Production Diary - The End?

Having completed my Media Advanced portfolio, I've certainly learnt a lot. There were the problems with sound that necesitated a whole new idea + script, having to work around my lead actor cutting his hand open and applying some improv first aid, as well as the fact that editing never turns out how you'd expect.

 

This has all come together and means that now I've followed this idea through to completion I've learnt skills that I'll be able to apply to other projects I tackle in the future.

 

While completing this project I've also co-directed the school play, a performance of Byrony Lavery's It Snows worked with the BFI as part of a film academy and worked as an editor for another short film. As well as that I've also gone through the UCAS process and applied for Portsmouth University to do a Digital Film and Television production course meaning that I'll be working with similar equipment and software that I used throughout this course for a little longer yet.

 

It's not been easy but it's definitely the most enjoyable task I've ever had to complete for school - something I will certainly be trying to do again. It's been exhausting and typing what will be my final production diary is making it feel like a cinematic ending montage with the Killers playing over it (Mr Brightside) just to cement the fact it's all over.

Turn To Camera

And with that --

Cut to Black.

Production Diary - Study of Sound

As last time didn't go so well, I've been looking into sound recording and how I could improve it next time.

This video was one of the helpful things that helped me understand more about how sound works and is recorded and is well worth a watch.

As part of the BFI film academy course I've been doing, I attended a lecture on sound recording which was also very informative. Here are a couple pages of notes I drew up. As you can tell by the noughts and crosses, three hours with no toilet break was a little too long!

Sound quality can make or break a short film so it's important to get it right.

Shooting review

I should have made a silent movie.

Having arranged a date for my cast and booked the equipment I thought I would need, we made our way to our set straight after school.

While I wasn't expecting to have everything shot in this session, I had planned to bank a few key shots, meaning I could begin editing a bare bones version of my video and work out what cutaways (or B-roll footage) I needed to pick up the second time.

Unfortunately, despite bringing a shot-gun microphone, the sound quality meant the majority of my footage is unusable. It picked up a lot of the ambient sound (chatter, the noises from behind the counter ect) but that was at the expense of the actor's dialogue. You can even hear myself calling 'action' better than the actors talking.

Last Saturday as part of the BFI film academy, I worked as the sound recorder on a separate short film shoot which involved me taking the microphone into my hand, put on the headphones and listen intently for any discrepancies in the audio quality. For the majority of this shoot it meant me lying on the floor trying to stay out of frame. It's looking likely that I'm going to need someone to take this role for the reshoot, perhaps using a boom mic which will mean another addition to the crew.

However, it wasn't all bad - if I were to look at this shoot as a trial or a camera rehersal, it means that next time should be more efficient.

Dapper.



Shooting coming!

Production is moving rapidly now, with a initial shooting date of the 17th of Novemeber. While I'd have liked to have shot it a month or so earlier, the reality of coordinating actors, equipment and the location meant I had to be flexible. In order to make sure the shoot is as efficient as possible, I've drawn up a shot list and a storyboard which will hopefully means I have a reference of what to shoot.

 On the admin side, I'm getting my actors to sign a model release form, so they can allow my useage of their image and everything I shoot as well as a commitment to make an effort for reshoots. There is a similar one for the location that I'll need to get the manager of the coffee shop to sign - essentially my promising not to knock any doors down.

I'm having my lead actor over on Wednesday to play dress-up. While we both have an idea of what we want the character to wear and look like, this costume planning will help us be specific and give me as director an understanding of what colours I will be working with. I've done a lot of exploration of colour imagery, something I'll go into more detail after the shoot.

Production Diary - Researching

Lately I've turned my focus in Media studies to looking at existing products and working out what works and what doesn't. Doing this hopefully will help me understand how to make a short film that works with existing conventions as well as being well done.

As seen in my Research into Director's post, one director I've looked at it Spike Jonze and his work. I saw Where the Wild Things Are soon after its release and loved it for its beautiful and unique visuals as well as a very touching and emotive story. Looking back over it recently made me want to explore his other works which lead me to watch his latest feature Her, another fantastic, innovative film.

This has certainly influenced my ideas visually - suggesting a tone and 'style' to emulate while shooting, which I'll explore more in an upcoming post.

Production Diary - The Benefit of Hindsight

Back in Easter, a couple friends and I entered a national competition to create a short film in the science fiction genre in the space of forty-eight hours. We were given the title ('Strange Attractor') a prop (A black box - to be opened but we couldn't see what was inside) and a line of dialouge that had to be included.

The end result is below.

I'm proud of what we created in that time and I feel the story worked really well for the format.

Looking forwards to comencing production of the next short film I will make, I've decided it's worth looking back to examine what worked well and what didn't.

The first thing that I would have done differently is adjusting the exposure - everything is a lot brighter than I'd have liked. I do know now how to do that properly and will definitely be able to fix it for Brew.

