Luke Pietnik - Harmless Fun

I thought, seen as we spent a large amount of time on set mimicking Alan Partridge ('Blood dribbles down!'), this would make a funny video.

Luke Pietnik - Bloopers

Some cock-ups:

Luke Pietnik - The Finished Film

Well here it is. I hope you like it. The colour grading is very bad, I know. I'm hoping to do a re-cut using the original soundtrack at some point, but I'll see later on. Anyway, enjoy:

Luke Pietnik - Video Retrospective

Well that's a rather lengthy blog Amy, I'm glad you've been thorough with it. Well while I work my way through that lot, here's a short video celebrating the film's completion, and looking back over the past few weeks. I'd like to thank everyone who made a contribution to the film, no matter how small. Enjoy...

Amy Tuffnell

Sorry it's late guys, I had to do most of it on Word because of my silly internet but it's here now!

Amy Tuffnell - Blog Archive

19th February 2009
Today the group met each other for the first time and was given the brief. Initially we didn’t discuss ideas for our piece, but instead decided which role we each wanted to play in the group. Will straight away said that he’d like to be Picture Editor, followed by Luke who wanted to act as Sound Editor. That left myself, Verity and Max – but none of us fancied working with sound! In the end Max decided to be our Sound Recorder and, as she was Camera Operator on the last project, Verity said she’d like to be Project Manager. I was at first unsure about being Camera Operator as I enjoy the organisation/post-production side and am not really confident enough with using the camera! However, I thought this would give me an opportunity to become more familiar with the technology; and the rest of the group assured me that they would always be around to assist me if I needed it. Although I’m a little apprehensive about my role, I’m confident that the others will work well in their roles. I know Verity well and have heard that Will is really good at his editing; whilst Max is good with the technical side of things, and Luke is just good at a bit of everything! Haha

26th February 2009
We thought it would be a good idea to meet today to discuss any ideas for the project. However, we only had an hour as we had to meet between the sound and picture presentations; plus the sound presentations ran over so Max and Will were a little late.
At this early stage, because of strict deadlines from other modules and work commitments, I haven’t found much time to sit down and think of any strong ideas. Verity is in a similar situation to me, but Will hasn’t let us down! He had an idea with quite a strong narrative (he’s written about it in one of his posts so I’ll not go in to it) which all of us liked the sound of. However, we anticipated various technical problems with the idea such as having to find a young actor and a magician.
Luke also had a few brief ideas; including one great idea about a guy who dies and we follow his journey through the afterlife as he tries to discover why his life was taken.
Max had the idea of a man breaking up with his long time girlfriend and the audience following his journey to get his life back on track. We all liked the idea but thought it had a similar narrative to other student films and we weren’t sure that it could make up five minutes.

2nd March 2009
Today we met in the Hubs to talk through each of our final ideas. Verity has now come up with the idea of following two or three characters’ (all strangers) separate journeys to an event which brings them all together. There is no set narrative to the idea at this point, but because the idea is quite open we all started making suggestions as to what the event could be and how they could get there, etc.
I have also come up with an idea, my treatment is as follows:
A family’s journey to find their missing child Annabel, aged 17. We follow the family though their emotional, distressing and heartbreaking journey to find their daughter, who was abducted on her way home from a friend’s house two months ago.
Narrative Development
My film would begin in the past, on the evening of the abduction. It will open with Annabel leaving her friend’s house, despite her friend trying to persuade her to stay over. Annabel turns down the offer to stay at her friend’s house as she told her mother she would help her set up an ebay account, plus she has work the following morning. I want to include this scene as I want the audience to become familiar with the character before the abduction.
We would then follow Annabel on her way home. She takes a shortcut through the park and we watch as she becomes anxious that she is not alone. During this scene I want there to be a few intercuts to her family at home, watching TV and doing normal things. This will introduce the audience to her family and, after the abduction, will emphasise how their lives have been turned upside down. I then want to show somebody snatching Annabel, or bundling her in to a car and speeding away.
There will then be a dissolve which will take us in to present time. This is when the audience begin to see the journey to find Annabel. There will be scenes including the family talking to the police, the family at home praying for their daughter to come home, neighbours and members of the local community searching for Annabel in local woodlands, etc. I would also like to include her mother speaking to somebody about when they realised their daughter was missing. I want to include flashbacks to when her mother spoke to Annabel’s friend, who said she had left 2 hours ago.
There will be build ups of hope, for example if they think they have clues to where she is, followed by huge disappointments when they realise she’s not there.
Not entirely sure how to end the piece as of yet. Perhaps they find Annabel hidden in some old stables in the countryside. Maybe they don’t find her at all, or maybe they find her body.
Style
On Annabel’s way home I will use long shots to signify how lonely the area is in which she is walking, and that there is nobody around to help her. I will also use reaction shots when she feels that she isn’t alone and lots of medium and extreme close ups to show her fear and unease. During this scene I will pick the pace of both the visuals (e.g. lots of cuts) and the audio (e.g. quick music, louder heavy breathing) as she gets closer to being abducted.
During the journey of finding Annabel I will use lots of dissolves to emphasise how long the hunt has been going on and particularly how much longer it feels for the family of the girl.
Audience
The audience of my piece will be quite wide, starting from older teenagers (around 16 years +) to adults of all ages. Because of the disturbing content of the film, I wouldn’t normally like people as young as 16 to view it. However, I feel that it could act as a demonstration of the dangers of walking in such places alone for people of this younger age group. Perhaps this could lead to the film been seen in the final years of secondary school. I also feel that the film has a documentary style to it, and so it could be shown on television to raise awareness to parents and carers.

5th March 2009
This morning we had to decide on two ideas to pitch to our tutors later in the afternoon. Firstly we all looked at each other’s treatments, before writing down our two personal favourites. We then put all of the votes in the middle and calculated the two winning treatments; Verity’s and Luke’s. I wasn’t too disappointed that my idea wasn’t going to be pitched, I’d not had chance to put as much thought in to it as I’d liked. However, I did find it difficult to understand and know enough about the others’ ideas to pitch them, but we left the pitching to Max and Luke so that was ok!
The pitching process itself was quite intimidating, particularly as the whole class was there too! I think we expected it to be like this though. Fortunately the tutors weren’t too harsh with us, and just pointed out some important practical problems with our ideas. In the end the tutors decided on Verity’s idea, but again advised us on what to/what not to do. I’m happy with this idea as, like I said before, we are all able to have an input into the narrative and I feel that together we can come up with a good script!

10th March 2009
Max was ill today and so couldn’t make the meeting, but the four of us met anyway and began discussing the scripting and storyboarding. As I was Camera Operator, I said that I would like to produce the storyboards for the film as I draw/write things on storyboards which help me understand the shot length, angle, etc. Being a scriptwriter, Will was keen to take part in the scriptwriting, as was Luke and Max (he’d mentioned earlier). Despite us all agreeing on Luke, Max and Will writing the script, I felt that it was of great importance that me and Verity also read through (and discussed/edited if necessary) the scripts.

