expertise.

The set up went something like this: A mic with guard (in picture) opposite the TV that was used to play the scenes we were dubbing, this is to help the actors in getting the feel for the emotion and also to help them with syncing their lines to their mouths. From the Tv there is a HDMI to the laptop which is where the playback actually comes from. Then the headphones that Stephen has on come from the back of the TV so that he can hear the original audio. Then the mic is hooked up to an audio mixer which in turn is hooked up to a mac which is running audacity to record the audio. A very simple but incredibly effective set up. So first up for dubbing once we were set up was Stephen, he had to sync his words with the footage of him getting up and trying to talk Alex out of his decision. This took a few play throughs of the clip before Stephen was comfortable to go for a take and then the first few takes were a little off, though this is to be expected and we had plenty of time, so we simply talked about whether he was a little fast or slow and went from there, after a few more attempts he had it nailed and Ryan said it sounded fine on his end so we did another take for coverage and then moved on. Next up was Gary, this was an easier thing to dub as there was no visuals to match up to, I just needed him to say "fuck you" a few times and in a few different ways.

So to do this with Gary I simply showed him the original clip so he could get the spacing right between lines and then we rolled one big take of him saying it multiple times and in different way so that we had a variety to choose form in the edit when we put it into the film. There was a line a bit later on with Gary that also needed dubbing and required a lip sync, however, we were accidentally very lucky with this in that in the scene he lifts his arm so we can't actually see his mouth and as such the only thing he had to do was the pacing so that it fit into the shot, matching the exact words wasn't an issue; I'd like to say I got him to raise his arm for this reason but it is not at all the case, we just caught a break on this one. It is worth mentioning at this point that Stephen also had more lip syncing to do but it went largely the same as his first attempt so there is not need in me going into great detail over this. Next up in the booth (not really a booth but it sounds cool to say) was Stephanie, she had the most to do in terms of scenes.

The first thing she had to do was the bit where she gets out of the sleeping bag and shouts at Alex. This was a fairly difficult piece because firstly there was the timing to nail of her getting out and giving the line as she does, this took a few attempts in itself but Stephanie was great in her defence and had the timing nailed fairly quickly, the next issue was the lip syncing, this was made easier by the fact that the timing was now spot on, the only issue was getting the pronunciation the same so that the mouth movements match up, in fairness, once the timing is the same it will match visually only the keenest of eyes will spot something wrong I feel, though that being said I am something of a perfectionist and wanted to nail it as closely as possible to the original delivery, needless to say after a few attempts more she had it and we did some coverage takes and moved on to the next bit. This was Stephanie saying that Alex made himself the bad guy. Much like Gary's delivery of the "fuck you's" we didn't see her in the scene and so the emphasis was on the emotion and range of delivery so we had plenty to work with creatively. So we did the line a few times and she gave a range and then I asked her to swap the line over so it went from "you did this yourself, you made yourself the bad guy" to "you made yourself the bad guy, you did this to yourself" after recording the second one a few times I felt I prefer the second but this may change when we get to the edit the point was we had the option if we need or wanted to mix the lines up a bit. The final piece of ADR that needed doing was the ending line of the film "it's amazing what you can create with a little imagination". In all honesty once Stephanie got past the fact that she said it fairly fast originally, she was fine with the dubbing and picked it up quickly, I think it may have been because she was determined to get it done quickly as she hated looking at her performance in that scene, though she did an excellent job both in the original scene and in the dubbing. It is worth me just saying that the actors were a godsend on this and were great at dubbing considering we all had limited experience between us.

Trick of the Dark- Shoot 4

Finally, we got to film in the cave, cutting it late but we had a productive day ahead of us to turn the shoot around, so whats the worst thing that can happen when you have a heavy schedule and a lot to shoot in one day. Boom, you have to spend 2 hours waiting for the tide to go out so that you can get to your set. This was because the tide time I looked at must have been simply wrong because me and Liam both looked at the tide times and planned accordingly. This wasn't a huge disaster though as it gave me time to go over what I wanted to shoot with Liam as well as to have a dinner break before we started shooting so we could do a solid chunk of filming with little interruption. We also took the opportunity to do some stone skimming but I don't think its worth me going into detail on that one.

