Art Events: Twelve miles from nowhere

I went to see Twelve Miles from Nowhere the other day... Trailer for it here: http://www.karensimpsonproductions.co.uk/twelve-miles-from-nowhere/

The official synopsis of this play is 'Emily and Michael are brother and sister.  They live with their father on an isolated farm in the North of England. What they want is to go back, or go forward.  Either will do but they’re stuck in this God-awful place….until Craig turns up with enough charm to bring the birds from the trees and the sheep from the fields.' 

Live theater is something I really genuinely enjoy going to, I have to say that 'Twelve miles from nowhere' is my favorite piece I have ever seen. It had a small cast and was performed on a traverse stage (which was my favorite thing about it... A traverse stage is like this:

The reason I love this is because the actors had to work in extremely close proximity, allowing me as an audience member to feel more tense. I was also able to see even the tiniest of details, like the scrunching of a fist or other subtle things, this meant the play could be more naturalistic rather than over the top and slapstick just so big audiences can tell what they are feeling from far back. I love it when I am close to the actors and they cannot hide behind and props or stage, and it was very much like that with this. What I also liked is in the scene transitions usually you have men in black clothing come on and move things but in this play they come on and the actors changed the set, while staying in character, this not only made the play feel less interrupted and more fluent but it also showed the hardship that comes with working on a farm and that they are independent and do have to do everything for themselves.  

Overall it was just fantastic! I also loved being able to see audience member reaction from the other side... there is something about sharing emotion with the people around you that can be pretty special, maybe that is just me? anyway, really enjoyed it!

Arts challange Research: Stanley Kubrick

Stanley Kubrick is another one of my favorite directors, so I decided to see if he (like Paul Thomas Anderson) also produced any of his own films. I found that he did, pretty much all of them! I must confess I was extremely happy to find out the many directors often take an active role in producing. I already knew a lot about Stanley Kubrick, he is a genius!

Anyway, I made it my goal to learn even more about this man and I found out he played chess and often asked actors and other people he is working on set with to sit down and give him a game of chess, his ethos is that sometimes you have to care for the people you work with and show them respect, but more importantly give them all time to connect with you one on one.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000040/?ref_=nv_sr_1 Great man, great films! I spent half an hour reading his bio's over IMDB and found it facinating how he first got involved in film making and I also learned he loves chess and often plays with his actors, which I thought is a fantatic way to connect with your actors and really understand them.

I also wanted to know more about his work, so I spent 160 minutes of my time seeing the sci-fi classing 2001: A space odyssey. I also watched the trailer for it and saw how he chose to advertise it, it is a fantastic film. Even though it was made in 1968 some of the effects and the mis-en-scene, make it feel so futuristic that i forget what year it is made. It had around a 10 million pounds budget and grossed over 50 million and that is deservedly.

Arts challange Research: Lawrence Bender

Now for my arts challenge plan of action I decided to research four producers that I am a big fan of their work, so here you have have it... my first of three is Lawrence bender. It is no secret that I am a big fan of Quentin Tarantino and Lawrence bender is the producer of many of some of my favourite films! if you want to know more about his work, I researched it on IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004744/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cr2 and I love all of his work especially Pulp Fiction which is probably my favorite film, I wanted to know more about him as a person and not just his work though, so I watched some interviews... My personal favourite: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-jzwYVH0po I get this feeling he is really calm and controlled, he knows exactly what is going on and I think that is what producers need! most that he is calm, if he is a leader and people are looking to him he has to be in control!

Researching him was definitely useful for me.
I spent about 10 minutes reading about him, I found out he used to love ballet before an actor/producer. I then watched Reservoir dogs for 99 minutes and discovered Laurence bender actually plays the young cop in that film. I lover to learn that he has had a lot of small acting roles as well as being a producer. It showed me how people can multi role when it comes to film making. Reservoir dogs is so impressive as it was made from about a million pound budget and this was only possible because of a film called 'True Romance' which Quentin tarantino apparently wrote the script for, so even though Laurence Bender was not technically a part of True romance, I thought I would give it a watch anyway. You could say I got side tracked, but i suppose in a way it indirectly links back Laurence and anyway... it was a fantastic film and only took up another 120 minutes of my time.


