Post-Production... and the viewers' response... gulp.

Due to some rather major health problems, I unfortunately missed out on a large chunk of the actual editing process.

However, I stayed in regular contact with the rest of the group to stay updated on exactly what was going on.

When I did manage to get to university, I watched the edited cut... and I have to say, I was blown away by Annabel's incredible editing skills. Yes, a lot had been cut out, but the time limit was eight minutes, so this was necessary. Her comic timing was absolutely spot on, making comments that were not even funny at the time absolutely hysterical through their positioning next to other clips, and the timing of cuts.

All it needed now was music, so I went home, turfed out all of my piano books, and settled down for a day of recording.

I had learnt a great deal from out last musical recording attempt (and the frightening 'Mr D'), and for Christmas had received a Tascam music recorder:

I used this to do my recording, rather than complicate matters by involving too many other people. The recorder gives immensely clear recordings that sound as professional as you can get with minimal editing needs.

I recorded an uncomfortable sounding jazz piece (we were looking for a pretentious sounding piece of music to go with the pretentious looking film noir scene at the beginning), and a couple of Mozart pieces to go over the Victorian parlour room scene and the end credits.

The music went down very well with the rest of the group, and sounded much clearer than I had thought during the recordings!

It simplified the whole process by using music that we could record ourselves, as we were not faced with copyright issues. We could use whatever music we felt was appropriate to us, without feeling limited to copyright-free websites where we may never find what we're looking for.

So....

The day of the 'grand premiere' came round very quickly - our tutor, Mike, had hired out the main auditorium of the Little Theatre, Bath, and all the films were screened.

Luckily, I was feeling just about healthy enough to make it to the event, and WHAT an event it was!

Dans L'esprit: The Vision (the title we decided on for our lovely little film) was received to booming laughter, rapturous applause, and the cherry on the cake was when we won a bottle of champagne for achieving second place on the viewers' vote - whatever grade we may get for it, this is enough of a reward for me! Having your final piece, that you have worked very very hard on, being laughed at so loudly (for the RIGHT reasons....!) is probably one of the most exhilarating experiences ever.

So, for your enjoyment, here it is.

Dans L'esprit: The Vision

Thank you for reading.

Over and out!

THE SHOOT....

There were a number of hiccups on the first morning of the shoot which made beginning a little strenuous. When we went to pick up the equipment, there was nobody there to issue it to us within the designated time.... This delayed us by an hour in starting the filming, and also meant our cast were waiting for us outside the location in the rain.... This was really quite worrying as we were already working to a very tight schedule!

When we finally got to our location and set up, we realised we had a broken cable. We couldn't film without it, so I got back in the car and drove all the way back to the university. It was rush hour at the time, as well as there being major roadworks along the way, so it was a two hour round trip. By the time I got back, everybody was frantic, and there wasn't a lot we could get done in the remaining time, so we agreed to meet earlier the following day to try and get as much filming done as we could.

Despite the extreme stress at the beginning, somehow we did manage to get everything shot.

We had enormous fun with our cast, improvising scenes around costumes and props, and a certain watermelon crept into most of the scenes.... I personally think the greatest success was the development of the writer character - who we created from scratch. He was not present in the original script. We loved the irony of 'sabotaging' a script already written by a poor frustrated writer - by including the character of a poor frustrated writer whose work had been sabotaged.

Here is another frustrated writer, who, like our 'Owen', becomes rather psychotic:

We sincerely hope that the original (and fabulous) writer of our script does not succumb to a similar fate.

We attempted another tracking shot, using the same beloved skateboard that created the tracking shots in Booty Call. Oh, the memories. We had learnt from out mistakes though, and set up the scene much faster and in accordance to the camera position.

As producer, I spent most of the shoot driving madly around Bath, ferrying around cast and crew, buying emergency props, going to and from the supermarket and chippie to feed the ravenous crew, making vast amounts of tea and coffee, doing a lot of setting up and clearing up of rooms before and after using them for scenes, calling people for scenes, figuring out logistical problems, and generally boosting group morale in times of enormous - ENORMOUS - stress.

As well as this, I spent a lot of time liaising with the owners of the property, and somehow also managed to find the time to act as an extra in a few of the scenes.

I thoroughly enjoyed the whole filming process, and even the stressful bits were extremely worthwhile and satisfying. There were some fantastic happy mistakes caught through improvisation that excite us a lot....

