One of the group projects I am heavily involved in is 'Vanessa and Virginia', which Sam and myself are leading. ‘Vanessa and Virginia’ is a story about two sisters and their relationship written by Susan Sellers. Dr. Elizabeth Wright (our client) has adapted the novel into a stage production, which will be directed by Emma Gersh. Our brief is to create a backdrop for the set design in which the two actresses can interact with.
During the Vanessa and Virginia meeting on Thursday 14th January 2010 with Elizabeth (Beth) it was agreed that members of the Artswork Team would come up with some ideas to present to Beth at the next meeting on 3rd February 2010.
In the meeting Beth was very open to different ideas and suggestions, however she did say she would like the backdrop to be abstract, experimental and possibly dream like.
Taking her suggestions Sam and myself decided to create a couple of scene images using the computer programme ‘Motion’,As we had only had a brief introduction to the programme, we were unsure of how the programme worked and how we could create certain images and effects. Ollie showed us certain things we could do, and how we could manipulate certain images.
One of Sam and my ideas was to create different images using Vanessa Bell’s Paintings and the colours from them.
The first image we created was the opening scene, which is described as:
Childhood. I am lying on my back on the grass. Thoby is lying next to me, his warm
flank pressing into my side.
Using Photoshop we cut a cloud from one of Vanessa Bell’s Paintings, imported the image into motion, where we then enlarged the image, added a blur and animated it; getting the cloud to move from left to right as well as moving forward to eventually filling the entire screen.
After viewing this image, we decided to change the black edges to a green colour to
give the suggestion of the grass, as well as adding a light ray effect to create the
haloed in light idea.
Looking at both images, I personally feel the first one works best as it’s fairly simple, not to much action and less distraction for an audience. I feel the first image has more of a dream style effect seeing the blurred edges of the cloud. The second image has too much going on, and could become very distracting.
The second scene we chose to make is where Virginia enters the stream.
Here we used a pre-set Motion effect, which we manipulated using Vanessa Bell’s painting colours, added a grain to create a flickering effect, as well as added a speed behaviour to slow the image down.
I personally like this image, but am not sure whether it would work that well within the finished backdrop, as it could be a strange change going from created images, to film footage that has been manipulated. Although it does have a fantastic look and would suit the part of Virginia entering the water well.
These are just a couple of ideas Sam and myself have come up with to present to Beth at the next meeting, to find out whether we are heading in the right direction.
A link to some of Vanessa Bell's artwork.
http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/searchresults.aspx?entry=vanessa%20Bell%20&searchtype=p#action=refine&entry=vanessa%20Bell%20&searchtype=p&sid=af91ddcb-70ec-4c3d-805f-05aac975ac8e
Thursday, 4 February 2010
Wednesday, 3 February 2010
Wookey Hole Shoot
Thursday 28th January was an early start for a group of us, leaving my house at 7am I headed over to Taunton to collect Adam from the Train Station, we then carried on over to Wookey Hole, where we began setting up the camera (Sony Z7) and lights. Tom and Kate soon joined us and also began helping to set up the equipment.
I had organised job roles for each of us and told everyone in advance so they all knew what everyone was doing. Adam had the role of Camera Operator, Tom was the Sound Recordist, and Kate took on the role as Stills Photographer. My roles were to set-up the lighting and direct the shoot.
Over the past few months I have been corresponding with Gayle via e-mails and meetings to arrange everything I needed to get from the shoot, and timings that would fit around Wookey Hole’s busy schedule.
Gayle had confirmed we could film in the caves during the course of the morning, as we would have exclusive access to the cave chamber, without any intrusions from the public. This was fantastic because we were able to use their coloured lighting they have installed within the cave, plus our own lights, which I took as part of the equipment kit.
Gayle had also arranged Wookey Hole’s head tour guide, Mike to tell the story of ‘The Wookey Witch’ to camera for me.
