Direction's Unit: Shot Planning

Today i spoke with hannah, chris and hayley about the shots needed for the film. I found using a shot last last time made me think less about the film creatively and it was very structured. As i was directing and a lot of my ideas are in my head i found talking tot the crew a better way of communicating them across.

They all completely understood what kind of style i was going for and even said they would watch a few silent films to get themselves prepared for the shoot. For the meeting i thought over the shoulder shots would be good and a side on shot to to see the characters gestures more. Plenty of close ups of the characters faces and wider shots to capture their movements.

I found this experience to be a lot better than shot listing because mentally i can see my seen but i can't seem to write down what that shot is and the last time i did storyboards they looked like a child had done them.

Now I've got work experience for a week so i think I'm ready for my filming.

Stay safe,

Helen

Direction's Unit: Props

Here is a list of the props i need: (underlined are the ones i already own)


Blow up doll
Pregnancy test
Wedding Ring (actors own)
Digital clock
Wrist Watch (Actors Own)
Package wrapping
Mens clothes (Actors own)
Bag/suitcase
Shopping bag (primark/ topshop)

I may use a few more things to make the hotel room seem more like his home but i will speak to the actor and see what he has and could bring along.

Stay safe,

Helen

Directions unit: ST4LK

I decided to call my sound design project ST4LK. This was due to a joke where i said the numberplate of the car looked like it said that so no wonder he's kidnapping the girl. This then gave me the interesting idea of using it as the title and putting it on a numberplate to help with orientating the story idea from the initial outset.

Here is my finished film:




I am very pleased with the final outcome as i really felt at times like this project would get the better of me. I feel i managed to come up with an original story that worked well with the image i used. In order to improve on this film i would try and record all the sounds myself so that they were more realistic and individual to characters. For example the walking in the snow where it was difficult to find 3 different snow walks. I would also use actors voices as although my volunteers did a great job it would hopefully add something to the project to use professionals and make all the sounds that little less forced.
One of the things i am most pleased with is finding a way of zooming into the picture without blurring it. Im still not 100% sure how i managed it but it really helps to tell the story when u can see the little details such as the woman's face in the restaurant.

Now to finish up some emails to my actors for the Jounrey film.

Stay Safe,

Helen

Directions Unit: Choosing a Composer

Today i cast my Composer for the short film. After making a top 3, i had convocations with them all about their own ideas and why there were interested in the project. The guy i picked, Geoff Alexander, was keen to work on something a little different and he saw this as a good opportunity to try out a few new things. His passion for the project helped me to make my decision easy.

Here is Geoff's Website:

www.geoffalexandermusic.com

He has worked on projects before like Notting Hill and the Harry Potter Series. I am really excited to work with him on my own short film. Hopefully if we strike up a good relationship we can work together again on future projects.

Stay safe,

Helen

Directions Unit: Hat Etiquette Research

When a gentleman “dons” his hat to leave or “doffs” his hat to a lady, his actions are being described by two British colloquialisms that come from contractions of the phrases “do on” meaning “to do”, and the Middle English “doffen”, which became “don off” meaning “to do off”!

Hats are tipped, (or doffed) slightly lifting the hat off your forehead, when meeting a lady (remove your hat if you stop to talk), or to “say” to anyone, male or female – thank you, excuse me, hello, goodbye, you’re welcome or how do you do.Tipping of the hat is a conventional gesture of politeness. This hat tipping custom has the same origin as military saluting, which came from the raising of medieval Knights face visors to show friendliness.

Hats are worn less now, but at the turn of the 20^th century, all adults wore hats whenever they left the house. It was a matter of good personal hygiene, since hats were a protection from industrial dirt.Hats are removed when inside, except for places that are akin to public streets, like lobbies, corridors, and crowded elevators (non-residential). In a public building (where there are no apartments) the elevator is considered a public area.