Eventually I had enough of sitting around waiting for the tide and decided instead to wade through what was left with the equipment, probably not wise but with Ryan's assistance, we got the equipment through without a drop of water on it. So then when we got the actors across after us we set about shooting the first scene on my list which was the first scene in the cave within the film. This was a relatively simple task as we had already gotten the close-ups and mids on Stephen and Stephanie in the studio shoot so I asked Brad to shoot these on Gary to make up for him not being on the original shoot while Liam shot the wide for coverage. This was a relatively simple process which meant that we cleared this scene relatively quickly and got good coverage. The advantage of the two camera set up too was that it freed up Liam to be a little more creative and add movement in his shots a little to make the film that little bit more filmic.

 The second scene we shot was again another which we had coverage from the studio so this meant for the first half we had the same set up as the previous scene that we shot that I have just spoken about, until it lead to the second half of the scene when the two men stand up and confront each other. When it got to this bit we had Brad on one camera hand held and Liam on another so that we could follow them up and get close-ups on the two with relative ease. It is worth mentioning at this point that I was up on a ledge to fill in for the role of the Man in the scene and I threw down a banana to mark the point where the lunch box hits the floor and breaks the tension. This is why in the picture below I am triumphantly holding a script and a banana. This scene played out quite well as they were never sure when exactly I was going to throw it down and as such we get what are I feel authentic reactions to the action that plays out.

Then the final and most challenging part of the day was to film the final cave scene where we see the altercation with the knife between Alex and Scott. The issue with this was that we practised the spinning dark knight shot, however as we changed to a better lit location than originally planned, we sacrificed the space we previously had, this then meant that we could no longer do the rotating motion, after deliberating with Liam about how we still do this and do a similar motion we decided that with a backwards tracking shot on Gary and a forward on Stephen we would be fine and still create the mood we were looking for, I feel in all honesty that this worked and particularly I though Gary did a great job of getting on board and pacing the scene in a manner that reflected the anger and built up tension in the scene. After this we got cutaways and a shot of Stephanie getting out of the sleeping bag followed by a shot that dips in and out of focus that reflects Scott going unconscious, this shot took a few attempts but by the final one I feel Liam really nailed it and got an excellent shot.

This was all but the end of the shoot but briefly while we were debating if we were done, Liam suggested we quickly shoot a mini night scene whereby Alex is inspecting the knife and contemplating the actions he will do in the next scene, we agreed this was a good idea to shoot it and so we quickly got some basic shots and cutaways and packed up on what was a very productive although tiring shoot day.

Trick of the Dark- Shoot 3

Film shoot three, here it is, the other part of the ending, this is Scott in the hospital after waking up from the fight with Alex in the cave, this is when it is revealed that all was not as it seemed within the film and it is shown what the film was actually saying and how it revolves around the fact that the whole film represents an internal battle. So a lot of the film revolves on this scene but given that it on the whole was a very easy shoot and went smoothly but I will get to that because to begin with it started as all my shoots and potential shoots seem to, with someone dropping out, this time it was my actress who was going to play the wife, Rachael, so in this scenario I got very stressed if I am honest, with so little time left to shoot the film it felt somewhat like the whole thing was crumbling around me, as I do often in situations like this when things get overwhelming I spoke to my friend Alicia who then said she'd head straight to my set to fill the role, this was actually a huge weight off my mind and I know she has done acting previously so it wasn't as if I was getting an actress who would have no idea what she is doing, I don't know if she knows how much of a weight off of me it was but she definitely did me a solid. So now that the cast was consolidated and sorted the next thing was to finish off our hospital set, now disclaimer, I did not make the set and don't want to take credit for it, I told Andrew and Liam what I wanted from the set and then went to work and came back later the other day to a fantastic set that was almost exactly as I imagined it. So I then had to buy some hospital props and to move the bed around so that it was easier to get the shots we needed.

So now everything is ready we only had to shoot the scene now, we started with Roger's shots as the doctor, so we started on the set and shot his interactions with Scott in the scene from a series of singles on each character before doing a kind of two shot on the two of them so that we had some good coverage of them that edits together well. The next thing after getting this interaction was to get the part where Roger goes into the scene. We did this with a tracking shot along the corridor as he approaches the doorway. The way we did this was by putting a box on a wheelchair, securing this, and then taping the camera to the box and pushing this behind Roger as he walks toward the door, in this to make the scene more dynamic and authentic, we had Andrew push a cage for transporting boxes the other way so he was an extra that hopefully makes the scene look much more realistic and it makes the scene feel less like its in a uni and more like a hospital. In these scenes as well I feel I have really done well in making them vibrant to contrast the darkness of the cave, it was always my intent to have the hospital very light and bright to contrast the cave to highlight the light at the end of the tunnel and how he is out of the darkness in his life, I feel we really captured this and it will show in the final film.

