Pre-Production Unit- "Action/Thriller" Genre and Writing for Realism.

In my previous blog post I wrote about the main reason I couldn't work with the Mr. Freeze character, and briefly discussed the possibility of creating my own superhero and original characters. However, after some more thinking, (and the fact that I am writing my film script with the intention of actually filming it for my major project), I do not believe creating a "super"hero per say would be something I could actually create with a student budget.
In order to create the fantastic costumes and special effects needed for such a film, I would need an incredibly large budget, and access to equipment beyond anything I could hope to acquire at this point in my career.

Explosions such as this one in X-men are common in super hero films, but can be difficult to pull off on a small budget.

This hasn't stopped me from investigating other ways that I could work with the super hero genre however.
Something I have considered, is creating a more realistic super-hero, much more akin to a vigilante crimefighter than some super-powered being. I hope that this would not only make it easier for me to create the film (as I would have to acquire less assets and wouldn't need as much manpower to pull off realistic effects etc) but it would also make the situations, characters and the world I create more realistic, and therefore relatable ones for audiences.

Pre-Production Unit: Initial Ideas

For the pre-production unit which I will be beginning in the final year of my television production course, I decided to begin brainstorming my ideas early so that I am better prepared when the time comes to actually begin putting my project together.
The initial idea I had when the project specifications were described to me during a lecture was that I could script a series based on the DC Comics super villain, Mr. Freeze. Mr. Freeze is a character known mostly for being played by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 1997 film, "Batman and Robin", and is famous for being a very cheesy interpretation of the character.

Arnold Schwarzenegger's interpretation of the Mr. Freeze character.

Freeze's backstory involves him being a cryogenic research professor who discovers that his wife is afflicted with a terminal illness. As a result, he decides to cryogenically freeze her until he can find a cure. In order to fund his continuing research, he decides to rob banks, destroy parts of gotham and steal the things he needs in order to accomplish his goal.
Although this is obviously a typical trait for super-hero villains to have, the overall reason Freeze does the things he does is to save his wife, giving him an almost neutral, somewhat heroic alignment. This is what initially interested me in creating something based on this character.
It's no secret that movies based on comic books (particularly the "dark knight" series) have been dropping the cheesy, campy style that is associated with comics as of late (such as the 1960's Adam West Batman TV series) in favor of a much darker approach.

"The Dark Knight". Notice the dark, gritty way it is portrayed.

The Adam West interpretation of Batman. Notice the comic styling, bright colours and overall more optimistic portrayal.

My idea was to take the character of Mr. Freeze and explore it further, modernizing it for an audience that would appreciate the Dark knight interpretation, It would be my hope that this modernization would open an audience's mind to the Mr. Freeze character, and also introduce a new dimension to him that hasn't been seen before.
The reason I chose specifically to create a series based on the character was that it would allow for a much more extensive evolution of the character, with bigger analysis of why he becomes a super-villain, and how he acts in certain situations. Essentially, I would be emulating the formula created by such television programs as "Smallville" and "Gotham".

So why couldn't I go through with this idea? Well, rather than my creative ideas, the reason I couldn't get past the initial planning stages for this idea was that working with licensed material is something that hasn't been explored on this television production course before. Therefore certain problems and disputes would arise that hadn't been dealt with in previous years. This would hinder my project somewhat, and after a brief email exchange with my course leader, it was suggested that I possibly explore the idea of creating my own super hero instead.
This is something that has both pro and cons.
The pros are that I have complete creative freedom, no obligation to stick to any particular comic storyline and I can create and introduce any characters that I want without fear of it going against any other set storyline.
The cons are of course that there will not be any previously existing commercial interest in my creation, as it will be completely original. This is a minor gripe however, as if my created franchise is decent enough, I would have no problem creating something new, fresh and interesting.

Professional Practice Unit- Feedback

Today I visited Nicholas Ward in order to show him my promotional video I had created and receive my feedback. He seemed very happy with the direction I had taken the video with the brief he had given me and had little to nothing to say in terms of how I could had edited my video differently.

The feedback sheet I was given back.

The feedback given for my video was something I am very happy with, and we addressed a few problems we had with communication. I believe this was due to us not meeting in person an awful lot during the course of this project. I believe this is mostly down to the fact that Nick was often busy abroad or working away from Maidstone, and I was often busy early in the project working on the other Studio Production Unit. 

We also missed a lot of time at the start of the project (about 3 weeks) because Nick was away in Prague and France for charity work.

Overall, I feel I have learnt a lot from this project in terms of being professional in a commission, and how to speak with a commissioner to ascertain all the needed information in order to effectively fulfil the brief.

I feel that I did my best to hit the marks outlined in the brief, and as a result Nicholas seemed very happy with the finished product I presented to him. Nick also suggested that we work together on more projects over summer and whenever I have time, and offered to be a reference for other ventures if he is needed. He also made sure to inform us that he would have no problem hiring us again, and even brought up a project abroad which he would potentially commission us to create a film piece about in the future.

In conclusion, this project has been very beneficial in improving my overall business skills, and I feel a sense of reward in creating a piece of work for somebody else. I also have a new appreciation for others working as freelance commissioners, as I have learnt that building a network of contacts and keeping up to date with information being passed around can be quite stressful and hard to do.

Professional Practice Unit- Final Friday People Promotion Video

This is the final version of the Friday People promotional video I created.

I believe this version of the cut is a very improved version of the rough cut I posted a while back. I noted in  previous blog post that the shots I used were quite long and boring, and as such I decided to include a few things that would give the viewer something new to look at, without being TOO distracting or random. These included onscreen words appearing, and a small section where a visual aid of the world map appears.
I have also selected music which I feel fits the video theme a lot more. I have also fixed the issues with sound levels and as a result the video has a much clearer, more professional style. The upbeat music I have used is something I believe would be beneficial because of the subject of the video.
I decided to also include a couple of things that would make the Friday People seem like a benefit to join to younger people, which include Nick speaking about the fact that the opporunity to travel abroad to learn is available, and that 69 percent of people working with the Friday People go on to find full time work or education.

Professional Practice- Promo Rough Cut

This is the rough cut I created for the promotional video I plan to submit to Nicholas Ward;
I feel that the general pace of the video is something I should aim for in the final version, and the shots I have used are rather creative and suit the flow of the video. However, there are a few things I noticed once I had completed the rough cut which I will seek to rectify in the final version.

• There are several issues with the sound. The music is extremely quiet and the sound of each interview is quite inconsistent in their levels.
• The music doesn't really fit the style of the promo, but will do for now as a place-holder.
• The interview segments (especially the one with Nicholas) go on for quite a while, and can get quite boring to look at. Perhaps I could insert some more cutaways, or images related to what he is speaking about in order to keep viewers interested.

I also noticed that I haven't followed the brief at certain points, which is essential for me to sort out. The brief states that several details, such as the fact that the charities registration number, the logo of the funding association and some details such as a telephone number are absent.

I did not include a telephone number because the only number and email address I have at the moment are those that belong to Nicholas Ward, and I am unsure as of now whether or not they are personal details, or related to his work with the Friday People. As such, it would be very unprofessional of me to publish them.

The Brief and details:

Friday People Media Brief 27.11.14 Draft

Professional Practice- Test Shoot @ Friday People Office and Behind the Scenes of our setup

This video is a test shot we filmed at the Friday People office. In this video, Charlie Ansell was a stand-in who we used in order to adjust the camera's white balance and ensure that he was sat in an optimal position for us to film Nick when he was ready.

 This was an incredibly useful thing to do, as it allowed us to save Nick's time when it came to testing out where he should sit for his interview. It saves a lot of time if head-room and lighting have been taken into consideration before we begin filming.

Here are also some photographs that were taken that show our set-up, the equipment we used, and how we recorded the interview.

The H4N ZOOM that was used to capture sound.

Myself Interviewing Nick Ward

Showing the setup of the interviewer and interviewee

The questions and note sheet I used to interview Nick

Something I discovered while I interviewed Nick was that it was very useful to sometimes sway away from the listed questions that were on the paper. This allowed me to engage in a big discussion with Nick about his various ideas and projects. This allowed him to fully explain his intentions with his project ideas, and in turn allowed us to collect a lot of material to work with when it comes to creating our commission videos.

A problem we encountered during this shoot was down to the shirt Nick was wearing at the time of our arrival. He was wearing a very stripy shirt- and these kinds of shirts are notorious for being very distracting through a camera lens due to their affect on them. Therefore, we asked Nick to change his shirt to something plainer.
Although this wasn't exactly something we could have foresaw, it was a problem that was able to be rectified none the less.

Professional Practice- Test Shoot @ Age Concern

This is the footage we collected of establishing shots and cutaway shots from the Age UK daycare centre. Unfortunately, none of this footage is usable because the organization we wanted to work with decided that they no longer wanted to be a part of the project. As such, this footage cannot be used for anything.
However, it was a nice experiment in shots and recording in conditions where we had to be careful about what we got in shot, as we didn't have permission to record any particular person at Age UK, but we did have permission to collect footage of the building itself.