Second Semester Evaluation

This is my final blog entry for this semester.
We have been asked to evaluate and analyze our own work and the course in general so far.

The second semester certainly seemed a lot busier than the first.
Or was that just my imagination?







Writing

I love writing, so I was looking forward to learning how to write in the many different styles the course required.
I think I managed quite well, although we will have to see what my grades are like. I would have liked a little more practice, some more time spent working through each writing style and some break down of each method of writing. I think it would have helped to read some pieces in class and compare the styles of say a brief and a treatment. Perhaps we could have been given several different briefs to write treatments for and then gone over our own results. I am pretty sure that I was not the only one confused by this part of the course. The same goes for the press release and the newspaper blog, which are similar. Again, I think my pieces are adequate, but I know it would have helped me to have had more practice, and more feed back in class. I think that time was an issue for Kim, we had a lot of work to get into this semester and with a couple of half terms and the trip to London taking up precious time, I know there was a great deal of pressure on her to fit everything in.

Editing

Sacha Atkinson was brought in to help us with editing and was great, but very late in the semester.
I am still very confused about Final Cut. I don't know the software, and although I am a little familiar with it now, not having any workshops at all, and then being expected to edit something we are actually being graded on for our degree seemed very unfair to me.
I think we should have been taught Final Cut from the very beginning of the year. Starting from the very basics, setting up new sessions, preferences, how to save to the correct place. To the editing techniques and terms and tools.
I really don't understand why a degree course in Broadcast Media, with such a heavy emphasis on Final Cut editing has no actual teaching of the software?
Especially as it is such an expensive item to buy. We have had some guidance, but only after we have already started our edits and only for a few weeks. I have just spent the weekend working on a short film, and was amazed how important the paperwork is during filming for the editor to reference after he has the footage. If we are to be expected to write, film and then edit our own films, surely these skills are essential?
I chose to take this course specifically because I want to learn how to do just that. How to frame a shot, how to work the camera properly, not just point, zoom and shoot. I want to be taught how to breakdown a scene I have written into shot lists and storyboards. While we have been told these things exist, we haven't been shown how to actually do them, and how to work on developing these skills. I have been practicing editing on my own, but feel lost without having a firm grasp of the basics.
Kim told us about a one day course being run in Bath Spa, which relates somewhat to what I have just said, and while that would have been interesting and possibly helpful, I was appalled to hear that not only were we expected to pay for the day, but it was £125!!!!!
Haven't we already payed our course fees?
And surely any extra studies offered should have been covered by the studio fee we have payed, for which I have seen nothing in return so far.
I feel as if we are spending the days in uni simply focusing on the work we need to hand in and not learning the skills we need to accomplish this on our own, or prepare ourselves for working in the industry or making our own films.
Kim is really nice, and very approachable and helpful, and I mean no disrespect to her at all, but I find it very frustrating to find myself at the end of my first year on this course with very few additional skills. I would certainly not feel even remotely ready to work in a professional environment, and this weekend filming has absolutely confirmed that to me.
We should be learning about lighting and camera technique, we have only spent one day in the TV studio and that was to work on our radio scripts. It was very useful however, and a lot of fun too, and we all wrote our radio scripts during the process.

So, to summarise. I have enjoyed being in uni and think Weston campus is a great place to study. My classmates are wonderful and we have all worked really well together, and Kim is lovely. I feel frustrated with the lack of real training in camera, scriptwriting and particularly in editing. I would like to be able to say with confidence that I can write, shoot and edit by the end of this course, but after editing three pieces on my own and one with the group, I feel no closer to that than I did at the beginning of the year.

Editing 'Beach Body'

I can really feel my lack of training and experience while editing this group project. Tom has done most of the editing, with input from myself and Adam. But I wish I could have been more 'hands on'. I am finding it very frustrating. Tom has done a great job, although I am sure he will disagree with me, but he has very little experience and training himself. He also composed a track for the film, which is very good, using sound track pro. I contributed a track too, something I had recorded earlier which I felt really suited the film, 'The Game'. We also decided to use a track from a friend of mine, Hazel Mills, 'Freestanders'. Hazel was kind enough to allow us, thanks Hazel! We produced releases for all three tracks, and completed all the necessary paperwork, there is so much!
Now I can understand why film studios are run by lawyers and accountants.
After researching we found some pictures to use during the last few shots of the film to establish the link between the family and their 'normal' day and the bodies around them. These pictures were found using the Associated Press images website, which I joined. This gave us access to hundreds of thousands of historical pictures and also allows for the use of these pictures, as long as they are acknowledged as belonging to the associated press and are not used for commercial reasons.
Even though the film is only a little over 7 minitues long, it took all of us more than two days to capture and edit. I would have liked a lot longer to be honest, and this is not just because of our inexperience and lack of ability and training.


I have been studying editors, by watching and re-watching film, Walter Murch has become a favourite of mine. (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4994411)
Murch has won three Oscars. He has been nominated in sound and or editing categories eight times. His films include Apocalypse Now, all three Godfather films, The English Patient, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Ghost and The Talented Mr. Ripley. I discovered that editing can and should in many ways take a lot longer than the actual filming process. In fact the editing really does make the film.
I intend to continue editing the film myself, to both improve on my editing skills and improve on the finished film. It will be interesting to see how different it will become.

Walter Murch Said "Actually, when you stop to think about it, it is amazing that film editing works at all. One moment we're at the top of Mauna Kea and -- cut! -- the next we're at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. The instantaneous transition of the cut is nothing like what we experience as normal life, which seems to be one continuous shot from the moment we wake until we close our eyes at night. It wouldn't have been surprising if film editing had been tried and then abandoned when it was found to induce a kind of seasickness. But it doesn't: we happily endure, in fact even enjoy, these sudden transitions for which nothing in our evolutionary history seems to have prepared us."

Group Project Film Shoot

We shot on Saturday 24th of May in Weston Super Mare and in the second location, Sand Bay.
Praying for no rain actually worked and it turned out to be great weather, if a little windy. The windy actually added to the shoot in the end too, the beach looked amazing and the bodies were covered in sand. It even made the family antics a little more humorous. Tom and Adam had to get the train from Devon, so I picked them up in the morning after going to Tesco's for breakfast supplies for the cast and crew. The cast call was 10am and the crew call was 9.30. I had picked up the equipment a couple of days before and had checked that everything was working well and bought plenty of film and batteries, tape and pens and made copies of the shot list and schedule for the day. By arranging the shots I had managed to compress a two day shoot into one, given the long day and plenty of daylight I thought it was better to shoot that way. I could have shot over several days, but then we would have ended up with hours of footage to plow through for editing, and since there was little dialogue and Javier, our lead actor, was so experienced, I thought it was unnecessary. The first take turned out to be the trickiest. But I supposed that makes sense really. We all had to get used to the location and each other, not to mention some of the actors had never been on film before. So it took about 9 takes to get it right, although in the end we used the 2nd take anyway.



We had some sound issues, getting the boom mike close enough to the door without being in shot and wind sounds as well. But through trial and error and dumb luck, we got it right eventually. The next few scenes went much quicker. the actors had a better feel for the tone of the film and my direction was more confident. This is the first time i have directed actors, although I did direct my own documentary, its not quite the same thing. I had a shot list/script to work from. Since there was no dialogue for the actors I felt I didn't need a separate script. I think this was a mistake, I should have separated the shot list and the script. I felt I missed some shots I would have had because of this. At the beach I would have had more of a variety of shots of the family and been more prepared concerning the kinds of activities I had them do. Also I felt I missed out on the 'money shot' at the end. I had wanted much more of a 'reveal shot of the bodies, and it fell flat a bit in the end. There was no 'Scorsese', Gangs of New York, camera on a crane moment, unfortunately.(http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/scorsese_m.html) Budget did have something to do with this of course, I think this was also due to a lack of communication with Adam, on camera. But we did get some lovely shots of the horse and the dog while we were there that were unplanned and really added to the production value look of the film.
My extras were wonderful, and very patient as I covered them in sand and asked them to lie still for well over an hour. Thankfully it didn't rain, although the wind put sand in more than one persons eye! I had tow cast members let me down at the last minute and had to have Emma stand in for the son and my son Joshua stand in for the mother. Emma was wonderful, and Josh added his 'special' humour to the day, so it worked out better than I expected regarding performances.



The car shots went well too. Adam was stuffed into the boot of the car and managed to get some great shots as Javier drove the car down the drive and out onto the street. Then tom filmed form the passenger seat of my car while we were driving to the beach and we used this footage to 'cheat' the shot, as if you were in the family car.
We also used a shot of my hand turning on the radio to trigger the first track of music in the film, very clever Tom!

It was a long day, but the rain held off and the wind added to the atmosphere and the actors were wonderful. All the extras showed up and even though they ate all the food, and walked straight through one of my 'family' shots accidentally, they were marvellous!
The footage looked really good at the end of the day, and I am sure we can make the film in editing. We might add some more dialogue, but then we might just keep it as it is and use the music combined with the imagery to tell the story, we will have to wait for the editing process to be sure.

Blog entry newspaper style BC1004

Weston College music Student hits the big time!

Former Weston College music student Beth Rowley signed with Blue Thumb records, and has just recorded the title track " Careless Talk" for the new film, 'The Edge of Love’ staring Keira Knightley and Sienna Miller.

After completing a BETC in Music Practice at Weston College, and attending Brighton University, Beth teamed up with Jazz saxophonist Ben Castle and began writing her own material. Together they released three EP's, Beth Rowley (2004), Sweet Hours (2006) and Violets (2007). Her first UK single “Oh My Life’ became a BBC Radio 2 record of the week.

Beth performed at Wembley Stadium for Play.com Live in March, and in April appeared on BBC Radio 2's 'Friday Night is Music Night', performing two tracks with the BBC Concert Orchestra at the Mermaid Theatre. She also appeared on 'Top of the Pops', 'Parkinson', 'This Morning' and GMTV, launching her first headline tour at London's Bush Hall.

This year Beth has toured with David Gray, recorded with Crowded House and Duke Special.

Beth’s debut album, "Little Dreamer" is out on 26th May 2008 and her second single from the album, 'So Sublime', was released on 12th May 2008.


www.bethrowley.com

www.bluethumb.com
www.bbc.co.uk/radio2
www.weston.ac.uk
www.brighton.ac.uk
www.the-mermaid.co.uk
www.wembleystadium.com
www.bbc.co.uk/totp
www.itv.com/parkinson
www.itv.com/Lifestyle/ThisMorning
www.gm.tv
www.bushhallmusic.co.uk
www.davidgray.com
www.crowdedhouse.com
www.dukespecial.com
youtube.com/watch?v=pLtdmIQV3Tc

Individual Project

The Weston Operatic Society

For my individual documentary I decided to make a piece on the Weston Operatic Society. this was for several reason. Firstly, this year is their centennial year, which is quite an achievement and also the hook for my story, and also because I have a very good friend, Vicky, who has just joined them and is working back stage. She is my 'in'.
After talking it over with Vicky, she gave me the contact details of Margeret who is one of the more prominent members of the group and both her and her husband have been with them for more than 20 years. Margeret and I emailed back and forth for a while and then spoke on the phone. I offered my services as a prop person back stage. I did this for their sake as well as my own. They are always in need of another pair of hands and it also gave the the opportunity to view the company from within, so to speak. I spoke to many of the members and got a great sense of their camaraderie and politics. After researching and helping out for a couple of nights, I took the camera to their penultimate performance, a Saturday matinee. I took some shots of the cast and crew arriving, some shots of a vocal warm up and then make up and costume. I also took some great shots back stage before and during the performance. I was not able to film the performance front of house due to copyright and royalty restrictions, but it really wasn't the focus of the piece anyway. I was more interested in being a fly on the wall backstage. I used the microphone on the camera because while the sound was important, I wanted to give the experience of being one of the company, and it worked better to be as unobtrusive as possible. I also filmed in the street outside the Playhouse, while the audience was arriving and in the front of house, although I was told by the front of house manager that was not allowed to film any children, which I was already aware would be a problem as its illegal. He did allow me to film in the auditorium thought, which was wonderful and very cinematic, with all the dark red seats and the hum of the crowd. The only thing I did wish I had more of was some interviews, but everyone was so busy i didn't want to interrupt. In retrospect I should have, since this was a reported piece, I should have had interview. But I hope to make up for that with anecdotal narrative and some pieces to camera of me narrating.
I have a lot of editing to do now, so I better get to it!

Editing; Ice Mountain, Star FM.

Our second Edit was the Ice Mountain. Kim filmed the footage a few weeks before hand for us. Thanks Kim!
I felt a little more confident this time, although I am still not that happy with the result. I think it starts of quite well, but I felt I needed a lot more time and was rushing to finish in the allotted time. This is because of my inexperience, it really slows me down I feel. But the more I edit the faster I will become and the better, I hope. i was trying to make the peace fun and informative as well as make it feel as though a radio station would have it on their website, which is why I added the music. I composed the track using Sound Track Pro which is so wonderful to use and really simple to add to the edit. The music is too loud though and again I didn't have enough time to really finish the track, so it doesn't really go anywhere, which is a shame. But again, the more I use Sound Track Pro the better I will become, in theory!
So over all, I was mostly pleased with the edit, although I can see its faults. But I think I had a sense of direction, certainly at the beginning and although it got a bit lost towards the end and the sped up section is a bit too fast, I think it flowed quite well. So when it is graded I hope they mark it on the first half!!

group project pre-production

Project members:

Tom Hopkins, Kate Pritchard, Adam Jones, Sam Simmonds

Project title: Beach Body

Our project began with the member selection, I had worked with Tom and Adam before on our radio project last semester, so I was delighted to have the opportunity to work with them again. Katie is genius at organizing and planning, so she really rounded out the team.

Together we ran through a few ideas for the project. A chase movie, drama, comedy etc. But we settled on the beach body idea after I suggested that we begin the film with a shot of a dead body on a beach and then ran back through the series of events that resulted with the body.

We went down to the location, Sand Bay, and took the camera with us to shoot some simulations. I wanted to get a feel for how the beach looked on camera and to run through some ideas for framing the shots. This was a really useful exercise, and it gave me a lot more ideas for shots and angles and content.

Tom suggested that it would be interesting if the body on the beach was completely ignored by anyone who encountered it. We adapted the original idea to the final pitch. A family goes to the beach for the day and sits next to a dead body, but ignores it completely. Then when they leave we see that the beach is covered in bodies. I wanted to incorporate footage of real dead bodies, in various natural disasters and wars etc. The point being that we chose to ignore what goes on around the world every day, and we can easily by changing the channel or reading another article. But if we had to deal with death on a daily basis, many people do for various reasons around the world, would we be able to do the same? The film poses the question, and by mixing in shots of war and death we will hopefully drive the point home.
We also decided to have very little dialogue for several reasons. In previous experiences, its usually the sound that is the hardest to get right on 0 budget films, and filming on location adds a million different variables to the problem. I knew from filming a recce that even with no wind, wind sound would be a problem on the beach, as well as working with inexperienced actors having to earn lines. Although my lead actor is a very experienced American actor, everyone else would be amatures.
So cutting out the need for dialogue really helped in the planning and expectations. We may well add some dialogue later on, recorded in the studio, taking care to shoot in such a way that this can be done without the need for syncing to actors mouth movement.
I am really looking forward to the shoot and working with everyone. We need to cast, although I have cast the main part already. One of the children will be played by my daughter and the other by a family friend. We just need to cast the 'mother', which I am working on now.

