Final Thoughts

My Name is John is done! I'm happy with how it looks, there is some discussion about blurring a few faces in the self help group which could be tried out before Vue and might solve the issue we had with extras (and we had to grab students!). 

There's some discussion about making the entirety of Hope for the Vue show and festivals, however I'm not sure how available I will be with Castle Pin coming up. I would love to help out where I can though! I think at least we need to make the scenes link up a bit better, and try and make better transitions especially between the bedroom and animation scenes. Hopefully we will be able to get back in contact with Armarni too with material we could display for our Degree Show. 

MNIJ - Marketing and Festivals

For marketing My Name is John, I'm creating a Facebook page. John Archer is quite famous so will acquire quite a few likes. I'm also a member of a few fanpages I can post the page on. I'm also savvy in Twitter and Instagram so will probably make accounts on these too. Obviously the film is already made, but I could still make a fund raising page for festivals and post updates from them.

I have got the script and the film lined up to submit into festivals and made a quick list on FilmFreeway of ones that have drawn my attention (9 on the list at the moment and script submitted to 1 festival (East Anglican Film Festival)). I have mostly been looking at comedy and student film festivals. These ones looked particularly interesting;

The Charlie Chaplin Comedy Film Festival (https://filmfreeway.com/TheCharlieChaplinComedyFilmFestival)

Submissions: June 1st [free]
Location: Ireland
Specifications: Up to 30 minutes. Two categories we are eligible for.
Awards: Award for each of the 4 categories
Festival Date: August 23rd-26th

London-Worldwide Comedy Short Film Festival (https://filmfreeway.com/WorldwideComedyShortFilmFestival-London)

Submissions: May 21st ($8 Student or UK Comedy Award)
Location: London
Specifications: 2-10 minutes
Awards: Awards for 14 categories 
Festival Date: September 21st

MNIJ - Rights Approval and Ethics

When writing the script for My Name is John we had a few ethical problems from the start as the mocumentary genre can be seen as derisive and making a film about self help groups can be a bit tricky. When I got the first draft back, it was a bit darker than I would have liked and was very problematic. There was also a few ideas of having innuendos. I intended it to be a funny and light hearted comedy for all ages and festivals (plus John would not be up for that!), so with permission, I tweaked it a bit and inserted more subtle jokes and received more positive feedback. John also really liked the script from what I've heard which is awesome and it's fantastic he was so on board and willing. 

While writing the script, I used the name Julie as it's the name of John's wife and intended the part to be for her. However she wasn't up for it so I asked John if I should change it but he was okay with keeping it in.

For editing, sound and music are always a concern for copyright. We used royalty free music twice and double checked all the legal bits. We didn't use any sound effects so that was one less thing to worry about. 

Hope - Marketing and Festivals

For marketing Hope, I predict we will be making a Facebook page like Cirque last year (plus Twitter and Instagram), which I need to talk to the director and main producer about. There were talks about making a comic book with Armarni's drawings and storyboards but not a lot of news on this lately which is a shame.

Even though I'm not managing the FilmFreeway page for Hope, I'm sending the director links to festivals that look interesting and could be entered for. Here are two I've pointed out (I've seen and sent about 4);

The Final Girls present We Are the Weirdos (https://filmfreeway.com/TheFinalGirls)

Submissions: June 30th [free]
Location: ??? UK somewhere
Specifications: Must be directed by female identifying filmmaker. Shorts up to 25 minutes. 
Awards: ???
Festival Date: October 25th-November 4th

Screentest: The National Student Film Festival (https://filmfreeway.com/Screentest)

Submissions: August 31st [free]
Location: London
Specifications: Made by students, max 20 minutes
Awards: Trophy. 1 general entry.
Festival Date: October 19th-21st

Hope - Rights Approval and Ethics

This post will cover any rights approval or ethics I can see in the film even though I'm only the DOP and co-producer. The script involves a car crash and some possible upsetting scenes (with a few swear words). The scene of the swear words is just voice over and if necessary we have a clean version of the ADR. Apart from that I don't see any huge issues with the film and give it a 12 rating which should be appropriate for festivals and is no worse than Cirque last year.

Hope also has a lot of scenes paying homage, rather than 'plagerising', to other shows or films, such as the void scene with Stranger Things and Poltergeist. However, this is an original story with our own shots and ideas put into it (as discussed in another blog post). 

There are a few found effects in the film (plus one song we have clearance for as we used it in Cirque) which have been double checked to make sure we can use them and are royalty free.

