The Meeting Synopsis #3

The first two paragraph are the same as the previous draft but upon Simon's recommendation I have reworked the third paragraph as to read in the same style as the first and second.

Football is the greatest passion in the young life of Luke Wood. He will play anywhere he can. So when he comes across an empty goods yard on a journey home it proves simply too tempting an opportunity to pass up. One powerful kick is all it takes to start a chain of events that leads him into terrible, life threatening danger. It is that one kick that sends the ball high up onto the roof of an old derelict factory. The decision to retrieve it is the step that triggers a devastating series of events that will remain with Luke forever and inevitably touch lives other than his own. When he steps onto a rotten wooden cover it suddenly gives way and he is plunged into a dark and threatening abyss leaving him trapped, frightened and yearning for the light and safety of the outside world.

Britain’s fire fighters engage in countless hours of training in preparation for every conceivable scenario. So when the call comes in the members of the specialist urban search and rescue team move swiftly and seemingly effortlessly into action. But on duty today is a fire fighter who has his own particular reasons for wanting to secure a successful outcome to this job. Oliver knows only too well the heartbreak of losing a child through a senseless, tragic accident. Having just returned to work after an extended absence and still raw from the loss of his own daughter he understands the fragility of young life and is plagued by the realisation that this shout could turn out just as badly. With complete disregard for his own safety this rescue attempt will either help him find closure for his daughter’s untimely passing or end his career and destroy his soul.

As the terrifyingly dangerous and rapidly developing events of the present come crashing down around the cowering young boy are intertwined in Oliver’s mind with the painful details of his past, he will be continually tested to his extremes. Not knowing if he can overcome physical, emotional and spiritual barriers Oliver must let himself be taken over by an unexpected and unformulated determination. To do anything possible to snatch Luke from the jaws of death, that focused and unchangeable goal which he must complete to save himself as well as the injured boy. 

This is the result of not blogging

Between my last blog entry and this there have been a lot of developments in my life but I’m sure you’re all more interested in the developments of my ‘the meeting’ production. As I disclosed previously I was faced with a rather large predicament when some of the members from Maidstone’s urban search and rescue team were sent to assist with rescue efforts after the tsunami that ran through Japan. Left not knowing what to do I was close to breaking point my cast was gone, my shooting schedule was therefore gone and unless they returned my storyboard would be rendered useless. Well what could I do? Not knowing how long the team would be in action I could only see that I was left with two options. Firstly I thought that I could create a totally different trailer to that which I had intended to create originally with the later half focussing heavily on the USAR team. Alternatively I could hold my breath and hope that the team would return in time for me to film and edit what I needed to before the deadline.

Looking back I probably shouldn’t have taken the more risky of the two options, but, that is what I did. I would watch the news daily to see updates about the events unfolding in Japan, one of those days I did see the men from the team that I had intended to be my cast being interviewed on the BBC South East today news program. During this time of not knowing I was asking my father who remained my first point of contact with the Fire service to find out how many members remained of the team remained here and whether he’d be able to talk them into being my new cast. Through this time the efforts in Japan where brought to its end but by the time I had been able to arrange to film with them again I would be in a great rush as I would be sharing the camera with other people from the course, as well as doing it before I went to Amsterdam. It was all getting very intense but low and behold before the team even returned home my father informed me that a temporary USAR team had been formed from members from various smaller USAR teams from around the county. Was my luck really going to be in? Yes it was the temporary team agreed very kindly for me to film them the Sunday of that week.

But you know that good old thing about life nothing ever did go exactly to plan because the problem I was now faced with was that this happened on the Thursday and I knew neither Simon nor Helen would be in on the Friday in order for me to get the camera signed out for me to film. PANIC! So I turned to this very blog to seek the Yoda like wisdom of Simon on my next step. He told me that Lauren Howard had a camera booked out and if I could get hold of the camera she was using BOOM my problem would be solved. So this is what I did, but it wasn’t until Friday morning that Lauren called me back ‘she was walking to the studios and as much as she wanted to the twenty minute walk from the home to the studios carrying both camera and tripod simply wasn’t going to happen. But Lauren being the diamond that she is said if I could get someone with a car to drive to her house over lunch she would had the camera and tripod over to me and I would be able to get the use of the camera over the weekend. So I turned to another diamond Fran who agreed that if I bought her some lunch that she would drive to get the camera for me and God bless both of them because that is what we did.

So Friday evening I convinced my father to come with me and my younger brother Luke who was to be the star of my trailer to Maidstone fire station on Saturday afternoon after I had finished work to film the outside scenes and he happily agreed. So Saturday afternoon went so smoothly I was given a renewed enthusiasm for the project. I got the shots that I wanted, so now secure in the knowledge that I had something that I could use in the final edit I was happy but I didn’t begin to relax no sir not yet as the next day I was going to have a onetime only chance to film with the members of the mish mash USAR team that had agreed. Happily the Sunday shoot went as smoothly as the Saturday and I got some shots that I dare say some people would have been sceptical about me getting if I had told them before shooting.  

So I had my footage and I had a sound track picked out I thought the next section would be the easiest of the whole process. WRONG AGAIN! I got my footage onto the mac and some of the outdoor shots were sadly over exposed, this is somewhat heartbreaking for me for two reasons. One I know that due to location, time, and permission I won’t be able to reshoot those clips and probably more heartbreaking is that if i had used one of the filters on the camera the footage would be as close to perfect as it ever could have been. But after a rough edit I thought that I was making the images work for the purposes of the trailer. It was at this point that Simon reviled to me that the soundtrack with to epic and grand for the images that I had created. Slightly disheartened I set about looking for a new piece of trailer music. This is where I made my second mistake I decided that the Batman - the dark night trailer music would work. “ERRR NO!” not only was it still to grand this piece was also to recognisable. Right being a little bit stuck for ideas as for music to use I though ... “hey why don’t I go for an emotional bit of music, that’ll defiantly going to be less epic”. So that’s what I did but rightly pointed out the footage I shot wasn’t for an emotionally trailer. So that brings you to the point at which I am at now. I still haven’t found that piece of music that will marry with my trailer but at least I have an idea of what I am looking for.

Developments

So I drew up some of my storyboards and showed what I had to Simon today. He seemed to be somewhat concerned with the amount that I had produced. Okay yes there was quite a lot but I knew in my head that I wanted and needed each of those shots in my trailer, but to be sure when I got home I put the images from the storyboard into my video editor with the music I had already selected and I was happy to see that if everything goes to plan in regards to timing it should fit nicely within two minutes.

The issue I am now faced with is that to shoot the exterior elements of the factory I would have to be film over a weekend which would mean I am stuck with two options I can either use my personal video camera and film it this coming Sunday which will be of a much lower quality than that of the camera in the studios, or, I can film those elements with the cameras from the studios after I come back from Amsterdam which would mean it would be after the deadline.  SIMON PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHAT I SHOULD DO!?!?!

When the walls come crumbling down you just rebuild

So it is official the team members from Maidstone’s urban search and rescue team that I had intended filming for my trailer have been sent out to help with the relief efforts in Japan. I am therefore going to have to focus on the team far less in my ‘the meeting’ trailer than I would have liked to originally. But I am nothing if not resilient with my planning process and so I have switched to a new plan it’s in a vague outline stage but I’m happy in my own mind that I still have something I can film that would still be a strong trailer even if it doesn’t have the same exciting elements that would come with the fire services cutting rig.

On a linking note I have written my second draft of my script and have asked Simon to have a look over it. Also in my tutorial we discussed an idea Simon had regarding how to establish and strengthen the character of ‘Oliver’s back story which I feel will make my script that much better I look forward to seeing how Simon rates the most recent draft of my script. Now I just need to work on the next draft of my synopsis, storyboard for the trailer and prepping for shooting not much of course.

What a difference a day makes

So yesterday I wrote on this blog that I was going to commence shooting for my trailer on Sunday. Those plans may well have gone straight out of the window. For those of you that haven't been paying attention today a huge earthquake in Japan measuring 8.9 has caused a devastating tsunami with waves expected to run across the Pacific region in the coming hours. I wouldn't for a second suggest that my project should interfere with any rescue efforts but the Urban Search and Rescue team at Maidstone fire station may well be flown out to the affected areas. This leaves my trailer ideas redundant as if they do go to help I will be faced with the challenge of shooting my trailer without the largest aspect of my script. Anyway will be sure to keep a close eye on the situation and should they be deployed out I will put some of my world famous creative mind to the challenge and come up with a method to shoot the trailer without them. Those of you that have read my script anyone got any ideas how you would create your trailer if you was in my position?