I think I can safely say that the whole group is very much looking forward to the edit.

Pre-Production

We realised that the best way to go about our meetings would be to go to a mutual venue, near to where we all lived so that we could get there easily, somewhere where we were nice and comfortable where we could bounce ideas off each other and would be able to make enough noise conversing.

The obvious choice was Matty's Cafe on the Lower Bristol Road.

I find it impossible to focus in a meeting, and let my imagination run wild, without the aid of a good greasy fry-up.

Here, we discussed re-writes, locations, props, cast, and everything else that we needed to sort before the actual filming (over the course of two or three fry-ups on various days, may I point out...).

We decided that Josh would maintain his role of cameraman, Adam would be the stage-manager, Katy would direct, Annabel would edit, and I would be the producer. We felt these were the most practical roles for each of us, as we stayed within our own areas of 'expertise'.

I was particularly glad to be producer, as having lived in Bath my whole life, I am more clued up as to locations that may remain unknown to other students, and I know a lot of people in the area, so finding people who might own certain props would be easier.

We carried out auditions, and after a small dispute, agreed on our cast. Katy and I agreed from the start, whereas the boys seemed to have a slightly different vision. However, as director, Katy made the final decision, and I have to say that I am absolutely totally chuffed with our cast - I think everybody is perfect for their role, and those who are struggling a little more than others to 'become' their character will certainly get there with a little encouragement.

I have also liaised with an aunt and uncle of mine who own a stunning mansion on the outskirts of Bath which serves as an absolutely perfect location for the entire film. They agreed that we could use the property for the designated weekend. This means that we can shoot the entire thing in the same place, which solves the transport issues we had last time when we were trying to move from one area of Bath to another for all the different locations. We have also ensured that some of our cast members can drive, so that all of the cast and crew can get there in one journey. It is also on a major bus route - so if anyone can't drive and needs to arrive at a different time to the rest of the crew, they can get there easily.

Just to top it all off, the house is just down the road from our favourite film-group chippie.

This is a picture of the view from the house (for privacy reasons, the owners were uncomfortable with the idea of a photograph of the whole house appearing on the internet...):

I also spent a lot of time perusing the Bath shops, looking for props, gathering them from home, and asking friends and family what weird and wonderful objects they possessed. I also collated a lot of costumes.

We briefly toyed with the idea of using a sheep in the film. I have a friend who has a pet - yes a pet - sheep. She takes it for walks on a lead and everything. We thought it would be a nice addition to the film, to use animals.

We decided eventually against using the sheep for practicality purposes - we would not be able to transport the sheep to the location without a huge amount of logistical planning, and we wouldn't be able to fit into the schedule a trip to visit and film the sheep.

Shaun. Oh, sorry, I mean shame. (Terrible, isn't it?!)

We also set up a Facebook group, which served as a place where we could put all of our ideas, pictures, videos and so forth - just another means of communication between the five of us to make our life a little easier in the run-up to the shoot.

Change of Plan...

After a detailed meeting, we decided to scrap all of our previous plans concerning 'Treament', as we only had a couple of weeks until filming and it would take too much time to rewrite the entire script into a format where it would be entertaining...

We decided to go with an alternative script called 'The Industry' which is a parody of the 'behind-the-scenes' documentaries that always seem to appear in the 'Extras' sections of films on DVDs.

Done in a style that flits between a talking-heads format and a naturalistic shaky-cam format, it provided a lot more scope for a more feasible project. We realised that it would have to be re-written in a style where improvisation from the cast could easily be incorporated - we realised the humour would only work effectively if it was done in a totally naturalistic style, where the audience would totally believe that what they were seeing really happened. It would be in the style of 'The Office' with Ricky Gervais, with similar camera movement, and a script and acting that would be hilarious in an ironic way, where the audience would be able to relate to real-life people and situations and find it funny through their own comparisons to reality.

Here is a clip from 'The Office', to demonstrate the style we will be using:

The clip includes talking-heads scenes - where the documentary maker interviews the 'characters', as well as broader scenes showing the location. This is just an example of how we envisage the overall style of the piece we are going to make.

This is a clip from 'This is Spinal Tap' - a film which also uses a similar style:

And again, another clip from a more recent film called 'Confetti' which again uses the same improvised, naturalistic style:

Although I was feeling massively fired-up about creating 'Treatment', I feel that this opens up so many new doors to us, and that we can make this into a really really funny film.

