Editing Day 3.. The final day

Okay so it's now almost midnight, Ive been in this tiny edit suite since 5 past 9 this morning, the aircon timer must have switched off around 3 hours ago and there's 11 people and 4 computers in this room. Luckily, nearly 15 hours after I arrived, our discs are finally burning. Ive written my evaluations over the past couple of hours so im not expecting them to be too great but at least theyre done..

This morning Connor and Emma went out and shot extra cutaways so i could finally fill up the space that was previously filled with static face shots of Nathaniel, Im happy with the bulk of it but there are still a few tiny tweaks I would like to do, however times been running out so we ended up having to burn it before we got chucked out of the edit suites. Theres a small section that annoys me when watching it back when the city ambience can be heard through the interior flashback scene, there wasnt a lot Amy could do with this as our voiceover was shot in the city centre.

On the whole, I think this is the best project Ive been involved with, I think each project ive worked on has been slightly better than the rest, Im loooking forward to improving more next year.

Editing Day 2

As you can see from the timelines below, the edit becomes gradually more complex throughout the day..

During tutorials with Debbie, we realised that there was an issue with the edit arrangement. we’d initially planned to have all the scenes as walking shots but for some reason ended up filming the first half as a static shot talking to camera and the second half in walking talking mode, which made the film seem disjointed.
I fixed the issue by rearranging the scenes but this caused another problem in that the character was talking to camera, then changed location and finally was in the same location as before.  More rejigging was done and finaly it has been decided that we need to borrow Nathtanniel's jacket (which thankfully he's happy with) and reshoot as he's not free to film at all.. Fingers crossed Connor will look roughly like Nataniel (he'll only be shot from behind) and that either Emma or Alex (probably Emma) will be able to use his camera, meanwhile myself and Amy will work on fitting the audio in with the images we already have in place..
Really hoping on some okay weather tomorrow mornign as its been chucking it down all day and we're really depending on it..

First day of Editing

It was the first day of editing today. All our other projects had been handed in which means we can focus on our drama project fully. We also recieved an email stating that due to Industrial action on Thursday, we now have our presentations on Friday morning, which gives us an extra half a day to complete it. I want to finish the bulk of the visual editing complete by wednesday evening so that Amy can work on fitting in the audio, we're definately lacking in good quality recorded ambience for the various locations but myself, Amy an Emma have been working on how to combat these issues.
Connor brought the rushes in at lunchtime so that I could get started on the edit with the help of Emma. Im quite happy with what we have achieved so far, although we have a lot of work still to do, the skeleton of the piece has been put together.

Between the two of us, we have made a list of several ideas which may improve the overall piece, such as possible additional cutaways, more audio, and perhaps also some usage of a small amount of simple stop fame animation. Just incase we do use the idea of animation, we've both been doodling and looking up various styles of simple animation (it has to be simple due to the time limits)

Tomorrow morning we will be meeting as an entire group to discuss what still needs to be done with the project before our tutorials with Debbie at 11am.

Good Rushes

Apparently Connor's checked yesterday's footage and its all pretty good. Up until our shoot yesterday i was quite worried about the editing process, however from the footage i'd seen as we were shooting, it all seemed pretty good and Im actually quite looking forward to getting in the edit suites

Second day of Shooting

We started shooting Pathways again today, with our new actor Nathaniel, he is a really good actor, apparently he's been the actor for a lot of other groups too. Im really pleased we found a proper actor as our finished pieced is going to benefit a lot from this. We were also quite lucky that the weatehr stayed nice for us today, if we had had to postpone yet again due to the weather, the group would have been pretty demoralised, as it was I think we're all quite pleased with how the day went.  Here are a few photos from the day:

Checking the script before shooting

Filming in progress

More filming with Nathaniel

Recording audio on location



Another Duck! This film couldve been duck themed..

Thankfully most shots were single takes which means less wasting of time reviewing useless takes and more time focussing on how the cut looks.

New actor

Just seen on our Drama Facebook Group that we have a replacement actor for our character, Gary. I had been slightly concearned by our previous guy (who wasnt an actor, just a friend of Clarice's I believe) purely because our script is incredibly performance heavy, if the character isnt believable our film wont be all that good. But i hear good things about our new guy, apparently he's been in another groups drama too so he must be half decent. Also, If the actor's good, there'll be less footage to go trough when editing whhich will make my life easier..