The Meeting Update

So the first draft of my pitch, synopsis and script have all been handed in, reviewed and given back. Thankfully with bit of re-working each of those three elements should be in a presentable state in the coming week and I will have all three elements re-examined by Simon. The whole pre-production stage is a far more intense process than I had anticipated. However I've got to move really quickly as I have been communicating to the USAR (Urban search and rescue) department of the Fire Service through my father and as to save putting them out as much as possible I am intending filming them around their schedule. This of course is fine with me, however, it does mean that I have to commence shooting on this coming Sunday. VERY SOON! So I have been working on the storyboard elements that involve those boys and hope that all of those elements are ready to go by Sunday morning and I record shots that will end up in and more importantly benefiting the trailer. 

Soft Trailer

Over the past few days I worked alongside Jane in creating a trailer to draw in an audience for the short film 'Soft' directed by Simon Ellis. Over all I'm quite happy with the resulting product. It comes to exactly one  minute as laid out in the brief and I think the clips we used would draw people in enough to make them want to watch the short film. However with every piece of work I do there is always something that I would want to do differently should I do it again. In this case it would be the second of two sound tracks which was the first 30 seconds of Michael Buble's Cry me a river because it is such an epic piece of music I think it may simply be to grand to match up with the clips from the short. But I'm posting the trailer below anyway in order for you guys to let me know what you think about it so don't hold back.

The Meeting Synopsis #2

So I've finished the first draft of my script I'm quite happy with it not sure how Simon will respond to it if it’s anything like my synopsis he’s going to find far too many things wrong with it. Speaking of the synopsis I have written up my second attempt taking on board the notes that Simon made on my previous. So here it is:

The Meeting

Football is the greatest passion in the young life of Luke Wood. He will play anywhere he can. So when he comes across an empty goods yard on a journey home it proves simply too tempting an opportunity to pass up. One powerful kick is all it takes to start a chain of events that leads him into terrible, life threatening danger. It is that one kick that sends the ball high up onto the roof of an old derelict factory. The decision to retrieve it is the step that triggers a devastating series of events that will remain with Luke forever and inevitably touch lives other than his own. When he steps onto a rotten wooden cover it suddenly gives way and he is plunged into a dark and threatening abyss leaving him trapped, frightened and yearning for the light and safety of the outside world.

Britain’s fire fighters engage in countless hours of training in preparation for every conceivable scenario. So when the call comes in the members of the specialist urban search and rescue team move swiftly and seemingly effortlessly into action. But on duty today is a fire fighter who has his own particular reasons for wanting to secure a successful outcome to this job. He knows only too well the heartbreak of losing a child through a senseless, tragic accident. Having just returned to work after an extended absence and still raw from the loss of his own daughter he understands the fragility of young life and is plagued by the realisation that this shout could turn out just as badly. With complete disregard for his own safety this rescue attempt will either help him find closure for his daughter’s untimely passing or end his career and destroy his soul.

It is a fast paced race against time as the fire fighters are tested to the extreme as each action packed scene unfolds and one problem follows another. Will it be time for Luke to meet his maker? Will the fire fighters be able to snatch him from the jaws of death? Will Luke become their latest success story or will they suffer the frustration and despair that accompany defeat?

Let me know what you guys think.

Writing, editing, writing, editing, writing, editing, and so it goes on

I’ve not blogged in a little while so I guess it’s time for an update. Been working hard lately trying to get my script for the story telling unit into an understandable state as well as keeping it as interesting  and exciting narrative as possible.  I still have four days until I have to hand in my first draft of the meeting script but I must admit I am expecting to use each of those days to work on it. On a related note I got my pitch and synopsis back today with notes in relation on the improvements that can be made. In fairness I agree with the notes that Simon made regarding my synopsis and will get to work on improving that but I do have my reservations about how necessary the changes to the pitch will be. I guess I will have to query this with Simon when I next see him. Anyway today was the first time I used final cut pro and another first I actually had some instruction in regards as to how to edit video. Granted I have done a fair amount of editing in the past however it was completely self taught so nice to have someone so me a couple of features to the software that may speed the process along when I comes to editing my trailer together and other video projects that are yet to come. So with the new editing techniques and the camera workshop we did at the beginning of the week my ‘the meeting’ trailer should be far stronger that it would have been otherwise. We did a couple of different edits during today using random video, sound and text clips from sea world this is my absolute first final cut pro edit enjoy.