Media Clash

 

Today as development of the behind the scenes project we had a meeting with Bath based company Media Clash. We spoke with CEO Greg Ingham, he was very keen for us to do the project and the ideas were flowing from both us and him about potential lines of interest in the documentary!

Media Clash were established in 2006 by husband and wife Greg and Jane Ingham (previosuly worked at Future Publishing) and are responsible for several publications in the region including BathLife, CardiffLife, CliftonLife and ExeterLiving. Along side this they also do a lot of digital work supporting clients in marketing etc including a lot of work with Creative Bath and various financial groups.

As it is coming up to Christmas they have a lot of deadlines so there would be plenty to film and Greg was even nice enough to invite us to a client party at the Royal Crescent and also to their Xmas Staff party which was incredibly nice of him!
His approachability and friendly nature makes us keen to persue this as our behind the scenes project, however my only reservation is that it is a magazine based in a rather plain looking office is that we may struggle to make it visually vibrant.
We are waiting to hear from E3 as to what they have going on between now and Christmas as if they are doing a shoot or something, on the whole it will make for a more visually interesting project as we can also use examples of their previous work. Fingers crossed we hear within the next 48hours so we can finally get going on something as I am just itching to get this project done!

Filming at Komedia

Last night Keiran, Patrick, Carlina and myself were at Komedia Bath to do some filming with Mike Johnston for some music students.
It was the 2nd year girls doing a showcase of songs in 3x45min sets of 4 or 5 girls all seated and playing acoustic.
The stage was not much about floor level and the cafe venue on the whole was quite small, we had one camera positioned by the bar which was used for close up shots and one on the opposite side at the back of the seating to capture the wide shot. This 2nd camera at the back also captured the sounds directly from the monitor.

The filming went very smoothly, there were only a couple of issues. At one point one the close up camera ran out of battery with about 10mins to go in one set so there was pressure on the wide to capture footage that would look okay by itself. The only other thing that caused problems was sometimes because of the placement of speakers the view of the singer was obstructed from one camera so at times we just had to capture audience shots whilst the other camera focused on the performer.

It was a fun experience and was good to work with Mike again (felt like a first year again :P) and we shall be editing on Wednesday!

Shoes: The Recording

For 5002 we have been given a short film called Shoes which has a very basic soundtrack and no dialogue. There is plenty of room for it to be developed and embellished. And so it is an assessment!


Me and Mike worked together on some of the sounds (we have both worked on sounds individually but for things like footsteps to get a good sounds is easier to work in pairs). We set down the other day and as per usual things take a lot longer than you expect them too and we spent a good few hours recording sounds.

We used (what to me is) a new piece of equipment to the Uni. The microphone is a H4 Zoom Mic. It is a really goot little recorder, though on first look it looks more complicated than the Edirol recorders we have used before they definitely give a better sound quality and are actually really easy to use!

The fun thing about recreating sounds is that you dont neccessarily have to use the obvious to create the sound. For example, there is a section of the film where the character writes on newspaper in a felt tip, but when it comes to recording it sounded clearer and looked better when it was a felt tip drawing on a balloon!

The next step is editing the sounds and also decided on a suitable music soundtrack to go underneath the sounds I have recorded! The first decision I have to make is whether to edit on Final Cut, Soundtrack or Logic? Each has its pros and cons for this type of sound edit. So that challenge shall start next week!

RNLI Documentary: Existing Footage & Research

Having made contact with a member of the Weston Super Mare division of the RNLI they have said that they can give me some of their existing video material.
This will be beneficial to me is several ways. Firstly, I can can use examples of things from the past, secondly, if I choose not to/cant take equipment on board I can use what already exists. Aside from this it will also give me a wider range of topic matter than I can include (and credit accordingly) in my documentary.

I have had a look at what already exists on the RNLI website and what the WSM division have posted publicly on a YouTube page.



This is their most viewed video on Youtube, it is a simple montage of their base and crew at work, it gives a basic insight and overview of what they get up to and the use of music (obviously I wont be using copyright music) gives it a really uplifting and positive vibe.

Looking at the RNLI website itself, they keep a well updated collection from teams all over the country from training to real rescues and celebrity appearances.



Poor woof woof!

