Documentary update

Im almost there,the documentary is nearly finished, its been lots of fun, but very stressful too.. Working with other people has been one of the hardest things to do, and although there have been some big bumps along the way, we all seemed to have manged to overcome these, and now get along fine. I wont pretend this has been easy, because its far from that, but it has been a huge learning experience, i have discovered a lot more about Final Cut Pro and my editing skills are better than before. I have also learnt a lot about how to put together and develop a documentary..I have thoroughly enjoyed this module, and look forward to the viewings on Thursday..

narrative and genre

My essay is finsihed and handed in.. 2500 words to the letter, this essay required a lot of researching, and unfortunately i have incurred some library fines as a result of borrowing 7 day loan only books for longer than i should have. I am quite pleased with the work i produced and the chosen production "smallville" was fun to write about, seeing as its one of my favorite shows. lets just hope the mark reflects the work i put into it..

Take me out

I was running for Take me out on Sun the 13thNov. To begin with I was in the office helping Kelly with some shredding of confidential waste, and laminating. However I spent the rest of the day with Paul Brice the studio sound man, lovely guy who was very helpful and introduced me to the rest of the sound team. I was given the opportunity to mic up the lads and girls and see what goes on during rehearsals, helping with tea runs, and general stuff, I had an excellent day and finished it off watching the live show, finally finishing at 10;30pm.. Brilliant

Narrative and Genre

I have received the feedback from my essay from Helen, and she is happy with the work I have produced so far. I have been asked to expand some of my ideas, and also to explain a few of the theories that I have talked about within the essay, also I don't have to discuss just the one production, I can explore others so that I can reference or compare them to my preferred one. Overall though it has been good feedback and I am happy.

Documentary update

Filming on the 12th Nov went well, I managed to get some nice shots of Skyla fundraising and some wides of her with her family too. We also went to Kingscross on the 15th Nov to film Renee our expert, I have to say carrying the heavy camera bag all over London underground was a pain to say the least... However the interview went well and Renee was very accommodating, her being an x war correspondent/journalist from South Africa made filming easier as she knew what to expect...So far this project has been very demanding but I have enjoyed it a lot.

update for documentery

Last night we filmed our interview with Rita and Ari. However we did have some sound issues due to the children being a little noisy, and had to ocassional re take, but assides from this, Rita and Ari were great, and did what we asked, despite both of them being quite nervous. Its quite interesting to see how people react to a camera lens in front of them, specially when you know them personally. Hennie, Lauren, and I all manged to work well together, communication being the key to this. Hennie was on sound, whilst Lauren was on camera, I was asking the questions and keeping note of the time logs and I helped Lauren with lighting. The next shoot is the 12th Nov this Sat, where I will be filming the oldest daughter fundraising for cancer. I'm looking forward to it.

update for documentary...

I received a pleasant call this morning from Dr Lutz Marten, from the soas university re the message i had left him about our commision, he was quite agreeable to talking on camera, however i did discover his expertise is more in the African languages. Not quite sure how that will work. Renee Horn also contacted me re the commision and again seemed happy, however i need to ring her back tonight after six as she is teaching all day, so i can confirm filming dates etc. She is more ideal as she is an expert in south african politics...

Narrative and genre

1125 words done so far, and i haven't even finished talking about genre.

direction unit update

Its been a rough week so far. However i have finally got an actress who can play the part of cathy, unfortunately she cant make it till next week, which is cutting it fine for me to do the edit.. I am determined though to get this module in on time...stressssssssssssssss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Margateparadiso

I have emailed David Reilly applying to be a member of crew for the Margateparadiso production, fingers crossed..

Documentary update..

