My second review for Trisickle has been published on their lovely shiny website. Yay! I really do need to get back into the swing of blogging about films again... the fickle internet won't wait for me!
http://www.trisickle.co.uk/2011/06/19/review-julias-eyes/
Tuesday 28 June 2011
Urban Endings- On Shoots Other Than Mine
Once the first day of my shoot was over with, it was straight onto helping out on others. My role on all of them was pretty much the same, but I'll list them individually anyway... Despite them only being shot a few weeks ago, in film making terms, that's like a lifetime, and since I'm in the middle of editing the last fiddly bits of mine, it's easier for my mental wellbeing.
Amelie
Amelie and I had agreed to swap sound roles for our Urban Endings. and hers was my first shot at using the 744T mixer and recorder (otherwise known as "Graeme's kit"). I's met with Graeme to get some notes but hadn't actually got to use the kit practically. There were some initial problems with no sound coming through the cans, but I just switched the side they were plugged in to and everything was fine. There was no dialogue on the first day so I was just capturing atmos to make sure the takes synced up with the video, so there wasn't too much for me to try and keep up with. The biggest obstacle was the lack of space in the tiny shed-come-artists' studio, and the shots were quite complicated and involved reflections in mirrors, so I had to fit myself around this without getting in the way. Admittedly I did have to phone Graeme in a panic when nothing came through and everything was really quiet, but thankfully he managed to help and everything was resolved... I just had to turn the levels up as they sounded like they were recording quietly, which left me with a bit of a migraine at the end of the day... I hope this means it was resolved though!
The second day was much of the same, except we had baby chicks and a cat to pick up too. The chicks were no problem- I just recorded them chirping in their box. As soon as I put the boom mic in, they clustered around it and I found it really easy to record (as well as finding it totally cute). The cat was a bigger problem. For a start, it wouldn't move when we wanted it to, so I just had to keep following it, and even then it didn't make any noise when it walked. To make up for this, I thought ahead and recorded the sound of its tail wagging (do cats wag their tails? I'm a dog person, I talk in dog terms). I managed to record the dialogue we needed as well as some wild track, despite being in close proximity to Glasgow airport... those planes take a long time to get out of the way!
Lucy
Lucy's shoot was always going to be a tricky one for me. For a start, we weren't using the 744T (which I'd also used on Julie Dunn's shoot in between Amelie's and this). Instead, I was using the SQN Mini which I didn't feel as comfortable with. There was no separate recorder where I could see tracks as they were being recorded, and we were outside, in the forest, in the middle of the night. For whatever reason, I couldn't get a sound feed coming through but this was resolved in the morning... there were alot of cables and attachments to untangle and connect and re-connect to try and sort it out but it was resolved in the morning- we even managed to pick up wild track as well as a lengthy monologue (which was killer on my arms but a brilliant test of endurance). Everything seemed to have gone well until Lucy came to edit and we found out there wasn't any sound- and no explanation for where it went. It sounded as though it was coming through OK, everything looked as though it was working, but somehow there was nothing on the video. The film was shot on a 7D, which meant I had to connect the mixer directly into the camera, and so I'm not entirely sure about what went wrong. I was really disappointed, as I felt as though I'd let her down as well as shown myself up for not knowing what to do. Thankfully she managed to dub it in time, although I'm still unsure as to what happened in the first place.
Scott
Scott's shoot was in a farmhouse-type bulding off of a country road, which was initially dodgy for traffic noise, but I was back using the 744T and felt more confident about it after my knock during Lucy's shoot. Again, there was little to no dialogue, but there was fire... a pretty big fire, actually. It sounded really good, all crackly and I could even hear the wood and fake 'money' burning, which for me meant I was doing well. The only problem was that to get this sound I had to stand really close to the fire. It was contained to a bin and we had extinguishers and water at hand, but my God was it WARM. I'd had to put the wind guard on the boom as it was outside and there was traffic, but I kept getting paranoid that I was going to singe it in getting the sound I needed. Once we moved inside, all was well, and I was just recording movement etc, which I think I done well in getting.
