Memory is the Key (Almost unlocked)

So I am filming on Tuesday.
I am!
What can I be doing till then?
Well I still need to finish my shot list and the costumes still need a tweak.
I'll have the updated costumes up on here for Monday afternoon.

I have also had a think about what other films have had the scenes like this in them.
I can only think of the opening scene of the 3rd Pirates of the Caribbean. I can't find a clip of it on Youtube.
I'm going to look into this more.

On a sudden and different note, I feel nervous. What if I don't act as well as I think I can?
I need to throw out all doubt.
Doubt doesn't help anything.

Scanning Paul Kenny. Unit 18.

So Paul Kenny came to give a lecture about his work on Wednesday.

I can't say I was greatly interested, but I did want to find out how he did photography without using a camera. As the title suggests, he uses a scanner. So I had a little go at it with my scanner at home.

As with most things. Start with my own face.
This is a bad start I think. I'm way too far from the scanner making me appear blurry.

 I quickly moved away from my face and used a fake rose I had acquired on my travels. For this I placed the rose on to the scanner and then reflected a torchlight  off a mirror angled just above. I then cut the image down in Paint. Removing the messy empty space and leaving you to focus on just the flower head.

I tried the same shot but in the dark this time. The reflected light is picked up a lot more and the colour in the flower is much stronger.

I have these small coloured card sleeves and thought I would see how the light would work with them.
I was hoping for them to be a little more transparent and look almost ghost-like. That is not the case.

I went back to using the rose. This time I left the light resting at the very top of the scanner. As the scanner scanned, I closed the lid and opened it again to create the striped background.














I decided to leave it at that for the night. But worry not, I came back.
These were done almost a week after the first few. I found this very relaxing. For some I just clicked scan and came up with the idea in the few seconds before the scanner started.

 For these two I tried moving with the scanner. I really like the first one. I really like how my hair looks in it. The image of the hand started off well but failed at the thumb.

For these two I tried to make the image slightly faded and ghost-like. I think the first one with the lights off gives the creepy feel I was hoping for. I like how the eyes have turned out for both images. They are just dark. Slightly annoyed by the mucky streak that is from my earlier pictures. If I were to do this as a proper piece of work I would wipe the glass clean after each shot.

 I decided to mix the rose into it again. I thought about it being in place of my eye. The first two I'm holding the stem and in the first, I'm clearly too far from the scanner. I moved closer with each take and finally decided to reposition the flower. Again, my hair looks good. I like that my fringe is the only thing in focus although I would have preferred it to have been just the rose. I may come back and try to perfect this some time.

For this one I tried to add motion again but this time I moved away rather than along. I was hoping to have a clear nose in the center for the focus point. I think I moved a bit too fast and too close to the scanner. I think I could make something good with this idea, I just need to put a bit more time into it.

Unit 18.

 So that's the main body of work I produced. Here are some of the other images I produced:

T.V. Studio experience.

What are you doing this Tuesday? FORGET IT!
You are now going to go work in the T.V. Studio and get experience.
Hooray!
Down to the studio set everything up. Lights ready. Cameras ready. Just need our client to arrive.
After about an hour of waiting we were then informed that it's actually tomorrow.
Not a problem. Just gotta remember what I had planned to do.
Finish the shot list for Memory is the Key.
Also you can't film this week. Sorry!
(Door slams shut.)

Memory is the Key. The door has been opened.

So with out any telling my tutor anything about my idea I passed him the script for it and he gave it a little look. Only the first page I think but he liked what he saw. That is the main point.
He suggested I take a look at a piece of work by Samuel Becket, Not I.
Here is a link to it.
Not what I was thinking for the full piece. Maybe for Darkness...

So what now?
Well I have been reading the script over and over again. It's just over 3 minuets but it will be shorter when I edit it.
I have started to add camera directions to the scrip.
I have also improved some of the costumes.
Plan to film on Thursday.

The 3 Min Project (Memory is the Key) unit 18.

Suddenly, change!
I have decided to do something completely different to the other idea I had.

This kind of ignores the first rule of writing, You're not as interesting as you think. Don't write about yourself. But I don't really see this as being about me. It first came to me while editing the cooking footage for the Shisha project. Unintentionally I am in it, and as I was editing it I started to have a conversation with myself. Making bad puns mostly.
I started to think about how it would look on screen. Amusing at least.

 This is a picture taken with an Iphone. This starts to show the visual aspect of what I want to achieve in the 3 min piece. I plan to have six versions of myself argue with each other. Now why would there be six of me in one room and why would they argue? I think the best way to explain this is to show you the script.

This weekend I have started, and hope to have done by Monday, a script for this. Here is the opening. It shows the first 3 characters, Intelligence, Innocence and Anger. The others are Righteousness, Panic and Darkness. These characters represent ways of  thinking.  The plot, I have just awoken with no memory of previous events and there is a dead woman on the floor. Depending on availability the woman will be pregnant. Because I think a pregnant woman being killed is much worse than just a regular woman. Anyway the 6  ways of thinking argue about how to deal with the problem.

