Final Man: a film student's odyssey

Hi, I've just stumbled across your blog as I'm looking at going to NUCA and I have a quick question, does the course include animation? I've just seen your post on your little red film so was wondering as I have not seen anything about animation in the course on the website. Thanks!

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 00:02:31 +0100

Hello! My course is Film and Moving Image Production - we’re not generally taught animation apart from some After Effects bits, but it is something that you can do if you choose to and there would be the support there if you wanted it… What kind of animation are you thinking? Little Red was made with puppets, not actually animated though. :) There is a separate animation course… :)

Henry Smokin' Bacon

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 19:04:00 +0000

We’re working on a documentary about Henry Bacon, a Super Middle Weight professional boxer from a gypsy/traveller background. Here are some photos that I’ve taken on our shoots so far. I’ve been making an effort to try and take photos as well as filming as we go along, for possible use as promotional material and also to document the process of film making.

AHHHH PRE-PRODUCTION... :)

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 00:18:31 +0000

Today’s entertainment: Rachel as Salvador Dali. Simply beautiful!

This week has been stupidly busy and gone stupidly fast! We had a negative day… one of the days… which day? I don’t know, it’s all a blur! But it all seemed to be going wrong and was awful etc. but since then, it’s started majorly looking up. We found a dance studio location, which we’re having to pay for but they’re giving us a good price (oh the joy of haggling). They don’t have a corridor (its in a gym) so we’re going to set that section in the inside of our EXT ballet school location (the NUCA entrance at St George’s St. Shhh…), which I’m happy with. The doorway is perfect! We’re having a little less luck with the problem with the other location… it’s looking doubtful, but we’re stupidly well prepared for that section, so moving to another location shouldn’t be too much of a problem, really.

We had a totally awesome full cast rehearsal last night - it was amazing to see the characters coming to life… I feel like it’s something I haven’t seen before. It’s amazing to see something you’ve written come off the page… actually, it was even better than I had originally imagined it! All of our cast are fantastic - we played around a bit with different kinds of voices and accents and we’ve settled on some things that work really well. Lucy, who is playing Esmerelda, our Fortune Teller, runs a theatre company called Hocus Pocus. She offered to lend us some costume pieces so we went down after the rehearsal with Mel (who’s playing Flea) to pick out a costume for the ‘grand finale’. I’m really happy with the costume we chose - it’s not the colour that we originally wanted, but I think it’s going to work really well. Grace also had a really lovely idea of how we could cover a tattoo which she has on her arm (we didn’t think that Flea’s mother would EVER let her have one so…). So I’m all happy and excited about that. The other costumes have come together well too - Lucy’s bringing her own costume, as she actually has a gypsy act of her own that she performs on stage. Fagin is bringing his own costume, as is Red, and Tam’s bought some separate bits for Sachi, but she’s also bringing her own costume which we selected for the finale. Birdy’s wings arrived the other day (they were really awkward to carry on a bike by the way… perhaps I should have just put them on??) and they’re looking great. We’re borrowing Flea’s ballet costume from a lovely friend of mine, so that’s all coming together too. Yay!

Today we started painting our gypsy caravan, which has now been set up in my yard, ready to shoot on Friday. Rachel’s helping us out with the painting, and we ran around like fools this morning borrowing paint and buying paint… fun stuff! I also picked up a load of props that we’re borrowing to make the yard look luscious and lovely! Lots of nice rugs, candle holders and throws, blankets, cushions etc. Basically, I pretty much emptied Will’s house :D I borrowed a really lovely candle lantern which holds a load of tea lights too. Excited!

Earlier today we went to have a look at another dance studio, which was lovely, but it doesn’t fit into our schedule and… well, quite frankly, we can’t afford it… This evening me and Tomm went through and made up a proper shot list for the two shoots on Friday. It took ages, but I think it’s really worth it and it’s going to make the shoot so much smoother.

I’m bloody knackered. Same again tomorrow? Yes please.

Hey, did I mention that we had some track and dolly training the other day? It was fun! It’s good to know that it’s fiddly to set up… I want to play moooore…!

Feeling the stress this evening!

