Last week Mick, Pete, Rich and Jake travelled down to Coventry University’s London campus for the auditions for Latitude. It was a long day for the crew but they viewed all the actors who were shortlisted down from the many applicants we had for the roles. The actors selected for auditions were those who seemed most engaged by the project and had the most impressive showreels to offer.
After the auditions the crew then narrowed it down to the final 4 and have now decided upon our two main characters of Max and Percy, of whom will be flying out to America with us for the road trip section of the film.
For the character of Max we have chosen Jonathan Leinmuller.
Max
He has had plenty of experience in film, with many shot films under his belt, and from looking at his work he really seems to fit the persona of our character. His audition was also one of the best on the day. Here is a short film he was in not long ago.
Originally, Rich envisioned that he would fit the role of Percy more http://vimeo.com/23637971 (He starts at 7:45). He’s only been in the one feature, would be interested to see what he could bring to the role of Percy.
Andy McGillan is the actor selected for the role of Percy; he has an Elijah Wood innocence look to him and he sure looked the part when he came for audition.
Percy
Evidence of work shows low budget student films, no professional work though. Has done a lot of stage work, but seems to be trying to push into Film/TV more the last few years.
Today, along with a few others from the Media departments travelled down to Sky News in London for a tour of the main 24-hour news building. I opted to go on this trip in order to see first-hand how the production of the news was researched, organised and presented to the millions of viewers worldwide.
One of the first things that I noticed was the sheer numbers of people involved behind-the-scenes. There were so many people that were in the research department, gathering news from various sources from around he world; whether it be phone calls, online, face-to-face or in the field. The second thing that shocked me was how open the main studio was; the presenter was sat in the middle of the room surrounded by cameras, but also just 5 or so metres away people were sat at their desks doing work, chatting away. I thought that the presenter would have been in a much more closed off environment in order to present without being distracted, but because the tie-mic was so close to her, it did not pick up the sound from all around her.
Our tour was led by Sarah Whitehead, the Head of International News at Sky, formerly of BBC. She mentioned how everyones ideas count, from Tea-Runner all the way through the ranks to Executive Producer and Head of Sky. I was told how the main source of income comes from advertising, however Sky News is still a loss-leader. It is distributed on Free-view and the website is also free. She went on to raise the debate: ‘Is Twitter right in providing free, fast news? Is it reliable?’ We all sat down and were told about the reliability of sources, as many sources cannot be proven for some time before they are distributed by a presenter. Sarah told us about Reuters Wires, who are apparently an extremely reliable source, with quick intel from a world perspective. She also mentioned how they are continually in competition with other news channels such as BBC, ITV and Channel 4 and how she was in contact with such a reliable and trusted source for the Berlusconi story that Sky got the information worthy of distributing on air 15 minutes before the BBC. She went on to say how sources are based on trust, reliability, past-experience and performance.
I also learnt about fixers. Fixers are people (usually locals) who are picked up by the crew on location and know the local area and people; they often speak the language and can get you out of a mess if something is about to happen. From this she went on to mention the conflict in Cairo where reporters are at the moment and the importance of: ‘If things go wrong, what is your exit plan?’
In the past there have been critical responses to Sky News suggesting that they focus too much on distributing the news the second it is found by researchers, however while I was there it really shows how things have changed. Sources is checked, double checked, triple checked and so on. Sarah admitted that things are not what they once were and that it is ‘better to be right than first; we only use trusted sources’ – and many of them. It’s unbelievable the amount of people soaking up the news through either phone calls, meeting the people involved, speaking to them, and actually being there.
We went on to question about the necessary requirements when applying for experience at Sky. She stated that:
You must have a clear idea of WHAT you want to do, which department you want to be in and your short/long term ambitions. What can you offer? It is important to be specific and use your most unique skills to the best of your ability (and beyond), whether they be technical, presentational or research based. Be different, be PASSIONATE. If accepted, research into your role well in advance; you must completely understand what is expected of you before you begin. In terms of being a runner:
Be energetic, passionate, on-time and engaged. Bring ideas with you – WANT TO BE INVOLVED.
While we were there we even had the opportunity to meet the Head of Sky News, John Ryley and even enter the gallery while the news was being broadcast live. We could not make any noise whatsoever for obvious reasons, but we got to experience the roles of Director, Executive Producer, Technical Director, Vision Mixer, Sound Engineer etc. All in all, it surely was an experience to remember, and I for one am definitely interested in applying for work experience.