I wasn't taking any chances this time around though, and made sure that I listened to the playback of each take, to ensure I'd gotten everything and I'd recorded what I needed. Thankfully it was all there, named and everything... phew!
I feel like I've grown alot in confidence at using the sound kit (well, the BIG one anyway). I was proud of myself when it worked, once I'd gotten over the problems with sound levels etc. It was tricky to boom op and keep an eye on levels at the same time but thankfully the minimal dialogue in each script made this alot easier for me. In saying that, since I was only doing sound roles, I felt like once I;d managed to do one, there wasn't too much of a challenge on others. Unlike, say, camera, where every shoot is different, the role of sound recording was pretty much the same on each shoot, so I don't feel I got to test myself very much. I still enjoyed it though, and it was nice to feel like I was good at doing something for a change (again, aside from Lucy's shoot). Overall it's an area I enjoyed working on... and after the initial crippling shoulder pain, my upper arm strength has improved no end!
Amelie
Amelie and I had agreed to swap sound roles for our Urban Endings. and hers was my first shot at using the 744T mixer and recorder (otherwise known as "Graeme's kit"). I's met with Graeme to get some notes but hadn't actually got to use the kit practically. There were some initial problems with no sound coming through the cans, but I just switched the side they were plugged in to and everything was fine. There was no dialogue on the first day so I was just capturing atmos to make sure the takes synced up with the video, so there wasn't too much for me to try and keep up with. The biggest obstacle was the lack of space in the tiny shed-come-artists' studio, and the shots were quite complicated and involved reflections in mirrors, so I had to fit myself around this without getting in the way. Admittedly I did have to phone Graeme in a panic when nothing came through and everything was really quiet, but thankfully he managed to help and everything was resolved... I just had to turn the levels up as they sounded like they were recording quietly, which left me with a bit of a migraine at the end of the day... I hope this means it was resolved though!
The second day was much of the same, except we had baby chicks and a cat to pick up too. The chicks were no problem- I just recorded them chirping in their box. As soon as I put the boom mic in, they clustered around it and I found it really easy to record (as well as finding it totally cute). The cat was a bigger problem. For a start, it wouldn't move when we wanted it to, so I just had to keep following it, and even then it didn't make any noise when it walked. To make up for this, I thought ahead and recorded the sound of its tail wagging (do cats wag their tails? I'm a dog person, I talk in dog terms). I managed to record the dialogue we needed as well as some wild track, despite being in close proximity to Glasgow airport... those planes take a long time to get out of the way!
Lucy
Lucy's shoot was always going to be a tricky one for me. For a start, we weren't using the 744T (which I'd also used on Julie Dunn's shoot in between Amelie's and this). Instead, I was using the SQN Mini which I didn't feel as comfortable with. There was no separate recorder where I could see tracks as they were being recorded, and we were outside, in the forest, in the middle of the night. For whatever reason, I couldn't get a sound feed coming through but this was resolved in the morning... there were alot of cables and attachments to untangle and connect and re-connect to try and sort it out but it was resolved in the morning- we even managed to pick up wild track as well as a lengthy monologue (which was killer on my arms but a brilliant test of endurance). Everything seemed to have gone well until Lucy came to edit and we found out there wasn't any sound- and no explanation for where it went. It sounded as though it was coming through OK, everything looked as though it was working, but somehow there was nothing on the video. The film was shot on a 7D, which meant I had to connect the mixer directly into the camera, and so I'm not entirely sure about what went wrong. I was really disappointed, as I felt as though I'd let her down as well as shown myself up for not knowing what to do. Thankfully she managed to dub it in time, although I'm still unsure as to what happened in the first place.
Scott
Scott's shoot was in a farmhouse-type bulding off of a country road, which was initially dodgy for traffic noise, but I was back using the 744T and felt more confident about it after my knock during Lucy's shoot. Again, there was little to no dialogue, but there was fire... a pretty big fire, actually. It sounded really good, all crackly and I could even hear the wood and fake 'money' burning, which for me meant I was doing well. The only problem was that to get this sound I had to stand really close to the fire. It was contained to a bin and we had extinguishers and water at hand, but my God was it WARM. I'd had to put the wind guard on the boom as it was outside and there was traffic, but I kept getting paranoid that I was going to singe it in getting the sound I needed. Once we moved inside, all was well, and I was just recording movement etc, which I think I done well in getting.
I wasn't taking any chances this time around though, and made sure that I listened to the playback of each take, to ensure I'd gotten everything and I'd recorded what I needed. Thankfully it was all there, named and everything... phew!
I feel like I've grown alot in confidence at using the sound kit (well, the BIG one anyway). I was proud of myself when it worked, once I'd gotten over the problems with sound levels etc. It was tricky to boom op and keep an eye on levels at the same time but thankfully the minimal dialogue in each script made this alot easier for me. In saying that, since I was only doing sound roles, I felt like once I;d managed to do one, there wasn't too much of a challenge on others. Unlike, say, camera, where every shoot is different, the role of sound recording was pretty much the same on each shoot, so I don't feel I got to test myself very much. I still enjoyed it though, and it was nice to feel like I was good at doing something for a change (again, aside from Lucy's shoot). Overall it's an area I enjoyed working on... and after the initial crippling shoulder pain, my upper arm strength has improved no end!
Sunday 29 May 2011
Urban Endings- The Final Push
In 24 hours time I will be filming the first part of my Urban Endings project. "Panic" is an understatement. My work have rota'd me in to work tonight and I am desperately trying to get it covered or else I WILL spend the whole night on the verge of either bursting into tears or just staring blankly. I feel like I've done so much, but it's nowhere near enough, and feel completely underprepared despite doing nothing but try to organise the shoot.
My seemingly-perfect plan of asking a friend who studies Musical Theatre to be my leading actress now seems like the worst plan ever... trying to get her to reply to my messages is proving a bit impossible, I'm not entirely she realises how much is actually riding on it. Also, my never-ending lead actor problem just won't resolve itself... I was feeling particularly proud of myself on Friday; not only had I had a lengthy discussion with Galina about the location/look and what I wanted from the script, but I'd managed to hear back from not one but TWO locations for my second date. I opted for the latter, the Scottish Youth Hostel at the top of Kelvingrove Park, because we'd filmed there before, they were more than accomodating and also offered a really great rate on the room. As their check-in time is 2pm, they said we could use a room from 10-2 for £19, rather than charge us the full price for the room. It's only a short scene so we wouldn't need it for any longer than this.
It all seemed to be going swimmingly, especially after a successful prop hunting mission. My boyfriend and I went for a trek around the Barras (I needed him in case there was any heavy lifting involved), and we stumbled across a treasure trove of an antiques junkyard. I saw the perfect wooden travel case... thingie... and we carried it about the labyrinth of antiques looking for someone to give money to. I was all ready for some top-class bartering, and we eventually found a woman manning a jewellery stall. She told us to go across the courtyard and find a "man with a beard... that or just take it". We wandered into the courtyard, saw no sign of Man With Beard, and opted for the latter... and took it. Hardly the stuff of master criminals, but it felt like a coup anyway. And the best part was, I didn't even need to trundle it home as Thoughtful Boyfriend even took it back home to the west end with him.
So far, so good... until I tried to contact my already-on-a-shaky-nail actor and inform him of the new date. Unfortunately he can't do the 7th, so I tried to contact my friend who'd also promised me a leading man if I couldn't find another. Eventually I managed to get an answer via Facebook (how I loathe relying on flaky social networking), and so far all I've heard is "I'll text him and ask!"... Oh. Come. ON!!!!!!!! I'm battering through as much as I can today, although I'm not sure what else I can do. In all honesty, in as much as I'm looking forward to it, I just want it to be over so the stress will be over too. I can't wait to sit with my headphones on and edit away to my heart's content.
On the plus side, I did make the best use of the one afternoon of procrastination I allowed myself. I managed to scoop a second commission to write a film review for 'Trisickle', and not only went to see said film, but wrote the review for it and sent it in a whole week before the deadline. Hey, if all else fails, I can be a professional... I don't know... unpaid blogger?
My seemingly-perfect plan of asking a friend who studies Musical Theatre to be my leading actress now seems like the worst plan ever... trying to get her to reply to my messages is proving a bit impossible, I'm not entirely she realises how much is actually riding on it. Also, my never-ending lead actor problem just won't resolve itself... I was feeling particularly proud of myself on Friday; not only had I had a lengthy discussion with Galina about the location/look and what I wanted from the script, but I'd managed to hear back from not one but TWO locations for my second date. I opted for the latter, the Scottish Youth Hostel at the top of Kelvingrove Park, because we'd filmed there before, they were more than accomodating and also offered a really great rate on the room. As their check-in time is 2pm, they said we could use a room from 10-2 for £19, rather than charge us the full price for the room. It's only a short scene so we wouldn't need it for any longer than this.
It all seemed to be going swimmingly, especially after a successful prop hunting mission. My boyfriend and I went for a trek around the Barras (I needed him in case there was any heavy lifting involved), and we stumbled across a treasure trove of an antiques junkyard. I saw the perfect wooden travel case... thingie... and we carried it about the labyrinth of antiques looking for someone to give money to. I was all ready for some top-class bartering, and we eventually found a woman manning a jewellery stall. She told us to go across the courtyard and find a "man with a beard... that or just take it". We wandered into the courtyard, saw no sign of Man With Beard, and opted for the latter... and took it. Hardly the stuff of master criminals, but it felt like a coup anyway. And the best part was, I didn't even need to trundle it home as Thoughtful Boyfriend even took it back home to the west end with him.
So far, so good... until I tried to contact my already-on-a-shaky-nail actor and inform him of the new date. Unfortunately he can't do the 7th, so I tried to contact my friend who'd also promised me a leading man if I couldn't find another. Eventually I managed to get an answer via Facebook (how I loathe relying on flaky social networking), and so far all I've heard is "I'll text him and ask!"... Oh. Come. ON!!!!!!!! I'm battering through as much as I can today, although I'm not sure what else I can do. In all honesty, in as much as I'm looking forward to it, I just want it to be over so the stress will be over too. I can't wait to sit with my headphones on and edit away to my heart's content.
On the plus side, I did make the best use of the one afternoon of procrastination I allowed myself. I managed to scoop a second commission to write a film review for 'Trisickle', and not only went to see said film, but wrote the review for it and sent it in a whole week before the deadline. Hey, if all else fails, I can be a professional... I don't know... unpaid blogger?
Friday 27 May 2011
Urban Endings- New Developments
The last couple of days have seen alot of progress on my Urban Endings shoot- a) hurrah! and b) FINALLY!. After a failed attempt at crewing from my own class, I managed to get Galina and possibly Ross from 3rd year on board to be my camera crew. Also, I have a data wrangler in the form of Scott which means I can use the 5D (and not the 570 like I thought; I had worried I wasn't going to be able to get someone to DIT which would've meant I'd have had to do it the old fashioned tape/log & capture way).
Despite the new breakthroughs I'm still swaying about my lead actor. Me being me, I sent my request for 'Actors Wanted' around the Academy with the wrong date- rather than May 30th, I'd requested cast for a month later. D'oh! I didn't realise my mistake until an acting volunteer notified me on it. Apparently the end of the month changeover from one til the next confuses me. Alas, this means that my Academy volunteer (who is also in the opera) is not available until the evening of the 7th- which I think may be his only free day- although this means I might have to use to my second choice, a friend-of-a-friend who is hopefully free for both.
I've been furiously emailing and scribbling down numbers for hostels to use on this date, including one which we've filmed in before, so hopefully this will yield some positive results. The prop store is currently unavailable so I'm having to source props & costumes myself... I'm going to be flying super-close to the deadline, but hey, I've always done well working at the last minute... I spent this morning discussing the script with Galina, and this afternoon will mostly be trying to arrange actors and buying props. Thankfully I have Saturday and Sunday off work, and was paid a small fortune (well... my bank balance is in the black anyway) and so my weekend will be traipsing around charity and junk shops seeing what I can find.
On the plus side, I've managed to score a few sound recording jobs on other shoots (although I may have to drop one if I can't secure the filming dates I have free for my own) plus an external shoot with Julie from last year's 4th years (again, as sound recordist- who knew they were in such high demand?). Then it's all edit, edit, edit until June 17th... Which, when you think about it, isn't so far away... The end is in sight! I just need to get through this weekend...
Despite the new breakthroughs I'm still swaying about my lead actor. Me being me, I sent my request for 'Actors Wanted' around the Academy with the wrong date- rather than May 30th, I'd requested cast for a month later. D'oh! I didn't realise my mistake until an acting volunteer notified me on it. Apparently the end of the month changeover from one til the next confuses me. Alas, this means that my Academy volunteer (who is also in the opera) is not available until the evening of the 7th- which I think may be his only free day- although this means I might have to use to my second choice, a friend-of-a-friend who is hopefully free for both.
I've been furiously emailing and scribbling down numbers for hostels to use on this date, including one which we've filmed in before, so hopefully this will yield some positive results. The prop store is currently unavailable so I'm having to source props & costumes myself... I'm going to be flying super-close to the deadline, but hey, I've always done well working at the last minute... I spent this morning discussing the script with Galina, and this afternoon will mostly be trying to arrange actors and buying props. Thankfully I have Saturday and Sunday off work, and was paid a small fortune (well... my bank balance is in the black anyway) and so my weekend will be traipsing around charity and junk shops seeing what I can find.
On the plus side, I've managed to score a few sound recording jobs on other shoots (although I may have to drop one if I can't secure the filming dates I have free for my own) plus an external shoot with Julie from last year's 4th years (again, as sound recordist- who knew they were in such high demand?). Then it's all edit, edit, edit until June 17th... Which, when you think about it, isn't so far away... The end is in sight! I just need to get through this weekend...
Wednesday 25 May 2011
The Eyes Have It
It's been so long since I saw an English language horror film that properly scared me. I watched Orphan on TV recently. I wanted to rinse my eyes out afterwards. It was cheap, shlocky and heavy-handed, with missing, unexplained plot points and a twist so ludicrous that I was almost angry when the film ended. "THAT was my payoff?", I scoffed, "I feel so cheated, I demand to see more of this shitty movie just for some closure!". You know what I watched afterwards to rectify it? HELLRAISER. Compared to Orphan, it was like a lost Orson Welles masterpiece.
By comparison, I've been consistently falling more and more in love with horrors of the Spanish/Latin American variety. I was introduced to it by Guillermo Del Toro, then watched the likes of [REC], The Orphanage and a series of Spanish horrors on BBC4, shamefully none of which I can remember the names of. The Orphanage, produced by Del Toro, is a beautifully shot, classic ghost story, held together largely by a storming central performance from Belen Rueda. I've never seen her in anything else, so when I heard of her new film Julia's Eyes (Los Ojos de Julia), I was very much intrigued.
Another Del Toro produced horror/thriller, Julia's Eyes concerns itself with the seen and unseen, what is there and what isn't, and well as the fallibility of our own physical sense of sight. Julia (Rueda) suffers from degenerative sight loss, which she is struggling to battle while investigating the apparent suicide of her twin sister Sara, who suffered the same disease. The mystery deepens with news of Sara's mysterious boyfriend, whom no one seems to recall. He is literally the 'invisible man'. A shadow. A blur on the radar. Which, naturally, makes him a little tricky to track down.
Rueda's central performance is commanding, believable and utterly compelling: the despair in her eyes as she loses her sight is palpable and I really felt her desperation as she races against time to solve the mystery. There were genuine scares, and the whole film is as tense as a knife-edge. Alot of shots from her point of view made it easy to literally 'see' through her eyes, and at other times the camera never lets her out of its sight.
There are twists and turns aplenty, but with anything, the pay-off feels a little less deserved than what it had been built to be. The 'monster revelation' is out of nowhere and the tenuous connection to the other characters seems a little forced. It's easy to join the dots between the characters once the reveal has been made, and the film does seem a little overlong after a certain point. There's alot of 'bumping around in the dark', and the climactic showdown lacks the ironic twist I was sure would come.
The journey to the end is what really matters, I felt, and there are properly genuine scares. The 'failing sight' angle means there are plenty of opportunities to make us believe that all is not as it appears, and that things can be mistaken. The film is beautifully shot, yet bleak, as confined in its vision as its central character and creeps along menacingly as the threat from the 'shadow man' could come out of anywhere. It didn't help that I recently had to get glasses for my manual-focus eyesight... I think this affected me on a more personal level. Overall though, this is a genuinely taught, creepy thriller, brilliantly acted and wonderfully constrained. As it's Spanish with subtitles, it may worryingly be a 'blink and you'll miss it' affair... it's a genuine shame, as for all its Hollywood-hokey trappings, this film deserves to be seen.
Tuesday 17 May 2011
Look, I Is Published Now!
Here's a link to a review I wrote of the movie Howl... who'd have thought that working away at my little blog would finally have payoff, huh?
http://www.trisickle.co.uk/2011/05/23/949/
http://www.trisickle.co.uk/2011/05/23/949/
Monday 16 May 2011
My First Spellbook, Or Musings Of A Sound Guy
This morning marked the end of my foray into this year's grad films. The kit was returned (after some confusion over who was meant to be returning it and when), whatever wasn't put back was given to the next group and my work was done. Sort of. It's been a strange couple of weeks, during which I've taken on roles I normally wouldn't have, angsted at what it is I'm supposed to be doing, discovered I have better upper-arm strength than I originally though and thought alot about what it'll be like when it's our turn next year.
I've often wondered if there's a certain 'formula' or type of film which is likely to get chosen over another script, but Gavin Laing's My First Spellbook completely disproved all of this. Children? Check. Filming in a school during school hours? Check. Special effects wizardry? Check. Giant hairy tarantula? Check and check again. When I first read the script I thought, if this can get chosen, nothing me and my slightly smaller imagination can write will seem outlandish at all.
In all honesty, I'm not entirely sure how much I was looking forward to the shoot. I've been feeling a little disheartened lately with regards to the course and feeling as though I haven't developed or gotten what I should have out of it. Whether that's just my own paranoia, I don't know, but my original choice of specialism was camera and I don't feel anywhere as up to speed on it as the others who are choosing it too. We'd all been assigned roles based on our specialist choices, and my original role was 'B' camera clapper/loader. I was ready to take it on head on, and even volunteered to go and muck out one of the locations, a derelict flat in Anniesland.
The next week, however, I was informed that the camera crew had swollen to nine people and there was a chance that some roles might be cut. I was offered the choice to stay on the camera crew, where my role was quite shaky, or boom op/sound assist, which no one else had volunteered to do, and they were apparently struggling for someone to fill the role. The 'A' camera clapper/loader was Amelie. If anyone was getting cut, it was going to be me. I opted for sound.
I thought I was going to be on set for the full two weeks, but then found out that I was only on 5/8 days. The boom op for the first week was there when I turned up on the Saturday, and there wasn't really anything for me to do. It was pretty disappointing, but hey, I picked myself up and threw myself into it on Monday. I wanted to show there was more I could do than stand outside in the rain and protect lights with an umbrella.
I'd camera opped on the scenes that half the class had shot with Peter Mackie Burns the week before, and it had re-invigorated my fondness for camera, so I wasn't entirely sure that I'd made the right decision, but there was nothing I could do about it. I was all ready for a camera job too- I'd even went and got my eyes tested and got glasses and everything, so that whatever I captured wouldn't be all blurry and soft. I couldn't wait for the chance to say "LOOK! It wasn't just me being incompetent! It was a disability all along!". Alas, the chance never came.
On Monday, the first scene was a musical number. I turned up with my own cans- Sennheiser ones, no less- and prepared myself for a baptism of fire. In the end, it wasn't too difficult. Like camera, you just have to follow the actors, but unlike camera, you have to be very careful not to get yourself in shot for even a second. Holding a boom in the air for extended periods of time was quite difficult at first but I got used to it. In the end, I even kind of enjoyed it. I don't take to things naturally and have to work hard to keep up, but I do work hard, and if there's anything needing done, I'll ask what I can do to help with it. By the second day, I was hoisting the boom mic above my head like I'd been doing it the whole time, relieed that I'd finally found a use of my gangly, overly-long arms. I knew I couldn't have spent my whole life trying to find sleeves that fit for nothing.
I liked the way the shoot was organised in terms of its timeframe. When children are involved, guidelines are much stricter and schedules must be adhered to alot more strictly. We were filming in a primary school while classes were on too, which put further constraints on our time. Last year, a typical day would involve waking up at 6 and crawling into bed round about 1am, for an intense but brief time period. This time around, we started at 10:30 and would wrap for the day around 5 o'clock, and it was stretched over 8 days. I found this alot more relaxing and a far better way to worl. I understand that shoots cost money, as do time and mistakes, but I don''t think a producer or AD barking about needing a shot before lunch is going to get it done any better. It's not going to get the best performance out of your actors, and it brings down the morale of everyone involved. It was nicer to feel like a human being working in a team, than a functioning mechanical part who was considered useless for not being able to capture a particularly tricky shot in record time.
Working with children wasn't as difficult as I'd anticipated too. The lead actress was a little chatterbox and often got quite easily distracted, but that's part of being a kid. I'd be the same if I had a week off school to go and make a film at that age! I was amazed at how naturally the kids took to being on set and took direction without too many major problems. I even managed to mind my language, go for most of the day without a cigarette or coffee and found out I have alot more patience than I thought I did- no mean feat
Before I knew it, the week was over. It's strange, how the first day is spent getting used to how everyone works, and it quickly becomes the norm, then before you know it, you're thrown back into real life again. I almost felt a twinge of sadness before realising this meant I had to start working on actual coursework again! I felt like a learned alot about a different section of film making I hadn't worked on before. It was tiring, and my arms were aching after the first couple of days, but it was good experience. While I may not have had the most 'creative' role, I did the job I was asked to do as best as I could. And I can't do much more than that really, can I?
I've often wondered if there's a certain 'formula' or type of film which is likely to get chosen over another script, but Gavin Laing's My First Spellbook completely disproved all of this. Children? Check. Filming in a school during school hours? Check. Special effects wizardry? Check. Giant hairy tarantula? Check and check again. When I first read the script I thought, if this can get chosen, nothing me and my slightly smaller imagination can write will seem outlandish at all.
In all honesty, I'm not entirely sure how much I was looking forward to the shoot. I've been feeling a little disheartened lately with regards to the course and feeling as though I haven't developed or gotten what I should have out of it. Whether that's just my own paranoia, I don't know, but my original choice of specialism was camera and I don't feel anywhere as up to speed on it as the others who are choosing it too. We'd all been assigned roles based on our specialist choices, and my original role was 'B' camera clapper/loader. I was ready to take it on head on, and even volunteered to go and muck out one of the locations, a derelict flat in Anniesland.
The next week, however, I was informed that the camera crew had swollen to nine people and there was a chance that some roles might be cut. I was offered the choice to stay on the camera crew, where my role was quite shaky, or boom op/sound assist, which no one else had volunteered to do, and they were apparently struggling for someone to fill the role. The 'A' camera clapper/loader was Amelie. If anyone was getting cut, it was going to be me. I opted for sound.
I thought I was going to be on set for the full two weeks, but then found out that I was only on 5/8 days. The boom op for the first week was there when I turned up on the Saturday, and there wasn't really anything for me to do. It was pretty disappointing, but hey, I picked myself up and threw myself into it on Monday. I wanted to show there was more I could do than stand outside in the rain and protect lights with an umbrella.
I'd camera opped on the scenes that half the class had shot with Peter Mackie Burns the week before, and it had re-invigorated my fondness for camera, so I wasn't entirely sure that I'd made the right decision, but there was nothing I could do about it. I was all ready for a camera job too- I'd even went and got my eyes tested and got glasses and everything, so that whatever I captured wouldn't be all blurry and soft. I couldn't wait for the chance to say "LOOK! It wasn't just me being incompetent! It was a disability all along!". Alas, the chance never came.
On Monday, the first scene was a musical number. I turned up with my own cans- Sennheiser ones, no less- and prepared myself for a baptism of fire. In the end, it wasn't too difficult. Like camera, you just have to follow the actors, but unlike camera, you have to be very careful not to get yourself in shot for even a second. Holding a boom in the air for extended periods of time was quite difficult at first but I got used to it. In the end, I even kind of enjoyed it. I don't take to things naturally and have to work hard to keep up, but I do work hard, and if there's anything needing done, I'll ask what I can do to help with it. By the second day, I was hoisting the boom mic above my head like I'd been doing it the whole time, relieed that I'd finally found a use of my gangly, overly-long arms. I knew I couldn't have spent my whole life trying to find sleeves that fit for nothing.
I liked the way the shoot was organised in terms of its timeframe. When children are involved, guidelines are much stricter and schedules must be adhered to alot more strictly. We were filming in a primary school while classes were on too, which put further constraints on our time. Last year, a typical day would involve waking up at 6 and crawling into bed round about 1am, for an intense but brief time period. This time around, we started at 10:30 and would wrap for the day around 5 o'clock, and it was stretched over 8 days. I found this alot more relaxing and a far better way to worl. I understand that shoots cost money, as do time and mistakes, but I don''t think a producer or AD barking about needing a shot before lunch is going to get it done any better. It's not going to get the best performance out of your actors, and it brings down the morale of everyone involved. It was nicer to feel like a human being working in a team, than a functioning mechanical part who was considered useless for not being able to capture a particularly tricky shot in record time.
Working with children wasn't as difficult as I'd anticipated too. The lead actress was a little chatterbox and often got quite easily distracted, but that's part of being a kid. I'd be the same if I had a week off school to go and make a film at that age! I was amazed at how naturally the kids took to being on set and took direction without too many major problems. I even managed to mind my language, go for most of the day without a cigarette or coffee and found out I have alot more patience than I thought I did- no mean feat
Before I knew it, the week was over. It's strange, how the first day is spent getting used to how everyone works, and it quickly becomes the norm, then before you know it, you're thrown back into real life again. I almost felt a twinge of sadness before realising this meant I had to start working on actual coursework again! I felt like a learned alot about a different section of film making I hadn't worked on before. It was tiring, and my arms were aching after the first couple of days, but it was good experience. While I may not have had the most 'creative' role, I did the job I was asked to do as best as I could. And I can't do much more than that really, can I?
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