Also, I'd like to place a focus on developing the frame compisition -  having to deal with actors of very different hieghts resulted in a few odd angles, as well as a total disregard of the rule of thirds - the technique that suggests that there are places to objects of interest to make the frame more aesthetically pleasing.

During directing, the main thing I'll take away is that it's good to do as many takes as possible, and keep in mind how it will be edited. Using only one camera meant that I had to get the actors to repeat the majority of the takes in order to enable succesful editing. What I'd like to be able to work on next time is making the final product look 'fluid' and less choppy, which can be achieved by having more takes to choose between and monitoring the actor's movements. The 'choppy' editing is evident earlier on in this video where we were doing shorter takes - later on we moved to longer ones, and I feel that did work better.

One other thing that I am proud of is the variation of shots - there is a wide range presented, with a purpose. I especially like the low angle shot with the box in focus and the two characters arguing in the background (1:37). We even desaturated the shot in Premier in order to make it look different and stand out from the other shots.

Making Strange Attractor was great fun and a great experience and I'm glad to have done it, as it has given me some pointers to make my final product short film as good as possible.



Production Diary - Planning and Production

I’ve set myself a target of having Brew shot by the last week in October, allowing plenty of time for editing, reshoots or pickups.

To make this a reality, I’ve been working on planning the shoot extensively, as well as looking for actors to play the parts – I will be holding an audition to work out which of the actors I’m considering will be best for the role. I have currently narrowed it down to three actors who could bring something to the role of Graham, afterwards I will look at casting Miranda.
For a limited shoot, being as efficient as possible is important to make the use of the time so I have been detailing what needs to be shot in the form of a storyboard. Drawing isn’t my area of expertise so it took a bit of research to comfort myself that my anatomically incorrect scribbles are acceptable – specifically I looked at Ben Wheatley’s storyboards for the two episodes of Doctor Who he directed.

Doctor Who - Deep Breath, 2014

Set hunting has also been a task that’s proving difficult – two coffee shops I was looking at shooting in closed within two weeks of each other leaving to keep looking. I have found that independent coffee shops are more likely to be flexible as opposed to chains such as Costa or Café Nero as they have different agendas. A coffee-shop crawl through London is being planned, although I would prefer to keep it local as it means getting the cast, equipment and crew around is easier.

 I'm also continuing my aim to watch short films regularly and features once a week in order to note their construction. Recently, after being impressed by Spike Jonze's music videos I've watched Where the Wild Things Are which was a brilliant watch and impressivley made. What I've seen of his portfolio, I can see his 'style' emerging with soft visuals and bittersweet stories and this is likely to have an influence on my work.

Production Diary: I wrote a script!

It’s important to have a good script when making a film as it’s near impossible to make a good film out a bad script. From a business point of view, the script is usually what sells a film to get it into production, especially for a short film. This is why it is crucial to make the script as best as it can be - with developed characters and a structured story that utilises the medium effectively. Film is also a visual medium so it is also necessary to convey as much as possible through visuals.

The script I have written that I plan to shoot and produce is a drama which tells the story of a grumpy man who is happy in is misery until a new perspective changes things. It’s set in a coffee shop over the course of three days and features only two speaking roles - which will make the shooting quick and efficient as opposed to having to organise cast and crew to get to a variety of different locations. Furthermore, for this story more locations are not necessary so it will allow me to tell a concise and effective story.

The first idea I had for the script was the opening line of the protagonist’s interior monologue. This came about on a conversation on a camp, discussing the merits of black or white coffee. The phrase “I like the misery” (undoubtedly inspired somewhat by Father Ted) prompted the discussion of what sort of person someone has to be to drink their coffee without any milk or sugar. The ideas of the character were stuck with me the entire hike up the mountain but it was only when I was being dangled precariously down a hole in a glacier above an unknown height, the character of Graham and the basic story of Brew came into existence.

I always enjoy stories about contrasting two characters and exploring the influence someone who is no more than a stranger can have on someone. The creation of Miranda, who was from the offset cheerful, thoughtful and optimistic, was an obvious result of the desire to have a character who was the complete opposite of Graham. The story was a simple one - a grumpy, bitter man would begin to see the world differently.

The first draft was written on paper at the airport a few days after the conception of the idea. For the second draft, written a week later on Celtx there weren’t many changes. Graham had originally been called Jeff but that name never really stuck the same way Graham did. The main changes made were within the layout and wording. The first, rough draft in my notebook was only ever written to be read by me so I had to make sure it appeared professional and easier to be read by the cast and crew.

The ending was changed slightly - the ending that I had written on paper (and that was originally typed up) simply had Graham (then Jeff) sitting at his table with his own notepad and pen as he put some sugar into his coffee. While I did like the visual representation of his ‘sweetening’ with the sugar sachet, I felt it was a little too happy and I wanted to accentuate the bitter sweetness of a lonely man realising he was actually lonely. This made the ending more emotionally resonant and in my opinion much stronger than what was originally written.

