Directors Unit - Directing My Shoot

Yesterday was the day I directed my short film project. Although there was some stress at times I am very pleased with the way things went. 

Since the schedules were sent out the night before, I liased with the actors to pick them up from the nearby train station around 10:30 am. This worked well and the actors were at the location and ready to shoot by 11. Due to the lighting and the times of when the scenes are set we decided to do the bathroom scenes first with Alessandra. I had gone to the location the night before and set up the lighting to how I wanted it so this was all ready for us to shoot. I gave good direction and got some great footage with this scene. 

We then moved onto the landing and hallway scenes which were a little bit more difficult. The stairs fit tight to the edge of the walls and are narrow when trying to film with equipment. There were only two real options, The top of the stairs and the bottom. I did manage to get a shot on the stairs but it was very impractical so I decided to do the main shots from the other 2 places. 

With the living room this was the one scene I wanted to get right out of all of them. Being a very sensitive and key part to the film I wanted it to be done properly and tastefully. Making sure my actress was comfortable with what we were doing, even tho she had a lot of preparation before hand, we squirted the fake blood mix I made onto the legs and the dress. After a few attempts the blood worked really well and with the shots I took it was done to a standard that worked well and did not look cheap. 

We then moved in the garden doing the running and distress scenes with Oliver. This worked really well but it needed to have more atmosphere. I made the call to use a smoke machine to give a foggy look. This was difficult as the slightest bit of wind would blow the smoke in the wrong direction and we had to do several takes to make sure the full sequence had the surrounding smoke but once it was done I was very pleased with the result.

The final scene we shot was the arguement scene. This was extremely dificult to film mainly due to the tight space we had to work with. After a while we were all losing focus in terms of the continuity and our fustrations were raising. Although I was stressed I made sure I did not show it on the outside and kept calm and collected in order to kept the shoot together and running smoothly. This worked great as everyone pushed through to deliever the results we were looking for. If i could do it differently I would have filmed that scene the next day but I only had a one day window to shoot in terms of cost and avaliability.

Overall it was a great shoot that with time and preparation really came together. I will now edit my footage together and im looking forward to making it into a finished product.

Directions Unit - Scheduling

Below is my schedule I created for the cast and crew. I used the template from my last shoot as it worked really well before so I have changed the dates and edited the equipment list but most of it is the same. 

The main obvious difference is the times in the last section. It consists of starting 10:45am and finishing at 17:45pm. Although this is 7 hours long and I don't think it will take that amount of time to film, I have allowed for contingency time so that if we are running behind or some scenes take longer then we will not over run by much. 

I believe this is a good and effective schedule and I will make sure all cast and crew have a copy of this before we start the shoot tomorrow. 

Directions Unit - Casting Call Pro Update

I have managed to cast two actors for the lead roles of my production. After several people replying to my advert I went through the process of elimination looking at show reels and asking people to send me a clip of them doing a part of the script.


With a lot of deliberation I decided to cast my female role with the actress I used in my previous project. She was very keen to work on another production with me again and expressed her love of the character. After a few phone calls I thought she would be perfect for the part.


With the male role I had a lot more trouble. The few that had applied were not suitable for the role and I didn't want my friends, family or people from the course to act this complex character. I decided to do a search on the Casting Call Pro website and started to contact actors directly. I heard nothing for a while then 4 people came back to me at once expressing their interest for the role. After several phone calls with each of them and negotiating travel costs I have secured a male actor for the production.

Directions Unit - Shot List

I decided to compile a shotlist in order to make sure my shoot goes the way its meant to. It can be viewed from the images below.

I wanted to do a shot list so that I could follow it on my shoot and make sure that I have a structure of what I am filming. The production consists of 5 scenes, The Dining Room, Bathroom, Landing and Hallway, Living Room and The Garden. I put the scene number on the left followed by the location name. I followed this with the type of shot so I know what I am aiming for and then a comments box to give a brief description of what I am filming. 

