Film Making Pathway - CastNet

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Film Making Pathway - 4 Bridges

Four Bridges (NE Film Makers) https://www.facebook.com/groups/430136297057830/?fref=ts
and
Four Bridges Casting Calls https://www.facebook.com/groups/354444004665867/?fref=ts

Both of these are Facebook groups.


Four Bridges (NE Film Makers)- "a forum for collaboration and advertisement for filmmakers from the north East. Doesn't matter if you get paid of do it for the hell of it, if you have made a film utilise this group.
1) So you have made a film. Great! Now what? You want to tell the world. Go for it. The group is about promoting local projects so feel free to post up links to your work.
2) You are half way through your film but need some help. Ask away! Four bridges is jam packed with crew members. You need post production expertise? Then ask away, as long as it relates to a project you're doing, go for it.
3) You want to make a film but don't know where to start? Again, Four bridges is packed with enthusiasts so ask us - maybe you need crew? Maybe you don't know which sound gear is best? Maybe you need a DOP? Ask away!
4) Or perhaps you wAnt to emphasise the collaborative nature of the group and start a project? Ask what the consensus is on your idea and if anyone is interested? If they are they will get in touch."

Four Bridges Casting Calls- covers acting opportunities and a way to gather local talent for everyone to help eeach others careers.

Film Making Pathway - Spotlight

https://www.spotlight.com/ is a website consisting of a society of performers and agents. It allows performers to find jobs, agents to find their clients jobs and even for producers and casting directors to advertise jobs going in productions.

You do have to sign up to be a member, or subscribe at £210 a year, or £55 a month (excliuding VAT).

Film Making Pathway - Producer - Study.com

Movie producers hire starring actors and important crew members, secure financing for film projects, select scripts, oversee idea development and choose directors. Prospective movie producers need creativity, drive, a sharp business sense and knowledge of films and the film industry. This job can come with prestige and high pay for a select few. The work hours are long, and stress related to deadlines is common in this profession. Travel may be required.

Information from - http://study.com/how_to_become_a_movie_producer.html

According to this site, this can be a reality in four steps-

1. Get a degree, and make sure it is a rlevent field. I.E. Film, Journalism, Communications.
2. Obtain an internship.
3. Us the internship to gain Industry Experience.
4.Monitor Industry Trends to prepare the next step of your career.

Film Making Pathway - Think! Prop Hire

We have sourced props from friends and family, but we still needed to acquire some dummy firearms. At the recommendation of contacting Graham Saxon from Jodie Green; we managed to acquire some dummy firearms. Graham was a pleasure to keep in touch with and was very flexible for what we needed for the shoot. A complete conversation can be found on the VLE

Film Making Pathway - Think! Recruiting some Warriors

Once we agreed we needed some medieval soldiers, I contacted several local reenactment groups. Two of these got back in touch saying they were to busy. Some never replied. However, Vanguard Reenactment Society replied and have been in constant contact through the production. They have been understanding, even when shoots have had to be postponed.

A full account of the emails sent can be accessed on the VLE

Film Making Pathway - Location Research (THINK!)

Stills from around the Church Street area. These were used to secure our location of Sheerness Grove for filming.

Film Making Pathway - Lens Testing

This series of images were taken when the THINK! crew went to location to check framing, lenses and used this to create the shot list. We were on location for around an hour, with crew members filling in cast roles to see how it looks. I arranged this so the shot list could have as much accuracy as possible. After this, we all ended up checking out the lenses out of interest making it a more fun and enjoyable arrangement.

Film Making Pathway - ASA Guidlines

The ASA is the UK’s independent regulator for advertising across all media coverage. They act on complaints and check the media and if needed they take action against misleading, harmful or offensive advertisements. If an Ad is in breach of the UK Advertising Codes, it must be withdrawn or amended. Annually their is over 30,000 complaints about around 20,000 ads. The ASA have a regulation contract with Ofcom.

The UK Advertising Codes are written by two industry committees: the Committee of Advertising Practice writes the UK Code of Non-broadcast Advertising, Sales Promotion and Direct Marketing and the Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice (BCAP) writes the UK Code of Broadcast Advertising. 

As well as acting on complaints, the ASA carry out many other activities to ensure advertising stays within the rules. For example, the ASA actively checks ads in all media and conducts surveys of advertisements published where there is unsatisfactory compliance with the Codes.

