Live Brief 2 - Visual Effects for Guerrilla Filmmakers (Week 4)

Week 4 of the course starts 29th February and is the final week of the course they have to offer. This weeks focus is on 3D compositing and how it can be used to benefit your film and adds more to your surroundings. As we live and work in 3D why shouldn't 3D play a part in the film industry. The week starts off with articles and videos discussing what 3D compositing is about and a little history about the subject before introducing you to the HitFilm task this week.

The task is to actually do some 3D compositing of your own with the provided stock footage, the shot to work on is like an establishing shot, and will be built up of different 3D layers to achieve the end final shot. Theres a layer of a background of an industrial park, which will be the bottom layer, and then layers to be overlayed such as the actor, the sky and some fire and damaged cars to add atmosphere to the scene. They're all been added using 3D compositing so they're not just flat additions to the scene, but fit in to the scene and the 3D world it's building.

Of course the week continues on with articles from The Blaine Brothers and Haz discussing why and when they use this technique but there is also a video of Haz discussing the power of archive footage and how important it is to keep them if you use them on a previous production. Archive footage has the power to be used multiple times in multiple ways so it's best to to just toss it out. The week is slightly longer with it been the final week and further on discusses Matte Painting and it's uses digitally. With 3D compositing Matte Paintings can bring scenes together and are not just flat backgrounds anymore.

A very interesting and helpful video included in this weeks selection is Haz on marketing your film. As Haz is an independent filmmaker, he has quite some experience in marketing films and he discusses the best ways and why some ways maybe better than others, to get your film out there. Haz recently used a Vimeo account to premiere his latest film, and choose this over a YouTube release and he chose this platform because he wanted film executives to see it and didn't want adverts popping up all the time. Theres a professionalism to marketing and getting across your style and your film, in the manner that you wanna project yourself to be. The course comes to an end with some thoughts of inspiration and a lesson of never stop making films.

Live Brief 2 - Visual Effects for Guerrilla Filmmakers (Week 3)

Week 3 of the course commences 22nd February and is now more than half way through it's duration. Week 3's main focus is on Masking, Cloning and Crowds, these are very important techniques within the filmmaking world and the special effects world, and have been used on many huge blockbusters, to recreate war scenes in films, and to build armies that aren't really there. It's a clever technique and quite tricky to pull off. The course has an introduction to the basics of Masking, Cloning and Crowds, and how you would use these techniques in a film. It also features a short video on how you would prepare for a shoot that was including these special effects, which will be good to show with my crew if they intend to use any of these.

The course also comes with a Masking Checklist:

• If the colour or contrast of the image in your mask is different to the background layer, then sometimes a large feather will help it sit better in the shot, as the edges become gradual.
• A good way to keyframe a mask of particularly complex moves (say someone running in a zig zag across the scene) is to set keyframes at extremes (say every abrupt turn of the runner), and then set more again half way between those keyframes. And then half way between them…until the mask moves with the runner. It’s still easier than frame by frame!
• You can change the opacity of your mask, say to 95%, which can subtly bring the image underneath through to help with making your object ‘sit’ in the shot. Too much and you turn them into ghosts!
• Make sure you have enough points on your mask to accommodate future action in the shot. If you’ve put your actor into a rectangular mask and she starts ‘star-jumping’ later in the shot, you may have problems of overlap with other nearby characters. So, always look ahead through your footage.
• You can keyframe backwards. Start with your difficult star-jumping actress and then move backwards with your keyframes.
• Computers are dumb. If your mask isn’t blue in HitFilm, it’s not keyframeable!
  These are important to remember and keep in mind if ever filming on set for any of these techniques. 
  
  This weeks task in HitFilm is masking and cloning and provides all the footage for you to achieve these techniques. It uses both these techniques to create a scene of a man walking through a location multiple times at the same time. This technique is a great way to increase the scale and production value of your film because it makes it seem like you have greater the amount of people than you do. The week then continues on to have The Blaine Brothers and Haz talk about how and when they use masking and cloning in their productions, which is quite often in their own cases. For me green screen and masking and cloning doesn't seem to much easier and effective as a practical effect, which appears more real on the screen for a film. 

