My original plan for my Personal Management Project wasn't going to work out so, last minute, I had to come up with another idea. I went through other small ideas I'd had in the past, picked one and began to build a story around it.
The idea I picked was the idea of a character's conscience acting in a angel & devil on their shoulder kind of scenario.
I've attached a screenshot of my notes page of my brainstorming for my PMP.
21/03/17
Today I made my pitch for my new short film idea, 'Conscience'. I struggled to get the idea down in words which also made it more difficult for me to explain while pitching, but I think I managed to explain it as well as I could, maybe just maybe not as clearly as I have it in my mind.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1s9cWI92tL-IkoQNlh5BGruulnjdWMPW9tucRB0rmOpc/edit?usp=sharing
07/04/17
Today I came across a music video that might be the best thing my eyes have ever seen. The video was for 'HUMBLE.' by Kendrick Lamar. There are some very interesting visuals in the video that I would love to use as inspiration or even replicate in my short film.
The specific shots I really enjoyed in this video are shown below:
The camera/editing technique I'm hoping to replicate in my short film is the one on the right. The rapid cuts between slightly different positioned shots creates a very unique look and could definitely represent a characters mental struggle in the right context.
03/05/17
I am currently scouting location for my film. I need an office building to film in which is proving to be a difficult location to get permission to. When mentioning the location I needed to my mam she explained that she knows someone who owns offices and may be able to ask for a favour from them. She messaged the person, Joe, and he responded very positively and was happy to help however he could. I got his contact details to get in touch with him and discuss further.
12/05/17
Today I spoke to Joe for the second time about location. While he didn't have any of his own offices that I would be able to use for filming, he was happy to ask around his contacts whether anybody would be able to help. He got me in touch with Tim who said he had an office that we could film in during working hours. I just needed to ring Tim and discuss dates and times with him.
21/05/17
Today was the first shoot for my short film. I started my filming later than others due to my film not fitting any earlier on the shoot schedule. Two scenes were being filmed today and they were Scene 1 and Scene 5. These are both short scenes without dialogue so they were fairly quick to film, making the shoot a short one.
Scene 5 follows the protagonist, Chris (Dylann), at a bus stop concealing a gun while he waits to go to his ex-place of work. Chris is watched suspiciously by a man at the bus stop (Josh) who notices he is acting shady. Scene 1 is just the opening shot of the film which is Chris walking toward the camera.
Both Dylann & Josh were very easy to work with, both taking direction well and adapting their performances whenever they were asked to do something differently. They were both very professional for the full shoot and made the shoot very smooth.
Although I wrote and am producing the project, I decided to take on the role of Director of Photography instead of the more obvious role of Director. I believe I am much stronger in the camera role and I had a lot of visual ideas. Taylor took on the role of Director for my film, this was interesting to work with as I had very clear ideas for my film but had to let Taylor direct the actors and myself. However, as was the case with Taylor and I working together last year, it is a very collaborative working relationship where we bounce ideas off each other to create the best product we can. Jess was my Assistant Director, a role she is always great in. She made sure she took note of everything she needed to and kept everyone on track if anything began to slow down (which wasn't really the case anyway). Ben informed me the day before that he was too ill to attend the shoot but luckily there was no dialogue in the scene, so a boom mic was not necessary. If we had been filming a dialogue heavy scene, either Jess or Taylor would have had to double up on their role and boom operator.
22/05/17
Today was the second day of shooting. We planned to film Scene 3 and the Conscience cutaways. We successfully filmed all of Scene 3 that was planned however we did not film all of the Conscience cutaways which means we will have to do pick ups.
Other than not completing everything we had planned, the shoot went very well. Once again everyone worked professionally and we got things done at a good pace. Todays only actor was Dylann and despite having no other actors to work with he got on with his job and delivered good performances. We filmed at Danniella's flat for scene 3. As she was not on set we had to make sure we took care of the location and put everything we moved back where it came from. There were children's clothes and toys in the flat and some of it made it in shot so we had to move them before filming. There were also photos up on the wall which we had permission to move and did so.
Everyone was great in their role again. Jess was unable to attend the shoot due to prior commitments to another film. Instead, Chloe took on the role of 2nd AD and filled in for her job. Chloe was great and kept up with all the paperwork. We did not hear from Ben today and he did not arrive on time for filming, we were close to finish when he did. He said he did not see the call sheets but did arrive on time for Danniella's shoot.