Concearned about acting

I talked to Emma yesterday after we'd given up on filming for the day. She was very concearned by the quality of our actor for 'Gary'. We'd only attempted one shot, and i think we'd done over a dozen takes. He's not a trained actor and although he was happy to act for us, which im sure we're all grateful for, he's lacking in a lot of confidence needed for our script, he may not have seemed so bad if he'd got other actors to bounce off of but really we need to find someone else.. Im quite worried that we're really running out of time for casting, we've only got 10 days to go before our presentations

Perfect Weather for Ducks

So it was our first day of shooting today, the weather was terrible though and around an hour into filming it was decided to postpone until early next week when the weather's expected to be slightly better. Im worried that it's going to leave me less time to edit but hopefully the better weather will mean better rushes. fingers crossed.

An actual duck!

Emma looking very happy a the start of Shooting

Waiting for Taxis to stop passing us so we could continue shooting

The bad weather beginning to take it's toll

Pathways Final Treatment

This is the final Treatment which Emma has written:

Treatment
Pathways is a one character driven story based around one a middle aged man named Gary who through his captivating life stories which he’s telling us we learn his true predicament and how he arrived there. He’s walking and talking to camera about his life and past events with comical value to them. His only companion is his dog called Ben who follows him wherever he goes. He’s an upbeat kind of guy with a sense of humour as he laughs at his own comical stories. The music you will hear during this will be acoustic guitar track of happy major chords strumming away. He uses humour to cover up his back story which is quite dark and sad. As the story develops the slow revelation of his situation unfolds and the music will change in suitability of the mood. We will also include flashbacks to visualise his memories he’s coming out with. There is also going to be an audio flashback when hes referring to a family holiday at a beach. The sound will relate to the holiday, so we will hear laughter and beach noises as he describes his memory to us.

Narrative Development

It opens with a black screen with the main character Gary talking over it. This line hints towards his gambling addiction but does not spell it out. Then we see him walk into focus and smile at the camera (the voice over is still playing when he walks into shot.) From here we see him talking to camera about his and talks about staying positive through rough times. This is establishing the main character further and started to build on his story of being homeless, but again not spelling it out. By him saying he is positive it hints to the fact that he has something negative in his life he is trying to stay positive about. Then he goes on to talk of his family memories, hobbies he’s into and he also mentions his friend Ben. By this time he hasn’t mentioned straight up his gambling addiction, but we see gambling tickets in his bag. From this he goes on to talk about his baby brother and how he would want to be there for him (suggesting he’s not at the moment). He then goes onto to say he’s not close to his family anymore, and mentions when he started to gamble. Then this reveal has truly come in and he starts to talk about how this addiction has affected his life, especially in terms of his family. This leads to a flashback of his mother handing over money as he leaves the house for good. But we end with Gary seeming happy, as he says everyone needs someone to look out for them, he reveals his friend Ben is a dog.

Audience-Intended audience 16-45 Working class as most could relate to his stories as they are from all stages of his life and he comes from a working class background.

Purpose-Intended purpose: showing stories of homeless guys that you pass in the street everyday. Homeless people do seem to go unnoticed by society as you walk past them on the street and pay them no attention. We want to make awareness that these are humans with stories just like yourself. We want to keep the fact that he is homeless withheld until the very end. People do not need to know of his predicament to get to know the character.

Style-Shot like Sign language, + Barry +_ about a girl. We knew from early on we wanted a character talking to camera like a kind of diary. Shooting style would include lots of close ups, depth of field, shallow focus, cut aways, subtle flashbacks.

Sound- The soundtrack being upbeat and happy acoustic guitar track, very much like that in the sign language piece. In the audio flashback we are going to be using broken glass noises, beach noises and voice overs to convey the memory. We also need clothing ruffles, shoe shuffles, and various other Foley sounds to add depth and realism to the piece

There's not a great deal within this treatment that specifically relates to my role, however there's obviously going to be a few subtle flashbacks and plenty of cutaways. Ill have to focus on making sure the cuts arent jarring and get the right cutaways for each shot.

Pathways initial Script

Emma, Clarice and Connor have got an intial draft for our short drama, we've focussed on getting on a character that is in mid 30s but i think if problems occur with getting hold of actors of that age, we could make a few small changes and develop it for a younger character. Looking at it from an editing point of view it seems pretty simple, however i think it could still develop a little more

Screenplay
EXT.
A man of around 35 is sat on a bench in the street of an
urban city. He has short brown hair, unshaven however not
untidy. He is from a working class background.
GARY
(Laughing as though someone
has asked him something)
Yeah, I’d defiantly say it’s got
way out of hand.
(Laughs)
You’d have thought i would have
realised by now.
(Pauses)
The one that has always been there
for me is Ben, don’t no what I’d do
without him to be honest.
Even before everything happened
we’d go for jogs together, you
gotta keep healthy, however then on
way back stop of at the pub for a
sneaky pint, gotta balance it out.
(Pauses)
CUTS TO BLACK
EXT.
Gary is walking along side the camera, he comes across as a
happy go lucky type, however has something deep that
troubles him.
GARY
You have to laugh at your own
mistakes, it’s what gets you
through life, other wise you’d just
worry about the smallest things.
(Pauses)
I remember this one time when i was
a kid, i was an only child at
still, and my mother was a stay at
home mum, my dad worked with the
police.
NEED IDEAS
All i heard was my mum shouting
from the kitchen
(Puts on a feminine voice)
Gary what you doing now, i swear
you’ll be the death of me one day,
always up to something, silly boy.
(CONTINUED)
CONTINUED: 2.
GARY
We used to be quite close, went on
holidays together, usually the
cheap one out of the paper.
(Laughs)
My dad was always a tight git.
(Pauses)
However he always wanted us to have
a good time and make the most of
the holidays we went on.
Gary looks down, looks as though he is looking for something
which is out of shot. He shows the camera a photo from a
past holiday with his parents.
GARY
This is from before my brother was
born, after he came along it all
changed.
(Pauses and seems to drift of
in his own world after a while
a smile comes on his face and
he starts to laugh, Audio
sounds of beach, such as
children and waves)
This was one of the best holidays i
went on as a child, we was staying
in one of the smallest caravans iv
ever seen, it must have been the
first full day we was there, it was
proper pissin’ it down. I was sat
probably moaning, my mum was laid
on the make shift bed trying to
ignore me as she had an headache,
think that was my doing. My dad
had, had enough and packed us all
into the car, we had only walked to
the car and we was drenched.
(Pauses)
I have no idea why he thought it
would be a good idea, but he drove
us to the beach, me and my mum
looked at each other, we thought
he’d gone mad.......he had stripped
down to his boxes and was of
running down the beach in the
pouring rain, mental!
The crazy fuck went for a swim in
torrential rain, apparently it was
to cheer us up, i just think he
went a bit mad stuck in a small
caravan with me and mum.
(CONTINUED)
CONTINUED: 3.
Turns out the whether for the rest
of the holiday was hot and sunny,
however my dad developed a cold
over night, so for the rest of the
holiday we had him moaning about
having ’Man Flu’.
EXT.
Gay is sat back in on the bench, looks more dishearten than
before, more serious and looking at a dogeared picture.
GARY
This is a picture of my kids, I
don’t get to see them much any
more, i guess it’s for the best
really.
(Pauses)
My boy, I’d like to think, is a
chip of the block.
(Smiles to himself)
He sees the good in everything, and
a little accident prone just like
his old man.
I would love for one day, to take
my kids on holiday, but for now
that won’t be happening.
EXT.
Gary is walking down the same street as before. Looks as
though he is pushing something, can’t see what it is.
GARY
It all started when my brother was
born, my parents where more
bothered about pleasing the baby.
(Says this in a sarcastic way
and rolls eyes)
I’d started hanging round with an
older crowd, bad idea to be honest.
Looking back now, at the time i
knew it was wrong, but i didn’t
like to admit it. They would all go
to the dogs, or the footie and
would always place bets, i felt
like I’d have to join in....It just
got out of control, every time I’d
win it was the best feeling ever,
like a thrill, a kind of high.
(CONTINUED)
CONTINUED: 4.
(Pauses)
My parents didn’t notice i was out
most of the time. I knew my dad was
disappointed in me, and i knew he
was aware i had started gambling. I
just couldn’t help it, I kept it
under control.
(pauses)
I’d met my beautiful wife, had to
kids and was planning on having the
third.
(Pauses, blank expression on
his face)
We lost the child. I couldn’t cope.
It just got out of hand, Tess had
it hard not only did she have to go
through the miscarriage but i
wasn’t there for her, I’d be out at
all hours, i lost all our money
near enough. That’s when she’d had
enough. She kicked me out. That was
the worst day of my life, i could
she the kids in the upstairs window
while she thew my clothes out. She
had found all the mail I had hid
saying I’d missed a payment. I was
stupid.....
(Goes quiet, into his own
world)
EXT.
Gary is sat, leaning against a wall. He is sat on the floor
but we are unaware of this.
GARY
So now im out on the streets, my
mum and dad are to disappointed in
me to help me out, not that I’d
take anything from them, its my own
fault.
He goes to take out a watch out of his pocket, however with
it he pull some scratch cards out with it.
GARY
Oops, you weren’t meant to see
that. Every now and then people
will leave me money, and I just
want to try and get back on my
feet....I just have a feeling that
this time it will happen. I did
(MORE)
(CONTINUED)
CONTINUED: 5.
GARY (cont’d)
once win the pound back (laughs), i
guess that doesn’t count though.
It’s not all bad though, Ben is
still around keeping me company,hes
always around and has been through
everything.
When i got thrown out, he was there
to pick up the pieces. Bless him im
sure he gets fed up with me
sometimes.
It gets pretty lonely on the
streets, everyone needs someone
there for them no matter who it is.
TWO-SHOT: GARY AND HIS DOG, BEN.
Don’t we ben lad!
He feeds the dog a biscuit and ruffles his head. He gets up
and walks off with the dog lead in one hand and pushing a
trolley.
FADES OUT:

