Cinefest 2016

I am really pleased to say that 'Tales From the Other Side' is now an award winning production. Yesterday Cinefest in Middlesborough was held and we had been shortlisted to win in two categories, including; Screenplay and Short Drama. I was extremely happy to even be considered for these awards and never thought we would win one, but against the odds 'Tales From the Other Side' won an Award for Best Screenplay. The script that was entered was for 'The Babysitter' which to be fair is probably our best script as we had the longest time to work into it. I would like to say that the majority of the credit for this award goes to our Screenwriter Mikey Barker. However the script was not crafted to what it is today without mine, Johns and even Diane's involvement because both me and Di wrote multiple annotated versions of the script which are up on the VLE. It was nice to see Maxy again as he was one of the judges for the awards.
With this module coming to a close it was a great way to end and I only hope we have as much success at these awards moving forward. I would like to extend my congratulations to all the members of our Crew.

Combining the Shorts

Now that we've came to the stage of having rough edits of each one of our shorts, the time has come to finally combine them. I've been looking forward to this because I've always felt that this film would work at its best with all of it's pieces in place. When figuring out the time-line for the whole piece we realised that it wouldn't make sense to have our ending of 'The Lights', which takes place the next morning in the middle of our piece. I made the decision to tag it at the end of 'The Babysitter' so that it made sense within the time-line.
A big problem we found is that 'The Babysitter' was shot progressive and both 'The Hook Man' and 'The Lights' were shot interlaced which is a really annoying problem. As the interlaced footage is often leaving lines across the screen, depending on what device you watch it on. I'm disappointed Abby missed such a little thing because for the most part she's been a good camera op. I just hope we have time to fix it so it doesn't look so rough at the Vue Screening.
With all of the shorts in place we had a runtime of around 15 minutes which I was happy with. We thought originally it may end up being around 11, so it was initial surprise to find out it was running at 15. I feel there is still work to be done in the edit room to just put the finishing touches and polish off our final piece.

First Cut of 'Aren't you Glad you Didn't turn on the Lights'

Today I sat down with Chloe to watch our first cut of 'The Lights'. I was pleasantly surprised with how the piece is turning out so far. However I do think it needs a lot of work, This is the one Chloe will probably have the least amount of time with so we want to make some useful changes. I had noticed that a shot I had got on set of Jack arriving at the door wasn't in the edit and this is a really nice shot so I want to see if we are able to slip that in. Also there are some small audio glitches that need fixing.
Saying this though, I felt we were in a good position to polish off these edits because we were the only group to have everything shot at least two weeks before deadline. So I felt confident  about our editing time, but Chloe tells me that because of all the other level deadlines and our level rushing last minute in the edit that there was barely any time for us to get booked in. Which I feel isn't really fair at all, we were the only group to think ahead and be prepared for the edit but because of others bad time management we are going to get about the same amount of time to edit 'The lights' as others who are still shooting NOW.
I just think we actually used our time well during the module, but yet haven't really experienced the benefits because of others.