17th March 2009
Today we met in the library to discuss the scripts and storyboards further. The rest of the group met at 1pm, but I wasn’t able to get there until 2pm as I was at work. By the time I got there the rest of the group had near enough finished up, but they explained that there would be two main characters (Pamela and Marcus – I’ve no idea who chose these names but how random)! In the last meeting I assumed that we would all be there throughout the scriptwriting process, but later today I discovered that the three scriptwriters had taken on board three separate parts of the script. I don’t mind this at all as long as me and Verity also get to have a good read through the script, and discuss anything we may have different ideas about.
Max also confirmed that he knew three actors who were willing to act in our film. This will benefit the group as, rather than if some of us were acting in it, we can now all be able to keep an eye on the filming process from behind the camera - I’ve experienced being in front of the camera as well as directing in all of my previous projects, and it’s not easy!

24th March 2009
We met our female actor today at the meeting and introduced her to the script. This was also the first time that I’d had a proper look at the script (my internet wasn’t working at home so I couldn’t get my emails), but as the meeting wasn’t for too long I thought I’d look in more detail at home.

26th March 2009
Today we had a meeting at 3.30pm, where we were going to introduce Malcolm to the script and two of our actors. We all sat in the media base for half an hour, but there was no sign of Malcolm. Some of us went to the office to check that we were in the right place at the right time – we were. We waited a further half an hour before deciding that he probably wouldn’t be coming. On our way out we saw the group who had the slot before us (we’d tried to ring them earlier to see whether they knew where Malcolm was but had no luck). They said that Malcolm told them we’d cancelled our meeting because we were out filming, but we’d never had a meeting to tell him that and nobody had emailed. There must have just been some confusion with another group or something.
On a more positive note, I had chance to read the script properly before today. I discussed with the group that I felt there were too many voiceovers in the script – for me every time the speech ended, there would be a voiceover of what the character was thinking. I feel that the actors can act this rather than having all the voiceovers, which I feel will turn in to a narration. Verity agreed, and so we decided to record the voiceovers anyway and see what we all think in post production.

30th March 2009
Today we began filming Simon’s scene. We arranged to use a room in the Stoddart building as the place in which Simon has just completed his presentation. Although the room didn’t fit my storyboard (as we didn’t book a room until on the day of filming), it was almost ideal for this scene. It had a projector which we put an image of a pie chart on, and I arranged the tables and chairs so it looked as though the room had been recently vacated. I set up the camera and labelled the tape whilst Luke and Max set up the sound equipment. I was a little apprehensive about using the camera at this stage, but after a couple of practice takes I became confident in my role. I followed my storyboard to an extent, but also came up with new shot ideas on set and took on board suggestions from the rest of the group. The only problem was the projector – It was hugely over-exposed, but changing the exposure so we could see the image on the screen meant the rest of the shot was too dark. We all worked together to try to solve this issue and in the end decided that what was on screen wasn’t of huge importance, the projector was really just part of the mise en scene to show what environment the actor is in.
I was really impressed with Chris acting as Simon – he read through the script and took time to put himself in to the character’s situation and state of mind. I thought he acted the part brilliantly and was willing to try whatever we asked him to.

31st March 2009
We met our female actor, Jessica (who plays the role of Pamela), today to begin filming her scene. I’d previously volunteered my house to film this scene, and so we all met in town and caught a bus to Handsworth. When we arrived I set up the camera and tripod whilst Max and Luke set up the sound equipment and Verity made us all a cup of tea :D. We then discussed what shots we aimed to film whilst Jessica got changed in to her costume and went over her lines. I feel that today went well...apart from my uncontrollable laughing during one scene – I was dismissed to my room for five minutes to take a breather! Haha. After filming most of the shots we’d discussed (e.g. of Pamela cleaning, relaxing, answering the phone, etc) I filmed a few extra shots which I thought would be quite effective, such as a high angle shot of Pamela rushing down stairs. Luke was in charge of the sound recording at this stage as Max had to go home earlier today (hope you found your way ok Max!) Will also helped out with the sound recording, in addition to playing the role of cable basher throughout the filming process so far. Well done everybody!

1st April 2009
Verity had to go back to London early (come home!) so me, Max, Luke and Will met our third actor (another Will) to film Marcus’s scene. I’d arranged for us to use Chelsea’s accommodation for this scene – it wasn’t ideal using a female’s room but we had very limited options...in fact that was our only option, but it went quite well! Thanks Chel! Although we got most of the shots we needed, we had a fair few technical difficulties today. The camera batteries were both low and the charger wasn’t working – and when we did get it working it caused a loud buzzing sound when recording with the boom. We overcame this by using the Marantz to record the audio.
Unfortunately we can’t use the editing suites over Easter, so we’re planning to edit the first week back.

20th April 2009
Well today was the first day back after Easter and we met at the stores at 11am to prepare for and film the rest of Pamela’s scene. Will really didn’t feel well today so I gave him the tape as we all agreed for him to stay at Uni and make a start on the editing. The rest of us met Jessica and discussed where we would film the scene of her walking towards where the ‘collision’ occurs. We ended up getting a bus up Eccleshall Road and filming on a road just behind Endcliffe Park. I think we all did really well today – the weather was boiling (I got burnt shoulders!) and poor Jessica had to wear a big winter coat as she’d worn it on the last shoot! The only problem was that it was much brighter than when we filmed her previous scene, but I altered the exposure slightly and Luke mentioned playing around with the filters when editing to make the weather appear continuous. We experienced various other difficulties, such as cars coming during the middle of shots and burglar alarms going off, but overall I was pleased with the majority of the shots I got here.
After lunch Chris (Simon) came to film the rest of his scene and the beginning of the final scene. The script directed that there would be a shot of an unknown character walking into Simon about to commit suicide and he kills her. I suggested that I didn’t think this should be included – who is this woman and why has she suddenly been introduced to the film? This opened up a huge debate – Verity and Max agreed with this point but Luke felt that the film needed the shot to progress to the final scene. Unfortunately by the time we’d discussed this issue and set up the equipment, it was 4pm and I had to leave to pick up my car. Verity pointed out that she wanted to call it a day as, if we began filming the final scene today and didn’t continue filming it until the following week, the weather was likely to change – After all, how often is it boiling in Sheffield?! Ha. Despite this, the rest of the crew wanted to continue filming and, from what I’ve gathered, Luke acted as Camera Operator to film the scene where Simon shoots this character.

22nd April 2009
Yesterday Will and Luke began editing together. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to be there due to work commitments, so I went in for a couple of hours today to see how they were getting on. So far Marcus’s office scene and Pamela’s opening scene has been put together and I think it’s looking pretty good. There is still room for improvement, as I discussed with Luke, but as it’s just a rough cut there’s no need to worry at this stage.
I also spoke to Luke about the voiceovers used in the film. I didn’t agree that, when Pamela speaks to her husband as she rushes to work, there should be a voiceover of her husband replying to what she says to him. I feel that the audience will definitely be able to understand what is going on from what Pamela says, without the use of a voiceover. Luke said he would leave them there for now for timing purposes when editing, but will make a decision later. I’m happy with that so we’ll see what everybody thinks later.

