Vanessa and Virginia Shoot - Read Through

On Wednesday 10th February the studio was set up for us to film a read though of the ‘Vanessa and Virginia’ script. A green screen was set-up for Emma and Sarah to stand in front of whilst reading the script. This was done so we could edit in different images during the editing stages to see whether the images and techniques we had been working on would work well and would look right within the play and performance.








One of the main aims of the shoot was to get an idea of how long the actual play will take in order for us to work out timings for the different images we are going to create for the backdrop.



During the shoot I took on the role of Sound Recordist, where I had to monitor the sound levels. To be honest I was a little nervous about doing this role, as I haven’t had much experience in using the sound equipment before. However Dani and Tom explained exactly what I had to do and I seemed o.k. with it. To begin with they showed me the sound mixer which I was using up until it completely decided it wasn’t go to work any longer and went dead. We then discovered the batteries had died, and to save time and messing around it was decided we would record straight into the camera. Once all the leads were in place and we were ready to start shooting again my role was to ensure that each of Emma and Sarah’s microphone levels didn’t peak. Listening through the headphones everything sounded fine, levels were fine until about half way though the reading when Emma’s clip mic decided to also stop working. Alerting Dani to the problem, he decided it would be best to keep sarah’s mic running but capture the rest of the sound through the boom mic. I don’t think we encountered any further technical problems after this and were able to complete the shoot.














Overall I think the shoot went well it provided us with a greater understanding of the length of the play and scene timings, all things, which will defiantly help us when creating the required backdrop.

Film Posters

As a way of promoting our work we do at Artswork Media, Nic has asked if we could all create some posters for some of our ongoing projects.
Below are two posters, which I have created using Photoshop. The first one has been designed to support one of the three, three-minutes films for the Wells Cathedral Project. The second is to support one of my individual stories for my personal project ‘Myths, Legends and Hauntings of Somerset’.
The images featured on each poster are stills from some footage we have filmed over the last few months.

Vanessa and Virginia Meeting.

Last Wednesday (3-2-2010) we all met up at Paintworks to get all our presentation material together, ensure we had everything exported in the correct formats and Chris imported all our material into the computer programme Arkaos.
We then all headed over to Bath Spa’s Newton Park Campus, where we met up with Nic, Emma and the two actresses who will be playing Vanessa and Virginia – Kitty and Sarah.
When we first arrived the room needed to be prepped for our presentation. Dani had brought along his projector, this was then connected to the laptop and using Arkaos Chris projected our material onto the back wall.
To begin with we showed everyone each clip once or twice and after all the material had been viewed we had a brief discussion of what stood out to Emma, Kitty and Sarah and what parts they liked, what they wasn’t too sure about and why.
During the meeting Dani made some notes, which he kindly e-mailed to everyone.
These can be viewed below.

"Meeting V and V - 3rd Feb 201

Feedback from Beth -

Fluid - not hard breaks - each evolves out of the next - some hook into the next scene.

Can you reverse the 3d piece?

Least keen on tertris - stear clear of the the paintings

Really loved the paint.
Really loved the water.

possibility of - Live Camera on canvas as she paints

Nic - could be much slower - dream is always slower.
Beth - more distracting to see to see something fast - but I like the idea [ the paint ]

Nic - what if the screen had bits that stuck out of the side of it.

Beth - you don't want to to have contestant change- if you have a still image but the intensity of the light changes.

Beth - Certainly wouldn't want furniture

Nic - you could have a colour patin program.

Beth - I like the ideas of characters having colours.

Actions -

1. Develop ideas further by next weds
2. Film actors read through next weds"

I thought the meeting went really well, I believe we presented a variety of different techniques to the client for her to decide what she feels would work and what she would prefer to avoid.

The following day Beth e-mailed her thoughts on the meeting below you will see an extract of her e-mail stating some of her likes and dislikes.

"

Here are my thoughts so far and I'm sure Emma will have even more when she meets you next week (hopefully).

1. I liked the idea of having colours for characters, but only if it is appropriate to the mood. I mean, the colours shouldn't turn into a disco of people.
2. I think it would be best if we view the scene transitions as 'transitions' and not breaks. That would mean that (unless we want to create a shock at a specific moment), the new or altering images should evolve slowly so that the audience does not notice the changes or are distracted by the changes.
3. I liked the 3D feeling, but as I said, it mustn't be a room with furniture etc, but just a space with depth.
4. I liked the subtle movements that you put on some of the more painterly animations.
5. I did like the water and the paint on glass, but I realise this is slightly different to the more painterly stuff and so I'm unsure as to whether the two styles will fuse, see what Emma thinks.
6. The dripping paint was also interesting, but it was one of the most obvious of the ideas as was the tetris. I think perhaps we should avoid using her paintings too obviously. Not least because we don't have any money to pay for them as yet.
7. As for the amazing technical side of things I cannot comment and just stand in awe. I have suggested that Emma brings a theatre techie with her so that you can discuss that side of things.
8. As I have said I am in the process of applying for funding. I intend to ask for the cost of the equipment and for £1000 to pay you guys. Fingers crossed.

You have certainly caught the spirit of the brief. You are creating a living work of art."


It was arranged that Kitty, Sarah and Emma (the director of the play) would come over to Paintworks next Wednesday (10-2-2010) to film a read through of the entire script, performed in the Endermol Studio Space.
This will then provide us with an understanding of the duration and timings of the play, which will help us when creating the required backdrop.

Wells Project Update

Over the past few weeks over various moments I have logged and captured the Wells Christmas Concert Tapes into Final Cut Pro. This morning I began editing the footage to create a picture rough cut – as the sound will be imported later from other sources.

As my main focus was on the picture, I tried to use the best possible shots we had filmed, but found this was fairly difficult at times as some of our footage from The West Front camera was of low quality due to the limited lighting we had in the evening. However other parts of the footage looked really effective, yet we didn’t storyboard these images but I made a decision to include them within the first picture rough cut to help include a variety of shots from various angles.



One shot both Adam and I were concerned about was the Time-Lapse (seeing the Cathedral light up with candlelight) because when the camera was set-up at some point during the filming, it got moved and we both thought this would ruin the shot. However when I was editing today I discovered that the shot was not ruined and was still usable.

Below you will see I have adjusted the speed of the shot; making it faster to create the time-lapse.
(This is still rough and needs some adjustments and is still in working progress, but it gives you an idea of the effect we are trying to create.)




At the moment the rough edit is just over four-minutes long, and our required brief is to produce a three-minute film so we need to make some alterations and adjustments to the length of the film. Overall the edit is coming along well.

Moving on from the Christmas Concert Edit, I have also been researching and planning for the next three-minute film; which Adam and I have chosen to base the film around The Choristers and possibly focusing on ‘A Day in the Life of a Chorister Boy’.

After some research I thought it might be a good idea to focus the film on a Girl Chorister, as they are a recent tradition to the Cathedrals. However after some discussion with Adam we decided it would probably be best to focus on a Boy Chorister, as it’s more traditional and less boys are showing interest in becoming a Chorister than the girls are, so this film could work slightly as a promotional video demonstrating what a Choristers role entails.

Below I have uploaded some copies of my notes and a first draft storyboard to document some of my ideas for the second film.










Before we can really move on from the planning process to the production stage we have to await Ali’s response to the idea, which means we have to await her return to Wells Cathedral as she has been working away – until then we will continue brainstorming and developing ideas.

Experimenting with Painting on Glass

A couple of Thursdays ago Dani ran a workshop on ‘Abstract Film-making’. In this workshop we looked at various pieces of work from different artists such as Hans Richter, Man Ray, Reiniger, Guy Sherwin etc; All using different techniques and approaches to experimental abstract filmmaking.

Two of the techniques I particularly liked were placing objects on film and painting on glass. I thought either of these techniques could work well as a backdrop for the Vanessa and Virginia project.

I decided to carry out some research into Painting on Glass, looking at various work online from other people to get some inspiration and ideas of how I could create some abstract images. Below are a few links to some videos which I looked at, which I thought had some good effects and designs in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-xWvpLat00&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yw00u6afIew&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tMDzFhVppQ&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLJoNMfpnto

Last Monday and Tuesday with the help of Ollie I experimented with creating abstract images using the technique of painting on glass. Before we began painting, we lit the glass table with two lights from above and one light below to create a white canvas effect and placed the video camera underneath the glass table.


























We then began experimenting with the paint, creating a couple of different effects using brush strokes and pouring the paint onto the glass. After a couple of goes, we captured our footage into Final Cut Pro, then imported it into Motion, where we began manipulating the images using different filters, masks, and mattes.






























As you can see from our first attempts, my hand, arm and the paintbrush appear within the image- this is something I wanted to try and get rid of.











We then experimented with using only black paint this was o.k. when we imported it into Motion but we still had problems with trying to remove my hand and arm. The other problem we encountered was the top of the paint bottle - this too was appearing in the image. Experimenting further we found the best way to remove my arm, hand, paintbrush and paint bottle from the image was to cover everything in white and use only green paint. Improvising with the materials we had, we wrapped my arm in white toilet roll, placed both a latex and white glove over my hand, covered the paint bottle in white paper and wrapped white tape around the paintbrushes.

We then experimented with different consistencies of paint, from thick to liquidly to try and create various abstract images from brush strokes to splashes of paint. Importing the footage into Motion, using effects of mattes, masks and various filters and behaviors we managed to achieve our goal of removing my arm and hand from the images. We did still have the small problem of trying to remove the paint bottle top from the image, but after more practice and experimenting we final managed to get rid of this by transferring the paint into another shaped bottle.

This is one of my favorite images we created, because I like the look of the brush strokes, the effect the noise (flickering parts) creates within the image. I personally think this could possibly work well within the water scene during the Vanessa and Virginia play.



Another one I particularly like is this one. What I like about this image is how the paint eventually fills the screen. – I feel this image could work well at the part where a violent image is seen.




As I mentioned above the best way to create the abstract images is to use green paint, and cover everything else in white. The background and paint colours can then be changed within Motion. If we decide to use this technique as part of the Vanessa and Virginia backdrop we could possibly think about using Vanessa Bell’s colours from her paintings.

I have exported the different images as QuickTime Movies to take with us to present to Beth at the next Vanessa and Virginia meeting.







I loved experimenting with this technique and I feel it could work really well within the Vanessa and Virginia Project.

Vanessa and Virginia - Motion Designs.

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

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.