Filming

 Action!       

Time to put our filming caps on...

All week I was really looking forward to the filming at the weekend. We ran into trouble almost straight away.  
The first scene we anted to shoot was actually the last scene in the film. As director, I found that I wanted this to be the best scene, not because I wanted something to end on, but because it was probably the most important scene as it gave away the twist. So therefore, I wanted to spend as long as possible filming this scene. However, this was not to be. We arrived at the office to film at 1, after being there for 10 minutes, another group turned up saying they had booked this room. Originally having two hours to film, we only had an hour and the other hour was given to them. This was our fault for not checking the availability of the room in the afternoon as we were originally going to have it in the morning.

ANYWAY, long story short, we managed to get what we needed in the short amount of time. After this bad start, everything started to run smoothly. 

For the most part of the weekend, I had a hell a lot of fun. Although at times I was pretty stressed out and exhausted and just wanted to get it finished. I was wondering what sort of attitude I should take as a director. I didn't want to come off as quite strict, but I did want to take fairly seriously. 
So I made some strict rules for the cast and crew before filming. First I wanted to make sure no one comes in hungover/ill. Therefore I 'banned' drinking and going out. I wanted every to be there, on time without any excuses. Of course if it was important than it could of been an exception. It seemed quite unreasonable but no one seemed to mind and therefore everyone turned up on time. 

These pictures were taking on the Sunday while preparing for the scene.

I spent a while on each shot, trying out different angles each time. To me this seemed like the most sufficient way. It will help in editing to see which angles looked best, or if they all looked good, use them all. Although I used a lot of takes, people looked like they were getting a bit annoyed, I wanted to make sure I had at least one or two that looked right. Sometimes we had disturbances though. For example when we were filming in town, we would find a quiet place, and everytime we hit record, people would start walking in the shot or a baby would start crying.

The actors we had were very good. They contributed a lot to the project, giving suggestions and ideas to me and the rest of the crew. It was good to hear an outsiders perspective. I also let them improvise their own lines and use the dialogue in the script as a guideline. I think this worked for the best as the dialogue wasn't really groundbreaking and it would of sounded more natural if they thought of words themselves. Also it helps them develop their character more if they can think of their own dialogue, for which they did. 

Greg played by John Celea

Dan played by Joshua Norris

The whole weekend was a great experience for me. I really can't wait to do it again next year for the second film. Hopefully I will be a bit more organised and have some more inventive ideas/
 

Pre-Production

Plan, Plan, Plan, Plan, Plan, Plan, Plan, Plan ...
The never ending planning for a 5 minitue movie.

Alfred Hitchcock once said that a successful film needs 3 things; a good script, a good script, a good script. Considering our script was not really changed a great deal, we were relying on how our film was going to be visually told.

To make this possible, there was a hell of a lot of planning involved. As this was the first project, and I am directing, I wanted to make sure everything was right before the filming beigns this upcoming weekend.

First thing that needed to be done was assigning roles. I held up my hand for the role of the director. Not becasue I didn't want to do anything else, I just felt like I wanted the responsibility of making sure everything was perfect. I consider myself a perfectionist when it comes to film.

Esme took the role of the producer. This role is very important, and yet again a lot of responsibility. Other important roles were editor, and camera man. We didin't want specific roles, as we all decided that we are going to take on all the roles when needed. Even though I am directing, I didn't it to be all down to my interpretation.

The next job was finding the cast. This seemed to start off well, but it went a bit hectic when our lead actor dropped out and we were stuck with no one.

The script didn't have many characters originally, and as we re-edited, we found that we only really need two actors. Rosie's character was very small, and I had a friend who was ideal for that one-liner. We found Greg's character fairly quickly as he happened to know Sam in our group. Dan's character was where it got complicated.

As he is the lead role, we wanted someone who was not just good at acting, but someone who can be emoptionally vulnerable and be quite unlikable and at the same time, being likable. The original actor dropped out for reasons I don't even know, so I made a few calls to see who could fill in last minute. I couldn't find anyone who was available or wanted to do it. It then hit me that the character of Dan had similar qualities of one of my friends. I asked him if he had acted before, for which he replied, "I did child acting/modelling". I said that was good enough for me. I have no worries about his ability to perform well as he is more dedicated than any other actor would of been. For example he is shaving his beard for the role, and believe me, thats a big deal for him.

The next big step was getting permission. We had to get permission to film everywhere if we want this film to not have any copyright issues. I always thought that this would be the most daunting task of the whole project. However, we mangaed to find it fairly simple. We had some trouble getting to film in the library at the university, but after persistance, we finally got the permission.

The most fun part of the whole process of permission was getting permission from the pub. We decided to use the Green Park Tavern as I was quite familier with it, as I am a local there. When the manager asked us what we were going to film in the pub, I simply replied that we were going to steal your alcohol! He gave me a query look, but I reassured him that we were going to give him the alcohol back. He seemed really pleasent and helpful, and I am looking forward to filming in there.

- Green Park Tavern in Bath







After permission was finished, and the risk assesments were done, the actors were ready, the shot list was devised -  everything seemed like it was going to plan. Unfortunately it didn't last. Our main camera man dropped out of the filming weekend due to him having toe have surgery.

Things were looking bad. We had all the ingredients to cook a good meal, but no idea how to use the oven. To overcome this, me and Lori today asked for another camera tutorial. Richard Wood (technician) managed to fit us in. We learnt the basics (I use the term lightly considering the size of the thing) of the camera. Hopefully we will remember how to turn the damm thing on when it comes to it.

As the weekend quickly apporaches, I am looking forward to it and bricking it. No doubt will it be very fun and very useful on an experience level, but I don't think the planning would be the last of our cock-ups. Hopefully we will be able to think of solutions for any of the problems that may occur.

The Eager Student

The Eager Student 
Lights, Camera, Action!

To prepare us for Choices, which we will be filming next month, we were given the task to prepare, shoot and edit a VERY short film. We were given the script from Mike, in which we took two sessions to make plan and make it.

As there is no dialogue, and shouldn't really be no longer than a minute, we didn't exactly need any top of the range actors. After getting the shooting script, we wrote down some set ups, in which we wanted what angles where. We then wrote down a shot list which helped us decide what we were shooting when. However when it came to shooting, our group did in a different building, which had quite a significant layout to the one in which we based the set ups on. However we just used our initiative and just started shooting.

I was appointed director, so I called all the shots, literally. I was hoping this would give me good experience when I am directing choices. The technical side of the camera was slightly lost on me, but im always up for giving a go. Unfortunately we didn't have time to finish the short film, however, after editing it on Final Cut Pro, we had a full 17 second movie! It wasn't on its way to win any oscars, but we fairly proud of the one edit transision we has of the girl outside the door, switching to her coming inside.

The filming was great experience for me, and probably for the rest of the group. It gives us an insight to what expect when we are shooting Choices. Our main problem was time management. Hopefully we can overcome this when it comes to it.

Here is a link to show that not all films have to be long...