Finished filming. Everything went well, a few minor issues to do with lighting set ups and spending a long time trying to get a shot with a glidecam

First day of shooting

Finished our first day of shooting with Peter George. Went really well, made some good progress. We all donated props to decorate the bachelor pad. Mostly posters and figurines and such. I think we've managed to put together a really believable flat, and giving it a geeky style without it being farcical. We will probably only need one more day of shooting with our actor. Our actor Peter is very enthusiastic and happy, and also a real stand up guy. We used grease proof paper on our lights to give it a bit more of a natural filter as it seemed to take the harshness out of the light.

Actors

We were emailing a number of people from casting call websites and even stalking them on Facebook to message them but we didn't receive a response. Henry and George were chatting to an employee in Games Workshop, and by pure chance they found out he was an actor. After explaining our search for an actor he seemed enthusiastic about the role and gave us his contact details. Here's an example of his previous work. He plays Dan in the web series 'Ramblers'

We managed to get hold of a Glidecam HD 1000, we've had to slightly alter our storyboards as we can use the glidecam to achieve a bit more variety in terms of camera motion during particular scenes.

After being advised to watch 'Clerks' by a tutor it because a big influence on our film in terms of style. The grittiness of the shots and lack of unnecessary action is something we intend to think about. The opening of Dante waking up and opening the shop shows a few elements of his morning routine but Kevin Smith decides not to show us every little thing as it's unnecessary and the viewer can get the information they need and understand Dante's character in a short time with few shots. We intend to do this with our film to show Martin's lifestyle in an effective way.

Location

Due to our change in idea we had to create our characters home. This involved transforming a girly bedroom and a living room shared by 6 people into a bachelor pad for a single man. It took a good few hours of decorating and furniture arranging and here's the result.

Storyboards

Storyboards are done. I can't seem to get them in the correct apparently though.

Drama Project

Initial Treatment

Below is our original treatment in which we pitched to the class, though through the process of further narrative development we have encountered various problems. We felt as a group that the concept wasn't viable because of the plot incoherence. I believe our attempt to draw significance to such a minor social issue would be illogical and unsuccessful.


A short drama that explores the struggle of three friends when the power cuts out and tension begins to rise. After swift negotiation it is decided that Desmond will embark to the corner shop to top up the power as the cold and isolation begins to set in at the house.
Narrative Development: The film begins with an introduction of the characters at their home, after establishing the group dynamic and learning a little about each of them by observing them in their ‘natural environment’ the electricity meter runs out, causing each of them a level of disruption. With this being the catalyst for the disequilibrium, it is decided by way of various methods i.e. rock, paper, scissors that Desmond, the most naive member of the group will go to the shop to top up the meter.
The middle of the film will revolve around the journey of Desmond, cutting back periodically to the two friends at home. Desmond, being a simpleton, is easily distracted on the way to the shop and takes a long time meaning that the two friends at home quickly get bored and begin trying to entertain themselves. When finally Desmond returns to his irritable friends it turns out he’s forgotten all about the electricity and has instead brought back some milk.
Through simple, light hearted comedy we’ll take this otherwise mundane task and transform it into a playful, feel good and relatable short film.
Visual Style: Considering the film is set at night, interior lighting is a key component to stylistic control. We hope to emulate Guy Richie films in terms of cinematography and mise-en-scene with smooth edits used throughout. Lighting and mise-en-scene will be tightly controlled in the house scenes where props will play a large part in telling the story eg. Candle melting away showing passing time/chessboard changing etc. Flashbacks will also play a major part in developing character construction, providing quick glances into the past of the characters. We plan to make use of alot of camera movement and homemade dollies eg. Rope around lampposts/boom pole tripod etc. To give the film a unique feel and keep viewer interest high.


Audience: We believe that this short would appeal to a wide audience, due to its relatable content however we are aiming the film at a mainly university student demographic. 

