My Beast Friend

My Beast Friend by Ewan Torrance (2009)

This film is very short (only 2 minutes) starring Ed Byrnes. He's trying to get rid of his cat because he has a new girlfriend, he tells his cat (a man in a cat outfit) that he's just trying to tidy up and is sending him away to 'pleasureland' while he does it. Unfortunately the girlfriend arrives early and sees the cat with a note around his neck and she assumes he's saving it from 'monster' owners.
I like that they have a man dressed up as a cat for the shots of dialogue and then cut to a real cat sat in a box when the shot become fromt he point of view of the girlfriend. I also love that the last line is the cat saying "You lying C.." and is cut off by the titles.
Its short and sweet but I like it.

Portrait of Place - A 2nd attempt?

Sooo, we got a chance to look at our rushes from Thursdays shoot today and they're terrible. For a start, the exposure is not good on many of the shots at all and secondly, our main concept (to do sped up Rambler's POV shots for most of the film) just doesnt work. Perhaps if either myself or Jess were better skilled with a camera, or if we were able to use some form of camera grips we might have be able to pull off the effect, unfortunately we had neither.

Back to the drawing board:

So here's a quick storyboard of what we could do instead:

Filming on location in Edale

Major Fail! Two hours into our locartion shoot we decided to check back on our footage to see how the lighting was.. There was nothing recorded (!!!) Aaaargh! So we went back to Dom and Debbie and found out that there had been a head-cleaning issue, the camera hadnt recorded a thing because of this (urgh!) So off we went again with a clean tape and back to re-shoot. Unfortunately some of our shots after this had lighting issues as the weather seemed to be deteriorating. we did our best but much of it, we suspected would be unusable.. perhaps we'll re-shoot next week?

Portrait of Place Parashoot Form

Our (mine and Jess Ingleby's) Parashoot form

Sheffield Hallam University

Moderated By: Deborah Ballin PDF Created: Thu 27th Oct 2011 Form ID: 000015756

Shoot name: Portrait Of A Place Dates: Thu 27th Oct 2011 > Thu 27th Oct 2011 Creator: Jessica Ingleby Role: Actress/Producer/Director Phone: 07800511141 Email: b1038523@my.shu.ac.uk
Scope: A rambler is going on one of Edale's walks. Camera takes POV of rambler as they travel through Edale.

Name: Creative Media Centre Email: not set Address: Sheffield Hallam University City Campus Howard Street Sheffield S1 1WB

Title: Peak District, Edale Address: Off A625 Castleton to Hope Road Map Link: No map set
Title: The Ramblers Inn Address: Edale, Hope Valley, Derbyshire Map Link: No map set

Name: Stella Harriot Role: Director/Producer/Cinematographer Phone: not set Email: stella.c.harriot@student.shu.ac.uk

Name: Stella Harriot Role: Director/Producer/Cinematographer Phone: not set Email: stella.c.harriot@student.shu.ac.uk
Name: Esther Johnson Role: Group First Aider/Module Leader Phone: not set Email: esther.johnson@shu.ac.uk

Police: Derbyshire Police Address: Silverlands, Buxton, Derbyshire Map Link: No map set
Hospital: Royal Hallamshire Hospital Address: Glossop Road, Sheffield Map Link: No map set

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7.2Does the performer require training on using the specialist machinery and is the trainer appropriately qualified and have you seen evidence?

If the performer needs to be supervised while operating the machinery is the supervisor qualified and have you seen evidence?

Locations: All
Severity: Low Risk

Who: Cinematographer

10.1Working hours of crew and cast will be agreed before filming commences.

Locations: All
Severity: Low Risk

Who: Crew/Actress

No Comments

1.1We will ensure all members of the crew and contributors have appropriate foul weather clothing and changes of clothing if possible

We will ensure all electrical equipment is appropriately protected from water penetration. Where necessary we will isolate electrical equipment from all but trained personnel

We will ensure there is adequate shelter where possible and we will provide towels and dry changing areas if possible

Locations: All
Severity: Medium Risk

Who: Crew and Equipment

1.5We will ensure all equipment is secured.

We will avoid working at heights where possible

We will ensure that we are not close to structures likely to fall as a result of the high winds

Locations: All
Severity: Medium Risk

Who: Crew and Equipment

2.5We will ensure: there are appropriate handrails, all loose objects are secured, access to the high area is isolated where possible, minimum personnel are in the high area

If the vantage point is fragile then we will refer to our supervisor

Locations: All
Severity: Low Risk

Who: Crew and Equipment

No Comments

7.1Fake Gun as prop. Risk is low as won't be used in front of the public. Weapon is BB Gun, without ammo, SAFE.

Locations: All
Severity: N/A

Who: N/A

No Comments

1.1High visibility clothing: All crew will wear high visibility jackets if filming at night or working 10m or less from the road

Distractions: We will ensure we cause minimal distraction to motorists

Safe guarding each other: We will ensure we watch for each other's safety -particularly those unable to see traffic

Cabling: Cables which cross the road will be adequately protected or we will attempt to reroute them to avoid them crossing the road

Locations: All
Severity: Medium Risk

Who: All

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• Name: XM2_CUG_EN.pdf - Open
• Name: Map of Edale.docx - Open
• Name: Contact List.doc - Open
• Name: Equipment List.doc - Open
• Name: Shot List.docx - Open
• Name: Schedule Template.xls - Open

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Sheffield Hallam University

Initial Portrait of Place project ideas

Our (mine and Jess Ingleby's) initial ideas for our 3 minute silent film were to do a Ramblers POV through the winding paths and lanes of Edale. Here are a few things that influenced us on our first initial brief planning session:

We really like this rickety looking bridge, hopefully we'll be able to find it on the shoot.

Our main inspiration for the sped up shots of winding Edale roads

A nice Edale hill with valleys in the background

Edale Valleys

I love this picture, it looks like its in the middle of nowhere, maybe our 'Rambler' could end up here?

Initial Storyboard for Portrait of Place

Our Initial Storyboard for Portrait of Place, Ramblers POV
(because we've not been able to scout any locations, a large bulk of shots arent on it, its mainly the start and end)
We'll have to spend a little while at the start of the day scouting the best locations, though much of it will be on the main route we'll be given by Debbie.

Our Finished Idea for Portrait of Place

The idea is to shoot in POV as a Rambler. Starts at the beginning of a road, and carries on down the whole of the walk, which will be sped up during editing. There will be some breaks where the Rambler looks behind them, watches as other Ramblers go past, drops equipment, etc.

----(Spoiler !)----

Slows down near the end, where the Rambler will find a secluded area and start digging. They pull out a gun from their bag and hide it in the hole. It will then switch to none POV as the 'Rambler', runs away.

Pof P - Planning and Prop Notes

Jess' planning and prop notes: