Week 6 – Summer Prep

Yet another bank holiday this Monday (hey, I'm not complaining!) during which Charlotte, Murdo and myself took kit over to the Arches and filmed the first of the Black Cats and Blue Angels cabaret performances from the Musical Theatre students. I learnt a few things from this experience: some of these performers think they are comedians; some are; some have one-track minds; some are great entertainers; and some can barely sing. Most of all I learnt that if I wasn't so desperate to be a filmmaker I would love to do that course. Maybe in the next life...

‘Production day’ on Tuesday (a.k.a. tutors-all-away-so-no-classes day) so used it in my own productive way!

True to form I was busy Wednesday morning again, this time with a meeting for MER reps (three turned up, myself included!) about changes to the agenda and also to get our feedback on the process. Following this I had a PAT Tutorial which was rather brief for, as Andy said, I’ve had a good year.

Wednesday afternoon saw the first of many Production sessions with Abigail to keep us on track with Little Clown. She went over the role of Script Supervisor with me and poor Michael, who I thought might have a break-down afterwards. I didn’t think it looked too complicated but it was rather a lot of information to take in all at once.

Our last teaching class with Andy was on the rise of high concept, effects-driven, blockbuster Hollywood filmmaking; all that popcorn that’s sold between the months of May and September. I don’t have a problem with this type of filmmaking (or should I say moviemaking!) in general except that it is entirely motivated by money rather than creative passion. There is nothing wrong with pleasing the masses but I think intentions should always be to make something worthwhile and good first and foremost and if it pleases the masses then so much the better. However if the intention is to give people what they want first and foremost then we end up with a whole lot of junk food which doesn’t do us any good and is in fact harmful. Often as creative practitioners in a medium of mass-communication we have a responsibility to refrain from giving the world what it wants and instead give it what it needs.

Next was another Production sesh with Abigail in which we made a Pre-production schedule for Little Clown; a very helpful process to visualise what has to be done and the time in which it should be accomplished. I used to do a similar thing in preparation for my exams at school. I am often surprised at how neatly all aspects of filmmaking fit with my personality and experience.

Adamant that a ray of light be cast on the current situation our course leader and camera tutor joined us for an update on the Little Clown situation on Friday morning. Following this Michael and myself in Post and Graeme in Sound had a meeting to discuss the script in more detail.

This week ended with a brief Production class where we covered the role of a Script Reader and were given an assignment to create a readers’ report.

A weekend overflowing with beautiful sunny weather caused me to long, only for a moment, that it was summer; but with assignments to complete, a film to make and a term to finish its not time to be thinking about sunbathing yet.