So we successfully filmed our short film ‘Over The Hill’. Everything could not have gone more according to plan. The weather forecast was predicted snow at one point, however as per usual the weatherman predicted wrong. We were gifted blue skies all weekend which was sensational. As everything was pre-planned beforehand, myself and the crew knew exactly what we were doing, when we were going to do it and what we were going to tell the actors when we got to the locations.
The Equipment Just About Fit Into The Car
On the day on the shoot we woke up early and because everything was organised and already packed we didn’t need to rush or feel stressed. I took precautions and even though the weather was brilliant, I packed rain-covers incase the weather turned against us. We were graciously provided breakfast by Jake’s Uncle and were soon on our way to the station where we took the equipment from Cockfosters to London Euston on the tube. It was here where we eagerly anticipated the arrival of our actors. We arrived early with plenty of time to spare, so we decided it would be best for Jake and Alex to make their way to Regents Street to begin setting up for our arrival. Myself, Mick and Rich (who had initiated the original casting call and had been in contact via email and phone with the actors) stayed at the station to meet and greet. I thought it was best that we arrived 30 minutes early rather than 1 minute late; the last thing we wanted is to make a bad first impression by making them wait! Our actors soon arrived and we were immediately off to our first location, where Alex and Jake were waiting and ready to film.
Some Of The Gear Required For The Exterior London Shots.
Being the First Assistant Director I was in control of keeping to the schedule myself and Mick had prepared. There were factors I had to consider at the time in regards to what elements could effect the order of our scenes; for example weather and lighting, although I was reasonably lucky as the sun was out all day. I just had to make sure that we had filmed all the exterior shots before the light started to fade (around 5:00pm). I was also responsible for the safety of myself, the cast and crew, so I took extra precaution by bringing a first aid kit in my bag as well as emergency numbers keyed into my phone.
Running Through The Script
For keeping track of time I had rented out a stopwatch from the media loans shop located on Coventry University Campus and took notes of log-sheets during shoots which can be seen bellow as a PDF file. I had a rough idea of how long each scene would take to shoot from timing the set up of the equipment and running through the script on location the previous day, and also how long it would take us to get from location to location by timing the distance travelled on the London Underground.
Before the shoot I went through the script in detail with the actors on location, advised them on how to express certain words, emotional responses to portray and kept them feeling in a good mood. I wanted to be as enthusiastic as possible; after all they were the ones doing us a favour. After starting each take with the clapperboard, I made sure that I kept well out of the way of the actors’ eye-line while the camera was recording; the last thing I wanted was a re-enactment of Christian Bale’s reaction on the set of Terminator Salvation! During recording we all set our phones to silent so there would be no interruptions.
Setting The Shot
During the shoot I noticed some problems which were pretty easy to solve. Due to the extreme sunlight we were blessed with, this unfortunately caused massive shadows and during a take the boom pole and rifle mic was overshadowing our actor. Rich was quick to react and instead of holding the boom high above his head, he crouched down and held it facing upwards, with the shadow out of shot. As I am controlling the safety of the crew I had to be able to predict potential hazards. For example, when Jake was walking backwards with the heavy JVC, I was stood behind him making sure he couldn’t trip and fall. Another issue I encountered was that the opening phone call conversation between Phil and Charles lasted far too long. While the scene was being recorded I took a note of the timing of it and when everyone had finished and was happy with the take I asked Mick to step aside to make him aware that the phone call lasted 1 minute 10 seconds, which was at least 30 seconds too long for a piece which is intended to last just 3 minutes. I did not want to mention it in front of the cast, so I gently mentioned to them that they had done a great job (which they had, they were brilliant), but the script would need to be cut down slightly.
Jake And Rich At The London Eye
There were moments when we had shadows across the faces on the characters, again because of the amount of light from one direction. Thankfully we were prepared with a reflector provided to us by one of our lecturers. This provided a second angle of light which we could bounce the original light source off to create our own 2-point lighting. Other problems we had, in particular in the busy areas of London, were crowds of people. If a single passer-by was in shot and looked directly into the camera we would have had to re-film the entire take. It was my responsibility that this did not happen, therefore I had to be alert. There was one point where there was an elderly woman who wanted to walk in front of the camera because she thought she would “be on telly”. I had to politely ask her to step to the side with me where I quietly whispered random words to her in order to keep her attention on me and off the crew. This was the only problem we had in terms of crowds luckily, even though we filmed on the South Bank on a Saturday.
