Major Project - Image Edit

Because Love Always was set during the 1940s I sat down with Sam Creamer to try and digitally remove some of the elements that broke this appearance.

I hope that the audience doesn't notice the changes, I hope that they just assume that is how the image looked in camera.

Note the aerials have been removed, one of many corrections.

Major Project - ADR

Because of the m20 being located near the Museum of Kent Life which was our main location there are    areas of dialog that the traffic noise was to much to filter out during the post production process. Because of this I contacted my actors and had them return to Maidstone where we recorded their lines again where the audio was unusable.

This was a fairly simple process and worked very effectivly with the audio in the film now being of a good quality.

Because of the ease that this process took looking back on the ADR process I think it would have been a good idea to have had the actors redo all of their lines which would have given me more options in the edit.

However for the most part I think that the mix of location dialog and ADR works well and is often unnoticeable.

Major Project - The Edit

Due to the editor being unable to produce an edit that Hennie and I decided that the best move was to let him go and I took over. This has proved the most effective solution as the changes and tweaks have been made quickly and the entire post production process has been sped up because of it.

Love Always Trailer

Major Project - Production Day 4

I was glad that between day one and two we had contacted the cast and crew to arrange an extra days filming. Without that extra day we simply wouldn't have been able to shoot everything we needed to have a complete film.

During day four we got some of the most amazing performances from our actors. A scene that I was particularly amazed with the performance of was the scene pictured below. Tara turned from her happy self to a heartbroken and desperate figure. She was the only one acting in the scene and managed to reduce some of the members of the crew to tears. That's powerful stuff.

As we continued to film the remaining scenes one by one we rapped our actors. It was a pleasure to work with each of them. The day ended just as the light was fading out of the day and we filmed our last couple of scenes right down to the wire. I have a lot of faith in Sam Creamer the DP on the short but it is still nerve racking waiting to see what the we got. 

Major Project - Production Day 3

After a well earned nights sleep the full cast and crew reconvened at the Museum of Kent Life rearing and ready to go for day three of filming. It was on this day that we as a production broke rule number one of film making "Don't work with children or animals".

The day fell into two halves, the first half was a joy to work during as Louie the young boy who we had playing Johnny was happy and raring to act. We shot several scenes with him in them and he gave a very good performance for a four year old with no previous experience on camera.   

It was also during day three that Ollie Matjasz was well enough to take up his role as Arthur. The relationships between the three characters shown above came across as very genuine and warm. As we had been going slower than needed on the previous days shootings the decision was made that we would have to use two cameras to get the coverage in a quicker fashion than we had been doing. This would also help with not making Louie do as many repetitions of scenes which would have brought his to his stopping point with even less of his scenes having been shot.

The second half of the day came when Louie had simply had enough. It was totally understandable a four year old boy can only do so much without it becoming to much. This did however mean that there were a number of scenes scheduled to be filmed that couldn't be filmed as written in the script. It was fortunate that Maddie Ireland on of the writers of the short was on hand to help Producer Hennie and Director Daniel work quick revisions to those scenes so that they still made sense without Johnny being present. Although this isn't what we had hoped to be filming it meant that the film could head towards completion.

The scene that took the longest to shoot on day three was the scene of Arthur coming home. Although this was the case the time spent we hope should be well worth it. It is the only scene of the short where all four of the main cast are in it together. Due to using a two camera setup during this second day of filming we were able to catch up to where we were scheduled to be. The main concern after filming on day three was the audio quality that we were able to obtain. On day two the audio equipment was the personally own equipment of Michael Birrin. For days three and four the sound operator Robert Copland had to use far less quality equipment. He reviealed that the wind shield we had wasn't very effective and therefore it is likely that we will have wind noise issues in the post production process.

Major Project - Production Day 2

There was a two week break between day one and two of filming for Love Always and this gave me ample opportunity to look back over the footage we shot, see what I liked about camera work and the actors performances and see if there were things that we would need to address for the remaining days of filming. Thankfully there wasn't a huge amount of what we got from day one that would have changed it I had chance to do it over.

