Inspiration for shooting

Communication

I've created a facebook group solely for the production team of the film as a way of communicating with each other, especially as two of the team are outside of Central St Martins and don't know anyone except me. This way we all have instant access to it and can post idea's, time changes etc as soon as we want.


http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_136378023102828&ap=1

ACTION!

We finally have everything we need to start filming.. watch this space!

Lights, Camera.. Action???

We nearly have all the elements we need to create this film. We have our script, our two locations, our actors, our camera man and editor, how ever what we don't have is the right equipment! So now we're on the hunt to find what we need in order to film and edit over the next month.

We've posted an ad in gumtree and searching the sight mandy.com which is a website for film and TV production sources.

http://www.gumtree.com/p/community/central-saint-martins-students-making-a-short-film/76458221

http://www.mandy.com/1/class.cfm

Development

The script is finally done! There are three scenes which follow three phone conversations between the two strangers Ally and James. They meet by accident when James mis-dials his girlfriends number and phones Ally. They open up about their own relationships and lives and form a sort of bond. They leave it at that and say goodbye. Three months later James rings Ally back to tell her he's broken up with his girlfriend and he wants to take Ally out to dinner. Ally explains that she is moving in with her boyfriend and she is happy. Three months go by again and James takes a chance and rings Ally back, thinking she has moved in with her boyfriend and won't have the same land line number. Ally answers. She didn't move in with her boyfriend but is settled in a new job doing something she wants to do and is happy single. James has found a new girlfriend and moved her in with him. Both have them have found closure. The story isn't a conventional story between a man and a woman. The idea is that they find peace within themselves from speaking to one another. Opening up about problems they have never voiced before.

Projection onto furniture

Living Room: 3D Video Mapping

Production

We've finally found some one who can film and edit our short film! He is a friend of mine who graduated from Nottingham university with a degree in film and television and has worked for Sky, Channel 4, BBC and 4 creative. He's extremely enthusiastic and creative- perfect for the job!

Here is an example of his work:








http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SW-wnaUs59Q&feature=player_embedded

Alex: "save the Cochrane"

Experimentation

Cochrane ground plan

Cochrane model box

Experimentation

In the technical workshop, each group came up with an idea for the other group on how to over come a technical problem. We worked on the "salt" group who are playing with idea's of using salt. One of their idea's is to have salt pouring down on to the stage from above. We created a very very rough cardboard model.

Inspiration

http://collettepollard.com/show.php?showID=12

Technical meeting

We met with the technicians today to discuss our technical and staging needs for the performance. Issues we have to address in our group are the following:

• Production- find a production team who can film and edit.. for free!
• Work out a filming schedule- we plan to film over our Easter break 1st April- 1st May. 
• Speak to our actor playing the male part about his personal schedule.
• Costume.
• Make an image of Cochrane stage and how we imagine projections to look. 

Other blogs

The following blogs are two members of our group, one is also dedicated to this project and one is a personal blog. Take a look to get an idea of how each artist works..

Sabrina   http://cochranepdp.blogspot.com/

Michaela   http://michaeladelmonte.blogspot.com/

Feed back

The following feed back was observations made by our peers and tutor:

• Why cardboard?
• Contrast of softness from cotton with projection- nice. 
• Removed emphasis from content of film.
• Colours stood out.
• Transformations through materials.
• Content becomes more interesting when form was clearer.
• Layers work- depth. 
• Depth- shadow. 
• Structure was effective. 
• Work out relationship between film and structure. 
• What is its capacity as an object and surface. 
• Is structure something we don't notice though out performance until film is projected on to it? 

Feed back is always extremely important in growth and strength in the work, especially with a project like this where ultimately we are presenting a performance all together. These are issues/observations we will have to address as a group in order to make our piece grow. 

Experimentation

We experimented using different materials and projecting "The Science of Sleep" on to them as an example , to see how it would look projected on to our various materials. We used mainly card board, with soft toy stuffing, tracing paper, cling film, mirrors, glass and grease proof paper. The experiment was extremely successful in seeing what works well with projection and what didn't.

"The Science of Sleep"

"The Science of Sleep" written and directed by Michel Gondry follows a man whose world is a mixture of his dreams, imagination and reality.  The imagery uses a lot of animation with cardboard and other materials to give a dream like quality to the film. Both the imagery and context of the film have been a huge inspiration with our short film and with the projecting of it.

"Finding Sol"

"Finding Sol" directed by Stella Scott, is a short film that my friend Rachel Noel art directed. Like Sleuth, the context of the film isn't relevant but the design is. I'm interested in the way cardboard is used along side live actors. The contrast makes a really interesting image and it also gives a hyperrealism effect. The film can be watched in two parts on youtube.

The below images are taken from Rachel's website where you can see the rest of her work: http://www.rachelnoel.com

Looking at different ways of projecting

Communication

We've created a Facebook group as a way of keeping on contact with each other and posting idea's and inspiration. The group is extremely effective and is used regularly as a way of communicating.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_171486922897502&ap=1

"Sleuth" by Anthony Shaffer.

"Sleuth" was originally a play written by Anthony Shaffer, that was then turned into a film in 1972 and again in 2007. The 1972 version stars Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine, with the 2007 version starring Michael Caine as the part originally played by Laurence Olivier and Jude Law playing Michael Caine's original part. It is not the context of either film that I have looked at for inspiration, but the idea that the setting (having all been shot in one house, with just those two characters) gives the impression you are watching a play, rather than a film.