Directions Unit - Crew

From doing last units project I learned that I needed to have more people on set to help me, so when it came to doing this unit and project getting a crew was one of my top priorities. With this unit my task is to direct a short film and I wanted to make that my main priority, instead of worrying about filming and checking the sound at the same time.

I asked a couple of people from from class to help out with my filming, they all gladly said that they would help out. I asked Helen, Roxanne, Sophie and Ren. I felt that I didn't need to ask anyone else as there weren't many other jobs to do.

My Crew:

Me - Director
Helen - Camera woman
Roxanne - Sound
Sophie - Sound Assistant
Ren - My Assistant (to help with scenes, props, etc.)

I'm glad i've got more people helping out this time, I definitely think I will be able to get filming done better and quicker. I'm happy that i'm working with other people in my class and can't wait to get started on this project!!

Directions Unit - 4 minute Drama Ideas

A couple of week into starting the Directions Unit, I had a couple ideas that I could use for my 4-minute dramatic film. Now as I chose loneliness I wanted to create a storyline that brought that theme out. Here are my ideas that I came up with.

Idea One

A young woman around 22 years old, lost her family a couple of years ago to a car accident. She meets up with a friend of the family to collect a package from them. The package ends up being a small box full of family photos that she thought was lost.
This idea was an obvious way of showing loneliness as this character feels lonely for not having her family there anymore. I do like how this story had a touch at the end, like a sense of happiness.

Idea Two

A guy is depressed and meets up with a stranger to collect a package from them. The package ends up being a gun and the guy happens to decide whether to commit suicide or not.
This idea wasn't one I was fully of doing as there were one particular part that would be hard to film. The hard part would be the gun scene, I don't own a fake or real gun nor does anyone I know, so I would find a hard time finding one. Also when using a gun in filming, depending if its outside or not you have to let certain people know otherwise people could get the wrong idea and think that its for real reasons and not filming purpose. I wasn't a 100% sure with this idea, but did like the fact that the depression was the thing that was making him seclude himself and be alone.

Idea Three

A young woman, 22 years old and has diabetes. She asks to meet her best friend and takes a package from her, which happens to be her diabetic medication. When she gets home she has a whole packets of pills in her hand and decides whether or not to end her life.
This idea was the one I was drawn to out of the three, so I decided I would explore into this story.

In class we were put into our themed groups to help each other with our ideas. In my group there is Andy, Lex, Ren and Sei-Kai. I decided to talk about my third idea as that was the one I preferred the most. When I got to talking about my idea the group were very helpful. Ren mentioned that instead of my character having diabetes that she could have depression and thats what leads to her loneliness as she secludes herself from everyone. I feel that Ren made a great point and it would actually make sense if my character suffered with depression as it helps with her back story as well.

Final Idea

A young woman, 22 years old is suffering with depression. She had the perfect life, until she got sacked from her job a couple of months ago. Since then she had been diagnosed with depression. She meets up with her best friend and collects a package off her, the package happens to be her prescription depression medication. When she gets home she grabs a hand full of medication and decides whether to end her life or not.

I'm quite happy with my final idea and feel that I will be able to make this happen. I have a rough idea on how I want the characters to look like and have a rough back story for them. I've decided that i'm going to audition people for the two main characters, as well as auditioning for extras. Now I need to look into my characters more and then I can start putting castings up.

Directors Unit - Ophelia Research

Gregory Crewdson's image of 'Ophelia' is very powerful and detailed, which is one of the reasons I chose to create a story for this image. There were many aspects of this image that stood out to me, them being the 'dead woman', the lamps (that happen to still be on even though the room is flooded), the windows, the bookcase and photos on the wall by the staircase. I like how there are bright colours in this image and the reflection in the water, but also how every time you look around the room your eyes go straight back to the woman. This could be because the white of her night gown matches the paleness of her skin which makes her look more luminous. I find that the light that comes into this image from the windows, etc. is happy and gentle which is ironic because the image shows a 'dead' woman which is normally something that we would think is morbid and depressing

Gregory's image 'Ophelia' is a re-creation/inspiration of the painting by John Everett Millais.

Millais image was painted during 1851-1852 and is based on the fictional character Ophelia from William Shakespeare's play 'Hamlet'. Ophelia character was going to marry Prince Hamlet, Ophelia's death is talked about in a speech by the Queen Gertrude. It is mentioned that the death of Ophelia was highly praised for being one of the most poetically written death scenes in literature.

Ophelia supposedly had fallen into the river from hanging over a tree, while gathering flowers. Her clothes got caught and trapped with, which temporarily kept her afloat. Eventually her garments began to fill with water, pulling her in to drown to a muddy death.

I can't wait to get started with this project as I feel it will be something more challenging for me to do. I have many ideas for this image but there is one idea that sticks out the most, i've just got to research more into it to find the sound effects I need to see if it will work.

Directors Unit - Gregory Crewdson

As part of our project this term we have to create a sound story for one of Gregory Crewdson's images. There were five to choose from. All of Gregory Crewdson's images looked amazing, they looked more like painting than images. In each image there is a variety of detail to them, from the main person in the picture to the surroundings.