Equipment list

Pathways equipment list

Stuff from yesterdays group meeting

Here are a few of our groups ideas for character backstory and possible script plots that we decided yesterday:

-Introducing Character
“oh i used to work at.... they used to call me....”
Or the gambling hint to open it “yeh its got really out of hand”
Then onto stuff about himself
then to ben
“bens always tagged along” “Used to go drinking quite often with the lads, ben used to join too” “used to be quite fit, went jogging, Ben would come along”

-Family
He then starts to introduce his family. He maybe gets out a something from his trolley (which we don’t see) and it reminds me of the beach holiday (which he has a photo of) here is the audio flashback of the beach
He mentions hes not too close to his family anymore but he says it in a light hearted manner. Shows us pictures of his kids, mentions his son is a bit clumsy like himself, chip off the old block. Its from here that he mentions his mother used to say ”ahh gary what you broken this time”
Talks about a story of a football match in his childhood, and how he managed to break 3 windows in his granddads greenhouse with a football.

-brief mention of the trains+ how he collects things he finds on his journey
Mentions his football cap here and how he kept it because it reminded him of the football matches his dad used to take him to see. Although he isn’t a fan of the team on the hat, it is that team his dad supported.

-Gambling + other interests
He mentions he used to be really into betting on horses( / any gambling you can think of) but now hes abit short on the dosh,
He also likes to keep up to date with current affairs, stems back to when he was small watching his dad read the Sunday newspaper at the table. He brings out this old crinkled newspaper. (another possibility is he is standing outside a tv shop watching the news through the window on the new tellies)
Keen football watcher and player, loves a good kick about.
He mentions he liked to fish when he was really younger, but as he approached teen years his interest in this declined, much to his father’s disappointment,

-Goes to show us a pic of him with a fish he caught but as he does so a heap of scratch cards fall out of his pocket he laughs it off, “you weren’t meant to see them “
Shows us the picture still. Then he goes on to talk of his parents and how they got abit concerned when they saw the scratch cards too. Stopped his allowance, didn’t like him spending his money. But he tells us it was his hard earned cash. “well most of it was “ laughs
Talks of how his decisions on whatto spend money on have got him into some trouble in the past. Nothing he cant handle though.
Pause here
He would quite like to see his kids though.
Pause again.
“its hard you know, when you know where they are, but you cant let them see us like this.”
“i suppose i could of spent a little less time at the races, or games, more time at home”
“...and then theres the money...”

-Flashback of the letters flying through the door.

“but hey, I have won £300 on one race so its not all bad ey!” laughs it all off.
“funny story, thats the weekend i got kicked out, the one weekend i win, and the wife kicks me out, its ridiculous really when you think of it” laughs it off again

-Flashback of him standing in the garden getting covered in clothes and his junk thats being chucked out of the window by his wife(we never see)
“just wish the kids hadn’t seen, ya know?”
Pause

-Back to ben, “but its not all bad, theres always ben to talk to, hes always here for me, good old ben,
Revelation that bens a dog. Pats him on the head and walks off, with his trolley and dog.

Drama - Initial tutorials

We had quit epositive feedback from Debbie during tutorials, sheparticularly liked the fact that our idea was fairly simple, which is a good for a short 5minute film.

Debbie suggested drawing out a timeline, so we can see the structure of the piece.We also will need to be aware of pace and movement within the piece.
We were warned not to use too many flashbacks, as too much within a 5 minute film can distort the films perspective.

Our 3 structure narrative:

-Gambling and his old life with his family
-Him being kicked out of his family home
-Becoming homeless, the reveal that he is homeless

Pathways Schedule

Clarice and Emma have made a Schedule:

Week
starting 26th March

• 29th - Got given the brief.
• 30th - Created a Facebook group.
• 30th - Researched into existing short dramas.
• 31st - Researched in existing short dramas.

Week
starting 2nd April

• 2nd - Sorted out roles.
• 3rd - Decided on an overall set up of the narrative.
• 4th - Started coming up with different ideas.
• 5th - Started mind mapping different ideas.

Week starting 9th

• Chose 3 ideas to work with.
• Spoke about what style everyone thought would work best.
• Focused on ideas to develop

Week Starting 16th

• 17th - Group meeting to decide on final idea.
• 18th - Sorted out the treatment, character backstory and what needed to be done by who.
• 19th - Pitch idea. Group meeting on storyboards and script. Book equipment.