Cast And Crew
We were aware that permission was required to film on the South Bank, so we all brought our student cards with us, so that when we were encountered by the South Bank Security, we had student identification to grant us access to film.
NUS
For larger productions we would have had to go to the office building and gain signed documentation from London Council. This was similar when filming on Millennium Bridge, we had however asked the London Metropolitan Police patrolling the area for permission in advance, so this was not a problem. On route to Liverpool Street we stopped for a short lunch break in order to grab a student-friendly Tesco meal deal, which the actors were fine with. All expenses were of course covered for and I was keeping a note of our budget, making sure we weren’t going over.
The Street Where The Two Journeying Friends Meet
This street, Artillery Lane, was perfect for where we wanted Phil and Pete to meet. Originally we had it set out as they would arrange to meet, although we decided to alter the script on location and have Pete jump out and surprise Phil. This was so we could convey a more emotional response and add some comedic value to keep the audience entertained. I also helps to break up the montage slightly and add a little something extra to engage the viewers into recognising the two characters’ history of friendship. This photograph was taken the night before and was nowhere near as dark as this on the day. We had issues white balancing here but luckily we had packed white card and also Mick was wearing a white hoodie so this was soon resolved thanks to Jake and Alex correcting the colour on the camera. It was by this stage we were running low on our second JVC battery so we couldn’t risk using the monitor. It was a sacrifice we all agreed on doing in order to guarantee we could film the footage, as re-shooting at a later date was not an option. I understand now that in order to be a successful 1st AD, I must be able to have immense patience, as there is a lot of waiting around whilst others set up their equipment.
It was near here that we filmed our ‘pub bench’ phone call between Charles and Pete, from Pete’s location. Here is a short video Mick took on his iPhone while the actors were reading though the script.
Once finished in Liverpool Street we asked the actors to meet at Hemel Station in an hours time. We said they could have a coffee break as it would take us much longer to get there than them, as we had to go back to Cockfosters to collect the car. We did so and on the way we continued to make our side-documentary of the whole experience – a ‘behind-the-scenes’ so to speak – which was a great deal of fun. Once in the car Mick drove back to Hemel where Myself, Alex, Jake and Rich began to set up the camera, mic and lighting ready for the interior phone calls between the characters from Charles’s perspective. When the actors arrived they were still enthusiastic and ready to carry on even though it had been a long day, which was brilliant. We soon began; the script was re-read a few times so they got the conversation perfect and I asked them to give slightly longer natural pauses so as to help in the editing process. It was only until post-production that we noticed that the shot of Charles in the chair was extremely bland, so we tried to use as little of it as possible as it is just simply boring to look at, although nice and crisp. Rich sorted this by overlaying the opening titles over most of his visuals for the phone call and also editing the voice of Charles to make so we can hear his voice as if it is coming through the speaker of a phone, while on screen it is showing the respondent’s reactions. We initially only thought of having the person speaking on screen, however due to their acting experience we soon saw that it was more engaging being able to see the other person’s reactions to what is being said. Smiles and other facial expressions add to the reality and character of the piece itself, as well as developing the individual personality of the character. We had to create manipulate artificial light to make it appear daylight for the interior phone-call and bag-packing scenes. We achieved this by facing de-do lights towards the walls and bouncing back the light at wider angles. We also used a large reflector to act as a diffuser; it worked a treat. I held it in position as steady as I could whilst I read out the second half of the conversation from the script.
We did the same with the lighting for the tent scene too, except this time we also used gels to create a warmer orange glow. We could have manipulated the image on final cut, but we had access to the gels so we decided we might as well test them out. They worked well; it made the image appear as though it was lit up by a nearby camp fire or something similar. The orange reinforced the warm-hearted friendship of the characters. This scene did take the longest out of all the scenes over the weekend, but it was worth it, as it was the focus point of the production; it was the part leading up to the payoff and the scene where the viewers can see the close connection between all three characters simultaneously. We allowed them to act more freely and add improvisation if they wished and we got some cheesy jokes and banter out of it which was hilarious. As we only had one camera for filming the same scene many times from different angles (focusing on each individual character expressions), I was worried that in post-production there would be problems with continuity, but I was pleasantly surprised. The actors acted and moved in exactly the same way throughout each and every take. It was wonderful. It is little things like this which made me happy that we didn’t use student actors or our friends in our short film. They knew exactly what we expected of them and they worked well to our arrangements. Little can be said for these guys:
Our main rule from the very first day that we formed our production group was that we were in no way shape or form going to film within Coventry or anywhere near Coventry. Each one of us saw this module as an opportunity to really exceed the boundaries of our own creativity, therefore the locations we chose, I believe, reflect that. The West Country locations we chose are iconic and beautiful, they are a part of our national history and we wanted to include them in our short. Why? Because we could. That’s the simple reason.
Stonehenge
We made our path to Stonehenge straight from Hemel, where we got out of the car at a nearby footpath reasonably close to the rocks. It was £6.70 each to go up close, but we decided against that as we did not want to exceed the expected budget we had set. We were not able to bring the actors with us to the locations in the countryside due to our 5-seated car and the desire not to pay further return train fares, therefore Mick and Rich offered to kit themselves up in the exact same clothes as our festival-looking Phil and Pete (this was pre-arranged well beforehand). As the montage shots of walking past Stonehenge and the Tor were from behind the characters, their faces are not shown, therefore not recognisable, so we managed to get away with it. Mick’s beard is only noticeable after watching in extreme depth and slow-motion.
Beautiful Blue Skies
Here is a group photo of SAMPLE TEXT: Adam Davies, Alex Hacking, Jake Humbles, Mick Le Mare and Richard Neal on top of Glastonbury Tor, we were up there as the sun was setting. Not too bad, hey?
Sample Text Group Photo
Our Budget was as follows:
Food & Drinks = £15
Oyster Card x2 = £10
Taxi Fare Liverpool Street To Euston = £16
Train Fare = £46.40
Actors Parking = £6
Mick’s Parking = £6
Mick’s Train = £33
Beers = £9
Beans = £1
Altogether the total came to £142.40. Divided between the 5 of us comes to £28.48 each. Bargain. Fortunately petrol was covered by Mick’s Dad’s company car, which saved us at least £100 extra (due to our 700 mile round trip).
I have been working on a storyboard to fit with the script. These are the shots which we have initially decided on. We just need to find the ideal locations where these shots will look their finest (within each of the larger locations: London, Glastonbury, Stonehenge), which we will be doing on Friday 11th. It is this day that we will also be completing our Recce Sheets and Risk Assessment Forms ready for the Saturday.
Storyboard - Page One
From this I produced a sample shot list:
Long shot of a house slowly zooming towards the door until medium-close up. Locked off.
Medium-close up of Charles sat in a chair on the phone to Phil. Locked off.
Close up of Charles. Locked off.
Medium-long shot of Phil walking down a busy London Street. Handheld, camera operator walking backwards.
Close up of Charlie. Locked off.
Medium shot of Pete outside a pub on a bench. Low angle, locked off.
Medium-close up of Charles. Locked off.
Long shot of Phil striding past the London Eye. Pan shot, left to right.
Low angle medium shot of Phil walking from behind. Hand-held.
Long shot of Pete walking through Regents Park, past a tree. Locked off.
Long shot of Pete, firstly focusing on the nearby fountain and then focusing in on Pete. Locked off.
Long shot of the two characters meeting. Locked off.
Close up of them embracing. Static, locked off.
Long shot of the two men casually strolling over Millennium Bridge. Pan shot, right to left.
Medium shot of the two men travelling past Stone henge. Pan right to left, Stonehenge only just comes into shot. Locked off.
Super extreme long shot. Two silhouetted figures seen walking on the horizon. Locked off.
Extreme long shot of Phil and Pete walking up the hill towards Glastonbury Tor. Zoomed. Locked off.
The two men seen walking down a hill and off screen. Locked off. Fades to black.
Storyboard - Page Two
Fades in to medium shot of the three men in a tent. Locked off.
Close up of Phil. Handheld.
Medium close-up of Phil and Pete. Locked off.
Close up of Pete. Handheld.
Close-up of Phil. Handheld.
Medium-long shot of The three of them. Locked off.
Repeated. Camera angled left slightly. Locked off.
Repeated. Camera angles right slightly. Locked off.
Medium-long shot of them. In original set-up. Locked off.
Close-up of Phil. Confused expression with head-torch. Handheld.
Medium close-up of Charles and Pete laughing. Locked off.
Fades to black as laughter is heard. Door is heard slamming/female voice is heard.
Fades into a hand emerging from tent. Close-up, locked off.
Mick knows a girl studying graphic design at Nottingham Trent University who gladly helped produce our title sequence. We think it works brilliantly. Thanks go out to Jess Philips for this:
Using these graphics, check out this DVD COVER Rich has made.
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