Dawn

I've been doing further testing this month with my Canon 550D + Sigma 18-200mm f3.5-6.3 lens. However, I now also have an LCDVF 3:2, Glidetrack Shooter 0.75m and Manfrotto 701HDV. So I've spent quite a lot of money now, hopefully not all for nothing either.

You can see the test I did using all of my kit below and you can also click the link to read about the encoding process/experiments that I did.


Click Here To View HD Version and/or Read About My Encoding Process/Experiments.

The reason I wanted to purchase a camera was for my upcoming dance film. I've met up with the woman whom I've been in contact with, Allie, and she is very enthusiastic about the project. There will be about 4 or 5 dancers in the film, including Allie, who will choreograph themselves, with perhaps a little direction from me. I've also managed to get copyright clearance for the music I wanted to use in the film, which means that I will be able to distribute the film once it is complete.

The aim is to shoot the film near Christmas, however, since I will only be in Cornwall for 2 weeks at Christmas I'm currently wondering whether the film will end up being postponed until summer 2011. Either way, I've managed to get things in motion so am confident that this film will get made.

Got a few projects I'll be working on much sooner though. One of which is a feature film which I will be doing the sound design on. I filmed the auditions on my camera which I found very interesting to do. It really helped me from a directing point as well. Although it seems I'm quite far away from being a director of actors at the moment. Fate seems to be steering me away from dramas, dance films are where I believe I'm headed. I think my best bet for dramas is to wait until I've a few dance films under my belt and then maybe have a go.

I've also been doing more work experience with MyCornwallTV this past week. I did a week's work experience out on location with them last year, however, this year I was mostly editing in the office. I edited a number of Wasson?! videos which are daily updates on what's going on in Cornwall, and are the first videos that come up when you enter the website. I also shot a weeks worth of Wasson?! videos which I believe will air from the 8th to the 14th of September. You will be able to watch the videos here, at mycornwall.tv.

I also did a full day on the live rugby game broadcast which they do, for the Cornish Pirates. It was a home game so was held at Penzance. I ended up cable bashing, which is where I had to run up and down the side of the pitch where one of the camera men is and make sure the the wires running from his camera to the broadcast van don't get tangled, and are kept out of the way so that the camera man can't trip over them. It's a pretty low down job, but it was a great experience being part of a live broadcast, and I feel learnt quite a lot. You can view highlights and will be able to see future broadcasts on their Pirates channel which you can find here.

Here are the latest uploads of the Gang Show, which complete Act 1. Unfortunately due to copyright issues the producer of the show has asked me to make the videos private. But you can access them all with the password, which I have provided.
Password: temp

Act 1 - Part 6: H.S.E?

Click Here To View HD Version

Act 1 - Part 7: Tramps


I've decided to discontinue with my monthly music track simply because I have been and will continue to be very busy. But I've not given up completely so will still be posting tracks here when I have them to post!

The End Is Nigh

I've finished my 2nd year now at university which means I've only got one year left until I have to venture out into the big bad world. Yes, I'm scared, but I'm hoping opportunities will open up for me.

I've finished work on Forgotten now, which has been renamed Felix. I did get to do the music in the end as well which was a fun experience for me and as a result I've now got a MacBook Pro with Logic Express. So I'll be getting to grips with that over the summer. I've not yet got a copy of Felix, but I'm pleased with how it turned out, and will post it here when I get a hold of one.

I've also brushed my hands clean of the Gang Show. Burning the DVDs was a much more length process then I expected it to be as we had a lot of problems exporting the project from Final Cut, and ended up having to put the show on two discs. But thankfully we managed to sort everything in the end and the client was pleased with what we did. Plus I got paid. I'll try and upload the show for next month.

If you read my last months post then you'll know I started a little project called Film365. After creating a film a day for all of May I've decided that it is too much work to be able to carry it on for the whole year and so have brought the project to a close. However, I'm glad that I did it as I discovered some interesting things and did enjoy doing it. You can view all the videos I did for the project here: Film365 Project - May 2010.