With this shot list I know it will help my shoot to flow and be a lot more organsied. 

Contextual Studies - Contexts & Culture

Today I learnt about the theory and critical contexts behind the issues of representation and identity of race in television and film. Race is defined not just by skin colour but also culture identity, history and experience.

The critical contexts are ideology, hegemony, pluralism, mediation and reception theory which are ued to look at how people are represented and the stereotypes they may carry. An ideology is the set of opinions, values, beliefs and assumptions constructed and presented by the media. Hegemony is also linked to this but predominantly focusing on the dominant ideology within society for example in a sitcom it usually reflects the nuclear family as its main focus.

Mediation i looking at what we see being the filmmakers version of reality rather than the reality or truth. Its the decision - making process of what the filmmakers choose to show on screen and how things like gender, race and class are presented to the audience. Although this is important, its also key from the audiences side in how they read the programme they are watching and understanding whats being shown and this ties into the reception theory.

The first sitcom I watched was Love Thy Neighbour (1972 - 1976). It reflecrs the manifestationss of the other and Freud' narcissism of minor differences. Although the show focuses on cultural differences and racism it also looks at xenophobia showing the fear the husband has from the people next door coming from another culture. The sitcom uses humour and gags in order to represent the issue.

The other sitcom I watched was called Black.ish. This is a more modern US programme that deals with race  medialtion (comedy) 

Directions Unit - TV Drama Research - Broadchurch

I decided to watch the first series of broadchurch as one of my tv dramas as I think I can take a lot from the show. The program is a British crime drama originally aired on ITV back in March 2003 and stars David Tennant and Olivia Coleman. The drama focuses on the murder of 11 year old Danny Lattimer and how the family and small town deal with the grief and media frenzy that surround the core question of who killed him. With many suspects and rising motives the audience are left to hedge their guesses all the way through till the very end.

Here below is an entire round up of the first series (spoilers):

I picked this as I love the way the director has taken an interesting yet impactful approach to the aid of suspense. Whilst we dont know who killed the boy till the last moments of the 8 episode drama, all the way through we kept on our toes and wanting more and more. The series does this through reavling little pieces to the viewers and this is something I have analysed when watching it as my film has a very big revel moment. The thing I noticed was it always catches you off guard. You are fed information by what you are seeing on screen and the director cleverly tricks the audience into thinking one thing and then revealing that this is not the case at all. In my film I want the audience to feel tricked into believing that everything if fine and then slowly shock the audience by showing everything is not how it seems with the blood. With these scenes and the right music put into place I believe I can acheive this effectivly.

Broadchurch has a certain style in terms of the cinematography used. There are always beautiful backdrops that establish the program in terms of setting a mood. Shadows are used alot against them to show the darkness of people surrounded by something so beautiful. I like this idea and I want to show something similar in my work.

Camera movements are often very dreamy and slow moving when the characters aren't in shadow and its accompanied by beautiful lighting. There are scences that do use hand held cameras in the intense rows and arguements between the family of the boy but these scenes are mixed up with a lot of visionary shots paired with non diegetic audio to give an emotional effect with the viewers. This is also something I would like to encorporate into my film.

Overall the series has a very stylised and artistic approach to the way its been filmed. Everything has been done for a purpose and thats what I want to carry through to my production.

Directions Unit - Sound Design

Today I learnt about sound design and how adding pieces of audio as one soundtrack can heighten a piece of film. If you are shooting and editing a piece of film from the image side you also will shoot and edit the sound as well concentrating on specifics like footsteps, gun shots and announcements.

A sound designer would originally be a team of editors that had no creative input in the project but after the 1970's the demand was higher due to better sound quality so it became a more important process with a sound supervisor overseeing and being mainly responsible for the films sound design. Some productions would require as many as 50 different tracks throughout a film for example action genres but more commonly they require between 5 - 20.

