'Open Till Late' rehearsals

Today we had our first (and last) rehearsal for our short film; 'Open Till Late'. Despite being behind schedule and not having much time left it all went quite well. It was the first time we had all three actors together in the same room, and the improvement from the first run-through and the final one was really impressive.

I think we all gained a lot of confidence, most of the pressure is now off the actors (providing their lines are learnt) and back on us and how professional and productive we are during the shoot.

Because we're filming in a shop, we can't start setting up until closing time (6pm on Sunday and 8pm Monday and Wednesday). The intention is to film through until 1am and then pack-down the equipment, even though the member of staff we're paying to supervise the shoot thinks he's finishing at 12. We want to trying and complete filming within two nights so we don't have to use the Wednesday, and then we have just under 3 weeks for post-production and the filming of a short scene in a separate location.

During post, I also have to put together all the documents for the hand in, including promo material and evidence of entrance into the film festivals. Along with:

– Evidence of group research

– Feasibility study

– Script drafts & camera script. Character bibles.

– Strategy documents for Direction, Camera, Sound, Edit, Art department, Production management.

– Production management documentation including contracts, release forms, location recces &

permissions, schedules, shot lists, storyboard, call‐ sheets, budgets, prop & wardrobe lists,

meeting agendas & minutes.

– Individual 2000 word creative reflection documents

– 4 X assessed Exercises (from earlier last term)

– Copy of festival entry form and your production’s promotional material

– Copy of film on DVD & Vimeo address for online version.

Luckily, it's my role as Producer that puts me in charge of all that.

'The Tree of Life'

I've become obsessed with the trailer for Terrance Malick's latest film. I keep coming back to it, not even in anticipation for the film, just for the trailer as a work of its own.

Random cuts of imagery that depict early stages of the birth of earth and the rest of the universe (saving the rumoured dinosaurs for the final film) are cut together with scenes of a young boy raised in the 50's by a soulful and nurturant mother, who teaches 'the way of love and mercy', and a hard father (Brad Pitt - a part originally meant for Heath Ledger) who tries to teach 'the world’s way of putting oneself first. Each parent contends for his allegiance, and Jack must reconcile their claims. The picture darkens as he has his first glimpses of sickness, suffering and death. The world, once a thing of glory, becomes a labyrinth.'

The trailer then moves to the adult (Sean Penn) in modern times, who believes he's witnessed the loss of innocence after struggling and failing to find a path satisfying to the way of either parent.

I think part of the reason the story grabbed me was due to its similarity to a treatment our group produced as a potential short film earlier last term. Our story followed a young adult who was essentially beginning to suffer cold feet before his wedding. It explored his disconnection with society and hesitation to embrace life that stemmed from the weight of childhood fears and expectations, as well as the relationship of (and with) his parents.

I'm hoping the amount of times I've seen the trailer hasn't created unreasonable expectations for the film. Malick has earned himself a reputation as one of the most enigmatic film-makers alive, keeping an unheard of level of secrecy surrounding both his film productions and private life. A Harvard graduate and MIT Philosophy lecturer, he's directed only four films so far in his 40-year career and is famed for lengthy film-making processes, unconventional visuals and narrative structures, and is often referred to as a visionary and his films as masterpieces.

'Six Feet Under'

This is one of my favourite scenes from Six Feet Under. Again, it's the writing and acting that makes it what it is. With the stripped back production values making it so realistic - one of the most realistic fight scenes I've seen in television drama. Reducing the characters down to being instinctively desperate, weak and immature, it feels really authentic, which in my opinion, is very rare, even for Six Feet Under.

It also makes me wonder how Alan Ball went from producing this, to True Blood.

'Open Till Late'

Things finally seem to be coming together for our current project, after going wrong so many times.

We've been set the task of producing a 10 minute short film to enter into two of the UK's best film festivals Raindance, and Exposures (which is solely for students).

We're in groups of 6 and each have our specific roles - my role is as the Producer. At first we held many group production meetings, where everybody had an input in developing our concept and, afterwards, our script. After all pitching various ideas, we began developing an idea that Nick (our chosen Director) put forward and once we had a layout we were all happy with, Nick and I began writing multiple drafts of the script. I really enjoyed the collaborative effort, even with all the arguments, disagreements and the moments of awkward tension that came with them. After about 8 drafts we had a script we were all happy with and, already far behind schedule, we began moving forward with the pre-production process.