 So I started designing costumes last night. Here is what I had in mind for Intelligence. Main point for this is the lab coat. When I think of intelligence I think of scientists and doctors. His hair is well kept and his tie in place.
Now I want him to have glasses. Just not those. I was thinking of having a thinner pair.

For Innocence I started to think of how I could make myself look childish. I decided to wear my duck tie and have a lollipop in hand. I also went with the idea of having the shirt partially tucked in. Although this may change.

This is Anger. His hair is slightly messed up and he has no tie, allowing the top two buttons to be open. I'm not sure why I decided to have braces on Anger, I felt it was a nice touch but I think I will try to get hold of some that are darker in colour. Rather than the light purple shown here.

Here is Righteousness. A nice 3 piece suit all buttoned up with a royal purple tie.
Other ideas for Righteousness are a vicar or a super hero. Both are good ideas but I think I prefer this, accompanied by a strong voice that gives a feel of being better than everyone.

This idea for Darkness was to have a devil like character in human form. The classic black suit and red tie give the feel of evil business man. I first thought of having Darkness chained down or locked in a cage to show how we try to hide or control our dark thoughts. I moved away from that as I thought it would be impractical. I also considered having Darkness just be a voice. I think I will film him as shown here and if it feel wrong I can just remove the visual footage.

Lastly we have Panic. I think this was the simplest of ideas for costume, as it is just me looking rather distressed. The hair is messy and the tie is out of place. Although it is the simplest, I think it is the most effective and looks the best. Maybe it's just this picture.

Anyway that is how I intend for my 6 characters to look. Now I just need to finish the script and make a shot list. I'm really excited for this and can't wait to film it.

Shisha awareness advert.

We have been given the task to make a short advert to inform people of our age the risks of smoking shisha. After compiling research together we found an advert for the Guiardian involving the three little pigs in modern day london. We quickly decided to do something similar. Alice in Wonderland but in a modern day environment. We quickly sorted a shot list an did a test run of shots. It didn't go to well and started to look a bit dodgy and we struggled to acquire the dress. We had a big meeting with everyone involved and a couple of tutors. We discussed where we were going wrong. I think we got stuck on one idea that was a bit too ambitious. Our discussion lead us to what Shisha actually is. It doesn't make you hallucinate and it doesn't change your mood, so what is the point. Why would you smoke it? None of us could see a point. It's just the same as smoking cigarettes with even more of a health risk. So we stared to have ideas that questioned and mocked Shisha. We split into two groups each focusing on a different idea.
Idea 1
Idea one focuses on the ingredients. It's a short cooking show about John the chef making Shisha.
Idea 2
Idea two focused more on the cost and a bit on the social side of Shish. It's a short snippet from a shopping channel selling shisha. 

Even though we had split into two small teams we still intended to work together when filming. I worked on idea 2.
We started by watching a few clips of shopping channels on Youtube.One that really caught our attention was one that's trying to do the same thing as us. It's for AK-47s.
Teleshopping AK-47

We started working on a script soon after. At about the same time idea 1's team had finished their scrip and were ready to film.

Filming Cooking with John
So I walked into the T.V. studio with the idea that I would be working on camera or maybe floor managing. Nope Not today because our actor is suddenly busy and can't make it. According to our director, "The jacket is just your size." So I became John and had no time to learn the script that had been written. I didn't mind too much, I just wanted to get a feel for using cameras again. There is always next time though. On the other hand everyone had fun we got the shots we wanted and we made a funny little cooking show. Oh I almost forgot the other problem. The two key points for this was to have John the chef from the college cafe and a blender. So we don't have John and now the blender doesn't work. I was expecting the cameras to brake next with the luck we were having.We worked around the problems and filmed 9 takes before accepting that we had enough. Here is a shot of me being Chef John.

Now we get to editing. Even though I opted to work on idea 2 I wanted to assist with the editing for Cooking with John. This ended up with me editing it. Not a problem with that. What there was a problem with was sound. Takes 3-7 didn't have working sound. I made do with what working footage we had. After editing the footage the director turned up, so I left him to add the text, such as a list of the ingredients.

Shop Gallery.

We have been given a gallery in the center of town to showcase all of our work. It's a small empty shop but it is being transformed into a lovely studio/gallery. I don't see myself doing much, if any work in here. I'll probably use it as a mini cinema for most of the films I make over this next year.

These are just a couple of pictures of the main area of the shop. It's an good sized space to work with. I'll probably use it mostly as a mini cinema to show all of my work.

       

There are two small booths in the back corner. of room, both with mirrors. 

In the back room there is a sink area and toilet. Not sure how useful this area can be at the moment but it's nice to know it's there.

And his is it from the outside.