So after shooting all of  Roger's shots we had a lunch break and settled expenses with Roger before we started shooting the section with Stephen and Alicia. A small issue arose in this scene that in the original script they had a child together and this meant there was no dialogue needed because there would be an unspoken moment whereby Stephen picks up his son and just watches TV with him, however, there was neither the need nor the possibility of having a child which meant me, the crew and cast had to think of a whether we needed to add a line in to the scene between Scott and his wife, after spit balling a few ideas we eventually came to the conclusion that it should remain unspoken and she should just grab his hand in support and sort of wait until he is ready to talk about it. So from here we did basically the same again, we got basic shot coverage as that was all that we required really, and then from here the only thing left to do was to get a pull-out shot as Scott watched the TV to match up with a pull-in on the screen as the weight of what he is seeing hits home, as we didn't have the slider, Liam had to do this by shortening one tripod leg and pulling the tripod back while tilting the other way to make a pull out which after a few attempts it worked fine and we got the exact shot I was looking for. Having gotten that shot we didn't get the reverse of the TV but this can be done anytime as we only need a monitor and a white wall so we will get this as a pick up at a later date. So we wrapped up shooting after getting some cutaways and such and now we can say we have the final scene shot and ready to be put into a sequence.

Trick of the Dark- Shoot 2

When a filming day starts off with an actor telling you he can't shoot because he has to got to A&E, it doesn't particularly set you off to a good start, however, there are two reactions, find a solution or cancel the shoot, I chose the former. My solution to not being able to shoot a three person scene because one of my actors was in hospital? Easy, just shoot two of them instead. The plan for the day was to shoot close-ups in the studio to mimic the look of the cave interior so that we could minimize the amount that needed shooting in the real cave. So my intent from the beginning was to shoot each character on a mid and close-up so the obvious solution was to simply shoot one less character. It is worth saying at this point that there weren't any production stills taken by me so this will be a fairly short post as I have no images to talk about. So I will say this for starters, the actors where fantastic, I was a little worried because I had worked with neither of them before and hadn't seen a great deal of their work. However any worry I had quickly left me as I saw that these were genuinely great on screen together, this is definitely attributed to their real life friendship and the fact that they do theater together often. This made everything run much smoother as they instantly had an a chemistry that will definitely be beneficial for the film. It would have been nice for Gary to have been there to see how he fits into that equation given that he doesn't have previous with them, this fact could play out quite nicely on screen as he may feel excluded from the three which will definitely be better for him in terms of living the character. Logistically, the filming itself was done with two cameras, I had one on a tripod which me and Liam set up and framed and then there was another camera that Liam was using handheld to shoot the other character, this meant that the shoot itself went quickly and efficiently once we had everything set up, I wills say that the shoot took a lot longer than it should have but that is because it took us a while to get sound equipment up and running as we were using radio mics which was very beneficial because they captured some great sound, however, they did take a while for us to work out. In terms of content,k we shot the close-ups and mids for 3 scenes this coupled with our first shoot we have a third of the film at best, unfortunately we didn't have Gary which limited what we could get, but this was definitely progress we can build upon.

Trick of the Dark- Light Contrasts

Throughout Trick of the Dark, one thing I want to play on and to manipulate is contrast, this is both visually and in thematically. So firstly I would like to talk about visual contrasts; my biggest influence for my biggest visual contrast is Lord of the Rings, specifically the final film in the trilogy, the Return of the King. In the final act of this film we see exactly the visual contrast I want to emulate in my own work.

So in the first shot we see Frodo in a dark setting and everything is bleak and dark, there is some light in the scene as the orange glow surrounds his face but this is to reflect the fire and lava surrounding him which only serves to highlight his desperate situation. This is how I want to portray Scott in the cave, though minus the fire I want the visuals to reflect his desperation and the bleak outlook on his life that I am presenting. In Trick of the Dark there will be a much darker surrounding around Scott and the people in the cave as they are trapped and it is a dark scenario, the only light in these scenes will be from the hole in the cave that represents the light that is out of reach for them, just like their hope and how it is distant and faint. The other light in the scene will be from a lantern, which in all honesty isn't really symbolic, it is simply a practical light to explain why the characters are lit the way they are. Almost straight from that scene in Lord of the Rings they cut to a brightly lit room which is filled with lots of whites and creams and we see Frodo on the mend from his exertions on Mount Doom.

