Direction Unit: Finalising my Ideas

So, Ive finally finalised my idea for my Direction piece. My initial idea of a chase was scrapped after too much deliberating over my 'theme' word of 'Shelter'. 

My new idea incorporates the theme of shelter throughout the 3 minutes, and also gives you a sense of the story before what you see on the screen and what might happen after, thanks to the theme word. This will only work if I can portray it in a way in which the audience believes the story.

My Story....

A young, scruffy-looking man stumbles through the park, passing a lady who looks at him in disgust, carrying his beer can mumbling to himself. He reaches a bench, where he sits, and soon starts injecting himself with heroin. The man gets his fix, throws the needle onto the grass and sits in silence. He starts to slouch and grumble as the drugs enter his system. after a short while, the lady who passed him previously sees him slouched in a bad state, walks over to him and steps on the needle which pierces her through her shoe and into her foot. She takes it out and places it on the bench next to the man. The man comes round from his fix to see what has happened, only to realise that the lady is his mother who he hasn't spoken to in many years because of his drug abuse. After seeing that he has harmed his own mother, he picks up the syringe and throws it into the bin and walks away from the bench, upset and distraught, leaving his mother at the bench, now unwell.

The Idea of using drug abuse to "SHELTER" from society, family and everyday life is what I am trying to portray from the beginning of the piece, ending with the idea of seeking "SHELTER" from drug abuse to get your life back on track. I would like to focus on the 'throwing of the syringe' as this could have great value in my story to portray my theme in a more understandable way, and I am now thinking of different ways in which I could shoot these 'iconic' moments. I am also thinking about different ways in which I can film the 'shoe' shot, which incorporates my prop into my piece.

I visited the park for the second time yesterday to have a better look at locations for filming and to ensure the surroundings will work for my shots.

I have to finalise all of my ideas and confirm with my actors so that I am ready to film within the next week and a bit and start editing as soon as possible to enable me to push my theme throughout the piece.

Direction Unit: Initial Ideas

After our first week back at the studios, Ive started to gain a good idea of how I would like my Direction Unit episode to look. 

At first, I struggled with the theme word I had chosen. My problem was that I couldn't connect or link this with my prop. My theme word that I chose was 'Shelter' and my prop was 'Shoe'. When I first chose these words, I had lots of different ideas buzzing around in my head. My initial thought for the word 'Shelter' was to film in the rain. This is something that I have never tried or done before. The main problem with the using weather is obviously the time and date of filming. As I have a budget of £0 there is no way I could make this happen through effects to the style I would like to film it. So for me, this proved difficult to do. 

I have since then decided that I would like to base my episode around a chase. For my location, this is perfect! There are lots of different paths and winding walkways which would be great to film a chase scene in. When I did a little Location Recce to check out what was there and what areas we had to work with, I decided this would be a great place to film these scenes. 

So after deciding on my plot, I thought of characters. I have decided to use my two character limit and would like to use a male and a female. I haven't quite chosen how I want the characters to look, or agreed who will be my actors. This is my next task.

My female character will be chased and my male will be chasing. The theme word 'Shelter' was my main idea for the chase. My female character will take shelter from the male character and hide amongst the foliage. She will be loose her shoe and this may be a deadly mistake as this will lead the male character to her and to where she is hiding.

I will update my blog once I have developed my idea further with some images i would like to use to help with my decisions.

Story Telling Unit: The Meeting Trailer

So today I have submitted my final copy of My Script, Trailer, Storyboard and Synopsis. Im pleased with my trailer and have uploaded it to YouTube. Here's the link below to see the trailer! Let me know what you think!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWjOBWkpBP0&feature=youtu.be

As-Live: 'Unsigned Live'

Yesterday I worked with the 2nd Years on their AS-LIVE project 'Unsigned Live'. I was assigned the role of 'band runner' by the floor manager which meant that I was there to assist the band with anything they need. I was also stand in audience which was needed for some of the shots that the director wanted! I really enjoyed working in the studio and thought that it was really beneficial. Really looking forward to the real shoot for the 'Unsigned Live' project in May!

Media Strategies Unit & Sound Unit

I've finally finished my first draft of my media strategies essay and its ready to hand in today for feedback! Ive not finished yet and hope that the feedback i get from it can help me improve it! I found writing the essay okay, just seems so long since I've written a formal piece of work and it took me a while to get into it, but once I'd written my introduction it all came flooding back!


Yesterday I went to London for the Day and really thought about my idea for my sound unit and my journey. Ive decide to focus my journey on my move out of London to Kent. I thought that this would be quite interesting to do but also quite challenging. As I can only use still images, I'd like to take some really nice images and photos from where I lived in London and contrast it to where I live now. I'd quite like to focus on the areas where I lived not specifically the houses and think that this could work well. Looking forward to getting my hands on a camera and getting Snap Happy!

Story Telling Unit; Uploading Footage

I arrived at the studios about 45 minutes ago and after some playing around and a hand from Simon, my clips are uploaded to my hard drive and are ready to be edited! I had to re-format my hard drive so that it would become compatible with my Final Cut documents using Mac, although I'd already saved Mac documents on it before! Now my Hard Drive is all Mac!

The clips look good and I'm really excited to start using them! I've chosen my music and have a good idea of how I want my trailer to look! I think I may just have time now for a coffee before I start my Sound Unit Workshop!  

Story Telling Unit: The Trailer

So today I finally finished my filming for my trailer! After my disaster over the holidays which was me accidentally deleting all of my previously filmed footage from my camera, Im really pleased with the filming that Ive done today!


Really looking forward to editing my trailer this week and next week as it's my first work I'll have completed using Final Cut! My filming today was shot within students halls, which went well! i had planned to do some filming outdoors but was unable to do this due to bad weather ALL day! But, just like with the hiccup with the footage before, all of these problems are helping me learn how difficult it can be sticking to schedules and left me to make quick decisions about what I was going to film differently if I could not stick to these schedules! 


I'm also really looking forward to the workshop tomorrow for our new sound unit! This looks like a great unit of work, but I'm sure this will be a lot harder than it seems, using only sound and not music to support just still images whilst portraying a story! Well.. looks like an early start for me in the morning so I can upload my footage and start editing before my workshop!