This was the title of a talk I attended yesterday at the BBC Blackstaff House. It was a 3 hour talk that was given by a series of panels consisting of different talent from TV and radio.
The talk was extremely beneficial and a massive eye opener about how difficult it will be to get a job in this industry but also made me believe that I belong in this industry.
The key message was about believing in your work and being a good person to work with, I feel these two things go hand in hand. I am very passionate about my work in this industry and it was great to be in an environment where other people are as well.
Confidence is a massive problem for people in this industry and it was a bit of a boost for me to more confident, if I don't believe in my project then no one else will. Very insightful.
There was a representative there from Cinemagic which was arguably the most interesting part of the whole thing for me. I knew of Cinemagic but wasn't really sure about what they did. They offer labs in various filmmaking crafts like directing, acting and screenwriting. Itsjust a massive organization that cares very deeply about upcoming filmmakers and trying to help them and have some great patrons like Liam Neeson, Jullian Fellowes and Suranne Jones.
I've already enquired about the screenwriting and directing labs to see if I can get on them as I think it'll be a great experience and very beneficial.
I also got to know some of the members of RTS and got some emails which was helpful, anything from showing your face several times will you get you noticed.
Overall it was a great talk, lasted 3 hours, and I feel it was extremely benficial. It made me think a lot about how much I want to work in this industry and about believing in myself and being confident about the work I can produce.
The past several weeks have been quite busy in regards to class and other things.
The most important development was me and several classmates shot another short sketch called Made in China.
This sketch was shot in one day and we filmed it at Ryan Quinn's house who also starred in it. It's another one of Andy's ideas and it was an awful lot of fun to shoot, I did the camera work alongside Matt who did some as well. It was great using his shoulder rig for shooting, far easier and more professional than using the camera handheld. Before it was made, it felt like it was going to be another very short sketch like Take Me Out Belfast but it wasn't. It was actually a lot more work than any shoot I've been on before and it was a tremendous experience. Ryan did a fantastic job of the 'hair envy crazy guy' and Andy's editing and sound effects were top class. Even by looking at it, I feel very proud. It's the most professional looking film we've made I think and it lasted far longer than I thought it would. It's marked a transition I think for me and I hope to make a lot more shorts outside of class in the future.
I decided to create another blog to document the production of my first student film, 'Redemption.' You can see it here: http://shortfilmpro.blogspot.co.uk/
Sunday 2 December 2012
A lot of things have happened since the last time I updated, mostly been kept busy with work. A lot of projects have deadlines soon and I'm working hard on trying to meet them.
Set design is the most difficult I think so far since it's the one unit I feel least experienced in compared to everything else despite I know about the same in every unit. I think I just feel out of my depth in it. Despite that I know I'll get the unit finished on time and already am happy with the work I've done for it.
Practical skills is going really good. I am a camera operator on a QVC based show with a noir feel. It's something that I never expected to see. Even the dialogue is noir which is interesting. The assessment for this is in a week's time from Tuesday and already I feel we have a good chance of doing really well. My second role is director which is I'm looking forward to and I love being in the gallery.
Scriptwriting is arguably the best and most interesting class this semester and in my opinion isn't long enough. I love the creative aspect of the class more than anything.Currently we are working on scripts for short films that we will shoot after Christmas. I am working with Andy on the script and it is pretty much finished. Dialogue is much more difficult to write than I thought at first, even the simplest things can be difficult to write. So far it has been a difficult and rewarding experience.
This past week I went to the cinema and watched a film called End of Watch with Jake Gyllenhall and Michael Pena. It was a cop movie set in America with them both working together and trying to bring down a Mexican gang. I was iffy about watching the film since I didn't like the look of it but turned out to be one of the best films of the year. David Ayer wrote and directed it, wrote it in 6 days which was very impressive. It was shot on a low budget and was mostly about the relationship of the 2 officers. It had lots of action for a low budget film and was quite brutal. I encourage everyone to watch it, by far one of the best cop movies in recent years along with The Town.
Around several weeks ago me and the rest of the class attended a 'team building' week at the new E3 Building at Springvale. At the start I was really excited to see the new building since I had heard a lot about it. There are a lot of computers with some great specs and a state of the art TV studio.
Unfortunately it wasn't anything like I thought it would be like. When we went in we were told that we had to be split into groups of 4 and we couldn't be with any of our class. Naturally. It then turned out that certain areas of the room were designated as zones. Each zone had about 8 groups or so. Then each zone had a zone leader. Each zone leader talked to us as if we were kids. This brought back memories of P7 and early secondary school.
Anyway the first task we had to do was create an idea for a children's toy using play-doh, weird wires and post its upon post its. We were then given briefs that we looked at and gave ideas on the post its as to make them better. One was about a nail salon wanting to improve their brand. It just seemed like we were being used for free to give these businesses new ideas. I didn't like it.
All the people in charge were constantly saying "You's are all adults" yet still treated us like children and made us do pointless things. I thought it would have been a better idea to team build with the students that we had recently met and will be working with for 2 years. But no that wasn't allowed.
To make matters worse we weren't allowed to work any of the computers or equipment and when given a tour of the building, the people doing it had no idea what any of the equipment was and didn't know how to work it. Turned out that the TV Studio was unusable.
It could have been a better experience had we been treated more maturely and the tasks been reworked to suit the career that we wish to work on.
Before I start, I just want to say that this is the first blog I have ever written. I had always wanted to have one but I was put off because I thought it would be difficult to maintain. Anyway I think it's a good idea to have one at this stage of my life especially during the course I'm studying.
Anyway, I started this Film and Media HND course for about 3 months now and I think it has gone in so so fast. I have always wanted to work in the film industry and I had heard very good things about this course, mostly because it was very practical.
