Where will it all stop - Screening 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.

05/12/2011

All the members of the Planning and Making a Film module were in attendance for this seminar; this was to ensure that everyone could view and provide feedback for all the versions of Where will it all stop. This seminar was also my first opportunity to see my group’s completed version of Where will it all stop.

 Our version of Where will it all stop. 

You can see the other versions here.

During the editing process, I know that Emily and Jenny were concerned that they would not get the other groups footage in time and that Emily’s friend would not have enough time to score the film. But the fact that they devoted so much of their own to time to achieve this is testament to their commitment to the project. I was also impressed by the high standard of the second half of the film, considering the limited amount of time they had in which to put it together.

With our version of Where will it all stop, some of the things that were specifically pointed out were:

• The framing of shots in the second half. Although, this is down to the other group of our production because they shot that half of the film
• Difficulty understanding the whole story. We had adjusted the original script to explain why the old character of Chuck had a youthful appearance. However, the structuring of the film did not make this entirely clear.
• Everyone liked the music that had been composed for our cut.
• An overall good use of sound design.
• Smooth transition between scenes.
• We met the eight minute length rule.

One of the things I am amazed that no one picked up on was the casting change of the character of Lolly. This was something I thought people would catch onto to straight away but, amazingly, no one noticed!

One of the things that Mike (our tutor) pointed out is how we could improve our cuts further and he has suggested that, potentially after Christmas, we will go back to the cuts and refine them further. However, whether we will actually have time to do this in the new year I don’t know but from an editing stand point, and that being the role I would like to fill on the next film, it would be incredibly useful.

Overall, the feedback that was given for all the versions was unbiased and constructive. The feedback is also something that we will need to adapt to and absolutely implement in the second film we have to produce, as that is the one we are getting marked on!

You can read my final reflection on the whole process of making Where will it all stop here: Botch-ups = brilliance (eventually): Pete's reflection on the process of making 'Where will it all stop'

The Gaming Complex - A Short Film Script Idea

The Gaming Complex is a fifteen page 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.

This script came about as a response to my earlier script I wrote for him: Xbox Junkie. For that script Mike had given me a basic brief which was concerned with a middle aged man who had abandoned his family and social ties because of his new addiction to playing video games. The idea for this Mike had got from a Guardian article: At War with World of Warcraft. Although, I did find it constrictive to work with that brief, so instead I came up with my idea based around the theme of gaming. However, on the night that I handed Mike the first draft of Xbox Junkie I suddenly realised a way to bring his original idea to life in what has now become The Gaming Complex.

Some notes

Essentially, what I have done with The Gaming Complex is combine the idea Mike got from the At War article with his earlier idea of making a gaming documentary. Therefore, The Gaming Complex is a mocumentary that follows a middle age man who, because of a brain haemorrhage, has a constant urge to play video games and who has left his family as a result. However, instead of having the typical stereotype of an obese, home loving gamer, I have made the middle aged protagonist, Melvyn, into a highly self-disciplined, physically healthy gaming guru; who bases everything in his life around the ideal of playing video games. As a result he lives a stripped back lifestyle wherein all the activities he does outside of playing video games, such as running and eating healthy, are done purely to support and maximise his full gaming potential. The conflict in the script comes when, urged  by the documentary maker, Melvyn considers reconnecting with his wife and kids. But this proves to be something which is not compatible with his current lifestyle.

Something of an outline

With the At War article, I liked the idea of a gamer who was so obsessed with their gaming that it started to change their lifestyle. It was while I was running this idea over in my head that I was reminded of a news report concerning an ex-street fight who, after surviving a brain haemorrhage, found he had a constant urge to paint: Ex-streetfighter, 60, turned into a fanatical artist by a brain haemorrhage thatphysically altered his mind. But I knew if I were to combine these ideas then I would want to steer clear of the stereotype of a hardcore-gamer, which is what Ryan van Cleave from the At War article fulfills. The solution for this came from, of all places, Benny Hill!

Benny Hill (1924 - 1992)

Obviously, Benny Hill is remembered best for the sped-up chase sequences with the famous theme tune, but not many people realise how much of a recluse Benny Hill was in real life. As this article illustrates, he never married, never owned a car, never owned a house and had very few personal friends. Aside from when he would go travelling in France, Benny Hill had an incredibly stripped back lifestyle which revolved around him either filming his television show or sitting alone in front of his television taking notes for new material. I realised that I could take this absolute devotion and stripped back lifestyle and transpose it onto the character of Melvyn.

When I was writing Xbox Junkie I made a point of reading scripts that had styles or elements that I wanted to incorporate into my writing. With this script I made a point of reading the script for The Third Man by Graham Greene. 