'Aren't you Glad you Didn't turn on the Light' Shoot

After the pre-production we did on 'Lights' over the easter break, we came back after easter ready to finish it. We had everything in place, me, John and Mikey went out the day before and bought everything we needed, including; Bed sheets, Costume and ingredients for fake blood.
On the shoot day we all met at Church square, we had decided to use Lime Crescent as our student accommodation. Dan Whalen was so kind to let us use him room. Which came in handy as our actor for the role of Sam wasn't responding to the call sheet which we sent out, so we decided to use Dan as easy fix. Even though I would prefer not to cast students in our films, Dan was actually quite a good fit for what the character required.
Once all of the cast and crew were ready at church square we moved to our location. Me and John had purchased some black card to black out Dan's windows for the scenes which we were attempting to make look like night. I think this worked reasonably well but if you were looking for it, you may be able to spot it. We set up and I began to work with the actors and run some lines with them. At first I began to get worried as Dan was taking a lot of time to familiarise himself with the lines, I thought we were going to be trying to get this scene all day, but after we practised a few times, he picked it up rather quickly.
After we got the main dialogue scene, we moved onto the scene where Danny finds Sam the next morning. We had cast Gary Davison as Danny, I had worked with him briefly on 'Ya Think'. I was extremely impressed with the amount of research he had done for the character. He had a notebook filled with information about the character, which made my job a lot easier. He really went for it with every take, I would happily work with Gary again.
Next we did what we've done on every shoot for these shorts. Waited for the sun to go down. We needed the cover of darkness for our Exterior shots. Once it was dark we shot a few shots of Danny leaving and arriving from his night out. We got a two shot of Danny and Jack, when Danny lets Jack in and I was a fan of the look Jack gave back to Danny when he thanks him. I look forward to seeing it in the edit. We got a few things on the shoulder rig, this included shots of Danny walking threw the corridors of lime Crescent, I instructed Abby to follow Gary quite wobbly to emphasise his drunken state. We also did another version of this shot where we follow Jack into the building, now this version I asked for Abby to hold it a steady and as straight as possible to really show the contrasts between the two characters.
We also got a shot from the other side of Dans door showing Jack arriving, you could only see his silhouette threw the window, but it made for quite a striking image. At the end of the shoot, when we sent the majority or cast and crew home. Me, Jack and John took the shoulder rig out and shot a few pickups for 'The Hook Man', one was just Jack entering a takeaways and collecting a pizza and the other was the blood splatter on my windscreen for the end of 'The Hook Man'. This shot was fairly difficult, I operated the camera while I told Jack to splatter the blood across the window. On the camera it didn't have the effect I was looking for, So i just simply asked John to pour the rest of the blood all over the front of the car. This looked ten times better, I just hope it works in the edit.  Overall I was pretty happy with the shoot for 'Lights'. I do feel like it may be one of the least interesting shorts, but I think it'll be a nice break and bridge between 'Hook Man' and 'The Babysitter'.

Storyboards for 'Aren't you Glad you Didn't turn on the Lights'

Over the Easter Break I've worked on my storyboards for 'The Lights'. I started with a copy of our most recent script and worked from there. For the opening conversation between Sam and Danny I've kept this quite simple, just a back and forth camera cutting. For the takeaway sequence this whole part may just get condensed into one shot to save time. 

 I decided to bring over the idea I had while filming 'The Hook Man' to let the camera movements represent the characters, so again when Jack enters the student accommodation I wanted the camera to follow him as he walks through the building to really build tension. I want the camera to be really still, to represent how calm the character of Jack is during this moment.

 Ive carried this technique over into when Danny arrives back at the accommodation. To contrast Jacks, I thought it would be nice to follow Danny the same way as he enters the building, But this will be to show how intoxicated Danny is. This will be shown by following Danny with some erratic movement on the shoulder rig.

This final sequence was quite simple to visualise. I think the main concerns here are about how good we can get that blood to look on the wall and also the position of this piece in the full timeline. Because this takes place the next morning and 'The Babysitter' is still on the evening so when we put all of the pieces into one, we may have to add the scene to the very end, maybe as a post-credits.

Meeting with Maxy

Recently I met with Maxy Neil Bianco to discuss my report for Professional Studies. The meeting we had was really interesting because I met him while he was editing in his studio. We discussed at length about the industry and making a start within it. I was really thankful of Maxy for allowing me an hour of his time. I got a chance to look over some of the work we did together back in January. The footage looked really nice and I really like Maxy's style of people and place, and the relationship between the two. Maxy pared with Michael's writing create a really strong connection between the two.
He gave me some really nice tips about diversifying yourself within the industry. He told me "Make something only you could make" and I think that is really important as so many people make things which don't really resonate with an audience or even themselves.

Casting for 'The Lights'

Here are some recent casting announcements for our upcoming short named 'The Lights'. We have cast our newest role of Danny. 

Gary Davison has been cast as the role of Danny. Danny is a mature student who likes to relax with a good couple of drinks. Danny would rather have night out than a night revising compared to his roommate Sam. Gary seemed right for the role because of his friendly personality and likability. I worked briefly with Gary on 'Ya Think' and was always keen to work with him in the future.