I also watched the special features disk on Pulp Fiction, which i have never done before, it was interesting to see what was possible with 1 million and how the film is actually made. I realised while watching at and reading about Laurence and Quinten, that they must be really close, like really good friends. A director and a producer have to be so close, the director has to communicate his ideas to the producer so they have a shared vision and so the producer knows what he has got to say to potential funders in order to recive a decent budget.

Arts challange Research: Paul Thomas Anderson

Now I am a massive fan of Paul Thomas Anderson, absolutely love him, now I was thinking to myself, I bet this director has a fantastic producer to pull all the team together and advertise it... However it was to my surprise, he didn't only direct films, he wrote and produced them! that is just inspiring...
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000759/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cr2

I think researching him has been most beneficial for me, I really enjoy producing and I really enjoy directing... It is only now I realise that I could potentially do both! which I am now over the moon over. I feel that since he produces his film he can really sell it more because he is the director and the writer and will understand exactly what he wants, sometimes it is best to have one man doing both roles, I saw how well he understood and sells 'The Master' in... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UgL2gJrQLA I also think they will connect with the actors more and get the best out of them, this is obviously evident in Paul Thomas Anderson's work as Daniel Day Lewis won an Oscar for his acting in 'their will be blood' which PTA probably played a part in.

From his interviews I can honestly say he is a really intelligent passionate man and I think the main thing I take from this is his passion for film! He is a truly inspiring man. I spent about 40 minutes researching him, watching interviews and such about his films.

I also managed to find the original dirk diggler story on youtube! I was really pleased I found this, it was around 30 minutes long and was essentially a shortened version of Boogie Nights but it was so fascinating to watch, I know that Paul Thomas Anderson wrote the script to this when he was just 17! That for me was incredible, it gives me hope that I could actually get involved in serious film making right now! if i just put time and effort into it.

I have already seen every feature lenght film Paul has ever done.. or at least I thought I had but the first feature length film he did was 'hard eight' which I hadn't seen. So I gave it a watch, it was 102 minutes and was such an amazing film. I love films which aren't predictable and I have to say, watching this with no prior knowledge of it was really enjoyable as it was just so un-predictable. I really got a sense that directors and producers like to work with the same actors. John C. Riley appears in so many PTA films, It had a 3 million pound budget which shocked me to be perfectly honest as it was his first feature lenght film and 3 million is actually a reasonable budget and all Paul had done previously is two short films. I don't know how he produced it, but he must have been a bloody good one. I think, or at east presume it had something to do with the fact he wrote it too, this means he probably had a clear vision of what he wanted his films to be and what he wanted his films to look like. So when he communicated it to others he could let them in on his vision. I am such a fan of PTA and am so excited for inherent Vice.

Arts Leadership: Stop motion animation workshop (Week 5)

I am about the have a workshop in Stop motion animation, I know very little about it, I know it is essentially putting pictures together to create a video. I do believe we are making our own Stop animation film, that will be interesting. I suppose my aims for today are to work with new people from other groups, since now I have a chance... I spoke to Kyle on the induction day, I would love to work with him and some other people and just learn about how to make these stop motion video's and hopefully make a really nice quirky video!

After the workshop I can say that it is a lot easier than I thought! all we did was take pictures, why don't more people do this? I think it is great, really enjoyed today, it felt like a lot of pressure was taken off now we didn't have to worry about our films. It was a much more chilled atmosphere, which I suppose was quiet nice. It allowed me to just focus on what I was doing at the workshop, without worrying about other things.

