Filming log: Think

Now that my fingers have defrosted enough to type I'll reflect on my first real experience as a sound recordist. I'll try to go deeper than "Cold. Really cold."

It was cold. Really cold. Really, really cold.

So it seems I have to relearn the winter lessons from last year: thermal socks, big gloves, as many layers as physically possible. (Edit since I started writing this: I took myself to Marks and Spencer and bought the cuddliest, softest, warmest cashmere socks you've ever seen, I'll be ready for next time.)

Overall the shoot was very good, it was a nice small crew and Murray's mum cooked us a delicious fry up to fuel us through the cold.

But more specifically to sound, I was quite excited to try putting my theoretical knowledge to practical use. I remembered all the jazz with the cables and the what-goes-where (have you ever seen the business end of a mixer? Or should I say one of the business ends since it has four? bloody complicated) and even managed to troubleshoot when it turned out we had one wrong cable.

The sound recordist's main job is to annoy the rest of the cast and crew and I performed that task admirably. I had to pause filming at several points, despite the freezing cold and the awkward locations to allow planes to pass by overhead or for a car whose engine was ticking over to leave. I found the balance between watching the action, watching the levels and listening closely to the return tricky, certainly something which needs more practice.

I'd like to do some more sound recording, perhaps alongside someone with more experience so I can learn the tricks rather than just blundering along, it's a vital and rather interesting area (though don't take that as an excuse to pigeonhole me as sound girl, Chris).

Personal reflection: what a production

I'll start off by saying quite candidly that production management is not for me. While I can, if necessary, make a budget or a schedule or what have you it makes my eyes cross and my brains dribble out of my ears. Excel documents are the kinds of things which give me stress dreams.

That said, I learned a lot. I can now use excel quite proficiently and I know more of the technical ins and outs of scheduling (to shoot in sequence or to shoot in location order? That is really the question). Knowing about castingcallpro.com is also vey useful, it let's you quickly search for whatever requirements you have and pops up with pages of potential actors.

The day of content origination was more an area if production I'm interested in. Factual programming is an interesting area - my personal favourite is the Brian Cox popular science kind of thing but I also outed myself as a bit of a Springwatch fan. IT'S HARMLESS ENTERTAINMENT, OK?

Now that my credibility is completely ruined, I wonder if anyone will take me seriously again.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPod touch

Accused (2010)

My last post was my 100th, don't you know?* I wish I'd noticed at the time, maybe I'd have put up a banner, a few balloons. As it is, this is my 101st, so I should put something I don't particularly like.

Unfortunately I want to write about Accused, the new Jimmy McGovern series on the BBC and it's fantastic.

Like The Street it consists of self-contained stories about ordinary people facing terrible circumstances. They're told with great heart and a masterful manipulation of tension. The fact that you know the protagonist is going to end up in the dock creates oodles of dramatic irony and suspense as you wait for the action which will get them "accused".

For instance, in the first episode Christopher Eccleston's character continually commits acts which could potentially see him convicted so you're constantly waiting for the boot to drop. It's absolutely tragic, then, when he is found guilty of the one crime he didn't commit, the whole thing a wages of sin deal.

The fact that Christopher Eccleston is in it gives a clue that all the acting is first rate, and familiar faces crop up everywhere. I even saw an actor I know, whose showreel I cut just before summer (it was very thrilling).

It's also shot very, very well. Flawlessly, really, aside from a slightly unpleasant piece of day-for-night in episode two but it's forgivable given the quality of the rest. (And as production class has taught us, scheduling is bloody hard, night shoots doubly so.)

So if you're not watching the new series get thee to the iPlayer and rectify the situation.



*I'm counting Blogger here, not Mahara

Personal reflection: avid attention, with a side order of sound

Learning a completely new programme is a painful experience. It's like the first months of learning a new language where you know what you want to say but simply lack the tools to do so.