Information from: https://www.asa.org.uk/


Looking through the ASA guidelines i have made sure my adverts are not pushing towards any political, ethical or religious issues etc. I have however learnt to alert local police forces, when using things like dummy firearms.

Film Making Pathway - Advert Sample 4

This Advert by the Home Office, tackles the subject of abuse. What really stood out to me in this advert was that the content and the setting was very natural. This type of natural behavior is something i'm aiming to achieve while directing the Scunci Instatwist project.

Film Making Pathway - Advert Sample 3

This Victoria's Secret advert is very sexual. this does work for the advert though as it is of course advertising underwear etc. I feel this is a very strong advert, with great shooting, lighting and editing.

Film Making Pathway - Advert Sample 2

The Lynx bullet advert is a great example of 'sex sells'. i like how the guy keeps seeing the women he is attracted too down to their lingerie, i feel this gives the look of seeing something and meaning another; which is implemented heavily in my Scunci Pitch with the contents of misconstrued innuendo's.

Film Making Pathway - Previous Think Advert 2

Possibly the most well known advert is the Hedgehog advert, consisting of a child friendly way of promoting the safety guide of crossing the road. With this being an animation their isn't really a way of implementing it into the concept, however it is a nice example of making something for children to relate to; in the same way we have related our concept to people who are engrossed in their phones on a regular basis.

Film Making Pathway - Previous Think Advert 1

Think Road Safety's advert on checking junctions when driving. Think made quite a large campaign for the awareness of motorbikes and their riders. The concept of filming from inside the car will be implemented into the shoot.

Film Making Pathway - Previous Scunci Advert

This Scunci's advert for their Instatwist, they have took a serious view on their product and it includes a nice packaging shot at the end. In terms of taking inspiration from this in relation to the Sex Toy advert, i would like to make sure we get some clear shots of the Scunci Instatwist within our advert and a really nice packaging shot.

Film Making Pathway - Advert Sample 1

The first advert I looked at was Ridley Scott's Hovis advert, deemed Britains Favourite Advert. As much as i like the advert, it has no relation to the pitches i put forward, so no style and concepts can be took from this advert. It is just, an honorable mention.

Visual Culture - Concept Development

After going through with my pitch I have constructed a list of Locations that I aim to document, the list was composed by personal favorites across the England.The list of locations is-

Alnwick
Alnwick Castle
Alnwick Garden
Arbeia Roman Fort
Arthurs Stone
Aspley Wood
Bambourgh Castle
Barnard Castle
Banqueting House
Battle Abbey and Battlefield
Beamish Museum
Bede’s World
Berwick-upon-tweed
Blackpool
Blackpool Tower
Blenheim Palace
Bodiam Castle
Bodmin Moor
Bowder Stone
Brede High Woods
Brimham Rocks
Bristol Cathedral
Burton Agnes Hall
Cabinet War Rooms
Catterick
Chester Roman Gardens
Chester Roman Fort
Danes Dyke
Dover
Dover - White Cliffs
Durham Cathedral
Durham City
Dunstanburgh Castle
Eden Valley
Ely Cathedral
Fountains Abbey
GameLands Stone Circle
Great Aiden
Hadrians Wall
Hardknott Pass
Hardwick Hall
Hardwick Park
Heugh Gun Battery
High/Low Force
Historic Quey
HMS Victory
HMS Warrior
Holy Island
Kirkstone Pass
Lindisfarne Castle
Loftus
Mendip Hills
Newton Aycliffe
Peak District
Pendragon Castle
Robin Hoods Bay
Portsmouth Historic Dockyard
Rosebery Topping
Runswick Bay
Sandsend
Stokesly
Stonehenge
Tarn Hows
Temple church
The Mary Rose
Tower Bridge
Wallsend
Vindolanda
Whitby
Whitby Abbey
Windsor Castle
York
York Minster

73 Locations in total, I have prioritised them into categories so if i cant complete all 73 Locations, i will still have a good base to hand in.

Visual Culture - Artifact Pitch

I will be creating a location database for my journal artifact. I have chosen a range of locations i have a personal interest in, from around England; from Berwick-upon-Tweed to Dover. 

The theories i will be using in my essay will be National Identity as my range of locations cover the identities of Romans, Saxons and a lot of generational identities such as the time of the British Empire and both world wars, up to and including the present day.

For my second theory, i am struggling to choose between Colour Theory and Spectacle.