Gregory was born in 1962 in New York City, where he still lives and continues to do his work. He's an American photographer and is best known for creating staged scenes of American homes and neighbourhoods. There are several books out at the moment which include images that he has taken over the years, they have been published between 1985 - 2005. His work has been exhibited all over the world. Recently he was the subject of a feature documentary film 'Gregory Crewdson: Brief encounters', which shows how he sets up his sets for the images as well as talking about how he started photography.

"My pictures must first be beautiful, but that beauty is not enough. I strive to convert an underlying edge of anxiety, of isolation, of fear."

Out of the five images we were given I was stuck between two 'Ophelia' and 'Woman at the Vanity'. After a hard decision I decided to go with 'Ophelia' as I wanted to challenge myself with creating a story for this image.

Directions Unit - Sound task

On Monday we was given the task to get into small groups of either, pairs or threes and come up with soundscapes for the following scenes.

I grouped up with Aquila and Sei-Kai. We went straight into the first scene and decided that this person is a man who lives out in the countryside and has a dog.

Scene 1 - Night

You can hear the hum of the countryside as well as crickets and rustling of leaves in the background. The dogs collar jingles as he walks down the stairs. He starts barking now and then. Cuts to person in bed breathing, he yawns stretching, moving the bed sheets. Banging his hand onto the side table trying to find his clock, presses the button on the clock. He huffs as he realises what the time is. The dog become more aggressive barking louder and growling. Paws thudding and scratching up against the back door, making the blinds rattle. Footsteps of person against carpet as he walks downstairs. Rattles the door handle and opens it back door, dog rushes straight out barking still. Sound of crickets become louder. The sound of the dog barking cuts off.

That's all we got up to, we spent so much time on the detail that we didn't have time to finish scene one let alone start on scene 2. We wanted to make it seem like someone killed the dog and that this 'person' was after the man, as we thought that would connect well to the theme of this scene, 'thriller'.

I feel that by doing this task it helped me realise how many different sounds there are, especially if its silent you can still hear other noises like planes, cars, people walking, TV etc. in the background. It's also given me an idea on how i'm going to incorporate sound in my sound design project for this unit.

Storytelling Unit - 'The Meeting' Final Draft

Here is my final draft that I handed in for marking a couple of weeks ago. Hopefully I have made the changes that were pointed out by Simon on my marking sheet for my first draft.

The Meeting FINAL Draft 2

Directions Unit - Loneliness Research

When I chose to do loneliness as a theme for my 4 minute dramatic film, I definitely wanted to look more into it to see how loneliness was used in different movies and books. First I wanted to get the basic outline on the meaning of Loneliness.

Meaning:

Loneliness: Sadness because one has no friends or company or the quality of being lonely and remote: isolation.
In depth meaning: Loneliness is a complex and usually unpleasant emotional response to isolation or lack of companionship. Loneliness typically includes anxious feel ins about a lack of connectedness or communality with other beings, both in the present and extending into the future.

Here are some different type of genre of movies that I picked that expressed Loneliness.

Loneliness Movies:

I am Legend (2007)

Years after a plague kills most of humanity 

and transforms the rest into monsters, its up 

to the sole survivor in New York City to find 

a cure.

127 Hours (2010)

A mountain climber becomes trapped under

a boulder while canyoneering along near Moab, 

utah and resorts to desperate measures in order 

to survive.

Wall-E (2008)

In the distant future, a small waste-collecting 

robot inadvertently embarks on a space journey 

that will ultimately decide the fate of mankind. 

                       

Castaway (2000)

A FedEx executive must transform 

himself physically and emotionally to 

survive a crash landing on a deserted island.

I am Legend is based around an immune survivor to a virus that has turned people into creatures like zombies. This apocalyptic film explains loneliness in a survival way, instead of someone isolating them self. Wall-E is from an animated character from disney and is very loved and favourited by people who have watched the film. He is a sweet character that wants to find friendship and when a surprise visitor arrives he is able to get the friend he always wanted. This was a great film to study the transition from loneliness to not being lonely anymore. Castaway is a great example of how loneliness can effect you, i.e. he ends up drawing a face on a volleyball, naming it and starts to speak to it often. This film shows the psychological way on how loneliness can effect you as a human but also gives you an idea on what it would actually be like if you was stuck on a deserted island.

Loneliness in books:

Here are some books that I found that were useful for loneliness, especially isolation.

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (Published 1937)

This story is George Milton and Lennie Small, 

who are two displaced migrant ranch workers, 

who move from place to place in search of new 

job opportunities during the Great Depression in 

California, USA.

The Perks of being a wallflower by Stephen Chbosky (Published 1999)

Charlie is a freshman and while he's not the 

biggest geek in the school, he is by no means 

popular. Shy, introspective, intelligent beyond 

his years yet socially awkward, he is a wallflower, 

caught between trying to live his life and trying 

to run from it.

