Editing

We threw ourselves whole-heartedly into the gatehouse editing suite, and there we threw ourselves whole-heartedly into editing.

Logging and capturing an entire feature film is not a task I envy of feature film makers, as our footage took a good week to log and capture.

Tensions ran high on occassions, but this was usually solved by a little tea related trip to the Union or a head massage.

Final Cut Pro, although tricky to master at first, quickly became second nature to Annabel who worked like a trooper making sure the whole film was fluid and as stunning as it could be.

We even missed the university's winter ball in our dedication to perfecting Booty Call.

The soundtrack proved to be incredibly awkward as well. We were led on a wild goose chase by various members of the music department's administrative team, and in the end we bit the bullet and gatecrashed the main auditorium in the hope of not being discovered for as long as it would take to record the concerto movement.

Alas, we were discovered, by a man who I shall simply refer to as Mr D. Now, Mr D appeared at first to be extremely helpful by finding us some state of the art recording equipment. He did, however, snap at me at a later point, and I am ashamed to say that I was a big girl about it and cried a little bit. It was nearing the end of a long and tiring process, and, frankly, I wanted my bed. We managed to get the piece recorded, although being in Mozzilla mode I was very unhappy with the result, and it was only after a LOT of reassurance from Annabel that I was just being a perfectionist, did I eventually resign myself to the reality that the recording we had was the one we would have to use.

I borrowed a miniature copy of the score for the Emperor Concerto from the library, and pulled an all-nighter (fuelled by tea and chocolate) where I entered the entire orchestral part into GarageBand, alongside the piano recording, instrument by instrument.

I was very nervous about showing it to the rest of the group the following day, but we played it alongside the edited footage of Booty Call, and by some miracle, the music fitted the images almost perfectly. The scenes changed at the precise moments the mood of the music changed, complimenting each other perfectly.

So, with a little further work, our film was finished. We test ran it on some friends who had not seen the script and it was well received.

So without further ado, here it is.

Booty Call.

Be nice about it.

We went through a lot.

A LOT.

Production Weekend!

The time was upon us!

The time to film.

It was terrifying, and exhilarating, and also rather hilarious.

We had finally decided on the name Booty Call for our film, after lots of sniggering about bottoms.

Unfortunately, it rained for the majority of the weekend. This caused a lot of swearing; Adam, Josh and Annabel were concerned that the equipment may get ruined, I was concerned that my hair might get ruined (at least one of us has our priorities right). Despite our annoyance at the weather, it actually proved to be an asset in gaining some rather arty shots involving an umbrella and some swans. The swans concerned me. I have never known birds to be so perverted. They took a great interest in looking up my skirt as I put my leg up on a bench to clean my boot.

We also managed to successfully get all our shots we needed in the pharmacy, despite the torrent of customers who would inadvertently get in the way, the manager who would 'watch' us apparently oblivious that he was not helping proceedings by doing this in front of the camera lens, and the inevitable giggling fits at the incontinence pants.

Back at the Harris Palace, we managed to create a rather impressive tracking shot. This was the brainchild of Adam Tyler, who recognised that a skateboard and a pile of heavy books plus camera and tripod equals professionalism. So we piled the books onto the base of the tripod to anchor it to the skateboard, which Josh crawled along the floor with.

You don't get much more professional than that.

The following day, we soldiered on.

The scene that perhaps stood out most in my mind, which is also the scene I most wish to erase from my mind, was the saucy bedroom scene. As if getting dressed up in hold-ups and silky bedroom attire wasn't enough, it wasn't until AFTER the shot of me crawling across the bed towards the boots had been filmed that I was informed by my grinning crew that the footage was X-rated. The things we do for the sake of education!

Towards the end of the day, we were all exhausted and ready for some serious sleep. There was one more scene to shoot. The sliding down the door in floods of tears scene. Of course, as we so desperately wanted to do this shot quickly so we could go to bed, it took the longest of all. We corpsed. Enormously so. To the extent that we had to banish Josh to an upstairs bathroom in order to save our sanity.

But we did it.

Fuelled by vast quantities of chips, we had survived the weekend without resorting to violence.

Preparation

We successfully completely our training to use the posh expensive equipment without breaking anything and having to sell our bodies on the street in order to pay for the damage.

The next important step was to get our locations and props sorted.

Tragically, this meant an entire afternoon dedicated to looking through shoe shops. Sometimes university is really tough.