Mike arrived at around 10.15am when everything was set –up and we were ready to begin filming. Tom fitted Mike with a mic and checked all the sound levels were being received, I adjusted the lighting slightly to light mike and Adam framed the shot…..and then filming began.
I found with my Yeovil shot, I lacked a variety of camera angles and cutaways although I had some I didn’t have enough; so I wanted to ensure I had plenty of material during the Wookey Hole shoot. This meant filming a number of different takes from a variety of angles, although most of the story-telling was filmed down by the river due to the lighting conditions and beautiful scenery.
Once we had completed the story-telling shots with Mike, we then were giving time to get different shots and sound recordings from within the cave, such as ‘Hells Ladder’ which was lit with red flashing lights that added a cool effect to the shot. The Witch’s dog known as ‘Doogle’ and the stalagmite of the witch.
We then moved outside of the caves and filmed some footage of the Cave cliffs, and The Paper Mill.
After a busy morning, we all went for lunch in the ‘Wookey Inn’ where we discussed the morning events and talked about what I needed to get during the course of the afternoon.
After lunch we filmed some footage of ‘Wookey Village’ and got an amazing shot of a horse and rider passing by, which looked fantastic and added real character to the village.
The final shots we got of the day were landscape and country images. A variety of shots I can use within the full documentary to help piece everything together.
Overall I think the Wookey Witch shoot went a lot better than Yeovil, we got some brilliant footage, everyone worked well, all contributing shot ideas which I thought was really good and helpful, especially to get over people’s opinions.
I thought the crew all did a fantastic job; they were organised and professional with their job roles.
I had organised job roles for each of us and told everyone in advance so they all knew what everyone was doing. Adam had the role of Camera Operator, Tom was the Sound Recordist, and Kate took on the role as Stills Photographer. My roles were to set-up the lighting and direct the shoot.
Over the past few months I have been corresponding with Gayle via e-mails and meetings to arrange everything I needed to get from the shoot, and timings that would fit around Wookey Hole’s busy schedule.
Gayle had confirmed we could film in the caves during the course of the morning, as we would have exclusive access to the cave chamber, without any intrusions from the public. This was fantastic because we were able to use their coloured lighting they have installed within the cave, plus our own lights, which I took as part of the equipment kit.
Gayle had also arranged Wookey Hole’s head tour guide, Mike to tell the story of ‘The Wookey Witch’ to camera for me.
Mike arrived at around 10.15am when everything was set –up and we were ready to begin filming. Tom fitted Mike with a mic and checked all the sound levels were being received, I adjusted the lighting slightly to light mike and Adam framed the shot…..and then filming began.
I found with my Yeovil shot, I lacked a variety of camera angles and cutaways although I had some I didn’t have enough; so I wanted to ensure I had plenty of material during the Wookey Hole shoot. This meant filming a number of different takes from a variety of angles, although most of the story-telling was filmed down by the river due to the lighting conditions and beautiful scenery.
Once we had completed the story-telling shots with Mike, we then were giving time to get different shots and sound recordings from within the cave, such as ‘Hells Ladder’ which was lit with red flashing lights that added a cool effect to the shot. The Witch’s dog known as ‘Doogle’ and the stalagmite of the witch.
We then moved outside of the caves and filmed some footage of the Cave cliffs, and The Paper Mill.
After a busy morning, we all went for lunch in the ‘Wookey Inn’ where we discussed the morning events and talked about what I needed to get during the course of the afternoon.
After lunch we filmed some footage of ‘Wookey Village’ and got an amazing shot of a horse and rider passing by, which looked fantastic and added real character to the village.
The final shots we got of the day were landscape and country images. A variety of shots I can use within the full documentary to help piece everything together.
Overall I think the Wookey Witch shoot went a lot better than Yeovil, we got some brilliant footage, everyone worked well, all contributing shot ideas which I thought was really good and helpful, especially to get over people’s opinions.
I thought the crew all did a fantastic job; they were organised and professional with their job roles.
Tuesday, 19 January 2010
The Start of Molly the Tea Lady’s Edit.
Over the Christmas break I have been working on creating a rough cut for the story of ‘Molly the Tea Lady. Originally I was going to make a fifteen-twenty minute documentary containing various mysterious stories from around Somerset. However I have now decided I will edit each individual piece to make single units as well as feature them all within the documentary ‘Myths, Legends and Hauntings of Somerset’.
When I first began the edit, I was unsure of where to start because I had quite a bit of footage of Ros telling the story and her various encounters and I wasn’t sure what parts to include and what parts to leave out. I decided the best way to try and resolve this problem was to go through my transcript thoroughly – referring back to the footage marking down all good shots, and stories. Then numbering each shot I thought would be great to include and in what order. I found this helped me a great deal, by getting my edit going although I did find once I had engrossed myself within the rough cut I tended to forget about the transcript and my notes and just started moving, cutting and altering the material to what I thought looked and worked best.
As I mentioned in a previous blog entry I did have a feeling I may encounter a few issues with some of the footage we had filmed due to it being a little shaky and possibly unusable, this was the case for some of it – which was slightly frustrating, but I was able to overcome the problem and I did find although some of the visuals were shaky the sound was still fully useable.
During the edit, I realised that some of the additional and cut away shots were not always long enough for what I required, this is something I defiantly need to take into account when filming the next story.
I have now completed a first rough cut, which lasts five minutes, thirty nine seconds, which I personally feel is too long for this story. I originally planned to make each story about five-minutes but with ‘Molly the Tea Lady’ story I now feel it only needs to be around three-minutes. I know this will alter the duration of my full documentary but ‘Quality is better than Quantity’. Also I could possibly submit the completed short film of ‘Molly the Tea Lady’ into Channel 4’s ‘Three Minute Wonder’.
When I first began the edit, I was unsure of where to start because I had quite a bit of footage of Ros telling the story and her various encounters and I wasn’t sure what parts to include and what parts to leave out. I decided the best way to try and resolve this problem was to go through my transcript thoroughly – referring back to the footage marking down all good shots, and stories. Then numbering each shot I thought would be great to include and in what order. I found this helped me a great deal, by getting my edit going although I did find once I had engrossed myself within the rough cut I tended to forget about the transcript and my notes and just started moving, cutting and altering the material to what I thought looked and worked best.
As I mentioned in a previous blog entry I did have a feeling I may encounter a few issues with some of the footage we had filmed due to it being a little shaky and possibly unusable, this was the case for some of it – which was slightly frustrating, but I was able to overcome the problem and I did find although some of the visuals were shaky the sound was still fully useable.
During the edit, I realised that some of the additional and cut away shots were not always long enough for what I required, this is something I defiantly need to take into account when filming the next story.
I have now completed a first rough cut, which lasts five minutes, thirty nine seconds, which I personally feel is too long for this story. I originally planned to make each story about five-minutes but with ‘Molly the Tea Lady’ story I now feel it only needs to be around three-minutes. I know this will alter the duration of my full documentary but ‘Quality is better than Quantity’. Also I could possibly submit the completed short film of ‘Molly the Tea Lady’ into Channel 4’s ‘Three Minute Wonder’.
Monday, 21 December 2009
Filming of The Christmas Concert, Wells Cathedral
Yesterday Adam, Sam and myself all went over to Wells to film the Christmas Concert at Wells Cathedral for the first of the three, three minute films we are making for them. Adam had previously filmed the rehearsal on the Saturday, and our main aim on the Sunday was to capture some good shots that would showcase a taste of the Christmas Concert, where the cathedral is entirely lit by candles.
(Picture similar to the Concert's Lighting)
Although this was very beautiful and amazing to look at, it was extremely difficult to film the concert due to limited lighting and the positions we were located in (we were high up, looking over everything). Although I do think we managed to get a variety of good shots of the choir, candles and audience.
We all arrived at Wells at around half past three, met up and went across to the cathedral, where we got everything set up straight away ready to begin filming the Vergers lighting the candles.
Adam and myself had planned to create a time-lapse of the cathedral being lit, both of us thought this would be a great way to show people how wonderful the cathedral looks lit just by candlelight; but also to help show how this Christmas concert is different to the Christmas service. Adam set the camera up on the tripod and placed it on the West Front Balcony to capture this time-lapse, the plan was to leave the camera recording and not move it until all the candles were lit, and the whole cathedral glowed in candlelight. However I think the camera accidentally got moved, so I’m not sure how the time-lapse material will turn out. It will be extremely disappointing if it hasn’t worked to how we had both imagined because we were hoping to use this material has a transition from the rehearsal material to the Christmas Concert material.
We all arrived at Wells at around half past three, met up and went across to the cathedral, where we got everything set up straight away ready to begin filming the Vergers lighting the candles.
Once we had filmed some material of the Vergers and candles we all took a quick break, had some dinner and then got straight back to work, filming everyone entering the cathedral. We made the decision that we would only capture sound using the camera mics because of limited spacing, time and the fact we had to be really discreet and not seen by the public; most of the finished film will contain soundtrack material.
The only major thing that concerned me during the day / evening was the weather conditions it was very icy and I hate driving in it; so it took us a little longer to get there and back. But luckily everything that was being filmed was filmed inside so it didn’t affect the filming of the concert.
Overall I think everything went well, although we couldn’t get all the shots we had planned because of health and safety issues and lighting I believe we have enough to produce a strong finished short film. After the concert I spoke to Ali and she seemed really pleased with what we had managed to do and she understood that it would have been impossible to film the whole concert, getting a variety of different shots but she was pleased with what she had seen so far.
(Picture similar to the Concert's Lighting)
Although this was very beautiful and amazing to look at, it was extremely difficult to film the concert due to limited lighting and the positions we were located in (we were high up, looking over everything). Although I do think we managed to get a variety of good shots of the choir, candles and audience.
We all arrived at Wells at around half past three, met up and went across to the cathedral, where we got everything set up straight away ready to begin filming the Vergers lighting the candles.
Adam and myself had planned to create a time-lapse of the cathedral being lit, both of us thought this would be a great way to show people how wonderful the cathedral looks lit just by candlelight; but also to help show how this Christmas concert is different to the Christmas service. Adam set the camera up on the tripod and placed it on the West Front Balcony to capture this time-lapse, the plan was to leave the camera recording and not move it until all the candles were lit, and the whole cathedral glowed in candlelight. However I think the camera accidentally got moved, so I’m not sure how the time-lapse material will turn out. It will be extremely disappointing if it hasn’t worked to how we had both imagined because we were hoping to use this material has a transition from the rehearsal material to the Christmas Concert material.
We all arrived at Wells at around half past three, met up and went across to the cathedral, where we got everything set up straight away ready to begin filming the Vergers lighting the candles.
Once we had filmed some material of the Vergers and candles we all took a quick break, had some dinner and then got straight back to work, filming everyone entering the cathedral. We made the decision that we would only capture sound using the camera mics because of limited spacing, time and the fact we had to be really discreet and not seen by the public; most of the finished film will contain soundtrack material.
The only major thing that concerned me during the day / evening was the weather conditions it was very icy and I hate driving in it; so it took us a little longer to get there and back. But luckily everything that was being filmed was filmed inside so it didn’t affect the filming of the concert.
Overall I think everything went well, although we couldn’t get all the shots we had planned because of health and safety issues and lighting I believe we have enough to produce a strong finished short film. After the concert I spoke to Ali and she seemed really pleased with what we had managed to do and she understood that it would have been impossible to film the whole concert, getting a variety of different shots but she was pleased with what she had seen so far.
Thursday, 17 December 2009
1st Filming Day
On Tuesday 8th December 2009 I completed my first filming day for my Individual film ‘The Myths, Legends and Hauntings of Somerset’. As the project is a small production, I arranged to take a small crew along with me to help out. Aleicia took on the role of Camera Operator, Tom was the Sound Recordist and I took on the role as director. I met Aleicia and Tom at Weston Train Station around 8.45am and we went on from there to Yeovil Junction Train Station arriving at around 10.15am. When we first arrived the café was fairly busy and Ros was a little tied up working. We took this opportunity to get everything checked and set –up. I did plan to use some extra lighting, but for some reason we had some lighting issues, the light we had taken didn’t seem stable, in the end I made the decision to abandon the light for health and safety reasons plus the camera picture looked well lit anyway.
Once we had Ros mic’d up and Tom had checked sound levels, we were ready to go. I had planned some questions in case Ros was stuck with what to say; however these weren’t really needed. I felt Ros told the story really well, and she was full of character and enthusiasm. We did a few takes of Ros telling the story stood behind the counter. During the first take Ros seemed o.k. but I knew she needed to be made comfortable so I decided to get Aleicia to film a conversation between Ros and myself discussing ‘Molly the Tea Lady’. I felt this take put her at ease and she seemed comfortable during the next few takes.
After filming Ros telling the story, we then worked though my shot list filming a variety of cut aways and additional material to use within my final edit, these included: establishing shots of Yeovil Junction, Trains passing through, clocks, basement, freezers, kitchen, tea, etc.
We ended up finishing around 2.30 – 3pm. Got everything packed up and made our way back to Weston.
The following morning I captured all my material onto the computer, making some logging notes of the footage to help during the editing stages. After looking back over the footage I was pleased with what we had filmed. I did have a few concerns as some of the camera footage was a little shaky (during the hand-held footage) some possibly unusable, which is a little disappointing but I wont know for sure until I get into the editing stage. However as Dani mentioned to me we are all still in the learning process and this will all come with experience.
Overall I think the filming day went well, I was pleased with how organised and helpful everyone was and I would like to take this opportunity to thank Aleicia and Tom for their support and help with the project. :-)
Once we had Ros mic’d up and Tom had checked sound levels, we were ready to go. I had planned some questions in case Ros was stuck with what to say; however these weren’t really needed. I felt Ros told the story really well, and she was full of character and enthusiasm. We did a few takes of Ros telling the story stood behind the counter. During the first take Ros seemed o.k. but I knew she needed to be made comfortable so I decided to get Aleicia to film a conversation between Ros and myself discussing ‘Molly the Tea Lady’. I felt this take put her at ease and she seemed comfortable during the next few takes.
After filming Ros telling the story, we then worked though my shot list filming a variety of cut aways and additional material to use within my final edit, these included: establishing shots of Yeovil Junction, Trains passing through, clocks, basement, freezers, kitchen, tea, etc.
We ended up finishing around 2.30 – 3pm. Got everything packed up and made our way back to Weston.
The following morning I captured all my material onto the computer, making some logging notes of the footage to help during the editing stages. After looking back over the footage I was pleased with what we had filmed. I did have a few concerns as some of the camera footage was a little shaky (during the hand-held footage) some possibly unusable, which is a little disappointing but I wont know for sure until I get into the editing stage. However as Dani mentioned to me we are all still in the learning process and this will all come with experience.
Overall I think the filming day went well, I was pleased with how organised and helpful everyone was and I would like to take this opportunity to thank Aleicia and Tom for their support and help with the project. :-)
Monday, 30 November 2009
Making Progress
I wanted to make a start on my project’s production before the Christmas break, mainly to get everything rolling but also because it helps balance out the workload we will have in the New Year. Therefore I have arranged to film one of my ghost stories ‘Molly the Tea Lady’ on Tuesday 8th December 2009 at Yeovil Junction Train Station. I have spoken to Ros (storyteller) and she is happy for us to get there for around 10.15am. I have organised a small crew, Aleicia will be the camera operator, Tom will be the sound recordist and I will direct. The aim of the filming day is to
• Film Ros telling the story of Molly and her strange and unusual activities
• Film a train coming into the station
• Film an external shot of the café
• Establishing shot of the café
• People sat sipping from cups
• Shots of the basement (Freezers open and closed)
For this shoot I have booked out a SONY Z7 Camera, Sound Equipment and Lights.
Hopefully the shoot will be a success and I will have some footage for my documentary ‘The Myths, Legends and Hauntings of Somerset’.
• Film Ros telling the story of Molly and her strange and unusual activities
• Film a train coming into the station
• Film an external shot of the café
• Establishing shot of the café
• People sat sipping from cups
• Shots of the basement (Freezers open and closed)
For this shoot I have booked out a SONY Z7 Camera, Sound Equipment and Lights.
Hopefully the shoot will be a success and I will have some footage for my documentary ‘The Myths, Legends and Hauntings of Somerset’.
Wednesday, 25 November 2009
Encounters of Documentaries
Last week a group of us from Paintworks headed over to ‘The Encounters Short Film Festival’ at the Watershed, Bristol. Whilst I was there I took the opportunity to carry out some further research for my Individual film by going to view ‘4 Docs’. During this viewing we watched four documentaries each about a different topic. At the end of the showing one of the directors ‘James Lees’ the director of ‘The Apology Line’ gave a short talk about the making of the documentary, how the idea came about and why certain creative decisions were made. I found this talk to be very inspiring and beneficial as it helped me think about certain creative decisions I will make, how I’m going to present my topic, the type of camera shots / angles I will use, etc.
After viewing the documentaries I decided to include some of them within my research sketch book – making a note of my likes and dislikes of them to help me make certain decisions and guide me in the right direction of achieving my documentaries aims.
Whilst researching the documentaries on the ‘4docs’ website I cam across some more great short documentaries, all very inspiring and interesting to watch. The one I particular liked and felt made great use of the beautiful surroundings was ‘Valley of Goats’. I personally found this documentary style approach to be quite similar to ‘The Ghostman of Skye’ recently broadcast on BBC2. At present I am currently thinking this is the style and direction I would like my documentary to go. The only dislike I had with ‘The Ghostman of Skye’ was I didn’t particularly like the presenting style – I prefer just the story-telling approach from local people who have had encounters with the subject matter.
A few other documentaries I have been looking at and researching are ‘The Girls who were found Alive’, ‘The Archive’ and I have recently been watching ‘John Sergeant On The Tourist Trail’ I particularly liked the feature on The Loch Ness Monster, all these programmes have helped me decide on things I like and dislike helping me progress further with my research, planning and creating my individual film on Myths, Legends and Hauntings of Somerset.
Picture Source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00636/sargeant_385x185_636323a.jpg
After viewing the documentaries I decided to include some of them within my research sketch book – making a note of my likes and dislikes of them to help me make certain decisions and guide me in the right direction of achieving my documentaries aims.
Whilst researching the documentaries on the ‘4docs’ website I cam across some more great short documentaries, all very inspiring and interesting to watch. The one I particular liked and felt made great use of the beautiful surroundings was ‘Valley of Goats’. I personally found this documentary style approach to be quite similar to ‘The Ghostman of Skye’ recently broadcast on BBC2. At present I am currently thinking this is the style and direction I would like my documentary to go. The only dislike I had with ‘The Ghostman of Skye’ was I didn’t particularly like the presenting style – I prefer just the story-telling approach from local people who have had encounters with the subject matter.
A few other documentaries I have been looking at and researching are ‘The Girls who were found Alive’, ‘The Archive’ and I have recently been watching ‘John Sergeant On The Tourist Trail’ I particularly liked the feature on The Loch Ness Monster, all these programmes have helped me decide on things I like and dislike helping me progress further with my research, planning and creating my individual film on Myths, Legends and Hauntings of Somerset.
Picture Source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00636/sargeant_385x185_636323a.jpg
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