Introducing the final product.

This is the result of our Producing & Directing Module. The short film entitled Red Cup. Enjoy or don't enjoy I don't care anymore :)

That's what I call teamwork.

The film is very close to being finished. It looks good. Ben has done his best and it shows. A few of my suggestions were not achievable or didn't look right in the film so Ben worked around them. I've started showing people the almost final cut and they like it for what it is (which is basically a public service announcement). I can live with that because it's 99% done and I'm proud of the outcome of mine and Ben's hard work. We have booked a tutorial so will make minor changes accordingly and then can the damn thing. Can't wait.

Polishing the turd.

Watched the film with fresh eyes this afternoon and had a few last minute directorial recommendations which I'm sure Ben was ecstatic about. It's mostly just me being a perfectionist but I think as we have the time to tweak we should. Ben's going to book a tutorial for next week just to see if we can get the film either into a higher grade or stop it from falling down one. The following is my epic paragraph of suggestions for Ben -

So close to the finish line.

Me and Ben spent the day putting the reshoot footage into the film. It's pretty much done now. Feels so good. Well worth taking the extra time to just polish it up a bit with those additional visuals. Ben is gunna post the film on facebook tonight and I'll give some slight suggestions. So close to being finished!

Here's a quick knock up for the DVD cover.

Reshoot Repeat Shoot.

Funny how today was almost a repeat of our original shoot. Zak brought the lights and then didn't have a clue what he was surposed to do, while Evans turned up two hours late (again). Crazy times. Luckily this time the actors and extras weren't around to witness this becaue I had asked them to join us a bit later. The day went smoothly and we were done within 3 hours. We got all the shots I wanted and some really good visuals of drinks pouring and lots of red cups. I forgot to ask if any of the guys had a white shirt we could borrow as we needed to dress a different guy up like the Stranger and luckily Evans was wearing a light blue one that in post we could make look white. My housemate Jess was a very good stand-in for Georgia's hands and feet and the shot from the bathroom looks lovely. Well worth doing the reshoot.

Plan C it is!

With the reshoot scheduled for next Monday 30th we had already chosen Plan C as the plan of action. This was due to it being the easiest and the only option available to us as our actors are completely unavailable. We went into our tutorial knowing this but wanted to get David and Eddies views on the situation before we told them our problems. They agreed with us and gave us some very helpful ideas regarding what to get out of the reshoot. They suggested more emphasise on the drugged cup and a PoV shot from the bedroom watching Jenny being sick. They have defiantly been added to the shot list for Monday. We discussed the problems we were having with Zak as our producer and they said to credit ourselves problem solved. The grainy shot of Stranger outside they suggested we reinstate into the film as they feel we need to establish as face to the voice. It was unanimously decided we cut the car crash scene but the film needed an inciting incident that Jenny would be affected by. I suggested a text or phone call from the guy mentioned in the script saying he can't come. Ben recommended we have the Stranger drug the cup throughout the montage which is a great idea. We both feel really positive that these little bits and piceces will take the film up a notch.

Plan A, B or C?

Spent the day editing with Ben and even though as Eddie says "I'd rather have 5 minutes of quality than 10 minutes of crap" we are barely at five minutes. That's the bad news the rest is mostly  good. It flows much better now. We have several options for the tutorial tommorrow with David and Eddie. We tried to edit to the sugestions made in the screening though we just need to run a few things by them. We had thought about doing a reshoot before speaking to them but have postponed until after becuase we can then cater the reshoot to their feedback. Below is the options we can take to make the film better -

A few opinions regarding the film...

"I like the style"        "Style over substance"

"GET RID OF THE CAR CRASH

IT'S CONFUSING"             "I don't get it"

"You should keep 'INSERT PARTY MONTAGE HERE'bit"

"What's the point?"             "Story first"

"The smily faces make it look dated"  

We survived the Rough Cut Screening with David and Eddie and our fellow film makers. We weren't the best but certainly were not the worst (some groups showed sweet f-all!). All the suggestions have been noted and generally the feedback was helpful and positive. People embraced the style but didn't understand they story. As Mckee states in Story "Like music, dance, painting and sculpture, poetry and song, story is first, last, and always the experience of asthetic emotion." If the story fails, no matter how good it looks, the film fails. Simple.



Rough Cut Ready.

It's not great but it's not awful so fingers crossed it's not ripped to shreds tomorrow by everyone. I think they should be aware of us being fucked over but I'd rather not make excuses. Basically it's a case of we tried our best and now we have to deal. I do feel if this film was a point in human evolution it would be a caveman after starting off as a monkey in a tree. It's so exciting watching the film grow in the edit. We might just make it up the evolutionary scale to modern man, you never know!

The fog begins to clear.

I spent yesterday looking on flickr and facebook for suitable images I can photoshop. I want to use still images to highlight that the party of the film is one to remember before the audience is even a part of it. Most people take photos of a night out to show how much they enjoyed themselves but for the main character Jenny these photos become evidence of a crime. Examples of the images are below. They appear so quickly (barely often 3 frames) that they hardly register with the audience.

To focus on the Red Cup as a object hazard and fun I've made the images black and white with only the Cup a vibrant/warning shade of red. I need to push the cup as part of the action and cause of enjoyment and danger simultaneously.

I've used some photos taken by Roy Perestrelo to convey the many levels that the characters of the film are reckless. They use alcohol to numb pain, forget problems whilst putting themselves in unintentional danger. Now I'm not against theses things (we've all been there) but if that's all you care about who is there to care about you? The shallowness of the characters places them in serious danger because they are distracted by their own selfish aims and desires.

These red images are from porn, specifically with girls who look the same age as our characters. I've blacked out their eyes with a bar to make them faceless, it's just sex no feelings just desire. I really want to emphasise this objectification of our bodies through over sexualisation. This mixed with alcohol can be enjoyable but everyone seams to glide over the consequences in favour of having a good time. I may not be able to address those issues directly in the film but I can use the visuals to place a deeper resonance if the viewer wishes to see it.

The numerous pictures of nights out that people have are often indistinguishable from each other. I've covered individuals faces to highlight this and to convey a non-specificness to our party and it's events. Do you know everyone at a party? No, but you trust that they are non threatening.

I'm really pleased with how using these images in the film enhances confusing drunken atmosphere of the party. These, along with subtitling specific dialogue, add to the mixed media visual concept I wanted when rewriting the script. By each character having a different font I hope to distinguish them and convey their personality in a basic way -

With the restrictions placed upon us we can't develop them above shallow individuals which does work within the context of the film. I'm very happy with how the film is evolving.



Fitting the pieces together.

Went round Ben's yesterday for the first edit and I'll be honest it's a marathon not a sprint. I found it really interesting to piece the film together bit by bit. We experimented A LOT. We had to and more important I wanted too to convey something a little different. Scott in his book Writing, Producing and Directing a Low-Budget Short Film has gave me a few pointers to think about when reviewing Ben's skeleton -

• Story flow (It doesn't but we discussed ways to help such as the addition of still images to distract from a lot of the jump cuts)
• Mistakes in the shots (Ben had already selected the best shots and removed those with Boom shadows etc.)
• Sound levels/consistency (Again Ben being skilled with sound had addressed any issues)
• Colour Correction (I must say Ben had done a great job by giving a slight bleached effect to the the footage and taking away the yellowness.)

This morning he posted the scenes we had ripped apart and vommited back into a visual treat. I have a good feeling about our progress. I posted this on facebook -

"MUCH, Much better! Great start. Interesting way it juts about visually. I'm looking through peoples images now. That shot of Adams face outside isn't good I'm thinking cut it completely and just have his voice off screen with maybe his dialogue subtitled. The flashes arn't right. I'm thinking of using party images and then saturating them one neon colour and using them instead of just block colour. Will do some experiments and get back to you tonight. It's looking good :)"

We decided that we would use subtitles for chracteres key dialogue to disguise some bad-ish acting and distract the eyes away from a jump ut or unfocused shot. Before our next edit day I'll create some still images to enhance the party/hedonist atmosphere and select the character fonts. Our next edit is planned for the 15th to give Ben time to go through my notes.

Not Good. Not Good.

When your editor is going through the footage creating a rough cut and states the following it's soul destroying -

"I am going to be honest Tom - I am starting to get a little worried going through this footage as I'm putting this rough cut together.

Party scenes are essential and we have next to none.
What I have uploaded so far in the rough cut scenes are using the best footage we have (obviously). The rest of the footage is rather out of focus (close ups) - grainy (outside) - boom/crew shadows&reflections - acting (all cast). There isn't a great deal to play around with.

When are you next free? We need to have a meeting ASAP to set up for some form of potential re-shooting.

I'll continue you to make what I can out of what I got here, and who knows the rest might turn out fine and it may just be the tinniest bits needed to re-shoot."

Not good. Needless to say we have aranged a editing session for Mon 9th to give him enough time to mae a skeleton. I'm very worried though even if we hand in a pile of shit we will pass so at least we are looking at that at the very least. Bring on Monday....

The Non-Ugly Duckling.

Ben has posted a few early scenes on a special production page on facebook that solely me and him can communicate on. He's following my story boards to assemble the rough cut and is posting the scenes individually on the page so I can prepare notes before the edit sessions. Here's a screen grab of his process and my notes on the opening scenes.

I'm very lucky to have Ben in my group. I tell him what I would like, what my vision is, and he does his best to transfer the rushes into it. I definitely view the upcoming edit days as a collaboration between us. I'm in no way comparing myself to Spielburg or Coppola when I say I intend to get deeply involved with the edit. I'm hopping Pintoff was right in suggesting "a hopelessly flawed shoot can sometimes be transformed into a filmic swan by a skilled editor." I doubt we will achieve a swan but a non-ugly duckling will satisfy me greatly.

The wait begins...

Ben has asked for a week or so to sort the rushes and get a rough cut edited. He has my storyboards and we've been in regular contact though I am conscience of making sure he knows I'm here if he needs me without bugging him. I've posted several clips that inspired me in style or tone. I'm drawn toward the distracting use of colour and graphics of these media's. Now all I can do is get busy with my other modules while I wait.

Natural Born Killers Desert Scene

3OH!3 - House Party (Official Music Video)

MTV Skins Reverse Party Trailer

Happy Memories.

Production After Thoughts.

With a lot of improvisation and adaptation we got all the footage I need to make the film. Is it good enough, well maybe not the best; however we worked damn hard and got the job done which is something we can be very proud of.

We worked well as a team considering we had never had a production meeting with all members. Naturally many things could of been done with a professional attitude but when you're behind schedule and things aren't going to plan you just have to wing it.

Evans was over 2 hours late. Luckily for him he arrived 20 minutes before our actors who were late due to buses. I asked him why he was late and he casually said he was sorry his car wouldn't start. He's a cool guy and I'm all for a laid back approach but sometimes you have to step up to the task. Ben noticed he smelt booze on his mouth and we had to call him to find out where he was which speaks for itself. To his credit he listened to my direction and filmed some lovely rich shots. His close ups of the girls are crisp and he knew his way around the camera when we were filming inside. Outside he didn't adjust the ISO so our shots are grainy which isn't the end of the world. Due to style of our film we can use that low quality to exasperate the drunken viewpoints of our characters. At one point he wasn't quite getting that I wanted one scene to filmed in a 'shaky cam' style that followed a characters face. As a director do I trust my DoP or watch them like a child? With Evans I found myself doing a little of one and a lot of the other.

Zak, bless him he tried but hadn't prepared. He had no idea what the role of being a producer required him to do and be. For example I had to ask him twice to write down the shot call so he knew what to say and even had to physically open unihub for him. I had a feeling he wouldn't be pro-active so I posted a facebook message to him on 16th of March which is below. He states he's read it but showed up to the shoot with no paperwork. Me and Ben discussed this last night and both feel that it would be unfair to call him our 'Producer' when in fact we did all of the pre-production work for him. Due to this we may credit all three of us as co-producers.

Ben has been a blessing as a team mate throughout this and all our previous struggles with groups. I honestly think I would of failed this module without him. He knows what his doing, he's reliable, professional and personable. I can't say enough good things about him. I found I stepped up my game when working with him. For example I wanted him to have the best voice recordings to work with so I asked the actors to record all their dialogue in a quiet room without the camera. my logic was that if the shots didn't look good then we could still use the vocal over footage from the party scenes. Ben has a great ear for music and my hope is that my visuals and his soundtrack can make this footage watch-able.

Myself, well I'm extremely relieved to have it in the can and enjoyed the role of director. Without sounding big headed, I wonder what it must be like for a director to just sit back and solely direct. The shoot day was, at times, like being a primary school teacher chasing after kids that aren't doing what I want them to. Saying that I loved the whole experience. Designing and creating the set, planning and experimenting with lighting, working one on one with the actors was bliss. I wish I could of been more prepared regarding the shoot schedule and more disciplined with myself as I tended to always want one more take. Though saying this we scarily did several one take wonders due to time restraints that I hope look ok. The experience has been a BIG learning curve for me. I just hope our amateur touch works for us rather than against us. Can't wait to paint over all the cracks using quick cuts and a ridiculous amount of graphics!

It's a wrap!

Let's get this after party started people!

Our second production meeting.

Me, Ben and Evans (Zak didn't shown up this time) had a productive meeting. I got them to read the locked script just so I knew that they had. We finalised the plan for our day of shooting on Sunday which goes as follows:

Plan for Shoot

• 10am - Set Up - Tom, Ben, Zak, Evanson, Maz
• 12noon - Bathroom/Hall Scenes - Tom, Ben, Zak, Evanson, Maz, Georgia, Adam
• 1pm - Jennie & Chris Living Room - Tom, Ben, Zak, Evanson, Maz, Georgia
• 2.30pm - Break - All
• 3.30pm - Stranger/Jennie Sofa - Tom, Ben, Zak, Evanson, Maz, Georgia, Adam
• 5pm - Stranger/Jennie Doorstep/Hall - Tom, Ben, Zak, Evanson, Georgia, Adam
• 6.30pm - Break - All
• 7.30pm - Car Scene - Tom, Ben, Zak, Evanson, Georgia, Maz, Jess

• 8.30pm - Party Montage Shots - All

I reminded the guys that we need lots of snacks and alcohol to keep our actors/extras (and then once we wrap) happy throughout the shoot. I wasn't able to book a 7D so took out a HM100 so at least we could film with something. Luckily Evans managed to get a 7D so that was a relief. Ben had all the sound equipment sorted and Zak text me that he had gotten a spot light like I asked him. It felt like things were falling into place. The guys had a look at my storyboards to get a feel of what I want as a director. I've kept my shots simple due to our restrictive time frame but I'm hoping to capture the fun of the day through the unplanned and undirected footage of the party. I can't fucking wait.

Story-boredom.

I've been working hard on the storyboards ever since the completion of my first draft but it feels like I've been working on them for much, much, much longer. After putting in so much dedication into the Opus One storyboards (which were much more detailed) I'm feeling the struggle right now. I know that a lot of the footage will need to play out naturally so I don't have to storyboard everything which is a blessing. Also I want to use interesting graphics to enhance the visuals which I've noted in my boards but have found it hard to explain. I've posted my storyboards without the images as I drew them by hand.

Red Cup

Storyboards by Tom Stock

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Red Cup.

On Monday's meeting we had discussed props and decided it would be cool to have Red Cups for our film. They act as a homage to the classic 80's teen movies like House Party (Reginald Hudlin, 1990) and also contemporary comedies like Superbad (Greg Mottola, 2007). Originally used due to being brand-free the plastic red cups are strong convention in the teen gross-out comedy genre. This got me thinking about the symbolic power of the colour red as a warning, as bloody, perhaps dangerous but definably alive and loud. Its presence on the cup acts a metaphor for rebellion, excess, replenishment. Within my script they are a simultaneous emblem for uniform and anticonsumerism due to characters both actively choosing to use a cup to drink branded products from. More importantly it's the lead Jennie's absent-minded acceptance to drink from one that allows her to be raped. This in itself opens up metaphors regarding female genitalia mixed with violence. All this has accumulated into the the locked version of my script getting it's definitive title.

Red Cup by Tom Stock