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 00:32:31 +0000

Agh god, there’s so much to think about right now. Caravan has been constructed - good! Going strong with caravan designs and fabrics - good! Rehearsals are coming along and we have an awesome actress - good! But we had a couple of bits of bad news (ish) in regards to locations today. The Birdcage has asked if we can shoot downstairs, where there’s no bar… I’m a bit bummed about that… I really really want a bar setting. Actually, I really really want that bar setting… The downstairs room is lovely too, but I just like that kind of lonely image of a person drinking at a bar… So we’ll see how that goes… The other thing might be complicated and might mean that we don’t have a location for our grand finale. I’m worried, but we have to wait and find out. The third thing is that we still haven’t found the perfect dance studio for the shoot, meaning we can’t confirm any shooting dates or times for that scene. Today me and Tomm called pretty much all of the dance studios and gyms in Norwich that we hadn’t been in contact with yet… I’m not sure exactly what the last count was, but it was about 20. I had a couple of positive responses, but they were supposed to call me back and didn’t - I’ll call again tomorrow.

Dooby doo. Oh, something good happened too! We had definite confirmation that we can use Cakes and Ale music - I am happy!! :D

The Birdcage - some test shots

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 21:26:00 +0000

From our little test shoot/visit yesterday - Tomm’s sitting in the place of Birdy, and Grace in the place of Flea.

Thinking about angles - we want to shoot this in a ‘studio’ kind of way - we’re planning on using 3 cameras to shoot this section. Two will be close up shots of the two actors faces (at an angle with 50mm lenses) and a third will be a master shot (28mm) of the bar, looking at them side on if they’re facing each other (something like the top pic). We’d like to shoot the whole scene through using the 3 cameras (the end section would have to be separate as they move into the floor). We spoke to Justin about this in the tutorial, who said that we’ll need some good actors… Luckily, we do!

We’ll also get some cutaways of mise-en-scene. I also thought it might be nice to have Birdy rolling a cigarette as they are talking. In the script, Flea taps her feet on the metal of the stool … Luckily, they have cool stools…

One thing I’m slightly unsure about is the green light in the background… When I saw it initially, I thought… Urgh, turn it off… but it is kind of growing on me. I think it looks better in the shot of them both at the bar, rather than in the close up of Grace with the light in the background. When we’re shooting we’ll most likely use some extra lights, too…

P.S. I got a new camera! Maybe in future my white balance won’t be so off….

Everyone in my group has already posted this lovely film that...

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 20:46:54 +0000

Everyone in my group has already posted this lovely film that Grace found, but I felt the need to shard it… It’s beautiful, and has quite a similar feel to how we would like Flea Circus to be. Whilst watching it I realised that the shots of the circus performing was actually just done with a plan black background with stage lights. Before this point we had been worrying about trying to shoot in an actual bigtop… This gave us confidence that it could be done in another kind of space - a theatre space or something similar. It started us off on an interesting path, and we now have a really interesting plan for the final scene, which is actually (hopefully) going to be much more interesting visually than it would have been if we shot it how we had originally planned. My friend Rachel also pointed out that we could use some of the circus tent canvas (or perhaps some red and white striped sheets) to suggest circus, somewhere in the background… it’s all about association!

What's going on? Err... Everything!

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 20:40:49 +0000

Hello! It’s been a busy time recently, trying to pull together all of the pre-production for Flea Circus. I’d say it’s going pretty well. We’re struggling with a couple of things - mainly finding a dance studio, which is actually not one of the things that I was originally concerned about. We’ve asked approximately a million (exaggeration.) people and gathered the same amount of “NO!”s. It’s frustrating when the shoot is looming closer and closer and we still can’t confirm when or where we’re going to shoot the dance sequence. There are a couple of possibilities at the moment and I’m sure something will come through. Please, please let it be soon.

Everyone that we’ve asked to be involved in the project has been really excited and gracious with their time. We’ve commissioned the construction of a gypsy caravan, to make the circus campsite complete. I got really excited last week when I was talking to my dad and we figured out a way that the caravan could be made that wouldn’t be too complicated and would look cool. Now that it’s actually being made, I’m STUPIDLY excited.

This is what we’re basing our caravan design on - image from Google.