Live Brief 2 - Visual Effects for Guerrilla Filmmakers Course (Week 2)

Week 2 of the course has started, 15 February and heavily features and includes tasks and articles focusing on Green Screen. Green screen is a huge and innovative technique and tool when it comes to special effects and has helped change the game significantly in modern special effects. There are early articles on green screen and keying which are helpful to give a little intro to the history and behind the scenes of the skill and technique, and also build your knowledge on special effects. This weeks task requires to use the already downloaded software HitFilm and goes through layering, keying and masking your shot, as well as stabilising and grading your background to make it more convincing.

I've worked with green screen before in small doses and have had experience using the keying tools in software like Adobe After Effects and Premiere, but this task was good and refreshing because I was using professional footage of green screen work and it made it easier and simpler to actually edit, when it's filmed correctly and with the purpose of been keyed out. The weekly tasks are proving very helpful and offer a lot of room to experiment with after you're done, and even use your own footage in the software with the new technique. The week goes on to feature small quizzes on the world of keying to build your memory of the technique up and features more videos and articles from the Blaine Brothers and Haz. There is a brief mention of rotoscoping which I have knowledge of from college, and an article about the 2004 film Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, which heavily features special effects and most importantly green screen.



Glenn has prepared me that he does have green screen in mind for certain shots and now I have more knowledge and experience on the subject and skill, so if the footage is filmed correctly there should be no problem.

Live Brief 2 - Open Auditions (16/02/2016)

Open Auditions for all productions took place today in the studio at CCAD Hartlepool. The auditions ran all day and everyone was welcome to try out for roles and perform on camera. Certain actors had given definite signs they would attend and the rest we we're open people would just show up... which very few did. John, Drew, Tori, Steven, Simon and myself were present at the auditions and a grand total of 4 auditions took place! The first to arrive was Megan Thompson who auditioned early on around 9-10am, she did a general audition and was open to playing any of the required roles for our productions and was very excited and energetic about the possibility of working with us. Glenn was impressed with audition and cast her as Arienne in his Maniaframe production. The auditions slowed down after Megan's audition and struggled to find actors to turn up, eventually fellow student Dan Whalen auditioned for the role of Reggie Reynolds the radio host in John's Urban Legends production. Dan had an understanding of the character and what we we're going for and pulled off a great audition for the role so much that we had him under consideration to play the character.

Our tutor Mike Boyle also auditioned to boost up the numbers and was given part of the script from Glenn's production and auditioned for one of the clowns that would appear in it. Mike NAILED IT of course as he is a talented and experienced actor with an ability to take on any role :). Eventually later on another actor turned up for an audition, George Collins or working actor auditioned for the role of Reggie Reynolds and absolutely blew everyone away. He was given multiple scripts to work with and to get to the learn the character better but I think Drew and John has already agreed by this point that he was perfect for the part. George was cast as Reggie Reynolds.

Overall I wouldn't say the open auditions were a clear success but we did gain two new actors from it who are pivotal to the cast and productions so it was still helpful even if the turn out wasn't how we may have expected it to be. I think all the producers know that there are more ways now that the could advertise the auditions and to maybe gain more definite auditions for the day so less time is wasted waiting.    

Live Brief 2 - Production Meeting 3 (Urban Legends)

Urban Legends Production Meeting 3

12/02/16

Meeting Start Time: 13:19pm

Attending:-

• John Hartill 
• Drew Brockbank
• Abby Colclough 
• Chloe Lowe
• Jacob Moorfoot
• Mikey Barker

We ran through and checked all the previous discussions from Production Meeting 2 and have now got the VLE open and the production has now been allocated 600B of space on the EditShare. I have completed the script for The Babysitter and have started first drafts of The Hookman and The Killer in the Back Seat. Chloe is coming on with some great experimental edits and is learning new technical options within editing. Jacob has recorded some test sounds for the voice overs for Reggie Reynolds. John has organised an open audition for 16th February. Equipment rehearsal has been booked in the studio for Friday 19th February. 

This week we discussed that The Killer has been cast, along side the Father in for The Babysitter and the remaining cast is still pending. Everyone is available and will attend the equipment rehearsal on the 19th, and a location has been confirmed for The Babysitter and was chosen out of the four recce's. Chloe is still continuing her edits and all crew members are continuing their research into their respective roles. The budget for the production has been finalized and confirmed, a signed form for this will be signed on the 16th. 

Next weeks production meeting will be checking in on: 

• How the scripts for The Hookman and The Killer in the Back Seat?
• How did the open auditions go? 
• How did the 2nd equipment rehearsal go? 
• Have the remaining cast for The Babysitter been confirmed?
• Is everyone feeling comfortable and confident with the equipment and software? 
• What is the stand on pre-production for The Hookman
• Have all props been bought for The Babysitter? 

