Glide Cam test 2

This a post highlighting the follow up glide cam test we conducted this time on location in my flat, this is where the actual scene will be filmed. For this test we didn't take any lighting or sound and went during the day whereas the actual shoot will be at night or late evening. This test was purely for logistics of the shoot, to navigate the spaces and get a vague idea of how it would look and from here we can develop the finer details of the shoot.

The first tests we did were with the monopod, this is a really easy piece of equipment to set up, it is simply a case of attaching the camera to a stick which you then move the camera with, however, this produced somewhat shaky shots and as such we knew that we could reduce this by using the glide cam, as this gives a much steadier shot, not completely stable but definitely good enough for what we are wanting.

We did a few tests with the monopod but none seemed to be at the level we wanted so we moved on to using the glide cam and saw instant results, then once the camera was nailed down technique wise me, Brad and Liam were able to discuss some of the subtle movements we could do in the scene, such as a quick side pan to the man which Alice throws off of her. Then by the final test we had something that very much looked like it was becoming a polished shot which when lit and filled with extras will be a really strong shot.
For reference purposes here is the footage which we took on that practise shoot:

glide cam test 1

For both productions it is likely that the glide cam will need to be used, in fact it will definitely used in Alice as there is a scene with a approximately 2 minute tracking shot which cant really be filmed in any other way on our budget. While the glide cam can produce some fantastic camera work, it is a pain to set up as you have to balance the weight and position to suit the camera you are using and to balance the counter weight. This took Liam a long time to do but eventually he got there.

So, once Liam had it set up he did some practise work following me up the stairs to the printer, from here he then moved to new angles but without cutting to make the shot more dynamic. We then went back downstairs and watched back the footage and looked for improvement and how it could be bettered. He then recalibrate the weights to try and get it to run smoother and we went again.

After a few attempts Liam really had it nailed and we could both confidently say that he could then use the glide cam for the actual shoot when it comes to it. One thing that is worth mentioning is that I personally didn't get a hands on experience with the Glide cam but having watched Liam and been a part of his practise as the subject I have gained some knowledge on how to work it. From here it is likely that me and my camera operator (Ethan) will go on to do practices of our own as neither of us have used the glide cam.

Alice- Flat Recce

When writing the script for Alice, Brad had a party scene in mind that is made up of one long tracking who that encompasses the whole scene in one go. This scene was written with my flat in mind and as such it was no issue for me to do a recce, however, a recce needed doing all the same so I did that and this is my response to said recce.

The first aspect that Brad wanted was the long alleyway outside that she walks down as approaching the party. This is sparsely lit and with the shot being one take we cannot adjust the camera to compensate and thus we must fix this issue with the usage of lighting. The best way I can see to do this is to put a red head in my room and shine it out onto the path, that way the path will be lit up and wont look unnaturally lit up.

Then there is the courtyard type area, this will be littered with extras to make the party look full and vibrant, as the scene is almost made or broken on the feel of it and if it looks empty and not like an actual party then the scene falls flat and falls apart. The lighting of this area wont be an issue as there is a strong security light which will light the space fine and is a white light so it looks quite good as opposed to an orange one which would look awful. Another issue with this is that it is a large space so it may be difficult to look full but we have a fairly large amount of extras who have said they will come along so I am hopeful that this will not be a problem at all.

Then there is the kitchen and living room area, this has the opposite issue to the courtyard in the sense that it is a relatively small space and as such it will be an issue for it to not be overcrowded but have enough people that the scene makes sense in the context of the bad guys not noticing Alice straight away. With regards to lighting, we wont ever see the kitchen and as such we can use the plugs there and put up a light to light the living room and it wont be an issue to hide at all. There will also have to be some moving of furniture for this scene to maximise the space so that we can comfortably move everyone around and give the scene an organic party feeling. Although, this is partly achieved with the sound within the scene which is down to the sound designer.

The last section to think about is the corridor leading  to the rear exit of the flat. In this section Alice pulls a man to her to cover herself from her pursuers, after she does they walk past and the camera turns to see her leave. Lighting this scene shouldn't be too problematic as there are three rooms (including my own) which we can put lights in to shine out and light the corridor. The main issue here is that there isn't much room for the camera, actors and the sound op to turn around and move fluidly around each other. However, the key point is that there is room so with practise this is no problem, they will be able to move around each other no problem. This then concludes the recce for my flat, which will be used in the party scene of the film and it should be relatively easy to get permission for as I live there.

Jib Test 1

This is a post to document the test that we ddi using the jib for both of the productions I am working on, however, as producer for Alice this was more useful for me from my directorial stand point on Inheritance.

Firstly there was the construction of it which was fairly easy although it was not as easy at it should have been for us. To clarify what I mean by this, what I mean is that, it is easy to put up for us now that we have practised but had we not then it would have been a nightmare on set. For this practise we couldn't actually attach a camera to the jib due to the fact that it requires the slider head which was booked out, instead we just went without and practised the movement.