I suppose if you were to categorise what I plan to make for the project I hope it will fall into the combination of education, histroy and heritage and (hopefully!) rescues!

Two pages I have found useful with facts and figures and a history (not too brief but not too boring) can be found here and here.

Mary and Max

Last night was potentially the highlight of the Film Festival for me, though I did love Freetime Machos this was something completely different.
Mary and Max is from Adam Elliot (also the director of the multi award winning short Harvie Krumpet) is an animated film that brings animation to a new audience.The story is a story of overseas penpal friendship between an unlikely pairing of 8 year Mary in Australia and 44-year old Max who suffers from Aspergers from New York.
Their written relationship in the film lasts over 20 years, sharing their life experiences and advice on eachothers difficult situations. This spreads over marriages, break downs, manslaughter charges and other obstacles that come their way.

The film is both uplifting and meaningful as well as very entertaining and at times hilarious. It features the voices of Toni Collette, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Eric Bana, Barry Humphries and was a sell out last night at the Little Theatre.


Though I feel I have overused the phrase this week, I HIGHLY reccomend this film to everyone as there is something for everyone in this beautifully portrayed story.

Film Festival Feedback

Another film festival post! Will be one of the last :(
I finished being a 'runner' at the film festival earlier this week (have two more films to steward) and after emailing to say thank you to them for letting me help I got this really nice feedback from Caroline, the head of Admin, who I was doing most of the work with:

Thank you Kirsty, it's been brilliant having you around, couldn't have done
it without you. I think the A board posters look great. It's been an immense
help to have a reliable, hard working and resourceful, calm person in the
office in these pretty hectic times. I can't tell you how important that is
when you're running against the clock in pretty difficult working
conditions.
 
I'm glad you've enjoyed your time with us, I hope it wasn't too stressful an
environment. And that you'd like to volunteer for us again next year we
would be very pleased to have you again,
 
So big thank you and good luck with the rest of your course,
 
Best
 
Caroline Thibeaud

I truly enjoyed my time working with them and think the whole helping with organising be it events or 

translated to television as working as a producer or something similar is really up my street!
 

Freetime Machos & The Arbor

I was very fortunate this week as part of Bath Film Festival to see the film Freetime Machos and The Arbor.

Freetime Machos is a documentary by Finnish director Mika Ronkainen (who was at the screening) about a Finnish Rugby team who happen to the most northernly and 3rd "most lousiest" team in the world! The coach was English and worked for Nokia, so it was probably two-thirds in Finnish with subtitles and about a third English. It is a hilarious documentary that I think would appeal to all (not just to male rugby fans!) which makes it unfortunate that it wasnt a sell out screening.
Having a question&answer session with director Ronkainen was interesting, and provided a great insight into professional documentary making. For the 90 min documentary, he shot 300 hours of footage! Though some was multi-camera (he used 5 cameras at a 90min rugby game so that brings it down a bit) it is still a hefty amount of footage filmed over around 8 months.

The Arbor is a British film funded by National Lottery and directed by Clio Barnard based on the life and relationships of playwright Andrea Dunbar who died in 1990 aged 29. The film uses actors lip-synching to interviews with Dunbar and her family, and concentrates on the strained relationship between Dunbar and her daughter Lorraine. It is the kind of thing I had neevr seen before and is a unique approach to film making.
The story spans over several years and features the audio lipsynched filmed in interview style, acted scenes from Dunbars play and also real archive news footage of the stories surrounding Dunbars life.

Bath Film Festival Volunteering

Over the last couple of weeks I have been volunteering with the Bath Film Festival. Originally I only signed up to steward some events, but when I went to the first meeting I decided that being a 'runner' for the festival was something I was also interested in! So what was going to be a couple of evenings work has now turned into over 35 hours of helping out in just under 2 weeks...and thats before the stewarding!

Being a 'runner' has ranged from your simple admin tasks, photocopying posters, filing things to running errands such as collecting/delivering things to and from all over town. A lot of it has obviously been more film related, I designed the advertising posters for venues and have been proof reading film notes.

It has been a really good experience, on a personal level it has made me more confident at approaching people and talking to people I haven't met before, increased my confidence on the phone and I think it has helped me a great deal in learning how to multi-task, prioritise and other skills that will prove useful to me in my career!

