12/12 & 13/12 Editing

So from the previous two editing sessions, considering no sound design had been properly scheduled I believe I have done quite the considerable job. I have managed to structure the sound from the beginning of the rough cut to the fighting scene. Some scenes like the fighting scene are going to take a considerable amount more time to edit as there are different sounds expected or can affect the consumption of the film. I do not believe a completely finished edit will be done, so I hope that a piece is completed that is at least near completion.

A concern that I had from the beginning of the film has come to fruition and that is the under appreciation and inadequate approach to the organisation of sound. As sound relies heavily on the visual image, I could not begin sound editing without at least a rough cut and I certainly will not be taking responsibility for lack of time provided for sound. In saying that, the progress of the sound has been great and I look forward to seeing what occurs of the next couple days.

According to tutorial I had with Chris and some members of the group, I should be expecting a revised rough cut tomorrow. It will be interesting to know why this cut isn't received if this happens, however I am confident that my fellow group members won't let me down.

10/12 Tutorial

Though I had made Chris aware about my times of work the day before, he could not rearrange the times of my group’s tutorial, which resulted in me having to leave early. It would have been very helpful to have an earlier time slot, but as such he could not make any changes.

Danayet said that the sound needs to start undergoing the process, which I told her that if she met up with myself and had meetings with prior to the previous, the process would of already begun. She taken offence to this, which I can understand why, however needs to admit the errors in place. I politely told her that the group’s organisation has been a complete and utter shamble, an example is that with less 7 days to go, a complete rough edit still has not been made. Taken further offence she replied with comments about my absence at shoots, however I corrected her on the matter that the most common reason for my absence for shoots is due to the lack of notice provided for a shoot. Politely I explained that my commitments will differ from yours and the groups, however the group can make shoots in short notice and I cannot. Being stunned by my responses she discontinued the conversation as she seemed to understand the errors made with organisation.

Moving forward, Chris questioned what was the next step and Danayet asked for me to come on Sunday at 1pm to pick up an updated version of the edit. By a miracle, I had decided to bring in my sound hard drive, which nobody had asked me to bring incase there was any files I could obtain from the group. TS made me aware that he has not had a hard drive to work from, which means he has and will only be able to edit from the mac computer that he is stationed on. I did not want to bring up my concerns to this workflow as I believe this will deepen the increasing separation that has become very apparent between the group and myself. I asked instead that he copy all the files over to my hard drive, so I could begin sound editing for the scenes he has already edited together. He does plan to make changes, but we will see how everything goes. Danayet also asked for myself to come in on Monday at 10am to review the progress of the project altogether, which I think is a brilliant idea. It would be great to have as many people present whilst sound editing to get as many suggestions as possible. I agreed and said these times will be fine. I haven’t been in contact with Emily or Louise in a little while, which I am sure they occupied with other modules being due in soon and if there is anything they would like to contribute that they will contact myself or the group.

I would like to come into the edit suite tomorrow after work and start working on the sound design of this project. Completing the sound design of my other project has provided me with more confidence to sound design in Pro Tools, which I think will be a big bonus in completing the group’s soundtrack. Though progression is being made, I am concerned that not enough consideration has been made for sound and that the little time the group has offered for sound designing is appalling. I hope that the soundtrack will be complete before our presentation, however we will see what happens from here on out.

Tom is also up for accompanying myself tomorrow in the edit suite, which will be a big help towards the project. Members of the group can choose to interact in a negative and unprofessional manner, but my main concern is this project and that will come first no matter what.

6/12 Editing (short overview)

Today I completed sound editing for my sound project. I used this exercise to improve my confidence for the sound edit I have to do for my drama piece.

My initial idea was to create a piece that was inspired by the theme of the undead, similar to The Evil Dead (which I watched here https://screenhits.tv/Viewers/Player.aspx?mediaID=9DBF0414-6DE1-437D-BB64-34AD5BAFA2A4). My workflow consist of grabbing and manipulating sounds to sound more eerie and dark.

The impression I get from my finished piece is that there is a spectator in the woods watching the events of the black man being left in the water unfold. The spectator bears some sort of relationship with the black man, which is why the rate of their breathing increases and he continues to spectate the boat through its journey. The black man is a victim of Ebola, which is suggestive from the radio broadcast heard when a man is seen opening letters and the crew are en-route to a destination away from the disease. As the dark song slowly fades in, it emphasises the lack of remorse these militant men hold for the black man, however it could represent the feelings the men harbour inside. The clip ends with the man looking through into binoculars, leaving the audience to remain curious about what the man sees.