23rd April 2009
Today we had a meeting with Malcolm where we discussed positives and negatives about the project so far. Malcolm came to the edit suite and looked at what we had so far. This was really helpful as he gave us lots of tips on how to improve what we haveS – little things which we probably wouldn’t pick up on, but what make a huge difference. Chris also came over and gave us some tips for improving the ‘flow’ of the edits. Thanks to Malcolm and Chris for this.
After the meeting Max had to leave, but Will continued to edit the film whilst me, Luke and Verity went in to the sound studio to record a few different sounds for our piece. We used foley to create certain sounds, such as a bottle opener clinking to make the sound of the gun being touched. We all had a turn at been in charge of making the sounds, directing, and using the Marantz.
Will left whilst we were recording so we couldn’t take a look at what he’d done until after he had gone. Me and Verity took notes of what we thought were positives and negatives of the edit so far and discussed them with Luke, who worked alongside Will. There were few negatives, such as a couple of shots being a little to lengthy, but Luke made a few minor adjustments to improve them. Will has done a great job of editing the piece so far and it’s great to see the shots coming together to form a story.

27th April 2009
Today has been the last day of filming and I think it’s been quite a stressful day for all of us. Luckily both the crew and cast were available for filming at the same time today, which seemed unlikely before the weekend – I had a hospital appointment this morning, Chris had work until half 3 and Will (Marcus) was ill all last week! The bad thing was that it was raining heavily all day – not good as the rest of our film was shot in sunny weather! To save the equipment getting damaged I went home and got the car, then picked Verity, Will, Jessica and the equipment up from Uni and drove us back up Ecclesall Road to film the final scene. Luke, Max, Will and Chris got the bus and met us up there. I think we were all hoping that it would stop raining by the time we all got there, and it did for about 10 minutes...then poured down again! It was 4pm so we all decided that we’d just have to get on with it. I set up my camera and tripod and held an umbrella over it for protection (very high tech!) and Max did the same with the sound equipment. The mood today was up and down – one minute we’d all be laughing, the next we’d be stressing and getting agitated with each other! Max had to leave at 5pm but Luke took the role of Sound Recorder so things continued as normal. We had a few interferences, again such as cars and passers by, which made the process a whole lot longer, but we were finished just after 7pm. After an exhausting day today, I’d like to say we’ll be having a day off...buttt we’ll be back in tomorrow to get started on the editing! Work work work!

28th April 2009
Seriously, who said student life is easy?! Pffttt. Today I had work at 9am so wasn’t going to be able to make it in to see the editing process until tomorrow – but we made the mistake of leaving the tape in the camera...I had the camera! So I left work and headed down to Uni, but couldn’t get there until lunch time. This meant that Will only had time to capture the footage as we hadn’t booked the room all day. Sorry guys. On a more positive note Luke’s made a great start on editing the sound and synchronising it with the moving image. The film’s more or less complete now, just the final scene to go!

30th April 2009
Today was our DVD workshop where we put our completed film on to a DVD ready for the presentation next week (I hope!...I had to leave early!) Verity was ill today but the rest of our group sat together and discussed what different features, styles and images would be used on the DVD. I’m not sure how the finished product looks as I had to leave at 2pm for a hospital appointment, I’ll have to speak to one of the others tomorrow!
I watched the finished film for the first time today (Luke and Will completed the editing yesterday) and I have to say I am impressed. Although I still feel that the script is perhaps slightly confusing and might have room for improvement, I feel that the quality of the shots, sound and editing is very high. I’m a bit unsure about the blue filters on the shots, but Luke explained that the shots looked too warm before. I’m proud of our piece and I look forward to presenting it and getting feedback from everybody this time next week.
We will be arranging a meeting to discuss the presentation at the beginning of next week and we are also getting together all of our crew and cast for a drink to celebrate the completion of ‘Collide’. I think we should use this opportunity to thank our actors and hopefully will be able to provide them all with a copy of the DVD.

WELL DONE EVERYBODY!

Luke Pietnik - Collide is Finished... Ish

I should probably say that the final edit is done. Collide is finished. So let me fill you in on what's been happening this week.

We got off to a flying start on Monday, when Will and I went into the editing suite and I began the soundtracking and dubbing, scene by scene. The plan was to continue through the day while the others went off and recorded our first, or final, confrontation scene. However, by the time everyone was leaving for the location, I'd finished mixing all the finished scenes. I therefore went along with Max. The day went well, and we were a lot quicker at setting up and getting the shots done.

Tuesday saw Will and I editing again. Amy had the tape, so we had to wait for a while for her to get it to us. In the meantime though, I made some tweaks to the sound levels, which were neccesary anyway. When the tape finally arrived, Will rough cut the final scene and we brought it into Soundtrack Pro.

Wednesday was the final fling, so to speak. Having finished all the sound editing and colour grading, we began bringing the scenes together into one sequence. We touched up a few of the shots where we thought they needed less or more light.

We had all our material ready for the DVD Studio Pro session on Thursday, and learned a great deal from James about how to put one together. However, after we'd actually burned them, we got a message from max. He said that we needed to change the credits to include Jessica's stage name. There were other issues too. We hadn't put any writers' credits on, and according to Will, the DVD menu colour highlights were too pale to see on a TV set.

Yesterday (Friday), I re-exported the film in apple edit 1 with the corrections, and was going to edit the DVD project slightly. However, the project must have been on Will's log-in, and he was at a meeting at the time. I did tell him what had happened, and I also got copies of the final film, burned onto 2 DVDs as just files. So now the plan is to make the changes to the Studio project on Tuesday, when we'll be having a meeting anyway.

I'm writing this on Saturday, knowing that I need to start getting everything organised for the hand-in on Thursday. As goes the film, I'm fairly proud of what we've achieved. I think this is the first instance this semester where I have completed a project and looked forward to screening it. I'm quite eager to see what everyone thinks of what we've done, and see what all the other groups have come up with, too.

Well, that's it until Thursday, I guess. Bye for now.

Luke Pietnik - Video Blog Five

Well, I'm glad you're feeling positive, Verity and thanks for the encouragement. Anyway, here's the fifth filming blog, from yesterday. In this miniature epic, Will experiments with file transfers, Max and I stage a race and we try to fit in a little bit of filming, too. This may well be the last video blog, but there will probably be more footage, perhaps in the form of a retrospective. I'll try to add my regular update soon, too.

Verity Watkins - Filming Done!

Woo finished all filming now! Well done to Max who found all the actors, they worked really well with us and put their own input in to our film, help us make the best of what we can all do. So now it’s just putting it all together and finishing everything off. Will and Luke have started the editing and that’s looking really good, I’m really impressed with what has been done so far, so well done guys! I think everyone has put in a really good effort with everything we have done so far. Keep up with all the hard work everyone! ☺

William Adams - The Editing

Well guys, as you all know, i have been editing for the past 3 days now with all of the footage that we have obtained so far. I did most of the editing, Luke made the adjustments becuase he usually came to do editing in the afternoons. In a way, I think of it like this, I'm the morning shift and Luke's the afternoon shift. This edit may only be the rough cut but there is one thing that is concerning me, that this film will go over the limit that we are allowed. The 5 minutes may only be a guide line but it is one thing that does concern me. Another thing that is also concerning me is that we are cutting the rest of the filming fine becuase the rest of the filming is going to commence next monday. As well as that, we need all three of the actors on that day so that we can get this over and done with. So I am hoping that Verity (or Max or Luke) will tell all three of the actors that they need to be there on that monday. So, after the rest of the filming has been done next monday, I am hoping that I will be able to continue the editing next Tuesday and finish the final product by next Wednesday. Most of the editing has been done, so only a little bit of editing remains when I have the final footage. I have faith in you guys, so get those actors and get the filming done so we can get this done project done.