The above screenshot shows the wide shot from this scene and though it isn't the first shot in this scene, it does highlight my point pretty well. We can now see Frodo and the fellowship whom we have gotten used to wearing dark colours now all wearing mostly white or certainly brighter colours than previously, this is symbolic of how darkness has literally left there world and light is returning, this is essentially the crux of the ending in that darkness or the main source of evil (Sauron) has been defeated. My film will feature a similar theme and visual because when Scott leaves the cave it is the beginning of his recovery and he is on the road to eliminating the darkness in his life. I will visualise this with a vibrant white hospital and a brightly lit room where everything has a glean to it and appears to be clean. This is to represent the cleansing of Scott's life. It would be naive for me to say that he is cured of his problem simply from the events of the film, however, it is a film with a hopeful message and what I am wanting to visualise is that hope and thus light have re-entered his world after he has acknowledged and sought help for the damage he and his destructive brain have inflicted upon himself and those around him. So in essence by making the scene vibrant and bright it shows the audience that the light has returned to his life and it is no longer far off and unobtainable, instead it is right there to behold and enjoy again. Now this is not a fairytale where everything is suddenly better but it is the start of that journey and I want to leave the audience on the happier feeling coupled with the impact of the ending that it was all in his head, thus again being symbolic of his health. So that is what I look to do visually with the film, hopefully it shows through and we get this emotion form the lighting.

Professional Practise- Business Cards and Letterheads

For my professional practise module I have created some promotional materials in the form of business cards and letterheads, due to the small nature of the two I have decided to condense them into one blog post. So first up is the business cards. I would like to talk first about the content on the cards, I am deciding to market myself as a graduate film maker, though I haven't yet graduated this is all done as preparation for when I do graduate and I do not wish to describe myself as a film director as of yet as it feels somewhat like a lie. As such I decided to add graduate so that there are no false pretences about my experience but I am still able to market myself to my skillset of being a director.

 The design of the card itself was done to mimic the style of my website (see the other post for this) by using the same shade of blue which I have incorporated on my site. I have also used the same grey and then took the diagonal lines from the top and added them in my website, the lines themselves are there to mimic the look of a clapper board to add to the film aesthetic, this is then coupled with the film reel in the corner and the film stock border that surrounds my contact information, all of these aspects really add to the synergy of my promotional material.
The letterhead was a little more challenging to make fit with my promotional package because my initial thought was to have it the same colour as the website and the business card, however this would be impractical as it is a difficult colour to see writing on and would be expensive to print. Instead I went for an off white (I would do this by printing on this colour of paper instead of printing onto white to save ink).

So then to make this letterhead fit in with the rest of my work I added the clapper board effect to the top and bottom of the page and made them somewhat transparent so that they can be written on and to further add to the links between my works, I made the writing at the top the same shade of blue to add to the synergy of the whole package. There isn't a great deal to say about the letterhead in all honesty because of how basic it has to be realistically, however, I do feel that the two pieces I have spoken about do work well and when you couple this with the website I feel I have created some solid resources with which to sell myself.

Trick of the Dark- Shoot 1

Film shoot one, boom, here it is, finally the ball starts to roll on this, to be honest this is a huge overreaction to a tiny shoot but it feels fantastic to finally get some final footage for this film done. So, full disclosure, this will be a fairly small post because firstly, there was no sound, we didn't have the equipment on set and even if we did it would be basically useless because we were shooting in the sound stage and it is both pigeon infested and the slightest bit of wind makes the huge metal door start very loudly banging.

Having said that, this means that the scene will need to be dubbed at a later date but with there only being the one line in the scene so there should be no problem in doing this. So given that that has been highlighted I would now like to break down what they scene was and what happened. So, we were in the sound stage and there is a bar in front of a huge cartoon mural that serves as the perfect backdrop for a kids TV show so I got the two actors in the scene to dress brightly and then we gave the two actors a paintbrush and had them imitate painting something, then after getting some coverage shots from sides and getting cutaways we got the the films closing shot of Susie delivering the line while looking into the camera and holding the stare so that we can make the audience uneasy and also to give her words more weight. It is worth mentioning at this point we made a very conscious decision to frame differently from the rest of the film as this scene appears on a TV screen so there would be no cinema-scope because a kids TV show wouldn't have this so we had to frame differently. Performance wise there was not a great deal to be done in terms of direction, we gave the actors a jar of water and some paintbrushes and they painted the panel in front of them with water to mimic making something so on camera it looked like they had been painting. Then there was the line from Susie and then we held the camera on her face to get the most from her performance and to make it feel a little uncomfortable as that's what Id like the audience to feel in order for them to feel the weight of the reveal. There's not a great deal more I could say about this considering it will amount to little more than 30 seconds of screen time.