There are 7 Main types of tracks and the first is Dialogue. This is all the spoken parts recorded from the shoot itself unlike a voice over that would be on a separate track.

Sync is all the sound recorded from the shoot that isn't dialogue for example somebody walking.

ADR (automatic dialogue replacement) is all the dialogue that is re - recorded after the shoot. A lot of high paid Hollywood films will use ADR to make their dialogue more clean and crisper although some films don't use it to seem more authentic.

Sound FX are elements added in post to heighten what we are seeing on screen. These can be something like a car explosion to a creaky door closing.

Foley artists are people who record live sound effects using props and items to recreate the sound shown on screen for example if a horse is trotting, coconuts are usually used to bring the sound out rather than the sound on film.

Atmos is short for atmosphere. This is sound helps to heighten atmosphere from a particular location. An example of this would be a rumbling background noise and tension built by sound effects.

Music is key in almost every film. Its used mainly as non diegetic and composed to help the audience feel what they are meant to be feeling. It can also heighten emotion for example a sad part of the film will have soft strings which will add to it and can even make the audience cry. It can also be used as diegetic by music coming through a radio, record player or car stereo.

Sound is edited together just like images used on editing suits like Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premiere or on more specialised suits like Pro Tools or Nuendo. In the final stage The Mix takes place where all the seperate tracks are mixed into one final track completing one sound track.

Directions Unit - Director Research: Danny Boyle

Danny Boyle is a well known and successful British Director. Through his life so far he has directed over 20 films and TV dramas winning many awards such as BAFTA's and Academy awards for his work. 

Born October 1956 in Manchester, England, Boyle studied drama throughout his education. After graduating Bangor University for English and Drama, he joined a theatre group called 'Joint Stock Theatre Company' where he fell in love with directing. He moved to 'The Royal Court Theatre' to direct his first play 'The Genius' before moving onto 'The Shakespear Theatre Company' to direct 5 more plays. 

In 1987 he moved on from plays and decided he wanted to direct behind a camera. This made him branch out into television starting as a producer. From there he went on to direct TV episode's such as  For The Greater Good and Inspector Morse. After watching Apocalypse Now he was inspired further and felt his heart for directing laid in films. 

In 1995 Danny Boyle released his first directed feature film called Shallow Grave, a black comedy crime film staring Ewan McGregor. This film went on to be the most commercially successful British film of the year and won the BAFTA for best film. It also showed off to production company's his many talents leading to full commission for the hit book adaptation film, Trainspotting. 

Over the years Danny has gone on to direct many more films throughout his career including Slumdog Millionaire which won Eight Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director.

Main Film Credits:

Shallow Grave (1994)

Trainspotting (1996)

The Beach (2000)

28 Days Later (2002) 

Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

127 Hours (2011)

T2 Trainspotting (2017)

Directing Trade Marks: 

Boyle has many trademarks that show his style and common themes he includes in the majority of his work. He is a very versatile director that has explored directing over many different genres including Drama's (Trainspotting and Slumdog Millionaire), Horror (28 Days Later) Thriller's (127 Hours, Shallow Grave) and Sci-Fi (Sunshine). This is unusual for a director as they typically stick to one genre but this shows the vast range between his work. 

He will often open with a scene from the middle of the film then continue from the start allowing the audience to watch the narrative unravel to that moment. A good example of this would be in Slumdog Millionaire. The film opens with the protagonist sitting in the hot seat playing the Indian television version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire with one question away from winning the Million. When the scene is played it then flashes back to the start of his life and the journey he takes up to that point in his life. By doing it this way we understand what the film is about and it entices the viewer into wanting to know more of how he got there. The opening scene can be viewed below.

In terms of scoring his films they often contain at least one track that is recognisable and has been popular in chart history. A few examples are Underworld - Born Slippy (Trainspotting), All saints - Pure Shores (The Beach), M.I.A. - Paper Planes (Slumdog Millionaire), Bill Withers - Lovely Day (127 Hours), also noticeably varied in genre. He does this to connect with his audience but when he does score classically he often uses John Murphy Like in 28 Days Later and Sunshine. 