Review:
I did end up working with Kyle, he is a really nice guy! great to work with, I definitely learnt how to do stop motion films! our group picked it up straight away, we had some great ideas and worked incredibly well together, so happy with the finished product of our videos too.

Arts Leadership: Editing (week 4, day 2)

Today is the editing of the short film that we shot yesterday, I am really looking forward to it! I feel alot more confident with the software so hopefully I can be of some use to Chester (the editor) at some point in the day. My main Aims for today really is just to get it finished, I really need to watch the footage back as yesterday we didn't really have time. I am going to be as helpful as I can to the group and make sure we stay on track and do manage to edit it all.

Now the editing day is over, I can say first and foremost that the film is looking great, I must admit there was a lot of problems at first... We had shot so much to make sure we had it from different angles and had all the footage we need, this meant it took ages to sort through and then rather than plop it all in, in order and the spend ages refining it. we refined each clip as it came, which in retrospect was probably a mistake as I think it didn't give up much time to perfect the editing (specifically the sound). We also found that some of the footage was unusable, when we were very rushed at the end of the day of shooting we had to quickly shoot a couple more shots to make sure the storyline made sense. However when we rushed into filming the end, we found that there was a tripod fully in view, to the point where we couldn't crop it out... that was slightly annoying as I really liked the shot that was now unusable and it makes the story line slightly unclear now we are missing out a relatively important shot.

Now I am not going to look at just the negatives because after watching through the footage I can say the reverse dolly zoom is genuinely amazing, I am really proud of it. I can also say the actors we had in were really great! they gave 110% the whole time and I made sure to thank them for helping us with our film, just so they know how much we as a group and I personally appreciate it. Chester has also done a fantastic job of editing it, really proud of him too. We spent ages editing and Chester just kept going, I stayed with him when the rest of the group went, once again we were really tight pushed for time, which is horrible in the editing... I did really want a drone when he turns over the body as I think it would be a great way to create more tension for an audience, I also think after having one (really good) reverse dolly zoom we should have played the second reverse dolly zoom in reverse so the camera comes forward on the protagonist. We ended up not having time to add these bits, I was slightly disappointed but Chester had to go home... I was still really happy with the overall finished product though!

Review: We actually did manage to get all the shots we needed, to be honest the one shot that we were not able to use didn't impact the film on whole that much. I am happy with the finished film, I guess at this point that is all that matters! I felt like I did my role as a producer well, I made sure Chester was happy with what he was doing, I didn't interfere too much. All the group was totally happy! Overall... what a success.  

Arts Leadership: Shooting day (Week 4, day 1)

Aims:
-To get ALL the footage we need
-To have a happy group, with no real arguments/if there are arguments handle them in a controlled manor
- Make sure the actors are happy

Okay! we have just finished filming the short film. It went pretty well I suppose... the actual shooting was fantastic, my main goal was to make sure the group got along with each other, the actors didn't feel left out and we finished and had all the footage we need.

We managed to get out the dolly and film a reverse dolly zoom, which went really well! it was such a great experience, it was really helpful for me too as it was enjoyable and gave me as a producer a role in the actual filming as I was allowed to pull back the dolly. So I at least contributed in some way. This did however take up lot's of time, time which we did not have. It did mean we were made to rush the last couple of shots but, I am sure it will be fine.


The only thing left now really is the edit; so excited for the editing of it! I will finally get to see it all come together tomorrow, fingers crossed we have all the shots we need.

Review:
I met all the aims I had for the day, only I have to admit that I felt slightly helpless as a producer when it came to the actual filming of it, I kept having to stop myself from taking over. I did however come up with a good solution, I ended up laying on the cold ground for a good hour or so playing the stand in dead body. Which was fine, we did all get along really well and come together as a group which is always nice to see, I made sure to make the actors feel welcome and treated them as equals; they seemed to be happy. There was no real argument though, they are a great group of people and at times we had to compromise but it never got too heated.