Hope - Poster

My main poster submission is for My Name is John as I have no solid ideas for Hope. It would be cool to have a poster a bit like Crimson Peak so I had a bit of an experiment today on Photoshop and well... it doesn't look great!

http://www.thecapistranodispatch.com/at-the-movies-crimson-peak-is-horror-able/

At least I tried

So then I had an idea. The film is heavily based on Poltergeist and the TV scene so why not just copy the poster? 

http://smokinggunpr.co.uk/2015/11/great-design-examples-13-terrifyingly-good-horror-movie-posters/

I identified the fonts used using whatfontis.com. I had a bit of trouble outlining the film title font, so I followed the instructions on this website, which involved highlighting the text, making a new layer and then doing the stroke for it (as for some reason it doesn't work directly on the text). 

I'm too late to hand this in for Professional Practice, but my main submission is the My Name is John poster, plus I'm pretty sure FMP only requires a poster handin.

Hope - Colour Grade Designs

Between me, the director and the colourist, we have already discussed the main colours of the film with various mood boards which are blues and purples. We also have a few shots that need colour grading from day to night. I work well with the colourist/editor suggesting what works well and ideas for the film, when the 180 degree rule was broken and we were both on the same page.

The Wetherspoons scene is quite warm in colours, mostly reds from the Mother's clothing. The black room blues from the static. The cellar purple. The car crash quite dark, not a whole lot of colours apart from street lighting and emergency lights (blues of these to be boosted in post), and hospital scenes will be clean looking with the red of the blood and bruises on Hope standing out. 

Hope - Day 7

Today is our last scheduled shoot for Hope and it's the big car crash scene. We have the studio, car and equipment booked and are also doing some hospital ADR beforehand. We had the Mother, Father, a Doctor and two nurses (exclusive cameo from me). Most of it was improv so there was plenty to edit with to fill out the scene. It went very smoothly and we now have two great actors under our belts for future productions (Martin the Dad and Ethan the Doctor). 

We waited quite a while after that for the car to arrive. But when our last actor arrived, there was no sign, so we had to improvise. So we got another car. It's slightly different to the one in the Wetherspoons scene but we might just get away with it as the only shot of it that's used is in a puddle and most of it is obscured. Needs must. This was an essential scene to get for hand in or the film just wouldn't make sense. First, we got a shot of the Mother smoking in the car outside (it was raining so we had to keep wiping it!) and got it dropping on the floor. This was all done in slow mo and looked great. This went quite smoothly once we knew roughly where the cigarette was going to fall (we were worried the wind would blow it away but we were safe).

Then we moved the car inside the studio to do the driving at night. I preferred this a lot more than filming inside a moving car so we got Hope's close ups again as they were quite wobbly last time. The only huge problem was lighting. We had a lot of studio lights on and took us a while to get a balance and not light up the black studio screen behind. We were debating whether to use green screen but opted out because in the other car shots, it was mostly black outside and having green screen in might throw the whole film off. We also had one studio LED on a stand high up for extra lighting for outside shots like the door handle and Hope getting inside. For the travelling shots, we had two small LED lights. One to light the scene and one moving one to act like moving street lights. This was really effective in the end and a great arm workout.

For the emergency lights, we ran into a lot of bother. For the tests, we used red heads and waved gels in front of it. But we didn't have them on set, plus there was not a lot of room and would have been way too powerful. So we put gels on the small LED lights. The red one worked fine but the blue one was very weak. I suggested doubling it up which worked a bit better but still quite weak compared to the red one but better than it was. Hopefully it can be boosted in post.

The shoot finished a bit over schedule, but it's done! I can't wait to see the slow motion back, I wish I got some of the Mother in the crash in slow motion too but we didn't have a whole lot of time. But what we did get and had a quick look at looked fantastic.

Hope - Final Format Development

A lot of creative choices for the final export are required for any project like frame rates and aspect ratios. It's mostly a camera, editor and directive decision so we all worked and communicated together to find what is best for the project.

The camera settings are the easy bit as they are what I'm overseeing. The main camera frame rate and timeline settings are 24fps and in 2k Pro Res HQ (with a few exceptions of slow motion clips which are in 90fps). Export should be as close to these as possible. The director decided against black bars. Aspect ratio will be the default 1.78:1 as it's the most commonly used. 

MNIJ - Edit Supervision

My Name is John has been in post production for a while now. We finished filming late January/early February and it's been lying around since which is a shame; one of the reasons we filmed early was to get it all done and edited and not to worry about it since. At the moment, there are a few fine tweaks to do before deadline (I am panicking a bit as this could have been sorted weeks ago).

Anyways, this post is covering edit decisions and working with the editor. Most of the script is quite self explanatory but I brief the editor as much as I can. They let me watch something when they want opinions and we discuss. Sometimes online or in production meetings, I jot down good points and send them in the group chat for the editor to have an experiment with. It's coming along so far and they understand the feel of the film well such as choosing music that fits. There are a few things at the moment that are essential but small before exporting; adding an ouch when the ball falls on the interviewers foot, apostrophes in the name tags and the cast/crew credits. 

Update 11.05.18: Officially exported and done! Got a small inhale when the ball hits the interviewers foot and it makes the world a difference so I'm glad I kept pestering for it. 

Hope - Day 6

Tonight we filmed Hope coming out the house and driving around in the car. We didn't do any of the car exterior shots due to continuity (we can do these on Day 7*). The first bit went well, but we were a bit behind schedule (we finished roughly at 11pm, estimated wrap was 10). We also got a helping hand to hold the LED lights as a street light. 

The nect shots were of Hope in the car and general street lighting. I get travel sick quite easily so this shoot was a challenge, I had to put the camera down a few times as looking through a viewfinder does not help! I think I did well considering and got some pretty looking shots. We managed to catch a police car and ambulance too which could be used.

* Don't forget the slow mo cigarette and Hope getting into the car

DERIGGED!

The Dark Room is officially derigged (RIP). There's a few bits of sellotape on the floor still as they're being a bit stubborn but we are coming back tomorrow to get the last of it up with those scraper things you get.

Hope - Day 5

Today we planned to do the car shots and a few dark room and cellar pick ups. However we didn't have any word from the person we need the car from and also the second camera, so we decided to cancel (and hopefully rearrange for another day, we are working on it and actor availability UPDATE rescheduled for Tuesday 8th). This will also give us more time to plan exactly what we need. 

Instead, we focused on more pick up shots as the editor had trouble cutting into action, so we got a few pick ups of Hope walking into scene. Also a few new actions as it's scripted that Hope flinches with the defibrillator in real life.

The XCU of the eye from yesterday was not quite close enough, so we used the 100mm macro lens from photography to get it even closer and it looks fantastic. 

We had some behind the scenes footage from Ethan today too. I quickly took the best of and uploaded it to YouTube but I will be editing it properly and to music later.

MNIJ - Wetherspoons Pick Up Shots

Went to get a few more pick up shots today for the Wetherspoons scene following advice from the panel we had in, and to make the scene a bit quicker. We took about 6 different shots so there's plenty to work with including a pint being pulled, bottles and various pictures. I looked up copyright for bottle labels and it looks very complected so we turned them around and made sure the beer taps were out of focus.

Hope - Day 4

Due to a few communication errors, I had to rearrange the dates on the risk assessments so we are now doing the black room and hospital scenes today and the cellar and car crash tomorrow. I also put on a way too late unit call as I didn't realise we were putting down bin bags all over the floor to blacken it out. I also used a new piece of equipment called the quick release plate. It attatches to the tripod and can essentially take it of the tripod easily to shoot handheld then back on for tripod shots. It was great and I'm not sure where it's been all my life.

Photo Credit Janice Lee

For lighting, there are two LED lights on the left hand side and one overhead. Tillie comes out of the dark and into the light, and it's not too bright or too dark. The light of the TV also worked well. We started filming at about 5 and finished at 6:30. We decided to grab the hospital close ups too while we still have a hospital bed set upstairs which took a bit longer as we needed a few extra bits of equipment. Roughly finished at 8. We have left the studio as is for now if we need any pick up shots tomorrow, but we will need to dismantle it on Wednesday.

Hope Update

Production for Hope has slowed down more than I would have liked. Communication was very quiet and I was worried I would have to step up as main producer and finish the film (or join what we have together to make a coherent piece) after our production meeting on Friday. Even more worrying we haven't received a completed script so even if I were to take over, I had no idea what scenes there were and what they contained.

It would have been ideal to film over Easter like we did for Cirque last year but we couldn't. Would have been even better to film more before we broke up or get straight back into it after Easter and book equipment for when we get back. 

But we now have a plan of action and communication has fired back up. I have booked out the studio Monday 30th for the car crash* and hospital shots, and Tuesday 1st for the cellar scene reshoots and the dark room. Since it's unrealistic to get the whole film finished in time, the director has picked the most important scenes and ones that can make the film still work. I'm a bit upset that the workshop scene has been cut as I was really looking forward to lighting and storyboarding the set. Maybe, if we get ahead with scheduling, we could film it. But we should be focusing on the main scenes, prioritising, and giving the editor plenty of time if there is anything else we need.

There are also some concerns of the Wetherspoons scene. The establishing shot is quite wobbly. My bad, I was camera op here. We did to multiple tests to see which worked best and did multiple takes but it wasn't enough. The jib was too big and clunky to bring too. The actor also drinks the wine very slowly. There must be a way to edit around this if we can't get any reshoots. At the moment, we have to prioritise and get new things to make the current scenes we have flow and into one film and come back for reshoots later.

*note to self don't forget dropping the cigarette in slow mo here

Hope - Equipment Needs

Hope is a fairly safe production for camera equipment with more drastic equipment needed for set dressing (the black room, light prop, etc). A jib would have been ideal for the Wetherspoons opening shot but there just wasn't enough room. This was the opening and probably the most ambitious to get right.

The main equipment used was the Blackmagic Mini Ursas (for high quality footage), tripod, slider and the studio LEDs (sometimes the small ones for inside a car). We were more experimental with frame rates and sets than the equipment. We also had Hutch's lighting kit. We only used LED lights for the film as they are easier to control and give off a much more softer lighting. Sometimes we also don't have great electricity in locations like the soundstages and the cellar, so the portable studio ones would be ideal.

MNIJ - Shot Choices

While creating storyboards and shot choices for My Name is John, I looked at how other comedies use shots to their advantage and make the film a lot funnier. One of my favourite shots in the film is when John cracks a joke in the self help group and we pan to the other characters reaction (unamused faces). It's tense and you feel the space between them. The juxtaposition of both is a great technique for comedy but the pan is even better. If we just cut to the faces, it wouldn't have the same impact. 



The handheld camera in comedy that just makes everything more natural and funny, it also makes the viewer more involved in the action and like we are following them on their journey. 

Throughout the film, looking closely at the house scene, I wanted mostly medium close ups. The hand movements as well as facial reactions also add to each other and generate more comedy. 



Crash zooms are also used in comedies to further exaggerate tension as well as characters reactions, very similar to using panning. 

Fourth wall breaks are used sparingly in comedies. There is one break in MNIJ where the shopkeeper looks at camera like 'what just happened'. A lot of comedies use it to make the audience more included and involved, like the character is talking to them, just further exaggerating the joke.

Hope - Day 3

I have to stop calling the film Afterlife, but I will still tag my posts as Afterlife as I have a lot to go through and change. 

Today I couldn't make it on set. Due to complications giving blood, I couldn't lift anything and was told to rest by the official NHS nurses. Luckily Liam stepped in to lend a hand. I had booked out equipment, risk assessments, etc. and was all organised. I also uploaded storyboards and lighting plans on the VLE. I have heard that it went well, but didn't get all of it done. From the pictures I have seen it looks very dark too which I am a bit concerned about for the colourist. 

Afterlife - Day 2

Today we filmed the opening sequence to Afterlife in Wetherspoons and originally the Marina. However the director decided for ease as well as aesthetic to keep it all in Wetherspoons (still did the risk assessment for the Marina anyway!) I put a call time for the crew at 1 and for the actor at 3 on the call sheet however the actor turned up incredibly early and we got equipment late. Luckily this was the only bump in our schedule. We also ended up shooting day for night as a few people needed to be headed off at 6pm, which was when sunset was.

We also chose not to bring the red heads and use Hutch's new lighting kit and I'm so tempted to buy one myself. It was so much easier to carry, set up and less dangerous as they do not get hot. However, they do not have batteries and are not portable, so we took a few studio LED lights with us in case we needed them outside in the dark. 

We had two camera ops on set today so I assigned myself to the handheld camera and the second camera op to the safety shots and tripod. I did this as I rehearsed the complected opening shot before and know where I need to pull focus. We both got a lot of great looking shots and plenty of cutaways for the editor to work with. I also tried to make a few edit cues when the mother leaves the pub (e.g. walking into the actor to make it cut to black).

For the outside car shot, we had an issue with delivery drivers and people so we had to find the right time to film and quickly move out the way. The exhaust shot that the director wants didn't work amazingly well and may need some smoke put on in post. 

The shoot went very smoothly, and we finished at 6 (before the estimated wrap). I also feel like we got a lot shot from having two cameras on set.