Personal Work - Working with David Jinks

I got an opportunity to work with David Jinks and his company Fridge Productions, to help create a few short adverts for Yorkshire National Trust. During this i acted as a runner and as a camera op. for the RED Dragon. It has been a great learning experience, and i thoroughly enjoyed it.

Personal Work - Ripper 2/3

Personal Work - Ripper 1/3

Film Making Pathway - Treatment: Think

Ignorance – A guy is walking down the street, listening to music with his head phones in. He gets a text and becomes engrossed in his phone. He walks straight past a man giving out free money (oblivious to what goes on around you). He then bumps into another person on there phone doing the same thing. His headphones fallout and they apologise for beeing so focused on their phones. He puts his headphones back in and crosses the road. As he goes to cross another road EITHER-
A) He get hits by a car as he wasn't looking
B) somone pulls him back so he doesn’t get hit by the oncoming car
It cuts to the THINK logo and phrase etc.
The series of texts about being careful coming home are from his mom, but instead of showing the phone (avoids the names of the devices, to show the texts similar to what Adam done for Socionetwork.

Film Making Pathway - Treatment: Scrunci 02

Vibrater – A woman is taking the laundry upstairs and walks past her daughters (aged around 20) room. She hears a vibrating sound and pauses to listen. She can hear her daughter saying things like "Oooo" and "It's so good" and "It's so fast and powerful". Disgusted, the woman barges into her daughters room to see her daughter facing the mirror using the Scrunci Instatwist. Her daughter turns and asks her mam what she thinks of her braids. The woman smiles but looks very relieved. It then cuts to the logo, product and #DoTheTwist etc.

Film Making Pathway - Treatment: Scrunci 01

Braid Off – A woman and a man with long hair are sat opposite each other. A guy in a suit stands between them. He announces that it is the Final of the Braiding Competition. He tells them its anything goes and the quickest person to make one braid wins. The guy starts to braid his hair by hand. The woman takes out a Scrunci Instatwist. She says the steps to use it out loud as she uses it. The woman finishes well before the man does and is congratulated as the winner. The guy tries to take it off her, but she tells him its not for him. She holds it ina trophiesque style which shows the logo on the product, then the product name, logo and #DoTheTwist appears.

Film Making Pathway - Treatment: Go Outdoors

Go Outdoors
Christmas Camping – The advert will start with a family of varying ages in a big tent. The shots will cut to members of the family opening Christmas presents. All the gifts will be Go Outdoors gear associated with different parts of there catalogue. Climbing, Hiking, Cycling, Camping etc. The camera will then slowly track outside of the tent to reveal them camping at Christmas time. The tent will be surrounded by snow and have Christmas lights running along the tent. A slogan will appear saying "If you can Go Outdoors at Christmas, you can Go Outdoors anytime of the year." Most of the words will fade out so it only leaves "Go Outdoors" (the brand) along with there logo. If possible it would be nice to have there logo made in the snow and have a crane shot to capture it.

Film Making Pathway - KODAK Pitches

Go Outdoors

Climbing/Hiking Rosemary topping. Fully kitted with Go Outdoors clothing. Rucksack/Tent on his back.


A guy setting up a tent in his back garden. The kids run in once its up. The guy turns to his wife and tells her its about baby steps.


Christmas presents opening. Full family Young to Old. All of there presents are Go Outdoors things. They are all really happy and the granny even cries over her new hiking stock.




Scunci

A guy (Richard) is sat in his sisters room using her Scunci Twist. His sister walks in kicking off saying its for girls. This would create a shock factor, how its used and identifies its true target audience.


Richard and a girl have a braid off. ANYTHING GOES! Richard does it by hand, the girl with the Scrunci machine. She goes through the steps to use the machine. She is a clear winner. This would show off how easy the machine is to use, along with it being used by the target audience.





Think

A guy is walking down the street, listening to music with his head phones. He walks straight past a man giving out free money (oblivious to what goes on around you). Bumps into another person on there phone. Get hits by a car. Stop texting. Stop. Think. The series of texts about being careful (from his mom) coming up the side of the screen.

Film Making Pathway - Short Film Step Outline

1. Set Up- Therapy Starts - Fear The Woman will be sat in the therapist’s room. They will discuss her fear of the woman in the window. The therapist believes her fears reside from a deeper part of her subconscious.