Week starting 23rd

• Filming from the 23rd till the 30th.

Week starting 30th

• Edit image and audio from the 30th till the 9th.

A few contributions to script

These are a few of my ideas i had to contribute to the scriptwriting/character backstory process, just a few of garys ramblings really..

When I was younger I wanted to see the world, reckoned if I got myself a little train driving job thatd be what get me there, drive one of those cross-country ones, and then when id earnt some cash I could stop off somewhere on my day off and look round whatever city I was in, sit in a little café somewhere and take it all in. but train drivers make a fair bit of cash, and that’s what happens when theres money in it, everyone wants to do it, makes it too difficult to get into it, you’ve got to have this qualification and that one, I don’t know why, all they’ve gotta bloody do is press a button and watch the track as it passes em by. So I got myself a little job checkin tickets, thought itd lead to something else eventually, but it didn’t and I got bored wit being polite to every tom dick and harry in a suit that was off to somewhere they thought was more important, and why does being in a hurry mean suddenly you’ve gotta be rude about everything, all I wanted to do was check their tickets and send em on their way, but no it was too much hassle reachin into their pockets to show me theyd paid for that tiny bit of card to get em where they needed to be. That’s around the time I started gambling it all away, just for a release really, pop down to the races, stick it on a dog, always the wrong dog though.. dog races aren’t for me, and don’t get me started on the casinos, I tried there plenty of times, but they know what theyre doing, they’ve got most of em rigged so you barely get your money back, and when you start winning too much they start watching you and put you off your streak, that’s when you lose and its ‘sorry sir your going to have to leave’..

I don’t gamble big anymore, I cant afford it really, but I still go bac to the scratchcards, they’re my first love, It’s a bit like Charlie and the chocolate factory when he thinks hes got the winning ticket- when ive got a scratchcard in my hand. That’s when I feel the most alive, that’s how I get my kicks. My heart beats twice as fast, my pulse races, I can feel the beads of sweat on my forehead. The feel of the card between my fingers – and it feels different to anything else, sometimes I can see my hand shaking as I scratch it off. I don’t use coins, just my fingernail, that way Ive got the little silver dust under my nails for a little while and I can almost smell the adrenaline ive just had pumping through my veins. This one could be it, this one could be the one that makes my day, that means I can hold my head up high and say ‘yeah ive finally got something for myself’, Ive finally made it, I can take (sons name) out to the football and maybe if it’s a big one I could buy a flat so he can come to see me and I can say ‘I did that, I put that smile on his face’. I win pretty often, but ive never won big, not yet anyway, which makes me think that maybe, if my lucks going in the right direction, maybe I will win it this time, maybe if I put the winnings down on another one or two cards, maybe if im having a good day, ten cards, eventually one day ill have it, ill have than winning ticket I need to sort me out and fix everything.

Me and Ben, he’s my best mate, we sit at the train station and just watch them, all of them going to work, rushing about, not getting the chance to just take it all in. It makes me think maybe ive picked the right route, and Ben agrees with me, most the time anyway. All those people rushing to work to sit at a desk and type or phone people up and ask for money, all that stress, all that waste of energy, and for what? They don’t get anything for it, yeah they get paid and they can afford to buy what they want, but they dont need it, not all of it anyway, they waste all that money on train tickets and packed lunches and £3 coffee, £3! And not one of em notices us, just sitting here, watching them waste all the prime of their lives going to and from somewhere they don’t even wanna be. So maybe we’ve got it right, taking in the atmosphere, enjoying the sunshine or the smell of the rain, or watching some bloke slip up in his shiney shoes and fall arse over tit just because hes in a hurry..

I go out on the trains pretty often, I like it, I jump on anywhere I like, wait til the conductor gets down to the carriage im on and just hop off, im not in a rush so If I fancy popping up to Scotland for the day, that’s what I do. The conductor might get near me half a dozen times in a journey that far, but so what if he does, I can jump off, go for a wander and then jump right back on again, and the more trains I get on, the more likely I am to find something. Doesn’t really matter what it is, one mans junk is another mans treasure, eh. I might find a book or a sandwich or maybe a jacket or gloves, a few weeks ago I found a hat, perfect for my lad, itll be just the right size, hell love it, brand new it was, or nearly new, but he’ll never know, probably wont care anyway. Im gonna drop it round at his house soon, maybe take him to the park so he can show it off to his mates..

Group Backstory Ideas

During our meeting yesterday, we decided to use the character development sheets used in class, a lot of the questions were quite similar but hopefully this will have helped flesh the charcater out a little:

• What do you know about this character now that s/he doesn’t yet know?
• What is this character’s greatest flaw?
• Started gambling at an early age, started with scratch cards.

• What do you know about this character that s/he would never admit?
• He is a failure - self doing.
• What is this character’s greatest asset?
• He has a positive attitude to life.
• If this character could choose a different identity, who would s/he be?
• To be rich and successful business man.
• What music does this character sing to when no one else is around?
• Anything from 60’s music to the present day chart music.
• In what or whom does this character have the greatest faith?
• His dog who is his best friend.
• What is this character’s favourite movie?
• The classics, old gangster films, in particular Oceans 11.
• Does this character have a favourite article of clothing? Favourite shoes?
• Baseball Cap?
• Does this character have a vice? Name it.
• Gambling.
• Name this character’s favourite person (living or dead).
• What is this character’s secret wish?
• He had never started gambling from an early age.
• What is this character’s proudest achievement?
• His family and kids.
• Describe this character’s most embarrassing moment.
• What is this character’s deepest regret?
• Losing everything, e.g. family, friends, job, house.
• What is this character’s greatest fear?
• Bumping into his kids in the street and they not recognising him, he doesn’t want them to see him in the state he is in.
• Describe this character’s most devastating moment.
• Being kicked out on the street, while his kids was in the upstairs window watching them.
• What is this character’s greatest achievement?
• His children
• What is this character’s greatest hope?
• To sort his life out, and reunited with his kids.
• Does this character have an obsession? Name it.
• Collecting things he finds on his travels and on the streets, also his gambling.
• What is this character’s greatest disappointment?
• That he let himself get lost within the gambling world and that he could have changed.
• What is this character’s worst nightmare?
• Not ever be able to see his children, because of his own downfall.
• Whom does this character most wish to please? Why?
• All he wants to do is to change his life around to be able to please his kids and wife.
• Describe this character’s mother.
• Loving motherly figure, would do anything for him, if it wasn’t for his father.
• Describe this character’s father.
• Cold hearted, independent man. Disappointed with his son, favours the youngest son. Feels like his son should work things out himself rather than get peoples help, his own wrong doing.
• If s/he had to choose, with whom would this character prefer to live?
• Would love to be able to change the past and live with his family still.
• Where does this character fall in birth order? What effect does this have?
• The first child. Parents thought he should be a role model for his younger brother.
• Describe this character’s siblings or other close relatives.
• Younger brother, independent and very successful, with a happy family.
• Describe this character’s bedroom. Include three cherished items.
• His dog, his hat?
• What is this character’s birth date? How does this character manifest traits of his/her astrological sign?
• May 24th 1981 - Gemini.
• If this character had to live in seclusion for six months, what six items would s/he bring?
• Dog, Picture of his children, a watch?
• Why is this character angry?
• That he didn’t do anything to sort his life out before it was to late and he lost his family to his own misdoing.
• What calms this character?
• Having his dog for company.
• Describe a recurring dream or nightmare this character might have.
• Kids never know who he is.
• List the choices (not circumstances) that led this character to his/her current predicament.
• Chose gambling over his family.
• List the circumstances over which this character has no control.
• Lost his job and home, wife left him and kicked him out, lost his money.
• What wakes this character in the middle of the night?
• People on the streets giving him abuse just because he is homeless.
• How would a stranger describe this character?
• Mucky, homeless, failure, scrounger.
• What does this character resolve to do differently every morning?
• To stop gambling and sort his life out, however when people leave him a pound he does nothing but buys scratch cards. Wants to win money to get his life back, however in result of buying the scratch card loses more.....vicious circle.
• Who depends on this character? Why?
• His dog is loyal to him, even though he is homeless his dog still loves him and sticks by his side.
• If this character knew s/he had exactly one month to live, what would s/he do?
• He would get in touch with his kids whether his wife likes it or not.
• How would a dear friend or relative describe this character?
• Chatty, friendly, caring, positive look on things.
• What is this character’s most noticeable physical attribute?
• What is this character hiding from him/herself?
• He is not has happy as he makes out to be, puts a front on in front of people.
• Write one additional thing about your character.
• He loves to travel, however can’t afford it, he tries to use trains without paying. He also loves to walk with his dog.

Pathways

We now have a working title for the drama short, Pathways..
Emma has written a treatment for it:

Pathways is a one character driven story based around one a middle aged man named Gary who through his captivating life stories which he’s telling us we learn his true predicament and how he arrived there. He’s walking and talking to camera about his life and past events with comical value to them. His only companion is his dog called Ben who follows him wherever he goes. He’s an upbeat kind of guy with a sense of humour as he laughs at his own comical stories. The music you will hear during this will be acoustic guitar track of happy major chords strumming away. Although, he uses humour to cover up his back story which is quite dark and sad. As the story develops the slow revelation of his situation unfolds and the music will change in suitability of the mood.

Intended audience 16-45 Working class as most could relate to his stories as they are from all stages of his life and he comes from a working class background.

Intended purpose: showing stories of homeless guys that you pass in the street everyday. Homeless people do seem to go unnoticed by society as you walk past them on the street and pay them no attention. We want to make awareness that these are humans with stories just like yourself.

We want to keep the fact that he is homeless withheld until the very end. People do not need to know of his predicament to get to know the character.

Shot like Sign language, + Barry +_ about a girl. We knew from early on we wanted a character talking to camera like a kind of diary. Shooting style would include lots of close ups, depth of field, shallow focus, cut aways, subtle flashbacks.
SOUND, the soundtrack being upbeat and happy acoustic guitar track, very much like that in the sign language piece.

Drama Meet-up

So our drama group has just met up to discuss our ideas for the drama project, we've decided loosely on Connor's idea of a homeless guy's journey and have all gone our seperate ways to brainstorm it further to give the guy a little more character and flesh it out a bit with plans to meet up tomorrow..

Drama influences

Sign Language
The film centres around one single main character, Ben, who talks to camera, it's particularly quirky and quite funny. Ben is very positve to say he's merely a guy who holds advertising poster boards, he calls himself a "static outdoor information technician". The film follows him on his last day doing the job. The people he works with seem exageratedly grumpy and miserable, which contrasts nicely with his positivity and eccentuates it, I think this contrast makes the viewer like Ben more. We learn about Ben and very little about anyone else, everything we do learn is from Bens point of view, even the cutaways seem to be from his perspective. Bens clothing is bright and colourful, which also contrasts to the people and world around him, it also highlights his cheerfulness. I like that near the end of the film we see tha he has a love interest, the use of costume (she wears bright colours including the same rainbow gloves as him) helps express that the characters are probably quite similar in their outlook and therefore possibly meant to be together. I really like this film as its cheerful, unusual and such a simple idea.

About a Girl
This film is much less cheerful, it follows a young teenage 'chavvy' girl as she walks along a canal and talks to the amera about her life. This girl, much like many girls of her age, is not particularly positive, she has poor relationships with her mother and father, and only seems to be positive about past events spent with friends and practiciing dance routines. This character seems far more troubled and uses music to escape her troubles. It uses a lot of flashbacks and its tone is quite confessional. At the end there is a twist, she mentions keeping secrets from her mum and how little her parents notice of her, she then, shockingly, throws her newborn baby (which she has been carrying with her along her journey in a plastic carrier bag) into the canal. I like the idea of the twist and particulerly that it is such a shocking twist which highlights the issue of teenage pregnancy without being too cliche'd, I also really like the idea of talking fast to the camera while walking, it means we'reable to easily show our characters backstory, or at least key events to them.

Wahey!

Wahey!
Ive finally been able to see the finished footage of the documentary, Emma and Jess seemed to have pulled the piece together. There are still quite a few sound issues and technical camera issues but it is much improved from the initial footage and plans emma had been given at the start of her editing.

No one rang me this morning to meet up so im hoping everything is going okay, ive had a couple of texts this afternoon while at work from emma needing contributer details and student numbers which hopefully means theyve almost finished the edit. Ill be at uni early in the morning to see how theyre going.

Sound Workshop

Met up with Jess, Emma and Alex today. Alex had missed his morning Sound session so joined us in ours. No one else seemed to show up to it so we were able to get a one-on-one session with Darryl. Darryl worked with Alex mainly and suggested various options for sound with him as well as giving him a tutorial on Garageband and Soundtrack pro.
He listened to the sound on our project and picked out a few issues with interview levels and discussed the possiblity of Alex using either music from sound arhives or composing his own stuff, alex seems more comnfortable with finding already created music, although Emma seems happier for him to just do a couple of simple chords on garageband.
They all seem happy to crack on with it so ive left them to it and they're going to ring me when they're in uni tomorrow mornign and ill see them before i go to work.

Getting in touch

Have struggled a little over the past few days trying to get in touch with Jess and Emma. After our meet with Debbie on Thursday, we initially agreed that id leave them to it until saturday morning and them pop in and see the edit then (as Emma found out that you can actually edit on a weekend, which was new to me!) but then Emma decided to go to home for the weekend so I agreed to meet them this morning before i started work but i managed to get in touch with Emma finally and she said there wasnt much point in me coming in yet as they hadnt got a lot to show me. She assures me, however, that they now have some sort of structure sorted out and are on a roll now. Alex seems to think his side of the project is going okay, I'll double check when i see him tomorrow before our sound workshop as he'll have already had his.

theyre editing

Contacted Emma and she's apparently in the edit suite with Jess now, i think perhaps Emma was also a little worried about our editing times too, luckily Emmas got my hard drive which has all the footage on so they can get on with it without me for the time being..