Professional Practise- Website

This is a blog post to outline and explain my website and why I made some of the decisions that I did during its creation, in order to make it professional and in order to sell myself as a director within the industry. So without further ado I would like to take you through a few key sections of my site and what they are for and why they are the way that they are.

This is the first thing you see when you open up my site on a desktop.

I went for the image of me using the camera mainly because it gives a clear indication that I am a film maker and have made films without them having to investigate further, if there were to be any early confusion at all about me they would leave my website and I would lose a potential opportunity or client. However this is eliminated swiftly with this picture. On top of this with the font I have chosen and the layout I feel it looks very professional and sleek. In addition to this you may notice the chat box in the bottom corner, this allows visitors to message me directly, admittedly this was added under advice of my lecturer but that doesn't mean its value is underplayed, it is immensely valuable that if a client would need to they could message me directly at any point, this gives me opportunity to show how committed and available I am to potential viewers of my site by replying quickly to their chat messages.

 This is on the home page and is a tool to build a database of contacts.

 This is the last section of my homepage showing screenshots from my work.

The two above screenshots are from my homepage and are examples of the two things my website is designed to do, firstly sell me as a director, and secondly to build up a database of contacts that I could potentially draw upon for work and/or to help me make my films in future. With regards to my previous works section I decided to split into two sections: commercial work and creative work, the reason I did this is to make it easier for the two types of clients I expect I would work with, people who want adverts and other such commercial work made and then there are people who will want me for creative works like dramas or perhaps television, it is this line I would rather specialise in, however, it would be naive to limit my scope by only doing the one thing.

 This is my about me page.

This is a whole page to talk about myself, if people have gotten this far enough that they are interested in me as a person it means that my home page was successful and they are in some way inclined to want to know about me. The about me page is then very useful because it is my main way to sell me as a person. With regards to the content itself I wrote it somewhat like a covering letter for a generic job, however, having done this I then decided to make it a bit more personal and add something of my own voice in there which may come across as a bit pretentious to some but at the same time I do feel it distinguishes me and sets me out, the quote I used from myself really sells my vision as a director and as such sells me as a product for people who may want to hire me. That being said I am still not selling a lie because I am still marketing myself as a graduate because I feel like if I was to simply call myself a director then it would be spotted as a lie and I wouldn't have much chance  at all of getting any work. 

 This is my showreel page.

There is not a lot to say about this page as the main attraction of it is the showreel itself which will have its own post so there is literally the motive of this as well as its layout. It is now worth me mentioning why the constant theme of blue and grey with the diagonal lines, this is to tie in with my business cards and other promotional materials as they feature the diagonal lines from the top of a clapper board to push home the film aesthetic and the blue is purely a preference thing, I like the colour and how it goes with the grey, I like my colour scheme and will hence use it to promote myself in a way like a brand. Anyway, to go back to the page itself, the showreel page is important because it sells me based upon my work, unlike the about me that sells me based on me, and it is important to sell me based on my work as well as on me because some potential employees will look for a specific style or theme, this is my chance to portray my work and basically show them what I can do. On top of this, it would be naive of me to think that producers with tight schedules will have time to read my about me or even for that matter want to, whereas they can watch my showreel or more importantly part of it and get a feel for what I am about from that.

This is the fourth and final page, the contact me page.

The final page is the contact me page, this is done through a contact box rather than handing out my details simply so that I can stop myself being susceptible to spam, if data farming companies were to get my email from my site there is a good chance I would be inundated with spam and miss potentially important messages or have to change email address as a result. As such, a contact box is much more handy because I can go to them once contact is initiated through the box, they aren't initiating personal contact without my consent. In addition to this a contact box will store their information and because of this they will be added to my database of contact which in theory I will be able to draw upon as I have mentioned previously. To summarise this, I must ask myself whether my website does what I need it to do, does it sell me to people, only time will tell, but I feel it does. And does it allow me to build a database? Provided people go on my website and engage with it, it definitely works as a platform for this, whether it will prove fruitful remains to be seen.

