Jack O' Kent online debut

It's finally online after all of this time! I had a little bit of trouble uploading it initially but it wasn't anything to write to home about.

So, without any further ado, here it is;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=So9xEHMqBvc

NEW UPDATE

Back again following a wee bit of a hiatus! This FMP has taken up ALL of my time and very little has happened that related to Jack O' Kent. However, it will be screened at the final showing at Hereford College of Arts from the 18th of June.

Further details will be added but for the time being, we now know that it will be screened. I am considering organising a seperate screening elsewhere but in the meantime, this will be a step in the right direction as due to unforseeable problems, it hasn't been screened ANYWHERE.

However, that is all about to change!

Actually, one more post

Just to finish with the title card of Jack O' Kent

Final Post for the time being

This may be the last posting for Jack O' Kent for the moment as very little activity has occurred (particularly since the film is currently in circulation with the Hereford museum)
James has informed me that he will be sending my film to the Cambridge Film Festival and the Cornwall film festival.

Of course, I'm considering organising a screening independently for Jack O' Kent but there may be an opportunity to do it at the Barrels as Dave Jones said that there may well be more screenings in the future.

However, I've got to work on a new blog for my new project (one that is much more pressing).

However, for the time being (for those who have read this far, congrats for paying attention)
over and out.

Update after hiatus

Back to another update after the recent drought of activity relating to Jack O Kent. However, I can sum up what events HAVE happened.

Since the end of March, Jack O' Kent has begun it's run with Hereford museum's "Museum on the move". Unfortunately, due to some serious Exorcist style stomach problems - and despite trying to brave them - I was unable to attend their launch.

There will also be a preview at the screening for Dave Jones's "Farises" on Sunday April 25 (this coming weekend).

I also have plans to have a preliminary screening at Leominster - as it might be an outlet for other short films that I'm trying to compile.

I would like to put it online in the future but I'm not too sure how the Hereford museum would think about this.

Now it's very much onto the next project so the next few posts will be relatively scarce and I will be creating a second blog.

Despite lack of recent screening news, this blog is still alive

Back again! Okay, it's been a little while since I last updated but yesterday, my Dissertation was submitted (and completed two days before that) so the pressure has died a little and I have the opportunity to take a breather for a moment!

As of late, there hasn't been any recent news in order to make a new screening but now that our recent bulk of a 10 000 word essay is out of the way (to put it lightly), we'll be able to think about a screening much more closely.

Yesterday, I recieved some feedback of my film - much needed I have to say - and the verdict that it was very well told. The painted in tail didn't fail to impress, the camerawork and focus was praised and generally was considered to be a well made piece of work.
More importantly, the negative feedback was enough for me to work from. The narration was considered a bit flat and maybe should have been played down a little more and the gaps in between the scenes went on a little too long.
The latter will be the easiest to sort out as there are a few outstanding gaps in some of the shots but the narration will be a little more difficult. Since I have to cut out the phallic-spade-handle shot for the museum, other editing tweeks can be done. I could possibly leave the narration as it is for the museum's copy and cut it down for the other cut. Alternatively, I could follow on from a suggestion mentioned in feedback and test a few voices over the next week to see how they sound, considering as to whether they would be suitable or not.

It's difficult to say where it will be shown now but I suspect in the College's media centre. It would be good to show it at the courtyard but I don't know the likelihood of that happening. I
t's not impossible as there were talks of such a thing happening on the day things went wrong. I'm certain that it won't have anything to do with Borderlines film festival - bit of a pity as its a decent outlet but Gilliam's behaviour was completely out of order.

Anyway, keep watching this space!

Borderlines...the aftermath...

Right. Yesterday was the Borderlines film festival showing of the HCA students films, including Jack O Kent. For those of you who don't know, here's how it went;

The first and second year films were shown and all of them got a good reception from a packed audience. George's exploitation film in particular got the most laughs so it clearly achieved what it set out to do. By en large, things had gone well! David Gilliam, the general manager of the event took time in the pauses to give criticism to the films which people were generally nonplussed by as it wasn't his place to do so. Despite this, things had gone well as had been hoped.

However, when it came to the showing of Jack O Kent, Kaz Szostak's film of "Brownie" and Dave Jones's - justifiably - hyped film "Farises", there was a technical problem. The DVD with them on (which had been recently burned along with two other short photography films) didn't work on the courtyard DVD player and Dave connected his laptop to the projector as a substitute. Unfortunately, the DVD was eaten up by the laptop and it wasn't possible to play. Unfortunate and disappointing incident but nobody's fault.

However, when David Gilliam told the audience of the technical problem that was occurring, he took time to behave in the most appalling way possible and place the blame on us (Kaz, Dave and myself) for "altering" our work. Jo defended us, stating that we had worked hard and how wrong he was. The audience as a consequence broke into applaud and it was both satisfying and heartwarming?...yeah, heartwarming! to see how everyone was on our side. Everyone was extremely angry with the conduct of Gilliam and it was also satisfying to see him give everyone a wide berth afterwards.

Dave has consequently dissasociated both wind up world films and "Farises" from Borderlines and plans will be drawn up for another screening to take place.

The event wasn't a total write off mind as all the films that WERE shown were brilliant and got some great audience response. It was also good to see everybody on the same side.

over and out for the time being, watch this space...

Recent Update after even more recent neglect

Another update! I've been so busy in the last couple of weeks that I haven't had the time or the space to update my blog adaquately. However, the heat has gone off a tiny bit so I can update.

If I haven't already said, my film has been submitted with everything coming into place and everything going according to schedule.

The film looks reasonably satisfying, the pace is decent enough and the music is even better than I expected it to be! The funeral scene has to be the best scene in the film hands down, particularly due to the unusual score and the moody photography.

All isn't over however as there is the dilemma as to whether I should colour grade some of the shots I have. This is particularly important since some of it might clash with the funeral scene photos - footage I definitely DON'T want to colour grade.

There is also the problem with the sound. The narration track was shot very much so I could have one for the submission. (More time was taken up by painting in the Devil's tail in each frame so there was little time to devote to narration as other aspects as editing took marginally higher priority.) It's not perfect as Catherine rushed through the narration so much of the dialogue is lost. Coupled with the fact that the sound of passing traffic can be very clearly heard throughout, I have full intention of re-recording the lines. I have booked with Marissa to re-record the narration on Wednesday.

Generally speaking though, I'd be inclined to say that everything is going as planned.


On to Borderlines!

Final Week!

Last week of editing before the deadline...actually the last couple of hours! I've been so busy in the last four days I've had little to absolutely no time to update this recently. However, things have gone well and according to schedule.

Things went a little haphazardly as in the previous week, the availibility of the narrator varied. First I wanted Catherine Whittaker but then she wasn't availible when she said she would be and then when replacing her with Marissa she was availible but then she WASN'T so I asked another individual who then ALSO WASN'T availible and then THE HD CAMERA was being used by everyone (I checked! Trust me!) And then Catherine WAS availible! This was on Tuesday but I eventually did manage to get hold of the camera and shoot the narration. (Partly because I wanted for people to actually see the narrator. I MAY have to reshoot the narrator track just for the sake of framing for widescreen.

However, I've got the shots I wanted, I've got the titles I've wanted, I've got the music I wanted so all in all, everything's coming together as planned. Lack of complacency has done me well to keep things rolling! Despite being worried that I would be without something or other, I've got everything clicking into place as planned!

Now All that's left is to update this and trim the last of the material in the timeline. (plus exporting in quicktime and burning the DVD but that kind of goes without saying) This is still no time for complacency though!

Photo editing finished

Okay, recent developments; err...photo editing has been completed, the tail is in all the shots that it's required to appear in, the eyes of the minion are red as they should be and he has finally got claws.

Now its just a matter of uploading the photos to final cut. However, the real production process that makes me anxious is the process of sound, particularly the music and the narration. Of course I've had sound problems in the past but I'm thinking that maybe I should use the sound system on the HD camera just so I can have some visual references while editing.

Still, things are going to plan and editing should be relatively easy considering that I didn't have to do numerous takes as I would have done normally.

Post production developments

Back again for another update! It's been all go lately I have to say, mainly in the process of editing and adding the Devil's tail into most of the shots. As it's meant to be obviously fake and inconsistent, the movement isn't so I've decided to keep the position of the tail consistent to the previous shot but not identically so it conveys absolutely no movement at all. I'm certain that these shots will be done by the end of this week. In the meantime, there isn't really any point in uploading the shots to final cut until the tail has been added to all the shots I need.

Pickup shots may be another problem. The weather is forecast to be pretty good this weekend which will be in stark contrast to the rain and clouds over the shoot so difficulties lie there! May well have to postpone it until next week. (Though that will have to be the absolute limit as time is most definitely of the essence)

I'm also sorting out the voiceover to do the narration for the film so everything is running in the right direction, its all a question of carrying on!

Now back to the shots!

Main shoot over!

Right! A huge weight off my mind right now! at least 97% of the footage I need has been shot. Working in still photographs has been completely different to almost everything I have done recently. Much simpler for a start considering that I don't have to constantly worry about sound or anything like that. It has got it's downsides however as the blood spitting shot was difficult to capture with a stills camera. I got round that by having the minion character disappear and leave "bloodstains" in its place.

A number of the shots came out as blurry but I think I can make them work in the context of the story. It'll give it more of a sense of movement as well so I recon that it's serendipity in a way. However, I'll need to check that Emily's foot shots have come out relatively clear or else the Devil's tail insertion may be more difficult than I thought. Plus with the fact that I have to keep this fifteen minutes long and cutting out a lot of material may cut down the run time too much.

The shoot started a little bit later than I originally expected (12:40pm) but things went smoothly enough to say the least. Due to the characters having to walk through a muddy field most of the time, it became incredibly problematic. Fortunately, we weren't plagued with problems that threatened to stop the shoot. Emily only used her high heels on the shots she had with her feet. However, it was entirely nessecary for her to walk through some degree of ploughed earth in high heels because that's how the Devil had been characterised and THAT'S EXACTLY the kind of thing I wanted visually.

I had some assistance from other people. Emily's boyfriend David came along as production assistant and both my parents came along to provide food. Both of which I was grateful for to say the least!

The shoot took up most of the afternoon and come the final shots in the cemetary, the light was beginning to fade (About 4:30 pm). I may well come back to the location in order to do a few pickup shots - provided the weather is consistent enough for the sake of continuity - and maybe with a few extras if I can muster them.

All in all, I'm pleased with what I have achieved so far!

New year first post

2010 New Year first post! Now that christmas is over its time to get down to business once more. Dissertation inevitably took priority (involving a lot of nights of disrupted sleep, anxiety and frustration etc etc but got there in the end and now on the home stretch)

Now to crack on with the film and make a good job of it. A lot of snow and it is really a mixed blessing. On one hand, it may well make the shoot incredibly problematic but on the other hand, there is potential for some really good photography. As I have the intentions of shooting it with a stills camera instead of a HD, it allows for further potential and a slightly simpler shoot with fewer technical problems to worry about.

There are two spanners in the works though.

The first one being the fact that the church I originally intended to shoot the funeral scene won't allow it due to association with the Devil. Understandable to a degree but presented a problem as to shooting in a graveyard. However, I have found a fairly derelict one a mile or so away.

The second is extras for the funeral scene. I have had very little luck so far and would very much like to do a few wide shots. (Possibly as a homage to Doctor Zhivago but mainly because of the striking imagery and there will be very little potential for overuse of close up in my opinion.) I won't need many, possibly about ten or so and they'll have to get transport to the location and back. Emily (who'll be playing the Devil) could double up as an extra for the long shots and wide shots and her boyfriend kindly passed on that he would be willing to play an extra. I won't need a huge amount, just enough to make a small crowd. Ten would probably be the minimum but accessability is one of the biggest problems.

At a push I COULD ask some of my former neighbours as I used to live very close to the location but that would be at very short notice so the likelihood of their participation is still fairly low.

I think Dave has already gone to do his shoot today, not sure whether the weather will be a problem for him or not, pity though because I DID offer to help out in some way or other...

six days and counting.