We also found that during its set up one of the pieces required for it to work was missing so myself and Liam had to go to a local DIY store to find a replacement, luckily we did and this meant that the construction of the jib could continue. Once we managed to get it up we realised we didn't have much space to work with and as such should have perhaps done the test somewhere else, although this didn't prove to be a major problem as we could still do it.

Once we had it up and working we practised Brad's shot that he wishes to use in Alice which has the character walking through a moment as the camera raises behind her. This wasn't simple at first but after a few tests with no camera, no monitor and no actress we managed to get the camera movement fluid and smooth meaning we now know that the shot can be done.

The above picture is a place holder as I was working the jib and no one took a picture but after that we practised my opening shot for Inheritance with a pretend Cross instead of panning down nothing. The shot itself is a jib shot which pans down Ralph's cross which is a big stone cross, this is a hard shot to do as not only do you have to pan down the cross, you also have to adjust the angle of the camera to make it sty level, this was not an easy task but with the four of us working on it we got something like what we will want for the final product and as such I am confident now that we can pull the shot off for real.

That's all for now, the next test we did was the glide cam, that post will be up in the very near future.

Report- Questions for Directors.

Following my previous post regarding the types of questions I may ask any directors I should happen to find and interview, I have decided upon these questions, followed by a brief description of why I am asking this. There are two sets of questions however as I have champed my research slightly as I am now also going to interview an aspiring director(s) as well as professional if possible. So without further ado, here they are:

Questions to ask pro director.

• How would you best describe your career path up to this point in terms of how you became a director? For example, did you make your own things then get noticed or did you start at the bottom of a crew and work up.

This is fairly obvious as this is the crux of what I am trying to ascertain from my report so as such this question will get straight to       the heart of what I want to find out

• Do you believe there is ‘best way’ for someone in my position (a year from graduating from a film degree) to get to be a director such as yourself?

Similarly to the first question, this is to get straight into the heart of my subject to find out what it is that gets someone to the top of the game and how they get there.

• What do you feel are the most useful skills for a director to have?

This is mainly to see if I personally have what it takes to be a director but, more than this the report will benefit from it as it seems that anyone who wants to become a professional director can read the report and also find out if they have what it takes.

• Do you feel you are where you want to be in your career, and if not what do you think the next step for you is?

This is to look forward beyond directing, if they are at the top, or to see where they go next if they are professional but still on the up, meaning for example if they are a TV director then do they have any desire to move 'up' to feature films.

• What would be a piece of advice you would give to someone like me who wants to be a director so that they can improve as a director?

This is another personal question for me but the report will benefit also because if the advice there give is something people can do for example take an acting course, then it is useful information for me to add to the report.

• How often are you working and what do you do between jobs?

This is useful because it is very rare that directors are working all year round and as a result I think it is useful for people to know what the in between times are like.

• And finally, what are you currently working on and would there be any room for me to possibly do some work experience as a runner or assistant?

All I can say about this question is that shy kids get nothing.

Questions for aspiring director

• Do you believe there is a ‘best way’ that someone goes about climbing the film industry to become a director?

This is much like the first question to a professional director in that it gets straight to the heart of what it is that I am wanting to find out from the report and as such instantly cuts into this.

• What are the next steps for you on your career path?

As they are not yet in a position to be considered professional, it is important to ascertain where they go next as the early stages of progression may well be the most important ones.

• Where do you aim to be in ten years and how do you think you will have gotten there?

This is to get a sense of the persons ambition and what they deem to be successful in their career, by doing this it helps me get a better handle on the responses I am being given and it will also allow my readers to see if the information fits their ambitions.

• What skills and traits do you feel make a good director?

Just a useful thing to know and as I said before it is mainly to see if people have those qualities in themselves.

• Are there times when you doubt that you want to be a director, if so, how do you get past these and  continue pursuing the dream?

I think this is a very useful question, as the road to being a director will not be an easy one and as with anything of this nature there will be times when giving up seems like the best option and as such it is important to know how to get past this feeling.

• Given that I will be following a path not dissimilar to your own, what advice would you give me regarding post-graduation and where I go next?

This is useful as it can be hard for many people to leave the structure of education and be put out into the real world to get a job in an industry you have no history in, so this question helps to combat that in some way.

Live 2- Introduction

This is the obligatory introduction post for my latest Module, Live Production Module 2. In this module I will be involved in the creation of 2 films which will the be added to festival circuits and awards ceremonies both nationally and internationally so there is a lot that needs to go into this module to make the films to be at that high standard, but I am sure I can rise to the task.

The films themselves are, firstly, Inheritance, a film which I wrote and am directing with basically the same crew as Brush Stroke, as a result I am very much looking forward to making this as it is something I feel very passionately about.

The second film is Alice, a film which has been written by Brad and I will be producing, this is a very contrasting film to my own so it is interesting to see how the two will come out.

Report- Potential Questions

Throughout my report onto how to become a famous director I will aim to interview professionals that could already be considered to be professional directors, in doing this I ensure I have some kind of first hand account of the journey to get there and what it takes. Whilst conducting these interviews I will need to be careful what I ask and be sure that the questions I ask are tailored to get the kind of information I am looking for and the level of detail I need. The first way to do this is to ask a mixture of both open and closed questions, that way the level of detail I require can be dictated by the type of questions I ask.

Open questions are called open as they have no set parameters for an answer and as such they can lead to very long experience or opinion based answers that can can be very useful to me as I can use these to see if people are of similar opinions and I can also use the depth of the answer to strengthen opinions and such so that I have a more informed opinion on what it is I am saying.
Closed questions, by definition, are the opposite, these have very rigid answer parameters and are often followed by the question of "why" because they give very clear concise answers but give no indication of any feeling or opinion behind them. These are most commonly in yes no form or things like "what is your favourite...". These can be useful questions to ask as they are much easier to draw hard facts and statistical information from, take the example of the yes no question; we may find that 60% of people agree and 40% don't, but if we asked "what do you think of..." which is an open question then it is much more difficult to draw statistics as everyone who has been asked is giving a different opinion despite potentially meaning the same thing that can be then quantified.

Bearing all this in mind, I feel that I should only ask open questions and I have a few reasons for this. The first of which is time, if I am to be taking time from a very busy professional so that they can answer my questions, it seems best that I ask them open questions so as to ring out every drop of information from them so I do not want to limit what I can get from them with closed questions. The second reason is that I have very little use for the quantitative (statistical) data I can get from interviews as I will in all likelihood not be interviewing many people, therefore, with such a small sample size there will be relatively no strong conclusions to be made based on the stats I find, as there  is no way there is any integrity behind a sample size of less than 5 people, regardless of how high up on a career ladder they are. The final reason I have for this is that qualitative research in this case will be more useful to me as I already know that becoming a director has no set path so asking open questions will give me more of a personal feel for how it is to be done.

Kodak Awards- Rushes

So we just got the rushes back from the 16mm film we used for the paper chase adverts, rushes are basically the digital clips that are taken from the developed film that can then be used to edit the film.

Firstly I would like to talk about the popcorn rushes:
Straight away I would like to say that they look fantastic, considering the ND filter issues we had and the lens trouble, these look amazing. The majority of what we shot is coloured and lit perfectly and in focus. However, sadly it isn't all perfect, one or two shots are out of focus, one of which is the shot of Allan adjusting the popcorn on his lap which is quite an issue as this is a key shot to show the audience that he is up to some mischief, although we might be able to get away with it but that remains to be seen. On the whole though I am happy with what we shot and how it has turned out, one other issue was that the lens has cut the corners of one or two shots but this is barely an issue as we can just reduce the frame size in the edit. So to summarise, the stuff we shot is basically perfect aside from some out of focus shots.

I would now like to talk about the Time rushes:
These, like the others have turned out amazingly, Colours are spot on and the exposure is excellent, one issue is the rushes from the indoor shoot, as it is the wrong film stock it has an orange tinge to all of the shots, however, I assume this can be corrected in the edit. Another issue, like with the other, is that the lens has completely cut off the sides of the frame, this time making these almost unusable, but this was just one shot to establish the cave and in my opinion this can easily be cut out, after all the advert is only 30 seconds so we don't want to clutter it with too many shots. However, everything else worked out fine and looked great so in summary, we have the makings of a great advert with some great shots.

Kodak Awards- Time Shoot 1

The first shoot for the Time advert for Paperchase was at Preston Park, shooting the victorian segment. The day didn't start so great when Andrew drove his car across the grass and did around £200 worth of damage to their turf. However, John Beeley who I had contacted about filming in there decided to let us off as long as we had learnt a lesson, I for one did learn from this and must say it was very nice of him to let us off. On the morning we were supposed to pick up the actor who was going to play the Victorian man but after waiting a considerable amount of time without him showing up me and Brad agreed to leave and we would get Ryan (who was coming along to help out as part of the crew) to play the man, so he did, and when we got costume from Preston Park he certainly looked the part so this worked out nicely. We met the actress (Charlotte) there and she too borrowed a costume from Preston Park and with her hair tied up (like I had asked her to do the night before) she also looked to be Victorian so on this front the production values were excellent. The shoot itself went down without a hitch, there was a lot of moving the track and dolly around which was tiring but this is in no way a criticism, I know what film making requires, you cant be lazy and successful. I am almost certain the shot quality will be fantastic as we put in a lot of care and time to make sure everything was as Brad wanted it. All in all I can't say anything bad about this shoot apart from other people destroying the premises and the actor not turning up.