First Cut of 'The Hook Man'

Today I watched the first cut of 'The Hook Man'. Unfortunately my fears from the shoot carried over into the edit, we really did have poor lighting on the day. We just didn't have the capabilities of creating the amount of light we needed.
Although saying this, there are positives in the footage, I was pleased with how the piece was coming and I think as first cuts go this one may be better than the initial cut of 'The Babysitter' but I think it won't surpass 'The Babysitter' final cut. I also feel the pacing of a certain sequence needs to be tightened up. I initially imagined the part where Jamie is starting the car to be a suspenseful moment, I imagined achieving this by a series of fast cuts between the footage.
Overall, I'm glad we are on schedule and have the time to fine tune this edit like we did with 'The Babysitter'.

'The Hook Man' Shoot

The day came to shoot our second short, The Hook Man. It began by picking up all members of the crew at Church square at 5 o'clock. Once we had all the equipment loaded in the cars we waiting for our actors. Jack and Paul, after this we made our way down to our location. Me and John made some prop cigarettes to be used in the scene. While other members of the crew worked on setting up the rest of the equipment. 

Once the equipment was ready, I began working with the actors, blocking out the shots and running the dialogue in the scene. We ran the scene a few times until the actors felt comfortable, then we we're only waiting on the sunlight to start shooting. We needed the cover of nightfall for the continuity of the shorts.

Once nightfall came we ran into many more problems. We had brought one cool light and multiple little LED lights. The cool light was supposed to last for over an hour but after only about 15 minutes of use it decided to cut out. This left us with even less light. We cracked on with the exterior shots of this short, until a group of teenagers came over and decided to give us grief for the next ten minutes. I asked politely if they would leave us alone and after much reluctance they left us. However it left a bad feeling on the set. So we decided to push on and getting everything that was an exterior done and then move on to a quieter location.

It took us some time to find another location, once we found somewhere we really pushed on with everything and rattled off shots. Overall I would say the shoot went well, we handled our problems well and made good time. I feel the biggest problem with The Hook Man will be the lighting. We also didn't manage to get a few shots because we had forgotten a prop, so I think there will be a few pick up shots to get once we get into the edit.

'Maniaframe' shoot

Simon had asked me to help them out and give their crew a lift with Mikey to Gisborough Hall. I was happy to do so, once we got there they quickly set up and began filming.

It was interesting to see these scene without context because with Glenns production I have no idea what its about. I missed his original presentation so never heard his pitch. It was also nice to be a part of working with film. However while I was on set, there wasn't much to discuss. Most of the shots were exterior wides.

A few days later, Glenn asked if I wouldn't mind playing one of his clowns in his black and white clown scene. I arrived on the morning and glenn began working on my make-up. It became apparent very quickly that Glenn didn't really have the skills or the time to be applying the clown make-up.Thankfully Janice was there from Level 4 to offer a helping hand. Once she finished mine it was my job to recreate that on the fellow actors. So I also doubled up as a make-up artist for the day. I 

painted the other clown to match and looked at other images to give Ryan's clown his look, including the famous tear drop. 

Once we were in costume, we ran the scene a few times as with the blood effect and Ryan's white costume we only had one chance to get the shot right. The scene required me to grab Ryan as he slits his throat and throw me and him onto a table while his blood spills everywhere. Glenn ran the scene until he was happy with it. Ryan was the only one to have any lines and to no fault of his own, his read was pretty wooden, but he isn't an actor. When it came to filming the scene, I was very prepared to tackle the performance with a lot of energy, which I hope I did. 

Overall it was hard for me to tell if the shot went well, as I had Ryans entire body over mine, so the visibility wasn't great. I didn't even know the blood effect was working until I felt it soak through my clothes. However with us only getting the shot once, I feel its a shame they won't have more coverage of a entertaining scene from a few different angles. Also Dan had the camera hand held, with the weight of the camera I would be worried about how stable the shot will turn out. Saying this though, i am very much looking forward to seeing how this scene turns out.

Storyboards and Shot List for 'The Hook Man'

Over this weekend I worked on my storyboards as we were approaching our shoot date for 'The Hook Man'. I began the same way I usually do when making my storyboards, with the script. These storyboards were at lot easier to visualise compared to 'The Babysitter'. I tried to keep the shots very steady for the begin of the piece to represent Jacks character at the begin of the piece.

Once Jack leaves the car and leaves Jamie, I thought to shoot these shots on the shoulder rig to create that sense of unease that Jacks character brings. The exchange between Jack and Jamie in the car with be very stable with just a simple back and forth cut.