24/05/17
There were a few issues with the sound due to the air con in the room being very loud and the lights buzzing at certain times. Luckily because of the extra time we had time to wait for the buzzing to stop of to turn the lights off and let them cool down.
We got the rest of the conscience cutaways we didn't get yesterday so the conscience cutaways are now finished.
25/05/17
Today we filmed scene 6. This scene takes place in the toilets so we used the college toilets. I had used the toilets to film in for last years short films so I knew how to go about closing off the room to film in. However, while I did mention it to maintenance a week before, I struggled to speak to them again to confirm until today. While last minute, I was filming late and had done so before so maintenance were happy to help and allow us to close of the toilets.
We had to break a mirror as Dylann's character is supposed to punch and crack a mirror in the scene. The idea was that we would prop up the cracked mirror against the actual mirror for Dylann to look into. Unfortunately, despite planning out how we would break it before hand, the cracking was unsuccessful as the mirror broke and the glass didn't stay in place. This meant we had to work around this, having him look into the un cracked mirror and possibly cracking it in post. If this does not work, we may have to reshoot for the single shot of the cracked mirror.
Once again, everyone worked very professionally and we got the scene finished well before schedule.
09/06/17
After back and forth discussion between myself and Tim, we were unable to reach a date and time the office was available at the same time we were able to film. I had to inform him we would be unable to use the location but I thanked him for his help. Instead I will have to come up with another option for location. I spoke to the LRC staff about using one of the Learning Pods and I have managed, through Kelly, to get a the location from 2pm to 4pm on 16/06/17. Hopefully through the use of specific angles and set dressing I will be able to make the Pod look more like an office.
Evaluation
There many ups and downs to the PMP process for me but in the end I feel like it's often been a enjoyable, creative unit where we've been able to put out film making skills to the test. While not every aspect has been a total success, I've tried to make the best of every situation and do the best job of managing the project as I can.
When we first started the unit, I had multiple ideas and had to decide on one. I went through short phases of being set on each different idea however each idea I realised, logistically, wouldn't work for the PMP unit. I struggled with decided on a final idea and it wasn't until a couple of days before my pitch session that I finally decided on a completely new idea based on the idea that I wanted to experiment with lighting and use more experimental cinematography in my project. I decided on my idea, 'Conscience', a short film about a man who's good and bad conscience tries to dictate his life back and forth.
Organising the film shoots was problematic for me. By the time I could schedule my film after auditions and casting, most of the slots were filled. As I was also working on multiple other projects managed by other people, it became difficult to find spots when myself and everyone else in my crew was free. I did eventually find dates to film but they were a late start for the project. Due to actors availability and location availability there were a few shoots that had to be changed multiple times and shoots I didn't get scheduled until the very last minute. While the organisation of my shoots were not as smooth as I'd hoped it to be, I have eventually ended up with a fully organised schedule and I will get all the footage planned for my film.
The filming process was a great experience, which is the usual case on any unit. Being able to work collaboratively and experiment with new filming styles is always great and it's an enjoyable experience to create something like a professional film crew. There were only a couple of issues when filming and they were nothing that we could have helped. These problems have led to the project needed pickups for single shots which we will try to get but the film can manage without. Other than small issues, the filming process has been the best part of the PMP unit for me. Being able to work as DoP on all kinds of different projects with different people really tested me as a film maker and also allowed me to have a variation in filming styles.
The post production process started as soon as I got my first shoot finished. I realised the best way to go about editing my film was to edit as I finished each shoot and piece it together at the end. This was due to my shoots being spread out and scheduled all the way to the final filming week. Editing after the filming weeks were finished would not have been a good idea as there may not have been enough time. However I have had scenes fully edited while I have waited to film another, which is handy as I don't need to worry about getting the film completed in a rush.
Overall, the process has been a real learning experience where I've worked strongly in the practical work and pushed myself when working on the management of the project, something I've never thought was a strong point for me. This unit has proved management isn't my best skill but I am still very happy with the way the project is turning out and how I have acted in the management/producer role. I have been able to work as camera on many other projects this unit and this has been a comfortable place for me to be but I am glad that I have been put in a spot I don't work so comfortably as I've learnt that there is always space to learn more in different aspects of film making.
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