Awards ceremony

We were delighted to win the awards for Best Blog and Best Cinematography for our final film, Dinner Date. Thank you to everyone who voted for us!

Dinner Date

Our sixth and final multi-award winning film, starring Shaun Butler and Tom Hanratty.

Week six - The final film

This week we were given the opportunity to re-film or improve a previous film or create something entirely new. Since last week was one of our best productions, and certainly could be improved on, I thought the group would be wanting to refilm it, but in fact the majority were keen to try something completely new with an original script.

Ideas were thrown around on facebook chat, and it was clear that we all really wanted to do this thing properly and really plan, storyboard and shot list a film as well as we could - but first we needed an idea and a script and so, ideas were listed by the group.

An idea where one person was preparing for another person to arrive, while another was journeying to see them was conceived. The motivation for this gradually evolved into a blind date situation, until it eventually turned into the sinister script that is "Dinner Date".

Research

A recollection of a serial killer back in the 80s who lured young men to his house for dinner and company, sex and murder, led to exploring Dennis Nilson, who killed 15 young men.  

Dennis Andrew Nilsen (born 23 November 1945) is a serial killer and necrophiliac, also known as the Muswell Hill Murderer and the Kindly Killer, who committed the murders of 15 young men in London, England, between 1978 and 1983. He retained his victims' bodies for extended periods of time before dissecting their remains and disposing of them via burning or flushing the remains down a lavatory. Nilsen was convicted at the Old Bailey in November 1983 of six counts of murder and two of attempted murder and is currently incarcerated at the HMP Full Sutton maximum security prison in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England.

Nilsen became known as the Muswell Hill Murderer as his later murders, which led to his detection, were committed at his home at 23 Cranley Gardens in the Muswell Hill district of North London. The description Kindly Killer came from his own belief that his method of murder, strangulation and drowning, followed by a ritual in which he bathed and dressed the bodies, was the most humane method of murder. (Wikipedia)

An interview recorded with Mr Nilsen in 1992 gives some idea of how normal he seems, and yet when you listen to him calmly explaining how he used to get "blind drunk" before dissecting bodies on his kitchen floor, it is quite chilling.

 

Production Meeting 10/03/2014

On Monday morning we had our first proper production meeting.  Copies of the script were passed around, discussed and improved on.  Roles were decided within the group.

Director/editor - Chloe Hudson
Writer/editor - Liz Hutchinson
Cinematographer/editor - Tom Howitt
Producer - Dan Griffiths
Sound designer/photographer - Ben Grantham

Everyone enjoyed being part of this creative process and we all expressed how sad it was that we'd finally got the hang of it just as the module was about to end. Once the script had been tweaked the director, Chloe, got to work on the storyboards and shot lists.  These needed to be detailed and comprehensive since we had a lot of scenes to film, and her and Tom as cinematographer needed to be very clear about what they were trying to achieve.  Actors needed to be found and locations.

Chloe's storyboard comprised of 7 pages with 12 scenes and 34 seperate shots.

Important transition shots were listed by Tom.

Liz and Chloe got together on the day of the shoot to organise practicalities such as making a huge pile of sandwiches for the crew and the actors to eat later that night.

Actors

We were incredibly lucky when the two actors we asked to perform in our film both agreed.  Shaun Butler and Tom Hanratty were immensely patient, even though the filming night ended very late and inevitably involved lots of hanging around.  Their performances were superb and Group C remain enormously grateful for their contribution to our film

Locations

The Station Cafe in Aberystwyth agreed on the phone to let us shoot the first scene there, and the taxi shots were clearly going to have to be my Nissan Micra.We obviously couldn't film the interior scenes convincingly in student halls, so we had a dilemma on our hands.

Scene 1 in the New Station Cafe - the owners were more than happy to let us film before they closed.  When we saw the footage in editing we realised that we should have used extra lighting.  Lesson learned.