Luke Pietnik - Video Blog Four

Well I didn't record anything on set again, but here's what happened on Monday morning and the day after, as we recorded voice-overs. Enjoy...

Luke Pietnik - The Belated Update

Brilliant! I'm glad Verity's managed to post something now. Better late than never. I just changed the title so it had her name in it (I hope you don't mind, pet). I should probably mention the little meeting we had on Thursday. I met Will and Max outside the hubs to discover that the cafe was closed. The girls couldn't make it, so we sat inside the foyer area to discuss the few things that we'd been pondering over the last couple of weeks.

The soundtrack is somehwat of a dilemma. I favour going in the more creative direction and composing our own music, or failing that, blending music that exists within the public domain to create an ethereal, ambient sound, not sissimilar to Brian Eno, the music of who Max is keen to imploy. He also expressed interest in using pop and sombre rock songs to create a sense of uneasy menace. Will, Max and I discussed it at length but still remain undecided. We are sure of one thing, however: there does need to be a soundtrack, ambient or otherwise, to add to the atmosphere we intend to create. We'll think of something.

Also on the agenda was the schedule for shooting during our first week back (20th April onwards). We are hoping to utilise our time and edit what footage we have already whilst the rest is being shot. We'll have two weeks in total to have the project signed, sealed and delivered, so it's important that we maximise our time, it's the most abundant and precious resource to us at the moment. We've got to make sure that after we've shot the final day's scenes, we have time in the week to get our actors in to do voice-overs.

The fact that we've got to do so much in such a short space of time means that Will and I will probably be spending a couple of long evenings in the edit suite. I'm sure we can handle it, can't we Will? That's all until next time...

Verity Watkins - SORRY IT'S TAKEN AGES!!!!!

Thursday 16th Feb
Hello everyone….
So we got our roles and I feel really happy with who’s who in our group, not that I know the guys very well, Amy is the only member of the group that I know well. Amy is camera operator and I know she’s feeling a little bit worried about doing it but I know she will be great and we are all here to help her if she needs us! Luke and Will are the editors and they seemed really keen to be the editors, s im guessing they know their stuff! I trust you guys! ☺ Max is then the sound recordist and me project manager, im pretty sure everyone is going to do a brilliant job. I can’t wait to get started now! I hope to work well with the others. They seem to have a good idea of what they want to do! Which is good, I think we can all work really well together and get some good ideas flowing.


Thursday 26th Feb
This was our first meeting; it was actually only Amy, Luke and myself first of all because Max and Will were presenting their individual projects. They soon joined us later. Luke showed Amy and me his ideas, he had a fair few ideas, I was really impressed! And they all were pretty good! Amy and I hadn’t had much thought yet (and were really worried about showing our individual projects) so we hadn’t actually come up with any solid ideas yet. But was good to hear what Luke had come up with. Will also came up with a strong idea but there were some weak points to it about characters and things, Max also came up with a good idea about a bloke who broke up with his girlfriend, maybe a little bit to predictable?

Monday 2nd March


We met at the hubs trying to prepare for the pitch on Thursday and trying to finalize our ideas properly. We finally sorted out who was going to put forward which ideas and I think we came up with five ideas that followed the brief well and were fairly practical. There were a few mixed views but I think we discussed it well





MORE TO COME PROMISE GUYS! :)
Verity

Luke Pietnik - Video Blog Three

This might be the last of these blogs until after the holidays. After we'd finished filming at Chelsea's place, I realised that my behind the scenes filming was somewhat lacking in material. Here's my attempt at putting together something more substantial. Oh dear...

Luke Pietnik - Picture Perfect

I should point out now that these photographs were taken by Will. He kindly allowed me to crop them down and post them here for him. They show vaguely what happens on-set.

Here's a picture of Max setting up the boom pole during filming for the office scene:


We got a good few close-ups of Chris in the office, as he acted angrily as Simon:


Whist recording the scene Max appears in, we were getting a lot of crackle on the mic because of wind. I therefore came up with a solution to provide protection:


And here we are readying ourselves to film the scene, my coat now tied around the microphone. Note Max's outfit. He wasn't happy about it:


There may be more soon, as well as new video blogs, but that's your lot for now. Bye!

Luke Pietnik - Video Blog Two

So, here's the second video blog, recorded on Tuesday. It documents the filming of Pamela's segment, which was trickier than you might think. It was nice of Amy to let us film at her house. Click to play:

William Adams - Update

Well, throughout these three days, we have been filming Marcu's scene, pamla's scene and Simon's scene. All of the filming went well apart from the third day. Well, it did go well on the third day, it's just that the batteries were running out and the only choice we had was to plug them into the charges so that we could carry on filming. we are hoping that we can film the rest of thye film after the easter holidays as well as editing the shots that we have gotten so far. Luke filmed a few things and has put them onto the blog as a youtube video, which i think is a good idea becuase it will show the teachers as well as the students what we have been doing and the satges of film preporation as well. I'm hoping that he can do more of these videos becuase I personally think it is a very good idea. Even though i wasn't hardly needed, I was the cable basher and I recorded some sounds as well. i know that's the sound recordists job but he went home becuase of something urgent.

Luke Pietnik - Video Blog One

We filmed most of Marcus' section of the script today - thanks for helping out Chelsea - and now all we've got to do is pick-ups and final scenes, which we'll shoot after the holidays. I managed to talk to Malcolm today, too, and also established that we can't use the edit suites during Easter. However, we can review all our footage and log it so that we know which take we're going to use in the edit. (That was Esther's idea, I believe). Everything should be fine, I think. Now, here's the first video blog that I shot on Monday, which illustrates nicely how we did on day one. There should be more of these soon, but for now, enjoy:

Luke Pietnik - Filming Begins!

OK, so yesterday we filmed a couple of scenes with Chris, who is playing Simon. It went swimmingly all things considered. It's good to finally see it coming to life having worked hard on the script for the last few weeks. I'm liking what Chris is doing with the character, too. Today, we carried on and recorded most of Pamela's segment with Jessica (our actress). Again, she was brilliant, and put up with our daft meanderings for a good few hours.

Technically, we're doing quite well. Max and I are working well together on the sound, advising and consulting each other about decisions and techniques to get the best clarity and depth out of our sound design. Amy's doing really well with the camera, coming up with creative ideas about shot composition and framing. With Verity assisting her, there's really no problem in that department. Will's getting stuck in too, trying to lend a hand wherever he can, cable bashing being a priority. It's a pretty mundane job to do most of the time, but it's still important, and saves a hell of a lot of time in the long run.

Hopefully, Marcus' segment will be done by tomorrow, and filming on the final segment of the film will be concluded after the Easter break. We should be able to get in the edit suite over the holiday too, to begin cutting together what we've got so far. that will save us time, as the last filmed sequence can simply be cut in when ready.

I should have a few video blogs to embed here in the coming weeks, too. I took my camcorder on the shoots and managed to get some behind the scenes stuff on the set. These should illustrate nicely what we've been up to and how we work as a team. I'm optimistic about tomorrow and the next few weeks. I hope everyone else is. Of course they are! why shouldn't they be? Well, I'd better get ready for tomorrow, another day of staying quiet in the cold and teasing Max.