The song I used is a remix of the temple of time song composed by Koji Kondo and is a part of the soundtrack album The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

3/12 Tutorial / Problem-solving

I met with Chris to discuss the issues I have been having with my group. I explained to him that the notice they are providing me with for shoots are too short and that this is a big issue. It is why I haven't been able to attend shoots as Louise has a schedule that doesn't say what hours I am working. From the shoots I have been made aware about, I have missed the early morning one and the most recent one, which involved a miscommunication on location around the library. Professionalism should be upheld at all times and any member shouldn't portray themselves in an offensive and childish manner to another member.

Chris has attempted to understand the details of the situation, but has also attempted to remain impartial and unbiased. The source of the miscommunication is the group's attempt to contact each other via Facebook. In my opinion, this is the most unreliable method in which communication can be established.

Chris has told me that the alternatives would be to create my own 5 - 10 minute piece, which would prove too difficult at this stage or to create another 2 minute piece, but it wouldn't fulfil the brief. One alternative incase everything goes wrong is to get the edit and create a sound edit myself that differs from the group's.

I am going to take Chris' advice to be proactive and to contact the group in regards to sound designing. What I have said is to meet up on Friday at 1pm if everyone is available and if they are not to meet up another day.

With that being said, lets hope the sound side of the project does get picked up onto its feet and that the project progresses forwards. My main concern is that with such little time, these aren't the kind of problems to encounter we should encounter especially at this stage, but as long as the project is completed. That is all that counts.

2/12 Editing

So today I had a session on Pro Tools, I was able to start putting my project together on Pro Tools. I am still not familiar with the keyboard shortcuts but I have a standard workflow I can now adhere to. I have already begun sampling and experimenting with different effects and sounds on Soundtrack Pro for this piece, however the biggest issue is always going to be porting over a project from Soundtrack Pro to Pro Tools. There are options to save the tracks as OMFs or AAFs, but these are not as compatible as project files.

I always knew this was a potentiality, so I never went too overboard with structure on Soundtrack Pro, however I had this idea to duplicate the track of the heavy breathing recording by myself and for each of the duplicates. To extreme and soft pan left and pan to create an eerie atmosphere of different levels of heavy breathing. This will contribute towards the final theme of the undead receiving the dead.

The edit is slowly progressing in the right direction, but from my tutor feedback today, I need to make the piece string together a little more clearer. Even though my piece will be more art house and experimental, I want the structure to be understood without reducing the creative quality of the piece. As I edit, this will be one of the main objectives within this piece.

28/11 experimenting

So over the weekend, I booked out a hydrophone with a contact adaptor, marrantz and audio technica shotgun microphone to start experimenting with sounds. I captured some good sounds that I am really impressed with, experimenting led me to putting the hydrophone in the sink, connecting to different surfaces and scratching, rubbing, hitting different surfaces.

The interesting thing about the hydrophone is that the sounds reverberate very well and differently for each surface. Different sounds are achieved depending on the surface area and the distance between the microphone. I am hoping to cycle and record to see what kind of interesting sounds that would make.

25/11 Recording

Today I recorded sounds for the drama film I am working on. The majority of sounds recorded were in sync sound as this is what the director has requested specifically. I had a meeting with the director that was cut short due to the lack of time of availability. I needed a lot of direction with sound, however I think more attention is being paid to how the film will look and not how it will sound.

The day has gone splendid. I have managed to record all the sounds that I required from set and got on really well with the talents. I backed up the recordings straight away, as I noticed Tom's zoom recorder was very faulty during recordings. There were times it would record and times it wouldn't.

That being said, I do believe it is unfair that we paid for one of the talents, I think with an alternative method of scouting, it would of been possible to find a father who was prepared to be in our production for free. Maybe the organisation of our project would of caused less appeal, however once telling a talent our amazing idea, I am sure we would of been able to seal the deal for free.

In terms of direction, speaking with the director prior to this. She has outlined that she would only like SYNC sound to be in the final piece, which I solemnly object too, however it is the director who makes the final call in these creative decisions and I am sure she has an idea to why she would like it to be so.

The project is moving forward and that is a great sign.

It would be great to meet up with the director to discuss some more ideas, but as she had said, she is quite busy and will get back to me.

1/12 MIP Shooting

What an atrocious day, I am sure squirrels could co-ordinate a shoot a lot better than my group has done. Not only has my group made it clear that they are possibly harbouring negative inclinations towards myself, they have failed to accurately and appropriately organise a shoot. This being said, a night before an early morning shoot is definitely unprofessional and unpractical for the project.

From what I have gathered from terrible attempts to maintain a schedule, which I had already created an easy and accessible method for everyone to maintain. The group has decided to adopt this "improv" method, which involves only making aware members who can make every session, because they have commitments that involve less time. That being said at least we managed to begin using the documents I created online for everyone to use.