For this part I chose shots with the edit very much in mind. I wanted the sequence where Jamie tries to start the car to be really uncomfortable, and I felt this could be achieved with a series of quick cuts back and forth between the killer approaching and Jamie in the car. 

After I completed these, I moved on to my Shot List. I just took it upon myself to create my own since Abby didn't seemed bothered about having one, which was fine but I like to have one on set.

'Slaps' Shoot

Today Jodie asked me to be a runner on Slaps, Matty's Final Major Project. I was excited to work on it because I'd heard the idea earlier in the year and found it quite amusing. I picked up Jodie and Richard at 8:30, once we got them and the equipment in the car we went to Steel Gym in Middlesborough. An extremely cold but visually interesting gym.

The first stuff we got was of the main actor Stephen and his coach played by Michael. I was really impressed with these two guys as they tackled the material with a lot of energy. I even found myself laughing along at points as this for me was the first time I was hearing some of this dialogue.

They did run into problems with the sound as throughout the gym they were blasting music for their members working out. This was a nightmare for Darcy as there was no way to avoid it. We moved one of the scenes, which was an emotional scene between the lead and his girlfriend from the main hall of the gym into a side corridor as an attempt to get things as quite as possible.

Next we moved onto the slaps montage with various opponents. The main fight took place between Stephen and James. This was good for me because it gave me the opportunity to be formally introduced to James, who I never properly met in first year.
Overall in my opinion the shoot went really well. From someone on the outside looking in, I felt the problems started and ended with the sound but the visual part of the production looks really good so far.

Casting for 'The Hook Man'

Here are some recent casting announcements for our upcoming short named 'The Hook Man'. We have cast our newest role of Jamie. 

Paul Webster has been cast as the role of Jamie. Jamie is a 20 year old student who's friends with our Killer, Jack. Jamie's a character who has a relaxed manor and enjoys to smoke some joints in his down time. Paul seemed right for the role because of his hippy look and his character in Good Grief shared similar characteristics. 

Script Development for 'The Hook Man' & 'Aren't you Glad you Didn't Turn off the Lights'

An update on our newest shorts, originally we had planned for a total of four shorts. In-between 'The Hook Man' and 'The Lights' we had planned for 'Killer in the Back seat', but it came to our attention that we really didn't have enough time to pull off all three more of these shorts. With only a few weeks till we break up for easter, we have time to do one more before then and another one once we arrive back. It became clear the 'Killer in the Back seat' was the one to drop as it was kind of a filler episode to connect the other shorts anyway. We felt we could include just one simple shot in 'The Lights' to cover everything in 'Killer in the Back seat'.

Location Reeke For 'The Hook Man'

Today, Me and John went scouting a location for 'The Hook Man'. John had a few locations in mind. We first hit up a lay by about ten minutes away from the University. The location was visually good for what we required but it was far too close to a main road for the sound. I knew if we chose this location Jacob would have a nightmare with the sound. Next we went towards Summerhill, the locations here were good put the location looked too busy for the secluded environment we were going for.
We later went into Greetham and found an abandoned car park area, which instantly looked like the type of location we were looking for. It was very secluded and had the woodland area we wanted. I did however had reservation about the lighting because there was no power anywhere close so we weren't going to be able to bring the red heads.
Overall, I think the last location will work best for what we require. I feel the Summerhill location will be a good backup because I know John may have a hard time locating someone to sign off on our last location, but I feel we will be moving forward with the Greetham location.

'The Babysitter' Pick up shots

Over the weekend I took a camera home to film some pick up shots for The Babysitter, after completing our first rough cut of this short it became apparent we needed a few cut aways to help polish off the piece. These included shots of Rebecca scrolling threw contacts on her phone and her picking up her phone when an unknown number calls her.
We also re-did a shot we did on the actual shoot, which was a slider shot towards the radio once 'Tales From the Other Side' begins playing. We changed the shot because we decided to cut into that shot with all the close ups of the lights turning off. We had to re-do the shot because we hadn't turned off any lights while we filmed the original shot.
Chloe also thought the ending was lacking, in regards to the reveal of Jack so I filmed some more shots of him outside of the house looking in. One shot that pans from his boots towards his head and shoulders and just a simple wide of him standing infant of the house.