So on the morning of day two the cast and crew arrived at the Museum of Kent Life which would serve as our location for a majority of the next three days of filming. It had been pre arranged that we could use their buildings as our sets what came as a nice surprise was that they also provided us with a large warm base room where we could put our equipment the hair, makeup and wardrobe members of the crew were able to set up and  stay in relative comfort rather than set up outside in the cool October air.  

For day two of production we had a largely extended cast and crew some returning members and some new additions. Re-joining us from day one was Benedict Smith who played Frank. We had planned to start the day doing some of the scenes that only required him, knowing from the first days filming that hair and makeup for Tara Dowd who played Mary would take at least an hour. We started our day off well and any nerves I have were soon lost to what we were doing. As the day went on I was happy with the performances that Benedict, Tara and Eliza Jade who played Alice gave. Although we had had scenes scheduled with the character of Arthur for the second day due to illness
he was unable to attend. This worked out for the best of the production in the end as although what we were getting was good it did take longer to  get than I had expected and probably wouldn't have had time to film his scenes anyway.

Major Project - Directors Statement

After my tutorial Simon sent me a list of the things I needed to complete. One of these tasks was to write my directors statement. Below is the first draft of the Directors Statement.

Directors Statement Love Always

Major Project - Production Day One

So yesterday was a very exciting, very nerve racking day for me as a director as yesterday was the first day of the production. At 9am the cast and crew started arriving at our base for the day and everyone was excited and raring to go. Hair and makeup got underway and our two actors for the day Tara Dowd and Benedict Smith were slowly transformed from their 2013 selves into their 1942 characters. The goal for the days shooting was to shoot four scenes from the script ending the day with the love montage between characters Mary and Frank which was going to be shot at the 'Salute to the 40's' event at The Chatham Dockyards.

At location number one which was a country road in Loose Village we set about shooting the first scene of the script. It went well getting a range of shots in a range of ways my personal favourite being shooting out of the back of a moving van. But these are the things that we do on low budget film, we have to come up with the best ways to shoot the narrative to make it look like we've spent a lot of money on the production when we haven't.

Unfortunately because hair and makeup took longer than expected as well as shooting in location one took longer than planned when we arrived at location number two which was a hill in East Farleigh I was quite a way behind schedule.Trying to keep calm we started to unload the equipment as we did a man came out from the church hall where we had parked and asked us what we were doing. I explained and rather that telling us to park else where as I had expected he instead he was very friendly. The scene we were about to film saw Frank walking up the hill with his bike. The man saw the bike we intended to use and although it would work for the scene he offered us a genuine 1940s bicycle that he happened to have. It was a very nice gesture and so we took him up on his offer and for the scene we used his bike.

As we began to film the second scene of the day the acting was fantastic I was really impressed with what Tara and Benedict were giving me. Unfortunately I had totally under estimated how much traffic there would be going up and down the hill. Because of this there was a lot of stopping and starting trying to get images without car in the shots. We did eventually get the scene shot but decided as the next scene was meant to be shot in the same location and the traffic caused us to fall further behind I decided that it was in our best interest to move on to the final location of Chatham Dockyards.

Arriving at the Chatham Dockyards we collected our pre arranged press passes and took full advantage of the 1940s event. With the scene being a montage and not knowing what was going to be available for our use I had only a very basic plan knowing that we would improvise. This was my favourite part of the day and we got loads of great footage. Elements at the event meant that I looks like we have had a far larger budget than we had and it made the production value shoot up. For example we came across a couple dressed as 1940s photographers which my First AD talked into being part of the film. Don't they look great! 

Major Project - Test - Does Contain Spoilers

Major Project - Lighting Examples

After we did our presentations yesterday I was told to find some examples to show the look that I wanted to create for 'Love Always'. I had a think and can to the decision that as I will be shooting the film on a Canon DSLR I will be fairly limited to what can be done in camera. However I have decided to shoot the film clean in the full HD. I will be looking to get a strong range of tone created through the lighting which will aid with elements such as colour correction in post. Below is a slideshow of example images from "Call the Midwife", "Foyle's War", "Captain America" "The King's Speech" and "Hugo".

