• Peter Woodbridge – Director.
• Mick Le Mare – Producer.
• Adam Davies – 1st AD.
• Sam Soane – 2nd AD.
• Jame Humbles – DOP.
• Rebecca Pittam – Executive DOP.
• Alex Hacking – Camera Op.
• Richard Neal – Editor/Casting.

http://www.lattitudethemovie.com/

After many discussions in our secret cave/basement storyboarding room beneath our University building we have come up with a detailed story for a film, with plot twists and in depth character representations. In short, it is a feature length film which follows two geeks across countries to search for the ultimate technology, through the form of geocaching (see earlier video). They encounter many situations/characters along the way that either aid or seek to destroy their mission.

Pitch

Here is the pitch for our film, which can be found on our website.

Title: Lattitude

Logline: Two tech geeks go on a quest for the ultimate piece of technology in a Lord of the Rings for the Google Generations.

Max and Percy, the unlikely heroes in our story, are tech geeks through and through. As best friends since school they spend all of their spare time, and much of their work time, involved in a modern day treasure hunting game called Geocaching- in which participants use GPS to hide and seek containers that are hidden across the globe.

Percy (mid 20s/early 30s, overweight) is an awkward IT man, he works in a computer store, and thinks he knows everything- with character traits based on a Windows PC.

Max (mid 20s, stick thin, better looking) is a hipster-geek-apple-fanboy who worships everything Apple do- and has many of the characteristics of the brand he models his life by. He claims to be a blogger- but really he is on the dole.

Their best friend, Linux, died in a mysterious geocaching incident and while out retracing the geocache mission that killed him- they are visited by a ‘technological God’ (whose character is modelled on Steve Jobs) who tells them about a piece of awesome technology that was created in the early 1980s out of the experiments of the Homebrew Computer Club.

This piece of technology is so powerful, and dangerous, that he had to hide it from the human race back in 1983 (when he departed Apple). The world just wasn’t ready to deal with its consequences and until now the secret had been hidden- and was known only to a few.

The problem is, that since that time, a few other ‘evil’ companies (Google and Facebook), with their hearts set on technological domination and power- have rediscovered the secret and want to find it- so that they can use it to take over the world.

As the chosen one’s, Max and Percy must stop them by going on a modern day treasure hunt- that spans two continents- to find a series of hidden objects that will unlock the code to the greatest piece of technology the world has ever known.

Context

The story portrays just how much we rely on modern technology to guide us. There is a section in the script whereby they are rendered unable to use thier geeky devices and they have to discover things for themselves. Being the nerds they are they cannot come to terms with this reality and are driven apart. As the plot of the film progresses, we will see the two friends fall out and it raises the concerns of friendship values and how they truly need each other, though they have their differences. The symbolic ‘Apple’ will have references throughout, as well as technology-related puns and in-jokes such as “Percy you take forever to wake up” etc. The use of character representations being personifications of well known technology should enable the audience to interact with the characters.

Distribution

The finished film is guaranteed to be shown at the Third Year Media Production Degree Show in June, which is to be held at BAFTA in London. As well as this it will also be shown at the Coventry event venue around the same time. I’ve also had a look at London Independent http://www.londonindependent.org/ and Zero Film Festival http://zerofilmfest.com/.

Budget

We have been Granted £300-$500 per person for our trip. This all depends on the numbers we have. But we currently have around 9 people thoroughly involved, coming to a total of £2700-£4500 coming off the cost of the film.

• £8000 flights (9 crew 2 actors).
• £1500 equipment costs/insurance.
• £3850 catering (10 days for 11 people ~£35 a day).
• £2500 hotels.
• £1000 car hire.
• £500 petrol.
• £250 script editor (unless we get Clifton on board).

The total budget comes to around £18,000.