Tom's family agreed to let us film the dinner preparation scenes in their home in Ynyslas, but unfortunately they had a shower instead of a bath tub and we felt the bathroom scene was important.  Gavin, Tom's mate stepped in and offered his bathroom - tiny as it was - but as long as it had a bath tub and we could decorate it with night lights we were happy.

The outside scenes we decided to film on the streets of Borth, since the logistics of driving backwards and forwards to Aberystwyth were unrealistic.

Props

The mise en scene for this film was crucial, and the prop list was considerable.  It included items to be bought such as flowers, matches, and candles, and a huge list of things like a record player, tablecloth and towel to be found from home.

The bottle of wine and  bunches of flowers we ended up leaving with Tom's mum and dad as a gesture to say thank you for letting us use their home for filming.  We were there until nearly midnight.  The bubble bath was donated to Gavin, the guy who kindly let us invade his bathroom.

The lonely hearts advertisement was created as a Word document and filmed in close up.  It didn't actually look very much like the newspaper the character was looking at in the cafe scene, but when the film is viewed you don't question that this is the same text the guy has circled with his pen.  Similarly it is presumed he is in a taxi, not in the back of my little car, as we led the audience to presume this by showing him hailing a cab.

Filming

The crew started filming the cafe scene at 4.30pm, then the hours before dusk were spent transporting everyone to Tom's family home in Ynyslas for the dinner preparation scenes.  A smaller crew headed out onto the streets of Borth to shoot the outside scenes and the car shots.  We attracted a bit of interest from the local pub visitors and children.  The local kids, in fact, helped us out by pointing out an empty house that we decided to use as the front door of the killer.

Another crew headed off to film the bathroom shots.  The bathroom was incredibly small and it was impossible to film it from the landing without including the door in the frame, and Chloe had to balance on the corner of the bath to film the shots of Shaun from above.  Tom had brought his own kit with him luckily, and his SLR camera proved a more maneuverable tool for the job here. 

The shots from above the bath look really effective.  We were  lucky we had no space as  I doubt we would have gone for that angle if we'd had a choice.

While some of us were shooting the footage of the street, car and bathroom, back at Tom's house the props were getting organised for the next scene,  and the  record player was being filmed.  Horrifyingly, when we checked the footage in the editing suite, there were only 5 second clips of the record playing.  Luckily it was still in the boot of the car, and we brought it in and filmed the close-up of the needle going onto the vinyl record in the editing suite.

Editing & Sound

The music process was very quick for us this week.  The moment the group heard this, from Madame Butterfly, the images we had been discussing could be clearly imagined blending with the music to create a chilling effect.

Click on the YouTube link below to hear the track we used for our final piece:






In terms of editing this track in, it was a case of syncing it to the visual of the record player being switched on. Once this was achieved we spent some time adding effects such as a 'scratched vinyl player', 'ticking clock' and 'doorbell' to enhance the aesthetics of the overall film. These were edited in levels of sound accordingly using the sound mixer tool and in one case, key frames.

For a more glossy and professional sound we changed the levels of the main track "Madame Butterfly" in accordance to the room our main character was in. It also proved a good way of creating tension as the viewers attention should be more drawn to the visual on-screen as the sound becomes an interesting device.

    

                             

We were able to be more experimental with the editing of the visual this week because the large quantity of scenes meant that no time was lost in the ordering and contemplating of different shots. Once these shots were nicely ordered by scene we could then produce a rough cut of the footage. By the time we had trimmed the shots down and put them in the right order it was time to add some sound effects which would enhance the overall aesthetic of the piece. Below are two examples of the sound effects we used:

 

To create a greater sense of reality within the establishing scene of Des (the host) we added the sound effects of a vinyl player first scratching, and then a undertone of static which would come with the actually piece of music.





After we added these sound effects we also embedded the sound of a doorbell. This ironically ended up being the sound of an alarm because we decided that all the general bell noises were too soft and welcoming. Once all these sound effects were in place and at the right sound level alongside the main track of 'Madame Butterfly' we could then focus on the credit sequence.