So far this module has been up and down. We have done plenty of research and now fully understand apartheid and a fair bit about the economy of South Africa. I had a slight mishap last week when my couple pulled out due to problems with the documentary being aired on youtube. However I did manage to find another couple who left S/A in the noughties, unfortunately though they left in the later half of the noughties and we now need to find an expert on South African politics and international relations. I had manged to contact Dr Anne Hammerstad (whom Helen located) this evening at the univerity of kent, who is an expert but unfortunately she is due to go away for a month on a  research project in two days.  I will be contacting another member of her department tomorrow, hoping to secure an expert for an on camera interview.
Putting out fires, again....

Direction unit...update...

Todays been a very productive albeit a pain of a day.. I have finally casted Cathy for my drama, thankfully a friend who has some previous experience acting for kent t.v ( briefly) is able to help. I am aiming to shoot Thursday morning at the studios, assuming a camera is avaliable.......
I have my shot list, and script breakdown already prepared and hopefully my actors are learning their lines as we speak...So I'm on track now for submitting on time, if the edit goes well..

Link to our documentary blog.

http://leaving-home-uca.blogspot.com/

Hope everyone can find us now...

Narative and Genre..update..

To be honest im not getting as far with this yet as i hoped, despite watching all the smallville i possibly can squeeze in to my schedule. I'm going to be doing some more research into the production team of smallville, and whos who and why they are on the production team and what relation they have to the previous films, if any. This will help when exploring the iconography of Smallville.  The narrative tools im taking a special interest in at the moment are the lighting, costume, and the type of acting used. I have already discovered first hand some of the problems when viewing Smallvile on such devices as smart phones or computers, one of them is how they use lighting to set the mood, which can be poorly transmitted when using a different viewing device other than t.v, this can be a real distraction and cause the viewer to loose interest.
Anyway enough waffle, i need sleep, again...

direction workshop.

So Monday was interesting, learning how to direct our actors, how to get the best out of them, without upsetting them, or causing them to run away, although i think after Jo's performance some of us wanted to run away, kidding.... It was good throwing ourselves into the role of actor as well as director if gave us the opportunity to view the filming process from both perspectives. Understanding how to communicate with people is key to what you have to do, and if you can get this right it would appear that you can get even the most amateur of actors to give you a good performance. I really enjoyed this workshop despite being a slightly repetitive process. However practice does make perfect, almost...

Direction

So we are making an online t.v series, using dramas that are already featured on t.v. We have to take a 3 min clip from an episode, transcribe it, and direct it our own way making sure that we use the same dialogue and characters.
My chosen drama for this project is The Big C, this programm features a mid thirties lady named Cathy who has recently discovered that she has a terminal cancer, unwilling to tell her husband or child she sets about changing the way she thinks about the disease and life trying to discover the humour in it all, aswell as getting her weird back.
Funny, witty and deeeply moving at times i thought this was a great drama to do, and personally i cant wait to get my teeth into it.

documentary....update

Looking at events during the noughties we have to come up with a idea for a ten min documentary, then pitch it to Helen, Simon and an industry expert... OUCH.....

So my first idea was going to be the letters of a dead soldier that never made it home, incorporating one to one interviews with his mother and using archive footage of the Afghan war, which i was going to obtain from personal photos and news real footage. telling his story right up to when he was killed during the act of duty. Unfortunately it fell apart, as the mother wasn't happy about the letters being released or giving an interview.
So plan b, panic and make phone calls......

The new idea is about a South African couple who left S/A in the early noughties following the reversal of apartheid in S/A , concerned for they're family's well being and the financial situation they were facing with their farm, they made a brave decision to leave and start afresh in the U.K, without any major qualifications or having worked for an employer before they started to re-train and start new careers. This documentary would be looking at the trials and tribulations they faced using one to one interviews and personal archive footage. I have so far manged to secure the interviews on the condition i work around their commitments. I believe this will work well with the time frame i have been given and believe this will make an interesting documentary about life's struggles and how we overcome them. I will have to be careful about how i portray the subject matter insuring i am objective at all times and not racially prejudice .

Narrative and Genre

I have looked at the essay topic, and although slightly bemused by the question i took it upon myself to read other classmates blogs and see where they were at, this has helped a lot.

I think my chosen production will be smallville, apart from being a big fan, the history of smallville and how it how it has bridged the gap for the previous films makes it an interesting production to look at. I will especially be looking at the iconography of smallville, aswell as the genre and narrative tools it uses. I am really looking forward to researching this production.

Documentary/commision update.

Well better late than never, i know i haven't been on here much, but life has been getting in the way.
After last week's discussion with Helen about my ideas, i have realised that that time frame we have been given will make it nearly impossible to do any of my ideas, so i have come up with something new, but again i will need clearance from Helen as im not sure about the legalities. I hope to do it though as this one will fit into the time frame and i have access to the subjects and achive already.
I can't say too much on here just yet but when i get the all clear i will be happy to tell all..

sound design, oooooo at last....

Well i have finally finished everything, sound, story telling, and media strategies...yay.. here is a link to check out my sound design project.http://www.youtube.com/user/UCABroadcastMedia#p/u/5/ehYs3QXy0L4

ooops

just remembered i never did upload my meeting trailer.http://www.youtube.com/user/UCABroadcastMedia#p/u/17/C6-VkSHy-7k

sounds busy to me..!

Well its another long week at the studios, still working on my sound project, which i would like to add has been a complete pain, what with my first sound project being completely ruined and having to start again from scratch, I've been ill with a migraine and have forgotten loads of stuff that we were taught about final cut, nightmare... oh and a sound project with a migraine, not fun....However Simon did take some time out today to show me how to use power point and to help me when i got stuck with final cut, so it wasn't too bad... I am still working on the final touches to my essay, which is coming along ok, except that I'm having issues using Athens and will probably have to pay Rachel a visit again...Hmmmm. Now i know it all sounds like doom and gloom, but i did land a floor assistant position for the second year's as live production, which I'm really excited and very nervous about, i just don't want to let anyone down. So its off to bed early for me tonight, as i need to catch up on some much needed sleep, so that I'm ready for tomorrow.. Good luck everyone i hope it all goes well......

sound, what ?

So back at uni, and i survived the meeting of the parents, in fact it went well. My sound project is coming along ish, I need the rest of my photos then all systems go.. I'm looking at Sergio Leone's work and thinking of taking a similar route with my project.. Oh just one thing, does anyone know where i can get a cheap macbook pro? My laptop is now at deaths door, major issues now...sighhhhhhh...

well its easter fun for some...!!

so where do i start, so far i have turned 30, got burnt , a bit... had a party, traveled half the kent coast trying to find a sandy beach that isn't over crowded, whilst at the same time trying to get together the beginnings of an idea for the sound project, and entertain a nine year old who has more energy than the entire uca put together...
I think the sound project idea is going to be a simple one , probably the journey of meeting the parents, which im due to do this weekend.. should be fun.. cough cough cough.... wish me luck, enjoy your hols everyone.. see yah soon...

the meeting and me.

Just an update really on how things are going, so far i think i've finished the trailer, the synopsis and script are complete along with the pitch and storyboard, i didn't make it into the studios Mon and Tues this wk as i have been very ill and unable to leave the confines of my toilet, not fun... However  i will be in wed morn to add any finishing touches to my trailer and to hand in the completed unit... Oh and my car is finally fixed and my wallet is down to the tune of £150 , never-mind....SIGHHHH......Hope everyone is well...

I hate final cut !!!!!

I came into the studios today, optimistically thinking i would get the majority of my editing done today, how wrong was I..? Not only do i discover that in several of my shots the microphone is in clear view,but i also realise how bad the acting is. I know Simon said i wouldn't be marked down for the poor acting, but this problem is really testing my editing skills, which to be honest aren't great at the best of times. I'm hopeless at final cut, and my material i have to work with is about as good...
I don't honestly know how good/bad this trailer is going to turn out, But so far it has cost me my lunch break today, my sanity for the last week, and now my stress levels are through the roof... Thank god some of the second years were there today to help occasionally when i needed it, otherwise it may have resulted in a Mac going through a window... well ok,  maybe not but still i thought about it.....

