Week 20/04- 26/04

We were back from Easter holiday on Monday and submitted our 10 premises for a 7 min film to Richard. I was not looking forward to the group story telling exercise, considering how easy it is mess up any of the lines and somebody will make you go back and change it. Eventually only 3 of 10 sheets altogether survived. Funnily enough, 2 of them were about a hamster and a rat! The class loves animals. The third one was about a quiet part-time piano teacher who desperately wants to please everyone. From this exercise we learned that a good story needs a flawed character, a big enough inciting incident and a very good external goal. Usually this was missing in the other stories which didn't get through. We also talked more about dialogue and its purpose. In that sense, Closer and Good Fellows are very different in the characters' dialogue, but in the same time both films bring us easily into the characters' world through that dialogue.
In the afternoon, Kim Miller was teaching us what to look for in a good, organized storyline. Our homework was to make a short term storyline about Dev. It sounds boring, but after watching 5 episodes of Corie I got into it.

Tuesday was supposed to be an editing class which didn't happen again. I hope we learn how to edit. Really!
In the afternoon was history of cinema class, covering the period after WW2 and the beginning of Star System. Oblivious to the consequences, James Stewart or his manager started it all. And now we have to pay at least 7 mil. for a famous actor. We also discussed the small necessities of the soldiers coming back from war- a car, a house and a fridge! How simple and logical!But I would say a job comes at first place. This brings us further to the target audience of cinema in those days: teenagers, since the elder people were perfectly satisfied with a TV and didn't feel like going out after the long working day. Such factors bring in packaging of films and their theater presentation. In fact, it turned out to be quite a successful idea, considering that a good graphic poster, which has nothing to do with the film's content, would sell the tickets. Other good examples of packaging are Disney and Hitchcock, since we all know what the films are about just by hearing the name of the author.

Wednesday was a screening of "The best years of our lives". There will be another post for it.

On Thursday we were off, researching the characters from Corie and plotting their future liaisons.
On Friday was Abigail's class on producing. We took a script and started filling out some sheets to estimate what we need for a production. I find it quite helpful in terms of organizing the schedule much more precisely and it also saves money! Of course not everything was clear, but it starts to clarify step by step

The African Queen

A John Huston Film


At the beginning of World War 1, Charlie (Humphrey Bogart) tries to save Rosie (Catherine Hepburn) from the German invasion in Africa, taking her on his steamboat. Rosie is an English spinster and the sister of a priest who is killed by the Germans. She is quite set in her ways, but in the same time brave enough to undertake a dangerous journey which aim is to destroy a huge German warship, The Louisa, using handmade torpedoes. For an experienced traveller like Charlie, such an initiative is complete madness. Even though the conditions put them against each other, they also bring the two travellers closer and eventually they fall in love. Finally, their handmade torpedoes manage to destroy The Louisa and save the British pride.
I enjoyed the film, there is no doubt it's great! But I still think that Marlon deserved that Oscar more than Bogart did.
Anyways, the posters are great fun!

A Streetcar Named Desire

This is the first film I've seen with young Marlon Brando, and I must say it's a brilliant performance. All the praises I've heard about him are totally deserved. During his time he had set high standards that not so many could achieve, and eventually every rising male star was compared to him. Often considered as the greatest actor of all times, Marlon also shines out as a sex symbol in A Streetcar Named Desire. Maybe the one thing that Brat Pit lacks is as strong screen presence as Brando will always be remembered with.
The film tells the story of Blanche, a disturbed woman who ran away from her home town because of her bad reputation. After having an affair with a 17 year old boy, she visits her younger sister Stella in the French Quarter of New Orleans to find protection. The plan doesn't work out so well when Stanley, Stella's husband quite soon realizes that Blanche is hiding something and she can't be trusted. Stanley himself is a brutish young man, lacking of refinement but also proud of it. He doesn't like to be swindled and often falls into friction with Stella because of Blanche.Here is the place to point out that in each shot with Marlon the focus is on his muscles or more like his clothes ripped down. Even in the wide shots, the lighting was concentrated there quite effectively. Beautiful cinematography!
Most surprisingly, for his iconic role as Stanley Kowalski, Marlon did not win an Oskar while the other 3 actors in the film did. I just checked who got the award .............. and the winner is: Humphrey Bogart in the African Queen. Now I have to watch it.
Another film that I'm about to see with Marlon is The Last Tango in Paris.

Week 11 (Or Melissa's Mail!)

On Monday we were still in pre-production. The main thing we had to do is dress the set up for the next day and bring the kit and all the props in the office. Some of the props turned out to be more difficult to get than we thought (water cooler!) Eventually the set was ready by 5 pm.
Tuesday kicked off with no key for our office for about 15 minutes. Finally when we got it, the first thing to do was set the equipment for 9 cutaway shots to be made before the actors arrive at 1. Lighting was fine, at some point we used a tray to slide the camera on the floor, following Melissa's mail cart. Luckily, there were no problems at all with the actors. Everyone's behavior was professional.
The next day felt a bit longer because there were more shots to be made. Some of us were extras in a few scenes. For every scene, maybe we took shots from 4 different angles. It will be interesting to see the cut. At least there is enough footage to manipulate. And at the end of the production we had to pack everything and leave the premises. For 6 people it took 1 and a half hours to do it. What followed was finishing of the food we bought for the actors in halls.
On Thursday morning we returned the kit and all the props to the Academy.
Friday was a screening day, with the Bride of Frankenstein. As Adam said, very sad film. But lovely make up and special effects.

Week: 16/03- 22/03

Monday kicked off with Adam putting us to work in our film groups on pre-production. Me and Paul are both on camera and DOP, which reminds me how hard it will be to light up a big office space for a wide shot. The group also started thinking of how to provide some of props without buying it, so we bothered quite a lot of people in the Academy. In the end, it was all worth it. Because we don't have one person responsible of producing the film, we split the tasks almost equally. After 2 hours of preparation, Adam was impressed with our work and encouraged us to move on.
Tuesday began with Andy's class: Hollywood Studio System. We watched a bit of "That's Entertainment 3", highlighting a scene of filming a musical star while some carpenters are disjointing the props of another scene on the same location. The point is that for studios like MGM and Paramount, filming process is a job like any other, with the stars not being pretentious. As far as the director is concerned, he might finish a picture on Friday, but has to go on another on Monday. Moreover, there was no active communication between cinematographers and editor, so the editor has full control over the cut.
We continued the day with Richard in the Afternoon. Tried to do an exercise involving the whole class creating 12 stories, with every classmate adding to the script. Apparently, the first 5 stages or decisions in the script are the most crucial ones, because they determine the continuation. These first stages of the exercise are character description, character need/ flaw, action, inciting incident, goal. Afterwards we discussed our premises and Richard gave us homework for the holidays to come up with 1o premises for a 7 min film. In the mean time, we have to write another 3 min script. I have to change my premise, because it involves a restaurant and a kitchen, which will be hard to provide regarding production.
Wednesday we had Andy again for Television and Society class and watched "Cathy Come Home" as an example of a TV that actually changed society. The film deals with the problems of the working class, that was not shown on TV at all. Therefore, the middle class could close their eyes on the problems seriously developing in Britain in the 60s. Homelessness, lack of care and sympathy in the administration are some of the issues "Cathy come home" projects. I certainly felt moved at the end of the film.
Thursday's class with Ray aimed to give us some insight on how to shoot the film and achieve the desirable effect. His advice definitely helped us to decrease out shot-list, but I know we'll still struggle with time management next Tuesday and Wednesday (because of too many set ups!)
Friday was an open day for the Drama Schoolin the Academy, with the most interesting part of Ray teaching us how to use tracks and dolly spider. We intend to use it in the 3 min films.

Week ... (that begins on 9/03/09)

On Monday was my technical assessment with Ray. It went pretty well. Now I know that 1 hour flies away so fast, especially when one has to set up the lights! What is more, the daylight kept changing all the time. In the afternoon we had Barbara, and pitched our series idea with Charlotte and Murdo. She gave us some good piece of advice of what to add and develop further, for example, assigning roles to actors who are unlikely to play a certain type of character. On Tuesday, each one of us in the class had to present 6 premises and in small groups decide which are the best. Richard was not extremely impressed and told us to think of more premises. We also discussed the narrative structure of The Shawshank Redemption to figure out why this film works so successfully. The most interesting point that we reached, was that there are no 2 protagonists, but because Andy (the protagonist) does not overcome a fatal flow, the writers have consciously transferred the moral lesson and change to Red. Regarding the inciting incident, it can be interpreted in different ways, which makes the story hard to analyse. I think it's quite useful to discuss films like that, to try to unknit all the elements that make it so remarkable.
On Wednesday, Andy introduced the genre of sitcom to the class. We watched 2 old British sitcoms. I prefer Hancock, it was extremely entertaining!
Thursday morning was Abigail's class, and we gained some insight of how difficult and challenging a producer's job might be, especially regarding legal issues. We talked about copyright; I've done some study on that but barely remember anything. However, now I recollect some of the examples I've looked before. Moreover, we were intorduced to "optioning" of scripts and how much money writers make roughly. In the ideal case, the story will be original, should not need dialogue rewrite or shaping, not to mention changes in characters or relationships. Nonetheless, if any of these is not right, an executive developer or another writer should come to work on the script, which means more money will be spend in the very first stage of the film developing.
I missed the interview with Tony, but watched the screening which was amazing! I want to see more of this series.
CPP! Thursday and Friday was mainly filming talks and performances at the Arches. I must say I was a bit sceptic about the whole art of these students, but after seeing their performances I totally changed my mind. Everything they do has a point, and to my greatest surprise I was fascinated by what I saw and can't stop thinking about it. Believe it or not, it is not just the performance that catches one's interest, but it is afterwards when you go out of the Arches and the images still haunt your mind. Furthermore, I find myself appreciating it in a different way and level everytime I think about it. So in short, this should mean that the CCP students were successful in their performance in every single way. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for the talks- I found some of them quite boring, maybe because they were delivered by retired artists with "not so fresh" ideas. But this is just my opinion.
Now I have to concentrate on the Moodle assignement (News/ Info/ Education) and read the rest of the Ofcom report (just 150 pages) huh :/

P.S - I watched only Casablanca this week. I still have a German, French and Japanese films in my laptop to finish with, because they're taking too much space of my hard drive

North by Northwest

Finally I saw Alfred Hitchcock's praised film featuring Carry Grant and Eva Marie Saint. An advetiser is mistaken for a government agent and he gets kidnapped by spies. As we talked about suspense in Richard's class I was trying to identify it, but in this film it's not as obvious as in Shadow of a doubt for instance. Nonetheless this didn't ruin my pleasure to watch the famous scene with Carry Grant running in a crop field, being chased and fired by an airplane. Another great moment in the movie is when he starts whistling "Singing in the rain" under the shower (this tune is so topical for the last few weeks!). And last but not least, the editors have cut the finale scene in a way so we don't need to see the whole process of saving the lead female character, therefore the cut leads straight to what happens afterwards- Carry and Eva are in a train married. I hought that was clever and saves time! Adding to that point, I love the fact that in these films the enciting incident happens in the very first 5 minutes! I came across the beginning of Charade (Carry Grant and Audry Hepburn) and it follows exactly the same mode - getting to the point as soon as possible without waisting our time and in the same time entertaining us.