Meeting End Time: 13:37pm 

Live Brief 2 - ManiaFrame Shoot - Clown Shoot

An important sequence in ManiaFrame that the whole crew were focused on capturing with great quality, was the office scene with a clowns death. This was quite a strong and pivotal scene with its visual style. The crew planned out and tested how the death scene would go down using a pump and fake blood to give the squirting effect for when the clown slits his throat. We had three clowns dressed and acting for the scene, along with a bunch of extras to fill up the scene with office workers. We captured the majority of the cut aways and build up scenes early on before we cause a mess with the death scene and it gave more time for the clowns to get dressed and prepared for the shot. We did a few run throughs with the actors to plan out the best way we could make it look crazy and brutal without hurting or injuring anyone, we managed to organise and choreograph and good looking death scene which would translate well on film.

We filmed the office scene in the Seminar Room at CCAD and rearranged tables and chairs to give a more office building feel. The extras were all great and helpful with sparing their time for the shoot but the main shot to capture today was the clowns death scene, which was to be a one take with no other times to repeat it, so all the pressure was on the one shot. Dan practised capturing the shot so he understood where he was following and how to keep it focused on whats happening, Glenn hid under a table and operated the blood pump which would release mayhem once the clown pretends to slit his throat. The shot went as great was we wanted and had us all give of a sigh of relief when done, all the actors and extras were stunned and impressed with the shot as well. The only problem that was really wrong with the scene was that it seems like there is quite the delay with the time the clown slits his throats and when the blood starts pouring out. You can't really see the blood start flooding out of the throat until they hit the table and little later on. It still works great and doesn't take you out of the film or make it less believable, we just would've preferred or more bloody and graphic scene but we can work with what we got.

The whole shoot was really built upon and around this shoot and was great to have it out of the way and not be worrying about it anymore. The other shots for the day were simple and basic compared to it and went quite smoothly, we successfully put together one of our most complicated shoots to manage and pulled it off quite well. The white clown costume which was been worn by the Ryan Siggers who performed the death scene, was created specifically for our production by someone on the Costume Design and it was incredibly well designed and great looking. I'm glad we were able to use other course to our benefit to add more production value to our shoot.

Live Brief 2 - ManiaFrame Shoot - Wynyard Woodland Park

Another important shoot day for the production was the runaway scene and death scene of a main character, this was to take place in forest and we researched multiple forests and locations for the scene but landed on Wynyard Woodland Park, as it was suitable for filming and was also closer by than many of the others. The shoot was one day and only required three actors. I was driver, runner and actor on this shoot, playing the part of young Abraxa's. We had to carry the equipment into the forest to a spot we searched for early that had everything we needed close by and would hopefully be quiet with less people walking by. We had some issue with sound as we were given the wrong SD card and the recorder rejected it, so we were down without sound for the shoot but it wasn't too bad as  the scene was to be dubbed in a different language with english subtitles.

The location was beautiful and looks great for filming and will translate great on film, there weren't really any complications or mess ups, it ran pretty smoothly, as always time constraints was our main issue, and I feel like Glenn may have over scheduled the day with too many scenes to capture so we were in a rush to capture all the footage so we wouldn't have to go back for a second shoot day. It was quite stressful with how long certain shots were taking to set up, knowing we one had not a lot of time left and more and more shots to get. Once the filming started it would get more progressive but any breaks were just making us fall behind.

We managed to capture all the important scenes and cut aways and quite a few look really good whereas some may lack quality due to Dan's camera work with it not been in focus on the right thing a few times. Overall I'd say the shoot day at Wynyard Woodland Park was a success and it was great to shoot at a new interesting location which would set our production apart from others, as it was another great look environment and location to add to the production. Whereas a lot of other productions are using a lot of local and common looking locations for their work.

Live Brief 2 - ManiaFrame Shoot - Penshaw Monument

One of our main shots and main scenes in the short film ManiaFrame, is a teashop scene which we filmed at Penshaw Monument near Sunderland. The monument is a great landmark and a great place to film as its such a sight and adds production value to our film. It's open to the public so a main issue was just making sure we didn't have any interruptions or people walking into shots. We had quite a few difficulties with the weather filming at Penshaw as it's quite high up so we had to carry the equipment up to it and it was quite windy which was an issue for sound and had the cast and crew very cold throughout the shoot. Time issues prevented us from getting all the shots the first time round and our second trip had a problem with the film camera and the film jamming preventing us from filming anything. Our third visit was successful as we used the Blackmagic camera due to our upcoming deadline and not having enough time to shoot on film.