The Meeting , the pitch version 3.

The Pitch for the meeting.

A young woman finds herself in limbo, face to face with her father, who turns out to be her childhood abuser. 21 words.

Re written and hopefully an improvement on the previous ones...

Synopsis version 3 ???

The meeting, the synopsis version 3.

This short film features a young woman called “Emma” a fairly plain looking woman who is 25 years old. Emma is currently in a mental health institution due to severe depression and suicidal tendencies, the most recent failed attempt to take her own life resulted in being her being committed, her mental health problems are due to a traumatised childhood where she was regularly beaten and sexually abused. She has only been in the institution one week so far and has just received news from her social worker that her father has committed suicide. Emma is furious that she never got the chance to confront her him.

After furiously praying to be re united with her father, later that night a weary Emma falls asleep only to find she “awakes” in limbo, with her father standing before her, shocked but unafraid she stares him in the face; her father still looking the same in death as he did in life, with his grey hair, stocky build and piercing blue eyes that look straight through you.

Anxious and shocked she finds the courage to start her inquisition of her father with the intention of some resolution, possibly even closure, Emma is determined to use this opportunity to face her demons and find out why her father wrecked her life and killed himself. This is a film about relationships, love and resolution, and looking at the human psyche. Will Emma be able to forgive her father, can he give her the answers she is searching for?  Far from ending her story with the death of her father, Emma has just begun it; will she have what it takes to finish the story and take it to its final conclusion? Her sanity and her own fate will depend entirely on how she chooses to conclude her tale.
304 words

The Meeting so far......

Hmmm well its been a while since i have last posted, so i thought i should rectify this..
Today was the shoot for my trailer for The Meeting..To be honest i didn't get off to a good start, my main actress was off sick throwing up her breakfast, and my back up actor wasn't very prepared, which was entirely my fault. This wasn't good and to top it all my only window for shooting was today, and today only.. Grrrr......So the shoot itself was ok and filming was only slowed by some bloopers, i had great support from my friends who were helping, but unfortunately none of them have any experience in the field except my lighting guy who was busy arguing with the AA about nectar points...

Not a very professional shoot but i have done what i can with the resources i had.  So after shooting i made a mad dash to the studios to export the media onto my computer, only to find poor Jo was there on her own, looking rather annoyed and very tired. I don't think I've known the base room to be so quiet. Once exported i checked the media and it doesn't look too bad, a couple of scenes that will require some major editing, but on the whole it has come out alright, i just hope the editing and audio will improve it where some of the poorer acting lets its down.

I have also re written my synopsis and script where appropriate, so i have been fairly busy, oh and my car is clean too, not that anyone but me cares about that... I just have this sodding essay to tackle now, I've decided on my program, EastEnders but I'm still stuck so next week I will be spending time with Rachel Kitchen, I just hope I have time in between editing, school runs, storyboard work, and life.....
Well good luck everyone i hope your trailers are going well and see you all on Monday morning bright and early but lets face it, half the class are in Amsterdam so probably not, the lucky devils......

soft trailer

check it...

Dan Baugh and myself put this together, whilst i was simultaneously finishing my script for the interim deadline. To be honest after viewing everyone else's trailers i wasn't as impressed with ours any more, although this is nobody's fault other than mine probably as i wasn't around as much as i should have been to help with the workload, but Dan did an amazing job of editing without me when i did have to dart off. In hind sight I agree with Dan i think the Michael Buble track wasn't quite right, however  we did make it work, just.... Hmmm well i hope everyone enjoys this trailer and if you have any ideas on how we could improve on it don't be afraid to say......

Transformers 2, at last..!