Boyle will sometimes use dreamlike sequences in his films to heighten the intensity at certain moments. This is done in train spotting numerous times to convey how the characters are feeling when high on drugs and is also done in 127 hours when the protagonist is hallucinating.

 

I chose this director to research as I believe I can learn from many elements of Danny Boyle's work. He has shown how he can adapt to an array of genres but I am focusing particularly on how he has created a very British feel to his more earlier work like Trainspotting and Shallow Grave. I love how he has created a very compelling drama's which keep viewers hooked but they also have a very real and gritty style to them. I will take this research into consideration when looking at my own work. 

Directions Unit - Locations

I will need 3 locations for my film and these include a house, an orchard and a hospital waiting room.

For the house I originally envisioned my dads house which is a large converted barn which would fit well with the characters lives it has great space which enables me to film some good camera work and reflects the background of wealth but unfortunately this is not possible anymore so rethinking I will use a house in Bearsted of another family member which gives me great scenery and will create a modern and realistic feel to the film. It also reflects a nice family home with wealth to emulate their success with money.

The hospital waiting room is going to be much more difficult since I can not film in an actual hospital so I have decided it will be filmed in one of the lecture rooms at The Maidstone Studios. Using props and rearranging furniture I should be able to show this scene is located in a hospital.

For the outdoor scene I have found a field near by which would work perfectly with what I am looking to do. I am in current contact with the owner but I'm still waiting for it to be approved.

I have thought very carefully before choosing these locations. I want the film to look genuine and for the audience to see that I have thought about the decisions I have taken in the terms of story and style. I also wanted the locations to be within reasonable distance of each other to make travel easier and to fit in with the time as I have three days to film. All my locations are located in Maidstone and have a driving distance of approximately 10 minutes apart.

Red pin - Maidstone studios

Green pin - House and Field

(6 min Driving Distance)

Directions Unit - Director Research: Tom Hooper

Tom Hooper is a British/ Australian director who directed many TV shows over the years and more recently started directing feature films. He has won many awards for his work including an Emmy, a BAFTA and an Academy Award.

Born October 1972 in London England, Hooper had a love for making short films and studied at Oxford University. Whilst he was there he loved directing short plays and managed to secure a few jobs directing Television commercials.

Once graduated he started directing tv shows including Biker grove and cold feet. After some recognition he was given the chance to direct the first two episodes of the high budget period drama, Elizabeth I which he won an Emmy for.

After he had done TV work for over 10 years and gaining success in the field, he moved on to directing feature films like The Kings Speech and Les Misérable's which had also won him and the films numerous awards.

Main Directing Credits:

Biker Grove (1997)

Eastenders (1998 - 2000)

Cold Feet (1999)

Elizabeth I (2005)

The Kings Speech (2010)

Les Misérables (2012)

The Danish Girl (2015)



Directing Trade marks:

There are many directing trade marks that Tom hooper uses. He works with hand held cameras creating the slightly shakey style to give realness and edge. This is something I can take into my own film as I want to be able to convey the seriousness of it all but make it seem gritty and as if we are actually standing there with them watching the argument unfold. With the use of handheld I can create this look giving the realism im going to try and make.

He also uses distorted wide angle lenses. although the effect looks really good I do not have the equipment or resources so I will have to use a standard lense but I like the idea of distortion so I may contrast slightly higher when it comes to shooting the film.

Directions Unit - Steve Finn - Directing workshops

Over the past few weeks we have been working with Television director Steve Finn to understand more about directing. The main thing he taught us about was blocking. This was very interesting for me as I have never realised the art and process of actually blocking a scene.

Through several workshops we were asked to read a script. From this we looked and planned on how to block the screen with the use of people on the course and props. I had a scene where it was at a dinner party and an argument was happening between two women in the kitchen. I decided to make it more interesting than two people just standing having an argument by using props for example one person was setting up the table and was putting things away in the fridge whilst talking. I also looked at the position of the people and as got them to move around the scene rather than staying in one place.

I have learnt a lot from these workshops and will take this on board when shooting my own production.

Directions Unit - Mapping My Shoot

Today I did a lot of planing to get some Ideas of where I was going with the production. I work best breaking it down with post it notes so I decided to lay out a map of the different things I needed to think about.

I broke it down by adding category headings that I needed to think about in one colour like costume, props, locations, scenes etc. I then could expand by adding notes and ideas to them in other colours helping me to understand what direction I was going in.

 I found this method very effective and I now have some understanding of what my production is going to look like. 

Directions Unit - TV Drama Research - Run

I decided to watch the series Run to help with research for my production. It's a one off British TV drama with 4 episodes focusing on one main character in each one. The series looks at how one persons actions in their life can affect another although they seem far disconnected to each other.

I particularly wanted to focus on this TV show due to its style and the way it has been filmed. The majority of it is done hand held which gives a really nice edge and gritty feel to it. It makes the program feel more real and as if you was standing there witnessing what was happening in front of you. This is something that I am highly considering using for parts of the film where I need to fit the same effect. I feel I can really tone it down and make it very serious by approaching the filming hand held.

The series uses a lot of fluorescent and white lighting which also adds to the realism. It creates the effect that they are under real street lamps and reflects the poor area where the series is set. Although it fits perfectly for this drama, I am setting mine in a more wealthier place and in a family home so I will use less white lights and more warmer lights like tungstens. The use of shadows are casted a lot in the program and this has got me thinking about if I want to use that in mine. With the back or profile of them lit up and the other side completely dark it creates a really dramatic statement of the person and I feel this could be something I could do in my production to make the characters stand out and look bold. 

Throughout the whole series there is very little in terms of non- diegetic audio. It almost gives it a documentary feel and this is not something I am trying to achieve. The one thing about this part I will take from it is the fact that when they speak with no audio it is very clear and as a viewer you listen intently to what they are saying and this could work well for when the argument takes place.

Overall this is a really interesting drama with some exciting ways I have taken from it that I feel will benefit my production

Directions Unit - Casting Call Pro Advert

I have put up an advert on the website Casting Call Pro to find two actors to play the part of Frank and April Wheeler. I explained the basic outline of the plot and the dates for when and where the filming will take place.

I have also put a precaution note that this film will involve roles that will be challenging and themes of abortion will be expressed so if actors are interested they should be comfortable with the demand the roll entails and to read the script before accepting the part. I also explained that this is not a paid role as it is a student film with a very minimal budget but they will have a copy of the final film within 6 months of completion.

I have also put up a character description so that the actors applying will know the type of person I am expecting to cast. Once I have all the applicants I will assess their show reels and cast accordingly  to who I think will be the best fit for the roles.

Directions Unit - Adapting and finalising a script

I have chosen the scenes I am going to re do for my film and the next stage was creating the script to how I envisioned it. I used a website called Celtx which is primarily used to write scripts in a professional format so that I could end up with a great product.

As I was writing the script, although I am doing this film in my own way, the content is very similar to the original scenes. The dialogue is virtually the same with a few tweaks and the visual actions are very similar but I wanted it to be like this so I could keep the story and essence of what was already created whilst filming it in a unique way to show my take on how I can adapt it.  

When writing the script, although similar to the original, I was envisioning it in my head of how I would do the shots and how I will film the actors in their new settings to create my version of the scenes which will show a great modern and more realistic view to what has already been created. 

I finally finished the script and sent it to Simon who looked over it and made sure that this was going to work filming wise and as a final piece. After a few days the script has been green lighted and I am therefore able to move forward with the process of the project.