Film and Media Blog

by Taz Akhtar

Rated: · In & Out · Other · #1568107

My learning progress during my time on the Film and Media course.

Film and Media Blog

Oxford Road Documentary

We decided to base our Oxford road documentary on ghosts that have been spotted in that particular area. We searched the internet and found there had been numerous sightings ghosts but the one that stood out to us was the Grey Lady in the Palace Theatre. Alice booked us an interview with a psychic and a couple of professional ghost hunters who went on tours looking for ghosts. The interview was held at Key 103 radio station, on arriving at the location I noted a gothic looking arch in which I decided would make a spooky backdrop especially as it was dark at night. The lighting I used was a hand held, battery operated contraption which I angled on the ladies face from underneath to keep with the gloomy feel of the documentary. It was hard to keep still because the light was extremely heavy I had to make sure no sound would be picked up by the microphone boom. I also asked the lady questions which I tried to keep as open as possible so she would give us enough to edit later.

We then set out to get vox pops off people on Oxford road during Halloween so we could interview people dressed up in costumes and gather opinions of people who were interested in ghosts. The lighting was a problem as it began the night being extremely bright but then began to diminish in strength throughout the night; I think at this point a reflector would have been ideal. I managed to line up enough passer-by’s to interview, but interviewing them was hard because they kept answering ‘yes’ and ‘no’ to every question I asked, so I made it easier and gave them a sentence to say which included the question within the answer. Whilst filming I tried to make sure the light didn’t make shadows of the microphone boom in the shots.

Throughout this time it was proving hard to get in touch with the manager of the Palace Theatre, I had sent an email and tried to call but was not getting any response. I decided to drop in whilst a show was playing and managed to track down the manager during half time break. She told me we had to write an outline and get the course leader to email her to get permission, after managing to do this she agreed to let her assistant to take us on a ghost tour that the Palace Theatre actually gave themselves to the public, to us. The assistant was more than happy to co-operate, although by this time the battery for the light was utterly dull so we managed to use the reflector to get a little more light out of it.

For the music I enlisted the help of Dan Bostock, using his old guitar we created unnerving sounds by experimenting with the way we played his guitar and distortion effects on his Mac. We created three different riffs and looped them around to be edited into the documentary as background noise.

Disenchanted
For the second project we were assigned with the genre of a musical, so we decided to do an alternative interpretation of Hansel and Gretal. I wrote out the song lyrics, which was proving difficult without the melody or music. I then sketched out a storyboard with different shot angles which made me conscious of how many times it is appropriate to change the angles and frames. I then completed the songs with the help of Dan Bostock who played the bass on the songs, whilst I programmed the drum beat and played the guitar; acoustic and electric. We later added a synthesiser, using tubular bells and organ effects to give the film a darker edge.

Jenny cast the actors and sorted the location out in Dorset, whilst Alice organised the equipment and funded the props. Whilst in Dorset we needed a helium tank to blow up the balloons we searched the town for the helium but nobody had any in stock, we finally tracked it down in a card shop some miles away. We then created the wendy house into a house with a façade but the display under the sheet was not scary so Jenny created some newspaper cut-outs to stick on the windows and I bought some dolls which we severed and took apart nailing them to the front.

I bought the costumes for the children which I wanted to contrast against the witch in an obvious manner, to keep with the macabre theme I bought gothic costumes for the children dressing them in alternative wear so that it was obvious they weren’t normal children. The witch was then dressed in bright colourful clothes with scary bright make-up which was meant to represent her childishness and how removed she was from the rest of the world. I then did Gretal’s make-up to look like a child had applied it, it was hard to keep the make-up continuously the same because I was directing I was unable to keep an eye out on the costume and make-up, which in hindsight I would have assigned somebody to look at.

