Fiction Adaptation Unit: Pre-Production - Script and feedback

After completing my script and handing it in I received feedback a few days later:

Other comments/suggestions made:

- Some of the V.O's are probably OOV's (Out Of Vision)/O.S's (Off Screen)
- Some things weren't clear such as "We see a man dressed in a white vest and camouflage trousers wake up." (page 1) and " "The memory is too much for him" (page 2): is the Solider lying down and because we don't see the memory how does the Soldier react to remembering it?


I'm happy with the condition that the script is in as I love writing scripts and am very comfortable in doing them. The comments made are fair though: I do need to describe the location we are in at the start and alter some things. One thing I noticed when reading the script was that I forgot to add in the line "Someone was holding water to his mouth." This means I'll have to re-print the script otherwise I may forget to film that line so I might as-well improve it based on the comments whilst I'm at it.

Fiction Adaptation Unit: Pre-Production - Soldier and Filming Dates

I still needed someone to play the role of the Soldier but with virtually no time left to be able to organise another person I chose to use someone in our class: Mark.

My intended filming dates were Tuesday 2nd and Wednesday 3rd of December but Mark was helping Andy out on Tuesday. He was, however, free Thursday so I messaged my actor to see if he could make the Thursday instead.

Thankfully he could, so with my new location for the subconscious covered and two actors found all that's left is to finish my storyboard and film it.

There's been a couple of setbacks this week but I've been lucky enough to work the problem through and find an alternative method but hopefully this will be the last of them.

Fiction Adaptation Unit: Pre-Production - Locations

For the subconscious I need a dark room with enough space to fit us in and look expansive. I had the studios in mind as they are large and have massive black curtains that I could use as the background so I asked Laura if she knew that they were free and she contacted the studios.

Unfortunately they were being used on the day I wanted to film so I needed a new location: the best I could find was the living room in my house: with the lights off it becomes pitch black and you cannot see anything:

Perfect. 

The issue with the living room is this:

The huge window on one side of the room. This lets a lot of light in during the day meaning I can either cover the window or film the subconscious scenes after 5pm when it gets pretty dark.

I do have a large throw which might cover the window, it's red so it should be dark enough but I may have to wait until it's at least 3:30 when the light begins to go to give me a better chance of a dark room.

Fiction Adaptation Unit: Pre-Production - Casting: Applicant 1

Yesterday I checked Starnow and found that I had one application for my film:

His name is Adam Hickey and in his application he states he lives in Tonbridge and would like to apply for both roles. 

He also provided a video from his Youtube channel which I had a look at along with a couple other of his videos and decided that he would better suited for the Narrator role due his diction and look.

He has a theatrical background and I feel this will help with the Narrator as his emotion shifts in the film and he addresses the camera multiple times: similar to that of theatre.

I messaged him and asked if he would like to take the role as Narrator; to which he obliged. I then offered to pay for his train fare for his troubles and have sent him a copy of the current script (without any alterations).

So far this has been a pleasant experience; as previously mentioned I am not great with communication especially if it's to a stranger and it's even more uncomfortable if it's via phone or Email. Thankfully I've managed to cope and hopefully this whole production will make me more comfortable with communication.

Fiction Adaptation Unit: Pre-Production - Casting Update

My plan was to film on the 24th and 25th of November: allowing me 2 solid weeks to edit the film and ensure I wouldn't have to rush it, however with 2 days left until I would be filming and no response to my ad I chose to postpone the filming until the following week: 2nd and 3rd of December. This gives an extra week for my advert to hopefully draw in some applicants and I can spend this time working on my essays and digital news edit.

I was reluctant to do this though as I really didn't want to have to begin editing so close to the deadline. I am very confident though in my editing skills and I reckon I can have it nice and polished by the deadline if I put all my time in the final week towards it. So I need to have all other projects finished before then to provide myself with that luxury.

This is entirely my fault though: I posted the application on the 17th November: 7 days before I was supposed to film. A week isn't long enough really to get the message out there and I really should have done at least a week or two before this: ideally at the start of November or even earlier.

A huge lesson has been learnt from this! Hopefully next time I won't be as complacent and lose track of time as I have done.

So next step: Finish both the essays.

Digital News Unit: Post-Production - Edit

With Cecily's voice-overs now added into the film; I focussed on the finished presenter pieces that Mike worked on in After Effects:

The green screen shot.

The green screen looks good, despite a slight pixellation on the right side of Jasmin's head the rest looks fine, it has depth and looks real enough. Mike told me he blurred the background a little to create a depth-of-field look.

I like how the logo is in sight to give the set some branding and give it a more official aesthetic.