Oh yeah, shameless plugging...I highly reccommend everyone goes to some of the films over the film festival! And if you can, volunteer! Without the volunteers, the festival would not be able to run in the way that it does!

:)

Soundtrack: Shoes

For one of our 5002 soundtrack assessments we have been given a short film (of which we have heard the original sound) and given the task of re doing the soundtrack using our own recordings (and some library sounds).

The original film dows not contain any dialogue which makes things easier and there is definitely room for a music track in the background.

Having watched the film I now have a list of nearly 35 sounds I need to provide.
They include the following: things:

• footsteps (various surfaces and paces)
• cars driving by (various speeds/distances)
• coins dropping
• china/glass placed on bar
• doors (opening/shutting)
• TV background noise
• car washing

The biggest challenge is going to be thinking of/finding a suitable backing track so that there isnt massive gaps of silence.
Hoping to record in the next couple of weeks!

Commissioning

So, it's reading week...and I've actually done some reading! Have been looking at Broadcast magazine to do some research about programmes recently commissioned to present in Friday mornings session.

From my research mainly in the magazine but some online I have found the following programmes that have been commissioned within the last couple of months:

Title: Popatron
Channel: BBC2
Company: Zeppotron (Endemol)
Commissioning Editor: Commissioned via BBC Switch (soon to be scrapped)
What is it?: A 6x30min sitcom series featuring latest bands and celebs in a 'Larry Sanders' style where production staff and presenters are played by comedy actors.
Who is the audience?: Aimed at teens/young adults

Title: London Zoo (working title)
Channel: ITV
Company: Wild Pictures
Commissioning Editor: Ordered by ITV Controller of Popular Factual Jo Clinton Davies and also Alison Sharman
What is it?: A 3x60min series investigating all areas of the worlds oldest zoo, to feature exotic animals and some of the 800 staff. Viewers will get a definitive look at a national institute. Aims to explore the quirks or animal-staff/staff-staff relationships.
Who is the audience?: Early teens interested in animals/people who have been to or are considering going to London Zoo

Title: Living With Elizabeth Hurley
Channel: Sky Living
Company: HCA Entertainment
Commissioning Editor: Sophie Wurzer-Williams
What is it?: A 1x60min programme looking at the likfe of Elizabeth Hurley, will be a "sneak peak at Elizabeth Hurley how you have NEVER seen her before", will involve her running her 400 acre Gloucestershire farm.
Who is the audience?: Fans of Elizabeth Hurley, mainly "housewife" women interested in gossip/lifestyle programmes


Personally, I think that the London Zoo programme will probably be the most successful of the 3 as it has the most interest and will be likely to pull the most viewers. It would be both factual and entertaining and probably educational too. Though programmes like it have been made before they have always proved popular so there is no reason why this one shouldn't be the same!

Behind The Scenes Progress

Time is ticking by and it's getting to be crunch time for sealing a 'Behind the Scenes' project. So far we havent been having the best of luck, that combined with time just seeming to slip away it's getting tough!

Our initial and group favourite idea was to approach Aardman Animations as it would be both visually interesting as well as an exciting story. Brad had researched the idea most and could see from their podcasts that the creaters themselves wanted to be better known, this would have been our approach. After attempts to contact them it turns out their work is so confidential that they dont even offer studio tours, so our chances there were blown.

The next potential idea was bought to the table by Claire, which is to to do a behind the scenes on the man who provides stunt horses for films (most recently Warhorse), she has made contact but as far as I am aware there is no conrete response for them. Though again this would be a visually appealing idea with plenty of past work to be spoken about (including his work on Gladiator), it would require a lot of travelling and I think ideally most of us would prefer to do something a little bit closer to Bath.

Ant had the idea of doing a behind the scenes of Little Theatre Bath in conjunction with the Bath Film Festival and even spoke to the manager in person and he seemed really keen. After sending him an email (as requested) he then realised it would be difficult with health and safety and just wouldnt be possible.


My idea originally was to look at local news, on how a story comes from an even to script and then to screen. Later on during a discussion with Lesley, she suggested looking at the local input to Children in Need (much of the same Points West team that do the local news). After a phone call that was them directed to an email address lead to no response.


So where do we go from here?