Kodak Awards- Packshots

Put basically a packshot is a shot of the product that you are advertising, these need to contain the product and the name of the product or the company who sells the item. The kay I think to a good pack shot is simplicity and/or making sure that the product is the centre of attention in the shot, so everything should draw attention to the product. I would now like to put some pack shots which I like on here and explain what is good about them and how I may mimic some of their styles.

I like this pack shot as it follows a very clear colour scheme that fits the product perfectly, the gun metal grey make the product masculine and 'hard' which is the look they wanted to achieve, I also like the simplicity and the fact that there are no unnecessary logos as the diesel logo is on the bottle so there is no need at all to show it anywhere else on the image, however, the product name is necessary as there are many different Diesel products so this is needed. I also like how the light in the background frames the bottle and draws the eye to it further.

This pack shot is different from the other as it has a more setting based background, by this I mean that we can just about tell that it is in somebodies kitchen, making it feel more personal as though the viewer could imagine the product in their kitchen. I also like this as the product is shown next to a related item (the mug) to show the product in use. We cant really show the product in use in our case but we could show similar products like a valentines themed teddy or something similar so this is something I would like to mimic. Again this shows the logo on the product but this time also separately which I am not sure I like but there is a lot about this pack shot I would like to mimic.

For my final packshot I thought it would be good to find one I don't like and highlight some things I would not want to do in mine. I don't like this packshot mainly because it is too cluttered, while the other two had one and two items respectively, this has about 16 different items in shot and it makes it hard to focus on the advertising of any particular one. For me the background is also too plain, although it has the shadow and two shades I think that if they wanted minimalism they should have used the effect of the first pack shot. In fairness to this I think the product is for companies and not for  an audience of regular people and as such it can afford to be a lot more basic and to the point.

in conclusion, for my pack shot I would like to have a simple background and nice lighting with some relating objects to go with the paper chase cards that we will have on show.

Kodak Awards- Time Shoot 3

The third and final shoot for the time advert was at Brad's house. Brad was waiting for us there while me and Liam got the equipment and picked up Tony to be the caveman again, meanwhile Ryan and Andrew were on their way to Preston Park to pick up Ryan's victorian costume, which they had no trouble getting.
The first issue we encountered was that the battery had not charged overnight so when we got to Brad's we immediately had to charge the battery for an hour, however, this was not an hour wasted because we used it to set up the tripod and slider, which took longer than an hour but we got the shot we wanted in the end so it was worth it. Another issue we had was that we were shooting indoors on Daylight stock so we required a lot of light which was hard to get but again, we managed to do this so it wasn't a huge issue. Brad also decided, on set that he wanted to include his dog in the shoot, this meant some takes were ruined by the dog moving, however this wasn't too often and as such again, wasn't a huge issue. The main issue we had was the amount of time it took to set up the camera and slider, although as we were inside in Brads house, the lighting didn't change an awful lot, certainly not enough to make a noticeable difference. As we were coming to the end of the shoot and filming the outside section with Tony and Ryan, we were at a point where we had to choose to be really conservative with out film or to cut out another scene we had pencilled in. Truth be told, me and Brad were already thinking about cutting the Roman scene out for running time sake on the advert so the lack of film on cemented the fact that we needed to do this, so having decided this, the pressure was off on nailing the final few shots and we decided to have some fun and do a few different takes with them and thus we got a great final shot, provided it comes back okay when developed.
So, to summarise, we had a few issues, battery, light and the fact that the small room made it hard and slow to set up the camera, but all of these were easily solved and we had another successful shoot.

Kodak Awards- Popcorn Shoot 2

The second shoot for Popcorn was a bit of an odd one, we didn't have much time and there were only three people and two actors so it was stressful as each of us had to work for two people in a sense. However, I felt that we worked very well, Ryan helped me set up while Janice got the camera ready and we took a few minutes to work out what we could shoot that would be productive but wouldn't lead to continuity errors. The answer to this was close ups and cutaways. We shot Allan adjusting the popcorn on his crotch. A close up of him being slapped and a side view close up of Susie slapping Allan. all of these, if good enough will be used in the final production and will add to the narrative so all in all we had a very successful and productive shoot, especially when we had minimal crew and no extras.

Kodak Awards- Time Film shoot 2

Man, was this shoot fun, every so often you do a shoot that makes you think, this is why I love being a film maker (the marina shoot on Brush Stroke was also one of these) and this was certainly one of them. We were shooting the cave man scene at Seaham beach on a very cold November morning/afternoon and just to see everyone working hard and grafting and being a part of it myself and seeing the scene being made how I had pictured it right in front of me, felt fantastic to be a part of.
We met Rachel (cave woman) at the location whilst Brad and Liam went to pick up Tony (cave man) from the station near by, then we carried a lot of heavy equipment down to the beach and to the cave where we were going to film. Then we dressed the actors and the set, both of which looked fantastic, although I must say it hurts your hands to finger paint onto a rock wall. Having done that, much like Preston Park it was simply a case of setting up shots and filming them, easy stuff really, one shot proved to be problematic however as we couldn't get the tripod close enough to the wall, the solution to this was to have Liam hold the camera in place while Brad filmed. As producer I made sure before we did this that it was safe, that Liam had sure footing and was at no risk of hurting himself or anyone else, or damaging the camera. Once this was assured we did the shot which again was no trouble and we moved on. At this point the actors were finished so I went with them to a nearby cafe to get them out of costume, to sign off paperwork and to sort out travel expenses. Once this was sorted I returned to the crew and helped with the establishing shot they were filming of the cave and filled in the shots they had done onto my production log.
Thus concluding another shoot more or less without any issues, looked great, was incredibly fun to be a part of and we had little to no problems with anything.