After adding her lead-ins and the send-off I added in the strap-lines:

There were 5 in total for Jamsin, Jo, Cecily, Chetna and Sheryll. The paint effects look great and really fit in with our brand. Mike did these in After Effects: removing the paint from the paper in the video and then enlarging them before overlaying the text and exporting them to give to me.

With these now in the timeline I set out to polish off the film: firstly working on the audio and making sure it was audible but not blowing out or sounding sharp. I found that I had to raise the new Cecily voice-overs slightly through an audio enhancer in Final Cut Pro as they were a little too quiet and equalise the presenter pieces due to a vacuum cleaner being used outside the room we filmed in. 

Unfortunately I couldn't remove the vacuum completely without drastically distorting Jasmin's voice so I had to reduce it slightly and leave it at that.

Next I added in end credits; they're not long but it gives a closure to the film and adds more aesthetics in terms of professionalism. 

The font also lends itself to our brand and styling, not looking corporate and instead looking friendly and light: also keeping in with our brand.

I feel the edit is coming along very well: there's virtually nothing else left to do other than get music and record a presenter-led teaser for what will be coming up on the show.

Digital News Unit: Post-Production - Re-recordings

Last sunday myself, Mike and Aimee met up with our Broadstairs Food Festival reporter, Cecily, to re-record her lines so we could have a slower pace.

This didn't take too long to record: only 3/4 takes and we were done.

Listening back to them they definitely sound better and easier to keep up with. I added these to the edit and raised the audio as they were quieter in comparison to the rest of the film.

Raised to 12dB from the default 0dB.

The slower recordings also extended the duration of the O.B piece to just over the brief-requirement of 2 minutes.

Next up: adding in the green screen and strap-lines.

Fiction Adaptation Unit: Pre-Production - Casting

Today I created the listing for my film asking for two actors to play my characters:

This was weird to do as I'm not a very confident or independent person and am not a fan of meeting or contacting strangers. However I have to use actors at some point so it's best to do it now. This will hopefully get me used to contacting people I don't know and also improve my directing and communication skills.

Fiction Adaption Unit: Research - Music Video Edit

Today we were set the task of creating our own music video using any song we preferred and with images sourced online.

I chose the song Children of The Revolution by T-Rex.

My approach was quite literal: my concept was to use the original music video by T-Rex and overlay footage of the 2011 London riots and other assortments of teenager-related antics like clubbing and silly stunts: pretty reckless stuff really.




I used video effects and transitions that were in Final Cut Pro. A lot of them were quite similar to that of the Top of The Pops era of music videos: wipes, fades and fancy styles.
I played around with the colour of some of the videos to mimic the exaggerated colour palette you often find in 70's music videos like purples and magenta.
I found a kaleidoscope style that I used for the shot of the burning building and a video effect called Super 8mm that gave the videos a more retro and older look to them.

I feel it could have been better, at times there were just sections of the music video that had nothing to them apart from the original T-Rex video, it felt a little naked in areas.
Something I realised afterwards was that I chose a rather tricky song to make a video for as 1970's music videos tended to just be the artist playing 'live' on Top of The Pops; meaning that there wasn't really a story to tell or build up to.
Aesthetically the video looks and, I think, successfully creates the vibe of the 70's and the whole era's style as well as making a statement in the literal sense of the song's title.

Overall I would give it a 6/7 out of 10.

Fiction Adaptation Unit: Pre-Production - The Subconscious

I've been thinking about whose mind we are inside during the black-room segments and to me I want the audience to think it's the Soldiers mind that is the black room.

Upon scripting the final two lines of the film I had an idea:

"Silence and safety, and the veils of sleep.
Then far away, the thudding of the guns."

I picture this as the Narrator speaking directly to the camera in the black-room. But that proposes a problem:

The black room is the Narrator's interpretation of what the Soldier was thinking of. Any thoughts that the Narrator believed the Soldier may have had are shown in this room.
Essentially it's one person trying to think of what another was thinking.
The Soldier however, as suggested in the poem, is now dead by the time we get to the final two lines.
"But death replied: 'I choose him.'
So he went."
'So he went' sounds like death has taken the Soldier with him now, implying that the Soldier has succumbed to his wound(s).
If the Soldier is now dead how can the Narrator be thinking of the black room? If it is the Soldier's mind then it now ceases to exist.
So where is the Narrator?

My idea is that this final moment in the black room is now the Narrator's mind. Alone and with the Soldier's thoughts no longer accessible: the Narrator is finishing his thought. This 'new' black room is the transition between daydream and reality.
An example that springs to mind is a hotel: the rooms are the thoughts the Narrator has of the Soldier, the Lobby is the 'new black room' or transition, leading to the front doors and back out into reality.