Arts Leadership: Preperation for shoot

When we were put in our groups for our action project, I was really happy with my group and knew we would all get on instantly, we had:
Sophie Higget - Script writer
Chester Kirby - Editor
Alice O'Donnell - Cinematographer
Chantell Heffron - Director

and me Adam South, taking on the role of producing 

It is on Saturday and Sunday where we will shoot and edit, I believe as a producer it is my job to get everything sorted. I have managed to obtain fake blood (if needed) for the stabbing scene, where we have decided to use a rubber knife. I have also got water that can be sprayed to clear up the fake blood and I also have a rag to clean it up too. I have also finally managed to get an Umbrella, so if it is sunny I might be slightly angry as it was very hard for me to get this umbrella, which will be useful if it does rain to cover up the camera. I have spoken to the group and they all seem ready for filming, which is great! I have also arranged for the two actors to stay at my house the night before and for my mum to give us a lift to the showroom cinema in the morning. This is manly so I don't have to worry about where the actors are in the morning... one less thing to worry about eh. I am feeling really optimistic and hope it will be everything I want it to be.

For the actual filming of it, we need a camera, sound recording equipment  and a dolly. The dolly will probably be hard to get as I am sure other groups will want it too. It is a very expensive piece of equipment and I think it will really benefit our group. We are planning on having a reverse dolly and it would be very fitting to have it. I spoke to meabh and got her to promise our group some level of priority as I spoke to her early on.

Arts Leadership: Action plan

I have decided to set myself a goal, I want to learn more about producing and I want to be good at it!

I always thought I had a pretty clear idea of the roles of the people involved in making films... However after the very first week I realised I didn't really... at all. I learnt allot about producing in the first week from Michael Knowles. I started to understand how important being a producer is! they are there from the begging to end! I suppose the best part in making films for me is the sense of achievement you get at the end of it, and as a producer surely you will get the best sense of achievement knowing you have been in charge of it all. I have always enjoyed working in a team, I do often take control and come become a leader. This why I have set it at my goal. I even did a pretty prestigious National Citizenship Service course specifically made to improve leadership, this course took me to the house of commons to meet lots of politicians and talk about how to improve your community.
I think it made me realise that a good leader tells the team what to do and instructs them how to do it... but a great leader sometimes just needs to step back, guide the rest of the team rather than instruct them. I am taking this ethos and applying it to making films. I think I will really enjoy producing and want to have a better understanding of it.

I think one way I am going to learn more about Producing is research three producer's that I really like and study some of their work and what there ethos on film is and how they produce a film. From this I will take note and try to follow there example. This should bring me closer to the producer I want to be.

I will learn by both researching them for 30-40 mins and watching films they have done, this is so I can really understand there work and not just know their facts. If I also watch one or two of their films this should take a good couple of hours. I will watch as many as I feel it takes to understand their work/style, this could vary from 1 to 3 or 4.

Arts Leadership: Editing Workshop (Week 3)

Aims:
It is the third week and today we are studying Editing, I have made short films before however never really taken an active role in the editing process. So I suppose in some ways I am nervous but in other ways I am excited to finally get involved in it. I want to do some hands on work and develop a basic level of understanding about what it means to be an editor and I also want to have some level of understanding on the software. I want to know how to just cut and put together a video confidently, nothing to fancy just literally the basics. This is my target for the masterclass, wish me luck!

During the class we got simple clips of somebody running for a bus and we just had to play around with the software and the way we wanted to edit it. Everyone struggled at the start (myself included). However as it progressed, I felt proud that I had edited it all on my own! One thing that massively surprised me is how different every single persons edit of it was, they were all so different, It highlighted for me how important the editing process is in a film.

Review:
After taking part in the masterclass of editing, I feel great! I met all my aims for the lesson and now feel so much more confident to take a more active role in editing in the future, this is good as when it comes to editing I can help our editor Kyle by giving him idea's and tips. One thing I am taking from this lesson that will help me in the future is just how important organisation is when it comes to editing.