Day 1 of Avid was a lot like that since I just didn't know how to perform the tricks I've learned in FCP but by Thursday I'd picked up quite a bit of fluidity, remembering the grammar and vocabulary of the system.

We also learned a lot of IT maintenance - as important as how to use the programme - some of it enveloped into the lesson plan, some of it incidental as the computers in the DTU freaked out and stopped working quite frequently.

What I found was that most of the difference was with how you drive - FCP is very much mouse-driven whereas Avid depends far more on either buttons or, if you have the knowledge and you're being efficient, keystrokes. Pretty much everything on FCP has an analogue on Avid, it's just a matter of finding it.

With limited (four days) experience I can say that the most noticeable benefit is that audio editing is far simpler and more in-depth but both have advantages. The real boon is that being able to use both means I can edit on whatever is to hand.


Friday sound was very interesting and I enjoyed our small class size - I only learn techy stuff efficiently when I can touch and engage the kinetic memory. As well as refreshing our memories on how to use the kit and the principles of location sound recording we (myself, Harry, Julia and Amelie) were entertained with a story from the front line of filmmaking where Cammy had ... interesting ... experiences having to stand with a boom for three hours.

I'm more confident now that I could record some sound for a film but for it to be any good I think I'll definitely need more lessons, which I look forward to.

Filming Log: "38: Urbanism in Motion" aka, what the hell is urbanism?

My sister the architect was not content with a seven year course and so she opted to do a Masters, and it seems to be a feature of post-grad study that they make you do things totally outwith your specialism. Luckily, Em and her group were asked to make a film.

Their brief was to document a strip of Glasgow's diverse urban landscape - specifically the route taken by their tutor's bus, the 38. It takes you through leafy, aflluent suburbs which don't look the slightest bit different from my arse-end-of-nowhere sort-of hometown, to leafy parks, industrial areas and business centres. What they're looking for (so far as I can understand, they have seven years on me here) is the changes between the areas and how you can tell.

So I was roped in for my technical expertise and what was surprising was that in talking to a room of architects, I realised that I do actually know more than I think about the mundane practicalities of making a film. I in turn roped in Julia, Lucy, Meg and Harry to help, since we were looking to use three cameras for most of the day. It worked out very nicely, actually, that we were able to shoot on the same day as half the class were doing the Spiers Lock event.

We were filming stealthily so we were kitted out with three A1s, very nice little cameras (I have one, I'm rather attached to it) and a box full of tapes. We split into three teams: team 1 at the front of the bus (me), team two near the back, looking out to the sides (Meg and Lucy) and team 3 roving around in a car getting external shots (Harry and Julia). We were accompanied by a couple of the architects since they knew the route and what shots they wanted.

It was an early start to catch the look of the dawn at the start of the journey, and then several hours off (which most people used to nap, fair enough) and then more filming, then more time off etc. This was to create an almost timelapse effect as we got closer to the city. Everything went very smoothly, the only slight irritant being that we sometimes had to wait ages for the right to come along (it had to be a 38 and it had to be a doubledecker) in the cold and the rain. No one on the bus challenged us (if you have a camera you look automatically official) and the girls looked after us very well (they even donated something to Chris's  birthday punch, which was a bonus).

All in all it was a very relaxed shoot, and nonetheless successful for that. I've done a rough cut already and I'm amazed at how easily it's come together. I'll have to attribute that success to everyone, so well done! It still needs more work, including a session with Adobe Aftereffects for a specific look they want, which I'm looking forward to since I've never been able to use the programme before. Also, maybe at last Chris will believe that I have a sister.

Personal reflection: shiny new kit!

Last week I was laid off ill and I'm not too keen to reflect too much on that experience so instead let's look further back to our technical week.

First of all, I really enjoyed the different format. Learning in an intense session helps me remember things so much better and I'm sure it's more efficient since you cut down on the need to revise last week's lesson before you can continue.

