Diary 3: Go forth, Captain Hindsight!

(Captain Hindsight property of South Park)

(Clicklity click to find out more!)

Upon my last diary post, I mentioned how I had brought together a team of specialised yet not so specialised individuals and that I had set a date for such a daring adventure as shooting this 3 minute short. 

WELL THAT DATE IS TODAY MY FRIENDS!

.......well its actually Friday 30th May.......

BUT NONE THE LESS!

Today we had the enjoyable experience to have everything organised and ready to shoot. However, some on the dot field decisions had to be made to accomodate certain..... hinderances. 

This is a lesson you learn on every shoot. That you could have always done things better. Hindsight is a great thing isn't it?

In any case, the shooting began at around 1.30pm (1 hour off schedule) which was duely my fault for poor transport planning. But on set we had 7 people which included:

2 Actors (counting one as director)

1 Assistant director

1 Camera and Sound Operator

1 Make-up artist

1 Set Design 

1 Random person (runner maybe)

That one random person was just someone who happened to be on the set at the same time and ended up helping out.

For this case, we began by doing make-up on the actors while shooting some green screen footage. it was all simple movements that took no less than 10 mins.

After this we began talking about the plan for what was going to happen during the shoot (shots, scenes, etc.)

One of our actors had to go before everyone else, so we had the make-up of the carving in skin done during the discussion.

Here is a picture of the make-up work:

And here it is quickly edited cause I want to so stop asking questions :-p

We were ready to begin shooting but then....

DISASTER STRUCK!

The cameraman didn't know how to operate the camera and sound equipment attached we had got.

(Face palm)

Now obviously he knew how to operate a camera and get nice visuals, but I had never briefed him on what camera and sound we were using. Especially when it came to sound, he didn't know what the equipment operated like. So this took about 20 mins to explain and make sure he knew how to operate the exposure and such.

After this step back, we began shooting scenes that required the actor that needed to go away early. It took us a while to get fully into it, but we all worked well as a team. 

Because I was acting, I relied on my Cameraman to get what I wanted and my AD's judgement to see if it was the artistic style of what we had discussed earlier. I did ask to see some of the shots afterward, but they were able to get what I had wanted within restrictions that were set.

The lighting was one of the first problems. The lighting was a tiny bit too strong for the camera at points, so we had to constantly edit the shutters and such to help with trying to make the lighting look as good as possible. 

SUDDENLY A HINDSIGHT APPEARS!

I should have taken the time to rent out lighting kits and blackout curtains or just black card. This would have given us more control over the lights and would have just made things more dramatic with lighting.

Moving on, we were able to move into it rather quickly and the first few shots were able to be done well with everyone in a good mood. This would have probably been because of the relaxed mood and especially because Hope (our Set Design) brought out loads of munchable sweets and goodies for everyone to munch away from which I would particularly like to thank her for.

YOU FOUND A HINDSIGHT!

I'll have to note to bring some sort of compensation for our set design in the future. Plus, something else to note is that snacks make everyone happy. BRING THEM!

We pushed on and we all got into the swing of things, getting the shots we needed and by the time the actor needed to go, we were done with that part. However, this is where things began to go downhill. 

When he left, we realised that we only had 1 hour and 30 mins left to do the rest of the shoot. I thought that because of the time it took to do only 1/3 of the actual movie, we would need to either speed things up or cut the film down. 

Now even though before I had thought we would need to cut it down in editing anyway, it would have been good to have that footage to play about with anyway in editing to see if there was anyway of improving the overall production with that footage.

But even after I decided this, our make-up artist needed to go home and the Camera operator had a bus in 1 hour 15 mins. In order to help accomodate the crew's needs, the AD took her home. Because of this, I decided the rest of us should have a small break for two reasons:

1. I needed to figure out what shots to throw out to get the production done quicker.

and

2. The Camera's battery died so we had to let it charge for a bit to get it working again.

IT'S DANGEROUS OUT WITH NO HINDSIGHT! TAKE THIS!

If I had gotten an extra battery before the shoot, this could have been avoided and also if I had organised the shoot at either a different date or earlier time I could have avoided losing some of my crew early.

After a bit of break and when the AD got back, we decided to get to work, now with 1 hour left.

Upon this set back of time, quite a few shots were scrapped and even more set backs when our AD took the Camera Operator to the bus stop.

While he was there, I pressed on with my remaining 2 crew members and got the rest of the shots before the AD came back.

After the AD came back, we starting packing up. It was all going fine until when I got to packing away the green screen. This is when I realised:

"I don't know how to fold a green screen"

(Characters property of Star Trek: The Next Generation)

After about 15 mins of trying to fold the green screen with the rest of the crew, we eventually resorted to watching a Youtube tutorial. But even with that it still took us 10 more mins to fold it down.

The thing is, I have used a green screen before. It's just that I didn't take the time to practice at home with this new green screen I had bought.

(Super Mario property of Nintendo)

THANK YOU PROFKRANC! BUT YOUR COMMON SENSE IS IN ANOTHER CASTLE!

After this ordeal, we headed home. 

Now truth be told, I wouldn't call it an ordeal, I actually had a lot of fun and I believe the others did too.  It was all experience and it was all laid back till the very end where everyone was tired. This has pretty much just ended up as an essay about what could have gone better during the shoot. Now I bet there is more errors yet to come when the editing begins, but so far so good. and besides that, I now have 6 days to finish this 3 minute short for the competition end.

HAS PROFKRANC FINALLY MET HIS MATCH? FIND OUT ON THE NEXT BLOG POST OF.... 

To be Continued......

RANDOM VIDEO TIME!!

Sometimes an army is better than a Hulk

Now for any of you who don't know where that gif is from, its from the film "The Avengers Assemble". It's amazing and incredible all at the same time and if you haven't seen it why are you continuing to read this? Go and find a way to watch it NOW!

Anyway, something that I think perhaps many, if it not all of you who have ever seen a behind the scenes of a movie, it takes a lot of people to create a blockbuster movie.
It is understood that all of these people have different departments and roles ranging from directing and shooting the film all the way down to getting the crew coffee.
However with technology advancing nowadays, people are able to create go content all by themselves.

Now you can see examples of people creating content by themselves such as vloggers like charlieissocolllike, danisnotonfire and animators such as egoraptor and OneyG and have become successful doing it.
But you also see how people like Freddie Wong of the youtube channel freddiew and Smosh always use multiple people to achieve in producing their content.
However comparing the two, being a one man army or having a crew is not fair as you can achieve different things in both areas. But it does bring a questions when deciding whether to do things on your own or too bring in other people:

What kind of content do you want to create?

The point I'm making here is that both sides have limitations and their perks. For example:

With a crew, you can:

Get dramatic/ moving shots without buying loads of automated equipment.
Collaborate with other creative people.
Not look like a creep if you are filming on your own.
Not have to worry about every little thing if you are a one man crew or production
Have multiple actors.
Look and be professional

Even with all of this, it still can be expensive and stressful to have a crew, especially if you are either starting off or just an indy film-maker. However, the end result may be a lot better if you are trying a professional short film, or at least improve the quality from guerrilla style film-making.
Now this doesn't mean that someone can't make a film completely on their own, or at least be a one man crew. Some documentary film-makers have actually turned out really good films with minimal equipment all by themselves.

The brilliant documentary "This is not a film" was filmed by Jafar Panhani on his phone and Mojitaba Mirtahmasb on a DV camera. If you have not seen it, I would totally advise you check it out.

It's just something I have noticed is some of the more successful films have had a few, if not a a lot of people working on them. Perhaps its because it is a group effort of creative people that make it so great.

But then you have guerrilla style film-making. One man crew, literally one person.
Many people on Youtube have done this and you can see many examples of people who have made a living working by themselves and for themselves (or at least up to a point, people like RWJ has made his own production company now and doesn't work on his own anymore).
Examples like Shane Dawson, Ray William Johnson, loads of game players/ reviews like The Completionist, PewDiePie and then there is vloggers like nerimon.
But something you have to notice about all these people I have mentioned is that they have moved onto other things that have required other people. Well except maybe PewDiePie, but then again as long as there is a video to cream at, he will be there.
But what I can say is that there are some perks to this find of video making:

Having complete control over the entire production.
Being able to organise everything around your schedule.
Not having to organise other people, you can just do off your planning rather than having to explain it.
.
.
.
.
That's it. That's honestly all I can think of.

I all honesty, I have tried the lone film-maker tactic a few times, but I honestly don't feel as proud as something when it comes out the quality that I had while I was working with other people.

Here is an example I did a while ago:

In any case, I would say that I would rather have an army/ crew of people to help me with my film rather than be the Hulk that takes on everything in the production as I think that it is rather limited compared to having others to help you out. Well, except when it comes to animation and that, you can do so much on your own with that. I'm talking more about live-action stuff.

In a way, thats the beauty of film-making. Before during and after the production process, it brings people together to make one product for people to enjoy. For everyone to be able to put all their creativity into one film and make it the best they can is one of the best things about this industry.
Unless its something like THIS:

(By the way, if you haven't seen Birdemic, find it and watch it now. It is so hilariously bad.)

So yeah, that's my ramble about..... something.

RANDOM VIDEO TIME!

Diary 2: The Fellowship of the Movie

[ENTER DRAMATIC MUSIC]

And so the mission became apparent, in order to get this movie made I had to bring together a team, but not just any team a team of specialists, the best of the best.

Cameraman – Operates the camera to provide excellent shots for the production.

Lighting – Operates whatever equipment necessary to provide lighting that can produce a certain feel for the scene.

Sound: Records brilliant sound quality of the shots to make the movie sound great but not noticeable! Great sound goes unnoticed in a film!

Actor: Acts as something they are not in order to convince the audience the story is genuine!

Director: Directs people to do stuff...

yeah... so that's a thing.

_____________________________________________________________________

So yeah, now that I had the script, shot list and prop list, I began to get together a crew of people that would be interested in making the film. 

Because this is a project that will require a few people, I had to ask fast and set a date for filming. 

Gathering people wasn’t too hard for me as I study Creative Media Production Extended Diploma in college, so I asked some fellow classmates who I believe would be interested in some filming outside class. I was able to get 4 people (including myself) to be crew and acting for the short film. This makes up the most of the original crew roles I had planed. I have:

Myself for Directing

Stevo for Camera

Andrew for Sound

Ryan for Acting

They all have had experience in the roles I have assigned them and are the best out of the people who said they were interested.

I originally had planned for there to be 2 separate people for the acting roles so I could be behind camera checking out if shots were good enough for the production. 
However, because a lot of the people I asked were not comfortable in front of camera, I think I may have to either take up the role of either the main or the supporting character. From the what I have been talking with Ryan about, it would seem i may have to be the main character. 

Note that I did ask local drama students and a local theatre, but for some reason they don’t seem to put in the effort of keeping in contact with me. I would send an email and I would get a reply 5 days later. So in the case of reliance and scheduling, I will go with what I have. Looks like Time got away from me.

However, I have learnt something along the lines of getting people to act for you. If you need someone to be an actor in your film, they will more likely act for you if you are already friends with them. I have a friend who has studied in Acting for a few years now and whenever I need a female actor, she shoots up ready to do it. 

I mean, you can go the professional route of auditioning and talent scouting, but I’m talking about Indy film-making here people! Come on people!

(what is this? I don't even....)

In the matter of scheduling, I have set out a date of Friday the 31st of May. It was originally going to be Friday the 24th of May, however due to sudden complications regarding work for both me and my crew, we have had to postpone the shooting.

In any case, the last piece of the matter is re discussing the shooting with the location owner, which I haven’t done yet. I’m discussing it with them tomorrow.

Wish me luck!

WEIRD VIDEO TIME!

Diary 1: The Planning

Okay, so over the past couple of days, I have been working steadfast to finish up the paperwork for the short film. Right now I have decided to name it "6 seconds to die" just cause I think its the most fitting name to what the plot is.

But yeah, I would say that developing the idea for this script was actually quite hard. There are different types of difficulties you experience when you have complete freedom and when you have restrictions but on you.

When you have complete freedom, you have to think about what is doable but still awesome and when you have restrictions, you have have to think whats can be done with the restrictions but still awesome.

In this case, I have both. I have the rules (or as they call them, restraints) placed upon me by the competition, which are:

1 Choose a title from the following 6 options:

– SWEET 6TEEN

– 6 SHOOTER

– 6^th SENSE

– 6 SECONDS TO DIE

– 6 DEGREES OF (LIMB) SEPARATION

– 6 FEET UNDER

2 Maximum run time – 6x 30 seconds (That’s 3 minutes!)

3 Maximum lines of dialogue – 6

4 Maximum hours of shooting time – 6

5 Maximum budget – £666

6 Maximum cast – 6, and maximum crew members – 6 (including post) 

Right now, I need to focus on the script, so the only things I need to worry about are restraints no.2, 3 and 6.

I need to make sure to come up with a script that is scary, but doesn't have too much of a plot. Have something where there aren't many characters, make sure they don't speak that much and won't take many people to put together.

When it comes to creating scripts, there is usually either some kinda method you can follow to coming up with an idea, or following a guideline to creating a standard one. Now it is different for everyone, but something I would find particularly useful would be Dan Harmon's Story circle.

Basically Dan Harmon's story circle is a structure of the "Hero's Journey" story stereotype that he created while working on the popular comedy series: Community. Whenever I'm stuck for time I would refer to this and base a story off this. I will maybe go even deeper into story development in a later post, but right now, I need to focus on a different method.

Now there are a lot of methods for coming up with ideas for videos , here are some examples:  

• Doing Research (watching movies, read a book, surfing the internet, playing games, etc.) and looking for inspiration among that research.
• Take example of videos you like, what about them is so good?
• Do relaxing activities (take a shower, a walk, etc.)
• Take examples from your own life or other peoples life.
• Try base it off something else (an adaptation)
• Listen to music

Now for this project what I did was listen to music at my desk according to the kind of feel I wanted to create. So that meant listening to a lot of creepy music....... What fun!

(Random N.B. For some reason this reminded me of the Action Man PS1 game soundtrack from the factory mission)

I listened to the likes of the Nightmare on Elm Street soundtrack, Scream soundtrack Halloween soundtrack, Saw soundtrack.... there were a lot of soundtracks. I don't really think many people intentionally make scary music unless its for a movie, but in any case, listening to these soundtracks and then watching a few scary movies got me in the mood to right a short horror script!

One of the pieces of music that inspired me the most was "The Game Begins" from the Scream soundtrack movie soundtrack, or at least the start of it anyway. That gradual build of suspense is what I want in my film. After listening to this I thinking back to what kind of horror films I enjoy. Now I personally am not the biggest fan or complete gore stuff because of the fact I think its just disgusting for the sake of being disgusting and adds nothing to the story unless used in certain cases. It was brilliant for the first Saw film, but then it began to just be used because of its shock film. But we can discuss my opinion on gore at some other date, what I'm saying is I love horror films with a story.

Look at Freddy Krueger, Michael Myers and all the Scream villans. They all have brilliant backstories which has lead to becoming the insane characters that they are. I believe that horror can be used to really enhance a story in the form of progression and character development. So thats what I would like to have in my short film, a story and progression. Now I thought this was obviously going to be difficult to make a good 3 minute horror short film with a good story, but at that time, I had already pin-pointed what I wanted. I knew what I wanted to create. I wanted to create a horror mystery.

Now when I mean horror mystery, I mean like the Scream movies, where the threat of the killer is there, but you are not sure who it is and know that he is around there somewhere, its just that the characters don't know where they are.

So once I had found what I wanted I wrote out a basic outline/ synopsis:

"Alan keeps waking up with different types of bruises and injuries for weeks now and believes its  something supernatural. So when he sets a camera to find out what he causes these wounds, we find out the threat is much closer to home that what he thinks."

Hope I've hooked you in :-p.

(This picture really made me cring)

So upon that I began typing out my script and have finished all the planning paperwork including shot lists, script, storyboard and props list. 

So now with all the paperwork done, I need to find a location and a crew of 6 (including myself) if I want to pull this off right.

Wish me luck and hope you return for the next post!

P.S. WEIRD VIDEO TIME

So it begins...

Not so long ago, in a place not really that far away, there lived a young student who dreamed of making it in the media industry. This young boy studied in making movies from a very young age and began his journey to try and reach his dream. However, on this journey up came a surprising opertunity. The 666 shortcuts to hell short film competition kind of oppertunity. Will our protagonist be able to take the leap onto this stepping stone? Or will he fail and fall, like so many before him.

TO BE CONTINUED....... right now.

________________________________________________________________________

Sup, my internet name is ProfKranc and I'm what you would call a wannabe film-maker. Since I was very young, I've always wanted to have a career in media as it is all so interesting to me. So because of this aspiration I began studying and working in media while making some movies on the side.

Now I learned about this short film competition called the 666 shortcuts to hell through an old and reliable friend a while back. The competition's entry requirments are that you have to create a 3 minuite horror short film and submit it by 6pm on the 6th June 2013. The winner of this competition will get a prize of £6,666 and their short film broadcasted to an audience in Leicester Square on the lead up to fright fest on the Horror channel, among other good prizes, if `i do say so myself.

If you want to find out more about it, here is a link: http://shortcutstohell.com/

I was discouraged at first, some people saying that such a small amount of time until submission date is too little to make a good short film. But after a lot of thinking with some good all Eye of the Tiger playing in the background, I decided to rush in head first into the development of this short film. If not for the prize, but just for the experiance.

But why am I telling you all this? Well, I have decided to document my journey to create this horror short mainly as a diary with extra articles. I know that this will probably be read by a minimal amount, if any people so if its not for the readers and viewers, its for me. 

That and I kinda like writing.

Anyway, thank you for reading. If you have genuinly got this far without skipping anything, then congrats, here is a Youtube video:

P.S. If you are interested in seeing any of my work on my youtube channel, here is a link: https://www.youtube.com/user/profkranc

THANKS FOR READING I HOPE TO SEE YOU AGAIN SOON!