The Sunnyside of Reading

In which I look at Carter the Great, Charlie Chaplin and why there are some books I just can’t finish. 

On my Goodreads profile there is a bookshelf I have named gave-up-on (the dashes were forced upon me) and on this shelf are seven books that I couldn’t bring my concentration to persevere through and finish.

The seven unlucky inhabitants of the gave-up-on shelf are:

However, this post will look at Carter Beats the Devil by Glen David Gold, because I recently started reading Gold’s most recent novel Sunnyside. Well, I say recently, I actually started reading it in July; as with Carter I am having trouble motivating myself to keep reading it. The book is five hundred and sixty pages long and it’s taken me over three months to get to page ninety two! As with Carter, which is five hundred and sixty three pages long, I spent a considerable amount of time working my way through to chapter ten, which is only on page one hundred and fourteen!

Therefore, I am going to examine both books, with reference to the other members of the gave-up-on shelf, to see why I have had such a hard time sticking with them and to see if there is any hope for me to ever finish them. 

Subject Matter

At the birth of the Jazz Age in San Francisco, Carter walks on to the stage for the most daring performance of his life. Two hours later, President Harding is dead. So begins a mystery, a love story, and a fight against loneliness, set during a period of enormous change. 

- Carter Beats the Devil Synopsis

When I first read this synopsis, I felt as though this book had been written for me. The Jazz age, early twentieth century American culture, a fight against loneliness and Charles Carter the magician are all elements that appealed to me and which I hoped would come together for a first class read.  

From the author of Carter Beats the Devil comes a panoramic tale of power and stardom, ambition and dreams that reaches from California to Russia. At the heart of its enthralling cast of characters – which includes a thieving Girl Scout, Mary Pickford, a charismatic British general and even the dog Rin Tin Tin – lies the troubled genius that was Charlie Chaplin.

  

Here America debuts on the world stage in the Great War, Hollywood blossoms into a global phenomenon, and the cult of the celebrity is born. Here, in a novel as darkly comic as it is thrilling, the modern age dawns. 

- Sunnyside synopsis.

While this book deals, again, with early Twentieth century American culture and Hollywood, only one element was needed to win me over – Charlie Chaplin. 

I am huge Chaplin fan and I have already read his Autobiography and two other biographies, so the prospect of a delving into a fictionalised account was both an appealing and a refreshing prospect. 

So it is certainly not lack of interest in the subject matter! 

Structure

It is the structure then? With Doctor Whom: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Parodication the fact that the chapters were presented out of chronological order did my head in. Likewise, with Carter and Sunnyside they also have unconventional structures, but with these novels it is something that appeals to me.

Carter is laid out like a magic act performance, so the book is split up into sections with each section having their own collection of chapters: Act 1: Metamorphosis (fifteen chapters), Act 2: An Inquiry into the Spirit World (twenty five chapters), Act 3: Carter Beats the Devil (ten chapters) and an Overture (prologue) and Curtain (Epilogue). 

This structure appealed to me because it was very reminiscent of the cinematic adaptation of The Prestige, where the three act structure of the magician’s performance is integral to the film’s very intricate plot. I had hoped that with Carter this would prove the same but, as I never actually finished the book, I still don’t know. 

Likewise, as Sunnyside is about a cinematic icon the book is structured like a Cinema program. This was something that went out of fashion in the 1950s, but originally a cinema program would present other features, in addition to the main feature, such as: short films, cartoons, newsreels, travelogues etc. Sunnyside is split up into six sections with each section having its own collection of chapters and with each section constituting a particular item of a cinema program; In this case and in this order: a newsreel, a travelogue, a two reel comedy, a serial, a feature presentation and a sing along. 

Chaplin's short film which the book is named after.

The way in which a book is structured can be a useful tool for creating suspense, as J.R.R. Tolkien does in the latter two books of The Lord of the Rings; in the way he keeps Frodo and Sam’s story separate from the rest of the fellowship. However, the structuring of a book can also lead to the book being incredibly baffling as Laurence Sterne illustrates with The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman; wherein he goes off in all sorts of tangents. In all fairness, though, that book is baffling regardless of its structure! However, with Sunnyside Gold uses structure to give the book a novelty; in this case a cinema program.

