It’s funny that the first thing we are told about Character is “Don’t think of them as a character”. It’s actually quite exciting, the prospect of creating a real, living person and letting other people see them by placing them in stories. It takes me back to the old Play Mobil and Action Man days and I realised that I’ve been ‘creating characters’ all my life, in a sort of way. Even now there is something real about those Play Mobil men, who all have names, backgrounds and personalities and I am certain if I dug them out now it would feel like meeting up with old friends (in fact, I might do that over Christmas; there’s nothing like indulging in a bit of nostalgia after all). I was rather surprised, and worried, that Richard gave us yet more homework for the last week especially as it was to write the biography of a serial killer which is unpleasant at the best of times but more so when I still had Adam’s storylining to do. It seems Screenwriting is the only class which has been going full-pelt right to the very end, but I suppose it’ll make the Christmas break seem all the more welcome.
So usually we get emailed a time to turn up for these Technical Formative Assessments and we pop in for an hour, do our thing, then leave. This time though there had been no email so we were kind of confused as to what we were supposed to be doing. I decided to simply turn up at half past nine and see what was happening and then take it from there. As it turned out we were scheduled for an eight hour assessment! It was great. We were split into two crews and told to write and shoot a twenty second piece each, with everyone having a go at camera, sound and directing. It was interesting to see how we all behaved and worked as a crew and I could begin to pick out some who were finding their niche in a particular role. Most of all it was enjoyable because we were actually making films, we were doing what we came here to do and it was part of, or rather a requirement, of the course rather than something we were doing on our steam. Exciting stuff!
Sherlock Jr was more impressive than entertaining. It simply didn’t have the charm of a Chaplin film but it far surpassed them in technical skill. I feel that had that been the same film, but with Chaplin in the main role instead of Keaton, it would have been far more enjoyable. Unfortunately the music soundtrack was rather distracting. It was bearable up to the car chase sequence where the James Bond Theme suddenly broke through and for me that broke the magic of the black and white film.
One of the best classes with Andy so far on Thursday morning: we got to play with flick books and Zoetropes! I find I learn best that way, when I actually do something practical, and I’ll remember that class because we made our own Zoetrope films (and we got chocolate). It’s also interesting that we talk a lot about The Moving Picture when in fact the whole notion of a moving picture is quite ludicrous. Pictures don’t move (unless it’s Harry Potter) but thanks to our Persistence of Vision we believe that they do.
Our last class with Andy for this term and it was on Cop Shows. I haven’t seen many but I think it’s a fairly full-proof form and it was mildly interesting coming up with our own ones. We watched an episode of House which I did enjoy, more for Hugh Laurie’s surly comments than the actual show itself, and this followed the general format of a Cop Show but cleverly replaced the Cop with a Doctor (or the ‘Holmes’ with a ‘House’).
Filmed a pantomime in Drymen on Friday night and I quite enjoyed both the experience of filming a stage show and the show itself, which was Sinbad (or A Bonny Wee Genie May Call; and the genie turned out to be a young girl who couldn’t quite remember her lines, but it didn’t detract from the overall enjoyment of it, in fact I’d say it added to it). It was great to get out into the world and do an actual job (I felt like a right professional cameraman) and of course the more use of those cameras I get the happier I am!
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