But here are some of my favourites:

As for future projects, we make two films next year at uni. Hopefully one of my ideas will get picked. We pitch to a group of professional writers next year, and I'm hoping to wow them with a non-narrative idea, something I imagine will be quite hard since I'm guessing what they will be looking for is stories.

Other than writing some scripts this summer I don't really have a lot going on apart from one other project, Dance Experiment II.

I emailed a lady yesterday, that is setting up a dance studio in Cornwall, about the possibility of making a dance film with her and her studio. Well she's emailed back and seems very interested so I'm hoping this will go ahead. However, I won't be starting any work on it until near Christmas at the earliest. Otherwise it could be next year before I start on it. But at least it's in the pipeline.

I'm currently thinking about getting a Canon 550D. If I end up getting one then I'll hopefully have some more projects to work on through the summer.

Failure Versus Success

I had a lot of failure last month. My script for the 2:30 minute narrative film didn't get chosen and the one I did co-direct turned out quite shit. Then I pitched my 10 minute narrative film which also didn't get chosen. It seems my year group don't like experimental films, something I find quite irritating. Next year we have to pitch our ideas to some people from HBO. Being from a television company I'm guessing they are going to be looking for commercial ideas, not experimental niche market stuff. So it seems I'm screwed next year too and won't actually get to make one of my own ideas/scripts whilst being at university.

The only outside the box thing I've managed to do is Dance Experiment I, which I go more into below. What I would call a success, but only just.

Following up from last months post, here is the soundtrack to Distant Donors composed by my friend Tom Law:

Distant Donors (Soundtrack) - Tom Law

I've finished shooting for Jessie Dyer's short documentary/music video, and am going to start editing it soon, so I can finish it for the end of the month.

I finished work on Waiting Room, which to be honest I've very disappointed with. But you learn from you mistakes so I feel I've learnt a lot.

On the other hand, I am quite proud with how my dance film has turned out. I experimented with camera movement and camera choreography within a screendance in an attempt to make a unique screendance that can not be seen live. Whilst my film could be seen live, you couldn't experience it in the same way, and I feel that the way I have shot the dance definitely improves on it. I did over do it a bit in terms of dancer/camera eye contact, but otherwise I think I've done quite well with the equipment/facilities/dancers available.

The music is actually twice as fast as it should be, because I wanted to slow the film down by 50%. However, since I didn't shoot the film at a higher frame rate, when slowed down by this amount it looked quite horrid. But also in terms of the dance itself, it just lost all its energy. I think they would have to dance twice as fast again and I would have to move the camera twice as fast in order for it to still keep it's energy when slowed down.

I've called the film Dance Experiment I because I'm hoping to make more dance experiments. My next one I am hoping to do after Easter and am thinking about playing with editing for this experiment, and filming a dance that is a cross between tap and flamenco. Seeing as my ideas never seem to get picked, I guess it's up to me to go and do something about it. The only trouble is making an experimental narrative film will take money, something that people on my course won't want to be spending since they will have already spent it on their 10 minute narrative films. Plus after we finish the 10 minute films, everyone will be going home for the summer, so no one will really want to hang around. And people is what I will need in order to create a set for the world my 10 minute experimental narrative film is set in. This is why I want to make Dance Experiment II, because the only people I need to make this film are dancers, who have all expressed a keen interest in doing more dance films.

The 10 minute film I am working on is called Forgotten. Since my idea did not get picked after what I thought was quite a successful pitch I am not directing this film, which has put me on a bit of a downer. But I have taken on the role of cinematographer and been given free reign with how the film is shot. Therefore, I'm going to stamp my mark on this film with my amazing shooting. Or at least that's the plan.

But whilst my 10 minute script, Masque, didn't get chosen I am still hoping to make it one day. Just like all my other ideas I guess. One day success will find me, or rather, I'll find success.

Wired.

I chose to do sound design on this film, since it wasn't my idea and if the director's chair wasn't filled, then I wouldn't have really known how to direct it anyway.