Transformers 2.....
I finally got round to watching Transformers 2 at the weekend, I'm sure I probably should have been doing work on my script, but honestly i just couldn't concentrate, so i decided i would better off relaxing for a bit. 
I don't normally watch action movies,however i was very impressed with the first film, so i thought it was about time i watched the second, after all i figured i was owed some sofa time..
Having grown up with Transformers, He-man, Thunder cats, etc etc the
inner child was quite desperate to see the continuing adventures of Sam and MacKayla.
I was yet again impressed with the graphics, and only in my wildest dreams as a child could I have imagined Optimus Prime and his team of auto-bots becoming the wondrous machines they are now..It really is amazing what they can do with computers.
As far as plot lines go, its not that much different to the first one, making it easy viewing, and still suitable for my daughter to watch,(its a little harder to get upset about a lump of metal dying,than say for example a puppy) so anyway, yet again Sam saves the day with the help of the auto-bots and his rather hot girl friend good triumphs over evil and the world is safe again from the devious Decepticons.
I cant honestly say that i was that impressed with the overall result, however despite it all, i will be going to the cinema to watch the third one when it comes out, and even though i don't really like action movies, Transformers will always appeal to the child inside of me....

Character profiles for the meeting.

Character profile for Emma.
25 years old.
Plain looking, no distinguishing features, light brown hair, average build, about 5ft 2 inches.
She has spent most of her life going from one crappy job into another, never really happy or settled in her job choices, she is constantly looking for something to make her feel normal, whether is a relationship or job, she is always looking.
Emma suffers from post traumatic stress and severe depression, she has reached a point in her life, where she can no longer see a happy future, and has tried to kill herself, which has resulted in her being admitted into a mental health institution.
Emma is a very jittery character but has a lot of potential to be a confident,happy person, if she can only sort herself out.

Father character profile.
Age at time of death, 46 years, 2 months, 3 days, 4 hours and 23 minutes.
Stocky build, greying hair, hands the size of small dinner plates. He spent his primary years in care homes, with his brother and sisters, as a result of his mother abandoning them so she could go to university, whilst his father was away with the army. He always worked hard throughout his life so he could provide for himself and then his family, although he wasn't essentially a bad guy, he was abusive to his daughter, and also violent towards his wife.
He also had mental health problems which were never resolved, suffering with paranoia and mild schizophrenia, he had been an outpatient of a mental institution for years, before eventually killing himself.

Cameo roles, social worker. To be honest her part is so minor that i haven't really come up with a profile for her, other than late thirties female.

Hmmm well I think this enough for the meantime.........

Pitch for the meeting, version 2

After a re think and some feedback from simon, i have re written my pitch for the meeting.

A young woman finds herself in limbo with her deceased father, also her childhood abuser,and gets to ask him those all important questions. 24 words.

I hope this better and not so dry.

The Meeting, ideas for filming....

Well the synopsis is up for viewing....I have ideas for how i want the film to look, first of all it would be good if i can use studio three so that i can use the green curtains, as i was hoping to do a white room backdrop for the first scene,for the father and daughter scene, i was looking to have a fiery backdrop behind the father, possibly depicting scenes from hell with the daughter surrounded by an off white colour. I'm not sure how good final cut pro is and whether or not this is possible, so some research is required...  Hmmmm we shall see... Anyway i hope everyone is having a good weekend...see yah all on monday....

The synopsis for The Meeting.

The meeting, the synopsis.

This short film features a young woman “Emma” a fairly plain looking woman who is 25 years old. Emma is currently in a mental health institution due to severe depression and suicidal tendencies brought on by a traumatised childhood where her father regularly beat and sexually abused her. She has only been in the institution one week so far and has just received news from her social worker that her father has committed suicide. Emma is furious that she never got the chance to confront her father.

After receiving the news Emma lays in bed praying that she had just one more chance to speak with him to ask him the questions she never had the opportunity to ask.

After falling asleep she “awakes” to find herself in limbo, with her father standing before her, shocked but unafraid she stares her abuser in the face, her father still looks the same in death as he did in life, with his grey hair, stocky build and still wearing the same look of contempt for her that he always did.

