My FMP

I have created another page which I go through my process of my Final Major Project. Link below
http://alexbrandfmp.blogspot.co.uk/

Review Final Product

In this I am going to provide a brief review of the short film that I was involved in creating. The members that were involved in making the piece were;

 Aaron Dunleavy

I have worked with Aaron in the past and I am  more than impressed with his work ethic, he is very professional and driven in towards the best he can. Together we communicate very well in all aspects; he does tend to take charge but at time’s this is necessary when working with members of Media we previously haven’t worked with.

Christi Leigh Cooper 

Christi is a new member of the Media group which made me unsure about working with her as I didn’t know how professional she can perform. After talking to her in production meetings I learnt she is very approachable and is constantly eager to learn. She did her part by researching what she was assigned which was “make-up.” When she wasn’t working on the make-up, she just wanted to be present at all times.

 James Hibbert

At first I was unsure about James considering he was working on another project and joined just before production. Once he joined he showed a high standard of professionalism, he constantly asked questions and listened to everything. He was constantly involved and had a good attitude towards working, he was always entertaining everyone.  He was given the role of boom operator which can be stressful and tiring, spending hours holding a mic in the right place and he didn’t complain.

 I extremely enjoyed working with each of these students as I found them easy to communicate with and was impressed with their work ethic.

When starting this drama I wanted the audience to be mesmerised by the cruel intention of the main male protagonist, Mick. Showing how appearances are more than just misleading, when you think you know it all, it turns out you really don’t.  At the start of production I imagined the final piece to be a dark piece which again reflects the characters and situation at hand. The character Mick is to appear as a family member of the elderly women, Rose, who is taking the time to care for her in some manner but as the narrative develops we learn that he is a bully and has no kind intention for her. Mick just likes using her home and taking her money which hints towards a difficult upbringing between these two characters. We hint towards Rose having some form of disability as she constantly zones out and doesn’t take notice nor remembers previous conversations.  After being aggressive towards Rose, Mick takes some of her money then leaves the home going to the shop. After some time Rose’s granddaughter, Lucy, turns up and begins talking to Rose. Due to Lucy’s awkwardness being in that room we learn that she rarely if ever visits. Towards the end there is a brief moment which alludes to the audience that Mick isn’t completely what he seems. Yes, he is a bully but is he a family member at all, this moment is the moment where the audience are truly confused and question themselves on who they think Mick is.

From the footage we gathered we covered all bases from what we originally wanted but due to the quick cut between scenes, we had to add elements which adds more character development and allows us to add a short segment to simulate time change. Whilst constructing the set we found many religious objects such as crosses and pictures, so we placed them around the room which inspired on the day for Mick to pay attention to them during a segment where he is considering hurting Rose. Also with the religious aspect in place, we added a short montage of around the house showing how empty it was, and the main element of the house was the religious symbols and pictures.

The piece is very slow paced in each scene which allows the characters to develop the tension with each word and every action they have. The main tension is gained from Mick as he is the character which has more dialogue and is the key in creating the situation at hand.  Rose is suffering from dementia and hardly reacts to everything around her, because of this she only shows two emotions, one being fear which is a short segment, the second just being constantly dazed which makes more of an impact to the sudden change when she is afraid. The tension gained from Lucy is the reaction from seeing her grandmother bruised then her confusion when Rose mentions her father.

The majority of the shots were close ups of the faces and the odd object which I really liked, to me this allowed the audience to truly see the emotion in each of the characters. Also watching them do something so simple such as breathing can terrify the audience.  In the first twenty five seconds of the piece, there is hardly any noise apart from the constant ticking and the intense sound of Mick smoking, the slow drag heard perfectly makes audience on edge by using this simple technique of using sound to inflict worry.

This was originally meant to be an assignment for college but due to our group’s dedication to perform professionally, we were allowed to have an extended time to create the piece. Our professionalism came mainly from the producer aspect; we arranged to use a professional actor and had a disclosed location where we had a free range of time to work in.

Whilst developing the script I went for a gritty realistic approach with constant awkwardness with the characters, reflecting their connection with one and another. The idea of the drama being based around a man, elderly women and confused child were Aaron’s idea but together with a couple of production meetings we all developed the final aspect of the abusing family and the twist of the man not being a family member. Even though it was a group development, I wrote out the script and had to make clear the characteristics of the characters. I also shared the role of producer. I helped arrange recruiting Margo into our drama and helped in the final decision on setting the location.