2. Therapy – Car Crash The therapist asks the woman about any serious events in her life both positive and negative. The woman talks about a car crash she was in five years ago, and about how badly she was injured.

3. Therapy - PTSD They discuss the possibility of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and that it is an underlining problem that she is struggling to deal with.

4. Therapy – Sensory Deprivation A return to therapy results in a worry of not being able to look into mirrors. That when she tries to, she keeps seeing another woman. The therapist suggests its sensory deprivation and that she needs to sleep better. Prescribing sleeping pills.

5. Therapy – Troxler Effect Therapy continues with a look into the Troxler Effect and how it effects visual perception. Such as the fading of unchanging stimuli. The woman is reluctant to believe this is the problem as she never looks into mirrors.

7. Therapy - Bloody Mary The therapist asks the woman about other common misconceptions such as the Bloody Mary urban legend. That none of it is real and that she only imagines what she sees in the mirror. The woman disagrees. “Repeating words or images enough times causes the ‘subconscious’ to absorb them.”

6. Therapy - Willpower He goes on to explain it’s a principle of mind over matter, if you believe in something strongly enough, you can make yourself see something that’s not there.

8. Therapy – Self-Conflict The therapist tells her that sometimes curing some of our troubles requires a change in our subconscious/unconscious thought, which can only be achieved by using our imagination.

9. Clarification and Resolve Her therapist recommends Self Suggestion and asks her to look into a mirror each day before she goes to bed and for her to believe she will only see herself. “Any idea exclusively occupying the mind turns into reality”.

10. Resolution – Mirror Gaze The woman lifts up from her couch and walks over to the mirror and takes off the cloth. ~She stares into the mirror and sees herself as she was straight after the crash.* She cries.


*NOTE – Her reflection won’t cry. It is meant to look like two different entities of the same person.

Film Making Pathway - Short Film Pitch

This three minute short would be focused around a woman and her therapy sessions as she tries to battle her fear. This fear is the belief of somebody hiding in her mirrors. The short would have a focus on her therapy sessions to help her overcome the fear. The therapist argues that the belief stems from elsewhere, such as the car crash she was in.
The shorty would be shot with the woman talking, as if to her therapist, while she is sat at home. With the therapy sessions recalled in terms of responses to create conversation. This would act as story progression in terms of therapy and as character progression in terms with dealing with her fear of the woman in the mirror.
The conversations and actions used to help her overcome this fear would be through the therapist’s responses of sensory deprivation (this can cause one to hallucinate in a dimly lit room which causes the brains facial-recognition system to misfire.
Another explanation that will be included in the therapy sessions would be the Troxler Effect. This is an optical illusion affecting visual perception. This can happen if someone fixates on a particular point for a period of time, an unchanging stimulus away from the fixation point will fade away and disappear.
The therapy sessions that would be used would also refer in each part, to the requirements for autosuggestion which are Willpower and Self-Conflict.
This short would end with the therapy concluding and the woman taking steps allowing her to believe she can truly look into a mirror. Looking into the mirror instead of seeing herself as she is, she sees herself really badly injured from the car crash.

Tale 53: The start of a production.

Tale 53 – Summery

A student based mini series based as a loose adaption of the Brothers Grimm’s ‘Snow White’ that is set within a zombie apocalypse.

The story follows Scarlett, a young woman who is lost in a world where survival is everything. We will see her progression from the beginning of an outbreak, to her facing difficult choices during the progression of a zombie apocalypse. In this setting resources of all kinds are dwindling quickly with less than 1% of the Human population still alive.

We will be creating a brief event of where Scarlett is during the time of the initial outbreak, and to try and give an insight on how rapidly the infection spreads and how it causes panic and a lack of options to control the outbreak.

This will progress to two years after the outbreak, where all forms of a social structure are nearly destroyed, with the rest of the population living groups to survive. Resources will also be hard to come by with a lot of the visuals being makeshift, using the most out of what they can find.

There will be conflicts between both the living and the un-dead. Their will essentially be three groups of the living within the production with a varied beliefs on the best way to survive, causing conflict with one another. The un-dead will become an issue in several ways and will be seen by the survivors under different names for the ‘different personalities’:

·         Swarm - Believed to act in a sort of hive mind where the group of zombies goes from place to place and act as a collective unit.

·         Roamers – Stray zombies that have broken off from the Swarm, these seem to act less aggressive and simply roam around looking for food.