Trick of the Dark- Dark Knight Practise

While writing Trick of the Dark, I wanted to create a scene that builds tension in a similar way to how The Dark Knight scene below does this in terms of camera work. The way that the free camera rotates and keeps close in to the erratic subject adds tension into the scene and makes the scene both uneasy and also unpredictable due to the unhinged nature of Ledger's Joker. In my scene I would like Alex to portray a similar erratic nature where we (as an audience) really don't know what he will do next. The motivation in the scene for this is that he has snapped in the cave scenario and is lashing out because the isolation both from the world and from the other two people in there has gotten to him and as such he is threatening them with a knife, although he is unhinged and not thinking straight, he doesn't know himself how it will play out and because of that it adds a level of tension that filters from the performance.

Having now established the motive of the scene, It then comes down to the mechanics of how we make it work, below is our result and I would like to spend some time talking about how we achieved what we did. Firstly, we tried the camera just handheld on Liam's shoulder, this was nowhere near stable enough and as a result we decided that the best way to now deal with the shake and jitters issue was to put the camera on the fig rig and to shoot it on this, in doing this Liam was coming from a much more stable stance and as such the camera was able to flow better which was no end of benefit to the scene, I have no doubt in Liam's ability to get the shot without the fig rig but in saying that, there is no sense in not using the fig rig if it is beneficial, which it is. At this point, we know that the camera work was fine, the next thing for me to get sorted was the choreography of the scene in terms of both where the actors would be going and also in terms of where Liam would be going in reaction to their movement.

What I wanted was Shaun to approach Ryan and then to back off as though considering his actions, because Alex the character is distressed and having an internal war with himself and as such is trying to both instigate the conflict and distance himself from it. It is as Alex reenters the conflict I want the camera to do the same and tightly frame everyone so as to draw the audience in and add to the tension.The camera then circles around as Shaun does too so as to keep the focus upon the faces of the two and also on the knife (in this case a chisel) so as to keep the focus on thing that is causing the conflict, the knife in this case is a visualisation of the battle and the aggression of the two men. I must admit, I absolutely love this shot, Liam did an excellent job of mimicking the Dark Knight shot and I feel that this will do precisely what I want it to in the final film should we take this forward. The other key part of the scene in terms of shot is the dipping out of focus in the final shot as Scott goes unconscious. This was mostly improvised from Liam, I had the idea of the shot but didn't tell him when to do it, it mainly stems from the organic nature of the scene, so Liam thought about when and how fast someone would fade out of consciousness, (whether he did this from active thought or subconsciously, you'd have ask him) this he did really well and the shot really mimics someone fading away perfectly and we will almost certainly take this forward. On the whole, this test was a great success and the only thing that may limit us using it in the same way we have here is whether the space we shoot in will allow it.

Professional Practise- My current situation with film making

In three years of doing this blog to show my research this will most likely be the most (for lack of a better word) ‘bloggy’ piece I’ve written. To give this a bit of context, I had a conversation with my lecturer and it became like something of a therapy session whereby I let go of a lot of my built up stress and anxiety and told him that I felt lost and aimless in life. He told me two important thing during this, firstly that to be lost is still a path, and secondly, if I put this in a blog post I can be marked on it, so thats what I’m doing. So to put it in basic terms, right now my views on film making are basically this, I love it, I really do love making films and being on set and seeing it all come together. However I have found that during my university experience I learned that doing this for work has taken some joy from this for me and as such, I’d very much like to be a film maker, however, I want to do it as a hobby (albeit a very expensive hobby) but to do this as a job is no longer my goal and I don’t feel it will bring me happiness in the same way that it did when I was making films for fun and essentially for me. That leaves me with the question of well if not filmmaking, then what? And of course this is not an easy question to answer, I am struck by this question on the daily, I do feel lost a lot in life, but like most things in my life Lord of the rings helps me, I’m constantly brought back to the famous quote of “not all that wander are lost” I see this in myself, I am wandering in life (or more accurately feel I will be after university, but actually that’s okay, I’m 20 years old and will still be (by a day) when I graduate, not many people have their life in order at 20, there’s no shame in me being the same. Now that doesn’t take the anxiety and pain away but it does help me see reason and to be honest I feel often that I am wasting my potential, however, the main thing that will lead to me wasting my potential is me sitting feeling sorry for myself and worrying about wasting it instead of going out and making something of myself, even if that means being a wanderer.