Kodak Awards- Popcorn Film Shoot 1

The first film shoot for Popcorn was supposed to be the only shoot for Popcorn but alas this was not to be, as everything that could have gone wrong, pretty much did. Bu there were good things too.
Firstly the amount we got shot on this shoot was enough for full coverage of the advert so if some kind of disaster happened that meant we couldn't have another shoot, at least we had coverage. On top of this the extras and set dressing were fantastic so no complaints here. As well as this we got very good coverage of the main couple in the advert so this is good.

However, we also had issues, we had 4 lights (3 Red Heads and a cool light) the cool light worked fine with no problems. 1 red head was broken before we even started shooting and then halfway through a take a second red head started smoking so we had to immediately turn it off and then we had no other light to swap to. As a result of this we had to send one of the crew to get a replacement which was a big delay. Then we had a problem putting a lens onto the camera which again was another delay, all of these added up and it meant that we didn't get as much covered as we would have hoped and as such had to organise a second shoot for next week. Another issue was that for some of the shots there was an ND filter on the camera which will have substantially darkened what we shot to the point where it may be completely unusable.

That concludes my account of the first shoot, the actors and crew were fine to work with for the most part and I felt I did a good job of directing so there's not an awful lot left to say about this shoot.

Kodak Awards- Popcorn Practise edits

As you know, we did a digital run through of the advert and then gave it to Shaun to edit together to get an early look at what the advert may look like when it's done.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6GOrP_nhpstUW5Bc2I4S1pGRnc/view

This was the first edit he sent back to me without any of my input it was purely from my shortlist and storyboards and his own intuition that he put this together.

While there are some good things about this edit my initial feedback was that it needed slowing down a lot, for me there are way too many cuts in there and its almost non-cohesive. Shaun said that he was trying to use as many of the different angles as we had so that I could see all of the footage we had, which is a valuable thing for him to do. I also asked if he could create more tension in the scene with the first couple as this is the main section of the film. One great thing was that it was dead on 30 seconds which is obviously part of the brief.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6GOrP_nhpsta0N1LWdRc0JLb3M/view

In response to the things I asked Shaun, he sent me this, already I could see a drastic improvement, although I still felt it to be a little fast, however, I do feel it was more coherent and there was a clearer plot line and It wasn't completely too fast to absorb, however I still do feel that the cuts were coming too frequently and so then he asked me how I would want it, under normal circumstances I wouldn't step on the toes of my editor by telling him how to do his job but since he asked I sent him this.
"Side angle>fiddling with popcorn> Liam looking>pan as Toni walks in and sits down> hand going towards popcorn> nervous eyes> hand > Toni's eyes > card being pulled out> back of card> hug"

This is just for the first half as I am more or less happy with how the second half looks and flows. So Shaun did one more edit with the order I asked for.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6GOrP_nhpstcDVjelFjZEpqME0/view

This was, I feel, the best of the test edits, however, I am not 100% happy with it, if that were the real film I wouldn't be happy sending it off, however it is a good platform to build upon and as a result of these I redrafted my storyboards and redid my shortlist to fit what I now wanted having seen the footage edited.

Kodak Awards- Popcorn Practise Shoot

We did a practise shoot before the real thing for the popcorn paper chase advert, some aspects of this went a lot better than others, if I am honest.

I'll start with what went well I guess, firstly the actors were great to work with, really responsive to what I was asking of them and were courteous at all times and understanding when we had difficulties. Realistically this is all you can ask for from them, if they give a good performance and cause no issues then there is nothing more I would want. They did this and as such they made my life easies.

The lighting set up was somewhat challenging, we struggled to get the same aesthetic we had from the practise, I now realise that this is because of the change in camera and not knowing the settings on my DSLR from the lighting test so we had no reference point to match up the two of them so when we switched from DSLR to P2 the change was not accounted for. As a result of this I again experimented with lighting, which is not at all what this shoot was for. This is probably down to the fact that out camera operator was ill, although I am in know way blaming her, I take full responsibility as I was the one who didn't trust the original lighting set up we had. However we still got some fairly decent footage for Shaun (the editor) to work with. Which he then did several cuts with but I will discuss them in a later post.

