Breathing Room/Broken Bubbles shoots

The shooting of Breathing Room was, for myself, a far more relaxed and enjoyable experience than the time I had on Sole Mates. A part from the obvious fact that the RED did not break I think staying the night at the location helped lessen stress levels. Thankfully cabin fever did not set in at any point.
I also enjoyed the role of camera operator, by far the most noteworthy position I held in all three films. I would not dare to presume that I am at all accomplished at operating, but I certainly enjoyed operating more than camera assist or focus pulling.
All in all, Breathing Room went rather smoothly in my opinion. At one point we had drifted off schedule to about three hours behind. However, astonishingly (and a mystery to me) we managed to catch up before the end of the day.
I felt that John, as focus puller, and myself managed to work rather consistently and productively as a camera team. Lauren also did very well on all three shoots in her capacity as camera assistant. I feel I should note that Lauren picked up her role’s responsibilities and duties very quickly and was reliable and on the ball throughout all shoots.
I felt that Paul’s Directing of the film’s Photography was simplistic and effective. The approach he took in lighting the film lent itself to improvisation and easy alterations that smoothed out the shooting process and helped to speed things along. In short, the frames looked very good through my monitor, thanks to Paul’s efforts.

I must admit I was surprised at how Graeme dealt with his directing. This is not to say that I thought he would be bad, not at all. Rather, I was surprised to see how much focus he put on the performance to how much faith he put in Paul and the camera department. I find that I am very particular about the camera and frame of my films and can often wind up not giving the performance proper attention, so it was refreshing to see Graeme really throwing his all into getting the right performance. Bravo Mr Deacon.

Broke Bubbles was a truly surprising experience I must admit and I completely and totally praise the dedication and effort of Murdo, Phil and John. I had read Murdo’s script and really liked it. Out of all three of our chosen films Murdo’s was the one I found most enjoyable, in my own personal opinion. However, I also believed it to be the most impractical and most likely to fail in the production of it. This is not to say I though it completely unachievable. The major reason I liked Broken Bubbles is simply one word…the ‘reach’ of the script. It wasn’t a small and typical student short film, limited to the confines of reality. It was ambitious and had a strong ‘why not?’ mentality, whether intended or not. These are the short films I like, the ones that break the template and mindset of short films, the ones that have reach. Having said this, the story is also very intimate and personal, a personal story set against a fantastical world.
When I first saw the set in the props store I was very, very impressed with the level of artistic detail and design.
The highlight for me was seeing the quality and beauty of the outdoor footage, particularly that of the sunset footage, it really looked fantastic. Performances were also outstanding on this film. When shooting the handheld emotional climax of the film I think it is safe to say that Luke and myself were completely taken aback by the intensity of Rhys’ performance.

I would say that at this point, the only thing that may still trip Broken Bubbles up is the Green Screen composites of the fairy. I have faith that Gavin will do his best to make it work.
I only hope that none of the shots are spoilt because of any mistake I may have made with focus.

Over the past three shoots I have become aware of a failing of mine. I was second camera assist, camera operator and focus puller and I can say that I only enjoyed operating. I do not have much taste for the purely technical aspects on set filmmaking. I have always, since I was young wanted to be involved in the creative side of filmmaking, particularly directing. Therefore, for me to be in a purely uncreative role, unable to provide my input into the creativeness of the process distracts me with frustration to no end.
Of course I am willing to do my role to help our class realise our scripts, whosesoever the scripts may belong to, even if it means a purely technical role for myself. But I cannot shake the frustration I feel simply being (for lack of a better word) a ‘Techie’. I’m not saying these roles are unnecessary or not worthy of recognition, I simply mean that they are not for me.
It was this frustration that perhaps let my discontent show through at points on Sole Mates, and I would like to apologise for my slightly miserable mood on the late night shoot for Sole Mates.

To finish off, I hope that all our films turn out well in the edit and a well done to all.