Editing; Wake Up - music video

For our first edit we decided to use some footage we took last semester when we spent a day trying out the cameras. We had the idea to shoot a music video to make things a bit more fun for our first attempt. In the morning we shot in the TV studio on campus and in the afternoon we went out on location to the beach in Weston and in town shooting on the high street. Since we had two cameras for the day one camera took some cut way shots on the beach while the other was filming in town, it was a great way to get two completely different perspectives and techniques. So using the footage later as an edit was interesting because the time break had given me a completely different vision for the piece. I actually had about three different versions on the go at the same time, just to see where they would go. In the end the one I settled on was the more simple of the three. I used some repetition, using the same shot several times to mimic musical motif's in the song.

http://www.myspace.com/samsimmonds 

I recorded 'Wake Up'  a couple of years ago now and has several different mixes, and is actually being remixed right now by LA based Groovejunkies for release through the Morehouse label some time this year. 

http://www.myspace.com/morehouserecords

So it was a wonderful opportunity to play with the images for the track.

I haven't been using Final Cut for very long, so I was a little nervous to start with, but I think being thrown into it was a great learning curve for me. I can see now what I would change of course, but at the time I had a more limited knowledge and very little experience with Final Cut. I wanted to use as much of the footage we shot as possible while maintaining a connection to the music. But I know I could have improved on my cut if I had made smoother transitions between edits and worked harder on the rhythm  of the piece.

'Saline' Film Set on the Beach at Weston

We were lucky enough to begin our new semester with the chance to work on a film set.

Saline is a short film produced by Percival Productions and shot in Weston. The storyline concerns a young girl who is torn between her love for her boyfriend and his addiction to drugs.

Weston has a large number of drug rehab facilities, and with the dramatic landscape and the slightly seedy town centre I can understand why it was chosen as the location.

Unfortunately we had very little notice given for the work, so most of us were unable to help for too long. Since I have two kids in school I wasn't able to spend as much time with the production as I would have liked, but it was a great chance to see how a small film production unit works and to meet some really nice people! Being nice is apparently one of the most important attributes to have as a member of a film crew. Since so much time is spent hanging around waiting and staying away on location is necessary, if you cant get on with pretty much everyone and have a smile on your face even when the ***! hits the fan then you wont get hired too often.

We spent most of the time we were there waiting around with the rest of the crew as the camera they were using for the beach scene had broken and a production assistant had been sent into Bristol to pick up a new one which had been sent down from London especially. The delay did afford the opportunity to talk with a few of the crew though, Nicky, the production assistant(manger) was very friendly and offered some great advice about getting started in the film industry, she has only been working for a couple of years.

It was a really wonderful opportunity to see how a small film crew works together, and to soak up some of the atmosphere of a film set.

Evaluation

This is my final blog entry for this semester.
We have been asked to evaluate and analyze our own work and the course in general so far.

The feedback I have had from Kim and Gill so far has been good I think, the marks they have given me have certainly been high, which is encouraging. I have tried to spend as much time in the classroom as possible, but with two kids in school and in need of picking up everyday, I haven't always been able to. Also, being responsible for several other human beings can be difficult, especially when they are ill and need me. But both Gill and Kim have been extremely understanding when I have been unavailable and hopefully next semester will be easier as I have help at home now.

The other students in my class are all so bright and very capable and I have learned so much from them as well. I love the fact that we have only 7 people in the group, its a very intimate way of learning and it works very well with the technical side, and we all get along well. I look forward to working on more practical projects with them all next semester.

I think my experience in the music BTEC helped enormously. Both with mac's and protools and computer skills I picked up on the course. I realized that I am actually quite good at sound editing, which is great. I have also worked on my scriptwriting and having good feedback from my class mates and the lecturers has been very encouraging.

The experience of pitching and producing the radio show was invaluable, as was the feedback.
Producing something like that was a real validation of our skills. While I can see exactly where we could have improved both organisationally and with the idea itself. I feel we accomplished a great deal and have all learned from it. The next group project will be so much the better for it.

I think the biggest thing I have learned form these last few months has to be organisation!!
I have never been very good at it to be honest, but I know know how much smoother things would have ran if I had been more organized.
Both with my time and resources (I will get protools this month!!) and with the work itself.
I have my own problems and family and home that eat away at my time, but each of my class mates have theirs too. Whether its work or traveling from Bristol or Exeter or even London, as Aleicia did today. Its all the same in the end. I have to be more on top of my work and put in the time. The more I put in the more I will get out and the better the results in the end.
I m really looking forward to the next few weeks and catching up on all the reading I need to do. Then its back in February to start the Film semester, yeah!!!
I have so many ideas, I hope I can get some of them started!

We were also asked to write about anything negative we have encountered.

Okay, well, I have to say that I am more than a bit dissapointed about not getting a hard drive.
I know that the group last year did, and how helpful they found them. I was also told that we would. When we start film editing we will need all the space we can get. We all have laptops and they will fill up very very quickly. Our classroom is wonderful, but only available to us when we are in class. We cannot access it at any other time and the hours at Weston are very short. There is only one evening we can stay late, and then its only until 8pm and with permission from our tutour and her signature, which seems ridiculous.
So without help, I just cant see how its going to work, l though I am not sure how much work we will have to edit. But I would like to be able to spend as much time as I can working with Final Cut. I am also dissapointed with the sound recording equipment. I know that Gill put in for a lot of digital recorders and a couple of good mics for radio etc, but she ended up getting nothing at all. How can we make films or programmes without the necessary sound equipment? It also seems a bit hard on Kim that she is now our only lecturer, I am hoping that we will have some visiting lecturers or something, we have a lot of work to do and only two days a week, so some more help would be nice.

Other than that I am thoroughly enjoying the course and Weston campus is great. Its lovely having a new building to learn in and the lecturers and great and Gill has been wonderful stepping in before Kim arrived. So I am really glad I took the course and cant wait to see what happens next!

Sound Design

Walter Murch, noted Sound Designer




Sound design is a technical/conceptually creative field. It covers all non-compositional elements of a film, a play, a music performance or recording, computer game software or any other multimedia project. A person who practices the art of sound design is known as a Sound Designer.

In film production, a Sound Designer is a member of a film crew responsible for some original aspect of the film's audio track.

Often forgotten and always over looked by the general public, the sound designer or 'sound guy' has the biggest responsibility in film making, second only to the director. In fact the sound designer is the only person other than the director who can yell "cut!" when they feel necessary, without being fired. The director looks first to the sound guy to nod and say "rolling" before any action begins. Without the sound being perfect there would be no filming. In fact, syncing sound with action later on in the studio is costly and usually almost impossible to get away with. So it is imperative to get it right during filming. Directors often use the same sound designer over and over again, they are so crucial to the film.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts a Science recognizes the finest or most aesthetic sound mixing or recording in film with the Academy Award for Best Sound, historically given to an English-language film. The new Tony Award for Best sound is to be awarded for the best sound design in American theatre.

Sound Design can also be defined as: "The manipulation of audio elements to achieve a desired effect."

The terms "Sound Design" and "Sound Designer" were already in use in theatre and were introduced to the film world when Francis Ford Coppolla directed (and his father, Carmine Coppolla arranged the music for) a live production of Noel Coward's Private Lives's at the American Conservatory Theatre (ACT) in San Fransisco where sound designer Charlie Richmond was resident, while the final cut of the The Godfather was being edited in 1972. In the original film world meaning of the title, as established in the 1970s by Coppola and Walter Murch, a sound designer is an individual ultimately responsible for all aspects of a film's audio track, from the dialogue and sound effects recording to the re-recording of the final track. The title was first granted by Coppola to Murch for his work on the film Apocalypse Now in recognition for his extraordinary contribution to that film.

Walter Murch

We have had the opportunity to design our own soundscapes this semester in Gill Sargent's class. While I was at first a little apprehensive at attempting to design sound. I really enjoyed the freedom it brings. Although I am not sure whether my piece would stand up to the brilliant Walter Murch or even the more surreal electronic art music of R. Murray Schaffer or the granular synthesis of Barry Truax or Luc Farrari (all founding members of the movement in the 1970's). I think that the simple mood and place I hoped to convey through the manipulation of the sounds I captured was ultimately realised.

I certainly have a renewed respect for the art of sound capture in all its forms, and through the experience gained from the several voxpops and interviews we have worked on over the last few months.