Another good thing from this shoot was that we covered lots of angles and possibilities which gave me a good idea of how I would want things to be on the real shoot and also what wasn't needed from my original plans and also in some cases what I could add. But these are more things that would be evident after the edit.

Also something we discovered that didn't go well after the shoot was the sound, we found it to be quite static filled and not very clear, in response to this we have since addressed the issue and found that instead of recording off both an boom mic and the H6 built in mic we will instead only use the boom mic as the H6 mic is poor quality. Again this only serves to highlight the importance of the digital run through so that we didn't have this problem on the real shoot.

Kodak Awards- Popcorn visuals

So, I thought it would be a useful exercise to look at some visuals that are commonly used for cinemas in published images, whether that be stock photos or whether it be in film. To do this I googled cinema and picked out some of the visuals I thought looked best and had similar camera angles to what I may use.

This is an angle I definitely wish to use as we see a woman walking along the aisle before sitting down next to her boyfriend, while it may also seem a little vain, this angle will also let us show off a bit how many extras we can get to fill a cinema screening, this will make the advert look more professional and give it a higher production value.

This is the shot I will replicate almost exactly for when we see the couple, just before she puts her hand into the tub, this may tilt down slightly so we get a better view of the tub as she does this.

Finally, I looked for a film scene that is set in a cinema for a moving image reference instead of just some stills, the first scene that came to mind was Taxi Driver, although this has a very different tone and a very different genre, the aesthetic is roughly the same as what I am looking to capture. Also interestingly, every cinema picture I came across featured red seats, I don't know why this is but it is an aesthetic that I most definitely want in mine, with it being a valentines advert I think it is perfect that the seats would be red as this denotes love.

Kodak Awards- Time Recce

As one section of this advert is set in Victorian times, we went to look at Preston Park in Middlesbrough to see if this suited what we were looking for, all in all I think it fit the bill and not only did we find a location that we wanted but we also found a back up should it fall through, theres not much I can write about this and I feel that pictures will suit this post just fine.

This is the back up location which isn't owned by Preston Parks it should be relatively easy to get permission for, this was the original planned location but we decided that one of the cafe's inside Preston Park would fit better and have better production value.

This is the actual location we decided that we want to use, the only issue being that we would need to rely upon the weather as there is no where for lighting. this would be a good location however as the production value would be very good and on top of that it requires very little set up. This was a brief and more visual blog post but I believe that there is the necessary information about our recce.

Kodak Awards- Popcorn Lightest

In practise for the shoot of the popcorn advert we did a lighting test in Hartlepool FE's lecture theatre as this looks like a cinema. I must admit that when we suggested filming in there I wasn't sure it would look like a cinema but having done this lighting test I think it would not only be a suitable location to shoot, but ideal for what we want.

This is the seating layout of the lecture theatre, the only issue that I can see is that the walls in a real cinema wouldn't be white, however, with lighting and camera work this is easily avoided.

This is the initial lighting set up with a single redhead behind the main actor and a cool light in front to fill in the face so he isn't just a silhouette. From here we did some more experiments with lighting to see if we could further enhance the cinema look and feel.

We then experimented with different filters on the back (main) light to see how this effected the image and the lighting of Ryan, this had varying results and from this we decided we needed to add a third light to add colour so that the actor could have a light flicker so as to create the illusion of the actor watching a film.

From the addition of a second light we pointed it away from the actor and then used a reflector and flickered the light back on to the actor using the silver side of the reflector without the inside of it making it rigid.

This is essentially the final result, although it is somewhat changed by the fact that we have the light in shot, obviously this wouldn't be the case under normal circumstances but for the sake of this shot you can see how successful the lighting has been, I have now drawn up a plan for the lighting and we are now prepared for the shoot, we just need actors and to book the room.

Kodak Awards- Production management and actors contracts,

As I am producer on one of the adverts, I thought it would be a useful exercise to look into how to effectively manage a small scale production, another small thing I thought I should look into is actors contracts and I thought this would be too small to put into a single blog post so I have added this to the end of this one.

Production management:
I did some research into what makes a good producer and as such by extension how to successfully manage a small scale production like this. After doing research from a number of different sources, mostly on the internet, I found recurring themes and ideas and as such compiled this list of 10 things that will help me to be a good producer.

1. Understand the creative process and particularly directing
This is so that I can effectively work with the director and understand their needs when making the film. This is fairly easy for me as my other role on this unit and in previous units has been Director and as such I understand what is required by the director from the producer.

2. Be a creative force on the film and understand the basics of narrative.
This one again isn't too much of an issue to me as I am a script writer also so I to a degree know how narrative works as I use it often. This is a useful thing for a producer as they have final say on what goes into production and as such they have to make sure the script is fit for production.

3. Understand the basics of Character
In all honesty, I'm not sure why this is separate to narrative but places that I looked at had it as a separate factor so I too have added it as a separate factor. I would guess its because a film must have a good narrative but also strong characters to be good so it is important to distinguish the two as theyre both very important.