Max Voyse - Part 3

We have now began filming Simons part of the film and I think it went really well. We had a room for about 2 hours and I belive we had enough footage to do his part then filmed outside (Where I played concerned man)and filmed there then filmed futher away near the train station where we have a good shot of Chris (Who is simon) walking across the tracks after a tram has passed. The dilogue is well done with some improvision done by chris and he played Simon really well. Now we are filming Pamela's part today, were meetin at half 1. I'm not feeling too brilliant and I want to get this over and done with so I'll problebly apologise to the group beforehand as I lost a job application form and my hat yday with it being such a stressfull day.

I think its all going well atm, but I can't get in touch with will, (different will, not the one in our group) who is ment to be playing Marcus, if I can't get in touch with him today I'm going to see if I can find someone else. Also I think the group want to film on thursday and friday or one of the two days however the equipment needs to be back by thursday so I don't think we will be able to film we are going to have to film thursday or when we come back. so its going to be pretty tight.

Luke Pietnik - Communication Problems

Right, well I've no idea how it happened, but there has been some kind of massive communication error here. We were supposed to be having a tutorial with Malcolm on Thursday, so said the notice stuck to the outside of one of the offices. So it miffed us somewhat when we sat there in the media base for a good while before realising he wasn't going to turn up. Cannily, I'd printed a couple of copies of the script the night before, because I'd heard Max was bringing along two of the actors. We had a read-through and came to a consensus about our approaches to the characterisation and production of the piece.

However, we were still left with the lingering question of where Malcolm was hiding. As we finished and Will and I waited for Max to return, I noticed 'Hot Thrust', a rival production group, walking by the door. Suddenly realising they must have just seen malcolm, I had to rush out to ask them where he was. He was somehow under the impression that we were on location, filming. Eh!? What on Earth happened there? Anyway, he'd dashed off before we could find him. I've no idea if the session will be rescheduled. I hope so.

We should be filming tomorrow anyway, so we'll just be relying on our own initiative. The most important things to remember are:

- Don't break the 180 degree rule.
- Regulate the exposure of the camera.
- Label all DV tapes clearly.
- Take care of all the eqipment.
- Work as a team.

If we can pull together on this, we'll do fine. More soon...

Luke Pietnik - Women Don't Carry Wallets

Well, after a few changes of dialogue and a minor wording error, (women don't carry wallets, usually) the script is looking fine. I'm hoping to print off a few copies tonight to give to the guys tomorrow before or after the tutorial, pending thier approval. The meeting went rather well really. Jessica (the actress playing Pamela) seemed to be OK with the script, which I was pleased about. No-one else had any qualms either really. It was a shame the other actors couldn't make it, but they work a lot, which is a potential concern, as Will pointed out. It's not an immediate worry, however. There should be ample time to get the filming done with all three of them for the first scene.

The overall planning is going well, sound recording and storyboarding now being a major consideration. Max and I have already booked out some sound equipment to begin recording environments and spot effects. A recording list is going to come in handy. Hopefully, we can use a pre-recorded sound effect for the gunshot. I'm sure Malcolm will grant us that. I think everything else we can manage ourselves.

Now all we have to do is plan on where we're going to film it, organise shooting days when our actors are available, make sure the weather is vaguely consistent between locations, shoot it, record all the off-air audio, edit the sound and visuals, burn it to a DVD, present it and write up an evaluation.

What could possibly go wrong?

William Adams - Blog Archive Pt. 4

24/03/2009:

Today we had a meeting to discuss which of the male characters was going to be which one and also to proof read the script to see if there were any mistakes in it. Today However, we had one of the actors come to meeting who's name is Jessie (I think). We first met at the hubs so that we could all meet in one place first before going to the Harmer building. Two of the actors could not come becuase they had to work so we had to just settle with the one actor who could turn up. Max said that he would gove both of the other actors a ring and try to e-mail the script to both of the actors that did not turn up to the metting. so, after we all met up at the hubs, we went to the harmer building to proof read the script and to adjust it (if there were any adjustments of course). There were a few adjustements that were needed, but they would be dealt with as soon as possible. Amy has said that she wouls get the storybaord done as soon as possible. I'm a bit concerned about the other two actors however, becuase i think Max mentioned somethng about them might being able to run up for the filming, so that does concern me a bit. However, if need be, I could be one of the characters if that is the issue on the day or before hand becuase I'm not really needed until the editing part of the film.

Luke Pietnik - Once More Into the Breach!

Hello everybody. I'm being a bit cheecky by changing post titles so they don't have the date in them. They date automatically, and if you need to talk about something that happened a couple of days ago, just talk about it in the past tense. Anyway, I'm a bit of a busybody, and you will no doubt hate me for it. Moving on...

I managed to get everyone's segments of the script together and put together a final draft. Yipee! Now we can start storyboarding and planning locations and dates. There are one or two things that are subject to change once we start filming, namely the car that flies around a corner distracting Simon (the killer). It could just as easily be a bicycle or just a pedestrian running past. Anyway, we'll decide on that later. I know that Max also wanted to have the end scene run to the very end of the narrative that began the story. We could have a cut-down version of the scene, but a full one might be boring for the audience, and run over the alloted time we have. If we have room, we can tack it on the end in post.

regarding the meeting we had on thursday the 19th, We're thinking about using one of the university rooms as Simon's office, and shooting stuff that's set in the city first. Then I think, unless there's a change of plan, most of us will be travelling on the bus up towards Neepsend (did I spell that right?) to film a majority of the scenes near Amy's house. We might need a few days to get everything we need, but I think as long as we plan everying out properly, we shouldn't miss anythign important.

Additionally, Max and I wil be spending a good bit of next week in posession of a Marantz MP3 recorder, capturing ambiences and spot sound effects to various things in the script. We'll probably take a copy of the final draft with us, or knock up a reocrding list. It's important I think that we have a good variety of ambient sounds to create the right atmosphere for the film.

This is indeed an ambitious project. Chris and Malcolm's notes of caution at the pitching session are now coming back to haunt me. but I'm not worried, because we are a dedicated and depandable team, and I have every confidence that we have what it takes to produce a brilliant little thriller here.

Once more into the breach, dear friends, once more!

William Adams - Blog Archive Pt. 3

19/03/2009:

Today, we had a meeting to discuss the scripts that myself, Max and Luke have done for the three characters that are in this film. Luke and Max's scripts were fine it was just mine that needed some adjustments to it. when i first heard the idea for us to write the script seperately, I thought that Luke was going to do the begining, I was going to do the middle and Max was going to do the end, that is how I saw it. However, it was completely different, and that was when the confusion all started. Anyway, Luke and Max's scripts (after the discussion), were going to be sent to Amy and Verity so that they could start the storyboard for the film. My script however needed some editing. i think that either Max or Luke are going to do that becuase I saw Max editing it during the discussion. However, if i'm supposed to edit it then I apologise in advance.

Max Voyse - Update

We had a meeting on Tuesday the 17Th and since I have not been able to meet recently we have not been able to get much done. I met them later on because I had a driving lesson till half 1. We didn't get much done but we had the actual story nailed down so we all knew what was needed to be done, I was doing the script for Pamela, the female Protagonist within the piece. Luke was doing the beginning and end (Because there both the same.) And he is doing Simon the killer's script. And Will is doing Marcus the male character. Verity and Amy are doing storyboards for the film, they have not been able to do it yet because they need a copy of the script so they have guidelines to write with.