We were able to capture quite a few establishing shots and dolly shots on the 16mm the first visit and was quite a smooth shoot apart from the cold weather and the crew took quite some time setting up which had us unable to capture all the shots we'd like as we ran out of time with the actors. This resulted in adding a second shoot day at Penshaw which was quite an inconvenience as we already had such a tight filming schedule. Our second shoot day didnt go successful at all, we drove all the way to the monument and carried all the equipment up to the location and was unable to capture any footage due to the camera jamming and us been prevented to fix it causing us to call of the shoot. This resulted in a third and final shot day after easter when we should've been in pre-production which delayed our editing time and we needed to film digital as we wouldn't have enough time to get the film processed and edited before the deadline. We filmed on the Blackmagic and had quite the successful shoot day but still had complications with the wind which was a pain for Jamie who was on sound.

After seeing the footage come back the location was the perfect choice and looks fantastic on film. The production went to many locations and I feel it added production value to the film and gives it a look, feel and style that many over student films lack by filming in simple and common locations which takes you out of the film. Despite the difficulties that we had, the shots at Penshaw were great experience for filming in public places and ended up being very valuable. If we were to do it again, we would probably try to get more coverage but we would also be more efficient with already filming their on multiple occasions.

Live Brief 2 - Conversation with Marc de Launay

I was able to recently talk with British filmmaker and writer Marc de Launay about writing and how to improve and get in to the industry, this was great research for my professional studies report but quite an insight and good knowledge to have about the industry I'm trying to get into and about the role I'm working on now for the Urban Legends production.

How important do you feel gaining feedback on you work is, and has it lead to improvement in your own work? 

feedback is paramount in improving any work period...BUT the real question is where the feedback comes from...if it is my mum it would not be that useful..it may be positive or negative but would not contribute or really critique...so the SOURCE OF FEEDBACK has to be justified...but i never nullify someone who is not seen as a professional giving feedback, BUT it has to be at the correct time to be justified ie at a particular stage of the writing also is important as to what feedback is best and from whom...idea generation stage can be creative producers or colleagues   or partners or whatever....at times though you need to just write and not listen to others critcal quotes or feedback...the paralysis of analysis...it can be a block to writing so sometimes a writer just needs to believe in their own voice and write...then get feedback as taking notes is an art in itself as a professional writer it is part writer, part analyst, part psychiatrist, part warrior, part manager etc etc...sometimes feedback from people who are talentless and clueless is pointless apart from the fact these arses are paying your salary so you have to at least pretend to listen and not to cry in to ya cappuccino and crack on...so answer is YES and overall it has ALWAYS led to a general improvement in my work and processes and relationships...tho sometimes it kills the actual project...

Is there any advice or recommendations you'd give to younger screenwriters that you yourself received early on, or wish you had received that would've improved your skills as a screenwriter or filmmaker? 

I wish I had found a true champion or yoda...but i didn;t although i found some great advisors...best advice as a writer isto do two things....READ and WRITE..okay that sounds shit but here i mean voraciously consume books and articles and videos or any source about writing and see what works for you and your own voice...finding your voice as a writer sounds the usual bullshit answer you get from writers but in essence it is know thyself...and you NECER STOP LEARNING NOR ADAPTING YOUR SKILLS AS A wWRITER...ie you have to never be an anachronism and know trends and the market you are selling to as in essence as a writer you are actually a small business, a brand almost, so you need to understand how the market works...how the publishing industry works or film and thus not waste you time and effort on pursuing cul de sacs creatively or commercially...best advice received ever was from my old dad who simply said make sure you get an education as that can never be taken away from you regardless of what you choose your path to be...that and don't stick ya dick in the hoover until you are at least 18...basically simple advice is to keep learning what is a craft...learn enough and that craft can then become an art form...anyone who says it is only art and not about craft is a deluded narcissistic talentless creep as writing and certainly film making is a collaborative craft where there are no such thing as auteurs or genius directors...a genius director knows he works with a crew who can do their jobs better than he or she could but the directors job is to communicate their vision to the crew and the cast in order to attempt to create the film that exists in their head....