Though my manager has given me the privilege to rota my own hours each week, I still am misinformed and informed inadequately about shoots that are upcoming. Examples include: making a spreadsheet that never displays my hours, organising shoots with short notice and being incapable to make another member aware of changing or unforeseen circumstances.

I believe today or this evening was the least practical and biggest fail to get a shoot done appropriately with sound and as such unfortunately hope it does not affect the final cut. I will strive to ensure communication that has been displayed by other members is returned in full with the utmost professionalism.

I do also hope communication isn't further severed like it has been in the past with members' phones becoming lost and will push myself to actively write all research I have undergone towards this project.

Though I have voiced my concerns to my lecturer, I believe the best action to undertake is my own action and to withdraw all concerns.

26/11 & 27/11 Research

26/11
I watched some Vimeo films to analyse the aspects and uses of sounds from various productions. I chose to use Vimeo as a lot more independent and short productions can be sourced from here:
- Sammy the explorer https://vimeo.com/112653472
The music used in the film makes the happy as it has really upbeat instruments. I especially liked the sounds used when the explorer kit is seen in the film.
- Ferguson Speaks: A communique from Ferguson https://vimeo.com/111938224
The sound of the chimes are quite eerie and provide something that is quite unexpected. I like the use of silence as it exaggerated.
- Playground https://vimeo.com/112483572
The piano keys used in this piece express the sadness of the film. I liked how the jazz music make this production uplifting and how the sound is used to bring focus to specific objects that are visible
- Manhunt https://vimeo.com/110455536
I've noticed pianos are used between this and the previous production to express sadness. I found it interesting that peaking is used to provide the eerie essence of the film.

27/11
I watched an episode of Game of Thrones, which was from season 3, episode 3. There was a scene where the castle is shown, however the sound is like the sound from a courtyard. I found this interesting, because the castle wouldn't sound anything like that in actual reality.

25/11 Animation inspiration

One thing I have noticed between film and animation is that animations lend themselves more freedom for sounds. With films, expectations are more distinct as the audience can relate more to the interactions between objects, however with animations. The possibilities are limitless, for example: from this animation titled Kiseijuu: Sei No Kakuritsu, the sounds used every time the character "Migi" morphs are really interesting. Another example is Detective Conan the sound used for Conan skateboarding sounds nothing like a realistic skateboard, however it is acceptable, because of its medium.

Links:
http://www.animeseason.com/kiseijuu-sei-no-kakuritsu-episode-5/
http://www.animeultima.tv/detective-conan-episode-758-english-subbed-video-mirror-851085-MP4Upload/

27/10, 3/11, 9/11 & 10/11 Moving Image Project

27/10
Today we had a group meeting and decided that sunday we would record the call centre scene and re-record the living room scene. By Monday we agreed that all rushes would be complete and that the rough cut will be made. By tonight, I will have; a schedule for sound, a contact for the call centre sound.

3/11
Today we had a group meeting and decided Wednesday we would be shooting at Toms, at the underpass and in the lift.

9/11
As the deadline is nearing, I have already considered the contingency of using music to help piece the sound together. If there isn't enough time to edit the sounds I have recorded already together, then a silent film approach with music will be taken similar to Un Chien Andalou.
I have sourced sounds from the FreeSound website and these are a list of those sounds
- "phone interference" by Martian
- "Bank Phone" by tagigobaso
- "Phone Dialling" by jyoung20
- "malexmedia_lazymanphone" by malexmedia
- "Phone calling" by allberto
- "wind 2" by eliasheunick
- "Medium Wind" by Kangaroovindaloo
- "Heavy Breathing" by ceberation
- "Heavy Breathing" by MAJ061785
- "Keyboard" by testing_player
- "Keyboard Typing" by esperri
- "old phone ringtone Poland" by blukotek
- "TV television, on off" by Mental Sanity Off
- "TV_Light_Static" by crcavol

I have also found sounds from youtube videos I would like to use titled:
- "Microsoft Windows XP Sounds" by Alex Roark
- "Small Bump by Ed Sheeran - Instrumental guitar cover" by AddedNinth

10/11
Today we shot the lift scene and the call centre scene, unfortunately we have had to use myself as an extra. I have recorded sounds of the elevator being operated and inside the elevator. I have also recorded some sounds that will contribute towards the call centre atmos as I have had replies from companies stating that they are unable to allow myself to record sounds direct from the offices.

I need to record some more atmos before I finish up for the day.

26/10 MIP Sound meeting, log update

Today I have added all of my notes from previous meetings to the master log shared between all of us. I set up the log as an online document for everyone to make adjustments whenever and wherever, also it makes it easily accessible fro everyone. Currently the portal is http://docs.google.com/ and it shows the group's master schedule and master log.

On the 22nd, casting calls were put up and the crew contact sheet was confirmed. I also developed a better understanding of how Shaun's character develops from the 2 minute piece to the 5 - 10 minute piece. Pitching the idea and having Tom respond helped with my understanding. We have arranged to have a meeting at 12, however I will not be able to attend as I will be working. Instead I will be attending the meeting / conference call on Sunday.

On the 24th, I met up with Dannie and Tom to go through what they thinking for sound ideas. I wanted what they wanted the sound to do to the atmosphere in terms of how dramatic and tense it should make the audience feel. Some ideas were brainstormed, but as an overall task, I needed to sit down and run through the script.

The 26th, I finished running through the script and created a sound list. I will need to create a sound log to monitor what sounds I do source for the project and to see what sounds I still need to source. I updated the log and the schedule.

21/10 Moving Image Prod. Skills

Today we practiced importing clips and audio onto Pro Tools, we practiced EQing sounds for clips and automating EQ to create useful sound effects to describe movement and area.

We have been set our task and can choose any clip that Darryl deems fit for the task. Currently I am interested in doing a clip from Apocalpyse Now or City of God. The automation utility will be really useful and producing creative effects. We looked through all the clips on server to see what resources are available for task 2.

01/10, 04/10 & 08/10 Moving Image Project

01/10:
Today we went over what is required of the module, the main tasks are as follows:
- blog diary
- 2500 word evaluation
- 5 - 10 short drama film

I need to watch Rope by Hitchcock as it supposed to be a Hitchcock film done all in one shot.
My 2500 word evaluation gets posted onto my blog and I must include:
Media inspirations, how well organised the project was and how my performance was.

The 2 min character exercise is in for Weds 12th November
The treatment for the 5 - 10 min short is due in on Fri 21st November
The 5 - 10 min short is due in on Weds 17th December
The research blog is due on Weds 7th January

A few good places to check out short films are:
- http://www.shortoftheweek.com/
- https://vimeo.com/
- http://www.youtube.com/

an example of Hitchcock's theory of suspense
There are 2 people playing cards and a bomb goes off to blow them up = no suspense & no tension
The audience see a person put a bomb under the table and there are 2 people playing cards and the bomb goes off = suspense and tension.

The deeper the problems of the protagonist, the more dramatic the tension

Screenplay and The Screen writer's workbook (Syd Field) are recommended reads.

An inciting incident is an event that happens that changes the conventional (normal) world of the protagonist. Pushes the story to the next level.

We watched in the seminar A changed Man (2004) directed by Junson.

Our set exercise was to create and develop a fictional character. They must have a name, age, something they want and reasons why they can't have it.

4/10:
I watched Film_Fx L3.0 (2014) directed by Alexis Decelle http://vimeo.com/105329112#comment_12296036
What I really liked about this film is that it conveys a clear emotion of the robotboy wanting a friend, but the twist at the end really intrigues me. Though his emotion want him to get friends, he cannot help, but do something which causes that friend to die, thus him having paper models of all of his previous friends.

Looms (2014) directed by The Funk Brothers
http://vimeo.com/84085884
This was a great watch, the emotion that I interpreted for this piece was the farmer's determination to continue on the farm. Although the farmer injures himself from farm work, his determination doesn't swindle, the only problem he comes across is the fact that he isn't making enough to cover himself for the winter. Even the phone conversation he has with daughter, emphasises his determination to continue on the farm.

08/10:
The first task is to create a 2 minute character piece that conveys a clear emotion and focus, this is to be done in a group and making notes will assist in the creation of the 2000 word evaluation.

In this session we watched scenes from
Singin in the rain (Gene Kelly singing in the rain), The Birds (When the woman goes upstairs and is attacked by the birds) and Dirty Dancing (When the girl helps carry the pineapple to the dance and has the dance with boy she finds attractive).
These scenes really helped to portray characters in a significant way and intended signs assist in creating character personas.
I have had a move of group as I am no longer the drama group 2 session, so I have grouped with Emily, TS, Thomas and Danayet. We will decide the next time we meet on what idea we would like continue with for task 1.

30/09 The First Sound Session Moving Image Prod. Skills

Today we went over some of the basics of Pro Tools, as the course will be taught on Pro Tools it is essential that I become familiar with the software. Here are a few essential shortcuts I learnt today:
0 - Play/Pause
1 - Rewind (- does one frame)
2 - Fast Forward (+ does one frame)
ESC - Cycle through tools
CMD + E - Cuts (at playhead)
R - Zoom Out (A/Z Box must be enabled)
T - Zoom In (A/Z Box must be enabled)
RETURN - Create memory (marker) location
CMD + 5 - Displays memory locations
CMD + D - Duplicate

A few recommendations to watch are Solarsis, True Detective and Stalker.

Some essential techniques to deployed by sound designers:
Dialogue - Mono recording (ADR is used for dialogue replacement)
Atmos - Stereo recording
Foley
Cloth
Music
SFX - Sound Effects

Acousmatic sound is sound that is heard, but don't know where it is or where it comes from.
Temporalisation is when sounds manipulates what the position of the object is on screen.

Reflection for both Drama and Documentary

CMP Project

The processes used to create the documentary

In the documentary project I was sound recordist and camera operator. My initial role was sound editor, however due to circumstances I had no opportunities to edit sound. This module enabled me to develop my communication and team skills.

Lecturers initially got us creatively thinking by showcasing experimental productions such as Pockets, Skateizan, Eric’s Secrets and The Archive. These films focused on a particular subject and provided interesting information. The structure of the films segmented information to allow the audience digest key information and to keep the audience interested. The key to the documentaries was to not overwhelm audience with information, but to present information in a diegetic format that is aesthetically pleasing.

Following these showcases and seminar analyses, we needed to liaise with other students of the course to identify each other targets and methods of achieving them. My personal target was to develop my experience in the sound field. Though this proved difficult from time to time as students hold different commitments and are in different circumstances, the majority of students managed to cope and find groups to work in. The group I joined was founded based on our interests. We all had different aims and skills we wanted to develop, specific roles would allow us to develop these roles.

Another skill that I developed whilst in this production was idea development, this group had many ideas, some that would conflict with each other. We discussed for weeks the idea we would like to follow and some of our ideas when presented didn’t appeal as much as we thought it would. Our final idea, which me and Emily had sourced out almost at the same time seemed to be the most agreeable and interesting of the batch. This did not mean we would completely dissipate our previous ideas. As a group, we took the most outstanding and complimentary thoughts from our previous ideas and used them to assist bringing our final idea to fruition. This meant that everyone, even if not directly got to contribute in some way or another. By this time, we had just had Marcus join and we brought him up to speed with the progress of our idea.

In my opinion, too much time was spent on the idea of the project and not on the pre-production. This is debatably wrong as the idea development would fall under pre-production, however I do feel too much time was centred on the idea and this led to gaps in other segments of pre-production.

I had watched a few films to analyse how sound contributed and sound techniques that were deployed to produce specific reactions from the audience. One is the use of atmos to create a naturalistic scene. Others included the build up to a climax or change.

The production experience was incredible, on the first day of arriving in Liverpool we met with manager and coach of LHFC to negotiate terms of our production. We (Emily) communicated in such a way that both parties found beneficial factors from the end product.

Our documentary was aimed at people who could relate to the interviewees of the documentary. This means anybody who had been threatened or experience homelessness. Our secondary audience was the people who are still homeless, this would be people who fall below F on the socio economic scale. Our tertiary audience are football lovers and people who hold football as an interest. This documentary would serve as an inspiring story to enjoy hearing about football.

The finished piece reaches its goals. We wanted a documentary that provided key information about the homeless football club. The documentary was well received by our peers and the football club were happy with the end result.

The pros are that the group came together and completed a product we were all happy with. We worked to each other’s strengths and if there were any concerns, a member of the team would communicate it over to the rest of the team to attempt to resolve the problem as soon as possible. The days of production went well as we travelled to different locations to interview different participants that had come forward. The film is shot and looks really nice and pleasing to the viewers.

The cons are the production took a little while to get onto its feet. That time could have been spent getting in contact with more people in relation to the subject to create a more objective view. Once I had been away for a little while the crew had stopped communicating regularly to keep myself up to date with what was going on, so I was unaware of the progress of the production. Some ideas at the beginning were pushed too hard and I found previous declined ideas were being reinvented to make them acceptable. The sound editing could have been a lot better on the end product, I fear less adherence was made for it once I had left, even though there was more than one sound editor.

Along the course of this production I developed my skills into researching. Being given limited amount of time to find a subject that fits the assignment criteria and brief, forced the group into a situation that require ourselves to deploy effective search techniques to find a suitable subject. This included

The processes used to create the drama

Creating groups for this project proved to be the most difficult. I had personally noticed that people had started creating circles on the course and this made it hard for people who were not part of a circle. Personally I was not part of any circle, I was comfortable around the people I had worked with previously, but I had not created a social circle.

I started to ask around to see who wasn’t in a group and it seemed only the people who people found most difficult to work with before were free to work with. This was a similar scenario for the CMP Production Skills module. Out of sheer luck I managed to locate a few students who were looking for group members.

The first group meeting I had missed, because I had a presentation for the CMP Production Skills module, this left me at a disadvantage at idea development as an idea had been decided in this meeting. The meeting that I met the whole group was catch up for myself, as I needed to understand the concept of the idea. This proved to be very difficult. I was confused by the explanation of the idea and the concept. After a few group meetings I finally managed to get on the same page as other group members.

Having a session with floor plans helped me slightly. The production session was quite useful, I got to see an actor. The main problem was the communication. Relating back to what I was saying about social circles on the course, this only made it tense to communicate with people on the course in seminars and workshops. Sometimes people would want to discuss ideas and other days they would not or the feeling of segregation would slip in. This made the workshop session beyond awkward and indigestible, in the end I requested to leave. The post-production follow workshop really helped. I got to edit the recorded footage from the day with the actor and the main objective was to create a sequence that didn’t emphasise the problems that happened in production. It was very difficult as I faced different problems such as: the actor saying the wrong lines or the white balance being incorrectly set. Since there was no ADR or re-recordings of takes the sound limited the sequence. In the end I decided to edit around the sound also to make the sequence fit. I inserted pans to support position and darkened the majority of the shot to conceal unnecessary objects.

As I wasn’t editor for this project it was less useful in comparison to the actual editor, however it did aid me to picturing how the drama could look. The sound editing helped me to understand how the sound editor could piece together the sound. Certain parts of the sequence I would draw upon sounds from other clips of captured footage to make it flow smoother.

Once the group had drafted a first draft script and met actors this really helped. The group hadn’t planned on using the actors from the seminar prior to it, however it seemed that they were most suited for what we required. The actor who read our voice over dialogue seemed more than willing to feature in our film so we gave her the role. We got the other actors to act the argument scene that would feature in the film and it worked out really well. We offered the male actor the role as we needed an actor for the scene, however the main character is who he would have an argument so we did not require the remaining actor.

Our schedule was quite loose, most of the production did not require definite dates as we had access to most of the locations and facilities we required. Shooting on the bus required us to get in contact with the bus provider and ask for clearance. No contact was made and the group had just randomly set up on a bus we had got on, then recorded. I recorded atmos from the bus we had boarded. The sound editor had not outlined any specific sounds they had wanted, so I thought to record anything that peaked my interest and would be an asset to the production.

One difficulty we had with this production was finding a pole dancer who could act. The university has a pole dancer society luckily and members of group were getting contact with people from the society, however when the days of production approached, the reliability of the pole dancers decreased and eventually we had to use one of the crew. She was a pole dancer and actor so it worked, however without her in the group, this would have been a hard project to commit too.

The pole dancing studio and the living room were easily accessible. Amy was a part of the society, so this worked in our favour and we decorated Izzy’s living room to get the look we desired. Whilst sound recording in the pole dancing studio, I had thoughts about alternative ways recording the sound of pole dancing. One idea that came to was using the hydrophone with an end piece whilst Amy was performing on the pole. We only recorded once in the pole dancing studio, so unfortunately I did not get to experiment with this idea.

The last hiccup I personally made was with the recording of the monologue, I had connected the shotgun microphone to Marrantz recorder, however had forgotten to set it to the microphone. This meant that the majority of the recording I made were in stereo and only a few were in mono.

To conclude, I have enjoyed creating this product, from the current progress of the rough draft, not enough adherences have been paid to the sound. The planning for sound was to eliminate it, which left the group at a disadvantage. The powerful use of silence will most likely not be utilised. The film looks nice so far and I believe the final cut will be nice. Communication was pretty poor, our main point of communication was Facebook and though the majority of society uses it today, it still isn’t professional or completely reliable. Important information was either received late or received at all, because of Facebook. The editor has not kept the group up to date with edit and as I write this, I have still not seen the final edit.

6/5 Final Meeting

Today we the group met for the last time to check the final edit, it needed some final adjustments and is now complete

Ty

Professional Documentation

Script

                      The Pole
                    Screenplay by

                   Andrew Espley

 An idea developed by Isabel Wells, Amy Silk, Tyreece
Thomas, Andrew Espley, Callum Petit and Leanne Perry

INT. BUS. EARLY EVENING

A girl, LUCY (19), is sitting on a bus, looking a bit
miserable. She looks out of the rain-streaked window. The
sounds of the bus and the city fade a little, and we hear,
like it’s being said in a documentary interview:

                    LUCY (V.O)
          Erm, I don’t really know what to

say really. It’s been my life for... wow, I don’t know. A long time now. I don’t know how to describe it.

We see flashes over her voice:
INT. STUDIO. EVENING.
A HAND TOUCHING A POLE, CLOSE UP.
INT. LIVING ROOM. EVENING.
LUCY ARGUING WITH SOMEONE, SILENT.
EXT. CITY STREET. EARLY EVENING

Lucy gets off the bus, lights up a cigaretter and starts
walking. She knows where she’s going, and she still looks
down.

                    LUCY (V.O CONT)
          I guess it started for me at

school. I’d never get any interest from guys, or anything like that. Being constantly overlooked was horrible - and I know it may seem shallow to say it, but all I wanted was for some guys to look at me. In that way, you know.

We see more flashes throughout:
MORE ARGUING, WITH BOYFRIEND?
CLOSE UPS OF LEGS/ARMS MOVING ABOUT A POLE

                    LUCY (V.O CONT)
          I’d sit in class watching them

          all stare at all the plastic
          girls with their fake tans and
          shit. Made me hate ’em. Still do
          hate girls like that.

Lucy approaches a building, walks through the doors and
into it.

We see more flashes of the above.

(CONTINUED)

CONTINUED:

2.

                    LUCY (V.O CONT)
          But it was jealousy more than

          anything else. If I could look
          like them - look like them and
          get guys looking at me... Well
          you get me. My life hasn’t been
          some dead hard sad case though. I
          haven’t got a sob story I can
          tell you. We weren’t exactly well
          off but we were alright - my
          family, I mean. I had friends.
          They were alright.

INT. STUDIO. EVENING.

Lucy walks into a room and we see a pole - the studio. She
approaches the pole and we see the same shot from the
first flash - the HAND TOUCHING A POLE.

                    LUCY (V.O CONT)
          I can’t remember exactly when it
          was that I started wanting to do

          this - get on stage, and
          everything. I think I was 17 when
          I started having classes. I saw
          classes, and then I saw some
          girls on Facebook that did it, so
          I went along. It was alright. I
          felt good. The better I got, the
          more, you know, confident I felt.
          I felt comfortable looking the
          way I did.

Lucy prepares - getting dressed/ready to practice.
We see more flashes of the argument.

                    LUCY (V.O CONT)
          Then I went some club with some

          lads- a strip club, you know.
          Some dirty scrotty little club
          where if you payed ’em £40 they’d
          take you to some room backstage.
          It was horrible, the way the guys
          were acting, you know. But I
          loved it. It reminded me of
          school - the girls who all the
          guys would stare at all day, but
          they were doing something I could
          do. I could get like that, I
          thought. So I asked some girl
          when she came off stage, and she
          got the manager who gave me his
          card.

          I started at that shitty club the
          next week.

(CONTINUED)

CONTINUED: 3.

We see Lucy on the pole - elegant, skilled - moving about
it with ease. In flashes over this, we see the argument
again, but this time it seems to have escalated to a full
on shouting match.

                    LUCY (V.O CONT)
          My friends didn’t like it - the

ones who knew. My boyfriend didn’t like it either. Well... (her voice falters slightly) my ex.

We see the argument ending - the boyfriend slapping Lucy.
He storms out, Lucy screaming angrily after him, and Lucy
sitting on the sofa, sobbing. Then we see a flashback to
Lucy on the bus, upset. (Has she come straight from the
argument?)

                    LUCY (V.O CONT)
          They thought like you do,

probably. That I’m a slag. That I don’t have any respect for myself. You’re wrong though. I’d be there, and... I can’t put it into words, how I felt- on the pole, with the guys all staring and cheering and- and... wanting me. I felt better than I ever have.

Lucy is off the pole now, looking like she did on the bus.
Deep in thought.

                    LUCY (V.O CONT)
          It’s alright this. I know

          there’ll be people looking at me
          thinking, "Look at that mess" or
          "Look what she’s done to her
          life", you know. But I don’t give
          a shit.

               (laughs again)

Lucy is getting ready - evidently for a night on the pole
- she puts on her shiny high heels.

                    LUCY (V.O CONT)
          I really don’t. I love what I

          do. I’m happy.
INT. BUS. EARLY EVENING

We see Lucy on the bus again - the same shot as earlier.
But this time, she smiles. A reluctant, but genuine,
smile.

Character backstory

CHARACTER NAME: Vicky







AGE 19







APPEARANCE: (to be confirmed by Actor)





What do you know
     about this character now that s/he doesn’t yet know? 
What
     is this character’s greatest flaw? 
What do you know
     about this character that s/he would never admit? 
What is this
     character’s greatest asset? Her personality,
     very caring. 
If this
     character could choose a different identity, who would s/he be? This
     drama is based upon this question; looking at being yourself and wanting
     to be yourself, Vicky is a young pole dancer that learnt the ways of pole
     dancing and how it can earn you money, the idea of pole dancing and
     working in clubs disgraces her and her family however we learn that she
     cant escape from this as the pole gives her escapism of the trouble that
     her career causes through her family life, with the way Vicky see’s
     herself and her job if purely based upon the dancing side and how she
     wants to pursue her dancing career. 
What music does
     this character sing to when no one else is around? Her
     favourite music is often small bands that are often not what you expect
     from this character, giving herself an escapism through the music she
     listens to. (Lana Del Rey)
In what or whom
     does this character have the greatest faith? She
     has her greatest faith in herself, she feels that most people have let her
     down so she has always provided everything for herself, an example being
     of her career. 
What is this character’s
     favourite movie? The Notebook, because she hopes to find the love that
     the two main characters create. 
Does this
     character have a favourite article of clothing? Favourite shoes? Heels
     (Dancing)
Does this
     character have a vice? Name it. 
Name this
     character’s favourite person (living or dead). Her
     grandma (Dead), because she always supported her. 
What is this
     character’s secret wish? To become a professional dancer.
What is this
     character’s proudest achievement? Earning her own
     money. 
Describe this
     character’s most embarrassing moment. Her parents
     finding out that she works as a pole dancer.
What is this
     character’s deepest regret? Working in a
     strip bar because they way people view strip bars.
What is this
     character’s greatest fear? 
Describe this
     character’s most devastating moment.
What is this
     character’s greatest achievement?
What is this
     character’s greatest hope?
Does this
     character have an obsession? Name it.
What is this
     character’s greatest disappointment?
What is this
     character’s worst nightmare?
Whom does this
     character most wish to please? Why?
Describe this
     character’s mother.
Describe this
     character’s father.
If s/he had to
     choose, with whom would this character prefer to live?
Where does this
     character fall in birth order? What effect does this have?
Describe this
     character’s siblings or other close relatives.
Describe this
     character’s bedroom. Include three cherished items.
What is this
     character’s birth date? How does this character manifest traits of his/her
     astrological sign?
If this
     character had to live in seclusion for six months, what six items would
     s/he bring?
Why is this
     character angry?
What calms this
     character?
Describe a
     recurring dream or nightmare this character might have.
List the choices
     (not circumstances) that led this character to his/her current
     predicament.
List the
     circumstances over which this character has no control.
What wakes this
     character in the middle of the night?
How would a
     stranger describe this character?
What does this
     character resolve to do differently every morning?
Who depends on
     this character? Why?
If this
     character knew s/he had exactly one month to live, what would s/he do?
How would a dear
     friend or relative describe this character?
What is this
     character’s most noticeable physical attribute?
What is this
     character hiding from him/herself?
Write one
     additional thing about your character.

Treatment Sheet

Synopsis:

Our idea is to create a drama to showcase a pole dancer’s
life. A monologue will be used to document her life, however we will create an
inciting incident that will provide a more dramatic tone to the film.

The girl is a pole dancer and her back story is how she ends
up as a pole dancing, we found inspiration and influence from Sign Language (2010). We will shoot it
using a DSLR camera because we feel that it gives it more of an artist approach
rather a static feel – we want the imagery to feel poetic and beautiful, rather
than a more traditional documentary style like Sign Language. We will use no diegetic dialogue, with the story
coming from a narrative monologue, looking at her journey of what she does for
a living, how her life has led to this and if an why she enjoys it. We intend
on creating a respectful (we don’t want to criticise the art of pole dancing),
interesting but hard hitting story. 




Inspiration

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Py_-3di1yx0




Equipment

Canon DSLR

Shotgun Mic

Marrantz




Technical
Requirements:

The
cinematography will be a big part of this project making sure the shots aren’t
shown in a documentary style, using close ups and interesting angles to show
the subject matter also looking at inspiration from ‘Sign Language’. We plan on
filming with a DSLR to create a more artistic, softer feel rather than a static
feel which we feel the canon fx 100 would create. 




Cast:

We plan on
having one main character here are some basic information we will be looking
for within our character persona. 

Gender –
female

Age – 18-22

Personality
– little rough round the edges, hard working, 

Backstory –
grown up living in a rough area with scrapping by with her mother, often being
bullied, struggling through her teenage life, finds happiness in pole dancing
as a hobby but soon learns the money involved in working in a strip club which
develops the story showing more deeper subject, we follow her journey and how
she deals with life. 

We will
have extras within the studio filming and the public transport filming however
these extras will not add to the story. 




Crew:

Isabel Wells – Director

Callum Petitt – Producer

Andrew Espley – Camera

Tyrese Thomas – Sound Recordist

Amy Silk – Editor

Leanne Perry – Sound Editor