So Annabel and I heroically rose to the occassion and sifted - very reluctantly, may I add - through the shoe displays in New Look, Russell and Bromley, and many, MANY more. We examined boots of all shapes and sizes and colours, and spoke to various managers about the possibility of using their shops to film in.

The problem seemed to be arising from the fact that the shop managers were reluctant to let us use their shops unless the boots featured were FROM said shop.

This was a problem because all the boots that we could afford without having to sell our bodies on the streets again were, simply, not very nice. Russell and Bromley was clearly out of the question.

Just as we were about to give up hope and go and curl up in a corner somewhere and cry, we stumbled upon a little shop called Moda In Pelle. Inside this shop, we saw something that made out jaws drop and little bits of dribble trickle down our chins.

This is what we saw:

The only problem was that the above glorious boot was worth £99 even in the sale. However, being the crafty businesswomen that we are, Annabel and I had a plan. After the puddles of our drool had been mopped up, we spoke to the manager suggesting that in return for advertising their amazing shop of wonders and boots of holiness on Youtube and amongst all of our student cronies through our film, that perhaps we could have a discount on the boots? It worked. Admittedly, we only managed to get a £10 discount. But I am happy to announce that the most incredible, breathtaking, pant-wettingly stunning, jaw-droppingly gorgeous boots are now mine. MINE. ALL MINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lust. SHOE lust.

Well! Things are changing.

Jane has left the group!

We have also consulted Mike, our tutor, mentor, and overall hero, and he has informed us that we can change the script however much we like.

So, in light of the above two things, we decided to go with Adam's idea of the shoe / girl love story.

And thence we marched, notebooks and laptops in hand, to the Harris Palace (aka. where I live), where we sipped tea and feasted on chocolates in the shape of rude parts of the human anatomy. Which, quite frankly, is how every intellectual discussion should be conducted.

We have now worked out the general plot of our film, and have decided on which role is to be allocated to who. I will be producer, actor and musical director, Adam will be the writer and director, Annabel will be editor, anad Josh will take on the role of cameraman. Of course, we will all contribute to all areas of the film-making process, these roles are more to establish a person who will bear the main responsibility of their area.

After our hugely intellectual discussions, Josh and I both turned into Mozzillas. Josh turns out to be an incredible guitarist and his musical genius could prove to be very useful indeed. I showed the others some piano pieces as well, and we decided that the second movement ('adagio un poco mosso') of Beethoven's Emperor Concerto could be a potential piece of music for the film. The mood of the piece seemed to change with the mood of our plot outline and could fit well if we edited it very carefully.

Here is a video of Glenn Gould playing the piece. Obviously, I will play it much better than him. OBVIOUSLY. And I will not make any of the silly facial expressions.

From the depths of my sole.

I actually wrote an entire string of shoe-related puns to begin this entry. I then deleted them. They were atrocious. I am occassionally overcome by a desperate urge to pun on a massive scale. But I have spared you unfortunate readers the distress, and indulged myself only in the title. I am trying to HEEL myself of this affliction. Oops! Sorry. I am trying.

The ideas are now fast-flowing and juicy. We certainly have plenty of potential material.
There are two team members who have come up with substantial ideas for the film. Jane put forward the idea of making a film inspired by Thoroughly Modern Millie. Her idea was to make an adaptation of the title song (as shown below), and shots of the lead actress looking directly into the camera, showing her facial expressions (also as shown below!):

She suggested that we could do it in the style of a silent film with intertitles, but using a modern setting and language. There was a bit of dispute as to whether the language (of the intertitles) should be modern or not, as although it would demonstrate the point of the film, it would not be fitting with a silent film style.

Adam had an entirely different idea, which involved changing the plot of the script to a much greater extent. His idea was that the main character actually falls in love and has a love affair with the shoes, and is then betrayed by them.

Although most of the group members were excited by Adam's idea, we were uncertain as to how far we would be allowed to change the script within the module requirements, and decided to choose Jane's idea.

There was a short discussion about music, where I got into Mozzilla persona, and offered to re-write the theme song of Thoroughly Modern Millie, changing the tune enough to avoid copyright issues, and changing the lyrics to suit our film. We then decided to call it a day, as it had been rather an epic meeting, lasting for a good number of hours, and more tea and iced buns had been consumed than we were comfortable thinking about.

Although we feel we are now at least on track, the future of our film is still LACED with uncertainty...

(Apologies.)

Shoes

I am a girl.

We have been given a script to work on about shoes.