So then, if I’m doing this for professional practise and not just to let people know how I am what have I done or what will I do to further a career out of this? Well first a probably most importantly, I am seeing a councillor, there’s no denying I have mental health issues, I don’t use them as an excuse and I refuse for them to be a crutch, but they do exist, so the best thing I can and have done to get myself out of the rut of negative thought and no hope thinking around my life and career is receive professional help around these issues, I feel I am able to talk about this issue in the manner that I am because of that help I have received, as if I had written this a few weeks or months ago it would tell a very different, much bleaker story, but one that I realise would only be true if I let it be. It is very important to me that at this point I acknowledge that this definitely wasn’t a solo effort and I needed the incredible support I received from around me from lecturers and my councillor. But this still raised the question of what next?

So right now my “what next” looks like this, graduate, take a year out of education and away from the careerist stress, focus on me and getting better and laying foundations for a long term life, work my 9-5 cex job and when I feel ready and somewhat stable, revisit this idea of what I am meant to do in life and what my path might look like, but in the meantime I am content to wander but I have to be wary of getting stuck in my Cex job and that becoming my career because I personally feel I am meant for so much more than that job can ever give me.

Trick of the Dark- Trying to build a cave

One of my responses to the cave issue and it being the crux of the film was to try and build a cave, in doing this, I went to B&Q and bought some supplies, these were, some polystyrene blocks, gorilla glue, some chisels and sandpaper and some stone effect spray paint. Me and Andrew then took all of these into the studio and began making a practice wall to see if it would work on a larger scale.
So then the first thing we did is take on of the blocks and began chiseling out chunks to form grooves and used sandpaper to smooth the corners to imitate the grooves of the rock on a cave wall.

Having done this we then took the second block and did the same so that it matched up with the piece it would be laid next to. Then at some point during the carving of this block we realised that while it was starting to shape and look quite nice, we had the issue that it would look too flat and as such it would need to have bit attached that would stick out to add the the 3-D nature. So in reaction to this we decided to sacrifice some size on the wall by cutting up the fourth block to create some bits of rock that stick out. So we cut out some shapes and placed them on some of the grooves and shapes on the wall. We then numbered the small pieces in relation to where they were on the wall and began gluing them together. The next step was the put weights on all these pieces so that they would glue over night. While this was happening, I took a spare piece and sprayed it to see what the stone effect paint looked like on it.

So at this point the wall itself it chiseled and glued so it is in the wall shape and we have a spare piece painted to see how the paint adheres to it. It is at this point I would like to evaluate the wall as an idea for the cave shoots.

Basically, shape ways it makes a fairly convincing wall, the paint isn't all that great as a blanket cover, it wouldn't match all that well with a real cave, this is defintitely possible had I planned and done it sooner to make a full set but given the time left and my ability to paint it, I feel this is where this option ceases to be one, however my main reason for this is in fact the cost, for that one wall I spent around £30-40 which was expensive for that one wall so to then push that up to a full cave we are looking at a rather large cost which I would only want to do if I was to have the perfect cave.

My Name is John- Poster

This post is to briefly take you through my process of creating the My Name is John poster which I created. The first thing to talk about is my inspiration for the poster: The Lobster, a weird film that doesn't have anything in common with My Name is John particularly but I really like the art style on the poster and its use of black and white.

This is more a cream colour where as I will probably use a pure white to save on printing and also to make it stand out more,  but this is definitely my main inspiration. I really like the simplicity and the single central image of the film's lead character that is just a bit odd which creates intrigue and by extension a desire to see the film.

So firstly I took a picture of John holding a card and removed everything that wasn't his skin, so clothes and background to leave just this cut out of John and the card. I then reduced the saturation so that he was black and white. I then turned the contrast up slightly to emphasise shadows and tuned the brightness down slightly as well for the same effect.

I then added the title, I wanted a simplistic, typewriter style font to give that basic but sleek look, I didn't want it to be flashy just to look professional and sleek.

I then added the JOHN words in the alternate corners so as to mimic the style of a playing card where it would normally say Joker, I got this idea simply from the card which John is holding, to make it look like a playing card to illustrate the idea of magic because the only thing other than gambling that really uses playing cards is magic and as such I can expect audiences to draw this connection.

I then added a mini version of the poster to the card which John is holding to create the picture in picture effect, I then added a second even smaller one to the card in that small version I had just added, this was to create the effect that no matter how far in you go it will always be him holding the card of himself, however I didn't add a third because it wont be seen when the poster is printed.