Our current lead is with Venue Magazine based in Bristol, Ant has a contact with someone there so that is something we really hope we can get. After having the conversation with Ant about this potential idea I thought if it doesn't go anywhere we could look into a similar thing closer to home in Future Publishing.

Individual Project Ideas

It has come to the time of year to put pen to paper on ideas for the individual project and I am quite comfortable in saying I am not the best at coming up with ideas! Give me an existing idea and I can do something with it but recently I have been struggling to come up with any ideas (that have potential!) of my own!

However...this is what I have come up with so far...

My first thoughts were to do some sort of promotional video for two businesses I know who would be quite up for having something to put on their websites. These are an estate agents and an extreme sports retail shop...and I straight away I thought probably the same thing you are, despite things I could do in Motion and the service I would be providing, lets face it, its not a very interesting subject matter and is something better saved for my own spare time.

My 2nd (and so far only other) idea is a documentary on the RNLI, a friend who I used to go kayaking also is a volunteers for the Weston-Super-Mare branch (he acts as Helmsman). I think a lot of people over look how much of a vital role the RNLI play in society and it would be a good chance to raise awareness.
In terms of content I would aim it as if the audience don't really know anything, so cover a brief history, what they do, who they are etc. I would also look at the more technical side such as the boats and lifesaving equipment. Also there would be room for interviews with their volunteers and I would also appeal to anyone who has been saved/had experiences with them to share their stories. In an ideal world I would also spend some time with them and potentially see them have to answer a call (from dry land of course!)

So far, I have simply done research on who they are via their website, one thing that could hinder my chance to do this is they already have a YouTube channel set up with films, however I hope to offer them something they dont already have. My next step will be in contacting the guy I know and take his advice on the idea, I would then contact their Press Office.

I understand health and safety will be a big issue with this project, but I would probably rely heavily on "dry land" footage and some of their own archive, however I do know people who have filmed kayaking on rivers and have access to waterproof/splashproof equipment that could help me out!

BBC Films and Film Four

BBC Films is the feature film-making arm of the BBC. From its first production in 1994 up until 2007, it was run and funded privately whilst still under full control of BBC but it has now been integrated into the BBC Fiction department. They produce approximately 8 films per year.
The most recent productions from them on the big screen were Made In Dagenham and Tamara Drew. A list of their previous releases can be found here.
Many of their productions get co-produced with bigger companies which means a lot of them get far bigger exposure, for example Revolutionary Road (co-production with Dreamworks) and Edge of Darkness (co-production with Warner and Icon).



Film4 Productions is a British film production company owned by Channel 4. The company has been responsible for backing a large number of films made in the United Kingdom. The company's first production was Walter, directed by Stephen Frears, which was released in 1982. The company was originally called Channel 4 Films but was re-branded in 2002 in conjunction with the launch of the digital TV channel Film4.

A list of their productions along with short clips can be found here.

UK Television Production Companies

TalkBack Thames

Talkback Thames  is one of the UK's largest production companies who in the last year have created over 500 hours of television for a range of channels. They were founded in February 2003 and are owned by Fremantle Media (a division of RTL Media). The current CEO (as of 28th October 2010) is Sara Geater who replaces Lorraine Heggessey.

Productions Include: The Apprentice (BBC1), Family Fortunes (ITV), Green Wing (C4), Never Mind the Buzzcocks (BBC2).




Endemol
EndemolUK  is the UK branch of Endemol (which covers 26 countries) that were founded in 1994 and annually produce over 2000 hours of output. They encorporate a number of production companies including Remarkable Television, Initial and Zeppotron. They have offices in London and Bristol and employ up to 1000 people at any one time.
Productions include: Big Brother (C4), Charlie Brookers Newswipe (BBC2&BBC4), Deal or No Deal (C4), Secret Diary of a Call Girl (ITV2), Total Wipeout (BBC1).



Hat Trick Productions
Hat Trick productions were founded in 1986 by Rory McGrath, Jimmy Mulville and Denise O'Donohue. In the history of British Broadcasting (with the exception of the BBC) their entertainment and comedy programming has won the most awards.
Productions include: Fonejacker&Facejacker (C4), Outnumbered (BBC), Bodies (BBC), Whose Line Is It Anyway