Tech and Actor Rehearsal

Today we had our first tech and actor rehearsals together, with all the crew that would be there on the day too (the sound mixer (pt1)/floor manager(pt2) made a brief appearance though). We focused on getting the spooky ending blocked and confident with as the actor supplying the voice had to be gone at a certain time. We also lost one of our camera ops at that point too. I have went through my different shots with them for each ending, and gave them my notes (this will also go up on Moodle). Also, special credit to the lecturer for taking stills today.

I told the actors to learn their lines for today, but May was really struggling. Our director came up with an idea to have tarot card cue cards (worst case scenario), so I have made them. Another thing that was apparent was May's hair. I have brought bobby pins to tie it back, and hopefully, when she learns her lines, she will look up.

We did quite a few streams, some of them are just the endings as we were running out of time, rehearsed the beginning quite a lot and needed to go through each ending. 

The first stream has really out of sync audio for some reason. The microphone for the voice also didn't work. Otherwise, it went well.

The second stream has better audio. However I have noticed a few times, the VT is very loud and echo-y. Not quite sure why, I will have to ask the lecturer. The actor for the voice needs to be more familiar with their lines so they know when to come in. I also faded out the actual lights for George to exit. A better idea would be to cut the actual vision mixer. The lecturer also presumed we were off air at that moment, so the actors were stood waiting to act like "um what".

A side note for the different vision mix transitions:

• Violent ending needs a straight cut when the hammer goes to hit Benny
• Spooky ending needs a straight cut when Voice says "that is not possible" for George to exit. Floor manager needs to signal the actors when to start acting again/when the feed is back. to normal.
• Happy ending needs a fade when they leave the tent. Floor manager also needs to signal them to stop moving when the fade has stopped.

The third stream was with the happy ending. I am pretty sure I told May to speak to the entrance while delivering her lines at the beginning, but looks like it didn't happen. The actors were also supposed to leave via the entrance to the tent, but that also didn't happen.

The fourth stream was with the violent ending. We needed to time it just right to cut, and this was just a little out. I think we have the beginning bits nailed though!

We then did a few streams with just the endings. This one, was the happy ending, however the sound effect didn't work and the light is not blue enough. We have fixed this by making the sound effect work on the computer so we don't have to use a phone through the sound mixer, and put another gel on the light. This one was also the happy ending, but we got the sound working on the vision mixer, however it went on for far too long. I did script it so the light and the noise ended at Benny saying "you? I mean yeah" but the main director wanted to see what it would be like throughout (the answer is "very annoying"). We also did another one but only streamed the end.

Rehearsal #3/Prop Hunting

Before our rehearsal, I went to the weekly market in Hartlepool to see if I could find a wooden shelf (since our plastic one isn't great for production values). I found a tattered one (which really needed a wet wipe) for £10, a bargain if you ask me. So we carried it through town.

https://media.giphy.com/media/3o6gEfJP9GvTt8mb9S/giphy.gif

Today was our big rehearsal with all the cast at once. I was hoping some would learn their scripts, but only George at the end was off script. May I can forgive with casting her short notice. I have told them to learn it by the rehearsal next week. It went really well, we went through it quite a few times, with all the different endings. I timed it when people were more confident later on, to be 13 minutes and 33 seconds (median) which is perfect as that isn't including the narrator parts (which is about 2 minutes).

I also took a few production stills which can be used for marketing. I've also told our graphics designer to make a poster of the live stream with them, and also to make some credits (which is hard until we know who we have on crew).

Overall this was a very good rehearsal. We made a lot of progress. Our actors know their blocking and are gaining confidence with the script. 

Rehearsal #2

Today we planned to rehearse with May and George on the afternoon, however, one of the filmmaker groups also has our George as an actor and they postponed their shoot until the afternoon, so he couldn't come to our read through, which I am very annoyed about. We still rehearsed with our May, who also brought her costume and we did a quick make up test which looks good (we have to keep the glasses so she can see!)

                          

We managed to get the actor who plays George in (sadly after May left) to do some quick read through's and blocking.

Our director had a bit of a moment with the printer, ending up with £8 worth of print outs. I hope that doesn't go on our budget. :/