However, we were barely a week into production before it was clear that our director didn't know or care what he was doing. Which left a crew of 2 producer's, 2 camera operators, myself on sound design, an editor, and no director. I kind of stepped up here. I didn't really know how we were going to make the film, all I knew was that we needed to film something. And boy did we. Our editor was being given a tape a day to capture for the first couple of weeks of shooting. Only in the final week did it actually become clear what film we were making when I sat in the room with the editor discussing the film.

The editor had to essentially search for meaning in all the stuff that got filmed, and once we had a film that was coming together told the camera operators to go off and shoot specific shots that would fit well in the film. Therefore, he got a director's credit as well.

In between all the editing that he was doing I had to edit the sound that I had recorded myself, as well as some sounds which I took from a sound library. Since the footage we filmed was recorded without any sound, it was up to me to design the soundtrack for the film. I had major ideas for it at the start, before the film evolved into what it is now, although I've managed to keep in as many of those ideas as I could, as well as coming up with new ones.

I ended up manipulating a lot of the sounds to give them a more unique quality. And taking my inspiration for such artists as composer Max Richter and writer/director/composer David Lynch, I've managed to create what I think is a very original soundtrack.

You can also view the full video here: http://vimeo.com/7436933

I'm very pleased with the sound design that I've done on this film and whilst I might have accidentally typecast myself now as a sound man, my passion is still for directing.

The Snowman Killer

This is a shitty little film that we made. Other than the concept it was all improvised. The camera we used was a down grade to the ones we normally use as it didn't have manual focus. The only advantage it had was night vision, but even that was amazing. Overall I think the film is pretty shit. But it just came from the necessity to make a film.

Dark V Light

I've now finished showing all of the films I've made on my own and I will now be showing you some of the films I have made whilst being at university.

When we were given the brief for this film, all we had to do was produce a high key (low contrast) and low key (high contrast) scene. They could tie into each other or be completely unrelated.



I'll leave you to decode any meaning from it!

I was the director of the low key scene for this film and I'm very proud of it as it is the first 'art' film that I've made. I'd quite like to do more experimental films like this in the future and I'm in the process of writing a few at the moment. However, I'm currently in the middle of making some other projects right now, so it might be a while before I get another chance to make a film like this.

Monster In The Woods

This is the film I wanted to show before Captive since it was the last one I made before it.



This film was very spontaneous and it came about because I really wanted to make another short film as I hadn't made one in a while. However, I didn't have a film to make, so I thought I'd try and familiarise myself with the camera a bit more. I ended up wondering down to the woods to test out some of the camera's functions.

The only function I really had a go at was the focus and this was the first film I made which had a pull focus in it. However, once I'd played around with the camera's functions I still really wanted to make a film so I decided I'd have a go.

But since I didn't have any actors the only way I could really make a film was if I did it Blair Witch style. Combined with a bit of inspiration from The Village I came up with the idea that the woods was filled with monsters. Original I know! However, since I had no actors I thought I'd make them invisible monsters.

The reason the camera runs away is because our character hears one of these monsters. And then at the end he gets attacked and eaten by the monster.

If you're wondering why the character has a camera then stop, because they don't. I wanted it to feel as though the camera is the persons eyes. Obviously filming in 4:3 doesn't make this easy and you just have to use your imagination to make the jump from, why is this person holding a camera, to there is no camera and we are seeing through the characters eyes (think of it like a computer game, e.g. first person shooter).

If anyone manages to get this story from the film then I will be very surprised. The only reason I understand it and still quite like it is because I know the bigger picture (which I haven't told you).

I still quite like the bigger picture of this film and have thought about developing it into a feature or half hour short. If I did then it wouldn't be shot in first person, but normal third person. We shall have to wait and see if I actually take this idea beyond this tiny little piece. Although if anything does come from it, then sadly you'll have to wait a very long time.

The Making Of Juno Judo

This is just a brief 'making of' video which just lets you see a little bit about what went on during the shooting stage of Juno Judo.