Film is something that I have a passionate interest in and if a book ties into and emulates the medium of film then it is a book that I am going to want to invest my attention in. With Sunnyside I am enjoying the various nods to classical Hollywood and of its famous figures who keep popping up; Douglas Fairbanks made his introduction in the most recent chapter.

Douglas Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin

I am only in the third section of Sunnyside, the two reel comedy part, and as yet I can not see how the structure helps to reinforce the overall narrative. It may be that the structure of Sunnyside isn’t there to reinforce the narrative and is just a novelty. While the structure potentially may not prove to be vital to the overall plot, it will not dissuade me from reading it as it’s referencing the art form and industry that I love.

Therefore, does problem lay with Gold’s prose style? 

Prose Style

Getting into sync with the writers’ prose style was the problem I had with The IPCRESS File, The Sleeper Awakes, Doctor Whom and Tristram Shandy. With The ICRESS File I found the stream of consciousness style a strain to follow, The Sleeper Awakes had a very cold, scientific presentation that made the prose come across as boring, Doctor Whom was just baffling and Tristram Shandy…well, let's not even get me started!

However, with Carter and Sunnyside I could follow the prose, but I think Gold drowns out all of his action with too much description:

In the Colorado Rockies, at the Grand Imperial Hotel, which had indeed look imperial in its mining days, the manager uncorked the intercom tube that, in theory, addressed all public areas – in practice, it worked about as well as stretching two tin cans along a length of string – and called, in a voice whose transposition along the ether made it shimmer like a mirage, ‘Will Charlie Chaplin please come to the lobby?”

(Sunnyside, pg. 11)

Not a lot happens in that extract – the manager speaks into the intercom and asks Chaplin to come to the lobby – however, the first time I read it I missed that piece of action altogether, because my mind was focusing in more on the description of the intercom. Therefore, the main problem I have with Gold’s prose is I tend to miss the beats of the action in the plot. As Gold's use of vivid description is relentless, in both Carter and Sunnyside, I think this is the reason why I have always felt lost and out of sync when reading either book.

Glen David Gold

Saying this, though, it would be unfair to lay the blame fully on Gold; while he might be accused of using too much description he does, however, have a very rich and intricate prose style. Therefore, I think there is one more factor that I still need to consider.

A Lazy Reader?

When I say a lazy reader, I don’t mean that I rarely ever read; rather I am referring to how I may not give a text the amount of attention that it deserves. I have noticed this with the set reading I have to read for my Film Studies module, in that, I don’t always pick up what the writer is trying to tell me. Likewise, I have also noticed it when workshopping others' work in my writing module - I tend to only be able give them a couple of very vague pointers, because I don't read their work close enough. 

This is something that I find very frustrating; especially when it means that I have to read something four or five times just to fully articulate what it is trying to tell me! Really, then, I need to change my reading habits.

The Eager Reader

I think that reading something like Sunnyside will help me improve in this respect, because only by getting in to the habit of reading texts that are rich and intricate am I going to train my mind to automatically read more closely into their writing and the ideas they are conveying.

I think it would also be a huge insult to Glen David Gold not to not finish a book that, in terms of subject matter and structure, he has unintentionally catered for me to be interested in.

Therefore, I am going to force myself to finish this book and I will endeavour to enjoy it! Then, when I have finished it, I will write another post reflecting on the book as a whole. Who knows, reading Sunnyside it may even propel me to finally finish Carter and the other members of the gave-up-on shelf...

The Sunnyside of Reading

In which I look at Carter the Great, Charlie Chaplin and why there are some books I just can’t finish. 

On my Goodreads profile there is a bookshelf I have named gave-up-on (the dashes were forced upon me) and on this shelf are seven books that I couldn’t bring my concentration to persevere through and finish.