Lighting Examples

As you can see all of the examples have a soft white lighting for the most part. The colours also appear slightly de saturated. Both these elements create a sense of the period and yet produce clean and crisp images. In addition to these factors I have also decided to used a shallow depth of field where possible an element employed frequently in film. I want to short to appear as cinematic as possible keeping clear of hand held shots where possible and using camera stabilisers, tripods, dolly and jibs where practical to create smooth motion within the film.

Major Project - Making props

The love letters in love always are a very important aspect of the film so I have spent part of my afternoon trying to recreate the look of the envelopes that Arthur's character would send his letters in. How do you think I did? One of the real letters is shown above one of my attempts to create one of our prop letters

Major Project - Presentation

Love Always Presentation

Major Project - Pre Production - Shot Lists and Storyboards

So for the past few days I have managed to work my way through the script and write a complete shot list from Draft 5 of 'Love Always'. All in all it comes to just under 300 shots which is going to take some doing but once we get going I'm sure it will move along quickly. When I get a chance I will go over the shot list with my DP Sam Creamer who I will gladly take advice from. I the mean time I have been working on translating the shot list into storyboards. I was going to get someone else to draw them up for me but with limited time I thought I would make a start on them myself.

I always thought that storyboards had to be perfect images but when I saw the storyboards that Scorsese did himself for Taxi Driver (1976) it became clear that if he one of the masters of cinema can do storyboards not being the best artist in the world then so can I.

 

 

Dissertation Result

I have never enjoyed essays and when I submitted my dissertation I had no clue how it would do. I am therefore delighted that I got a B. Well done everyone regardless of how you did just feels good to have some idea where we're at going through this last project.

Major Project - Update for Hennie

Before Hennie went for her week off one thing I told her I would try and take care of is the uniforms for Frank the postman and Arthur the RAF officer. Today I went and met with the head of the CCF Combined cadet force at Maidstone grammar School. They had a large stock of RAF uniforms more modern than the WWII period but plenty that would do the job. I am going to return there next week with the actor playing Arthur, Ollie Matjasz to find one that fits him and will then go and take some photographs of him in the uniform with we can then include in the set. As well as the RAF uniform I needed to find a 1940s style postman's uniform this was harder than I thought but the images below show what the uniform looks like. And before anyone starts to panic I am in the photos but I am not playing the postman. Its just a fortunate coincidence that I and the actor Benidict Smith are roughly the same hight and build. 

Major Project - Pre Production - Script draft 3 meeting

So this morning I along with "Love Always" writers Dean Ross and Maddie Ireland went in to get feedback from Simon Welsford on draft three of the script. Although I was moving in the right direction Simon took issue with the lack of character and story development of the entire script. However because the writing was clear he was clearly able to understand the visuals I would produce using the script. Because of this he was able to give detailed notes and from those notes we worked together over a few hours and hashed out draft four. As I sit here writing this blog entry Simon is reading over draft 4 and the three of us are waiting for his notes. We can only hope this is more what he had in mind. We shall see...

Major Project - We have our cast

 

I forgot to post this yesterday our four actors all confirmed. We couldn't be more happy that everyone we wanted for the roles said yes. Looking forward to getting to know working with Tara Dowd, Eliza Jade and Benidict Smith and working with Ollie Matjasz again.

Major Project - Pre Production - Finding props

Today I have spent a majority of my day searching for props which are indicated in the script. These are some photos of the bits and pieces I managed to get a hold of today.

 

This is what I have managed find which is what will be used as the Postman's uniform. In reality it is an old formal fire fighters tunic and hat, however, its look really isn't to far off the photos of a 1940s postman. In addition I have managed to get hold of the smaller box in the image. The G.P.O stamped on the box stands for General Post Office which fits perfectly with the character.