I also enjoyed the fact we were using new kit; there's something childishly exciting about new toys to play with. And very fun toys they are: bigger better tripods (ie - more complex), a whole seperate matte box (which allows you to use filters and all that jazz) and a nifty little thing called a follow-focus, which lets you do smart focus pulls.

I think I picked up their care and feeding pretty quickly and the kind of things you can achieve with them is impressive. For instance, we did a little practice shoot racking focus between two subjects and it looked very smart, and we tried using polarising filters on a shot of the sky and the results were impressive.

As well as laying on more technical knowledge we got a lesson on framing. I liked that we got to go out and give it a try, excruciating as it was when your shot was analysed and found lacking. My framing wasn't bad, mostly, but my weakness was a reluctance to really operate the camera, to move with events as they happened. That's definitely something I can fix with practice and a bit of thought.

I'll just tack on that it's rather strange being a second year. The academy is full of tiny young things which I've never seen before and which look barely old enough to hold their heads up. Right now I'm in the library and I'm not sure whether there's a field trip from the local primary school in.

Doof doof, doof-doof-doof-doof

I'm not a regular East Enders audience member but I follow enough to enjoy the odd episode when I'm round at my sister's and last night's was particularly enjoyable.

The storyline which made it so was about the aftermath of Bobby's death. I liked how they showed his mother's grief in a visual way -throwing away his possessions steely faced but breaking down over his hoody- and the ending was very strong. It wasn't implausibly huge or bathetically small, it was human, domestic and sad. The "doof doof"s didn't feel like a "badum ching", they felt like they deserved to be there.

An excellent piece of writing!

New Delhi, the main event: 96 hours of Absolut insanity

How do I begin to describe being at the Commonwealth Games Closing Ceremony? It was like one of those dreams where everything makes sense inside your head but when you think about it you realise that there's no way you could be playing poker with the ghost of Oscar Wilde in a spaceship.

We travelled for 24 hours straight, catching fitful bouts of sleep wherever we could, and once we arrived went straight out to see the stadium (no small undertaking). We woke up at 5am the next day to rehearse in the midday sun then wait around in the "holding room", a name which makes me reflexively sweat. We were leered at, waved at and cheered at. People wanted to take photos with us then add us on facebook. I don't actually remember performing but judging by the video I did. We watched the hugest fireworks display I have ever seen surrounded by antsy policemen armed with AK-47s. That night we partied hard and drank nothing but the finest Swedish vodka, falling asleep at 6am to rise at 6.30. I packed in a flurry and managed to remember everything except my toothpaste. The journey back was a blur of still more airports, planes and buses. I think I watched a film. Eventually we were bundled into taxis home and I slept for a day and a half.

Now I'm freaking out slightly at the fact I'm set to be even busier if anything and missing the constant presence of Sam, Harry, Meg, Ada and Chris. We've become so used to seeing each other every minute of the day and now I'm bereft! I've been forced to text Ada for bad jokes.

It's difficult to reflect on something so huge that happened so recently. I read a book once which had a nifty way of explaining how we perceive such momentous events in our own lives so here goes my slightly cack-handed version:

In the line of my life delhi has bubbled off as something too separate from the everyday; with time it will merge back into the line until I can look back and it'll just be one continuous story.

I'll have to try though, this being a reflective blog and all:

We all got a fleeting glimpse of a culture very different to our own. Lavish temples and luxurious hotels co-exist alongside slums and shelters built out of what people could find by the road; policemen look like soldiers and soldiers play the bagpipes; everyone is friendly, the men are openly leery; men and women don't mix and me being friends with Sam and Chris is very odd. It wasn't nearly enough to understand India but I can see it would be an exhilarating and heartbreaking place to live.

We had to learn a whole new set of rules: cover your legs if you don't want to look like a prostitute, brush your teeth with bottled water and don't touch any food which hasn't been thoroughly cooked, no matter how appetising that tomato looks. I couldn't even have ice with the aforementioned fine Swedish vodka.