At this point we were very short of time and ended up very quickly adding a credit scroll to recognize the people involved in the project. However, because of this rush we forgot/ didn't have time too thank the people who kindly offered their homes or premises for the shoot. The details are in the YouTube description of this final video, but are as follows:

'A special thank you to Mr & Mrs Howitt who let us film in their home. The Station Café in Aberystwyth who let us film on their premises. And finally to Tom's friend Greg who let us film in his home also.'

Reflections on Week Six

Chloe - As the director it was a fantastic experience to be so highly involved in all stages of the film's production. Due to time constraints in editing and filming we will always be finding small issues with the piece such as 'I wish that shot has been held for one more second' or 'It would be good if the music changed there' or 'If only someone had moved that object in the background of that shot', but I think overall we created a successful film.

It was always going to be an ambitious task having four locations in various areas of Aberystwyth and Borth, with such a small crew to control the conditions of each shot. It demanded high levels morale and efficiency and sure enough, everyone was every tired by the end of the shoot. However, going back to this notion of a 'successful film'; I think for the first time we properly pulled together as a group and knew exactly what we were doing, which was great to be a part of. Using Monday as a planning day really helped in this process as everyone had a chance to get together in their roles and discuss what they could do to benefit the film personally.

So, overall I am very happy with the level of professionalism and proficiency achieved in 'Dinner Date'. It is exciting to wonder what we could have done with more time since we effectively completed this film in three days; and I look forward to working on more practical productions in future.  

Listen

Week five - British Social Realism

The brief for this week was to create a piece which adhered to the conventions of a 'British-grit' film. These conventions often lay in depiction's of social realism, where character's faced very 'real' issues and problems. In opposition to the sugar-coated style distinctive within Hollywood, these British films often portray a working-class reality which engages with the 'every-day' man who has little aspiration and little means in which to aspire.

For this week in particular, it was essential that we pursued clearly defined roles (as listed below). Much of this is due to the brief of this week creating an obligation to follow a more traditional filmmaking structure. Unlike last week were we could collaborate and offer opinions in every role (nature of the task allowing this freedom), this task required a definite scriptwriter, director, sound designer and actor before any decisions could be made.  

Director - Dan Griffiths

Writer - Chloe Hudson

Cinematographer/actor - Liz Hutchinson

Actors - Ben Grantham & Tom Howitt

Synopsis

The concept of this week's film lay much within the interplay of perspectives; more precisely, the perspective of Ben as the main character. We decided to take the advice from last week's practical feedback session and create something which followed all the themes typical of the genre and use that as a foundation to build something slightly different and more innovative than the obvious. With this in mind, the film is based around this character Ben, who evidently comes from a working class background and born deaf, the film focuses on his social struggles. His own mother has a blatant disregard for his problems, and in the opening scene, shouts at him for not hearing her trying to open the bathroom door. When he goes outside, a gang from the estate taunt him for being deaf and violently attack him. The film ends on a bleak tone, suggesting that in his current state, Ben has little ability to move his life forward. The only hope lies in the subtle suggestion that he wants a better life for himself as he scrubs his hands clean and tries to make his hair look presentable in the opening scene. The script can be viewed here, and our preperation notes here.

Research

The codes and conventions of British Social Realism seem to be:

Location Shooting: By using real locations as opposed to contrived sets in studios, films appear more true to life.

The Wide/Long Shot:  Although many different shots are used in British social realism films, the wide shot seems to be a favourite among film makers of this genre.

Nice use of a wide shot in to show the urban  landscape in which the characters are placed in This is England '86 (Shane Meadows,2010).  

Hand Held Camera:  This choice of camera use gives the audience the impression that they are taking part in proceedings, and since traditionally used in documentaries, we are conditioned to have a greater sense of realism.

Non-professional Actors:  Use of non-professional or unknown actors adds to the realistic look since they are often less 'perfect' looking than established actors. They are also more affordable to a low budget film. 

Ken Loach's 1969 classic Kes.  Set in Barnsley,  it features locally hired extras and the cast have authentic Yorkshire accents.

Semi-Improvised Scripts: Semi-improvised scripts are sometimes used in order to achieve ‘realistic’ dialogue and true to life-like conversations. Ken Loach, for example used semi-improvised scripts in the film Kes.

Humour and Seriousness: Although this genre traditionally deals with some quite dismal social issues, it often combines gravity with humour.

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Wider social issues are often explored via emotional and dramatic individual stories. For example, in The Full Monty, unemployment and the recession is shown through the main character as he has lost his job as a coalminer.

Regional Identities: The regional identity of the characters is stringently adhered in British Social Realist films, with the use of appropriate accents/language, as well as including the local issues in the region.

The first 35 pages of a really useful introduction to the Genre From Documentary to Grit Brit by Samantha Lay (2002 ) can be found here.

Some of the work which could be said to define the genre in the '50's and '60's we found particularly inspiring.  A great montage of some of these films helped us in our research.

Behind the scenes footage

We decided to have a go at creating a film of behind the scenes footage this week.  Whoever was able recorded what they could with a little HD Flipcam.  There was lots of footage, and took some time to sift through to find the best bits, but eventually we came up with this, which hopefully gives a flavour of We Are Group C working together. 

Reflections on week five

Liz - As cinematographer for this week, I was particularly challenged as I had very little experience of using a camera like this, having filmed everything before on a little flip camera. Researching the British Social Realism genre told me that I would be using a hand held camera for some shots and a mixture of long, medium and close-ups.I found a useful link to shot sizes here. On the day, some of the shots worked and some were not so successful.  I discovered that what looks like a little bit of natural camera movement through the lens, translates into huge seasicky sways and jerks on a larger screen. My acting skills were cringeable as ever, but I feel sure I can improve on them if we use this film and the scene in which I appeared in our final film.

Week four - Recording in the home studio

So during the filming of week 4's media project 'Aberpocalypse' we wanted to use sound as much as we could to create this sense of atmosphere (or 'lack' of atmosphere, one could argue). In the film we featured the sound of a chain blowing in the wind as well as droplets of water coming from the weather-wrecked caravan. These noises were difficult to capture on-set mainly due to the volume of the wind (even with the microphone's muffler on and regardless of boom position) So we thought it would be better to recreate them in a much more controlled environment with the use of a studio condenser microphone. Of course the sound of wind was still important to us, however recording them separately meant that we could place the wind noise in its own audio channel with lower gain and volume in order to draw more attention to these quieter noises. It also means that while the sound of the wind could remain central at lower volume, the other noises could be panned left and right in order to achieve a more dynamic audio. The chain that was discovered on-site was brought back with us to my home studio where it could be recorded much more efficiently. We could watch the footage back and even look at the motion of the chains in the footage in order to replicate it most realistically.

The microphone was placed in what we decided would be the optimum position considering the ways in which the sound would be travelling. The microphone was connected to an interface which allowed us to record directly into the video editing software where additional effects could be applied. Here are the sounds as unedited files:

Once we had the sounds we wanted, we arranged them as follows:

Instead of having the audio immediately cut from right panning to left panning, crossfades were added so ensure that the sound would slowly 'travel' from one speaker to the other (or in the case of headphones, one earpiece to the other).

Week four - Composing the shots

Dan delivered some great cinematography for our latest film (intended as a film segment) 'Aberpocalypse'. Since me and him both had cameras at our fingertips we were able to go off separately or examine the same subject from different angles. In many cases we found ourselves on the same wavelength, each using our own filmers instinct and both coming up with shots that did not differ that greatly. I decided to put these images together and present the similarities and differences. The ones above are the ones I took on my Canon DSLR (switching between a 18-55mm and a fixed 50), the ones underneath are screen grabs from the full-edited render. Not only does this display a comparison of how the various subjects were approached with a filmic mind, it also shows a staggering contrast in colour schemes, as the final production footage was edited in order to more efficiently convey the dullish mood that we wanted to establish.