DRAMA PROJECT

Week one - A Response to Sign Language (D: Oscar Sharp, 2010)

The focus of this short drama is on a young man named Ben. It's Ben's last day on his current job; holding a advertisement up on a sign. It becomes clear quickly that Ben is passionate about his job and the people he works with. The key themes in this film I believe are finding happiness and passion in the strangest of places, as well as a rather tongue-in-cheek bit of forbidden love. The approach that the film makers have taken for Sign Language is a very interesting one. They have opted for the mock documentary or "mocumentary" style. This genre spanning technique is one which has gained a lot of traction recently, with the arrival of hit mock documentaries such as "The Office" and "Parks and Recreation". I found this technique really interesting because it gave the character a lot more depth; because the story is being presented as if it was real, the actor is playing a very real and believable role. A simple guy in love with a plain girl, There's nothing Hollywood about this film, and I think that is actually why I enjoyed it so much, As is usually the case with mack documentaries, the humour is subtle, awkward and above all else, believable. The style and form really fit the story well, and gave it a brilliant British subtlety. 

Sign Language (D: Oscar Sharp, 2010)

Week Two - Pitch Ideas

Week Three: Workshop

During this session we had the opportunity to work with an actress and have a read through of our script, begin to block it and ultimately see what it actually looked like in practice. This turned out to be extremely useful as up until this point, the characters were extremely two dimensional, but this workshop gave them a little more life and allowed me to exercise a directorial role far more than I have done in the past. I had originally planned on running a brief introductory improvisation exercise, by having the two actors improvise a short scene as if they had just met each-other for the first time on a park bench. I would then give them elements of character traits to work into the scene as we went along, for example by saying "okay now imagine you've suddenly decided you hate the other person, but don't want them to know". This was as much for me as it was for the actors; because the script relies so heavily on interaction and intimacy between the two, it is important for them to be completely comfortable with both each-other and the situation at hand. It also would have allowed us to take a look and see what traits we wanted to keep, and what came across most visually so we could keep it in mind for when we brought our own actors in. For example, one thing we noticed upon a basic blocking of the first scene was how we could use the position of the actors in relation to one another to create a sense of power shift, by having one stand above the other and then switching once the power changes.    

Week Four - Production

Due to the nature of the film, we needed an isolated location. This is because we could only have the two characters on screen at all times, to add to the claustrophobic nature of the piece. We therefore needed to find a bus stop remote enough for us to have a fairly free reign of control somewhere where we would not be disrupting anyone, or interrupted ourselves. This proved difficult, but eventually we settled on a location, after much deliberation, in a village around 30 minutes away.

We then cast and had some rehearsals. After this, shooting began.

We also had shot lists and artist release forms completed prior to our arrival on-set.

 Week 5 - The Edit Process

Upon our beginning to edit it became apparent rather quickly that some of the footage we had shot was unfortunately out of focus. This was due to the weather being exceptionally sunny and us not being able to tell if we were in focus or not. We later learned how to use focus peaking on the cameras to make this easier to do. Because our lead actress had now gone on holiday, we were unable to re-shoot any scenes with her in. We decided to add a film grain to the footage we couldn't re-shoot, as this scene took place in the past, and we could therefore show this by the addition of a light grain to give the scene an aged film look. We edited on premiere pro, using titles to indicate the change of day. We used a mixture of atmos tracks recorded separately, radio mic footage synced with footage and footage from a rifle mic recorded on a zoom. We layered these and fine tuned appropriately until we were happy with the sound, at which point Sam edited some of the tracks in Pro Tools to remove excess noise and unwanted distortion.

 

Evaluation - Part one

https://vimeo.com/164709748

This project has been very different, and arguably a lot more challenging than the others. First of all, working with actors added a whole new dynamic to the production process, and brought with it new difficulties and challenges for all of us. First of all, after we had come up with our idea as a group, pitched it successfully and had made a start on fleshing out the ideas and characters a little more, I began to write the script. I have written scripts in the past, but nothing quite this long or for anything more than fun. The aspect I think I found most challenging was probably making the characters believable; as well as having a clear idea in my head of their individual motivations and intentions. I did a couple of re-writes, the largest of which occurred after our first rehearsal with our actors. As soon as we had them act out the first scene, it became clear that Shauna (our actress) really fit a more domineering role well. I had always intended for her character to be subtly manipulative, but once I saw her take on the character of Lily and really embody it, I re-wrote the meeting scene so that she had a lot more power and was clearly very confident. I think this comes across in the finished product. After we had sourced our actors and done rehearsals, one aspect of my more directorial role which was difficult was making sure everyone was organised and on time. Given the nature of our setting, our location was a 40 minute bus ride away, or a 25 minute car journey, so it was important that everyone knew where they needed to be and when, as well as having the correct information regarding costume and changes and what scenes we were doing when. Our first evening of filming was somewhat wasted, as we needed twilight/evening, but did not account for the time it would take to set up all our equipment. By the time we had done so (after having trouble with the radio microphones) we had lost the light and it was too dark to shoot. After this initial learning curve, we made sure to tighten up or schedule so that we arrived in plenty of time to set up, making sure all equipment was charged and working prior to setting off. We all performed well as a team, with cast and crew all knowing roles and performing to the best of our abilities. We also ensured that travel costs were split and kept fair. As mentioned before, we had issues with focusing (which we now know how to fix on the XF100s) due to sunlight on the screen, as well as some audio issues in our last scene. Unfortunately, due to our actress being away for the remainder of the time we had left to make the film, we solved this problem by altering the footage we could not re-shoot (adding an 'old film' style look) and then organising a re-shoot for the last scene. I also re-wrote the last scene so that we got a little more of Daniel's awkward character coming through. We shot him in a variety of different positions whilst waiting for the bus to show how uncomfortable he is while debating the relationship, and used jump cuts to really show the passage of time. Overall I am happy with the finished product. I felt the acting was sometimes a bit forced, but this is to be expected with young actors. Although we faced multiple problems while shooting, we managed to work around everything and find solutions quickly and effectively as a team. 

Evaluation - Part Two:

When we began in September, I had very little experience in project development or directing. I had basic camera skills and basic editing skills in terms of technical ability, but that was all. I think it was difficult starting off with the experimental film, as this was the furthest removed from anything that I had ever done before. I had never made an experimental film, and actually had very little experience with watching them. A big difference for me was trying to grasp the concept of the process being more important than the finished product, as I am far more narrative minded. I think it was in this task that I learned a lot more of the technical aspect, such as using the XF100s, more in-depth editing skills, audio recording and audio editing using pro tools. Our next project, documentary, was definitely where I gained a lot of valuable experience in management of a small team, directing and producing. I was tasked with liaising with the subject of our documentary and organising the shoot, as well as meeting and introducing us to them. I supervised the edit in this project which also broadened my understanding of the documentary edit process, which I actually found to be much harder than the drama or experimental edit process. In the drama piece I took on a similar director/producer role, but also decided to write the script myself, as this was something I have always been the most interested in doing. I wanted to try out as many different areas of possible across the duration of this module, and I certainly feel that I have achieved that goal. I also think that working with the same team for each task has really benefited all of us mutually. We know each others strengths and weaknesses, and the team dynamics really reflect this, allowing for a much smoother production experience. In future, I would definitely like more writing experience, and directing is also possibly something I will peruse in future.       

Evaluation

Final Cut: https://vimeo.com/157285009

My main role in this production was as producer and director. This was the first time I had really undertaken either of these roles to a significant degree and felt that I both enjoyed and executed the role successfully. 

The role required me to organise the production and ensure that everyone knew where they were supposed to be and when, as well as providing a bridge between our contributors (in this case 2Fly Studios) and our team. I also was in charge of release forms (both contributor and location) as well as liaising with the band that provided our music and Exposed magazine. 

I feel that our teamwork on this project was strong, we worked well as a unit and I feel we have made significant advancements as a production team. Everyone adopted their roles with ease and executed to a near professional level. However, we did also help out in other areas. For example, I did a lot of shooting and assisted with editing, Sam and Kane took turns working with the sound recording, and Brendan shot and did the majority of the editing. I also feel that we were equally excited about the project and all wanted the outcome to be of a high standard, which I think is definitely a large contributing factor to how well we worked as a team.

A problem that became apparent almost immediately was in the correspondence between us and 2Fly. As they are a working, full-time studio, I experienced problems with getting our schedules to match up, as well as on occasion having difficulty even getting a response. I think that the mistake I made here was leaving the ball too much in the court of the contributors and not initially emphasising that we were working to a tight schedule, In future, if I reprise my role as producer, I will be sure to outline the time scale we are working to immediately and ensure that a date has been agreed early on in the pre-production stage.  

As a huge influence for us with this documentary was The Archive (2009) we wanted a really good story, but most importantly an interesting character with a lot of passion. I really believe we found this in Alan, as his craft means a lot to him, and his interest is certainly palpable. 

I believe that the main strengths of our documentary were the good subject, the interesting character, and the fact that we created a comfortable story arc. We opened with a little history of Alan himself and his time in bands, before moving on the the start of 2Fly, some anecdotes from the studios early years, before finally closing with what he is working on at the moment and his plans for the future of the studio. The were definitely issues with pacing, however. Because our documentary was almost entirely interview based, it felt slow and cumbersome in parts. The cutaways, although nicely shot, were repetitive and became boring quickly, as well as not building the pace of the overall piece. Also, in future I would definitely aim for more contributors and more music, although this was admittedly hard to do in the short 5 minute timeframe.       

Editing Process and Initial Feedback

We gathered quite a lot of footage on the day of the shoot, primarily consisting of interviews. We had previously outlines a series of interview questions, but these were mainly as a guideline, allowing Alan to expand on what he needed to and omit what was unnecessary or uninteresting. This meant that our two interviews (Alan and his wife Donna) were around 30 minutes and 10 minutes, respectively. We had also previously shot cutaways out and about in Sheffield of iconic venues, as well and cutaways inside the actual studio itself. Brendan was mainly in charge of editing and set up Avid to work with the multi-camera option, before syncing the sound with the video. I joined at this stage to oversee the edit process from a director/producer standpoint. We cut Alan's interview extensively, condensing the 30 minutes into a tight story arc which we felt held a beginning - middle - end structure. We decided to completely omit Donna's interview as she mainly discussed the couples relationship and how they met, and we found it extremely difficult to fit this into the narrative we were attempting to structure. We also abandoned the cutaways from outside in Sheffield, as without being mentioned by Alan they felt a little out of place. Our initial feedback was that the documentary was too heavily reliant on in the interview and that it was in need of another direction. We discussed this as a group and got back in touch with 2Fly, who were unfortunately unable to help do to a full schedule. As the time frame was so short, we deemed it best to use existing footage and gain permission to use that instead. This, we believed, would break up the interview a little more visually, and contextualise the bands mentioned to a greater degree.

First draft:

https://vimeo.com/156731330

Production Planning, Stills and Documentation

Confirming Our Idea

As per my role as producer, I approached our subject to make initial enquiries as to their willingness to participate, availability and scheduling etc. We were fairly certain even before we pitched our ideas that this was the one we wanted to go for, as it was the one we felt most interested in and by extension, most passionate about. I wanted to go to pitch at least knowing that our idea was a real possibility, so looked into the best way to contact the studio, which seemed to be via Facebook.

  

Due to 2Fly being a working studio, we had some scheduling issues, but eventually managed to nail down a date.

Before we went into production on the arranged date with 2Fly, we decided to meet up and get some cut away shots of iconic music/art venues around Sheffield, anticipating that we may be able to use them as cutaways.

Before filming with 2Fly, we ensured that all documentation was filled and signed correctly. I personally was in charge of artist and location release forms, as I had organised and liaised with Alan and Donna (of 2Fly). Each of us had an area of documentation to ensure was present and correct. 

  

Next, after coming up with some interview questions, we arrived at 2Fly to shoot. As producer, I greeted Alan and Donna, before explaining what we were aiming for and how we were going to go about shooting, After making sure everyone was on the same page, I set up the static camera to film Alan's interview and interviewed him. This lasted around half an hour. We used a multi-camera set up, and after the interviews, I took one of the cameras around the studio, shooting cutaways. 

While filming, Alan played us a song that he was currently working on, by a band called I Set the Sea On Fire. I enquired as to the possibility of us using the song, and Alan said he would get in touch. He then got back to be confirming this, subsequently emailing me the track. Out of courtesy, I sent ISTSOF a message double checking they were okay with us using the song, as well as asking permission to use their Exposed magazine set. They agreed, but gave me the email of Joe Food, who works for Exposed, explaining that I should also check with him. I did this, and he was more than happy for us to use the footage. 

  

  

After filming was done, I assisted with the editing process, which was an extremely lengthy procedure. We used Avid Media Composed, Adobe Audition and Adobe Premiere Pro in the editing process. Avid for the bulk of the cutting and sequencing, Audition to edit the background music, and Pro to add the music and titles (as we felt more comfortable doing this on Pro). 

 

Sync Sound 

Boom poles allow production crews to record dialogue clearly, as the microphone is out of shot but above the speaker, angled downwards. We decided to use a rifle microphone attached to a boom pole for our documentary so as to record the dialogue effectively. This also allows for more accurate recording and reduced background noise, rather than using a zoom microphone on its own, for example. When holding a boom mic, it is important to stand and hold the boom pole above your head with your arms around a yard apart, in a locked position. This helps to prevent the arms becoming tired during lengthier takes. Communication with the camera operator is key to ensure that the microphone is not in shot. Connecting the microphone directly to the camera removed the need to sync the audio and video later, as the camera will record via the attached microphone directly.   

Pitch Presentation 

Our Two Ideas: