VERONIQUE BY PATRIK BERGH

This short is pretty good, we really like the humorous narrative and how its just filmed on one location. For a low budget short its very good.

Costume For Characters

After a meeting with our costume designer Katie Brown, explaining to her what we want the different characters to look like, she sent use these images. We feel that she took our direction very well and understand exactly what we want. We are going to have Benjamin in normal not too smart clothing using soft colours like browns and greys. For Rachel we are going to have her well dressed looking rather glamorous to make her stand out from the surrounding giving the viewer the slight impression shes not real.

Houses In Embsay

We have been looking for a house to film the house scene around Embsay where we are going be filming the train station scene. The house are really good but we are thinking its a long way away just to film a house scene, so we are going to look closer to leeds.

OUR CAST

After holding auditions we selected our final and are really pleased with them and looking forward to working with them. We feel that they will benefit the film greatly. Auditions for the different roles can be viewed when handed in.

Dave Adam's Music

We asked Dave to send some examples of his work to us, that would suit our film. We were really happy with his work and are happy to have him on board.

SHORT BY HILLMAN CURTIS

'MIXTAPE' AWARD WINNING SHORT FILM

Really like this short film, the acting, music and the cinematography is amazing. Another successful short with such a simple and subtle concept.

PRO VISION

We went down to provision to test out the Arri S3 shoulder mount they have down there. The shoulder mount is meant for a larger Arri camera not the EX1 but the other lighter weight shoulder mount wasn't good enough. So we took the Ex1 down there and just walked around with it on the shoulder mount. It felt pretty good. As most of our film is shot on shoulder mount we are going to hire it out for all shoots.

Changing the Title Free Spirit.

We have just changed the Title of the film from 'Free Spirit' to 'Benjamin'. We felt that Free Spirit was a pretty poor name and automatically made people think that the film is about a ghost or an outdoor sports shop. So we to changed it to Benjamin, we feel that Benjamin is a subtle title and as the whole film is about him why not. We didn't want to give anything away about the film when our audiemce read the title.

Embsay Train Station.

We have been granted permission to shoot the train station scene at Embsay Train station and we are over the moon. We have had many conversations and a meeting with the manager of the station Stephen Walker. He asked on the phone if we had any budget we said no.. he then said he would think about it. Then we thought that we should offer to film his a promotional film for his website advertising the steam line. He loved the idea thats when he agreed to letting us film there. Thanks Stephen:)

Shot By Shot

Film Directing Shot by Shot Visualising from concept to screen, by Steven Katz has been a huge help when coming to planning our shot list.

Katz discusses all elements of making a film from visualisation to distribution. The main elements that we took from this book were the triangle system. Katz explains how to use it to film a conversation by using three angles to capture all expression and dialogue. We will use this technique and adapt it for the conversation on the bench and at the door. We think that this will be vital to not confuse the viewer and help to let the story flow and the cinematography to not get in the way letting it to speak subtly.

The 5 C's of Cinematography

The 5 C's of Cinematography, Motion Picture Filming Techniques, by Joseph V. Mascelli has been a great book for deciding shot angles and composition.

Mascelli talks about camera angles and composition in much detail from subject size, subject angle & camera height explaining that each of these factors effect the way in which a character or object will be portrayed within a scene. We really need to study this and put it into practice in the making of Benjamin as we need to subtly hint that Rachel is not real but make sure we don't shoot her in a way that it is blatantly obvious. We also need to portray Benjamin as a weak and fragile man so the angles and framing that we shoot him in will need to really emphasise this point.

Cinematography Theory and Practice

Cinematography Teory and Practice, Image making for Cinematographers, Directors, and Videographers, by Blain Brown has pretty much been our Bible over the last year after it was recommended to us by Jamie Adiar a student from Northern Film School.

Brown discusses issues that you may face such as film-space, visual language to set operations including crew and on set procedures. One that we have seemed to of read countless times is cinematic continuity.

Brown discuses that continuity of movement and position is key when trying to create seamless cinema not leaving any gaps form one shot to the next so it is important to overlap the movement so that when it comes to the edit it will be easier for the editor to cut across multiple angles. As well as this in order to not disturb the eye of the view we must not change the 'screen direction' in other words 'cross the line' as this will distract them from the story or annoy or frustrate them.

Cinematic Storytelling

Cinematic Storytelling, The 100 Most Powerful Film Conventions Every Filmmaker Must Know, by Jennifer Van Sijll has been one of the most influential books that we have read during the production of Benjamin.

Sijll talks you through techniques such as character entrances, shapes as symbolic and semiotic references to motivated lighting.
It has been a huge help when trying to come up with a shot list for Benjamin.

Some examples of what we have used is character entrance. For example Benjamin starts the film by entering right to left. This is uncomfortable for the human eye and therefore subconsciously you suspect something is not right straight away. He then leaves the station left to right when he is happy and in search of his new love making it pleasant for the viewer to watch. His journey is then always left to right making it comfortable to watch. This changes when he enters and leaves the house as he enters and leaves from right to left this gives an indication that something is not right.

SHORT FILM.

Mortimer from Nolan Sarner on Vimeo.

This is quite a funny short, pretty original. Not exactly well shot but really enjoyed the narrative, we feel that these little twists in short films make them what they are.

Mandy

We have published a casting call on Many.com as well to further broaden our search for talent for this short film.


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James Rhodes- Assistant Cinematographer

We have recruited James Rhodes as our Assistant Cinematographer. He is a student at Leeds College of Art and Design and has worked on many shoots in the past. He works mainly on music videos and has a great eye so feel he could work well with the cinematographers to get the best out of each shot.

His work can be seen at http://jamesrhodes.co.uk/

Rob Blake- Boom Mic Operator

Rob Blake is a student at Leeds College of At and Design in his second year of study in Design for Digital Media. He has worked extensively in the past with sound for stage and we think that his knowledge could be use in the operation of boom mic and sound. We will be working closely with him to develop our knowledge of the boom mic and sound recording on set. We will be making a short test videos using the boom mic to see how far we can push the sound to enhance our production.

Katie Brown- Make-up Artist/Costume Design/Art Director

Katie Brown has been recruited to be our Make-up Artist/Costume Design/Art Director. She is a student at Leeds College of Art and Design studying Printed Textiles and in her spare time reworks vintage clothes. We have worked with her in the past and know that she can produce excellent work which will enhance the look of the characters in the film.

Jerome Campbell- Photographer

We have recruited photographer Jerome Campbell to be our press kit and location photographer. He is a very talented photographer and has a style which we feel will portray he look and ideas that we want.

Oliver Shaw- Press Kit Designer

We have recruited graphic designer Oliver Shaw to produce a press pack for the production and entry into a variety of film festivals. Oliver is a student at Leeds College of Art and Design with an excellent talent in design for print and after looking at his previous work think that his style will suit the look that we want for our press kit. He will be writing the brief into his Final Major Project so we are sure that he will do a great job in his production.

His work can be seen at http://o-shawfmp.blogspot.com/

THE RAILWAY CHILDREN OAKWORTH

The Railway Children used the Oakworth station as the main location in the film.

Embsay Perfect Location

We have decided that Embsay is the best location for the shots that we desire. We feel that it will really enhance the look of the film and the scenery looks incredible.

When we were on the location we spoke to a volunteer shopkeeper at the station and we were told to speak to the general manager at Bolton Abbey Station about granting permission to film on location. We have received the contact details and will be contacting him shortly.

INGROW WEST TRAIN STATION

Ingrow West is another station on the Oakworth line, again the station has a lot of character and has space for us to work the camera. We feel that the station gives a small village feel which is perfect for what we are after. The problems with the station are that there is only one train track, so one platform. We feel like having the traditional two tracks would increase loneliness. Another is that you can see modernized buildings in the background pulling you away from the village feel.

DAMENS TRAIN STATION

Damens station is the smallest train station in England and has a lot of character. We felt that the station was suitable for the film, but the station is one sided and it wouldn't give us a great opportunity to achieve some of the shots that we are after. We felt that the train station looked lonely but just not what we really are after. Damens has been used for TV's 'Born and Bred'.

Shoulder Mount Test

7D Shoulder Mount test, 28-135 and 50mm Prime. from Josh Becker on Vimeo.

OAKWORTH STATION

Oakworth train station is located on the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway line. The station was used in a film called the railway children. The station had a traditional look with old signs

BOLTON ABBY LINE

This is the location of the Bolton Abby line. It is not to far away, it takes around 40 minutes to drive there.

ScreenYorkshire Equity

We have also applied for membership at SreenYorkshires Equity for further casting calls.

Equity has a vital network of branches throughout the UK which give members a voice in the union and much more. Branches hold regular meetings in their local area and all members and student members are invited to attend these to share views and experiences, discuss issues that are of importance to them and put proposals to Equity's ruling body - the Equity Council. Branches also organise a programme of social events and raise money for local charities.

StarNow

As well as the casting call we sent out to castingcallpro we have decided to send out a call to actors on the databases at StarNow. We think that this could widen our search and help us in the recruitment of the characters that are required in our short film.

EMBSAY TRAIN STATION

We recently travelled to Embsay train station. The station is located on the Bolton Abbey line which is a steam train line near Skipton. The train station is ideal for the film, there was so many traditional features that give the impression that it's located in a small old fashioned village. When touring the station we had to take into consideration the camera angles that we could achieve in the film and Embsay seemed to provide endless opportunities. We liked how the train station is surrounded by hills giving it a secluded lonely feel, which is perfect.

We are trying to plan a meeting with the general manager at the station Mr Stephen Walker to gain permission to film on location.

De-americanising the script.

We really like the script Free Spirit and have had some good feedback on it from a wide range of people, but as it was written by Tom Smolko its aided at a US audience. We have spoken to Tom and he is very happy to let us go ahead and change it in what way suit us best. We have also change the age of the characters in the film as we feel that 18 year olds are not right. We changed the age of the characters to 60 years old, we feel by doing so it will take the film away from a student looking film and also to shoot something thats a bit different to the classic teenage heartbreak films. Using older characters we feel will portray greater emotion upon our audience as people will see them as softer figures.

De-americanising the script.

We really like the script free spirit but as Tom Smolko had written for a US audience, we have had to de-americanise it. We have been in touch with Tom and he is very happy for us to do so. We have also decided to change the character age in the film from 18 years old to 60 years old, we feel that using actors that are of that age would.

APRICOT, SHORT FILM.

APRICOT, short film by Ben Briand (sponsored by his incredible actors and crew) from Moonwalk Films on Vimeo.

Scripts from Tom Smolko!

We contacted Tom telling him what we want to get out of the screenplay that we are producing and he very quickly sent over a variety of scripts.

He sent us a choice of four scripts titled; Car Jacker, Free Spirit, Roller Coaster and The Other Side. We have had a red through the scripts together and we feel that Free Spirit has the most similarities to the emotion and ideas that we want to portray. We are going to have a further read of the script and see if we can adapt it to suit our brief. We will have to think about locations actors and production team when reading through and think about our limitations of budget.

Script!

We have decided that as we ourselves are not script writers that we will be recruiting someone to write one for us.

We have previously worked with a writer named Tom Smolko, who is based in LA, and think that he would be the best point of call for us to gain access to a script.

In the past we have told him what type of screenplay we are looking for i.e. emotive, scary, psychological etc. and he has given us a multitude of scripts to pick from. He is also very lenient when it comes to re-writes and adaptations for such aspects as locations and characters so we feel he is the best person to contact.

The Cabbie

The Story Beyond The Still: The Cabbie from Vincent Laforet on Vimeo.

THE STORY BEYOND THE STILL
Introducing the first user-generated HD Video Contest where photographers become filmmakers, and we all see beyond the still. To kick off the contest, Canon asked photographer, Vincent Laforet, to interpret what story lives beyond this still and to tell that story with the new Canon EOS 7D. His will be the first chapter of seven, each ending with a still photograph for the next aspiring filmmaker to interpret. Posing the question to everyone, what do you see beyond the still?

Example of Press Pack

This is an example of a press pack similar to that that we will be producing. We will have to rely think about how we will advertise our film and think of who is best to create it for us as we are not graphic designers.