Do you feel screenwriting is something that can be 100% learned, or does it require say creativity, personality and passion from the writer? 

It can be and should be 100% learned BUT NOT TAUGHT!!  ie it takes the individual to learn how to write and how to best convey their own stories and voice...but this cannot be 100% taught as it needs the total involvement and desire of the individual to learn....i know people who are not natural writers at all but have learned to write and are very successful indeed...it is the same with music...you always need the technical basis to be correct and once you have mastered that it means you do not need to consciously think about that and thus are free to then be creative..ie only once you know the rules can you break them with abandon....BUT for any writer who feels it is their calling it is all these things that I would simply call 'soul'...same with music...there's some thrash death metal that i don;t like but i appreciate the skills involved in production but also the soul of the musicians playing ti and that can be appreciated and admired...passion and personality and creativity do shine through but ONLY if it is allowed to in that it is not hidden by not being professional or the hubris that is all too often accompanied nby those who call themselves auteurs..hubris in relying on others to actually create the film for them then they get the glory not deserved...and let's not forget that writing and film making has very low entry level requirements ie you say you';re a writer and suddenly you are...but it's like if you call yourself an artist it does not mean that you are..get a job first is better advice for some who simply do not have even a spark of course...

Do you think they key to be recognised as a screenwriter is more down to talent and the quality of your work, or more to do with connections and they people you know? 

I'd love to answer positively...but i know too many utterly brilliant but unknown writers than i do well known and well paid ones!!  It comes down to this one phrase that applies to writers and actors and any creatives...talent is NOT enough but it is the talent for having talent for the most part ie treating yourself respectfully as a professional so that others do too....personally i think you have to have at least some inert talent and everyone does really and it is all about communicating...but in the industry where you are a professional you do also have to know the right people...eventually...eventually as it takes perseverance too, look at JK Rowling who was rejected by so many of the publishers and how many billion is she worth (regardless of the PR spin shite that is her life story single mother etc...she was never really in any poverty ever but that doesn't give good copy or fodder for the life story and let's face it the victors write the history...)...so you have to be ready for greatness, chance favours the ready man as the saying goes but if you don't recognise these patterns and connections then more fool you, amazingly opportunistic things happen as long as you recognise them.....in a children's story about a girl called Milly Molly Mandy that i read to my four year old daughter her mother said that "good things are happening all the time as long as you keep your eyes open for them" and the sam eis true of any career in the creative industries including writer...but who you know obviously helps and the genetic lottery still exists in any creative industry...daddy say I'm a director and with my trust fund i can call myself one too etc...and as a writer it is often no good hanging out at hairdressing conventions when you shoudl be hanging out at film festivals to writing festivals if you want to meet like minded people or possible connections...BUT HERE IS THE MAIN THING...it is you who should look to help others, about connecting someone else with a useful connection...why...well it may be karmic credit but it is also the fact that give something to someone means they are way more likely to give something back to you and help you and it is far better to be nice and not a dickhead only out for themselves, looking over the shoulder of the person who is talking with you in case you see someone else more important to your own desires or career...okay, that's my personal viewpoint that hasn't got me global stardom or riches but at least I'm relatively happy about my chosen career(s)!!!

Is there any advice you'd give to screenwriters on how to gain more recognition, and the importance of networking within the industry? 

Networking remarked upon above is important...it is no good writing for a dreamt audience who will never read your work...but networking as long as it is done as a transaction ie it is not just take but give and take then it can work well if you are able to leverage some of these connections but if you're too desperate it is like a date and you'll put people off...go slowly and wear protection!!

