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.