There will be no hints or suggestions that the final two lines are said in the Narrator's mind.
I don't think that it will cause an issue as it doesn't detract from the film: if the audience doesn't think of who's mind the final black room is they're not going to get any less out of the film.

If you want to be very technical about it; then technically every black-room segment is inside the Narrator's mind but those are his interpretations of the Soldier's mind so I don't think it can be counted really!

Fiction Adaptation Unit: Pre-Production - The Check List

To make this film I'm going to need to get some things, below is a check list that I will (hopefully remember to) update each time something on the list is completed.



1. Actors

- I need to put ads out on Casting Call.

UPDATE: I have now posted an advert for both roles on Star Now

2. Army trousers

- A pair of camouflage trousers will be needed. I'm not sure whether to either wait until I get my actor for the Soldier and then get the correct size or get a large sized pair and use a belt to tighten them. I'm considering that delivery time for the trouser may affect my shooting schedule.
- I have found a pair on Military Ops for £10 which is way less than I was expecting. http://www.militaryops.co.uk/british-army-soldier-95-issue-trousers-dpm-g1/?gclid=CKqc8Lnh48ECFRMatAodr1cADw

3. White Vest

- I'm holding back on this for the same reason as the army trousers.

4. Camp Bed

- This will be where the Soldier is for 99% of his time in the Ward.
- I have found one on Go Outdoors' website for a cheap price (my Dad works there and so has a discount card) and it's also green in keeping with the military vibe. http://www.gooutdoors.co.uk/yellowstone-4-leg-camp-bed-p323324

UPDATE: I have bought a camp bed ready to use.

5. Roses

- I need a dead rose for a shot in which the Narrator will be holding one for this line: "Warm rain on dropping roses."
- I know supermarkets sell them and florists obviously do too. There are also several florists in the Maidstone town.

6. A Ward.

- This will probably be the trickiest item on the list: I need an area big enough to get actors, crew and equipment inside but small enough to look like a makeshift ward. Not a proper hospital one but one that looks like a temporary one. On the top of my head I don't know any locations I could use but I can think of some that might be suitable such as a garage or a outhouse hut sort of building.

UPDATE: The house I live at has a shed. A little smaller than I'd like but it's an option if I don't find anything else.

7. The Subconscious.

- This is essentially a room that I can make pitch black so I can then add in my own artificial light to represent the inside of the characters' mind. I was thinking either the Boardroom or studio 2. Something I will to explore more and test out.

8. Death

- This character is the Narrator but dressed up. So I need a black, hooded cloak and perhaps make-up to design a skull on his face.

UPDATE: I have bought a black, hooded cloak.

Fiction Adaptation Unit: Practical Element First Ideas - My Notes (In More Detail)

In a previous post I added two photos I took of my notes:

Well I'm going to go into more detail on the notes I made to clarify my visions and to make understanding of my (bad) handwriting along with extra notes and ideas I have come up with since.

"He drowsed and was aware of silence heaped round him"

- I picture the 'He's head nodding as sleep is gradually winning it's battle against him.

"Unshaken as the steadfast walls"

- Steadfast means 'firm' and 'loyal'. 

- reading this line and the next doesn't quite make sense so I'm wondering if the 'as' means a comparison instead of a 'whilst'. So the sentence would read like: "(the silence) unshaken like the sturdy walls." This, to me, makes much more sense as the silence is being compared to the structural integrity of the walls instead of the walls being called "aqueous".

"Aqueous like floating rays of amber light"

- Aqueous mean water, so the rays are flowing in the air like water. 

- I'm reading this as the rays are aqueous. So my first thought would be a shot of the sun's rays shining. The problem with this is that at this time of year, the sun's going to be harder to film. 

"Soaring and quivering in the wings of sleep"

- So the rays of amber light are moving around the 'He's' face; as he is the one asleep. 

- Essentially a shot of sunlight is lighting up around him. I could shine a light such as a torch or one of the tungsten lights onto the actors' face: using something to perhaps diffuse the light a bit.

"Silence and safety; and his mortal shore"

Lipped by the inward, moonless waves of death"

- These waves are referring to the water that the 'He' is being given.

- I was thinking a shot of crashing waves or even a close up of running water or water sloshing about.  Raising the frame rate to 60 frames-per-second means I can slow the footage down to half of it's actual speed and still get 30 frames-per-second from the slowed down video. 

"Someone was holding water to his mouth."

- The Narrator is doing this. Holding a bottle of water and resting the neck on the 'He's lips. The 'He' doesn't acknowledge the Narrator's presence. 

"He swallowed, unresisting; moaned and dropped"

- Close up of 'He's throat as he swallows.

- He winces or groans. 

"Through crimson gloom to darkness; and forgot"

- Crimson darkness: I picture the 'He' disappearing into darkness, as if he were being pulled backwards. Or has fallen out of the darkness.

- 'Dropped through' So 'He' could be falling through the darkness.

"The opiate throb and ache that was his wound." 

- The water made the 'He' forget about the pain he's in. 

The last three lines I read as this:

"He swallowed: unresisting. He moaned and dropped through the crimson gloom to darkness; and forgot the opiate throb and ache that was his wound."

"Water-calm, sliding green above the weir"

- A silent 3 to 5 seconds as the 'He' wakes up on the floor. He is outside, next to a lake (I'm thinking the lake in Mote Park.) 

"Water-a sky-lit alley for his boat"

- The water is lighting up his path. This might be tricky to pull off so I'm thinking of substituting that for just a day-time shot. That way the water is 'technically' lit up but so is the rest of the area.

- The boat. I was thinking of a vehicle other than a boat. But if 'He' is in a park then a bench can be his "boat". 

"Bird-voiced, bordered and reflected with flowers"

"And shaken hues of summer; drifting down"

"He dipped contended oars, and sighed, and slept."

- He dips his hand into the lake and lifts it back out, staring. He sighs. Then the narrator continues.

- 'He' shuts his eyes.

"Night, with a gust of wind, was in the ward"

- Suddenly cuts to back in the room.

"Blowing the curtain to a glimmering curve."

- This won't be a focused thing, more a descriptive one. So we won't see a close-up of curtains (or the ward curtains as the poet is most-likely referring to) or any attention drawn to them.

Fiction Adaptation Unit: Research - My Visions/aims

For my poem adaptation I'm not going to make a film based on what the poet was feeling or thinking or whatever beliefs they had as I feel I would just be making something that they would make therefore defeating the point of this being an adaptation. I’m not going to make a piece of anti-war propaganda nor will the film have that kind of a preach or message either.
Instead it will be a simple self-contained narrative about a man who’s trying to picture and understand their friend/relatives’ last hours.

I will indicate that the Narrator is in fact a friend by a final shot of the Narrator sat on a chair/settee looking at a framed photo of the Soldier or just several photos of the Narrator and Soldier hanging out and the likes. Signalling a friendship between the two.

I love dark films, not in the sense of twisted and sick stuff I mean emotionally and in the mise-en-scene. Some of my favourite films have a dark edgy style to them in terms of the colour palette; the lighting; the framing etc:

Watchmen [Snyder, 2009]

Watchmen [Snyder, 2009]

The Dark Knight [Nolan, 2008]

These films also play with the psychology of a character and get into their psyches. I love looking at the psychology of a character and to make a film personal to the subject and expose them so their emotions are raw and out in the open.
The subconscious is also something I’m fascinated with: in our Directions unit I played with the idea of the protagonists’ subconscious influencing what they see and it’s something I’d like to try again but in a different way: actually going inside their head physically.

My idea is to have segments where we cut to a completely black room with only the Soldier present and a spotlight or two pointed at him: this will represent his mind.

"He stirred, shifting his body; then the pain


Leapt like a prowling beast, and gripped and tore

His groping dreams with grinding claws and fangs.
"

The second and third lines will be set in the Soldiers' subconscious, at 'prowling beast' he'll scream at the camera like a war cry, this will be the pain inside his head: how he wants to react. At ' gripped and tore' hands will appear from off screen and grab him then a jump cut to him struggling against the hands: which is the pain.

For the visual style of the subconscious I want to do it in a darkened room. Perhaps a big black sheet held up against the wall.
For the Digital News we set up a green screen on two C-stands and I'm thinking of doing the same set-up to create the Soldier's subconscious.
For the lighting I'm thinking of either a single light pointed at an angle or from the side to create a dark moody setting. Similar to these posters for the TV show Sons of Anarchy:

These create a dark mood and atmosphere: suggesting a building up to something, very brooding.

The Narrator will be inside the blackness with the Soldier. I'm not sure yet as to whether or not have the narrator with the Soldier or to also have his own spotlight: as in just the Narrator facing the camera on his own.
If I have the Narrator on his own then it may be confusing as to who's mind we're in, but at the same time that issue can also be a blessing as it presents that exact same response: who's mind are we in?
The Narrator is picturing himself being in the Solider's shoes and his last moments alive, meaning that surely we would be in the Narrator's mind?

I will have to think about it.