4. Have a basic understanding of sound and camera.
Put simply, this is because on set should issues arise then I can help out with sorting them or fill in for a role if needs be, also it will help to empathise with the issues that may arise for the crew members who are fulfilling these roles. I believe I have this skill as the previous modules and demos in university have given me an understanding of these roles.

5. Understand marketing and publicity
For this particular module this is not a huge factor to consider as it has basically already been done for me in the sense that we are making an advert for an established award ceremony and therefore I don't have to put any effort into the publicity of this film. However, this is useful on a more broad scale as when making something that requires this, I will need to make it so people will actually see the film, otherwise what's the point in making the film, should I ever require this, I will be sure to research and blog about it.

6. Learn how to find and discover talented actors
This is absolutely crucial when I am very limited to what is available to me considering I have a very small budget. This means that I have to put as much interest from actors out there and have to know which ones will fit the roles best as I cant afford to get the top level of actors I have to try and scout the best from the amateur level of actors.

7. Be strong willed and able to say no.
As the most powerful individual in a films production in terms of having the final say it means that I have to have the strength of will to make the important calls and to make decisions that may not be popular but they must be made for the good of the film. I believe that this is something I do need to work on as I am not the strongest of people in these situations but It is something I am consciously working on.

8. Have a good grasp of time management.
This is a no brainer that a producer needs to be able to manage a schedule and not spend unnecessary amounts of time on set so that everything can be done efficiently and effectively so that the film can be made in an effective amount of time. With regards to my self this is something I am a bit hit and miss at and I need to learn how to realise that somethings do take longer than I would like and this cant be avoided, the trick is to know how long things will take and plan accordingly.

9.  Know how to raise money to fund the film.
Like with the publicity section, this is not a huge issue on this module as the film stock is provided to us and we have a student loan to cover the rest of the things we may need, however in future this will be one of the most important skills a producer can have as it can make or break a production, whether to not there will be funding. Asking for money is not something I have ever done so to a degree, I am thankful that this module does not call for it.

10.Be organised.
Finally another no brainer, this ties into time management somewhat as it is about being on top of production but I think this more regards paperwork and making sure everything is in order to allow the crew to make the film. So this refers to contracts, release forms, call sheets etc. Making sure all of this is prepped is something I believe I will do well at as I am usually very good at making sure things are set up to allow the crew to work.

That concludes my findings on effective production management and thus I now feel more prepared in the role of producer.

I would just like to highlight some of my research into actors contracts and what they should contain:
The basics things it should include are the dates of filming, the payment of wages and/or expenses. The actor's entitlement to a copy of the film upon its completion. The companies right to distribute the film as we see fit and use the footage in any capacity we wish, thus meaning that what we have filmed is our property. They should also include working hours (estimated) and a guarantee that the actors wellbeing will be considered. These are the bare essentials of a contract and any other conditions are subject to individual actors or are more specific to the production. That pretty much wraps up this post, until next time.

Kodak Awards- Popcorn Director

Popcorn director sounds like a fancy name for someone who works the counter in a cinema, but no, what I mean is that I am directing the popcorn themed advert, the original title of which was "cheeky handful" but our lectures refer to it as popcorn so that's what we have adopted. As I wrote a post last year about how to be a good director, instead I would like to write one about what I learnt from doing this.

So my main directing experience comes from Brush Stroke which I directed last year, this was very eye opening for me as it gave me my first real look at the job I want to do, well, here I am directing again so that gives you some idea of whether I enjoyed it or not. What I did learn was that it isn't always smooth sailing. Some shoots were immensely fun and flew by without a hitch and stress free, one such was the above one where it was fun, everyone worked well and the location was nice.

Others were not so fun, there were days when it was just miserable, morale was low, people were getting stressed and it just wasn't fun to be making this film, it happens. The above was the lowest of these times, we were filming in freezing conditions on a very windy day, sound was a nightmare and it started snowing, also on this day we were late and one of the actors went home, as a result of this we had to re plan and shoot the script on set. However, it was times like this I feel I learnt the most as it meant that I had the most direction to give as things didn't just fall into place.

Another thing that was new to me was working with actors that I didn't already know, this had mixed results, without naming anyone, in the interest of professionalism, some of the actors were a dream to work with and some where a nightmare. I worked with some who were very professional and some who I got along with very well and got good performances out of, this was good as when you have professional people who are receptive to what you're telling them it always makes directing easier.

However, like before, it was the bad times that made me learn more, I had one actor who wasn't very responsive to what I was telling him and also was often quite pushy in telling me how I should do things when it is in no way his job to tell me how to do mine. As a result of this I learned that at the end of the day I need to have more backbone and demanding of my actors and not settle for what they're giving me if I'm not happy. I did a lot of learning on that production and I look forward to benefitting and making things of a higher standard as a result, that's all for now, until next time.

