Before I start the edit stage of my blog I thought it would be nice to get the view of Katrina (Sian) on what she thought about the script, story and characters of 'Press Play'.
"Upon first reading the script for 'press play' I was intrigued by the idea and exited! I thought it was a very interesting and compelling storyline. One that is very much relevant to someone of my demographic, yet with an interesting exploration of the pressure students face and need for a release. I particularly liked the expressionistic quality to the film that gives it an edge!
On set I was very nervous but was made to feel at ease and was given directions thoroughly which made everything a lot more enjoyable! All in all, I absolutely loved working on the film with everyone who was involved and I'm excited to see the final edit."
So now that shooting is over I had the misfortune of logging my rushes - industry speak for footage - and this is my least favourite thing to do right after story boards!
It does however give me the chance to look over my footage again and see what shots I like for each scene, so when it comes to editing I have an idea of what I like and which shot to use.
How I first went about logging the rushes was by putting them in chronological order from scene and shot; labelling them as such: Scene 1 - Take 1 etc. then I gave a brief description of each shot such as: MS Jack vacantly starring at screen, and so on. This will make it easier to find which shot I am looking for when it comes to editing.
Reason to celebrate: myself, Niamh and Anya have just wrapped up on my short film 'Press Play'!
We finished shooting scene 2 and the film on Wednesday the 30 April. Originally we were suppose to finish a day before on the 29th (which is when we booked the room for the library scene, before we left for Easter but then when I went to confirm this when we got back, I was told it was being used for a class) so we had to postpone a day.
We started filming at around 14:15, and as scene 2 was a relatively short and easy scene to do, as I knew exactly what I wanted the main time consumer would be getting the shots from different angles, so that I had something to play with and cut from when I went to edit.
As this scene is the set up for the problem and is mainly a conversation between Sian and Jack, I just wanted it shot like your classic every day Hollywood conventional conversation, with cuts between each character as they talked because there was no real call for anything else.
In my last blog post I talked about sound and music and what I was thinking about for my own film, I also said that I was doing sound on another film, 'Dislocation' by Andrew McComb.
We'll I recorded the sound and dialouge for Dislocation and it went well. Because unlike mine, this film has a lot of natural sound such as footsteps on gravel, twigs breaking, leaves cracking under boots etc. because it is shot in a forest, so there were a lot of rich sounds to capture.
Where as mine has more man made sounds such as: gun shots, explosions, electrical sounds etc. so it was fun working on two different films with two different sound tracks and really made me think about how which sounds, no matter how subtle, can really add to the over all viewing experience.
Below are some snaps of me working on sound for Dislocation
So I have started thinking about the music for my short for a while now and although I have a rough idea of what I want, I'll have to wait to the actual edit before I decide what goes well with the film.
On my script are notes with song ideas and where I'm thinking of putting the song in the film so I have an idea of the effect it will have on an audience.
I am also sound on Andy McComb's film 'Dislocation', which I am doing the same thing on the scrip of his film, scribbling down song ideas, the effect I wand the music to have, what sound effects should be placed where and most importantly, how the dialouge should sound etc.
So I was looking through the drafts of my blog and found this draft I forgot to post of research for my film...
For research for my upcoming short 'Press Play' I looked up some films that have the same subject matter of my film, which is about gaming; a boy getting lost in a game world more specifically.
One film I found was 'Stay Alive' (2006) which is about a group of friends investigating the death of their friend after he is found dead the same way he died in a mysterious game. As the group of friends play the game they start to discover that the way any of the games players die in the game is how they will die in real life, and together they must beat the game and destroy the evil countess to stay alive.
This game has similarities with my film in the sense it is about a game world but they have differences in the way they are treated, for example this film is treated in the genre of horror where mine is more action/adventure/fantasy. So this film would be more dark, gruesome and grotesque with scary scenes and jump scares to frighten its audience and build suspense, whereas mine will be more brighter, louder and faster pace and build tension through action packed sequences.
I can still learn from this movie however, even though they differ in style and genre. I can apply the cinematic technique they use in their game sequences and one thing I've been thinking of particularly was how to film a screen, I can see how they do this and try to learn from that.
The next film I researched with the same subject matter of mine was, 'Gamer' (2009).
'Gamer' is about a world were death row inmates must play in real life game were they battle other criminals, controlled by gamers and much reach it to the end in order to win their freedom.
Like my film this is more action/adventure and about gaming so I can use the cinematic style, camera technique and cinematography etc to inspire my film and make it better and a more cinematic piece of film.
Tuesday 15 April:
On our first shoot date we got the majority of the film shot which is good as it leaves less for us to shoot on the second day, it also puts as ahead of schedule.
So on day 2 of the shoot we will be working on scenes 1 & 5, as they are relatively short; so we can play around with shots and get a number of takes so that we'll have a lot of footage to choose from when it comes to the edit.
There is also scene 7 to do, but like scenes 1 & 5 that is a short scene. I have already planned it out and I know how I want it to be shot and because I have planed it out so extensively, like the rest of me scenes, it should take no longer than an hour (the magic of planning).
The only real, big scene left is scene 2 which we can not do until Tuesday 29 April because we are currently off for Easter break and we come back on the 28 April and we have booked the room that will act as our "library", for the Tuesday of that week.
So today is the first day of shooting for 'Press Play'
We will be shooting scenes3, 4 & 6 today.
We will be shooting scene 6 first because it is a relatively short scene and should ease us into the swing of things. It is also the scene were Sian confronts Jack and because I don't want to keep the actors longer than they are needed, as I am aware they may have other obligations and they are doing me a favour being in it; as it is not paid work.
So it is great practice to have a schedule and to stick to it for the benefit of myself the film and the actor.
Then we will shoot scene 3 second because all we need for that scene is myself and the crew, it is also the longest scene so we have the majority of the day to shoot that scene and do as much takes as necessary, then we'll be finished the longest scene.
The third scene we will shoot is the end of scene 4it is not as long as scene 3 so we should be able to wrap up with that on on the first day of shooting…
If we have any more time in the day we will do some of the shorter additional scenes such as scene 1 & 5 as they are short scenes an can hopefully be finished relatively quickly if we get a chance to start them... if not we can do that on day 2.
Also I plan to get any pick ups we may need.
Below are some stills I got when we were rehearsing scene 6:
Myself as Jack being sucked into the game world.
"...makes Jack a dull boy"
Katrina who plays Sian getting ready for a run through
For a little bit of directorial research I watched the special features on 'The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug' to get a few hints and tips from the professionals for the likes of perpetration and shooting techniques to run throghs and the amount of takes you may need per scene.
It was nice to see how a professional in the business work ethic compares to my own and put my mind at ease a little, because I openly realised how ready I was.
And although my own film and 'The Hobbit' films differ in story and subject matter and maybe even genre it was still a very beneficial research experience for my film and truely opened my eyes to the role of director and what one does and how he should perform.
So it is two days before the first official shoot date of 'Press Play' and I am filled with excitement and apprehension.
As I sit now I am reading over the script and the scenes I will shoot first and how I picture them, how I will deliver my lines, how I will react to the lines and the overall look and performance.
I have went over the shot list (but that is not the exact shots we may use) I have thought about different angles an how many takes each scene may take.
I have also made side notes on the script of certain sounds and music I want in the edit so I am well prepared for the shoot date.
IOn Thursday (3rd April) we got results in how we did on our pitches and I got a 4/5, which I was really happy about, although I would like to know where I missed the last mark (still that's 80%)
The pitch was a part of our marking criteria for our over all mark for this unit. Over all I was happy with the pitch, I believe we got the film across well (and that's evident in the mark)
I feel I may have stumbled on the questions when it comes to my response, I was a bit shaky with the answers even though I knew what I wanted to say and what I'm doing.
I have everything organised I'm just waiting on the shoot date to come as I have everything ready.
With shooting eminently round the corner I had prepared a shooting schedule of when I felt was the best time to shoot.
This was to give myself more time to prepare, organise and do whatever else needed to be done, so I scheduled my shoot dates as the 14th-16th of April.
But as I am also sound technition (I used the word technition to make it seem more important than it is) in another group they only recently decided to shoot then, even though I had prepared those dates a while back.
So I must decide whether to re schedule or tell the director of the other shoot I can't do those dates.
So today (Thursday 27 March) we had to pitch our ideas to the tutor who is responsible for our end of year films and the technician of e3.
This was simply to check whether we had everything sorted for our film such as: actors, locations, props, style, shooting schedule etc organised and planned out, which we do.
We were told that everything's great and going under way which is good