You would think I had reached the pinnacle of academic joy, no?

No.

The script we were given was OK, nothing more, nothing less. The language and plot were rather short of being inspirational, and even a script-writing novice such as myself could recognise that the formatting left a lot to be desired.

However, I can recognise that this script can, and most probably will, act as more of a springboard for further ideas, rather than an instuction manual which we must abide by.

I think perhaps that the best way to view 'What would you do for a pair of shoes?' is to look at all the things that need to be done to it to make it into something good. I feel that my fim-making group is strong and dynamic, and that between us we will create something out of this script that will put the original to shame.

I have also done a little research on the script. It was written by a previous 2nd year film student, and the finished result is on Youtube:

I thought the finished product was good, but not special. There are some good shots, but nothing that makes me gasp in awe.

Although I was, at first, concerned about the script we have been given, it has inspired me to do a better job - it has triggered my artistic competitive streak... which should be a good thing... provided it doesn't lead to arguments amongst the group!

I am well and truly ready to get my teeth into rewriting this script and making a great film!

Felix's Machines

Felix's Machines sent little shivers through my body, as though the very piano hammers in the film were plunking out their little tune on my own spine.

I suppose that the only way to categorise this film would be to describe it as a "music video", although there are elements to the documentary about it too; and it is also extremely theatrical.

This film was made by Tom Mansfield when he heard about a machine Felix Thorn had created in his bedroom that produced incredible percussive music. Shot from a huge variety of angles, it shows Felix's machine from every desirable perspective, really exploiting the intricacies of the sounds and mechanisms.

As the music progresses, the camera focuses in on close-up shots of all the different parts of the machine, and it is not until the end that we see Felix's machine as a whole.

I found this film completely mesmerising, and I know that this is not only because of the genius of Felix himself and his machine - the way this film has been made and put together is fantastic in its own right.

The Trampolinist

"This is a film that illustrates perfectly the simple pleasure of following ones [sic] nature, the viewer endeared to the protagonist by his refusal to give in to the demands expected of him by his father," states someone called Hamilton Patel who has left a comment about The Trampolinist on the BBC website.

This seems like quite an in-depth comment on a film that, to me, consists of nothing more than 51 seconds of pure and utter pointlessness.

Despite this complete pointlessness, I could not help but smile when I watched it. There is something about this film that is rather endearing. And I did find myself uttering a breathy little snigger towards the end.

However, I can almost guarantee that the second time you watch it, it will only annoy you.

the trampolinist

Atom.com: Funny Videos | Reality | Funny Animations

Pin Point

This is one of the most terrifying things I have seen in my life.

James Kim goes down a similar route with Pin Point as Hayao Miyazaki does with his masterpiece, Spirited Away. Both feature a young girl as the main protagonist, who is struggling to escape from her disturbing surroundings.

Spirited Away has been classified as a PG. I could only just cope with watching it... and I am 22. Pin Point travels to whole new realms of freaky.

It opens with the little orphan at the graveside of what we can safely assume to be a friend, and we quickly discover that the orphanage caretaker has been poisoning and killing children. As the film progresses, the subject matter becomes more and more sinister.

Spirited Away was a film that I could relate to, as it tapped into the fears and nightmares I had as a child without crossing any lines. It was also beautiful in many ways, from its themes to its animation.

Pin Point did not have any of these redeeming features. The animation was all right, but certainly nothing special, or even good. The music worked, but was nothing original. But worst of all, the plot appeared to have no point.

Don't get me wrong - I'm all for ambiguity in films and subject matter to make the audience think. But unless the message of this film is "let's combat child abuse through Voodoo magic", then there is no message. And if there is no message, then this is a film about child abuse for nothing more than entertainment's sake.

Is it just me, or is that a little unnerving?

View Pin Point here.

L. A. Noir

Wow.

This film is the exact opposite to Bullet Proof Vest, yet it is just as good - if not, better. Where Bullet Proof Vest was brilliant in its simplicity, this is brilliant in its complexity. L. A. Noir takes a very simple idea and turns it into something extremely powerful through artistic and detailed filming and editing.

I can understand how some critics may jump the gun with this film and state that it is cliched; the swirling cigarette smoke, the struggling writer at his typewriter in his grotty apartment, and the mysterious, seductive woman have all been used time and time again.

But take another look at the title: "L. A. Noir." The very title sets this film up to be modelled on the conventions of 1940s film noir, and without these things it would not be noir at all.

However, L. A. Noir is more than just a simple demonstration of film noir effects. It used them to create something modern and beautiful. The whole point of this film - at least in my interpretation of it - is to take an idea of a film genre that people are familiar with, and turn it into something new. Conrad Jackson has taken film noir as a stylistic entity and turned it into an art form.

Even the soundtrack is perfect. It is so subtle you hardly notice it is there - just sitting there in the background, pulsing out mood.

This film is absolutely stunning - beautifully lit, beautifully shot, beautifully cast, and beautifully edited, it is a perfectly rounded nugget of viewing pleasure, and it punches something powerful right into the stomach.

View L. A. Noir here.

House of Elegance

House of Elegance is a documentary filmed in a ladies' hairdressers in Austin, Texas.

This is another example of shoddy camerawork. Like Dry Clean Only, it is screaming out to me "Give me a tripod! For the love of god, someone give me a tripod!", and is so overexposed in places that I had to whip out my sunglasses.

Despite all this, I could not help but smile as I watched it. This is the most endearing of the films I have discussed so far, and beautifully demonstrates the bond between women as they have their hair cut and styled. It shows us how a trip to the hairdresser's is about so much more than hair. It's about the people and the gossip.

The highlight of this film is the look on one lady's face as she realises that her hair has been dyed "yellowish green". There is another lady who explains how she travels for ten hours from Oklahoma to have her hair seen to at the House of Elegance. Having seen this film, I would happily travel for ten days from my house in Bath, England to have my hair done there. So long as they had learned from the yellowish green mishap.

As much as this film made me smile by tapping right into my girlie side, I can't help but think that this was due almost entirely to the ladies featured rather than the work of the filmmakers. Amy Bench, who filmed and edited this, has apparently won numerous awards for this work. Good for her. Though I'm not sure why.

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Dry Clean Only

This film gives me hope.

It reassures me that myself and the others in my group are, in fact, bloody good film makers. If this can be one of the 11 winners of the Independent Lens Online Shorts Festival, then surely our film - whatever it may be - will be capable of walking away with the grand prize.

The opening is not too bad. It begins with a shot of the outside of a dry cleaners', with a bored worker slumped over the work-top reading. Even the acting seems OK to begin with.

After a brief conversation with the blood-spattered couple, the film jumps to a documentary-section, which is the part I enjoyed the most. If the entire film had gone down this route, then I might have had some more complimentary things to say about it. Unfortunately, this section is a one-off, and bears absolutely no significance to the rest of the action whatsoever. In my opinion, it does not work to break up a film of naturalistic style with a section of documentary and then not bring it back later on as a recurring theme - is the protagonist aware of us as an audience or not? J. P. Chan cannot seem to make up his mind.

As the film progresses, the acting becomes more and more abysmal, and the pauses between dialogue become longer and more unnecessary.

This film is described by its makers as a "comedy". The documentary section is certainly comical ("Is there a way to get rid of the stains but keep the smell...?"), but the rest is simply uncomfortable and contains no humour at all.

The camera-work also left a lot to be desired. It was overexposed in most places, and tops of heads were constantly cut off. I am overcome with a desire to buy the cameraman a tripod for his birthday.

This is a perfect example of a film that takes itself much to seriously. The script in the second half tries to be deep and meaningful, and fails. The random black-and-white shots try to give an artistic aspect to the film, and fail. I don't understand the significance of the ending at all. I don't know how to put this any other way: I don't get it.

The Furniture

The ticking clock, long shadows, and desperate voice of the man on the phone set this up to be a terrifying viewing experience.

It is in fact hilarious. At least it is in my own humble opinion with my slightly juvenile sense of humour.

I ought to point out that it is in fact intended to be humorous.

The Furniture thrives on taking the mickey out of over-used cliches from any number of horror films, from the ever-present ominous clock ticking to the discordant musical crescendo as the man fears for his life. Tyler Measom has made this film work by observing the over-used conventions of the horror genre and making them ridiculous. And by making his film oh-so-deadly-serious, the comedy is only heightened.

Even the cast list is amusing. There are spectacular performances from Doug Havens as the table, Stephanie Hough as the lamp, Mark Nelson as the end table, Jen Dubuc as the phone, Jay Clark Gardner as chair 1, Alan Peterson as chair 2, and Brent Marshall as the clock. But let us not forget the stunning performance of the the coffee table, played by... himself. After all, where in the rule book does it say that your actors need to consist of human beings, or even living creatures? It doesn't. And a coffee table is a lot easier to negotiate with.

This film is good, not brilliant, and definitely worth a watch for a passing giggle. The camera-work is good, with interesting shots and well thought out lighting. Just don't watch it sitting on a chair. It might eat you.

View The Furniture here.

Bullet Proof Vest

"You know how everybody's just dying these days."

Well, no, I'm afraid I don't. But nine-year-old twins Mustapha and Jyeshria do.

Bullet Proof Vest is a documentary film made by May Lin Au Yong who used to be a reporter for Channel News Asia. It is a brief look into Richmond, the most dangerous city in California, where a murder occurs on average every ten days.

The film opens with shots from the road entering the city, and as it progresses we move deeper and deeper into Richmond's belly. The twins talk openly about their lives living in fear of bullets over gritty black-and-white shots of various parts of the city.

The camera-work throughout is simple and beautiful. May Lin Au Yong does not fall into the trap that many short film makers seem to of trying to impress through arty editing and over-the-top camera angles. She lets the subject matter speak for itself. And it certainly works here.

There is nothing to distract us from the uncomfortable scenery or disturbing accounts from the children and their mother - no music, no unnecessary special effects, not even any colour.

The documentary ends with text informing us of how the residents took over four of the city's most dangerous parks in 2006 in protest, but unfortunately does not inform us of what effect this may or may not have had.

This is a film that will stick in my mind for a while. It is extremely powerful in its modesty. Sometimes - not always, just sometimes - simplicity really is best. And this is a perfect example.

View Bullet Proof Vest here.

The very first, brand spanking new entry.

Well, greetings to you, ladies and gentlemen, or whatever you happen to be.

Welcome to my blog!

I have set up this charming little record of my studies as a student at Bath Spa University not only for your unquestioned entertainment, but as a useful record for me and my tutors to keep a track of how my projects are progressing, in particular, my film projects.

I have to say, I was rather shocked to be given WORK when I came to university. What is that all about? I thought the whole point of university was to procrastinate and get sozzled on a regular basis. However, having been here now for an entire year, I have discovered that working can actually be... dare I say it... fun...? I hope that this blog will come to reflect that.

However, having only started this module a mere seven days ago, I could be proven wrong, in which case this blog may consist entirely of four letter words that will eventually lead to me being removed from blogger.com by some higher authority.... This sort of eventuality would usually occur as a result of technology failing me, which it often seems to do. As much as I enjoyed my film module in the first year, there were numerous "incidents" involving cameras and computers which I still find too painful to talk about without getting rather emotional.

However, I have been dutifully informed that our films this year will be made in groups, so I am keeping my fingers crossed that there are others in my group with more technological ability than me. This will not be hard. My dyslexic cat has more technological ability than me.

Despite all this, I think I am a fast learner. I have, after all, figured out how to post this, which in my opinion merits a glass of bubbly (which no doubt will be spilt all over the keyboard, leading the computer to explode, and my blog being permanently wiped off the world wide web).

I have invested in a swanky new camcorder of my own with many posh functions that I am figuring out gradually, and am rather pleased with some of the results I have obtained from it. I was extra-pleased to receive with the camera a free SD card, a free hard-drive of 250GB, and a free carry-bag. Being a student is, after all, more about how much free stuff you can get than anything else. Thankfully all this stuff will help me get through this project alive as well.

I also have a fair amount of experience with directing actors, and acting myself, having studied drama practically and theoretically (I know all about Stanislavskian methods, daaaahling), so feel I can contribute with confidence to the stylistic aspects of the film-making. There are many who would say that I had an "odd" imagination, and as disconcerting as this may be to anyone who attempts to have a conversation with me, I do believe that any sort of imagination is a benefit to a piece of art, such as our film will certainly be.

I am also very eager to create a soundtrack that will be admired by all, preferably one that makes me very rich and famous. Music has been a strong passion of mine since the age of four when I started to learn the piano, and I have since studied it, composed it and performed it. Therefore, when it comes to the soundtrack, I intend to morph into the love-child of Mozart and Godzilla. Monstrously musical.

So there you have it, folks. At the present moment, I have no more idea of what our film will end up as than you do, but I am intrigued, and I hope you are too. I also hope that the other members of my group find my Mozzilla endearing rather than pant-messingly terrifying. Else there may be some rather disdainful parallel blogs floating around on the internet as written by them.

We shall see.

Wish us luck....