Kodak: Job Role Producer

As you know from my previous post, I have been given the role of producer, this is a job I have never done before and as such I thought it would be a good idea to do some research into how I can do this job effectively and what makes a good producer.

Firstly I will look at what a film producer actually does. If we consult the Wikipedia, it has this to say:
"Film producers fill a variety of roles depending upon the type of producer. Either employed by a production company or independent, producers plan and coordinate various aspects of film production, such as selecting script, coordinating writing, directing and editing, and arranging financing."
Put simply then, a producer runs and organises the whole production, they are in charge of hiring, booking, scheduling, paperwork. Essentially the work of a producer can be boiled down to, all of the work that isn't creative and is vital for the creation of the film.

How to be a good producer and what qualities should a producer have:

• Well firstly and possibly the most key thing a producer needs to be is organised, if the producer isn't organised then how can the rest of the crew be. This is something I am going to have to work on as, with me working on two projects, it will be harder to stay on top of both of these jobs.
• A producer must also be a good leader, from working on other things as a director (another leading role) I know that again perhaps this needs working on, however, I do think that I have some leadership qualities that I can bring to this. It is important for a producer to be a good leader as they are essentially the boss of the film.
• Problem solving is also key, as in this role if something is going wrong then it is more often than not, up to you to fix it and quickly. This is a skill I do feel that I have and am good at, I have demonstrated this on many occasions and many films I have made.

I think that about wraps up my research on how to be a good producer and what a producer does so I will finish this post there, until next time.

Level 5: Kodak Awards Intro

Just a brief post to introduce the my latest module which happens to be the first of the year. This is the Nahemi Kodak Awards. Essentially we have to shoot and edit a 30 second advert on 16mm film for real clients that have sent us a brief. The companies were, Centrepoint (a charity for homeless people), Paperchase (a company who sell cards and stationary) and WeSwap (a kind of card used for the exchange of foreign currency). Of these three two were chosen to make an advert for based on individual pitches within our group, none of my ideas were chosen but I did get the role I wanted of director, the other role I got on a different advert was producer so I will have a lot of work on my plate but I am looking forward to throwing myself into it.

Level 5: Kodak Awards Intro

Just a brief post to introduce the my latest module which happens to be the first of the year. This is the Nahemi Kodak Awards. Essentially we have to shoot and edit a 30 second advert on 16mm film for real clients that have sent us a brief. The companies were, Centrepoint (a charity for homeless people), Paperchase (a company who sell cards and stationary) and WeSwap (a kind of card used for the exchange of foreign currency). Of these three two were chosen to make an advert for based on individual pitches within our group, none of my ideas were chosen but I did get the role I wanted of director, the other role I got on a different advert was producer so I will have a lot of work on my plate but I am looking forward to throwing myself into it.

Brush Stroke- Film Shoot #10

The final film shoot. it seems like such a long time since we started (actually about a month) but its very nice to be at the end, but there was still a shoot to do so we rallied one final time to do it and wrap up.

Carl setting up the chair for the final scene when he hangs.

This scene was to fill in the missing gaps of what we had missed when we were in the garage before and to shoot the final scene. This was a fun shoot as we had the slide so we had the chance to experiment a little bit with movement and how we could create emotion in a scene. For example the final shot of the film  as we track in from his limp body 'hanging' from the ceiling. This for me is the perfect closing shot for the film and it is because we had the slider that it happened.

This is Liam framing up a shot of the painting so that Carl knew where to paint it.

Carl was very cooperative on this shoot as it was probably the hardest for him as he had to hang from the ceiling as well as looking distressed, Carl was fantastic to work with on this shoot and to be honest throughout the whole film he has been, considering his relatively small experience I found him to be very professional and would definitely consider him for future roles.

Thus the shooting is concluded and on to the edit.

Brush Stroke- Film Shoot #9

The penultimate film shoot, only one more to go after this one, what a feeling. However, we still had work to do even though this was a very small shoot we still put the effort in and made sure it was of a good standard so that the film didn't suffer. 

We took out the redheads for this shoot but Richard was on Janice's shoot so  I stood in as sound Op on this shoot.

The lighting on this scene was crucial because we had used this room previously and because of this had to make it aesthetically differently from the lettings agent scene, I feel like we achieved that, however, watching the clips back, they will need to be colour corrected as they are too orange and look unnatural but this is a relatively easy fix.

Single of Carl for his side of the conversation.

The actors in the scene were easy to work with, it was Carl and Stephan so they knew each other and already knew what I expected from them and how the characters play off of each other, so I was happy with the performance they gave, we had the same problem of actors overstepping their mark but this was such a small scene it didn't really pose an issue. Sound operating was easy enough to work in conjunction with direction as I already know the script inside out so I had no issue making sure the mic was on the right person. The only issue was that I had terrible headphones because I had left my own at home, as a result I didn't have a very good representation of the sound quality but there are no issues on playback so it worked out fine.