Our lesson on Thursday was useful, we learnt how to record sound onto the camera, I had done this before but I had not done it the way showed, I had not used a Boom pole properly aswell, we were shown by niel and gary how to do this. And at dinner we went out and practiced, we recorded interviews with us and switched over who was doing what so at one time I was oporating the boom pole and then switched with someone. I had a problem because I can't hear properly through one of my ears when we played the interviews back some of them were really loud and some were quiet.

We had a meeting after and we sorted out the script, Will had had problems with his part because it wasnt his idea, when it actually is and on looking at the script he did a really good job just one or two things needed to be changed. So later on that night I went and changed it and sorted out the script and e-mailed it to Luke who is putting the script all together. So things are looking good so far. We are meetuing again on tuesday and I'm trying to get the actors all together so we can have a reading. Should be fun!!!

William Adams - Blog Archive Pt. 2

17/03/2009:

Today we had a meeting, which involved sorting out and starting the storyboard an the script. Only three of us arrived at first because Max was going to be 30 minutes late and Amy wasn't going to arrive until 2PM, but we didn't mind. By 2PM, we all arrived to mainly discuss (again) on who was going to do what with the storyboard and scripts. we did the beginning of the script , which was good because then we had a basic idea on how to carry it on, but we didn't progress as much as that though. We didn't get the storyboards started either, which wasn't good but Amy and Verity should have something before the next meeting with have, same with the scripts, which I'm involved with. for the script, we decided that luke should do the beginning of the script, I should do the middle of the script and Max should do the end of the script. I'm hoping when Luke has done the beginning of the script that i will be able to have a clear idea on how to carry it on. For the characters, we decided that Max is going to do Pamela's character, I'm going to Marcus' character and Luke's doing the murderer's character (Simon). I'm hoping that i can do a good job with Marcus' character, not just make a macho guy who saves everybody in an instant because that will make the character too cheesy, which is what we don't want. I'm sure that Max and Luke will think the same thing.

Luke Pietnik - Script to Screen

Well today was very useful indeed. Now we didn't get all the script done today, but for the moment, that's irrelevant. In trying to pin down what we were going to write, we made some important decisions about the plotline. At first, we were going to have our two characters having a joint premonition, waking up and then journeying to their eventual death by stabbing. We then decided that we would still have the last event in linear time at the beginning, but not as a premonition. We will simply fade down or cut at a crucual moment. We will then follow each protagonist in turn, as we witness their journey into the climax, now the murder of both characters by shooting. As well as the two victims who ultimately 'collide', we will, if time limitations allow, also show the journey of the murderer, as he makes his way to the final confrontation.

Having worked out what we're doing, we decided to split the script into segments. I will write the main confrontation and the journey of the murderer, Max will write the journey of our female protagonist Pamela and Will is going to write the journey of our male protagonist, Marcus. This will add a sense of alternative perspectives to the multiple journeys to the same place. The storyboard will have to wait for now, but it will work better this way. It took us a while to decide what we were doing, and as a result, the storyboard was neglected. However, we are meeting on Thursday after our workshops, and I feel more confident about the project now that we know the details. This really is a creative process, isn't it?

We were discussing a shot in which our two main protagonists, Pamela and Marcus, are walking along a street investigating a scream that eminated from round a corner, only to be confronted by a gun-wielding murderer. This shot, or sequence of shots, would be more effective if shot with the camera parallel to the road. The image I had in my head reminded me of this rather nice shot from Doctor Who:

Obviously, our shoot will be in the daytime, but if we could frame the shots like this, adding a mid-range pan of the murderer as he runs into the road, I'm sure it'd be a rather nicely composed sequence.

The only other thing we discussed was the Blog. Verity, Amy and Will were confused about how to publish posts properly, so we went through it. Now that we've cleared it up, we will all be able to keep up-to-date with it. Thursday's camera and sound workshop should be fun anyway, and hopefully we'll learn something about the equipment. I hope so. Until next time, farewell.

Luke Pietnik - Mad Max Rides Again!

Yes, Mr. Voyse will be joining us at the scripting session today. I'm glad, because he said that he'd like to have some input in the content of the script. And thanks Max for saying you thought my sound project was good, you lovely man. I'm hoping we can work in tandem on the sound design too, it should be fun and exciting.

I'm thinking that because we're only making a five minute film, the script will be under 10 pages. The general guide is a page per minute, but you can never be sure, due to the pace and delivery of the scenes, if you'll over or under run. It's better to do more and be able to edit it down than doing too little and under run, forcing you to pad out scenes. If we're stepping over 10 pages with minimal dialogue, however, it's probably best to keep an eye on it and make sure scenes are able to be edited out seemlessly. We'll have a blast today though, I'm sure. I haven't written a script like this in nearly three years.

The storyborard is another thing. If we're having to wait for each panel to be drawn up before we can move on to the next stage direction, then we should probably go on ahead of the drawing. When the first draft of the script is finished, we can then all help out with the drawing of the storyboard. I mean the drawing shouldn't take that long really, but it takes longer to draw the desription "She sits up" than it does to write it.

We're glad Max is back with us anyway, we're a whole entity once more.

Be seeing you!

Max Voyse - Blog

Hey hope this goes ok I don't really know what I'm doing lol. I'm in D6 with Luke, the darkest of Will's (in joke), Verity and Amy. Verity is the Project Manager, Amy is the Camera Operator (probably spelt it wrong), Will is the Picture Editor and Luke is the Sound Editor and I'm the Sound Recorder. We look a strong group and all seemed to be organised the roles were given with no fuss about what anyone wanted. I did want to be either the Camera Op or the Picture Editor given I hated recording sound before hand but since the last piece of coursework I enjoyed doing the sound so I was not fussed so long as i didn't get Sound Editor :p We all know what we are doing and each are willing to help out in all areas. I'm hoping Luke will help me record sound because I know he had a really good sound piece.

We then had to come up with ideas, I had a idea from the off using something that happened in my life and I thought I could I change that into a journey story, so that night I brainstormed and wrote a script for the part. Will had a really good idea about a magician who goes missing and his son takes his role. It was a good idea but it had a lot of practical problems which is a shame because it would have turned out a good idea. Luke had a brilliant idea about someone who dies then is in the afterlife with most of the film being the main character trying to find out the reason why he had his life taken all of a sudden. There was another character who we thought could be the grim reaper and I really liked this character so its one of the reasons why I wanted to do this piece. Verity's was a good idea as well, her was an event that bought a number of people together with each of the people's journey to that place shown through their own story. I really liked the idea and thought it would be a challenge to accomplice and would pull off really well if done properly. After a meeting we had a couple of days before the treatment had to be in ironed out some of the problems we had with our ideas.
On that night I started to treatment but I could not think of the narrative development so I had to change the idea, I felt the original idea would look cheesy throughout the 5 mins because I could not think of much to put between. So I changed the idea, I got inspiration from a scene in 28 Days Later where all the main characters were in a car driving away from London and there is a track from Brian Eno in the background. Its one of my fave scenes from the film so my idea was similar.

My Idea:
A man is sat talking to the camera covered in blood warning the world about the 'virus' that is spreading throughout Britain, in doing so we see the camera cut as he looks shocked and turns then it blacks out. We then cut back earlier in the day where he is sat while a news programme is on worrying about all his family and life in general. He feels he has to warn the world about what has happened in case this 'virus' gets out. He makes his way to his work. The bio-genetic labs called 'The Watchtower'. Most of the journey is in a car him wondering through the streets gone midnight and we see all the infected wondering the streets, he gets to 'The Watchtower' and proceeds inside. As he does so he is attacked and fends off the infected covering himself in the process. We then see him fighting his way through the building trying to find the Com's room and when getting there he sees that he has been followed and has no place to run. So then were back to the start where he gives his monologue to the camera then dies afterwards.

When we handed in the treatments we had to pick two of them to pitch, we picked Luke's and Verity's to pitch and me and Luke pitched them. When it came to I thought there were only going to be three people there them being Malcolm, Chris and Niel but all of the class were in there so it made me more nervous and when pitching me and Luke sounded like we were having a conversation rather than pitching. Verity's idea was picked out of the two and now were working on who is going to do the script. I want something to do with the script because I like writing and I've not done much of it so this would be a good experience. However I could make a tit of myself and it turn out badly, Will has had experience with scripts so he would be a good writer on the piece and Luke has pretty much contributed a lot to the idea so he would be a asset to helping with the script. Also I have been able to get a hold of some of my friends who are good actors/actresses, they are willing to help with the project so I believe we have the cast there.

We have had a meeting after then but I wan not able to make it because I have fallen ill, they have said it might be glandular fever which I caught last year so I tend to feel tired a lot of the time and I have also lost some of my hearing in my left ear, but I'm starting to feel well again so I should be on the mend and ready for the project soon.

Luke Pietnik - Quick Update

Thunderbirds are go! I’m still looking forward to seeing what we come up with at the scripting session. Having had a look at one of Will’s scripts, I’m glad that he’s formatting them correctly, so we’ll be on the same wavelength when writing. Poor old Max, he’s still feeling under the weather. It’s a good job we don’t have a session today because he wouldn’t have made it. The good news is that he’s feeling a little bit better, and he should be OK for Tuesday.

I continue to think about shots and sequences that we could include in the film. I was watching ‘The Living Daylights’ the other day and noticed how lovely those shots of the trams running through Vienna look. We don’t exactly have a lot of continental glamour round here, but Sheffield does have its own tram network. Some shots of the supertrams gliding to and fro would provide a rather nice under-layer to the cosmopolitan atmosphere of the city. I’ll see what the others say, but I’m quite keen to do that, because it just seems like an untapped reserve. It runs right through the middle of town too, where all the roads are. Unlike the bond film, this tram sequence probably won’t involve a man with a licence to kill stalking a young woman who is stuck in the middle of a secret investigation. At least, I don’t think it will…

Luke Pietnik - Blog Archive

21st February 2009:

So yesterday was our first group project session, and we have decided that Verity shall act as project manager, Amy the camera operator, Max the sound recordist, Will the picture editor, and I myself will be sound editor. I’m fairly happy with this arrangement. Verity seems to be able to organise the group well enough, and was relatively decisive initially. Amy acknowledged that she would like to use the camera to expand her knowledge about its operation. We all agreed that the best way for her to become more confident with the technology was for her to immerse herself in the role. Max wasn’t set on taking any particular role, but we agreed that it would be better all round if he were to do the sound recording. I shall work in conjunction with him to hopefully bring professionalism to the overall sound design. Will was keen to edit the visuals, he and Max both having confidence in his skills in this particular area of production. I am confident that I am proficient enough to develop the ideas of the group and implement them when constructing the soundtrack.

I’m probably going to opt for a more surreal or abstract concept and I can imagine that Will is going to go for something rather more macabre. Those are first impressions, and I can’t think what the others might come up with. With no definition, the ‘journey’ brief is a rather general, unlimited subject area that I’m sure we can exploit to create a more interesting, lateral concept. Still, Optimism prevails.

23rd February 2009:

Verity has arranged a meeting for the 26th of February. I’m convinced that she is able to act ably as project manager. Max and Will may be late, but we realised this when it was too late to rearrange, because at least two of us had altered our schedules to make way for it. I’m sure they will be there for a majority of the meeting so that we can get a few things clear and discuss initial ideas. I have conceived of an idea involving a series of locked rooms, and a journey through them, puzzles testing the protagonist. I also thought about having someone being killed in a car crash and trying to get possession of a halo, eventually journeying to the afterlife. The other ideas are, at this point, very general, but I’ll discuss them with the group and see what their reactions are.

27th February 2009:

Having had our first meeting to discuss our ideas, I’m feeling optimistic about the project. We seem to work well as a group, and I’m confident that the shooting and post-production should come together really well. We have between us some very innovative and interesting ideas. I’m sure that we will be able to focus in on the proposals as time passes to make them all watertight. I’m thinking about developing a more fantastic, other-worldly story to disillusion and perplex the audience without alienating them. I’m thinking in terms of locked rooms and vertical journeys, downwards, perhaps suggesting an emotional descent. I’m in two minds about Will’s idea, which has some technical drawbacks and practicality problems. His proposal features the son of a magician who is put off the idea of magic at the loss of his father. He then has this spirit rekindled by a magic show that he sees on TV. He is then inspired to take up magic. Besides the fact that it wavers slightly from the initial pitch (which is fine), it features at least two characters, father and son, who both have to be able to perform a reasonable amount of conjuring tricks themselves. This is obviously a problem.

Max’s idea was interesting. The concept of voice-overs and cryptic phone messages being used to convey his loneliness was a nice one. It was a little depressing, being confined to a room for most of the time, and I thought that the heartbreak and emotional journey subject matter was rather an overused concept. That said, the idea runs with the journey brief and does something interesting with it, so we’ll see how that goes. The girls’ ideas are still only at a very general level, Verity expressing interest in doing a day-in-the-life type progressive journey. Of my ideas, the two that got the best reception within the group were those that I spent the most time conceiving. The journey through a series of identical rooms, with puzzles to test the protagonist was popular indeed. The other favourite was that of the idea involving a man who is killed in the prime of his life in a car crash, and has to find his way out of limbo, which I am becoming fonder of as time passes. So we’ve got another meeting on Monday to organise ourselves before the big pitching session on the Thursday, and I’m interested to see what treatments everyone comes up with.

2nd March 2009:

Well today’s meeting at the hubs went well. Everyone managed to come up with a rather appealing treatment. Will stuck to his original idea, as did Max. We discussed the practicalities of both of them. We suggested that Max’s idea could include a shocking ending, with him answering the phone and talking to his sweetheart, who it turns out, is a man. This would create a journey of self discovery. Max wasn’t very enthused by this idea, wanting to keep the ending ambiguous. Will’s idea is flawed because of its lack of practicality, but we agreed that we could probably just pull it off, the magic being a product of camera trickery more than anything. Verity conceived of an idea in which a number of disparate individuals, who had never met, would converge during a single catastrophic event. She dubbed it “Collide”, and I was very ken to explore the possibilities of this idea. Amy’s treatment was workable, and I was pleased that she’d taken a good bit of time to mull over the possibilities of what she could put forward. This was the first we saw of her idea, but it was relatively effective.

My proposal is as follows:

Driving home from work one evening, Stewart Cole has to take a detour from his usual route, and swerves to avoid a careless animal. His car impacts against a tree, killing him instantly. He is suddenly confronted by the image of his lifeless body strewn across his own dashboard. To Stewart’s mind, he was a selfless individual. He did a lot for charity, did everything he could to reduce his carbon footprint, and always had a strong sense of ethics. So why the hell did he get run down, why was he the bloody unlucky one!? Just this once, Stewart desperately needs answers.