How to gain more recognition...difficult as some writers should be actively discouraged as they are ignoring advice and relying solely on their talent (I've nurtured many younger or less experienced writers who simply ignore advice on learning and developing their craft and end up in either quitting or in jobs they hate but deservedly so!!  Though a few have ignored that advice and make good money but are still crap writers but like the emperors new clothes the established decision makers keep boosting their self fulfilling prophecy until they sometimes get found out..and sometimes they don;t but i won;t name names!!)...I think the bets way for early writers and established ones is to enter competitions as these are a great way of getting you r work out there to recognised readers and producers and publishers etc...i still enter competitions and having won a few now have gained actual options and commissions so these work initially...gaining an agent can be a great way to gain recognition as they do a lot of the lewg work for you BUT at 10-20% so they should and that relationship is often skewed weirdly towards the agent but writers should remember that hey employ their agents and not the other way around...i;ve left three agents in my time as in essence they are there to tie the shoelaces for contractual negotiations but as a producer i do all that anyway so why pay someone to do that...when i;ve got lawyers who i use (always good to have that buffer in negotiations of course as many british writers are the worst promoters of their own work, the worst presenters of their own work when pitching and embarrassed talking money and what they are worth etc...)...in essence again it is about doing the research in to the market and what competitions may be useful and even looking at which companies are producing the types of movies you write or which directors would like what you write etc etc...being focussed rather than throwing the pages out to the wind in the ridiculous hope that someone will find one of these pages and love it, so respect what you do and apply accordingly....BUT THIS IS ALL POINTLESS IF YOU ARE A WANNABE WRITER AND DON;T EVEN WRITE...WRITERS WRITE, PERIOD.  So you need a body of work as you do all this too of course and you need to be open to developing your craft and finding your voice and always be learning...failing that, go get a job slicing bread in Greggs and be happy..;-)

Live Brief 2- Aren't You Glad You Didn't Turn On The Lights Shoot

Aren't you glad you didn't turn on the lights is the third and final short film in our Urban Legends short film collection, and the second shoot I was on due to my absence on The Hook Man. AYGYDTOTL was filmed Wednesday 13th April at Student Accommodation in Lime Crescent, with Dan Whalen, Gary Davidson and Jack Hammersley acting in it. Set dressing and equipment transportation took place early on in the day around 10 am and the rest of the morning was used to make sure everyone was ready and to go over any last minute issues any one may have. The cast and crew was to meet at the uni at 12:30 and then to head over to the location for shooting to start at 1:15-1:30pm. Due to the script taking place at night, we had to black out the windows and act like we were filming at night, a lot of the shots take place inside a flat so its easy to disguise it as night and was more practical to get all these shots during the day and then get any shots that need to be done outside, on the night once we finished the inside shots.

I acted as driver, runner and due to John's brother not been able to make it, I took over as BTS camera man to capture the film been shot and the whole cast and crew behind the scenes. The location been someones flat, was quite small for the whole crew and equipment to fit in which was a little challenging but we made it work pretty quick. A lot of the early shots were just between Gary and Dan and were dialogue heavy, it was good to get these out of the way first so we could move on to any more complicated shots later. A poster for the fake radio show Tales From The Other Side was produced for this short and we created and used some fake blood to write on the poster the final scene of the short Aren't You Glad You Didn't Turn On The Lights. We took our time and made sure we covered quite a lot of coverage with our shots and the plan was once we finished with the inside shots, hopefully it would be dark and we could continue on and get the night shots, but the sun was still up once we finished filming inside and we decided to take the cast and crew out for something to eat while we waited for the sun to go down.

We got to the end of our meals and the sun was only just starting to go down, so we made our way back to the location and began setting up and waiting for it to get darker. I also drove on camera for a few shots of picking Gary's character up and dropping him off again later. There wasn't too many night shots to film and we were doing good on time, so we made sure we covered everything and got a few extra shots here and there that might come in useful. With this been the third shoot in our series, the crew had become more comfortable with each other and knew exactly what to expect of each other and it was good and felt nice to work consistently with the same crew instead of it changing every now and then. I think we've all definitely got better at our job roles thanks to this production and it's helped us improve many areas that we may have not considered doing before, so it's had a positive effect on us as crew members and filmmakers. All the footage we've captured seems to be to a quality standard and good enough to be used in the edit, it's been real fun working on this production with this crew and will be really interesting to see the final edits to see if our work paid off as much as we feel it did on set.

Live Brief 2 - Killer in the Back Seat First Draft

The third script in the Urban Legends series is called "Killer in the Back Seat" and it takes place after "The Hook Man". It's quite a short story and serves as a break up and link to the next story, it focuses on a takeaway delivery driver almost finishing her shift getting murdered by Jack, so he can steal the takeaway and gain access to his next victim.

The story starts with Kath, a delivery driver talking to her significant other on the phone as she pulls up to the takeaway. She runs into the takeaway and collects her last two orders before she can finish. Jack sneaks in the back of the car and she drives away unaware to the next order. Jack waits for her to make the first delivery and then murders her when she gets back in the car. He then takes the remaining order and goes to deliver it, leading in to the next and final story.