You may choose to remove your hat in a public elevator, but in the presence of a lady your hat must be removed.

A gentleman takes off his hat and holds it in his hand when a lady enters the elevator in any building that can be classified as a dwelling such as an apartment house or hotel. He puts it on again in the corridor.

A public corridor is like the street, but an elevator in a hotel or apartment house has the character of a room in a house and there a gentleman does not keep his hat on in the presence of ladies.

Hats are removed for the National Anthem, passing of the Flag and funeral processions, outdoor weddings, dedications, and photographs.

Removed hats are held in hand in such a way that only the outside and never the lining is visible.
In places of worship head coverings are required for both men and women in Muslim mosques, and Sikh temples.

Men are required to cover their heads in Jewish synagogues, but only married women wear hats or scarves representing a display of her increased modesty towards those other than the woman’s husband.

The small, round head covering or skullcap worn by men is called a “kippah” which means, “dome” or “cupola”.  The Yiddish word for the cap is “yarmulke”.  The wearing of the yarmulke is a reminder of humility before God, a mark of respect in a Jewish congregation, and a sign of recognition of something greater above oneself, which is why many male Jews wear a head covering whenever they are awake, with the exceptions of bathing and swimming.

It is acceptable for women to wear hats in Christian churches, (it was once required, but the custom has all but disappeared) but disrespectful for men to wear them.

A woman may leave her hat on indoors or during the playing of The National Anthem, unlessit is considered unisex like a baseball cap. When wearing such a unisex cap, a woman should follow the same guidelines as for men.

Why are there different rules for men and women? It may have to do with the difference in the styles of men’s and women’s hats.

Men’s hats are easily removed, but women’s hats with ribbons, bows, flowers and other decorations can be quite a production to remove, especially if they’re anchored with hatpins.  Women might also risk messing up their hairdos if they had to remove their hats.  A lady, however, never wore brimmed hats after 5 PM, a fashion rule that developed because she didn’t need a brim after sunset.

Directions Unit: Costume

Originaally i thought about having all my characters wear traditional 1920's style clothes, however this was difficult to see through as the streets i was filming in would be full of shoppers in modern clothes so it wouldn't work. I then decided that as Paul is a business man and he is old fashioned it would work well if he wore a suit and a 1920's style hat.
Here is my idea for Paul's Costume:

For Craig i was going for something very different. A younger and gang like approach. a hoody would be the key to this outfit.

Here is my idea for Craig's Costume:

For my 2 extras i feel that everyday casual clothes would work well. Possibly with the prop of a shopping bag.
Here is an example:

I have checked with my actors and they have the items needed for their costumes.

Stay safe,

Helen

Directions Unit: Cast

Here is my cast for A Journey Through Love:

Paul (Tony Mole)

Craig (James Mensah)

Female Passerby (Hannah Darby)

Male Passerby (Chris Sarmiento)

Stay Safe,

Helen

Directions Unit: Auditions

Yesterday i held my auditions. They went well and i managed to cast my supporting character from this process. The standard at the auditions was mixed but i really enjoyed the whole process even though i was nervous.
We started off by asking the actors questions about themselves to help them to relax so that we could gage them a little better when we started to get into the nitty gritty. I asked what kind of experience they had, i had printed of each of their cvs and shown the panel before each audition but i wanted to hear what they had to say about their past work. It was intresting to see the differences in day jobs and what things they would like to work in. It gave us all a good in site into each person. Then we asked about their silent film knowledge and explained the sort of movements and expressions needed.   I then got them to workshop a scene not in the script. It was simple but could easily be used for good facial expressions. The scene was 'order a cup of coffee and upon tasting you realise its tea and you hate tea'. While i was works hoping the scene with the each actor Hayley, Hannah and Chris were all making notes which was a really good thing because it was difficult for me to see what the scene looked like when i was in it but it gave me an opportunity to see the facial expressions and explain in physical form what i wanted. The second scene we did was the meeting dialogue between paul and craig.  I wanted to see if the actors had learnt the lines and if they were able to take direction. we watched the scene once and then gave them a different take on the scene just to see if they did what was asked. This was a really useful exercise because some of the actors really stuck to their vision for the character despite the directions.

