PROPER work experience

Yesterday me, Charlie, Lewis and Mike O Hare had a full day of graft. It involved filming an informal discussion Mike conducted with a few nice chaps about their time serving in the forces. We got picked to do the task and at first I was a bit daunted by it, but we went for a few meetings and it all seemed to fall into place. The whole thing is a part of a celebration of the Queen's diamond jubilee, many meetings, discussions and events are taking place from now until then and all/most are going to be filmed and hopefully be eventually edited into a nice little promotional piece. Back to this task though, the discussion took place in the Art Gallery and my role was to work the tripod camera. The day went really well and it was probably the most 'professional' thing I've done yet which I was proud of. Everyone played their part, and the actual discussion was really interesting and enjoyable and the guys taking part were all excellent. Looking forward to the prospect of working on the overall big task again in the future. The woman who arranged it all said we'd done and excellent job and I enjoyed it so overall good day!

Pictures...

Making A Drama Yeah?

Finally got round to filming 'The Good Samaritan' which was the drama I wrote, and my role was director. The whole ordeal of finding actors and location etc etc seemed to go on forever and it got to the point when it seemed the full thing was never going to happen. However, with massive help from Charlie in regards to the actors, and Jasmine in regards to the locations, everything got sorted. The actual filming went ok, there were drawbacks however; the first and most pivotal scene was outdoors, and it poured down all day, we waited and waited but it still poured so we just bit the bullet and filmed it. It was wet, cold and horrible. Aside from that though the rest of the filming went alright and I am hoping it turns out good in the edit. The actors were very impressive to say the short notice we got them on, the script went down well, and Charlie, Jasmine and Mike all done their stuff well on the day. Ta!

VIDEO/SOUND EXERCISE.

This challenge involved each group making a video with no sound whatsoever, after this was done each group swapped videos with another, and then recorded just sound, synced it with the video. The final product should resemble a completed, normal video. Easy, yeah?

Our group made a video about a man and his quest to become pool champion, except he turns out to not have an opponent. For this video I acted the only role.

Video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhLZLAuxUgk

The video we received from another group consisted of two people going to the library and looking for a perticular book, and eventually finding it. We had to record a little speech, 'atmos' and pages turning etc... My role was to basically hold the mic and press the odd button.

Video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TiTVjzqDK0

SANTA'S DILEMMA!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Y1oXWdR-LA&feature=channel_video_title

PS; the rest of the groups films were cracking, well done.

The 7 day project/The message

We had to write/script/storyboard/film/edit/everything else, a 3ish minute film with 'a message'. Luckily Mike O' Hare had an idea and a script, which made things easier. I took on the role of actor where I play a manager. The story involved a couple of people hiring a 'santa'. After interviewing 2 people, with little luck, they decide it's not even worth interviewing the third candidate, who turns out is the real santa/a real good impersonator with a cracking voice. The message could have been one of several, 'never judge a book by its cover' etc. The actual film turned out good but there were a few silly errors; mic in shot/white balance errors etc, but it was a good learning courve, will post the video in a new post.

Things that were done before the blog was made...

The 'work experience' is worth a mention, this involved filming a 'conference' in the art gallery. As much as the subject matter bored me to death, to acually be given, and ultimately deal with such a responsibility early one was an acheivement I guess. After initial nerves, everything ran smoothly and it was much easier than I had expected. Something for the CV too, bonus.

We also had the '24 hour project', which basically was an opportunity to showcase the little experience we had gained. Our group made 'Scottish Sterling' which was about a mans quest to get rid of a Scottish fiver, which is VERY difficult, both in the film, and in real life. The project went smoothly and the result was OK, though there's always room for improvement, was good to have something proper to show though. May upload this at a later date if I ever get round to putting it on a video site.

Aside from that it's all been just getting to grips with the basics, which is good.

Creative Film ETC

Just going to use this blog to update the lucky readers on what I/we have been doing lately, and general progress throughout the course. Exciting right?