First Cut of 'The Babysitter'

On Friday Chloe finished her first rough cut of 'The Babysitter'. The edit is looking decent but needs a lot of improvement. The whole opening of the piece could do with being dragged out a little to build tension and so it doesn't feel as rushed.
There are also moments where we could do with some close ups to tighten the edit up. With some close-ups of phones ringing and Rebecca calling contacts within her phone. The ending when Jack is revealed to be outside also doesn't seem to have the same impact I wanted, so may have to film some new shots.
Overall I think the edit, needs some work on the pacing though out, to help the piece flow a bit better.

'The Babysitter' Shoot

On Saturday it came to our shoot date, we had arranged to pick the crew up from Church Square at 1:30. Once I picked the crew up we drove to the location and arrived on set for about 2 o'clock. We began to rearrange furniture and practise shots while we waited for the cast to arrive at 5 o'clock for some food and the shooting was set to begin at 6 after the sun had gone down.

Once everyone had chance to get something to eat and run some lines it was just the sun we were waiting for. Sunset was about 5:45, we made sure to get our establishing shot as the sun was setting to give it that dusk setting. Once we got a few variations of this we moved onto the kitchen scene with our actors Cassie and Terrance. When I first met Terrance I was worried he was going to be quite stiff as he seemed uncomfortable when he fist arrived. After we ran the scene a few times however he fell right into it, which was really nice to see. We set up two cameras, one as a wide and another as a mid shot for Cassie, after multiple takes of this, I sent Abbie in with the shoulder rig to get the close ups and cut aways we needed. I'd say this was once of the more straight forward scenes to shoot, we got everything within about the first hour which was great progress.
After this scene, we moved onto the track and dolly shots, we decided to get these out the way with while we had time as they would be the most strenuous to set up and the longest to shoot. I thought it would be best to group the track and dolly shots together to save time. After this we just started shooting bits a bobs from all over the script until it became very confusing to actors and even me what shot this was and where it would go in the edit. The confusion cost us quite a bit of time, so we moved back to shooting chronologically to keep it as simple as we could for the actors and crew to keep up with each shot.

I felt Cassie gave quite a nice performance though-out and helped sell the character of Rebecca, especially for a character who for the majority of the piece is home alone. We used a similar technique of a multi camera set up when filming the scenes where Rebecca is sat on the sofa. For this scene we had one camera as a wide and another for close-ups on Rebecca, this worked really well and I think will look nice and professional in the edit. We got into a pretty good rhythm from here on out, just taking a shot at a time. Using the slider for the last conversation between Jack and Rebecca was probably the shot we had the most practise with. We used the natural lighting of the red LEDs under the fridge which I think will add a nice atmosphere to the piece. There was many things we needed to get right in this shot, the slider movement had to be smooth and on time, the performance had to be solid to really sell the piece. I was happy with how the shot looked on set and am interested to see it in the edit.

Overall I think the shoot went really well, we covered a lot of our basis with close ups and cutaways. However I do feel we could have got more later on. As the shoot ran on it became apparent to me we didn't have much time and for fear of keeping actors and crew for too long, I felt we began rushing. I think in an ideal world we could have done with doing this shoot over two days to really make sure we had everything we needed. Although with this being the first shoot out of the gate there is an opportunity to go back and get some cutaways of shots we could have maybe done with or improved upon ones we already got.

Storyboards and Shot List for 'The Babysitter'

Over this weekend I worked on my storyboards as we were approaching our shoot date. These were quite different for me as its one of the first pieces I've worked on with dialogue so writing that into the storyboards and planning that out was a new challenge for me. I started with the script and made annotations on that of how I was going to plan out the shots. After this I printed off some storyboard templates to get started, the opening scene was fairly self explanatory.

For the next couple of scenes, I came up with what I thought were some quite interesting shots. I wanted to use the track and dolly to roll towards the fridge so that the fridge door could swing into frame and we could then plant certain things in the audiences head about the restaurant number and the babysitter leaflet. Also when reading the script I felt it was very much Rebecca goes one place talks on the phone, Rebecca goes to another place talks on the phone. So for the scene where she calls the restaurant I thought it would be visually more interesting to have her walk and talk towards the camera on the track and dolly.

One of the things I wanted to include a lot of was close ups, it was important to me that you could read the emotion on the characters face. I decided for the main telephone call between Jack and Rebecca it would add a lot more to the tension to have the camera slowly move in closer towards Rebecca until she finally realises something is wrong here.