Choosing a script to make into a film...

I am ecstatic to say that we have a new member in our group! This new member is Katy, who is the very first friend that I met at Bath Spa University, and I know her to be an awesome and imaginative person, so the fact that she has joined the team fills me with joy!

We spent a good few days looking through all the scripts written by the people on our module in order to choose one to make into our next incredible masterpiece.

We eventually settled on a script called 'Treatment' involving a man who forgets to take his medication and goes insane. We knew it would involve a large amount of editing and re-writing, as some parts, such as the references to Schizophrenia, we thought were unsuitable for a short film intended to be a comedy.

We were also unimpressed by the original ending, so there was an extended discussion about the possibility of including a large chorus number for a humorous and unexpected ending. With two musical members of the group - myself and Josh - this seemed like a highly feasible option. As it was a black comedy, the obvious influence was the infamous and controversial ending to 'The Life of Brian' - one of the Monty Python masterpieces. For those of you poor unfortunate people who have never seen it, here is Always Look on the Bright Side of Life:

I already have a huge amount of musical and visual ideas floating around in my head....

I know from previous composing experience that it is best to work with a partner, to bounce ideas off each other, in particular if one is more experienced in a particular area (I know more about piano and classical vocal composition - Josh knows more about electric music and more popular stuff, so a combination of our 'talents' should be a new and interesting musical endeavour!).

I am already getting fired up about this project....

Finishing the (dun dun DUN)... SCRIPT.

After workshopping my first draft of the script amongst our little group, and receiving feedback from my tutor, I realised that I had a fair bit of work to do on 'The House'. It was generally agreed that I had a good idea, but that it needed a little extra 'something' to make it perfect.

It was agreed that a little more work on the opening shots would make it better - with more emphasis on the house itself with a little scary background music... and perhaps a couple of gravestones in the garden covered in leaves to raise questions as to what happened to the previous tenants...

This got me thinking about how the film would look visually. And the house from Channel 4 sitcom 'Spaced' was, subconsciously, the house I had in mind when writing the script. This is the house in question:

The type of ironic comedy used in 'Spaced', with its cross referencing is similar to the comedy I envisage in my own script. For example, the cliched scary music that accompanies the shot of the house is similar to how I imagine the house in my script being portrayed.

I was also advised to make a bigger character of Mr Green, the landlord. I added a few scenes, inbetween the scenes of the two girls, with Mr Green walking up and down the garden path, looking increasingly fearful at the house. I think this character makes the eerie humour all the more effective.

The re-write was received well... and I am very happy to say that one of the other groups has chosen it to make into a film!

I am incredibly excited about seeing what they do with it - it's fascinating as a script-writer to send your work out there, with a very specific image in your head, and see whether other people have the same image when they read and translate it into the medium of film.

Writing a (dun dun DUN)... SCRIPT.

The time had come.

We had made our first blockbuster movie, and now, it was time to move on to new things.

Writing our own scripts.

Task number one was coming up with ideas.

As a creative writing student, I have been taught many methods of coming up with ideas, from people-watching to writing down dreams, and luckily I was brimming with ideas. I do NOT believe in writer's block - there is ALWAYS a way to come up with ideas. It just so happened that I had one idea in particular that had been brimming under the surface of my skull for a number of months.

I had been wondering for a while how to get this idea on paper. It did not work as a short story. It certainly didn't work as a novel. It didn't work as a play, or as a poem. And as I was set with the task of writing a script for a short film, I realised that this was the perfect medium to write this piece.

The idea in question was about a student house that was attempting to kill its inhabitants. It was totally based on my experiences of student housing in Manchester, where my house did indeed try to kill me. If you know anything about Moss Side, you might understand some of the trials I faced.

Here is the area in question:

View Larger Map

The script was also influenced by a little film that I included in one of my earlier posts entitled 'The Furniture'. Here is a different version of the same film (just for the sake of variation... us internet entertainers must keep our audiences riveted):

I wrote a list of all the little things that had happened in Manchester. The script was entirely based on real-life events (apart from the end of the script where the house actually collapses).

It was a tricky process writing in a new format - there are so many rules and guidelines for writing for film, but I think I managed it as best as I could.

We shall see when the mark from the first draft comes back...!