Whilst writing the piece, we showed our Tutor Jamie just to clarify that it was a well written piece of work and just to keep him up to date with our progress. He was very impressed with the script and was very encouraging. Once Aaron had finished the final edit we showed all our tutors and we mainly received positive feedback but there was an issue with one camera angle which appeared to be a “lazy” shot but looking back at it I understand the comment. This will benefit me when filming future projects to range the shots more.

My overall opinion of the production as a whole was a great success. We developed the idea, recruited actors, designed location and gathered all footage at an incredible quick amount of time. As I have mentioned working on this piece makes me think back to previous projects I have worked on how long it took not just me but everyone to do all these elements and now I and the production team completed all these in ample time. I believe my involvement demonstrates how dedicated I am towards writing and creating a piece; it also shows how much I have improved since last year. I like to think I would now be considered as a professional with the standard I performed.

Below is our final edit of “Visitant”

Tanzania Update

Whilst we were over in Tanzania instead writing out production diaries, we recorded ourselves talking about the day’s progression. At this moment in time I am a bit worried on the content from myself, I was nervous speaking to the camera and may have missed points from the day, and if that is the case I will be redoing my production diaries. My intention for the diaries is to edit them with footage we gathered and blog them on here, unfortunately at this time I am focusing on my Final Major Project so it will be some time until I edit and blog the videos.

Saturday 24th November-Shoot day

We had planned to meet at the location at 6 o’clock in the morning, I was a bit late but Aaron and James arrived on time and had already brought the equipment in. When I arrived they were enjoying their breakfast which I wished I thought of, but whilst they were eating I turned on all my heaters so that the house would warm up.  We made sure we had ample time to set everything up so we arranged for the actors to turn up around 10 o’ clock. We set up the lighting which wasn’t difficult at all seeing as we had worked on the positioning on the previous reccy, but we kept working on the white balance as Aaron was experimenting with his own equipment. We ensured that everything was taped down and out of the way of the door so nothing was at risk and we finished setting up the props. We had a little issue with one of our props; we need a dirty plate so we at first used stuff left in the house but it didn’t look realistic enough so we went to the shop and bought instant mash and beans.

By time the actors arrived we were completely ready, we had a short break which allowed both our actors to talk and feel better about working together. Christi began makeup on Margo once everyone had a chance to chat. Christi did struggle making the bruise stand out in a realistic way but she eventually reached the quality previously on the last reccy.

I got to say I really enjoyed talking to Pete, seeing as he is a professional actor I thought I would take the opportunity to ask him about his process and any advice he may offer to me. I explain that I mainly enjoy script writing and want to major in it; he spent some time telling me about his past experience which was just fascinating. Apart from what I already know (being a tough business to work in) a piece of advice he gave me was a type of idea exercise, he suggested every morning if I remember my dream, I should write it down and keep hold of it until something comes together with all my dreams. He said I should redo this process every week so that I don’t get stuck on one dream/idea.

Aaron wanted some time to work with both Margo and Pete so that they all understood what was to be expected but once he had done with them the rest of us could join. I joined for a short time but found it difficult to stay as they was working on the intense bullying segment and the performances was so impressive that I believed it, also Margo is my grandmother which made me feel awkward anyway.

We had a couple stops and goes because we had our tutors turning up at different times and the noise from downstairs could be picked up on the mic. Our main issue was time, we began at 11oclock and due to the time of year, we would have to finish at around at 4oclock. We wanted it all be done in this session which is very difficult but we worried that if we went away and came back, continuity would be a factor, something would bound to be out of place. Also Pete had to leave at 3oclock for his own reason so we mainly focused on his scenes.

Roughly at dinner Ruby (our young protagonist) turned up, unfortunately we wasn’t close to ready for her scenes and she had to wait for some time. So instead of leaving her to be bored and sit on her own I offered to run through with her, she was ace. I was worried about the fact she only had three days to learn her lines but she knew them perfectly. As I have seen how Aaron directed Margo and Pete, I explained to Ruby that to try and make it feel as natural as possible, if a line or act seems not realistic she could change anyway she wanted.

We were going to have a dinner break and order food but as I mentioned time was a factor so we ordered food and continued production. Aaron had tasked himself as director and cameraman and James was on the boom mic, so I mainly was on runner duty. This wasn’t an issue for me as I worked on the area that I mainly wanted to, script writing.

It was a brilliant day in my opinion and the overall production towards this has truly shown a high level of professionalism; we planned and executed this in two weeks, got real actors instead of friends, got a proper location, showed skill to set up a scene with lighting and camera positions, and most importantly, teamwork. Writing this up makes me remember my time last year, how we would have spent about 3-4 weeks just planning production and how much I have learnt at Blackburn College. I can’t wait to see the final product; I have full faith in Aaron skills to edit. This may be my favourite piece I have worked on to date.