Finally for the last section of the piece I thought it would be nice in the last shot, if we could show Jack was lurking in the shadows all within one shot. I decided to start on Rebecca falling to her knees and then the camera would pan round and down to show the bloody bed and child and then to pan up and round to the window to show Jack outside, waiting. 

After I had worked on my storyboards, the next step was a shot list. It was brought up in a production meeting that Abby would create the shot list to help her when it came to filming, once I saw it I felt it was lacking in detail so I made one for my own.

In regards to my shot list, its fairly straight forward. Its just something to help me quickly and efficiently give answers to any questions the crew may have about how we may get a certain shot.

Casting for 'The Babysitter'

Here are some recent casting announcements for our upcoming short named 'The Babysitter'. We have cast our three main leads with one returning character throughout all of the shorts. Jack.

Terrence Betts has been cast as the role of Mr Borden, an accomplished business man divorced from his wife of 10 years. Who share two children a 5 and 7 year old pair of boys. Mr Borden has only recently began to make his self available emotionally, and picks a terrible day for a first date. Terrance seemed to fit the role because of the age bracket and his kind but yet strong presence on screen.

Cassie Fletcher has been cast as the lead of this short, the babysitter herself, Rebecca. Rebecca is in her early 20s and recently gave a stab at becoming a professional babysitter. She's a strong, intelligent woman who hasn't truly figured out what she wants to do in her life yet. With problems at home babysitter seemed like a nice way to get out the house and make some extra money on the side. She  worked for the Borden's before the divorce, but with Mr Borden not now having much of a social life, she jumped at the chance to be working for her favourite family. Cassie seemed great for the role because of her innocent features and because of her genuine and heartfelt reading she did for us.

Jack Hammersley has been cast as the role of Jack. Just from the name he seemed perfect! Jack is the only character to appear in all 4 of our shorts. Jack is a twisted demented character who slowly becomes unhinged during the span of our shorts. Jack seemed perfect because of his large stature and intimidating mannerisms.

Zootropolis Screening

Last night Me and Mikey were presented with a great opportunity without even knowing it. Mikey had mentioned about seeing a showtime for that very evening for the new animated Disney film Zootropolis. This peaked my interest as I knew the film wasn't going to be released until the end of March which is strange for an advanced screening to be so early before the official release.
When we arrived at the cinema the screen was covered in signs which explained that we were not to share any details of the film online or publicly. Before the film began a woman came to the front and exclaimed that we were seeing the movie two months in advanced and she went on to ask who was there with their University, after this at least 80% of the theatre put their hands up. She then introduced the Head of Animation on the film Renato Dos Anjos. He went on to say that him and his team had worked on the film for over 5 years of their lives and that he had worked on other Disney movies such as, Wreck it Ralph and Frozen. He also added that this would be the first time he was seeing the film with an audience. After this the film began.
The film was amazing in my opinion, the animation was beautiful and all I could think while watching it was, how blown away I would have been if I had seen it while I was a child. As I'm still under a review embargo until the film opens, I will just end by saying how funny, clever and charming the movie was. I can't recommend it enough and will defiantly be seeing it again once it comes out. 

Location Reeke for 'The Babysitter'

When looking for a location for 'The Babysitter' we wanted something homely but also had a sense of tension and was visually interesting to look at. John had lined a few places up to look at, one being his home and a friends student accommodation. It was important to me, that the location didn't look like a students. I wanted it to have that grown up feel, so you could imagine a 40 year old man living there.
We tired Johns locations, they were fine, but one was a little on the small side and the other just seemed too plain for our family home. I decided to take John to my house to see how he felt about that. Once we arrived John seemed fairly set on this location to begin with. He was a big fan of the open space and I did think that it would offer us a lot of opportunity with camera angles and movement within such an open plan home.
I've also decided that my room could double up as the children room with a little rearranging and prop decoration. I feel this will be an ideal location for 'The Babysitter' and think it will be easier to arrange such a complex shoot from the comfort of my own home.

Equipment Tests

Today we hired out the studio and equipment to practice various shots for 'The Babysitter'. We ran the entire final conversation between Rebecca and the killer Jack. I had the idea to do this shot on the slider, I thought this would add a nice feeling to the shot. A slow build to reflect Rebecca's slow realisation that she is not alone in the house. 