Jess and Emma editing

I offered to go in to uni today to help edit, or just genreally offer support but Jess didnt think they were going into uni at all until thursday (im very aware that we have a tutorial with debbie tomorrow and  we still havent captured fridays Fling footage) id really like to be able to show a bit more than just raw footage on thursday and am a little worried we're leavign things a little too late again..

The Friday Fling

We went back to Liverpool again today, we managed to get some good interviews with Ambrose, the founder of Urban strawberry Lunch, and the Friday Fling DJ, Carla Clarkson, just hoping that the light wasnt too bad as it was around half 6 by the time we finished interviewing. We recorded off and on for the entire two hours that the Friday Fling was on, it was a pretty interesting experience with all kinds of different people turning up and having fun on the drums.

Setting up the drums and sound test

Jess and emma sorting the camera settings

Emma and her twig tie-clip holder

People beginning to come in

Emma enjoying the music and enteraining herself

More people enjoying te Fling

Add caption

Jess and Owen discussing different angles

Soem people having a dance while Emma records more sound

Just on time

We had planned to get to Liverpool with roughly two hours to spare before the Fling began but due to my car's satnav not working and Jess having pretty bad travel sickness (which meant she was in the front and got navigational duties even though reading makes her nausia worse : / ) we managed to get slightly lost in Manchester and got there around quarter past three ( i still think google lied to me in saying we could get there in exactly the time it took to get there via train). It didnt cause a massive issue as we'd planned only to chat to everyone before it began, however thinking back to it, our interview with Carla might have been better had we had the chance to interview her before the Fling in full daylight (saying that though, Ambrose was doing very loud sound checks when we arrived which wouldve made interviews impossible and Carla only arrived about ten minutes before the event began) however the best interview of the day was done with Ambrose and was done quickly in a quiet few minutes between the soundchecks and everyone actually arriving.

Sound Man Down

Ive got everything planned out and ready for tomorrow, aside from not being able to find the music consent forms on blackboard, i think ive got everything, google maps(both printed and prepped on my phone), petrol in the car, numerous standard consent forms, I spoke to Liz again on the phone,
When I spoke to Liz, she confirmed that the weather was good enough for tomorrow so the event is still going ahead (not much fun in the rain!) and that we'll be able to speak to Ambrose and the DJ, Carla Clarkson if we get there a little before the event begins.
Unfortunately Alex had a phonecall from his work today and agreed to cover an overtime shift tomorrow, which means we'll be a soundman down for our (sound-heavy) recordings tomorrow. Emma says she's not got a lot to do until editing starts however, so she's agreed to take on most of the sound role for us while we're there.
I took out all the equipment from stores again today and have got the camera on charge at the moment, since Ill be driving to uni tomorrow to meet everyone else, Ill just chuck it in my car tomorrow morning and we'll be ready to go.

Capturing Footage

We captured all the footage from Monday and Tuesday in preparation for starting editing next week. It took much longer than intended as there was issues with dropped frames, which we were told by the technician was due to the PD170 being quite old and probably winding the tape up too tightly, however we collared Chris a couple of hours later who told us it was due to incorrect settings and had to start all over again, which was annoying. All the footage seemed to come out okay though, there's some really good shots, the only problem being that the mic comes into shot several times during the interview, however we can probably sort this by showing footage of the church while the audio from the interview plays.

Liverpool Day 2

Still in Liverpool today. We all got up early to check out the best camera placements for shade and sound (St Lukes is in the centre of town, with lots of buses and lorries passing regularly)
We were able to meet up with Liz, one of Urban Strawberry Lunch, who was fantastic and showed us around the interior of the church, told us in detail about the interesting history of the church and the various projects that have occurred here. We've also planned to meet up with everyone on Friday when they have one of their 'Friday Fling's' so that we can get some footage of the band.
Here's some more pictures from today:

Alex and Owen setting up

Checking the sound in the far corner of the gardens

Getting C.U's of the stonework

Interviewing Liz

The tower from the inside

Some of the artwork installed inside

The Stage

Owen taking shots of the stage

Some of the many random instruments used by USL

Liz showing us one of the instruments

Liverpool day 1

Did some shooting in Liverpool today, we were able to check out the location, take a few external shots and decide on shots for tomorrow.
Here are a selection of pictures from the day:

St Lukes Tower from the front

Jess, Alex and Owen discussing the camera setup

A view through one of the windows at some artwork inside

Image showing straight through both sets of windows

St Lukes from behind

An ivy covered window frame

St Lukes from the side

Sun-lit St Lukes

Image of the tower taken through the church

A sign on the side of the church

Another Pic of St Lukes from outside

And when we returned to our hostel room, the view fromt he bathroom was this: