Final Week of Pre-Production
It's been a while! As I write this, we've already began editing having finished the shoot - but I'm going to pretend that it is still Monday 25th and I'm not ridiculously behind in writing these. But lets start by talking about the final week before production began.
Realising we only had a few hours left where we would all see each other before the shoot, we set to work hard on Monday (I even wrote the previous blog post early in the morning to give me more time later!). Alex completed the two newspaper cover props, as Robert worked frantically to finish the shot list. In the meantime I wrote a new scene - X22 - to be shot on the Wednesday at college as our 'news studio'. This scene was designed to make the main character of Dave feel like crap about not getting any credit for the public reveal of the Director, but it didn't come without a whole barrel full of references!
The following Wednesday we shot scene X22, with me in the role of the newsreader. We had planned originally to shoot the scene in the college's boardroom but we were told on Tuesday that it wasn't ready and so we planned to shoot it on the green screen instead. This later proved to be a massive pain in the ass in editing despite our best efforts to light the green sheeting well, it even turned out that the boardroom was ready when we shot it on Wednesday but were failed to be informed in time.
Another issue we encountered was the equipment. A lot of what we wanted in terms of sound recording had gone missing from the college AV room. We had to improvise using a cheap RODE attached to a camera for the newsroom audio, whilst the rest of the equipment was located. It worked well enough though - after all Dave is meant to be watching the news on his smartphone so it shouldn't sound great anyway.
With the scene shot, we frantically tried to edit it ready for the following Monday. In hindsight this was wasted time, as it was an impossible task with the difficulty of the green screen. We did have some breakthrough on the Friday though, the equipment all magically reappeared in AV! Robert ran about between all the cupboards like a kid in a candy store coming up with ways we could use equipment to help us in ways the objects were never designed to be used! We packed all the kit into some bags and hopped on the next bus to Norwich to drop it off ready for the following week. Our tutor Josh had kindly offered us his office as a place to store the equipment over the weekend, to save us from coming back into college on the Monday morning. Then Robert and I relaxed after a busy week by watching the new Jungle Book at the cinema. I don't know why I'm telling you all of this when there's so much more useful information I can write instead, but maybe it is a good insight to how we worked on this project; lots of hard work, but always with a little time to enjoy it.
Jungle Book, by the way, was a very good film. I couldn't help be distracted by the extreme blurriness of the film footage, but the story remained to be incredibly well told. The film also partially served as a good omen for filming - as the venue we were shooting made a play of the Jungle Book just last year, which I had some involvement in.
The weekend was spent gathering props. I managed to negotiate my way into my old school to source a few props, including Dave's broken light (it was truly broken as well, as the one I found didn't even have a bulb in it!), some cables, and a whole bunch of tape. I wasn't able to gain access to any of the wireless microphones the school has - so I quickly bought a lapel microphone from Amazon (I had wanted one for a long time anyway). Then it was a matter of purchasing some batteries, and raiding my mum's tool box to complete the prop list.
We were ready. At least we thought we were... but that's for next week's blog post... ;) Thanks for reading!
Follow me on Twitter to know when I next update my blog: @mc_onnell
Showing posts with label Z. Blog. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Z. Blog. Show all posts
Monday, 25 April 2016
Monday, 18 April 2016
Technical Deceit | Blog #3
1 Week until Shooting
It really doesn't feel like a week since I last wrote one of these! As we get closer to the deadline I can feel myself becoming more worried and stressed - might be in for a couple of sleepless nights over the next week. Thinking back over the past 7 days though: we returned to college to begin more pre-production work, which included more production schedules, cast permission slips, sorting props and equipment, and the all important shot listing.
The week began with a lot of emails and messages. As briefly mentioned last week, we were initially told that the production schedule needed to be adjusted slightly to accommodate for when we would have access to certain locations within the venue. This changed a couple of times throughout the week, as details changed. We will now have a tutor with us for roughly half the time of the shoot, which thankfully gives us more time to shoot certain scenes on the lighting rig. With a third production schedule now complete, we wait with our fingers crossed for it to be locked down!
Robert spent most of the week working on our shot lists. We discussed at length the various ways we could shoot in certain locations, and plotting the character movement around the locations. Currently this still isn't complete, but we still have this week to lock that down too. Meanwhile, Alex has largely been working on props including the newspapers which the character of Kate writes in. Not only that, but we completed a prop, costume and equipment list to help remind us of everything we need.
On Tuesday, I spent some free time typing up some useful information to send to the cast, regarding the location, timings, costume, props and more. Alex made some permission slips to be sent alongside the information, as we need to confirm we are allowed to photograph the individuals. A few of them live quite far away, and so we cannot receive these forms (they need to be printed and signed) until we see them in person on set.
Rounding off the week, I completed the second version of the shooting script (ironically titled Shooting Script_01) alongside an extract script of a newsroom scene which appears near the end of the film. We plan to shoot this scene (X22) this Wednesday so we can edit it ready for the shooting days next week. As always, I've tried to pack as many references as possible into this extract; it includes a crossover reference to a film by my own tutor, and the lower third graphics are set to reference events that take place in the films being produced by my other classmates. All for fun!
Exactly this time next week, as I write this, we will be shooting. If you happen to want to come along and be in the background for a couple of scenes, please let me know! We need background artists between 10am and 4pm on Wednesday 27th, so make sure you're free and then slide into my DMs for more information. Thanks for reading!
Follow me on Twitter to know when I next update my blog: @mc_onnell
It really doesn't feel like a week since I last wrote one of these! As we get closer to the deadline I can feel myself becoming more worried and stressed - might be in for a couple of sleepless nights over the next week. Thinking back over the past 7 days though: we returned to college to begin more pre-production work, which included more production schedules, cast permission slips, sorting props and equipment, and the all important shot listing.
The week began with a lot of emails and messages. As briefly mentioned last week, we were initially told that the production schedule needed to be adjusted slightly to accommodate for when we would have access to certain locations within the venue. This changed a couple of times throughout the week, as details changed. We will now have a tutor with us for roughly half the time of the shoot, which thankfully gives us more time to shoot certain scenes on the lighting rig. With a third production schedule now complete, we wait with our fingers crossed for it to be locked down!
Robert spent most of the week working on our shot lists. We discussed at length the various ways we could shoot in certain locations, and plotting the character movement around the locations. Currently this still isn't complete, but we still have this week to lock that down too. Meanwhile, Alex has largely been working on props including the newspapers which the character of Kate writes in. Not only that, but we completed a prop, costume and equipment list to help remind us of everything we need.
On Tuesday, I spent some free time typing up some useful information to send to the cast, regarding the location, timings, costume, props and more. Alex made some permission slips to be sent alongside the information, as we need to confirm we are allowed to photograph the individuals. A few of them live quite far away, and so we cannot receive these forms (they need to be printed and signed) until we see them in person on set.
Rounding off the week, I completed the second version of the shooting script (ironically titled Shooting Script_01) alongside an extract script of a newsroom scene which appears near the end of the film. We plan to shoot this scene (X22) this Wednesday so we can edit it ready for the shooting days next week. As always, I've tried to pack as many references as possible into this extract; it includes a crossover reference to a film by my own tutor, and the lower third graphics are set to reference events that take place in the films being produced by my other classmates. All for fun!
Exactly this time next week, as I write this, we will be shooting. If you happen to want to come along and be in the background for a couple of scenes, please let me know! We need background artists between 10am and 4pm on Wednesday 27th, so make sure you're free and then slide into my DMs for more information. Thanks for reading!
Follow me on Twitter to know when I next update my blog: @mc_onnell
Monday, 11 April 2016
Technical Deceit | Blog #2
2 Weeks until Shooting
In the last week, some significant progress has been made in pre-production of the screenplay, including a production schedule, a re-write of the script, and casting. Despite the progress, I can't help but feel slightly worried by what is still left to do as time runs out.
The first few days of the past week were spent re-writing the script. The ending had to be changed fairly significantly due to my own lack of decent research. Along with that, I simplified it down a fair bit too. There was too much back and forth going on, so I condensed a few scenes down into one and cut out the bits in the middle that weren't necessary. Suddenly 28 scenes became 22, and 13 pages became 12. Much easier.
In case you're wondering, I won't be uploading this version of the script until the film is released. This is mainly because of spoilers, but also because we're already at work on the next draft, so there's no point. The people who do have the script however *smooth segue* are the actors!
We now confirmed all three main cast roles of Dave, Kate and Damien. Once the final videos were sent in last Wednesday, myself and Robert reviewed all of them and chose the best people we could agree on. Then there were the tricky messages between cast to sort out, but nothing was too bad as most of those who didn't get a main role should be joining us on the shoot to help out and appear as background artists.
I'm very excited about the cast. All of the auditions were great, and I really enjoyed seeing my script come to life. The auditions for Kate in particular were all very different, but each one gave me some new ideas about where to take her character, so I'm extremely grateful. Contrary to what I said last week though, I won't be announcing the cast just yet. They have the all important forms to sign off, and I think it is best to not say anything at least until those are done. I might be really mean and stay quiet until we release a trailer...
There was a bunch of minor things that also happened in the last week, including emails about the location and messages about other various pre-production, but the one big thing I wanted to talk about was the production schedule. In total, it took me four hours to compile all the information on each scene to work out who should be there at a certain time, when we could and couldn't be in a location, and how was easiest to do it all in just 18 hours.