To guide him through the afterlife, and deliver him beyond this mortal realm, another ghost joins him, Mike. Mike is a strange character, being rather unenthused and sarcastic about the whole endeavour. Together, Stew and Mike decide to find out if there is a reason for this unfortunate event. They begin to Talk, and visit Stew’s home. So, why did Stewart Cole draw the short straw, why was his life taken so early? Well, after a brief discussion, they come to the only logical conclusion. Who knows? Leaving these worries behind him, Stew passes on, into an unknown void of whiteness. Even in the afterlife, the universe is an utterly incomprehensible mystery.

6th March 2009:

Yesterday was the pitching session. We started out by reviewing everybody’s treatments. Max had completely revamped his intended idea, now presenting a post-apocalyptic thriller, almost akin to 28 days later. There were budgetary issues, but it was acceptable as a concept. I’d tightened up my idea, the character originally called ‘Mike’ now being nameless. Verity and Amy’s ideas were now taking shape, ‘Collide’ now including a character who can predict the future, taking inspiration from the Final Destination franchise. Will’s was looking a lot more conceivable now, too. We tried to break down our ideas in terms of shots and performances, weighing up the pros and cons of each. In the end, we settled on my supernatural comedy ‘Who Knows?’, and Verity’s ‘Collide’ idea. We wanted to do something a little more out there and perhaps disillusion the audience a little.

Having narrowed it down, we then formulated a pitch that max and I would present to the panel. We thought that with two people pitching it would be more succinct and get to the point quicker. I was worried about my voice (which is playing up at the moment), so we agreed that I would provide the initial synopses and max would fill in the details. I could then chip in with info as and when.

When the time came for the actual pitch, I was rather nervous, and tried to talk confidently through the nerves, but I got rather flustered whilst trying to explain ‘collide’ which led to confusion. Chris and Malcolm were rather disillusioned by the premice. Despite this, they saw ‘Who Knows?’ as flawed, and decided that we would produce ‘Collide’. They felt that logistically, the supernatural comedy was ambitious, not to diminish the ambitious nature of ‘Collide’, or course. However, that is apparently much more achievable, and boy, am I looking forward to seeing what we come up with!

10th March 2009:

Max sadly couldn’t make it to the meeting today. It should be said however that this was not down to bad organisational skills or a lack of time management, but his illness. He’s reportedly going deaf in one ear (bless him), so we hope he’ll get better soon, well in time for the next meeting. Anyway, the first thing we cleared up, pretty much immediately, was the script. Amy and Verity suggested that Will write it, but we had agreed (Me and Will) that we should co-write it, and that if Max was better, he could have some input. We were concerned that if we left the scripting too late because of Max’s illness, we’d have wasted too much time on that stage of the pre-production. We have therefore arranged to meet on Tuesday 17th March to write the script. We thought also that a good time-saver and initial idea generator was having the storyboard drawn up as the script is being written. We can then split the group into two co-producing factions so that we aren’t all huddled round a computer trying to develop a script all at once.

We also focused the ideas revolving around the narrative itself for later. We are now to have two protagonists, rather than three. This will help the film feel less crowded and flow better. Max has said that he has contacted some actors that he knows to play the characters in the film. If we don’t have ample cast for the production, or need a stand in on the day, I am sure that the members of our group, including myself, can act sufficiently in the roles. There was nothing much to discuss at the meeting, bar the filling in our sandwiches, but the issues of scripting and Max’s illness did need clearing up. (We love you, Max.)

William Adams - Blog Archive

William Adams: 19th February 2009:

Today, we’ve had our first meeting sessions, which involved deciding the roles for each member of the group. We all, at first did not mind who got what. I was keen to do the visual editing because I had more experience in this field. However, I do have experience in using the camera as well. Amy has chosen to be the camera operator since was the project manager in her last project and she also wants a taste of what technology has to offer. Verity has chosen to be the project manager, she does have the ability to organize a group and also organize meetings as well. Max has chosen to be the sound recordist and Luke has chosen sound editor. Luke did seem keen on doing sound editing because he wanted to experience it more and said that he enjoyed it the first time round. I am very confident that I can edit the visuals as best as I can, having 2 and a half years experience in that field.

Sadly, I won’t be needed most of the time until the visuals need editing or they want me there to put some input into the shots that will either make sense or that would be perfect for the film. The same would go for Luke in a way because we are both editors in this group.

William Adams: 26th February 2009:

Verity arranged a meeting for today so that we could discuss our ideas and also try to put some input into some of the ideas and clear up any difficulties that some of the ideas may have. For this meeting though, me and Max were late due to the presentations being long and not finishing on the time that it was supposed to finish. My idea is about a boy who wants to be a magician because his father was a magician but he dies in a tragic car accident. However, he was put off it for a year until his mum takes him to a magic show, which inspires the boy again. To he practices until he turns 16 and he becomes well known magician in the UK.

Verity is good at arranging meetings but she is a bit slow with replying to text messages (that maybe due to having any credit or just being busy).

William Adams: 2nd March 2009:

Today we met in the hubs so that we could discuss and confirm ideas and to see if we could have any definite ideas on which two ideas we could choose so that we could be ready for this Thursdays session. However, we all had mixed views on these ideas and we also had our concerns with some of the ideas, especially mine. The main concerns that my idea had were that we would have to teach a 7 year old boy magic tricks and most of the big things would take a long time to do. However, they all did say that it was a good idea, it’s just with all of these difficulties that it could make the filming of this film a bit hard.

After the meeting, we almost have a clear idea on which idea’s to choose on the day of pitching them. I think on the day of pitching the ideas, we shall have a good idea of which ideas to choose for the film and for pitching.

William Adams: 5th March 2009:

Today, we chose our ideas and we pitched them to the two judges. Before we did this though, we had to quickly choose which ideas to pitch. We all couldn’t decide so we had to vote for which two ideas to pitch top to the judges. We all voted and the two ideas that we chose to pitch were Luke’s and Verity’s ideas. My idea got two votes while Max and Amy’s idea’s got one vote. During the pitching session, I believe that Chris (one of the judges) was a bit harsh towards (even though another student pointed this out and I agreed with him), because this was our first attempt at pitching an idea to them and the audience that we had and he was treating it like we were in Hollywood already. Anyway, we finally did our pitching of our two ideas and in the end, Verity’s idea was chosen. During in between the pitching however, I was told that my idea was a bit much and it wouldn’t fit into a 5 minute piece, it was more like a 10 minute piece.

William Adams: 10th March 2009:

In today’s meeting, there were only 4 of us because Max was ill (which was a downer). However, we still discussed on how were going to write the script and do the storyboard and who was going to do what. We also discussed on 2 main characters in this piece since adding more characters would add to the time total and make the film longer. We decided that Luke, Max and myself are going to do the script while Amy and Verity are going to do the storyboard. In order to make sense of both of these jobs, we are going to meet again on the 17th of March at the Adsettes building so that we can all have a clear idea on what is going to be written/drawn for this piece. Even though Max was not there, he can have a think on the idea that we are doing so that he can have some input on the idea to make improvements or to just add ideas.

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