Since I started the course, things have been very different. I moved out from living with my mum and sister in Ballymena and moved into student accommodation with my friend. It has arguably been the most difficult thing to adapt to.
The course itself has been really good so far. It feels really professional and the tutors treat us like adults. Not only that but they also treat us like professionals even though we've only started. It makes it feel more real and that there is a real chance of working in the industry afterward.
The first unit we have is Interview Techniques. I think it's a very interesting unit and it gives a different perspective to documentaries. I really like documentaries and had always seen myself making one at some stage. We studied and wrote about the Frost/Nixon interviews, arguably the most famous interviews in history. That assignment alone gave me a different insight to documentaries and the difficulty interviewers can have asking questions and trying to get information out of a guest.
Practical skills is arguably the most hands on unit. It's an exciting unit since we have to film things and are given certain roles that we could have in the industry. I was a floor manager for nearly two months and I have to admit it was a very stressful role. I worry that I don't have the confidence or the voice to command a studio and at times, I think I'm trying to get into the wrong industry. You have to be very forward and let others know what you want and not be afraid to get it and let them hear your voice. I have never really been like that but already I can feel a change in my self confidence.
Being the floor manager helped some I think but when I was doing it I felt that the whole production was on my shoulders because if something went wrong, I got the blame despite me not having any creative control. Having said that, I did quite enjoy it and I learned a lot of technical terms and phrases that would be used on set.
The most recent class was the same subject matter, pitching products on a QVC based show but this time it would be shot in black and white and shot as a film noir. For this I was made director which I'm quite excited about. I think the team we have is very good as well and I enjoy working with them.
Set Design is a class we have on Tuesdays following practical skills. Admittedly this is the class I dislike the most. I find it very strange that we have this unit in the first semester of the first year. I understand that we need to have some understanding of this line of work and the duties of set design since we will be working with them but it just seems odd to have it at this time, if at all. Directors, producers etc will be working with costume design, sound supervisors, visual effect supervisors and even composers as much as set design people. I just think that this time could have been better suited to focusing on a sound unit or something.
I don't mind the class that much but the elements involved have always been my weak point. I will commit 100% to this unit but will yield my weakest grades no doubt. The tutor is very nice and definitely knows what he's talking about but it is the class I least look forward to.
Camera and Lighting with Keith is our longest class of the week but is great. It can drag in some parts but I know for certain we will learn a lot in this class. Keith is a really good tutor and is always telling stories about his experiences in the industry and what he's been through on projects. He clearly has a wide understanding of everything he is teaching and is very influential. I really enjoy his class since I want to know as much as I can about cameras and know next to nothing about lighting.
Film studies is film studies. It's a class I both look forward to and dread at the same time. You can learn a lot about what makes a film work and what doesn't which is vital to anyone working in the industry. However the downside is training your brain to look at films in a different light. No longer is it about watching and deciding if you liked it or not. Now it is analyzing each scene and judging if it works or not.
I decided to take a year out before I did this course, during that time I worked full time in Iceland. I took the time to decide what I wanted to do. One of the things that put me off this was this thought that film classes are filled with pretentious, arrogant people who love to talk and pretend that they know what they're talking about. Also, is this notion that no modern film can be a good film. The only films that exist are from the 50's backward. Filmmaking has changed. In older times it was all about what was coming in the future, new technologies and new ways to make films. They embraced the new ways and accepted that was the way films were going to be made. Yet now, the cool thing to be is retro and vintage and do things the old fashioned way. This may be the wrong attitude to have and I might look back on this and think much differently which I guess is what this blog is all about, but this is the opinion I have. They're are many modern filmmakers out there who make outstanding films and are ignored. The likes of Nicolas Winding Refn who made Drive last year. One of the best films of the past decade and was snubbed by the Oscars, despite Refn winning best Director at Cannes. Even films made in the last ten years get put into this 'modern isn't good' category. American Beauty definitely deserves to be among the best films ever created.
I feel very strongly about modern films. They're some of the films I grew up with and convinced me I want to work in this industry. Cast Away is a prime example. I can honestly say that when I finished watching it, it had a profound effect on me. David O. Russell director of I Heart Huckabees, Three Kings, The Fighter and the upcoming Silver Linings Playbook (which has received flawless reviews thus far) is a favourite of mine. He has received a lot of criticism from actors and press because he can be a very brutal director and not be afraid to let actors know what he wants from them. David Fincher, Paul Thomas Anderson, Darren Aronofsky, Judd Apatow and especially Christopher Nolan are all modern filmmakers who I think have created some amazing films that will stand the test of time and have only been around since the 90's if not later.
Film Studies will give me a different outlook on films, one that I've never had but will change the way I think about being a filmmaker. I have never done a seminar before either which will be an interesting experience.
Scriptwriting is on Thursday and is our final class which is a bit disappointing. It is the class I look forward to most and enjoy most. Writing is the aspect of filmmaking that's always appealed to me. It seems like it's over so fast and have to wait another week for it to come round again. We started writing and thinking of ideas properly last week which was a lot of fun. Much harder than it looks to think of a decent idea.
Prior to that we were making 15 second films in groups which has arguably been the best part so far. It was difficult as well, trying to tell a story in a short period of time. We made 2 and I think they turned out pretty well for first time tries.
I haven't really made anything before coming on this course except for the 2 small videos I made for YouTube. I have never shot anything before with an actor in it either. The 2 videos I made were about nature I suppose. I didn't really have a goal in mind when I made them except shoot some random footage and mess around with colour correction in Premiere Pro. I didn't know how to work the camera that well either, since some shots are out of focus. But I was pretty happy with how they turned out, especially the first. I kind of lost concentration during the second one.
Congratulations, you have reached the end of a Francis Price blog.