Considering that I have a mass of real life letters from the period I will use them where possible however as our character have fictional name I will have to make fake letters and envelopes. Above is my first attempt which came out much better than expected.  

 

The script calls for two suit cases as you can see in this photograph we now have both.

 

Above are just some general hats and bags that we may be able to use for characters and or extras in the film.

 

There are multiple scenes in the script where the characters are drinking tea therefore we needed a tea set. Here I have found a contender but I am not sure if it is the tea set that we will use in the film.

Major Project - Pre Production - Production Meeting

Today has been yet another busy day with regards to the pre production of 'Love Always'. Hennie, Maddie and I meet together again and discussed the feedback given by Simon Welsford on draft two of the script. We got to work altering the script addressing the issues he discovered and debating what would work best we arrived to a point where we were in agreement and the changes aided and made sense to the progression of the story. These changes resulted in draft 3 which Maddie and I are intending on presenting to Simon on Tuesday to have him assess the changes and for him to hopefully agree that the changes made make the script stronger. 

As well as working on the script we reviewed the audition tapes of the applicants for each of the roles. Between us there wasn't a huge difference of opinion and we quickly chose the four members of the main cast. Upon all of the actors accepting the roles I will revile on this blog who is going to be playing the roles.

Major Project - Pre Production - Stabiliser Test

The video will explain, enjoy....

Major Product - Pre Production - The Auditions

The audition process for love always was a very enjoyable one using Stepping Stones Studios which we hired out we had a number of people come into audition for the roles of Mary and Alice. There we a lot of very good actresses and a few that simply weren't right for the part. Over that day and the next couple of days that followed I reviewed the tapes i recorded of the auditions and those that we were sent by people that were unable to make it to the live auditions, this is where we received applicants for Franks character thankfully. Doing this I have narrowed down my choices ready for the script and production meetings I have scheduled for tomorrow with Hennie and Maddie. All in all I think whoever we go for we are going to have strong actors for the film. 

Major Project - Pre Production - Location Confirmed

Today on bank holiday Monday Hennie and I went down to the Museum of Kent Life to meet with one of the managers of the Kentish attraction. We were showed round the 1930s cottage and it met my expectations it had a old time kitchen, a sitting room and a bedroom all contained within one building. 50 yards from this one cottage was another building that had another bedroom again something else that we needed to find. After speaking with the manager she was happy to confirm the dates we had planned and said we could have full use of the cottage as we wanted. The whole arrangement seems very easy going and I got the impression that should we need to come back and film extra bits.

 

In summery it couldn't have gone better.

 



Major Project - Pre Production - Audition Arrangements

Just a quick one this time. Just to say that I have been able to come to an agreeable deal with Stepping Stones Studios to use their space for our auditions on Thursday. I think thats better in this case over using the campus or Maidstone studios as we are expecting people to come into Maidstone on the train and this may encourage more people to come down as they don't have to travel on after getting into Maidstone town.

Major Project - Pre Production - The second draft of the script

After a hard days work my two script writers have made the alterations to the script that I asked for and have sent me over a second draft of the script. Reading over it I was very pleased to see how it is progressing and I think that by removing elements of the first draft that didn't progress the story has really paid off. 

I think this version of the script is strong enough that I can do some serious planning with regards to my shot selection and I would even be happy to give it to actors once the film is cast, making sure that they are aware that there will be tweaks made to it.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the writers as I know they have put a great deal of effort in keeping up with my rapid scheduling demands.

Using this version of the script I am going to be sending a copy to Simon Welsford for edits and review as well as sending it to someone qualified in social history to get his take on the historical accuracy of the script.

All in all well done script writers.

Major Project - Pre Production - Locations

Today has been another productive day. As motioned in a previous blog post one of our possible locations is the Museum of Kent Life however the reason that we have planned our shooting dates because of an event being held at the Chatham Dockyard called "Salute to the 40's". I emailed Chatham Dockyard with hope of gaining permission to film there and thankfully they have given us permission.