For the main character it was more difficult as one of the actors had auditioned for me on Skype and not in person so the others had to go with what i had to say about him. After a discussion we all agreed that the Skype audition should get the part.

Overall i feel the auditions were a really good idea and I'm really happy with who we have cast for the roles.

Stay safe,

Helen

Directions unit: Skype audition

Today i held a Skype audition for a man who i really wanted to audition but couldn't make it due to work commitments. It went really well and he made every effort to let me know that he would take a annual leave day of work to make sure he could make the weekday shoots as he usually can't do weekdays.

I would do Skype auditions again as it was really simple to set up and for films where their is no pay it is a good way to get your actors on board as they won't have to pay for travel to the audition and then the shoot days.

Stay safe,

Helen

Directions Unit: Sound effects

I decided that the best way for collecting sound effects was first to make a list of all the sounds i thought i would need.
When this was complete i had my housemate add what else she felt would be needed. This was a good strategy as had the sound of the bus pulling in but forgot to include the sound of it pulling off round the corner. This was important as if the bus stayed at the stop, the driver and passengers would see the girl get attacked.

Here is my list:

I thought the best way to get the voices was to ask friends and family. Chris & Hannah from the course kindly offered to help, and my mum and housemate were persuaded with the offer of chocolate. Due to not being able to ask anyone else i decided to do the final voice of waiter. 

The first sound i searched for was a good background ambience. I had done some research for this my sitting in my garden at a similar time to the time I'm portraying in my picture (Dusk), and listening to all the sounds i could hear. There was a lot of bird song and after trying that sound out on the track it just didn't feel right, there aren't that many trees about and it didn't seem to get across the cold atmosphere. The next sounds i looked for were wind or winter sounds but they always seemed to sound like a blizzard which really was too much for the stillness and calm i wanted to portray. Although there is snow its not that thick just yet so having the blizzard sound seemed a bit much, and it would be difficult to hear anything over a blizzard wind. My housemate suggested i look for city traffic which i did but they all sounded too busy, so i tried distant traffic sounds and found one that fitted really well so decided to try this one as my initial layer for all the other sounds.

I started collecting my sounds from youtube and sound bible and when they were not realistic enough i decided to take matters into my own hands. Armed with my trusty new iPad mic i went to the car and started messing about with the boot. I placed the mic in the boot and recorded the sound of me opening and closing it. Then i placed the mic at the side of the boot to record the closing from another angle. Then i decided to record myself getting in to the boot and kicking and punching the surroundings in order to get realistic sounds for the clip. It worked well but i still felt i needed more so i recorded the sound of someone punching seats and kicking the footwell in the car. 

Armed with all these sounds i feel ready to edit it all together.

Stay safe,

Helen

Directions Unit: Shooting Dates

Due to getting work experience i was unable to book the camera out for the weekend i originally thought. I decided the next best option would be to film the following weekend and one day of filming that week.
I will be filming on the 7th of February and the 9th of February. All the actors i am auditioning are able to make these dates.

Stay safe,

Helen

Directions Unit: Coverage Task

In today's lesson we were split into groups of 3 and given the task of directing a short film each. I worked with Aquila and Hannah.

We had to pick a scenario each from the following:

A person tripping over and dropping books
A person sitting down and looking at their watch
A person writing a note, Screwing it up and throwing it in the bin

I chose the 3rd scenario as i had an instant idea of what to do. We then sat down and brainstormed each idea, picking out shot ideas and decided we wanted to give each of them more of a story as we felt that it could be quite a basic idea otherwise.

Then we set to work with filming Hannah's and Aquila's.
I was the camera operator for Hannah's film and although we could figure out how to get the exposure button to work on the camera, which left us with slight over exposure for the end film, i am very pleased with how it turned out and feel i got some great shots. I remembered to film a atmosphere piece so that it could be used for even sound which i think helped for the final edit.

Here is Hannah's Film:



In Aquila's piece i was acting. It was great fun and Aquila gave me some great character instructions for how she wanted the scene to go. Although we began to get pushed for time i am pleased with how the end film turned out and it was really fun to work on.

Here is Aquila's Film:



Finally it was my turn to direct. We began by having an over the shoulder shot to introduce hannah's character writing the letter. In the brainstorm i had already decided on having a narrator/voice over reading out the letter as i felt it was in keeping wight he style of the piece and added to the character. I also wanted it to be a sort of mockumentary style. Having Hannah break the 4th wall and address the cameraman's presence and also the audience with the wink at the end also added to this style and hopefully were quite funny. This sort of style also fits with the extremely low budget special effect used for the paper going round the rim. This was mainly used because we thought it was funny but also because we couldn't find any string. The coverage i got was good and i was able to edit a fairly smooth piece.
I am happy with the final edit and i hope it brings a smile to a few peoples faces.

Here is my Film:

Even though it was a massive task for us to get the 3 films done in 1 day, i am pleased we got the opportunity to each direct a film and i learnt a lot from it. Mainly that when going on a shoot it is a good idea to have a schedule because otherwise your time is poorly managed. 

Stay safe,

Helen

Directions Unit: Location Scouting

I don't know the area that well so i asked my housemate's family to think of some places that had interesting and a sort of old fashioned style. I gave them the script to read and then they came back to me with some ideas.

Street 1:

Street 2:

Street 3:

Alley:

Meeting Place:

I really liked that all the locations are within walking distance of the hotel i have chosen and they have interesting buildings which will help make my film look good visually.

Overall I'm pleased with the locations and now need to book a camera and pick my filming dates.

Stay safe,

Helen

Directions Unit: Synopsis

Below is are a brief synopsis for my short film 'A Journey Through Love' and Character briefs.

Synopsis:

A story about one man and his journey through Love. Whatever that means.

Going through a messy divorce, Paul, is living in a hotel. Most of the time he is bored of his job and the trappings it brings but not today. Today he has a "date" and boy is he excited.
He sets off to meet his friends son, a well connected 'fixer' named Craig who is hooking Paul up with his "date" for the evening.

Paul:
Paul is a middle aged, successful business man who is going through a messy divorce. Currently living in a hotel, his routine usually consists of waking up, commuting to work, working through his lunch break, Commuting home, and finally grabbing a bit of room service after a drink at a bar. The best part of his day is if an attractive lady has to stand too close to him on the public transport. 

Craig:
Craig is the son of a friend of the main character, Paul. They have a friendship similar to that in American Beauty between the characters of Lester (Kevin Spacey) and Ricky (Wes Bentley). 
Craig is the type of guy who can hook you up with whatever you need especially if it needs to be low key. Well connected and street wise, he oozes charisma. 

Stay Safe,

Helen

Directions Unit: Hotel Hunting

As Paul is going through a divorce i wanted to have his 'home' be a hotel room. Seeing as he is a businessman i didn't want his hotel to be something like a travel lodge or premier inn. I felt it should be more upmarket and sophisticated. I also wanted it to have an interesting style visually.

I began the long process of searching for hotels through various booking websites and finally found some i liked.


The Mecure hotel is near Maidstone and has the right sort of vibe for my film.

Unfortunatly after discussing the script with them they were not keen for the ending to be shot at their hotel. So i continued my search.










The village hotel, has a room called the upper deck which in style is quite modern and suave. I thought this could work but i didn't like the location of the hotel as it is a long way from anyway and right next to a motorway. With good framing i could make sure the hotel looks like it could be in central maidstone but I'm not sure it will be what I'm after. After speaking to the manager they were only willing to let me have the room for a day fee price of £119 which is also the same price for a night stay. I wasn't willing to pay this seeing as their were a lot of cons with the hotel so i got searching.

Finally i stumbled on a little gem in central maidstone called The Townhouse, Maidstone. Close to the town centre it would have good transport links to possible other locations and the rooms were all very upmarket. They originally quoted me for £50 day hire for the room but i managed to get a room for free that was out of commission due to heating problem that wouldn't be fixed until february. As long as i filmed the hotel scenes during the week we would have a deal and i just had to let them know in advance the exact date and time i would be coming.

Here are some pictures of the hotel:

Stay safe,

Helen

Directions Unit: Composer Shortlisting

After i started getting applications for composer it became clear that i was going to have to base my choice on what the person had done before and the creative understanding of the project. I also want to have a good talking relationship with this person as the music is an important part. A phone call or email correspondence or Skype would all make me more comfortable in handing over the responsibility to another person.

Here is my initial email to one of the shortlisted composers.

Stay safe,

Helen

Directions unit: Auditions panel

For my auditions i have asked 3 people to come and help me.

Chris Sarmiento

The reason i chose Chris is because when we have feedback sessions he is always the first person to comment and i always tend to agree. He is very critical and i trust his judgement because he always has a reason to back up what he's saying.







Hannah Darby

I've worked with Hannah on all my projects before and i feel we work together well. She is easy to talk to and often sees a different side to something that i haven't thought of which will be great for this. As well as being on the panel, hannah will act as greeter, bringing the actors up the the boardroom and taking them back to reception.





Hayley Pike

I have known Hayley since i was young and she will always tell me how it is. She won't sugar coat anything or say what i want to hear so if I'm making a bad call she will be the one to keep me from it.






With these 3 people i think we will be able to have a successful audition day.

Stay safe,

Helen

Directing Unit: Research into Story for Sound Design

So i could make the story work i wanted to re-listen to a few songs i knew had sound effects in them and that were relevant to the theme.

The first song was Kim - by Eminem.
Probably would listen to it if your easily offended as its pretty graphic and expletive.

It has the sounds of screams, walking in the grass, someone bleeding out and dragging something through grass. Although highly disturbing, it definitely adds another dimension to the song.

The next song is Stan - also by Eminem

This song has the rain in the background, the sound of someone writing (to go along with the

 Stan writing letters to eminem), screams, storms, splash, car sounds etc

This also enhances the song and without the video you can imagine what is happening even without a picture.

This has helped me to piece together more about what i sounds i should use for my story and how they help to enhance the mental images you get with the lyrics or dialogue.

Stay safe,

Helen

Directions Unit: Sound Design Story

After using final cut pro i was able to slowly piece together the story.

Here are the key points:

- Girl gets off the bus (Sound of bus breaking, stopping, girl walking down the street)
- Girl is grabbed by man (Sound of a tussle, scream, his hand over her mouth stifles her cries, man walking with girl.
- Man puts girl in the boot (Sound of man opening boot, wrestling with her trying to shove her in the boot, sound of her being put in, man shouts at girl, closing of boot)
- Woman in restaurant waits for her daughter (background noise of restaurant, waiter asks lady what she wants to order, lady declines as waiting for daughter)
- Family hear the commotion from the open window (sound of tv, woman asks someone whats going on and to close window)
- Car won't start (sound of the car trying to start but not, man being frustrated, girl in boot kicking and shouting for help)
- Old man walking hears the fuss (man in car tells him to keep walking, sound of old man walking in snow)
- Girl screaming in boot and banging increases. Suddenly the car finally starts and the man drives off (screams, bangs, car starts)

I think this is a good story and although its not a nice subject there are plenty of sounds that i can use to hopefully bring the picture to life.

Now to do some recording and searching.

Stay safe,

Helen