We’ve decided to shoot the campsite scenes in my yard, where we did the test shooting (test shoot footage will arrive on tumblr at some point), which is going to work well in terms of how it’s going to look, and because it’s super practical. It’s in Norwich, we can use my house for electricity, keeping warm, eating, as changing rooms etc etc etc, and we can (technically) leave the set up for as long as we need it. Early on we talked about shooting in various other locations (mainly so we could build the campsite around a caravan) but after the test shoot we settled on the yard, which I’m happy with.

Me, Tomm and Grace spent literally the whole of today breaking down the final scene in the ‘bigtop’ (its not really a bigtop I’m afraid), sketching out diagrams and figuring out a shotlist. Looking at it now, it’s really detailed which is great, but I’m not sure how it took ALL DAY…? We also had a tutorial with Justin this morning - we had a good chat about the things we’re worried about - mainly the dance studio situation. It was really helpful to talk about it actually, and we decided that we need to start looking for alternative locations and to think about other ways that the scene could work. It would be such a shame not to have it in a dance studio though, and not to use the lovely ballerina’s that we’ve got… So for me, that really is the last resort. We also feel like we might need to consider some back-up actors for some of the roles. Most people have been fantastic and super flexible and lovely, but some others are of course busy and unable to shoot when we need them… it’s such a shame!

Yesterday we went to the Birdcage (which is where we’re hoping to shoot our pub scene - just waiting for the confirmation of the dates) to take some pictures and think about angles. Plus we had some tea and sat around and talked… it’s really nice in there, and it really suits the feel of the film. It’s lovely!

What else… We’re also still missing 1 actor, to play Margaret, Flea’s mother and the stern ballet teacher. We’ve asked a couple of people (although there’s a definite favourite….!!!!!!!) so we’re waiting on replies, and also waiting to find out about locations. It’s hard to get actors involved when you don’t know when you’re shooting.

The mission continues….

tylercard: Making of the Camera Costume (by Tyler...

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 23:22:20 +0100

tylercard:

Making of the Camera Costume (by Tyler Card)

Isn’t this awesome? I need to make me one of these!

Circus Lingo

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 22:00:06 +0100

I was pondering the kind of language that Birdy would use, having grown up and been in circuses his whole life. I found a nice website full of lovely circus lingo. Here are some of my favorites:

B.C. — “Be cool,” a warning to stop whatever you are doing or saying. Perhaps the Chief of Police is watching you while you’re about to take all his daughter’s money, so STOP whatever you are doing immediately and find out why the person said B.C.

Bat Away — Orders (q.v.) giving the OK to take players’ money any way you want to. Only used when the ‘fix’ is in to the degree that even legitimate beefs won’t bring any heat from the cops

Beef — A complaint from a patron or law officer concerning anything about the show. You have the patch and your fellow carnies to back you up if you create a beef you can’t handle, but to keep respect you should try to “never let a beef leave your awning.”

Cake Eaters — Locals, rubes.

Cake Cutting — Short-changing.

Barney — A fight or argument.

Dinari or Dollnaries — Money.

Flatties — Non-circus people.

Kushti — Nice.

Palone — A young woman.

Rakli — A non-Gypsy girl (Raklo for a boy).

Shush — To steal.

Didicoy — Fairground folk.

Nut — The ”overhead,” or operating expenses of a show or a joint (still used in the movie theater business as “the house nut”). Supposedly from the idea of creditors removing the nuts from wagon wheels and not returning them until paid. A show always seeks to ‘make the nut’ and begin making a profit above expenses. A show that hadn’t yet ‘made the nut’ was said to be ‘on the nut’ and one that had was said to be ‘off the nut’. It was good if you could count on your show to always ‘carry the nut.’ Also “burr”.

Racket — Any operation that depends on deception for success.

Racket Show — A carnival that derives most of its revenue from fixed games.

Rag or Slum — A tiny prize, usually kept out of sight under the counter, leading customers to believe that the smallest of the prizes on open display above is the smallest prize they stand to win.

Show Ho’ — A female who sleeps around indiscriminately with carnies. Might be a carnival employee, might be a local, but in either case this is a derogatory term.