EIFF Trip

It was a shame that our visit to the Edinburgh International Film festival was a day shorter this time around but it proved to be just as fruitful as last year.
I won't give a review run-down of every film which I viewed, as I feel it rather unnecessary. Instead I shall just comment on the experience of the festival as a whole. One thing that I love about attending the EIFF is that it tends to put a lot of things into perspective for me. I spend the entire year driving to learn and perfect the skills needed to create/identify and understand a well structured good film. Although I enjoy this, I can at times feel worn down by all the specifics and intricacies, tricks and rules, do's and dont's of putting a film together. One could view this as the magic and charm escaping from my perception of cinema, although I don't believe this to be the case. It comes then, as no unwelcome experience, when we are sent to the festival to watch as many films as we can. Not only does the festival open my eyes to many a film that I would not have otherwise even heard about, but it reminds me why I (on a rare occasion) work myself to distraction trying to improve my understanding of film. It is good to just sit down and take in a film especially when it is as funny and entertaining as 'Jackboots in Whitehall' or 'Evil in the time of heroes'. Even when I come out of a screening feeling angry at the film (as I felt with Cherry Tree Lane) it forces me to think on and reflect as to the reason I did or didn't like a particular film.
As I hinted at earlier, the two most entertaining films I saw in the festival were 'Jackboots in Whitehall' and 'Evil in the time of Heroes'. We went to see 'Jackboots' first and I have to say that I had never laughed so hard in a cinema until that time -that was until I went to see 'Evil...Heroes' but that's for later on. 'Jackboots' was a world war II film with two very major alterations, the Nazis had invaded Britain and the film was shot with Action-man style models. I felt, perhaps, that our DFTV2 row voiced our enjoyment of the jokes more than most in the screening but I thought it to be more than deserving of my laughter. Not a perfect comedy by any means, as it was probably 20 minutes too long and lulled a bit in the middle. However, it definitely got my approval.
My initial reaction on coming out of 'Cherry Tree lane' was possibly too harsh, I'll admit. I immediately disregarded the film as it left me angry and annoyed. On further reflection, I will give it credit for achieving what it seemed to be striving for. When there was tension I felt tense, when there was injustice I felt frustrated, when there was 'justice' I felt (somewhat) satisfied. But most importantly, I did care about what happened to the characters. My one major and unwavering reason as to why I left feeling angry was that there was a rape in the film. Although they did not show the audience the actual act on screen it was insinuated and revealed through other methods. I cannot stand watching a film in which a woman in raped. It leaves me feeling disgusted, unsettled and quite frankly upset. This is my personal feelings of course. I know rape is a reality in this world and in my mind it is the worst thing any human can do (along side murder) but I do not wish to be show it in a film.
We also went to catch some short film screenings (including the one Paul had worked on) but I was left unimpressed by all save for maybe one. Short films are always too alike -as if directed by the same person, who apparently detests both dialogue and music. But seeing their faults makes me aware of my own and can only strengthen my resolve to improve my own practice.
'Vacation' was a film that I liked and dislike all in one. It had some good point and had some bad points but ultimately I feel the director was probably given too much freedom -resulting in unnecessary long sequences and a sense that the film wasn't sure what it was trying to be.
Now we come to my personal highlight of the festival...'Evil in the time of Heroes'. A Greek zombie film that is split between classical Athens and Modern day Athens. Not a big Zombie fan myself but the Greek and ancient Greek aspect was more than enough to sell it for me. However, the real treat was still to come. I had thought, going into it, that it was a 'serious' zombie film. Well within the first five minutes I was pleasantly corrected with the most superbly simple gag ever. This film's mix of comedy and ridiculous action pieces, gore and action made it the funniest and most enjoyable films I've seen, but I think we were sitting a bit too close for reading the subtitles.
Afterwards the Q and A with the director was quite insightful as to why the film had the tone it did.
The Edinburgh Film Festival was a completely enjoyable, informative and worthwhile experience. It reminded me what films could be, should be and sometimes should not be. However, this is only my own thoughts on my own personal experience of the event.

'The RED experience'

The shooting of our first end of year film ,Sole Mates, is all done and squared away. This shoot has left me with an interesting experience of on set practices and a (somewhat brief) insight in shooting on RED.

The shoot began rather well in the small village of Eaglsham. For myself, I got the impression of a very relaxed and confident shoot ahead. The camera department, of which I was a member, were coping well with the new camera equipment and it simply seemed a case of just plodding on with the shoot. That was until, however, we moved location to Dennistoun. With the exception of our Producer's car running out of Petrol on the road back to Glasgow, all was going as intended. Inside the small shop lights were going up and myself and Luke were steadily reassembling the Red camera in the small kit room we had. With the camera almost ready I proceeded to insert the next card number, this act proving to be an ill fated or lucky incident depending on how you look at it.

I would at this point like to put forward a defence, in the case that anybody has doubts about our handling of the new kit. Having not inserted a card into the red before, I checked with Luke the correct way to put it in, and so I did. It did not, however, feel secure or at all right. With the camera fired up we attempted to go ahead and format the card... and the rest, as they say, is history. The pins were bent and the new camera out of commission.

Luckily Galina and myself had with us our Cannon 550D DSLRs which had been used for a shot earlier in Eaglesham. It was decided by Gavin, Charlotte and Andrew that we could continue the shoot using these cameras, while we waited to hear back from Ray.

No I mentioned earlier that the downing of the Red camera could be perceived as a fortunate incident, and I justify it with the following fact. The Red going down was a complete bummer, and as it was myself who had inserted the fatal card, I felt somewhat guilty and responsible for the whole thing. And Yet, if the Red had not broken, and we continue shooting as we did the first morning, Sole Mates would not have been completed at all, and I believe that to be a fact. The speed at which we were getting slates in the can, was unbelievably faster than when we used the red. However, even with this significantly increased shooting rate, we did struggle to get the shot list done, so much so that pickups were needed on the Friday. I honestly, believe that if we had continued on the Red the shots would simply not have been completed, and the final film would be severely compromised, if not uneditable. So my main and only criticism of the Sole Mates shoot would, I suppose, be the shot list or handling there of.

On another note, I feel I must to praise Gavin as the Director for his unwavering Good mood and humour throughout the shoot. Even when the Red was down and the shoot was behind, he kept an optimistic and jolly frame of mind as he battled on to get what he needed. I think set a good example to the entire cast and crew.