The next challenge is to find a location to shoot and cast the characters while working on a shot list and a storyboard. 

Production Diary - Resource Bank

I have been conducting a ‘resource bank’ for usage in my short film. This is a list of locations, actors, props and techniques I could use to make a high-quality, professional short film. Ideally I wouldn’t need to work backwards from these utilities to develop a story – rather meet halfway with a story that’s decent with a set or location that looks brilliant.
These are some of the Locations I have gathered.

South Quay.

This is an area near Canary Warf. As a location it is visually exciting, looks futuristic and is likely to be very easy to film at on a Sunday when no one is working. At night the lights transform the area into a brightly lit, colourful metropolis. I would consider using this location to tell a smaller, futuristic science fiction story, probably using the ‘ten minutes into the future’ trope to tell an exciting story – possibly exploring what happens to the people that don’t get to work in the big, bright buildings. Being on the other side of London it might be tricky to co-ordinate transporting equipment and actors as often as necessary so that would need to be considered.

Ruislip Lido.

A lot less glamorous than South Quay but that would be the point. Ruislip Lido is a hole of rancid water by an artificial beach with a park that needs just a bit more paint. This idea of urban decay would work with a story about outsiders and outcasts – perhaps a story about two people meeting and their lives changing. This location looks best at night: the lights from the pub across the ‘lake’ offer some beautiful visuals which is important for a film. I wouldn’t be the first person to shoot there either – Cliff Richard made his music video there too!

Woods.

We are lucky to have woods nearby. Not only due to the fact we’re near London where trees are rapidly becoming an endangered species, but they also look really cool to film in. While there is the idea that every student film ever is shot in the woods, it is for good reason as the woods offer an exotic environment with vivid colours and imagery. If I was shooting in the woods I’d want it to be with a story that could only be told in the woods – for example, a fantasy. While typically the budgets for fantasy films are very expensive, the children’s show ‘The Legend of Dick and Dom’ manages to be consistently low budget due to clever story telling techniques in regards to the locations and characters. If I was doing a fantasy in the woods, costumes and props to begin to ‘world build’ would be very important to sustain the suspension of disbelief. The proximity of the location lends itself to camera rehearsals without the actors or full equipment, just preparation of the camera to see how the location looks on frame.

Others.

I have a caravan in Wales which I will be going to in the summer so while it wouldn’t be practical to bring my whole cast and crew up here, there would be an opportunity for acquiring some B-roll footage to enhance something that may have been shot in the woods. For example: mountains, rivers and buildings. This part of Wales looks like its a couple hundred years behind everyone else, anyway.

There is also a canal nearby that offers some interesting and exciting visuals. At one point in the stretch between Rickmansworth and Harefield there is what looks like the framework of a building that has burnt down with a stuffed Gorilla hanging from it by a noose. I’d love to buy a canal boat and tell the story of someone who lives in a canal boat but sadly that is a bit over-budget for this project.

Production Diary - Shorts I've seen

As ideas for a short film go there are many I could choose from. I have been making an effort to watch a video on Short of the Week every day for a few months now to work out myself what works well and what doesn't. Some of favourites I have found are:

Do You Believe in the Devil?

A horror that plays with the faustian bargain trope. I like this one because it is brilliantly written but also beautifully shot and edited.

The Black Hole

The best short films are the ones that focus on an idea and leaves you asking questions. This one certainly does and manages to do so without using any dialogue.

We Were Awesome

A seven minute dialogue between two friends which manages to reveal so much more about the two characters' relationship. The story also revolves around a single, beautiful visual which the audience ends up anticipating as much as the characters.

Production Diary - Introduction to the Course

The Coursework for A2 Media Studies focuses on producing a piece of Media. We have been given a series of briefs which outline the different types we can do - these vary from a music video to pages of a newspaper - and they are all very exciting.

The one I am going to complete this year is the creation of a short film in its entirety. I love the medium of film and earlier in this year took part in a screenwriting course run by the BFI based in Newcastle upon Tyne where the participants were guided in the development of a five page script for a short film which I really enjoyed and I'm looking forwards to doing this as part of my A2 course. Learning how to shoot and edit the video is also something I'm excited about learning to do.

What would come with this is creating a poster to promote the film, a radio trailer for the film and a page in a film magazine featuring a review. These tasks are also something I'm looking forwards to doing. An upcoming post will focus on analysis of posters that are similar to my film - a mix of feature films with a similar tone to something I might create and other short films. A radio trailer would be interesting as film is such a visual medium to strip a vital part of the product and still trying to promote it will be a challenge.  I listen to a lot of Audio Plays so I have a bit of knowledge of what will and won't work on radio.

The development of my short film and the other tasks will be chronicled on this blog from start to finish and I can't wait to see the end result.