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.