Week Beginning 8/12

And a round up of last weeks news:

Monday was a half day, doing screenwriting. In particular studying character, and the development of distinct, fully rounded individuals to populate the story. I suspect this is one of the hardest parts of storycraft, especially in takin ghtese characters and subtely revealing to the audience tantalising glimpses into their lives, beliefs and backstories. It seems to me very difficult to find the balance between saying too much and saying too little.

Tuesday was our Technical assesment. I knew it was to be assessed, but had no idea it was going to be 8 hours long. As a learning experience I found it very useful. Seeing the different techniques of individuals directing, cam-op ing, sound-ing, etc showed me both what to do and what not to do. As an assesment, I think it would be of limited value: fortunately its one of these formative thingies, and therefore not a proper assesment.

Wednesday was a screening of Sherlock Jr. See my other blog for comments on that. Afterwards, Charlotte and myself headed over to GMAC to see the films that have won awards there in the last year. A really mixed bag ranging from The Honkys (a very professional, hilariously un-PC short that felt more like a pilot episode for a sit-com) via Tied Up, from a certain Mr. Ray Tallon (bizarre sex-farce), to a short period drama, done by Paul Darroch. The last one was nice up to a point, but the limitations of a period drama on £200 budget was distinctly visible. Anna Chaney of 4th yr also had a very nice film: Gloria, being shown. Beyond that there were some rather mediocre comedies, dramas and an abstract music video. But I quite enjoyed the evening, especially with free mince pies. Charlotte didn't sample such delicacies, neither being partial to pies or mincemeat, and so I felt justified in having twice as many as everyone else!

Thursday was a look at zoetropes and the physics behind cinema. Fairly interesting stuff.

Friday was a look at Cop Shows as a TV genre. Again quite interesting. I'm always amazed at the sheer volme of trivia which Andy stores in his head.

So that's Academy life and beyond that its been a constant round of Maths tutorials, Wizard of Oz at the Citz, church, getting colds (plural!!!) and the "delete" key stopping working on my keyboard necessitating twice as much use of the "backspace" key.

Finished a book

I'll sneak a slightly out of sequence blog note in here to the effect that I have finished reading, over the past three weeks "Film Production: The Complete Uncensored Guide to Independent Movie Making".

I found this book immensely helpful in setting out the practicalities of an indie feature shoot from beginning to end. The book has opened my eyes to some of the vast and complex fields out there in the funding and distribution of films. I had always vaguely assumed that the real difficulty was in getting the money to make the film in the first place. While that still seems to be the first truly horrendous hurdle, there are equally large hurdles beyond, with insurance, legalities, publicity, festivals, distribution deals, and so on and so forth.

Strangely the major achievement of this book is in making me really grasp the awesome challenge that faces me in my chosen career path: the financial risk, the stress, the potential for ruin, poverty, loneliness and general tragedy. And yet despite all that I'm still hoping to get there some day. I'm either very naive, very optimistic or very determined.

On a downside, the book has dated significantly since its publication ten years ago. It predates the digital revolution, and is very geared towards shooting on film, with all the expense that entails. It is also very American, with little interest in the indie scene outside the borders of the USA.

Despite these caveats, I would recommend this book highly to anyone looking for an insight into the practicalities of producing an independent feature film.

Week Beginning 1/12

It's been a strange week, dominated in my personal experience by the common cold, leading a multiplicity of individuals to suggest inebriation on my part, such a theory being backed up by my almost falling asleep at least twice during lectures. I am hopeful that the full effects of such a malady are on their way out, and I can return to full productivity for next week.

Monday started with Richards class, where we wee instructed to bear our souls by talking about three things we would wish to change about ourselves. For myself I found this quite uncomfortable, as I am not used to making myself so publicly vulnerable. I can't say I experienced any great inspiration or catharsis from the experience, and instead became rather depressed for a couple of days.

Monday afternoon was watching short films for Content Origination. See my other blog for reviews of these.

Tuesday was a study of the Game Show format. Interesting, and I can see that a good Game Show with full financing can drive a station. However, I can't help but think that it would be a rather depressing thing to work on for more than a year.

Wednesday was a screening of Gold Rush. See my other blog for the review.

Thursday was a case of watching some Mitchell and Kenyon (no idea about the spelling!) footage. It was hardly shocking or even surprising in terms of content, but certainly seeing Jamaica St in 1901 was very interesting. It would have been especially interesting if we had similar footage taken every decade so we could see how things changed into what we have now. Without that the jump seems so alien that it might as well be another planet.

Friday was the second of our Sound classes for this term. Simon has a very odd teaching style, but I suppose I learn just as well from it as from the other tutors. Basically its a case of "Play around with the equipment. Any questions, ask." So there can be long periods of bafflement, followed by twenty rapid fire questions as Simon walks past, followed by dawning comprehension. I have decided I quite like sound, though given that the vast majority of sound for cinema is re-recorded, especially on studio films, there is a definate sense of fruitlessness about the job.

Maybe it is just seeing the world through a cold, but it seems that a sense of listlessness is creeping into our course. When we started there was a lot of talk as to what we would be doing, our timetable was fairly heavy and we were learning quite quickly. But now, we are in for half days most days, we are having classes cancelled at short notice here and there, we are told that we are way ahead of where it was anticipated we should be, and our overall learning-speed seems to be taking a nosedive. We still have learned nothing on editing except how to do an off-line log, and our homework projects are very much in the writing and pitching line as opposed to in the actual production line. We are told this will change for next term, and I very much hope so. I can't help but think that the progress we are making is a little on the slow side.

On another note, I got word that our film won "Best Story" and "Most Comical" globally and we are listed second under the overall winner. So that is gratifying, despite there being no prizes (beyond recognition of our obvious talent!) in the global round.

http://eweek.stanford.edu/global2008/recognition_global.html