She finds the courage to start her inquisition of her father with the intention of some resolution, possibly even closure. This is a film about relationships, love and resolution, looking at the human psyche in a painful and emotional way, it is set mainly in the one room as this is a character based film and doesn’t require too many effects to get the point across. This is a touching subject for many people and as we follow Emma’s journey, and ordeal we hope for her that she will get the closure she needs to feel “normal” again. This is a once in a life time opportunity to confront her abuser, how many people out there would relish that chance to confront someone they once knew who has since passed on?  

313 words again...not sure why this has happened.....

The pitch for The Meeting

After a long week and more problems with student finance, I have finally managed to get back to blogging.

This is proving harder than I thought, I have an idea that is about something I care very much about, however trying to "sell" this idea wont be easy, its not about something pleasant and its also going to be a pig to post edit, specially because I still don't know how to use final cut pro, I think I may have to spend some time with Fergus.
So far I have come up with several ideas, none of which felt quite right to me, this one however does.

This is the pitch, "A young woman is given the opportunity to confront her abuser after he has died, and ask the questions she has wanted to for years." 25 words.

Now for the synopsis, wont be long...

The Meeting

Well at long last I have finally settled on an idea for The Meeting. I'm not sure how everyone will feel about it, so I wont be revealing too much until the big day... I thought long and hard about whether or not to do this, as its very raw emotionally, and might upset some people, but its about real life, and what we wish we could do about it... I don't want to say too much, and I have a lot to write up.

The synopsis for Spaced.

We have been asked to write a synopsis for Spaced in 300 to 500 words. I wont say this was easy, because it wasn't. I managed to write 313 words.


Not your typical boy meets girl story, Spaced is about the adventurous lives of Tim and Daisy who live in a shabby building in London. It starts with Tim and Daisy meeting in a café, where they form a friendship. Daisy a deluded graduate who has been living in a squat is flat hunting, and the aspiring comic book artist Tim who has been recently dumped by his girlfriend is also looking for somewhere to live .After realising they need each other they move into Marsha’s (the land lady) room under the pretence of being a couple.

Living in the building is Brian a tortured artist with a split personality, who isn’t in touch with reality very often and is dating a rather ditzy girl by the name of Twist who believes she works in fashion but in actual fact works in a launderette.

Tim and Daisy together with Tim’s T.A crazy friend Mike who is a trigger happy fantasist go on a variety of fast paced comical adventures, whilst still trying to keep secret about their fake romance from the prying eyes and ears of the alcoholic land lady Marsha.

This is a fast paced comedy set locally with lots of pop culture references and action scenes with the occasional dose of animation and a contemporary sound track, with the characters growing emotionally and each episode being self contained it is easy but enjoyable viewing for the audience, keeping them interested and allowing them to become familiar with the characters.

With multiple story arcs and non linear, fast editing, jump cuts and unusual camera angles this makes for great viewing as well as making you aware of watching it. Slightly abstract but hilarious British comedy this is a series about modern day relationships, surviving the rat race and realising your head full of dreams is sometimes just a head full of dreams.

Spaced the pitch.

The first time I watched spaced was some years ago, and I enjoyed watching it this time round just as much as I did then. We were asked to come up with a 25 word pitch for spaced as part of our story telling module.

I came up with 4 drafts and eventually settled on the first one I wrote. I'm not sure how good this would sound if I had to pitch this to someone in a lift and I went over my limit by 1 word. Anyway this is it......

"The lives of a dysfunctional couple who live together in a building with surreal characters. All trying to survive in the rat race, with hilarious results".

We were also asked to come up with a pitch for our favorite T.V series or program, mine is as you can see from the above image is Smallville. This was my pitch....

"An action packed sci-fi series about the adventures of a young superman facing all of life's trials and tribulations as a post pubescent".  

Thats it for the moment I have a synopsis for spaced to work on.