Guest Lecture - Patty

Today we had another guest lecture. This one was different from the others because she talked to us about how to get into university and what university's expect. 

• Moat important thing is you
• Interviews are important to meet people
• Rule #1 Be interesting
• Rule #2 Self motivation
• What kind of stuff are you into
• What do you make and why?
• What gets you excited about the stuff you make
• How do you make decisions in your work.
• Trick question: What artists do you like?
• Trick question: Have you seen any shows?
• Trick question: How long did it take to make it?
• Trick question: Did you try to make it any other way?
• What are your ideas for the next three projects?
• What are you working on at the moment?
• What did you do yesterday?
• The Killer Question: What is your work about?

If you know the person interviewing them. GOOGLE THEM.

Dress to impress.

3nd Interview & Night Shoot - Child Action

Today we were meant to film the 3rd and 4th interview. Because these interview were meant to be of two people who work at child action we thought the best location would be a office. The office we chose was small but we knew that we could make it work. We had to be a little creative with the lighting because the room was so small and there was only one backdrop that we could use. Technically we could use any backdrop but for the purpose of the interview there was only one option. Just like the family interview we had everything set up when we were told that the interviews had been cancelled. 
I was more annoyed than last time because out of the five things that we had planned, child action hadn't turned up to three of them. The first time they did.t turn up they forgot, the second time which was the family interview they didn't let us know and this time someone broke their arm. Because of this we had a meeting with Jamie and Craig to discuss our options. As a crew we all decided that we would give child action their last chance. We gave Craig three days that we could do the filming. He was going to Child Action and telling them the dates and they had to pick one and we would do a schedule were we would film all the interviews in one day. This would be Child Actions last chance.

For tonight we had organised the filming of a group night at the carers center. This would go with the interview that we did with Karen Walker. Originally Me, Sammie and Becki are the ones that were going to film, but at the last minute Aaron was coming with us. This was because Craig asked us to give him something so that he could show it to child action. Aaron was going to take the footage from tonight and edit it, so that we could give Craig the short film, which he was going to tell child action was a work in progress. When we got to the center we were all made to feel uncomfortable. None of the young carers knew that we were going to film and none of them wanted us to film them. When they said they didn't want to be filmed we didn't know what to do. We weren't introduced and the carers didn't know why we were there other than we were going to film. Under other circumstance me or one of the other members of the crew would have introduced us and explained but we felt that we couldn't do this. The tone of peoples voices and the way they acted around us said 'just hurry up and leave' . Because there was one extra person going we had decided that only two of us would be in the room filming but we weren't given the chance to explain this. The way the night was explained to us when we went to have the meeting with Karen a couple of weeks ago, meant that we would be able to get some footage that related to the interview that she did. This didn't happen. None of the footage we got was relevant in any way. 

When we finished filming we called Jamie our tutor because we felt as a group that it was the final straw. None of us wanted to continue with the project because we had been let down a lot and when we gave them another chance we were made to feel uncomfortable. No one from Child Action was cooperating with us, which meant we were confused. Jamie cancelled the project.

Self Evaluation
The child action northwest project was a great opportunity for us to gain work experience. I felt that I put everything that I had into the project. Me as well as a some other people worked holidays and nights to complete the 10 short films that Child Action wanted. We were continually let down. I felt that I handled this well. I was annoyed but I know that it is a part of the business. From the start of the project I was learning. I learnt how to set up the studio lighting as well as the location lighting. I learnt how to work the new cameras. I also learnt that it is okay to say if I don't agree with something and voice my opinion. I already knew that I was organised but from this I have learnt that I can be organised even when I have very little information to go on. However in the end the project was cancelled due to all the problems that it caused.

Child Action: Family Interview

Last week, we arrange to film another interview for Child Action. This time we were meant to film a family of four. We spent the first hour setting up the location. We used the sixth form common room. This room wasn't ideal but it was the only location that we thought would be good for a family interview. We wanted them to feel comfortable as we didn't know how old the children are or how they would react to the situation. I learnt how to set up the lighting kit today. I'd never used extra lighting before so this was something new for me. Becki and Aaron were going be the camera operators, Lewis the sound guy and Chelsea was going to direct the interview. Matt is going to take the stills as we forgot at the previous interview. I was going to produce the production and make sure everyone had what they needed. It took some time to set up the interview because we had to get the lighting perfect, this is made more difficult because there are going to be four people in the interview. It also make the job of the sound guy more difficult as we are only using one boom mic. We decided to use two cameras. One is going to be a establishing shot and the other a close up. We came up with a plan that the interviewee is going to ask a question to a person so that it will give the camera operation on the close up and the sound guy couple of seconds to change position. We tried different positions for the sound guy as we didn't want to have a shadow in the background. The camera operation finally found the least intrusive position were the shadow was less visible. We changed some of the background by moving posters around as me, Becki and Aaron felt that the background wasn't right and that it needed colour. 
   We did a really good job of setting the location up. We changed things around according to what we needed and everyone knew what there role was and was prepared. This shoot was going to be the most challenging because of the number of people that were going to be interviewed, however I felt that we did a good job in handling the situation. 
   Unfortunately the people that were meant to turn up for the interview didn't show. Nothing could be done about this. Even though I know nothing can be done and that this sort of thing can happen in the industry it is still quite annoying. 

For the following shots were people are on the sofas, we were testing the lighting so that it was perfect for when the family arrived.

Guest Lecture - Douglas Hart

Today Douglas Hart came in to talk to us about his work. 

• 1985-6 - First music video. He didn't know what her was doing. It was a music video for his friends. 
• Paul Weller 1989-90 - like it to be spontaneous - out in the country - Weller didn't know they had finished filming - Made in the same way as the 1st video, no crew, just him.
• Hart can make a video in a spontaneous way.
• He seems to have a thing for colours in his music video. "Strong sense of colour"
• Quite a lot of jump cuts and fast editing

Quotes

"My love got me though it"

"Every video, your confidence grows"

"If you only made music videos for bands you liked, it will never work"

"You're allowed to make mistakes and experiment"

"Making a film is a collaborative thing"

"One asshole can ruin the full set" - talking about having a crew

"Really important to communicate with people"

"You can learn more by failure than things going well"

"Its a wonderful way to learn film making" - making music videos

"Always write it down or make a note of it" - About ideas

Douglas Hart

Tomorrow we are having another visiting lecture, Douglas Hart. I'm really excited about this lecture because Douglas Hart directs music videos for people such as The Charlatans, The Vaccines and Paul Weller. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Hart
http://www.ideastap.com/ideasmag/the-knowledge/douglas-hart-music-video-director
http://www.hsilondon.co.uk/cat/music-videos/director/hart-douglas/the-vaccines---wrecking-bar-261
http://uk.imdb.com/name/nm1519551/
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLA16546A082A90D19

This is the trailer for a short film that Douglas Hart made.

Child Action Interview - Karen Walker: Young Carers

Today was the 1st child action northwest interview. We interviewed a woman named Karen walker who is the leader of the Young Carers project. 

We were going to interview Karen in the television studio. However Aaron was the only one that said what I was thinking, that the TV studio wasn't right for the interviews. We needed to find some locations because the TV studio is too formal. We only had five minutes before Karen and Craig were meant to show up so we had to rush around. Jamie helped us by getting the location, scholars. A couple of days before I had gone round everyone in media and asked them if they wanted to take part in the filming, most of them said no. We were left with a minimal crew. However this morning quite a lot of people turned up to film after they had said no. Because the location changed we didn't need as many people. I choose the crew from the people that I knew would do the work and get it done without someone watching over them because we didn't have much time in which to set up and we only had scholars for a short period because there was going to be a class. Everyone was given a role based on their strengths. Halfway through the interview we thought we had a problem because the air conditioning went of and Sammie could hear it through the headphones. The problem was resolved quickly. 

After the filming I decided that we would all have a meeting. It was decided in the meeting that we would keep the same crew that we used today (Me, Sammie, Aaron,. Lewis, Becki, Chelsea and Matt.) At each shoot we would change the role around so that everyone would get a chance at doing different things. This would also give people more experience. 
After the meeting we also went round the college to recce some possible locations because we needed another 9 locations. I still felt that the TV studio was still too formal so we would do all the interviews at locations and sort out all the cutaways once the interviews were done, because we didn't know the content of the interviews. We found our next location, but are still struggling with the others. A possible location is a office which we want to use but we need to find out about it. 

Lighting & Meeting with Salford

Yesterday me and Sammie had messed about with the lighting. It took us all day to get what we wanted because we wanted to try and see if we could do it on our own. Today we wanted to show Graham what we had done and to see if he thought we should change anything. Graham helped us by adjusting the brightness of the lights and the position so that the subjects weren't over or under exposed.

In the afternoon we attended a meeting with some tutors from Salford who are the tutors for the graphic courses. Even though this isn't the subject that I am interested in, I wanted to see if Salford was the right university for me and if these tutors had any insight into the course I want to go on. It help make up my mind that Salford is a university that I want to apply to. 

Lighting

Today me and Sammie decided that we were going to spend the day in the studio sorting out the lighting and how we wanted the interview to go. We wanted to do the lighting in the morning and then do a run through with the crew in the afternoon just so that everyone knew the roles that they would be doing. I was told that Child Action North West wanted the interview to be formal. Me and Sammie set out to make the lighting and the setting formal but add a bit of colour with the red. We were trying to recreate the 3 point lighting that we had learnt how to do on the BTEC course. When we failed to do this we went to get help but Matt said that he wanted to have a go at it. He tried to add floor lighting with a yellow filter, I kept on saying that it isn't what we wanted as it wouldn't achieve the affect that we were told the clients wanted. After about half an hour I got really annoyed and went to get Brian to help. Brian shown me and Sammie how to achieve three point lighting in the easiest way.
Even though we failed with trying to do the lighting, we knew when to get help. I learnt an easier way of doing the lighting and I now know that it is okay to get help with something that you don't know how to do and this could make things better. It's a way to learn. It is better to try and if you don't succeed then get the help of the right person.