I then googled what fonts are typically used for the fine print of film posters and mimicked this by adding the crew and director line at the top so as to add to the professional film look of the poster as well as to simply credit those who deserved it. At this point I was happy with the poster and considered it to be done so I sent it to the crew for their opinions.

The feedback I received was very positive and people seemed to love the poster, the only suggestion I got was to add the banner to make it look more card like, which I did and I must say it worked really well, I then had to go back over and re-insert the smaller cards so they matched the large image, this was no issue as it was just a case of hiding the writing layers and then screenshotting the resulting image and putting it in position, I then lower the opacity and erase the bits that would be covered by John's finger. Easy. and that was the final step for the poster. There were a few minor edits to the text to change people's roles but aside from that it was done.

Here is a final higher quality image of the finished poster, I am extremely happy with how this poster tuned out and think it would look great up on the wall, the only thing I would hopefully like to add in the future are some awards badges just above the title or perhaps underneath it, but we have to win some first.

Professional Practise: Echoes of Silence Poster 1

The first attempt I had at making a poster was a minimalist poster for Echoes of Silence which Brad had sketched and then I took and made a digital, cleaner version of then made some tweaks based on his and other's feedback, this is the process I went through to make said poster.

This is the original poster Brad sent me to make, it features a burning casket on the sea.

First I opened an A4 page and sectioned it into thirds so I could get the ratio of sky to sea accurate.

 Then I had to find the right shades of blue and draw two rectangles to fill the space of sky and sea.

 Next I googled, wooden casket, found a picture that was taken from the angle I needed and added this to the image. I then removed the brown background by tracing around the casket with the magnetic lasso and selecting the inverse and deleting it so that only the casket remained.

The next step was to firstly resize the casket to fit where I wanted it and the size of it. At this point it was still the raw wooden picture of the casket, so from here I lassoed three polygon shapes for the three areas that light is hitting the casket and I then block filled the casket with these three shades to make it 3D by adding shadow. This worked quite nicely I feel as you can tell that this is a wooden casket without there being any detail and this is what minimal posters are all about.

Next was to add titles, Brad said he wanted a thin but blocky Sans Serif font so, upon trying a few I settled on the font Letter Gothic Std as this I feel was most fitting for what he wanted. I then tried googling the font that is usually used for the credits at the bottom of a film poster to no avail but I did find that it was a compressed thin font that is almost always sans serif, as a result of this find I scrolled through all the options on photoshop and found that the most suited was Avenir Next Compressed. I then added the credits and positioned them under the casket, later on I did move them down slightly so they were more central.

 Next was to add the fire, to do this I first attempted to draw my own free hand, however, given that I was using a laptop track pad and I am not very good at drawing anyway I scrapped this and instead got a cartoon image of a fire, I could have just added this in and more or less be done with it, however,  did not feel that this would be my own and as such wanted to edit it as much as possible to make this poster as much completely my own as I could. So I used the area selection tool and selected the whole fire and coloured it in the above shade of orange.

 The orange on its own did look okay but I felt a little too basic, as a result of this I duplicated the orange layer, downsized it slightly, repositioned it over the first set of flames, coloured it a darker shade of orange and removed the bits of flame that aren't attached to the main body. This I feel looked much better but was still minimal and basic.

The feedback I received on the fire however was that it just sort of looked like it was there and not particularly on the casket, as a response to this I simply added a glow at the bottom in the form of a darker orange oval that sits on the casket and adds to the fire, this I feel really helps to tie the image together.

It is worth mentioning at this point that the poster could have been considered to be done, it wasn't and I decided to make some more changes based on feedback and my own preference, but nonetheless this could be used as a poster at this point.

Brad then asked if I could add some waves so I took this image and removed the blue so that it was just the white lines in between. I then had to duplicate this and put the second line of waves just above the first and behind the credits.

This was the first attempt at waves, I must say I was not a fan, it was too busy in comparison to an empty sky and I felt it just didn't look good in practise, however, I didn't just scrap the idea.

I then removed some of the lines of the waves to make it more subtle and less busy which I feel worked well, I now like the inclusion of the waves from a personal viewpoint. I also darkened the sky based on the feedback that Brad wanted it to look more like it was approaching night time and I felt the previous blue was too bright for this.

I did however receive mixed feedback on the waves so as a result I have saved two versions of the poster, one with waves and one without, personally I feel with it better but from here I have two options to put forward for the film poster. The beauty as well of such a minimalist style is that It can be very easily upscaled depending on the size needed for the poster.