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens (Published 1837-1839 three volumes)

The story is about an orphan, Oliver Twist, who 

endures a miserable existence in a workhouse 

and then is placed with an undertaker. He escapes 

and travels to London where he meets the Artful 

Dodger, leader of a gang of juvenile pickpockets, 

naively unaware of their unlawful activities.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (Published 1818)

Frankenstein tells the story of a committed science student 

Victor Frankenstein. Obsessed with discovering the cause 

of generation and life and bestowing animation upon lifeless 

matter, Frankenstein assembles a human being from stolen body 

parts but; upon bringing it to life, he recoils in horror at the 

creature's hideousness. Tormented by isolation and loneliness, the 

once-innocent creature turns to evil and unleashes a campaign 

of murderous revenge against his creator, Frankenstein.

Frankenstein has a lot of isolation and loneliness to the story, especially to the monster character. Charles Dickens wrote many books that  quite depressing and contained a lot of isolated characters within them. I feel that Dickens novels would help me quite a lot with this task. Of mice and men is a book that I studied for in secondary school and has a great story, it shows the isolation of two outsiders that go place to place to find work. I feel this is the most subtle way of portraying loneliness in a story and is definitely something I would study into again for help.

By looking into these films and books I feel that I have more of an understanding on how to use loneliness in my script. Reading up on the meaning of loneliness in depth helped me create a mental image on a couple ideas that I could use to create characters and the outline of a story.

Work experience - Take Me Out

A couple of weeks ago we had a meeting with the Hannah and Louis who are part of the production team.
They explained to us about 'Take Me Out' and what work experiences were available for the next week or so. At the end of the meeting I went up to them offering to help be a stand in whenever the opportunity starts.

The next day me and Sei-Kai received an email from Simon asking if we was able to make it to the studios that afternoon. I was so happy and nervous at the same time, it had not even been 24hrs since we had the meeting and we got asked to help.

Me and a few others in the class were asked to be stand ins, this meant that we had to pretend to be one of the girls behind the buzzers and help out on the boys rehearsal. In the boys rehearsal Paddy McGuinness the presenter of 'Take Me Out' rehearsed as well. It was great to see rehearsal face to face. Paddy was funny in rehearsals.
I knew that I was going to have a great time but also have a chance to speak to people who work in the television industry on set.

I met so many lovely crew members from the set and I was surprised on how they didn't mind talking about their jobs.

After the first day, when I walked in I felt part of the crew.

After speaking to some people it has made me realise that there are so many jobs that I didn't know about that you could do. One of the things I really wanted to do even though it would have probably been a no, was to sit and watch the producers and see what they did as thats one of the paths I wouldn't mind going towards.

Here are a couple of people I met on set.

Mark - Floor manager
Nick and Sarah - Assistant Floor managers
Hannah and Louis - Casting producers
Adam Searle - Head rigger
Toby Tee - Rigger
Martin - Lightning technician
Pete - Automation programmer automater (controlled the 'love lift')
Paul Brice - Sound operator
Freya Taylor - Art department
Paul Birchard - Crane technician
James - Set builder
Hayley - Camera woman
Mark barratt - Cameraman

Here's a schedule for one of the day's at the studios for the crew

Paul the sound guy was able to give me a Sei-Kai a copy of a cameraman's shot list. It was interesting to see a list that is actually used in production to film. The cameramen also explained what to do for each section.

While me a Sei-Kai were nosing around we met Archie Tigere, a producer, who is going to produce Take me out in South Africa. He was telling us that when they have finished filming Take me out at the end of this week that he will be taking the set pieces with him to South Africa to use over there.

On my fourth day at the studios I was finally picked TWICE to be at the bottom two. I lost both rounds, the first round with a really bad answer and the the second time round I couldn't think of an answer quick enough so they moved onto the next person. Even though I wasn't quick witted enough I did have a laugh, just a bit gutted that I didn't have a chance to go to Fernando's. It made me think if the girl's get the questions beforehand so that they have a chance to get a good answer or if they are put on the spot like we were. Either way it is really hard to think of a really good answer.

I was able to get four days work experience, I was going to continue until the production had finished, but after speaking to Simon during the week I realised that I had to put my studies first and focus on an essay that was due to be handed in soon. I was so grateful to at least get four days to help out.

Directions Unit - Intro

On Monday we was given our new unit which was Directions.

I'm kind of excited about going into detail about what directors do except for the obvious, directing orders. Directing is definitely something that was in my second and third choice in this industry.

The one that stood out to me the most was 'Loneliness'.

As soon we was given the script I read the first page and definitely thought I could adapt it to loneliness. The only thing with loneliness is that it is quite similar to sorrow so this is definitely going to be a challenge.

The other two tasks we are asked to do for this unit is choose an image from... and use sound to create a story. I've kind of done something like this in college but that was a sound story. I've picked an image and i've roughly got an idea on how i'm going to tell a story. For our 4 min dramatic film we have to hand in a director's statement. This is a written document where we note down production design, performance, style, tone, etc of our video.

I'm actually really looking forward to get into this unit and I have already planned out one of my main characters and have asked people from my class to help out with my filming. This time round i'm going to try and be more prepared.