The seven unlucky inhabitants of the gave-up-on shelf are:

However, this post will look at Carter Beats the Devil by Glen David Gold, because I recently started reading Gold’s most recent novel Sunnyside. Well, I say recently, I actually started reading it in July; as with Carter I am having trouble motivating myself to keep reading it. The book is five hundred and sixty pages long and it’s taken me over three months to get to page ninety two! As with Carter, which is five hundred and sixty three pages long, I spent a considerable amount of time working my way through to chapter ten, which is only on page one hundred and fourteen!

Therefore, I am going to examine both books, with reference to the other members of the gave-up-on shelf, to see why I have had such a hard time sticking with them and to see if there is any hope for me to ever finish them. 

Subject Matter

At the birth of the Jazz Age in San Francisco, Carter walks on to the stage for the most daring performance of his life. Two hours later, President Harding is dead. So begins a mystery, a love story, and a fight against loneliness, set during a period of enormous change. 

- Carter Beats the Devil Synopsis

When I first read this synopsis, I felt as though this book had been written for me. The Jazz age, early twentieth century American culture, a fight against loneliness and Charles Carter the magician are all elements that appealed to me and which I hoped would come together for a first class read.  

From the author of Carter Beats the Devil comes a panoramic tale of power and stardom, ambition and dreams that reaches from California to Russia. At the heart of its enthralling cast of characters – which includes a thieving Girl Scout, Mary Pickford, a charismatic British general and even the dog Rin Tin Tin – lies the troubled genius that was Charlie Chaplin.

  

Here America debuts on the world stage in the Great War, Hollywood blossoms into a global phenomenon, and the cult of the celebrity is born. Here, in a novel as darkly comic as it is thrilling, the modern age dawns. 

- Sunnyside synopsis.

While this book deals, again, with early Twentieth century American culture and Hollywood, only one element was needed to win me over – Charlie Chaplin. 

I am huge Chaplin fan and I have already read his Autobiography and two other biographies, so the prospect of a delving into a fictionalised account was both an appealing and a refreshing prospect. 

So it is certainly not lack of interest in the subject matter! 

Structure

It is the structure then? With Doctor Whom: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Parodication the fact that the chapters were presented out of chronological order did my head in. Likewise, with Carter and Sunnyside they also have unconventional structures, but with these novels it is something that appeals to me.

Carter is laid out like a magic act performance, so the book is split up into sections with each section having their own collection of chapters: Act 1: Metamorphosis (fifteen chapters), Act 2: An Inquiry into the Spirit World (twenty five chapters), Act 3: Carter Beats the Devil (ten chapters) and an Overture (prologue) and Curtain (Epilogue). 

This structure appealed to me because it was very reminiscent of the cinematic adaptation of The Prestige, where the three act structure of the magician’s performance is integral to the film’s very intricate plot. I had hoped that with Carter this would prove the same but, as I never actually finished the book, I still don’t know. 

Likewise, as Sunnyside is about a cinematic icon the book is structured like a Cinema program. This was something that went out of fashion in the 1950s, but originally a cinema program would present other features, in addition to the main feature, such as: short films, cartoons, newsreels, travelogues etc. Sunnyside is split up into six sections with each section having its own collection of chapters and with each section constituting a particular item of a cinema program; In this case and in this order: a newsreel, a travelogue, a two reel comedy, a serial, a feature presentation and a sing along. 

Chaplin's short film which the book is named after.

The way in which a book is structured can be a useful tool for creating suspense, as J.R.R. Tolkien does in the latter two books of The Lord of the Rings; in the way he keeps Frodo and Sam’s story separate from the rest of the fellowship. However, the structuring of a book can also lead to the book being incredibly baffling as Laurence Sterne illustrates with The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman; wherein he goes off in all sorts of tangents. In all fairness, though, that book is baffling regardless of its structure! However, with Sunnyside Gold uses structure to give the book a novelty; in this case a cinema program.

Film is something that I have a passionate interest in and if a book ties into and emulates the medium of film then it is a book that I am going to want to invest my attention in. With Sunnyside I am enjoying the various nods to classical Hollywood and of its famous figures who keep popping up; Douglas Fairbanks made his introduction in the most recent chapter.