The Making Of Juno Judo


I got the idea to make this half way through shooting Juno Judo. Although like all of my other videos so far this too is just an experiment, and so for a 'making of' video it is pretty shit. But I learnt from it which is the main thing.

Juno Judo

My next film Juno Judo was a real big step for me as it was when I made the jump from using one camera to directing two cameras. I found this quite challenging, but it was also very rewarding and I was quite pleased with the end product. Now my opinion has changed and whilst I still am pleased with it I do feel that there is still a lot I could do to improve it.



Originally this was intended as a music video but I don't think that the video really did the music enough justice. (The music is a track called Conga Fury by Juno Reactor.)

I still quite like the first 2:15 because all of this was choreographed. The fight was choreographed by myself and the two fighters, whilst the camera work was choreographed by myself. It was all very much like a big ballet of some sorts. (Although a rather ugly ballet!) However, from 2:15 the fight is all improvised up until when one of the fighters loses, which was what we knew before we started that we wanted to end with.And whilst the camera movements weren't choreographed from 2:15 I still gave instructions to the other camera man.

Sadly you can hear some of my instructions in the video. The idea was that I would cut out all the diegetic sound when it came to edit, but it just didn't work when they were thrown and there was no bang. Although when I came to edit it I did think that I had managed to get rid of all the talking in the background. Tip for the future, if you know you've captured some sound of the crew talking even by accident then listen back to your video with some good headphones because they make such a difference and are so much better than crappy speakers.

I'm still quite fond of the first couple of minutes of this video, but it is a shame the rest of it is rather shit. I think that a completely choreographed fight would have looked better, but I always knew that 8 minutes of fight footage would be hard to keep going with the limited fight knowledge that I have. I probably would have been better shortening the track that I used.

Western Shootout Trailer

This trailer is more of an experiment than an actual trailer. The basic story was that two cowboys met in the middle of a desert and had a shootout. It was inspired by the track "Tazarine" from the soundtrack to the film Babel. However, I don't live any where near a desert and so that changed things right from the start.

The adapted plan was to film it in my village and instead of using actual guns, the cowboys would use their hands to make a gun shape. However, I did want to use some cowboy costumes in the film but since I didn't own any I would have to buy some. I started to realise that if I was going to film it then it would take a while to get everything together.

But I couldn't wait. The reason being because I wanted to use a big tracking shot to open the film with and I couldn't wait to try it out. However, I had to figure out how to pull a tracking shot off since I didn't have any special equipment such as a dolly and when you walk with the camera it shakes around a lot which would completely destroy the image I wanted to create. I ended up sitting in a wheel barrow with the camera and getting a friend to push the wheel barrow.

This is how the trailer was born. I wanted to try out the method I had come up with and since it was very short notice I couldn't get any one to star in it and so used my mums dress making dummy as the main cowboy. I dressed it in some of my clothes and used a balloon for the its' head.

The second cowboy I found in the garage and was less of an effort to put together which is why the second cowboy looks pretty rubbish. However, realism wasn't the point of making the trailer, the camera movement was.

The opening camera movement in the trailer from 0:00 to 0:35 is pretty much exactly what I imagined the opening shot of the actual shootout to be like. However, I would have extended the beginning back about another 10 seconds. The rest of the trailer isn't an exact copy of the actual film idea but instead is just stuff I thought up on the day of shooting the trailer.

Even though I did put "coming 2008" at the end of the trailer, therefore giving myself lots of time to actually put it together, I've decided to trash this project since I've moved on to bigger and better things. Ultimately not filming the real thing has worked out okay anyway because I've gained experience from making the trailer.

So instead of being a trailer this was actually an experiment to increase my film making skills. And I for one think that it has definitely worked, and I now find experimenting is often the best way for me to learn, instead of having to come up with story lines every single time you want to try something new. This way I can make mistakes and it doesn't really effect the finished thing in the end because they aren't really made for an audience anyway.

However, saying that I would still like to make the full short and there is still a possibility of me revisiting it in the future.