Liverpool Schedule

March 5th

Arrived In Liverpool at 1pm

Captured cutaways at 4pm

Met James Rand at Peacocks Bar at 6pm

March 6th

Met James for interview at his house at 12pm

Met Paul Hutchinson for interview at Peacocks at 4pm

Met Andy Hill at Shipping Forecast at 5.30pm

Left Liverpool at 6pm

Shot List

Shot	Location	Shot Type	INT/EXT	Movement	Interviewee	Equipment
1	James Rand's Room	Medium Shot	Interior	Static	James Rand	Camera/Tripod
2	James Rand's Room	CU	Interior	Static	James Rand	Camera/Tripod
3	James Rand's Room	CU OTS	Interior	Static	James Rand	Camera/Tripod
4	James Rand's Room	CU of mixing equipment	Interior	Static	James Rand	Camera/Tripod
5	James Rand's Room	High angle	Interior	Static	James Rand	Camera
6	James Rand's Room	Medium OTS	Interior	Static	James Rand	Camera/Tripod
7	Peacocks Bar	Medium Shot	Interior	Static	Paul	Camera/Tripod
8	Peacocks Bar	CU of face	Interior	Static/Free hand	Paul	Camera
9	Peacocks Bar	Medium Long Shot of Peacocks Sign	Exterior	Static	Paul	Camera/Tripod
10	Peacocks Bar	Medium Shot of statue	Exterior	Static	Paul	Camera/Tripod
11	Peacocks Bar	Medium Shot	Interior	Static/Free hand	Paul	Camera
12	The Shipping Forecast	Medium Shot	Exterior	Static	Andy	Camera/Tripod
13	The Shipping Forecast	CU of face	Exterior	Static/Free Hand	Andy	Camera
14	Streets of Liverpool	Medium	Exterior	Static	n/a	Camera/Tripod
15	Streets of Liverpool	Long Shot (Building)	Exterior	Static	n/a	Camera/Tripod
16	Streets of Liverpool	CU (Simon Cowell (Graffiti)	Exterior	Static	n/a	Camera/Tripod
17	Streets of Liverpool	Medium Shot (Bar)	Exterior	Static	n/a	Camera/Tripod
18	Streets of Liverpool	Medium (Gig Posters)	Exterior	Static	n/a	Camera/Tripod
19	Streets of Liverpool	Long Shot (street/ posters)	Exterior	Static	n/a	Camera/Tripod
20	Streets of Liverpool	Push Focus (Street)	Exterior	Static	n/a	Camera/Tripod

Real Scenes: Bristol from Resident Advisor on Vimeo.

The real scenes documentary are a big influence on our piece. Ideally we'd like to get an overview and opinion of Liverpool's electronic music scene in as much detail and variation as the Real Scenes, but with limited time and interview opportunities this will be a challenge. I'm a big fan of the visual style and the quick cut conversational feel of shifts between subjects dialogue. We'd very much like to achieve something of this quality with our finished film.

'Skateistan: To Live and Skate in Kabul'

SKATEISTAN: TO LIVE AND SKATE KABUL from Diesel New Voices on Vimeo.

This documentary displays the efforts of the Skateistam organisation as well as documenting the turmoil in Afghanistan and the effects on the youth. I really enjoyed the documentary, being a fan of skateboarding myself it really made me happy to see other in less privileged places enjoying it. The cinematography and sound design gave the piece a very ambient atmosphere and presented everything in a very content and picturesque way. To me, this is what made the documentary most effective to me, the beautiful shots and music paired with the post war streets and scenery. The documentary had a very observational approach, and the filmmaker seemed almost invisible and very unessential to interaction with the people the film.

Equipment List

Video

Canon 550D Dslr Camera
Canon 7D Dslr Camera
2 x 8 GB SD cards
2 x Tripods

Audio

Boom
Rifle Mic
Long Xlr Cable
Marantz PMD 660
Sony Headphones

Miscellaneous

Apple Mac Laptop

Finished!

Finished editing today. Our film is called 'Monotony'. We had some technical issues to do with the Mac's and rendering, but despite that everything went well. After piecing things together and adding the music and sound from the Marantz, we would watch through and all make notes on post-its on what we felt we could improve or alter until we were satisfied.

Day two!

Finished the second and last day of shooting today. Went very smoothly, despite train issues on our actors side. Again we used a Marantz 660, Rifle Mic and two 550d's. We covered a wall with scribblings on various different pieces of paper, this is what I like to think a manifestation of our character's mind. We did have issues with blu-tack, but hopefully it will not affect the continuity in the final piece. As we had no access to proper lighting we had to improvise with a beside lamp on the floor. This worked surprisingly well, and will look even better once we can alter the colour in post-production. 

Film Soundtrack

I composed the films soundtrack using Garage band.
First Track - http://nooshi.tumblr.com/post/17683726116
The first starts the film off. I used quite a deep ominous bass sound that gives a very tense and uneasy atmosphere. It gives the opening scene much more impact and sets a dark undertone for the film quickly and effectively.

Second Track - http://nooshi.tumblr.com/post/17684520141
The second has a less sinister tone and was made primarily to emphasise the struggle of our character and provoke an emotional reaction with him.

Day one!

Finished our first day of shooting today in my cramped bathroom, and it went very well!

Had a Marantz 660 and Rifle Mic to record sound, and two Canon 550d's for video. Using a two camera set-up saved us half the time as we were able to get two different angles in one take. This will make editing a lot easier as action matches will be seamless. Rhys operated the sound equipment and I framed the shots.

Our actor Tom played the part well, he gave a very believable performance which I thoroughly enjoyed watching. Very much looking forward to day two of shooting.

Shot List/Plan

Decided on a shot list/plan for our film that we can use tomorrow. 

Storyboard

A quick storyboard of ideas from our first meeting.

My photography

Star Guitar

The video for 'Star Guitar' buy The Chemical Brothers was created by Michel Gondry. This is probably the first time I have looked at a music video as a film. The lack of narrative is something I would definitely like to explore in future work, perhpas not in the case of this current brief though. I was very impressed as I can only imagine how difficult the editing would have been, as the attention to detail would be enourmous.

Nolans use of uncomfortable close ups and lack of establishing shots to create unease is something we want to take influence from in our work.

Experimental Film

In the past few days I've had several brainstorming and planning sessions with Rhys and George. We've decided on a rough idea of what we want to do with our film. One film that seemed to crop up during our meetings was Memento by Christopher Nolan. We talked about the use of of an unreliable narrator and how Nolan uses certain visual techniques to isolate the character. We created a loose story of a damaged man. Whether it was emotionally, physically or mentally, we wanted to show his fragile state and him losing his grip on reality.