The rehearsal the night before we learnt that the witch hadn’t learnt her lines and the children didn’t know they were going to be singing therefore had learnt the songs as lines. We were limited on filming time because the children had after school activities so I decided to film on regardless and dub the lines afterwards because the children were shy I thought it was best to get Jenny to sit them down alone and do it at a later date. I directed the witch who was a demanding character with tact and gave her a stanza to say then stopped filming and started again after she had learnt the next section.

The cameraman was very helpful and understood the shots I wanted, the storyboard was extremely helpful because it helped me visualise the shots I needed to do. We had trouble with the sound as aeroplanes kept flying above so we had to keep stopping and starting and the children began to get tired and messy in their costumes.

Jenny did not manage to get the children to sing at a later date but did manage to get the witch to dub her lines over the song, The editing failed to include a particular shot I was proud of in which I climbed a tree to get an aerial shot of the children in the woods. I later recorded the sound of a music box I had taken out of a toy to be edited into the shot in which the children see the wendy house.

Belial
My involvement in this film was limited in that I was assigned the role of director and I quickly learnt that I was meant to take in the script and work with the producer who had alternative ideas to create something we both agreed on, at a later stage of development.

During auditions two strong candidates were decided on, one was Irish and the Belial character was meant to be from Manchester, so I thought it was better to have the second actor who fitted in with the filming schedule but shouted whilst acting. During rehearsal with the Belial character I spent time helping him learn his lines and specified how we wanted the acting to be and let him know we wanted a more suave less shouty kind of demon. The costume I was not told to provide until that morning as I didn’t know what size he was and I didn’t have his contact number I bought a black cape and a black top hat. The cape was not used because the material was too transparent for the green screen scene and because we wanted to keep continuity we left it out. Belial provided his own dark clothes because he already had everything in his wardrobe.

For the green screen scene he was meant to be positioned in various different times of historical moments. I had to position him in different angles whilst keeping an eye on the green sheet to make sure it didn’t crease and throw shadows which would show later on in production. It was particular hard to angle him to look like he was in the picture because we had to reverse him in certain shots because the green sheet was not big enough to encompass his shape.

The next scene we filmed at Jenny’s house, in this scene I had to take in consideration the sound and the scope in which Belial walks into shot I wanted different angled shots that would be edited to look fluid but producer Jenny preferred to do it in one long shot., my suggestion of cutaway shots of the students activities as a close up was ignored. Because I was not behind the camera I had no idea to which how the shots were going to look like.

Whilst filming the hooligan scene I happened to catch sight of the scene in which he sprays the wall whilst playing back, I noticed that it was clearly obvious he wasn’t spraying anything on the wall because the camera was at a full on angle and also the light was too bright to be explained as a light source at night. I then moved the camera at a side angle directed Belial to hold him for a second instead of the duration of the shot and instructed the hooligan too run away which would be a more natural reaction. I also put a gel on the light to give the shot a more natural streetlight look.

Prior to the scene in which Belial is in the kebab shop, I had to ask permission to use the shop for filming. I spoke to the manager on the phone who said I could only film in the shop, not behind the counter and that I wasn’t to use the electricity in the shop. We closed the shop for five minutes and started filming but I noticed the shop worker kept pacing around and peering into the camera, this would later affect the continuity whilst editing, so I politely asked him to step into the back for a little while. The fact we filmed inside the shop saved us from the hassle of passer-by’s, traffic noise and the light we had to otherwise ask to use electricity from the shop.

We then filmed in an alleyway I made sure the camera caught the sick pouring from her mouth , I feel this shot would have been more effective with a close up of her face being sick but Alice was not confident on camera to do this.

The next day we filmed in a corporate meeting room, we quickly set up and managed to get the shots required, again the natural light was too bright because it was early morning, so we changed the settings on the camera this time to obtain the correct effect. Whilst filming I held the noose so he could snatch it out of my hand I had to make sure my hand was not in shot. For the scene outside to conclude the film we used a long shot partly because it was raining and then did a close up of his face. We decided to dub his voice at a later date because the boom could not pick him up from a certain length way. Although I enjoyed my role as director I would have liked to have more input in the production aspect of the film.

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