Finding actors was a frustrating process, mostly as it moved slowly and not a lot of progress could be made until we were settled. Both the 2nd and 3rd years of both the Broadcasting and Film courses were casting for films at the same time, and it was difficult to get responses from Dartington actors, so we had to be a little more creative in where to find others. Eventually we found an actor suited to each of the three parts and by then we were ahead of schedule and getting quite confident about our situation.

We should have foreseen bad luck in the shape of scheduling conflicts with two of (who we thought were) our ideal actors, causing them to have to step back from their commitment to us. It was now approaching the end of term and the majority of the group were going home for up to a month, we were under pressure to find new actors and schedule auditions and rehearsals in time to film the first week back.

Although difficult, we ended up finding actors we were happy with and were free to work around our (delayed) production dates. However, the actors we ended up with are younger than our original cast and script characters, so a few adjustments had to be made to the script.

We only found the last actor at the end of last week. So we now have our first full rehearsal next Wednesday, another rehearsal scheduled for the following Wednesday and then we're (hopefully) set that weekend to film - two more weeks behind schedule and dependent on plans working out with the campus shop (our location). In the meantime we have to organise test shoots with fake cigarettes/CGI smoke, gather costumes and a large amount of props (including producing fake newspapers and CCTV cameras), begin the sound and CGI design, film and edit a fake TV news-report and find a second location and build a green-screen window there.

Although paperwork and planning has never been my strong-suit, I am enjoying the role of Producer. Being able to be heavily involved with the creative aspects of the production as well as shepherding its progress through contact with the group and its individual members is something I'm both enjoying and learning from. Although keeping the entire group in contact with each other and up to date the whole time is more of a difficult task than it seems, being in charge of the organisation and scheduling isn't as bad as I initially thought it would be.

It's also been useful and almost enjoyable being in charge of correspondence with locations as well as searching for actors and organising casting auditions and rehearsals, contacting local theatre groups and organisations and responding to all the replies as the main contact of the group.

Mostly, I've enjoyed the scriptwriting process. From the workshops to working collaboratively with Nick and the rest of the group to develop a concept into a strong script has been both informative and enjoyable, as writing and the technique involved is something that really interests me. I feel proud of what we've ended up with.

Now to just make the thing...

Killers are hitting on me.

"He’s apathetic and self-involved, misanthropic and completely alluring. I’m fascinated by him."


"She’s lying on her bed on her right side. Her left leg is hanging over the mattress and her foot touches the floor. I can’t see her face for all of the hair that drapes over her and as I approach, slowly and reluctantly, I notice her pillow is covered in what looks like some sort of light green foam. The smell of fish and vomit wafts over me and makes me retch. I turn her over and it hits me like a wall. I fall to my knees.
I don’t panic or rush my movements or call for help, but move the hair away from her face and open her eyes. They don’t respond. I use my little finger as a hook to pull out the remaining foam from the back of her throat and I sit her up a little. I place my palms on both sides of her face and use my thumbs to stretch the skin of her cheeks – I don’t know why. I let go and her head lolls.
By the side of the bed is an open bottle of water – not for drinking. I pour some of it into her mouth. She chokes a bit and her eyes begin to move a little. She’s breathing again and her legs twitch. The water splutters back out of her mouth a different texture and colour than it was before. I hold her by the back of her head, fingers locked into the knots of her hair and she looks up at me. I look down immediately, so as to not make eye contact, and notice I’m kneeling on one of her needles. Freshly used, it presses its tip into my leg. I shuffle away slightly before I look back towards her. I think she’s trying to smile at me. My face stays blank. It takes all of my willpower not to stand up at this moment and walk away, now she’s awake and safe. I guess I should be with her now, for comfort, but I don’t have any words. Nothing is spoken, nothing said, the only thing thought is that I shouldn’t be here. Her hand reaches for me three or four times but never makes it. I realise now that I’m afraid, and what I’m afraid of is not being able to remove my hand, of being forever tangled in the knots of her hair."