I wanted the same upside-down worldview of The Third Man's characters to be present in Melvyn, and in his views towards his family and general attitude to life. In the script the reason why the documentary maker is making a documentary about Melvyn is because he has read Melvyn’s blog; in which Melvyn expresses very radical views about the modern lifestyle and how best to live it, based on his own experiences. Melvyn’s lifestyle, though, is not what the majority of people would consider an ideal or preferable lifestyle.

In many ways The Gaming Complex is the antithesis of Xbox Junkie and like Xbox Junkie it may never get made. The reason for this is because Xbox Junkie may get made instead or Mike may make his original idea of a full-fledged documentary, which is something that he is looking into. 

However, I am still going to keep developing these two scripts because, at the end of the day, they are two more items to add to my portfolio. I’ve also found the process of developing and writing these scripts to be highly beneficial to my writing as a whole and also to my lifestyle. As much as I have been pouring ideas into the scripts they have started to return the favour; In The Gaming Complex Melvyn makes a point of eating healthy and sticking to a strict regime of running - these are two things I have now initiated in my life.

Where will it all stop - The Other Versions

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.

As Where Will It All Stop is a script that all of the production groups had to produce there are now multiple interpretations of the script that exist. With the exception of one, here are the versions produced by the other groups. 

Next: Where will it all stop - Screening Feedback

Where will it all stop - Our Final Cut

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.

Want to see the other versions of the script that were produced?

Where will it all stop - The Other Versions

Where will it all stop - The Title

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.

When we were given the script for Where will it all stop we were told that, if we didn’t like this title, we would be able to come up with our own title for the final cut. With my groups version of Where will it all stop we have elected to keep the original title (minus the question mark), purely, because we couldn’t think of anything better! 

Initially, I didn’t think the title was that strong; I also thought it was too long. On the script (above) the title is Where will it all stop? but we were not sure whether to keep the question mark or not. It's all very well as a piece of dialogue but the moment you put a question mark in a title, I think, it runs the risk of looking a bit clumsy. Personally, I also think that it works better as an exclamation opposed to a question. 

Where will it all stop

Where will it all stop?

Another annoying factor was whether to capitalise the first letter of each word, or just the first word, or just some of the words.

Where Will It All Stop

Where will it all stop

Where will it all Stop

Remembering exactly what the title was  also proved to be somewhat problematic and for the longest time I had been calling it When will it all stop. But I have heard others call it:

Will it ever stop

Why won’t it stop

Where will it end

Where will it all end

When will it all end

However, this all said, I think the title quite unintentionally does work for the film. Especially, when it comes to the central character of Chuck who is a very enigmatic figure and who you are never quite sure about. Even more so in our version as we made chuck a supernatural being who, much like the title, is forever changing his appearance!

Initially, while I may not have liked Where will it all stop as a title I do now think that it Is the best title we could give this project. As it not only fits the subject matter of the script, but…

…it also sums up the whole experience of making the film!

Next: Where will it all stop - Our Final Cut

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

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.

28/11/2011

The other group (Sanne, Tom, Danny and Flo), from the second half of production, were having trouble with logging and capturing their footage. Therefore, we were still not able to start editing our cut of their footage, so we used this session to tighten up what we had already done.

Other than offering the occasional creative suggestion, the only real contribution I made was fixing the shots I had messed up. This I did once Emily (editor) and Jenny (director) had finished what they were doing; I spent about an hour and a half doing this.

As I have already said in a previous post there were some issues with exposure, focus and framing. However, the only one that was in desperate need of fixing was the exposure. This involved brightening a few of the shots; this would have been better to do before Jenny and Emily started editing, because I would have been able to fix the shots as a whole and not as separate cuts. However, I looked on YouTube for a tutorial video to help me in this respect and this one proved to do the job.

However, once I had brightened them, the problem I then found was that it then de-colourised the shots and made them look like they had a faint smog across them. Therefore, I then had to put some colour back into the shots, and this tutorial video helped in that respect. While the these shots now look a lot better they are still far from perfect and I need to be shown how to properly use colour correction.

29/11/2011

As Jenny couldn’t make this day, Emily came in to edit a rough cut of the other group’s footage on her own. I briefly dropped by to see how she was doing and if she needed anything. She said that the fact that the other group had broken the 180 degree rule made the assembling of shots quite confusing. However, this was her only qualm and she said she didn’t need anything, so I left her to it. I understand from Jenny that Emily produced quite a good rough cut that day.

01/12/2011 & 02/12/2011

I know also that Emily and Jenny came in on the Thursday and Friday to finish the overall cut. I didn’t attend these sessions because there were not any shots that needed fixing. I understand that they have completed a final cut, but if this includes a music soundtrack I do not know.

On Monday 5^th December all the members of the Planning and Making a Film module will sit down to review the many versions of Where will it all stop. Then I will get to see what the entirety of our first short film looks like; I am excited by and dreading this prospect. 

Next: Where will it all stop - The Title