Week Beginning 27/4

Monday morning was a tutorial with Richard, looking at the ten premises I'd submitted for seven minute shorts. Five of the ten were considered to have a little bit of a something in them which might be worth looking at again. I have realised this week that I think I have real difficulties in getting excited about short films. For me a short film is a story that is so inconsequential that it's not worth taking any longer to tell. Especially three minute films seem to me to be on the verge of impossible. They have to be so small, so pointless, that one wonders whether they are of any merit except as a technical exercise. I think I can see why we are starting small, but it seems hard to imagine a good story working at three minutes. (Beyond of course something so unexciting as "Person Loses Object. Person Looks for Object. Person Fails to Find Object in the Allotted Time but Learns a Cliched Lesson About Life.") After all, I have only ever seen two short films that I have thought were good. One was La Cheval, which is a gag, and which Richard would sneer at. The other was Divine, which ran to about 15 minutes or more, but was highly entertaining throughout. But at 15 minutes, it has the time to be able to tell a more engaging story.

Monday lunchtime was our second Design meeting for Dust. Things are proceeding well, though a couple of Permission issues (for booking kit, booking rooms, getting cleared for locations, getting risk assesments, even just getting Adam's mandatory stamp of approval) are holding up progress.

Monday afternoon was supposed to be a class with Kim but turned into a class with Gavin, looking over the footage we shot last term. Some of it looks great, some looks really dodgy. It's exactly what I expect, and when we come to edit it, we'll hopefully begin to analyse why certain shots aren't working and what we could have done better.

Tuesday was an assesment of editing skills, which was fairly straightforward. The lunchtime was a rehearsal with the principal actors for Dust. Mildly intimidating, as I can't help feeling they are more talented in their field than I am in mine, but anyway we muddled through.

Wednesday was Recording voice overs for Dust in the morning. This went smoothly, albeit a minor issue with an unresponsive mixer, fixed by putting the battery more firmly in its holder (after five minutes of pressing every button and flicking every switch that was to be seen!)

Wednesday afternoon was a screening of In the Heat of the Night. (See other blog)

Thursday was Cinema class in the morning, looking at representation of gender and race. I find it very interesting that the battle for racial equality has been won, but gender equality has been lost. I try to puzzle out why this is. Is it because the industry is ruled over by male chauvanists? I doubt it, because then the independants would thrive on a feminist platform. I am drawn to the conclusion that the mass audiences want to watch male heroes (with eye catching females hanging off them) rather than watch strong female heroines (with, perhaps, eye catching males supporting them in the background). Is it something to do with the different roles that society continues to ascribe to men and women, despite the most strident efforts of the feminist movement? Hmmmm....

Friday morning was a class on Mobile and Web Technology, looking at the different uses of mobiles and internet that society has had since their conception. Quite technical, but rather interesting. Friday afternoon was a Production class. After an exceedingly shaky start, Abigail's classes have become vastly more interesting (for me at least). Now that we have a practical project to work on and we are learning in practice rather than in theory, it is much easier to remain focussed.