To find out more go to : http://www.thedockyard.co.uk/Events/Salute_to_the_40s/salutetothe40s.html

Major Project - Pre Production - Equipment List

I have been thinking about what equipment I am going to want to use to shoot so below is a list of the equipment I am planning on using for the shoot.

Camera

·         Canon 550d/ Canon 7d
·         18-55mm f3.5 - f5.6
·         50mm f1.8
·         Go Pro (UNI)

Audio

·         Zoom H1
·         Rode Video Mic
·         Boom pole (UNI)
·         Rode 3m minijack 3.5mm stereo extension cable (need to buy)
·         Dead cat (need to get)
·         Headphones

Lighting

·         LED lights (own 1) (need more ?)
·         Soft box (UNI ?)
·         Red head lights

Major Project - Pre Production - A Strong possible location

Today has been a very good day for the progression of 'Love Always'. I ventured into town today to try and find somewhere to hold the auditions for our cast which is yet to be determined how successful that was as I am waiting on a reply from someone higher up at the place we would like to use. The main reason that today has been a good day is that I emailed the Museum of Kent Life as I saw on their website that they had a cottage in a 1930s style which looked from the few pictures on the website to fit our needs. I received an email back from Kent Life who said that they would be happy to help if they can and so Hennie and I are set to go and meet with this woman next Monday. If all goes well we can cross of two if not more of the sets/locations we need for the film.

Major Project - Pre Production - First full draft of the script

This evening was a productive one. I along with Maddie Ireland and Hennie Clough met together to go over the first full draft of the 'Love Always' script. I was very happy with how the meeting went and having a full draft was a good feeling too. Over a 2-3 hour period we read through the script and discussed what we thought worked, what didn't and needed taking out and bits that just needed tweaking. I think the most important thing about the script as it is, is the amount of locations that could be substituted for locations the audience would have already seen elsewhere in the film. Maddie has told me that she will try and get together with writing partner Dean and have a draft with the revisions done by next Friday which is the 23rd of August. This is becoming very important as we have now set a date for auditioning actors on the 29th August.

Major Project - Pre Production - The feel is key (hand writing)

Knowing that I want the love letters sent between home and the war and back again to have the scripture type look to it I set upon people that I know and asked them to copy a passage from one of the real love letters. Using these hand writing samples I will select one to write the letters from Mary and one to write the letters from Arthur.

I have my favourites at the moment but will be passing the sample book of to co producer Hennie to approach people that she knows for samples of their hand writing also. We shall see whose handwriting fits the part.

Major Project - Pre Production - Finding Props

Here are just a few bits and pieces that I have found that we may be able to use to add to the 1940s feel.

Major Project - Pre Production - Finding Props

Similarly to the previous post searching for Arthurs characters outfit seems something of a secondary priority as his character isn't in the film for the majority however his costumes will be needed first for photo shoots. What I have decided is that when we have an actor confirmed I will simply buy an RAF costume from eBay as this seems the most fanatically viable option.

Major Project - Pre Production - Finding Props

Although there are no planned scenes of Arthur's character flying a spitfire on screen I thought it still needed to find out what WW2 fighter plane pilots looked like.

During this research process something clicked in the back of my mind. I went up into the loft space of my home and as I remembered from many years go on a nail hang the jacket pictured below. Along with the jacket were a pair of what look like fighter pilot goggles. These may well serve a purpose as we are going to have to shoot some photos of the actor playing Arthur for Mary's character to look at during the film. Therefore putting the actor in the jacket and goggles and photoshop a spitfire behind him and the photos themselves start to tell part of the story.

 

Major Project - Pre Production - Finding Props

For the second bike used by Mary's character I wanted a simple classic looking ladies bicycle. This was found by simply putting a request for anyone that had a bike that matched the description of the bike and was willing to let us use it to let me know. Within minutes a former UCA Broadcast Media student responded and told me that she had a bike that sounds the part.

Below is a picture of a bike the same model of which Cat is lending us. However she has warned me that hers isn't in quite such good condition.