Luckily, I had a huge whiteboard lying around which quickly became very useful for plotting out the scenes where everyone was. Combined with some paperwork I had done previously, everything started slotting together nicely.
At least it did, until we were told we couldn't quite do it like that! As these things go, there are guidelines in place - in this case mainly about being up on a lighting rig - which you have to work around. All part of the fun, I guess. So a second production schedule later, the week came to an end.
Follow me on Twitter to know when I next update my blog: @mc_onnell
In the last week, some significant progress has been made in pre-production of the screenplay, including a production schedule, a re-write of the script, and casting. Despite the progress, I can't help but feel slightly worried by what is still left to do as time runs out.
The first few days of the past week were spent re-writing the script. The ending had to be changed fairly significantly due to my own lack of decent research. Along with that, I simplified it down a fair bit too. There was too much back and forth going on, so I condensed a few scenes down into one and cut out the bits in the middle that weren't necessary. Suddenly 28 scenes became 22, and 13 pages became 12. Much easier.
In case you're wondering, I won't be uploading this version of the script until the film is released. This is mainly because of spoilers, but also because we're already at work on the next draft, so there's no point. The people who do have the script however *smooth segue* are the actors!
We now confirmed all three main cast roles of Dave, Kate and Damien. Once the final videos were sent in last Wednesday, myself and Robert reviewed all of them and chose the best people we could agree on. Then there were the tricky messages between cast to sort out, but nothing was too bad as most of those who didn't get a main role should be joining us on the shoot to help out and appear as background artists.
I'm very excited about the cast. All of the auditions were great, and I really enjoyed seeing my script come to life. The auditions for Kate in particular were all very different, but each one gave me some new ideas about where to take her character, so I'm extremely grateful. Contrary to what I said last week though, I won't be announcing the cast just yet. They have the all important forms to sign off, and I think it is best to not say anything at least until those are done. I might be really mean and stay quiet until we release a trailer...
There was a bunch of minor things that also happened in the last week, including emails about the location and messages about other various pre-production, but the one big thing I wanted to talk about was the production schedule. In total, it took me four hours to compile all the information on each scene to work out who should be there at a certain time, when we could and couldn't be in a location, and how was easiest to do it all in just 18 hours.
At least it did, until we were told we couldn't quite do it like that! As these things go, there are guidelines in place - in this case mainly about being up on a lighting rig - which you have to work around. All part of the fun, I guess. So a second production schedule later, the week came to an end.
Follow me on Twitter to know when I next update my blog: @mc_onnell
Monday, 4 April 2016
Technical Deceit | Blog #1
3 Weeks until Shooting
As previously promised, I will be briefly documenting our progress throughout the production of my short film Technical Deceit over the next several weeks. If you don’t already know what the film is about, here’s a few handy links to the Screenplay Treatment and the Documentation for the project itself.
The reason I have not achieved quite as much progress as I would have liked by this point in the process, is because I was very busy editing for another project which you should totally check out here! Follow me on Twitter to know when I next update my blog: @mc_onnell
As previously promised, I will be briefly documenting our progress throughout the production of my short film Technical Deceit over the next several weeks. If you don’t already know what the film is about, here’s a few handy links to the Screenplay Treatment and the Documentation for the project itself.
We are making the film as part of the Single Camera Productions unit of our BTEC Media (TV & Film) Extended Diploma course. The team consists of Robert, Alex and myself – as well as a couple others from the class who we intend to recruit for the days of production.
Over the last seven days, my primary focus has been on finding cast. Having had our dates confirmed at our location, this was my next big worry. Robert produced the image below for us to begin posting (although many would consider it spamming) on social media. It was a simple matter for me to change the dates on the post to the ones we had confirmed, and then posted it on Wednesday evening. I kindly asked my friends on Facebook and followers on Twitter to share the post in an attempt to make it get seen by as many people as possible.
I prepared a few documents to send to the people who responded to the casting call – including a brief explanation of the plot and each of the characters, along with one of two extracts which were for female or male applicants respectively. In return, I requested a video of the applicant reading the extract in character. At the time of writing this we are still accepting applications (if you’re reading this before noon on the 6th April 2016, please apply!) but I hope to announce the castings of each character in my blog post here next week.
Looking forward over the next seven days, as well as casting I have got to make all the final tweaks to the script so we can begin sketching out the storyboard; Robert and I are hoping to make a visit to the venue at some point to make this easier. Also there is a whole variety of things which need preparing, such as rick assessments, recces, production schedules and prop and costume lists (to name but a few).
Check back next week for more!
The reason I have not achieved quite as much progress as I would have liked by this point in the process, is because I was very busy editing for another project which you should totally check out here! Follow me on Twitter to know when I next update my blog: @mc_onnell
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