Weather report/ Shoot date

This is just to let my crew know about the weather as it will be on the day I have chosen to shoot the outdoor scenes for my film. As you can see I have picked a good day in which too film as it is really the only good day of the week. The shoot day is Wednesday the 25^th, though if all of my scenes I need are not shot in that time I will open Thursday as a possibility to get the further shots I need to finish my filming process and move onto my editing.

The shoot will start at 10am and have an open end, as I do not know when exactly I will have all of my shots finished. I will obviously take into account any one of the cast or crews needs as well as times that they may need to go. Though I did make sure to tell my cast and crew of the shoot date 2 weeks in advance so there should be no issues here.

If I do not capture all the shots I need for my film on these desired dates, I will make another date in which to shoot my final scenes though hopefully I will not run into any issues with the film itself. Just a note that the weather will not likely be very warm so if the cast and crew could bring their own insulating clothing like gloves, hats etc.. that would be appreciated.

Camera Op: Me Myself & I

Yesterday i was in charge of camera operation on Andrew Rogers Me Myself & I. It was a full day of shooting as we went from location to location to get the shots Andrew was after. The first shot of the day was the shot in VUE car park, Andrew wanted a tracking shot from behind the car of all three actors getting out of the car then panning towards an establishing shot of VUE. There was an issue with this shot however as the reflection of myself behind the camera was caught in the bodywork of the car. Andrew decided to lift the boot and sit the actors in the boot of the car to stray away from reflections being caught on camera. Another shot was recorded inside the car to piece together these scenes. We then had to take one of the friends who was acting home in which we moved onto shooting the few scenes that need to be shot at Andrews house including an establishing shot, pan shot leading to an upward tilt and some static mid and close up shots in the kitchen. We ran into no issues throughout the day except from lighting issues as some of the shots were over exposed. We did however fix this issue as we noticed the ND filter was the issue causing the brightness.

We had two further shots to capture which lead to us going back upto hartlepool to meet our actors and film inside KFC for one of the final shots. We had no issues inside of KFC and were in and out of there with time to spare for a further few shots, though the final shots Andrew needed were inside the Uni which was closed at this time so we called it a day and are saving another day for the final shots at CCAD.

Sound Op: Me Myself & I

Last week myself, Andrew Rogers & Ethan Turley made a start on filming for Ethan's Me Myself & I. Andrew was on camera and i was on sound, once we had got to the location and set up it became apparent that there was going to be some minor difficulties with the location itself. We realised that with the hallway scene Ethan was wanting to be filmed, not all of the doors would be accessible. Some of the doors were locked due to work being assessed, so instead we had to go to the opposite hallway in which we did encounter another issue, the opposite hallway was filled with a great amount of machinery noise. We closed the doors we could to drown out the noise but there still was some still being caught on the mic. We came to the agreement that we would use the sound from the other door and use that for the doors that were being difficult for a clear recording. There wasn't a lot for me as a Sound Op to do though we did get a good amount of Ethan's project filmed on that day and in good time.

StoryBoards

Smoke Machine & Cool Lights

In today's lesson we learnt the proper use of the smoke machine, first off protection and hazard awareness. The smoke machine may not reach such high temperatures as the redheads and blondes but it still has the capability of burning the skin. To stop this there is a plastic handle that you can grab to move the machine when it is switched on. You will need some form of socket to switch the machine on but once it has heated up you can unplug it and move it around whilst still spewing smoke at the same time. Another thing to note would be once used the smoke machine will still cough smoke up to an hour after it has been switched off so make sure you have a well ventilated spot to keep it. The use of a smoke machine can cause a number of different effects and there is also a toggle on top which allows you to change the density of the smoke. 

Other safety precautions that should be taken into effect when using the smoke machine is having the smoke detectors capped, but you also need to remember to take them off once you have finished using the smoke machine other wise the fire department will not have the notice of a fire in the building. When using the smoke machine you also need to take into account any asthmatics in the room, outside use of the machine is not great if the wind is high but can be used still. 

We then moved onto the cool lights which can be used as fog lights to brighten the backgrounds, because the cool lights use less power you can power more of them then you could with the redheads which is helpful when trying to brighten up larger areas. The cool lights have a dial which can be turned to brighten and darken the volume of light. 

Avid & history of editing

In today's lesson we were first introduced briefly to the programme known as Avid. This is the programme that we will be using when editing our films. We were took into the editing suite and were shown first how to access our work in progress and how to load up the programme itself. We were also given the chance to create our individual Avid accounts so that we were from then on set to edit away in the suite.

We were later then introduced to a documentary on the history of the editing process known as "The Cutting Edge, The Magic of Movie Editing". We learnt the early process of editing and how it was prominently a women's job in the early ages of film as it was closer to the activity of knitting. It wasn't until sound was introduced that there was male workers who from then on came in by vast amounts due to the more technical side of the editing process.

We learnt about the connection in which the director and editor have and the give and take between the two, a good example would be Steven Spielberg and his editor for the film "Jaws" Verna Fields. In this case Spielberg wanted to get as much of the shark in the film as he could due to the cost of the manufacturing though his editor would not agree and showed him how less was bigger. She was absolutely correct creating one of the most terrifying creature features to date.

The documentary informed us on the use of cutting and how it has brought films to a whole new standard, almost creating living worlds instead of static pictures. I found this lesson to be very interesting and i am glad i am now set to begin my editing process when the time comes.

Phone Interveiw

In yesterdays lesson we were set a task which would introduce us to dealing with high pressure phone calls. To start our group was split in two, there was one group being interviewed and the other interviewing. We were given a scenario that challenged me as the interviewer to find out the situation with a made up chain of supermarkets "Asco" and the chicken crises.

Apparently 10,000 chickens infected with bird flue had been sold from "Asco" and it was my job to try and get them to confess with decisive questioning and the use of information we were given like dates and even a trump card that we could use how we wanted.

I did not know who out of the group i would be put up with, but on entering the room and picking up the phone i burst out of the gate with a straight to the point question "have you been selling infected chickens". Looking back i realized that i should of formally introduced myself first but as people are probably now aware i am mediocre at phone calls.

I also found myself using my natural tone of voice which i realize myself is rather common i should of tried to sound more professional, though in my opinion i asked some fair questions and tried to get to the point by using dates. In the end i gained no information and was shut down, if this is a practice that will be ran again i will put better preparation in and focus heavier on the information given to out wit my opponent to submission.

Here is the interview:  

Overall i found the experience nerve wrecking, but a good use of time due to the fact that this is something i will be coming into contact with in the future, so practice will make perfect in this 
case.