Spiel — The selling phase of a bally, made on a show front by the talker to the gathering tip, convincing the onlookers that they absolutely must see this show, to be followed by the “grind” phase during which he attempts to keep up the ticket-buying momentum.

Swing — To steal money from your boss.

Ballet Stereotypes

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 16:13:20 +0100

I’m doing some script writing and thinking about traditional ballet stereotypes. It seems like in most peoples minds, ballet is a middle/upper classed practice. It’s a weird, biased view of the dance, which should really be open to people from all backgrounds and cultures. So I’m ashamed to say that it is a stereotype that we’re making use of in Flea Circus, in the character of Margaret and in Flea’s opinion of ballet. Also, in the way that she’s excluded from the ballet world. Is it a bad thing to show such a narrow view on a stereotype? Or maybe I’m trying to be too diplomatic. There are always going to be morals, ethics and values in films that aren’t necessarily fair or… right.

I found this post called A feminist guide to ballet on a feminism website. The writer talks about her view of ballet, how she used to do it when she was younger. She says:

I’m not the sort of woman that people credit with ballet in her past. It could be the tattoos or the punk-rock aesthetic. But it comes down to this: ballet, in the public consciousness, is for ultra-feminine, delicate girls.

HOWEVER, she tries a class and then this:

Keith Hodiak, the class tutor, is not what I expect. My memories of ballet teachers are of older women in tutus with a ruthless attitude to any misstep. Hodiak, in contrast, bursts into the room wearing tracksuit bottoms and dreads, and he’s no waif. He says: “People come for all sorts of reasons.”

So there we go. Why am I writing this? I’m not entirely sure. I guess I just wanted to show that whilst I am writing a script that abuses the ballet stereotype, I’m not completely unaware of the fact that it may not really be like that.

Flea Circus Treatment

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 12:19:00 +0100

Here’s the Flea Circus treatment that I’ve been working on. I’m not sure if it’s quite finished yet - what do you think?

Flea Circus begins at night. A ruffled ballerina is thrown out of the door of a grand ballet school. She lands in a puddle. Later, downing her sorrows in the local pub, she meets Birdy, an ex-trapeze artist. He wears a grubby feathered coat, with a pair of wings attached to the back. He comforts her and realising her talent, brings her to join his circus. He gives her the name ‘Flea’, because of her nimble tapping feet. The Flea Circus campsite sprawls outwards from a ramshackle caravan in the centre. A canvas awning covers a communal area. The ground is covered with richly coloured rugs and throws. The area is lit by candles, fairy lights and a fire, on top of which is an iron pot of chunky vegetable stew. Performers practise fire pois, juggling and contact ball. Esmerelda, a young fortune teller sits by the fire, stirring the soup. As Flea arrives, Sachi, a dark haired hula hooper, stares suspiciously.

Around the fire, Flea shares her story. Back at the ballet school, Flea is in a class of perfect pink ballerinas. Lined up by the bar, Flea is struggling to perform an attitude en pointe. Her leg wobbles. A strict ballet teacher with a solemn face glares at her. The ballet teacher is Flea’s mother, Margaret. The class continues on to different moves. Close-up of Flea’s feet, tapping in ballet shoes. Margaret stands in front of her, hand on hip. Close-up of Flea’s face, defiant. Close-up of Margaret, angry. Flea’s body starts to move with the tapping of her feet. They stare at one another, Flea’s tap-dance gradually getting faster. “Stop it” says Margaret. Flea carries on dancing. “Stop it!” Margaret repeats “Stop it right now Amelia!” Flea tap dances around the room, with a powerful grace. She grins at her mother, whose face reddens with anger. Margaret lashes out and grabs Flea’s arm. “GET OUT!” she yells. The smile is wiped off of Flea’s face as she is dragged down the corridor and thrown forcefully out of the grand wooden doors. Again, she sits outside in the puddle.

The next morning, Flea wakes up to a view starkly contrasting the warmth and colour of the previous night. The fire has gone out, leaving a pit of of grey ash. The tents are ripped and tatty. Dirty washing lies on the grass. Performers lie drowsy in sleeping bags, the previous days’ colourful make-up smudged and hair messy. Behind her, Birdy and Esmerelda discuss the arrival of Fagin, the ringmaster. Esmerelda has concerns that Fagin will be displeased with Flea’s arrival, it lacking his consent. He has a fiery temper. Flea looks concerned.

Later in the day, the circus rehearses their acts in the bigtop. Spotlights create colourful lens flares, and striped white and red canvas is visible in the background. The performers wear formerly grand costumes in deep reds, purples and greens. They are tatty and faded with age. Flea appears wearing a rose coloured satin ballgown, the skirt shortened, reminiscent of a ballerinas tutu. Sachi hoops, lost in the moment. Esmerelda juggles, her jewellery jangling. Red, fire performer wearing a blue bandanna, does fire pois. They request a performance from Flea, who begins to dance in a modern combination of ballet and tap. Suddenly, everything stops. The jugglers drop their juggling balls and those talking are quiet. A door in the background slowly creaks open, light spilling through. A man appears in silhouette, wearing a tophat and suit jacket, holding a whip. He walks further into the doorway and stands still, watching. He cracks the whip, viciously. The fire pois held down at Red’s side goes out. Birdy’s glances at the door nervously. “Flea,” he says “this is Fagin.” Cut to black.

Here’s our set for the Flea Circus test shoot the other...

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 12:15:31 +0100

Here’s our set for the Flea Circus test shoot the other night. It was bloody freezing!

On Tuesday we did a test shoot for Flea Circus. We set up my...

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 12:14:12 +0100

Josh stands in for Fagin

Sachi Hooping

On Tuesday we did a test shoot for Flea Circus. We set up my yard with fairy lights and candles, and got 2 of our actor/performers to come and test some lighting and performing with us. Josh, who is a fire performer, did some fire pois and fire breathing, and also stood in for Fagin’s character so that we could test some silhouette lighting. This is for the end of the pilot episode, when Fagin arrives. Sachi did some hooping also, which was amazing, and we also got a group of people (not the people who are going to be in the film, but just people to stand in) to sit around and chat, to try and recreate the feel of what the Flea Circus campsite will be like. I’m really pleased with the results and really looking forward to developing the idea further.

In regards to the Fagin lighting test, we decided that we need more light. Justin suggested that to get a more defined silhouette, we might want to use another two lights coming in from either side.

Tomorrow we’re pitching the idea to a panel, as well as our vampire parody, Allium Sativum. I’m excited and nervous…! I’ve just finished the treatment and I’m hoping that it’s what is needed for the pitch. Currently pulling together imagery for production design and costumes, as well as contacting locations.

Flea Circus fonts

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 20:30:45 +0100

I’ve been having a little hunt around the internet for circus poster-y fonts, and here are some that I’ve found :)

The Corpse Bride, Canon 1D mark II

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 00:34:37 +0100

The Corpse Bride, Canon 1D mark II:

An interesting article about the use of a canon 1d in production of the Corpse Bride.

Cakes and Ale

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 15:18:35 +0100

http://www.myspace.com/cakesandaleband

Cakes and Ale are a lovely Norwich band who fit the Flea Circus theme nicely! I’d like to get them involved with the project…

Nice Stuff

Sun, 16 Oct 2011 22:29:28 +0100

My dad has a lot of…. stuff… The other day, he brought me over a load of old cameras that he had, since I wanted something to play with. I already had a Nikon FM2 and an Olympus, but the Nikon is broken and the Olympus is a bit strange (it’s sort of trying to be an SLR but it actually isn’t and its kind of annoying). There are a load of different SLRs, 2 TLRs and some other bits. I’m not sure which ones out of this bunch work, but here are 2 that I’m really excited about trying:

With the cameras were a couple of rolls of 120 film - 2 expired in 1977 (!!) and one in 2002. Now, I’m all for using expired goods, but perhaps 34 years is pushing it a tad? Although it might have some cool results… Today I put the 2002 roll into the Autocord - I’m not sure what will come out, but I’m having fun anyway, and its all good practise. There was a couple of light meters with the cameras (one of which doesn’t work) so it’s all go! I think I’m excited about the Rollei because 1. it looks really cute 2. it’s really nice to hold and 3. (most importantly) Robert Doisneau was a Rolleiflex (TLR) fan and this is made by Rollei :) unfortunately, the battery exploded (I don’t think it was all that dramatic to be honest) in the camera, leaving some greeeeeen residue, so I’m not sure if this one will work…

Circus Posters

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 17:51:57 +0100

Circus Posters:

Just found a great page with loads of old circus posters :)

Flea Circus

Mon, 10 Oct 2011 13:37:07 +0100

Our first project this year is a pilot of a web TV series. Here’s my idea:

A disgraced ballerina joins an eccentric, rundown circus and is taken under the wing of Birdy, a slightly crazed former star. A flea-ridden caravan site is home to the performers who have a manipulative disregard of the concept of ‘personal property’. Innocent audience members are lured in, with sinister consequences.

Finally back at NUCA after a long, busy summer! It felt like we’d been away for years. At the...

Mon, 10 Oct 2011 13:35:01 +0100

Finally back at NUCA after a long, busy summer! It felt like we’d been away for years. At the moment I’m getting used to some of the changes that have happened over the last few months…. mostly the move to Cavendish house. My first impressions are: it’s cold and it’s a bit of a downgrade. I thought we might lose some of the sense of community that we had at EPIC - so far I don’t feel like that’s the case and I’m really enjoying being at the centre of the NUCA campus. It’s nice to be surrounded by students on other courses, and to feel like the library and SU bar aren’t a million miles away. Our work spaces seem okay, although since we haven’t started full on production yet, so I’m not sure how we’ll feel about it then. Surprisingly, the chairs in the building are actually LESS comfortable than the ones in the EPIC lecture rooms, which we all complained about last year. Maybe this year we can invest in some bean bags….

Something I’m excited about is that we’re going to have more film related people speaking at the shared media lectures. I really enjoyed them last year, even if they focussed more on animation, but it will be good to have a bit more of a mix.

Over the summer I went on a stupidly long bike ride (from Forfar, Scotland to Leiston, Suffolk) and blogged about it along the way. I was hoping that I would be able to do some video blogs along the way too, but that didn’t work out in the end, which was a shame. I had planned on buying a new camera just before we left, but it fell through and I felt a bit discouraged. Along the way I found that I probably wouldn’t have been able to anyway, to be honest… cycling is bloody tiring you know! We cycled 45 miles a day on average, with our biggest day being just under 70 miles. That day was in the Fens, where its suuuper flat and easy to work up a good pace (some of the time we were at about 17mph). Anyway, you can see the blog here:A Dominies Blog.

I also went to my school reunion (and borrowed Grace’s 600d to play with, which was fun) and worked on The Power, a feature film which was being shot in Norwich. It was a pretty hardcore month, with little sleep and literally no days off, as I had to keep my usual job also. It was a really good experience for me and I really learnt a lot about the film industry. It’s made me think differently about how I’m approaching my work at uni. After the shoot finished, I had a week or so of feeling sad and lonely. I found it strange to be with all those people day in day out for a month, and for them to suddenly dissappear. I suppose that’s something you have to get used to when working in film. From working on The Power, I’ve got a possible job for next summer. I went down to see the director of this project whilst they were shooting some trailers last week at a studio in Norwich to have a chat, see what was going on and generally try and make myself useful. It was at a studio which is mostly used for photography, so it was interesting to see them using it in a different way. It felt quite informal - they weren’t recording sound so there wasn’t any *QUIET ON SET* panic and I got to spend the afternoon talking to people who were working there. One of the people I found most interesting was the owner of the studio, who is a photographer by trade, but was working on set design and lighting for this production. As lighting is something I haven’t yet managed to get into much, I found it really interesting to talk to him about his techniques and whatnot…. So fingers crossed, something will come of that.

Over the summer I’ve been thinking a lot about photography and its importance in film making… I’ve always taken lots of photos, but my camera is quite old (Nikon d50) and I’ve not really been friends with it recently, since I feel its a bit out of date. I’ve started using it more in the last few weeks though, with a manual 50mm lens. Since its a manual lens, you have to think a bit more when using it, which I’m finding fun. Anyway… back to the matter at hand :)