Douglas Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin

I am only in the third section of Sunnyside, the two reel comedy part, and as yet I can not see how the structure helps to reinforce the overall narrative. It may be that the structure of Sunnyside isn’t there to reinforce the narrative and is just a novelty. While the structure potentially may not prove to be vital to the overall plot, it will not dissuade me from reading it as it’s referencing the art form and industry that I love.

Therefore, does problem lay with Gold’s prose style? 

Prose Style

Getting into sync with the writers’ prose style was the problem I had with The IPCRESS File, The Sleeper Awakes, Doctor Whom and Tristram Shandy. With The ICRESS File I found the stream of consciousness style a strain to follow, The Sleeper Awakes had a very cold, scientific presentation that made the prose come across as boring, Doctor Whom was just baffling and Tristram Shandy…well, let's not even get me started!

However, with Carter and Sunnyside I could follow the prose, but I think Gold drowns out all of his action with too much description:

In the Colorado Rockies, at the Grand Imperial Hotel, which had indeed look imperial in its mining days, the manager uncorked the intercom tube that, in theory, addressed all public areas – in practice, it worked about as well as stretching two tin cans along a length of string – and called, in a voice whose transposition along the ether made it shimmer like a mirage, ‘Will Charlie Chaplin please come to the lobby?”

(Sunnyside, pg. 11)

Not a lot happens in that extract – the manager speaks into the intercom and asks Chaplin to come to the lobby – however, the first time I read it I missed that piece of action altogether, because my mind was focusing in more on the description of the intercom. Therefore, the main problem I have with Gold’s prose is I tend to miss the beats of the action in the plot. As Gold's use of vivid description is relentless, in both Carter and Sunnyside, I think this is the reason why I have always felt lost and out of sync when reading either book.

Glen David Gold

Saying this, though, it would be unfair to lay the blame fully on Gold; while he might be accused of using too much description he does, however, have a very rich and intricate prose style. Therefore, I think there is one more factor that I still need to consider.

A Lazy Reader?

When I say a lazy reader, I don’t mean that I rarely ever read; rather I am referring to how I may not give a text the amount of attention that it deserves. I have noticed this with the set reading I have to read for my Film Studies module, in that, I don’t always pick up what the writer is trying to tell me. Likewise, I have also noticed it when workshopping others' work in my writing module - I tend to only be able give them a couple of very vague pointers, because I don't read their work close enough. 

This is something that I find very frustrating; especially when it means that I have to read something four or five times just to fully articulate what it is trying to tell me! Really, then, I need to change my reading habits.

The Eager Reader

I think that reading something like Sunnyside will help me improve in this respect, because only by getting in to the habit of reading texts that are rich and intricate am I going to train my mind to automatically read more closely into their writing and the ideas they are conveying.

I think it would also be a huge insult to Glen David Gold not to not finish a book that, in terms of subject matter and structure, he has unintentionally catered for me to be interested in.

Therefore, I am going to force myself to finish this book and I will endeavour to enjoy it! Then, when I have finished it, I will write another post reflecting on the book as a whole. Who knows, reading Sunnyside it may even propel me to finally finish Carter and the other members of the gave-up-on shelf...

Where will it all stop – Filming Feedback

This summary post was originally written for a practical exercise undertaken in the Planning and Making a Film module I undertook in the penultimate year of my BA (Hons). The module's practice was undertaken between October 2011 to June 2012 and it provided me with a hugely enriching experience. For a more detailed overview of the module and the projects I undertook as a part of it, see Planning and Making a Film: The student filmmaking experience.

21/11/2011

As a seminar group we discussed how filming for each of the groups had gone and from this generated some feedback points for ourselves and for future students. All the points raised from the session can be seen here. Below I have outlined all the points from the session that I feel would be good for myself to consider when it comes time to make the second short film.

Be positive! 

Ironically, being the most negative person in the session this was point that I raised. I certainly took a very negative outlook on things when our filming went bellies up. While my negative outlook didn’t stop me from performing my role it certainly  dampened my spirit and stopped me from performing my role to the best of my abilities.

Roles. 

Make sure that everyone knows what their role is and what responsibilities that role entails. I included this point not because I didn’t know what my role and responsibilities were but rather I found very frustrating when our production manager, Sally, kept asking me what it was she was meant to be doing. Therefore, what role and responsibilities everyone has should be made clear as soon as possible.

Locations.

This was a big one for us because we hadn’t checked properly in advance what part of our location, The Royal Oak, we could actually use. Therefore, it was a blow in the guts when we were told that we couldn’t use the part of the pub we had spent so long planning for! Establishing how much control and access you have with a location is key in ensuring that you can shoot what you want and where you want to.

Cast. 

We had issues with not being able to contact cast members and with cast members dropping out. Here we should have been clear with our cast members as soon as possible in terms of how to contact them, making sure they were available when we needed them and generally keeping them in the loop.

Rehearse. 

This will save so much time on the day as the cast will know what it is they need to do.  If you plan a rehearsal properly, it is also an opportunity for all the cast and crew to meet and become familiar with each other before the shoot.

Lighting. 

Make sure your location has lighting that you would be happy to film with and if it hasn’t arrange to have your own lighting set-up. This proved to be a particular annoyance for me when we were told that we would have to use The Royal Oak’s back room, opposed to the one we had planned for, because the lighting in the back room was completely different and worse than the lighting in the main room.

Schedule. 

This was something that we really only had a very vague idea about and that was because our production manager hadn’t bothered to produce a proper one. It would also have been helpful if we had allowed for more time than planned, e.g. we had a three hour shoot, but if we had put an extra hour on top of this it would have helped when things started to go wrong with the shoot.  

Follow continuity. 

Aside from filming all the scenes we needed to film back to front (our shoot order was: scene 6, 2, 1) we managed to shoot everything that was in the scenes in chronological order. However, we deviated from continuity at some points because we were trying to save time with what little time we had, and I know this will lead to some continuity errors in the finished film. But, obviously, if you can shoot in continuity order then plan to do so; it leads to less confusion, both with the cast and crew, and will allow you stay on top of continuity.

Don’t panic. 

Things can and do go wrong, but don’t panic when they do because it will only make the problem(s) worse. Obviously, planning can help stop things from going wrong, but it you have a plan B as well then you’ll absolutely be set if things start to go wrong with your original plan. Also, if you have a problem don’t keep it to yourself. There is a cast and crew there for a reason and that is because making a film isn’t a one man job, so why should bearing a problem be any different?

Next: Where will it all stop - Editing Session #2 and Beyond...

Xbox Junkie - A Short Film Script

Xbox Junkie is a script that I am developing for my housemate Michael Kelly, who is a third year Creative Media Practice student in need of a script for his dissertation short film. Thus far I have spent one week developing the idea and another week writing a first draft that consists of thirty pages. 

I have developed the script from an original brief that Mike gave me, which concerned itself with a middle aged man who had abandoned his family and social ties because of his new addiction to playing video games. This was actually something that Mike had been inspired from a similar story he had read in a Guardian article: At War with World of Warcraft. Although, not being much of an avid a gamer, I didn’t really find that idea all too appealing. However, before deciding to make a fiction short film, Mike’s original intention had been to make a documentary about gaming so I decided to use the theme of gaming as my starting point.

The resulting thirty page script, certainly the most ambitious script that I've written, concerns itself with a protagonist who uses gaming as a means of shielding himself from the real world. Hence the naming of the script as Xbox Junkie, because the script explores how gaming can become an addiction; that can produce the same results of being addicted to drugs. While game addiction isn’t something that is yet recognised as a proper addiction it is certainly something that keeps getting re-examined in this respect and is something that keeps cropping up in the news: Why anything can be addictive.

Initial outline, if you can believe that

The protagonist uses gaming as an excuse/shield to stop himself from achieving his true potential – his true potential being something that contains a lot of pain. With this theme of game addiction at its center the script goes on to explore how the protagonist breaks free of his addiction while also exploring how he got addicted to gaming in the first place. If are to look at the script in terms of story types then it is a man in a hole combined with a boy meets girl.

The scene outline

On a series of bus rides, I have gradually been reading the shooting scripts for American Beauty by Alan Ball and North by Northwest by Lehman Ernest. I made a very conscious decision to read these scripts because I wanted their respective styles to rub off on my script. From American Beauty I was looking to gain the existentialism as seen through a lens of black comedy with the humourous and snappy dialogue of North by Northwest. I’ve always enjoyed black comedy so it seemed like an essential when writing this script because I envisioned this script being quite comedic. Also the script would be existentialist through its examination of game addiction and using that as a shield against the world. Finally, as the script is also a boy meets girl story I wanted to inject it with that sparring quality of dialogue that you see in couples who just seem to click.

While the style might come from American Beauty and North By Northwest, the content comes from things in my life and from the people I share my current house with. Certainly, the idea of the protagonist spending most of his time sat on his Xbox is something that a particular member of our house, who will remain unmanned, has been doing to no end! Also, the idea of preventing anxiety from getting in the way of your ideal career or dream is something that keeps recurring in our house. The idea of time running out and the mortality of humanity is something that is also present in the script, and it is because I am currently terrified of wasting time! At the moment, the script is only a first draft, but I hope that by drawing in these very real themes and emotions it comes together to tell a very convincing story.  

That all said, though, this script may not get made! It is not because Mike doesn’t like it, far from it. Rather, it’s because on the night I handed him the first draft I came up with an idea of how I could turn his original idea, of the middle aged man who had abandoned his family and social ties due to his new addiction to playing video games, into a script. For the time being then, I have laid Xbox Junkie to rest while I produce a first draft of this new idea, and I will soon have more details about it.

Where will it all stop – Filming

This summary post was originally written for a practical exercise undertaken in the Planning and Making a Film module I undertook in the penultimate year of my BA (Hons). The module's practice was undertaken between October 2011 to June 2012 and it provided me with a hugely enriching experience. For a more detailed overview of the module and the projects I undertook as a part of it, see Planning and Making a Film: The student filmmaking experience.

20/11/2011

Naturally, it was at this point in production that everything started to go wrong! The first problem we encountered was one that we should have seen coming – casting. The first issue was with the character of Lolly, who we had had problems with previously. The actress we had cast to fill in for Lolly did manage to film all of her material for the Saturday, but was unable to shoot on the Sunday. Jenny (our director) did manage to sort this by getting her housemate to take the role. However, it will create a massive continuity problem in the final cut because we will have two actresses playing the same part!

The second casting problem was with the role of the Bartender and again the actor we had scheduled to do this had to drop out because of work. At least, though, the character didn’t appear in both halves of the script, so we wouldn’t have another character played by two actors. But it did still leave us without an actor to play the role, on the night before we had to shoot it. I suggested that we swap the roles of the Bartender with the role of the Barmaid, so the Barmaid would speak all the lines of the Bartender. Therefore, all we would need to do would be to get a male actor to film the one shot in which the Barmaid was originally to have appeared in. 

Originally, this was the Barmaid's sole piece of action. 

But to make the above issue even more complicated when we came to shoot the film we used the Barmaid for the Barman's part and the Barmaid's original part (above). Therefore, in the context of the script, it doesn't make any sense any more; we should have just eliminated the Barmaid's latter piece of action (above). But I will discuss more of the script changes later.  

However, the casting problems aside, it was when we were setting up to film in The Royal Oak that we received the biggest blow. We were told that, because of customers, we would not be able to use the main part of the pub - the part which we had planned for. The only part that we would be allowed to use would be the back room, which was a completely different layout, had different lighting and was a smaller space than what we had planned for. Our shot list, floor plan and storyboard went straight out of the window!

We were half an hour late getting started because Jenny had to completely redo the shot list and storyboard. But, at least, it gave me (cinematographer) and Emily (sound operator) a good amount of time to set up the camera and sound equipment; while also giving the cast an opportunity to rehearse their lines outside. At 13:30, though, we started shooting; albeit very much aware that we would need to pull our socks up if we wanted to shoot everything in the time we had left.

Technical notes to help with filming

In my mind, the three hours that we spent shooting was incredibly frustrating and stressful. It was frustrating because all of our careful planning had to be scrapped and it was stressful because everything became disorganised and a terrible rush. However, saying this, we did manage to shoot everything that was needed; maybe not to the quality we had hoped for, but certainly to a “useable” quality. I think it is also important to point out that the whole production of Where will it all stop is designed as a practice run and something with which we’re supposed to make mistakes, so that we will be fully prepared for our next production for which we will actually be assessed on. 

Next: Where will it all stop – Filming Feedback

Where will it all stop – Rehearsals

This summary post was originally written for a practical exercise undertaken in the Planning and Making a Film module I undertook in the penultimate year of my BA (Hons). The module's practice was undertaken between October 2011 to June 2012 and it provided me with a hugely enriching experience. For a more detailed overview of the module and the projects I undertook as a part of it, see Planning and Making a Film: The student filmmaking experience.

18/11/2011

It was an early one today! Jenny (Director), Sally (Production Manager) and myself (Cinematographer) met up at nine o’clock to go through a rehearsal with the cast. However, as always, we had encountered scheduling problems and were only able to meet up with three male members of the cast: Josh (Joe), Ollie (Alex Ranahan) and Jec (Chuck). This meant that Sally had to fill in for Emma, I had to fill in for Lolly and Jenny had to read the stage directions and fill in for the bartender.

We started off by doing a script read through and then moved on to actually rehearsal the scenes (Scenes 1, 2 and 6). In the room we had booked, Jenny repositioned the tables to simulate the layout of The Royal Oak. This helped especially in allowing the actors to know where they will be positioned in regards to the camera and each other.

Ideally, I would have liked to have rehearsed more than once but time was getting on and the room was needed by others. The down side of not having all the actors there is that when it comes to shooting we will only be half prepared in terms of performance. However, as long as we are organised, stick to the timetable and all the actors know their lines this shouldn't cause too much of a problem, as we are only shooting a couple of scenes. 

Next: Where will it all stop – Filming

Where will it all stop - Pre-production Meeting #3

This summary post was originally written for a practical exercise undertaken in the Planning and Making a Film module I undertook in the penultimate year of my BA (Hons). The module's practice was undertaken between October 2011 to June 2012 and it provided me with a hugely enriching experience. For a more detailed overview of the module and the projects I undertook as a part of it, see Planning and Making a Film: The student filmmaking experience.

14/11/2011

For this meeting everyone was present! From our group there was: Myself, Jenny, Emily and Sally and from the other: Tom, Sanne, Danny and Flo.

This meeting was chaired by Richard (our technical demonstrator) and the agenda was:

1) Locations

2) Cast

3) Script changes

4) Props and Costumes

5) Equipment

Richard wanted to check that we had sorted our locations and the release forms signed for them. My group had the release signed for The Royal Oak and the other group said that they were still waiting for a signature on one of their houses, but otherwise were good to go.

As I have already detailed we had cast all the roles, but Jenny was having issues with getting in contact with Suzanne, who we had cast as Lolly. Jenny said that she had emailed Suzanne three times and had not received a reply. Therefore, all agreed that we needed to sort out a plan B, which was facilitated by Tom who said he knew an actress who would be willing to take the role.

In terms of script changes both our group and the other had written a different ending, which we would shoot in our own productions units. We had also tweaked some lines in the first half of the script to make the fact that Chuck was now played by a younger actor fit with the rest of the story. However, Richard said that we still needed to get line scripts produced and distributed to the cast, ideally by Wednesday.

With props we were largely covered but with a few problems, such as the other group were having trouble getting their hands on a hob kettle and my group needed to check if the tankard we have been promised is a silver one; If it is glass then we will have all kinds of problem with continuity! With the hob kettle the other group said that they would keep asking around and if the worst came to the worst they would buy one. With the tankard we just need to check with the landlord of The Royal Oak that he has a ‘silver’ tankard; if not Flo said that she could get her hands on one.

Richard informed us that we would also be sharing our equipment, so the other group would get it out, use it and then hand it over to us. Our group and the other agreed that for this first shoot we would keep things simple and just use basic equipment. Therefore, Richard has booked us out: a Sony Z1 camera kit, a K6/ME66 Boom Microphone kit, a Manfrotto 504 Tripod and a Boompole.

Next: Where will it all stop – Rehearsals