Sponsorship and Fundraising

This section is vital for our film to be developed it the way we envisage. Currently we have had a response from Jaguar willing to provide transport while we are out there and we have heard back from ByBox http://www.bybox.com/ who are willing to put in some money for the project. We are thinking we could perhaps use their product in one of our scenes, as well as label them in the credits at BAFTA for their advertisement campaign. We have also contacted Geocaching themselves who are supportive of the project however will not be offering us any money towards the budget. We still have a couple of months to raise the money, and we are in the process of producing documents to send to more companies related to our film such as TomTom, Sony, Apple and even Google. This will be done within the next few days.

http://www.geocaching.com/

This is an in depth guide into what Geocaching actually is for those of you who are unaware of it:

Here is the road we will be aiming to travelling along.

And another of the scenery and locations we will be encountering:

FIRST YEAR – MARK WOOD DOCUMENTARY

Being 1st AD for this I took part in the research and pre-production, planning, production and post-production (primarily editing using Final Cut 7).

All of the development for this project can be found here:

http://addavies.wordpress.com/category/111mc-media-research/

SECOND YEAR – OVER THE HILL

During the pre-production and production of ‘Over The Hill‘ – a short film produced in my second year – it was my responsibility to keep things in order to the schedule, make the actors feel comfortable around us, allow them feel less under pressure and treat them as friends rather than just colleagues who were helping us on a student film. I briefed them on the script, went through it with them before the shoot so they knew exactly what to do. We saved a LOT of time by doing this.

I timed shoots, and if they were too long I consulted the director to let him know we had finish up and move on. Executive decisions have to be made in order for progress to be made, for the greater good of the final outcome.

Along with our director, I kept the team to a strict timeline, as we had to get shots done in time before either the lighting changed dramatically or the actors got bored. We stuck to our shooting schedule to ensure everyone knew what was expected of them, where we had to be and when, when our breaks were etc. I also took control of the budget:

Not only this but I created a detailed storyboard for the film:

http://addavies.wordpress.com/2011/03/09/short-film-the-storyboard/

And also made a list of ALL the required items for the shoot:

During my format production module I attended a session with Philip Lewis (http://www.philiplewis.co.uk/) a 1st AD with over 25 years experience who works for BBC and ITV on various drama soaps – Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Casualty – (and Narnia) who taught me many techniques about the role of 1st AD.

THIRD YEAR

Being a First AD requires a knowledge of every single other role on the production team, from lighting, sound, camera all the way down to the runners. I have experienced aspects of all of these roles. I have worked in format production as a presenter, floor manager, camera operator, sound engineer and assistant director.

When teaching the television studio to the chinese students I made sure that everyone was happy with their roles and even had a go at directing; if anyone had a problem I could understand their issue as I had had the experience. I am currently working as DOP for the Culturae Mundi projects and producer for the BBC Big Screen Olympic Sports videos and although I enjoy these roles, I want to be in the directing side of production; that is what I am more interested in. Without presenting myself as big-headed, I would say I am a good communicator. I am not shy and I like to talk with people and crowds. This is vital for a 1st AD to possess.

I have worked with members of the CORE team already and am more than comfortable with working along side them again on this project. I cannot wait!

So far I have shown that I am reliable, efficient, organised and hard-working. After trying my hand at many different, diverse roles within a variety of production teams, I have discovered that I am truly passionate about becoming an assistant director once leaving University, therefore I want to build up a profile of professional work to add to my portfolio. LA is my shot at this!

http://addavies.wordpress.com/2011/11/27/power-spectacle-memory-conclusion/

4. Reflection and Evaluation:

http://addavies.wordpress.com/2011/11/22/power-spectacle-memory-evaluation-and-reflection/

3. Research:

http://addavies.wordpress.com/2011/11/14/memory/

http://addavies.wordpress.com/2011/11/05/power-spectacle-memory-processdevelopment/

2. Analysis:

http://addavies.wordpress.com/2011/11/08/power-spectacle-memory-analysis/

1. Process and Development:

http://addavies.wordpress.com/2011/11/07/making-a-spectacle-of-yourself/