We ran the scene a few times, a couple of times with me as Rebecca so Abby could practise with someone in the shot and I could direct while reading the lines.

We also ran the scene with John acting as Rebecca, so I could see the action from behind the camera and explain the framing to Abby.

We also practised with the shoulder rig, I had ideas about following a subject up the stairs with the shoulder rig. We tried this with Abby just simply following someone running up the stairs from he top of the stairs, we also tried seeing what the shoulder rig was like following someone up the stairs from behind them. This looked nice but I don't think I have a use for it in The Babysitter but maybe in 'Aren't You Glad You Didn't Turn on the Lights'. Overall the tests went well and I think me and the crew are prepared to shoot this weekend.

Chloe's compilation of our Test Shoots - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OAS6Ad13Kk

Script Development for 'The Babysitter'

Today, I read our very first draft on 'The Babysitter' since I missed quite a lot of the pitching process. I didn't feel too familiar yet with our project, I hoped this would give me a better understanding. I was pleasantly surprised by the script, I felt there was a lot there to work with. However, I did have my issues with it. Mikey had included a news announcer over the radio which I thought seemed a little cheesy and overall a distraction from the over arching plot. I suggested that instead of this we used a radio show spooky hour type concept. Taking inspiration from 'The Twilight Zone' and 'Tales from the Crypt'. I felt instead of distract this would add to the suspense and create more of a creepy undertone to travel through our shorts rather than a over the top news reporter. I also suggested cutting a lot of the earlier dialogue between the parents and Rebecca as I felt a lot of it was expositional dialogue and could be cut.
We recently had our script breakdowns with Mark and a lot of what he said I tried to bring to this script. With the dialogue at the start instead of telling the audience I decided to show them. Something which Mark often spoke about, the script had the parents telling Rebecca to that they had left a restaurant number and to call if there was any problems. I decided to include a collection of notes on the fridge explaining the background of the characters and showing the audience early a not is on there with the restaurant number, so that its left to the audience to put the pieces together.
We will continue to refine the script because I feel this is the most important short to get right. Not only is it the most complex, but I feel this one will set the tone for the rest of the shorts even though it happens last in the timeline. Overall I'm happy with the script and look forward to advising on the others.

Urban Legends Crew

Our crew has now been set and finalised, the people bringing 'Urban legends' to the screen are John Hartill as our Producer. Mikey Barker as our Script Writer. Abby Colcough as our Camera Operator. Jacob Moorfoot as our Sound Operator. Chloe Lowe as our Editor and finally Me, Drew Brockbank as director.
I'm excited to work with this crew for several reasons. Firstly Me, John and Mikey work very well together. I was really happy with the dynamic we had set up working on the kodaks and I hope we move forward with this with the same amount of enthusiasm and hard work. Secondly for the new additions, I've worked once before with Abby on Loc/Doc Drama which wasn't the smoothest of productions so I'm eager to right those wrongs and improve upon what we've previously done together. Also in regards to Chloe, I've always thought she was a talented editor so I look forward to working with her. It will be a different change of pace because I'm so used to working with Mikey as my editor. Me and Mikey have edited a lot of things as a duo before including, Johnston Press and our Think advert. Although it will be nice to give Chloe the space to experiment and maybe do something new with the edit that I wouldn't have thought of.
Overall I am very happy with the crew that has been put in place and hope things run smoothly during this module.

Work Experience with Maxy

Recently me and Sarah from level 4 were offered some work experience with Maxy Neil Bianco working on some short documentaries for Channel 4. We traveled to Whitby with him but unfortunately the weather wasn't as good as he hoped, so the shoot ran quite short. We went to a local kipper shop and shot a few things in there, of the shop owner putting the kippers into be smoked and then taking smoked kippers out and into storage.

Once we shot, we began to head back when we were passing by some workmen on the road side re-cobbling the street, we spoke to them and filmed them going about there work for sometime.

We ended the day by taking a walk threw Whitby, we grabbed some Lunch and headed back to Uni. I had a chance on the drive back to speak to Maxy and get to know him a bit. It was an interesting day and I leant quite a bit about Documentary Filmmaking.