It's very short and sweet and doesn't really give much to the characters as much as the story. There might be a way to lengthen the story but it may just be dragging it out for no reason, and could ruin the story if it consists of unnecessary dialogue. Drew and John have had a read through and agree with many of the points I've made. It's a very short script and might not even be worth filming due to it's length and in some ways unneeded for the whole progression of the story, it may be easier to merge to scripts into one. Well have Di take a look at the script and see what advice she can offer and an changes she can find, and we'll work from there. Visually there is some interesting and powerful shots to be captured here, so i guess theres a positive to keeping it green lit, but it does feel so different from the other scripts and it may break the style and theme throughout which might ruin it a little.

Live Brief 2 - The Babysitter Shoot

The Babysitter is the first of our short films for Urban Legends, and is the longest therefore we decided to film it first, giving Chloe more time to edit it, and getting it out of the way early. The shoot took place Saturday 27th February and was filmed at Drew Brockbank's home. All crew arrived for 2pm and began setting up Drew's house for the shoot. This included moving furniture around and making mini sets for the actors, as well as setting up equipment and finding out when we can and can't do in the space. Actors arrived at 5pm for a script breakdown and some food and the shoot commenced at 6pm. My role on the shoot was to act as script supervisor, runner and secondary cameraman. I was in charge of the secondary camera which we used mainly for static cut away shots, I also was the main dolly operator for the few shots we used with that.

The shoot started off really smooth, the actors were great and comfortable, and we spent quite a few time on the first shots to get into the groove and they were also quite heavy dialogue shots so it was important to capture it correctly without any inconsistencies. There were three actors on a whole on set, but we made sure all Terrence's shots (Who plays the father) were out of the way nice and early. He only has a few lines at the beginning and once they were out the way he was able to get going and we were able to focus more on The Babysitter played by Cassie. Drew got a great performance out of the actors and always made sure they were ready and knew what they were doing before we started filming. There was quite a lot to capture and only given one night to do it, but we didn't feel like we were rushing it all, we moved a comfortable pace and in hindsight, maybe moved a little to quick over a few scenes that  needed some more attention. Jack who played the killer only made an appearance near the end, as its revealed he's outside, and this was quite the tricky shot to capture due to the complexity of the shoot and space provided to do it in. The crew bonded well on set and helped each other out a lot I'd say, just making sure every shot got done right.

Filming completed around 11pm on schedule as we got the last shot for the shoot. Considering this was our first shoot as a crew and the longest short we have, It feel like it went quite well. There were no hiccups production wise or problems with the location. Once we were there we were able to crack on and just get the job done. An issue we might have had was having too many people on set and location at one time. As the whole crew was there which was good but, space wise it could have done with maybe a few less people as there were a total of 10 people on set at one time including actors. Other than that the shoot was great, I was able to help out on multiple roles and get more experience with camera equipment while shooting, and see the crew work together after weeks of pre-production. It was weird and great to hear words you wrote starting coming out of actors mouths, It was quite a surreal moment and look forward to it happening on the following shoots.

Live Brief 2 - Equipment Rehearsal

We recently had an equipment rehearsal for all the crew to come fully to grips with all the equipment they will be using on the shoot. This way everyone will be comfortable with using their equipment and know what they will be doing on set. Drew wanted to run through some scenes that he thought might be complicated so we all rehearsed them so we had a better understanding for the shoot. We ran through a few of the scenes and had Abby film them so we could see what it looked like and what we could improve upon. Specifically we worked on one of the last shots, where our character is sat on the floor talking to the killer in fear and realises that he's close by. Drew wanted to use a dolly zoom moving in slowly on the character to build tension up until the moment she runs off to check on the kids.

This shot is most famous for its use in films such as Jaws (1975) and Vertigo (1958) and used in similar scenes such as our own for the same reasons. We rehearsed this a few times so there would be no complications on set and we would be able to get the shot nice and smoothly without any kinks. The footage was given to Chloe to edit who put together a little short of our equipment rehearsal. We repeated the shot a few times because it was quite hard to get the hang of. Once Abby came to grips with it, we focused on how we would light the shot and had Jacob record sound, with myself and John acting while Drew directed us. I was able to offer help to people who needed it and acted as script supervisor when needs be.

The equipment rehearsal was a good idea, because not only did it help the crew come to grips with the equipment but it was the first time our crew had worked together filming something as a team. It was good to see how we all acted and got on together as well as in our respected roles.