·         Sleepers – Zombies that have deteriorated so much that they no longer have the same responses as other zombies, usually seen looking dead and waking only when people are in very close proximity.

·         Empties – The zombies that have little to no function, they no longer try to eat but only to infect. They are progressing from Roamers to Sleepers.

·         Husks – A generic term used to describe a zombie, a husk (corn) is hollow and empty.

So far we have had nice feedback from the public, and have completed a fully fleshed out treatment for all six episodes.

Script Writing - Evaluation

I missed some scheduled lessons in the Script Writing module by joining the course seven weeks in, but I managed to catch up quite quickly due to the help of other students such as Simon, Tori, Steven etc. This included Narrative structure, Genre, Mise-en-scene and how to start writing such as quick fire tasks. When I joined the course my first lesson was on writing a synopsis; I found this an odd starting point as I struggled to address an idea without engaging into it further. I went back to my synopses after I had written my treatments as this gave me a better idea of how the narrative would play out. From this I was able to look at the structure of my treatment and address it as three acts; which I found really useful to mark out a balance within the script and to allow myself room to switch things around a later date.

After receiving some feedback on my treatment, it was agreed upon that the narration weakened the script when it was interlinked with a series of flash backs.  Due to this feedback I will be re-writing the structure without a heavy use of narration, to take forward for my first draft. Once my First Draft was completed I still felt unhappy with the way the Narrative worked. This lead me to creating Character Bio’s, to give myself a better understanding of the characters and their relations with one another. Because of this, I made a Second Draft of my script were there was no flashbacks and instead it was in a completely chronological order. Some scenes were modified accordingly to the new structure, and some scenes were completely new to help with the relations between characters. My Third Draft was shortly after the class done ‘hot-seating’; this was due to new elements I hadn’t thought of before, which made me create minor changes to the script.

From this Third Draft, I went through a script breakdown, and from that created scene cards and call sheets. This wasn’t difficult until I came to the call sheets; I felt it was something that should have been covered in another module earlier than this as this would have cleared up a lot of confusion. I don’t think my call sheets are very strong or understandable but I will continue to work on them as I progress through my summer and the modules next academic year.

Although I have thoroughly enjoyed this module in its entirety, I have especially enjoyed writing a script from scratch. However I do feel it’s not one of my strong points for this industry and I would be happy to not continue writing my own scripts as a specialism. I would like to carry my script over though, and potentially film it, this would mean going through the process of a shooting script which I was looking forward too but was unfortunately not part of the module.

I have enjoyed the way this module was taught but it did feel slow in some areas, I was especially pleased when Di progressed through the scheme of work at its scheduled pace instead of waiting for people to catch up. If it wasn’t for this I feel I would of lost interest toward the later stages of development. My biggest concern is the lack of professionalism within the class; it ruins lessons and makes it feel incredibly childish.

Professional Studies - Evaluation

Throughout my studies this year in regards to Professional Studies, I feel I have been lazy due to doing it in a previous year on Production Design. I do however feel I have contributed in lessons and had my findings and report ready on time.  During our scheduled sessions I felt like it covered the very basics which were nice to see and be able to identify before choosing a topic for our report. As we have progressed through the Scheme of Work I have felt a greater curiosity as to what is available in the world of Film and T.V. as an industry. I dabbled in looking at cinematography, and continue to see that role as something I have potential to achieve, but during other modules on the course I have enjoyed taking roles such as Production Manager, Producer and Director.

My topic of discussion ended up being very different to what was taught in lessons; I felt that this would expand my knowledge even further afield. I chose the Adult Film Industry mainly because it seems taboo in comparison to what we have been taught in lessons. I looked into its popularity as a whole, and how it influences their viewers and how the viewer’s influence the industry. I enjoyed looking into what laws and legislation's are in place that affects the industry both positively and negatively. The final thing I took interest in was how it is produced, from original VHS to online pornography.

This module has helped me a great deal in understanding the pathways I have available to start a career in the industry, I have gained a clear view of the type of job roles I want to work within which has also been influenced by strengths and weakness’ in other modules so far; job roles such as Director and Producer seem to be the type of role I fit into in terms of both professionally and personality wise.

Next year however, i aim to follow a path for my future career and look into teaching in a professional enviromment, and hopefully get a voluntary placement to help within an art department or along those lines.

Live Brief - Heugh Battery: Rec