We experienced the kind of working conditions we've never encountered before - working long hours on little sleep, strange food and in temperatures you're more used to seeing on an oven. We ran with injuries and conquered heatstroke with bottles of electrolyte water and icepacks on the neck.

When it comes to 2014 I definitely want to be at the closing ceremony, as an audience member if not as a performer, because nothing compares to the party atmosphere. Positive audiences always have a peculiar energy to them and one tens of thousands strong fills the air with an infectious, short-fused feeling.

It was hard, hard work. Parts were seriously unpleasant, even painful. It was utterly insane and completely unlike anything I've ever done before. I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Handover Bootcamp: "It's a cross between a kidnapping and a sleepover"

Prologue: structure training (confused)


We lucky few on the inflatables (the great big silver armadillo) had three days before everyone else to get used to our roles. We were in from 10-4 and felt exhausted by the end of it; looking back I can only laugh at that. 


As well as the silver beasts we trained on proportional metal frames which, at that point, seemed to weigh an impossible amount. A session with one of those and I was in serious pain - by the end they felt light as a feather. That was largely due to the work of our trainer, Mauritz. This guy is amazing: a German acrobat/circus performer, his muscles have muscles. He improved our strength and flexibility to the point where we could have backflipped through the performance. Or near enough, I'll be able to carry camera bags more easily at least.


Feeling like we'd done quite enough already we had a day off and then began bootcamp proper:


Week 1: basic training (high)


Everything in mass choreography is arranged by numbers. The groundcloth is covered in co-ordinate marks so you remember your position relative to those (for instance, my "homebase position" was D-4) and you're assigned a unique number based on your group and your height. As you can imagine, I was at the lower end of the scale. I wasn't even judged tall enough to carry one of the planks (the Michael Jackson-esque light-up boards the pipers walked on), instead going into a group called "utilities" where my responsibility was initially as a spotter and then to help get the inflatables ready. Structures (utilities and the plank carriers) had to stay late several days to get in extra practice; that meant a few 12 hour days which really put a strain on.


The choreographers kept a track of us by the bibs we wore - colour coded and with our numbers printed on back and front. The first time I was called out by my number was a shock; I loathe being called by a number but I had to get used to it as well as to being called by my official name (Felicity) a lot of the time since that was the one the staff had. 


We had another fitting for our costumes in a horrible sequence which involved far more public changing of clothes than I like (uptight? moi?) and a thrilling adventure arguing over the pointlessness of trying on a bra several sizes too small.


This week we worked on improving our fitness and conditioning and learning the basic moves, such as marching. It was tough physically but by Friday I was riding an incredible endorphin high from all the exertion; my brain switched off completely and I was just sickeningly happy. 


Unfortunately, biology's irritating habit of getting used to things meant that by week two that wore off:


Week 2: putting it together (tired)


This week we moved to Toryglen football centre, a brilliant place on the south side I never knew about with a massive indoor football pitch which enabled us to rehearse with the inflatables without having to worry about wind and rain (a big consideration - those things go crazy in the wind since they are basically sail-shaped). Instead, we just had to worry about noxious carbon monoxide fumes from the leafblowers used to inflate them and the strange rubber chips in the astroturf which, it turns out, I'm mildly allergic to. 


We were all getting tired by this point and the natural drugs had worn off. Midweek I strained my left knee when we ran without warming up (producers were in and they wanted to show off as much as possible so they skipped it; big mistake - lots of people were hurt) and since I have no kind of sporting background I was stupid enough to ignore it and keep going, making it much worse. I only really recovered enough to do the run in India and even then I felt the consequences the next day.


Our props made the journey to India at the end of this week so we had a dress rehearsal on Saturday so we got to try on our kilts. Turns out kneeling in one of those things is more revealing than you would have thought. 


Without our props the next week was mainly for the fabric cast, we were just there to fill in the gaps:


Week 3: flower arranging (injured)


Since I wasn't running I had even less to do. I carried the steel frames (child's play by then) into position and then back out. I tried to rest my legs as much as possible since I really, really wanted to be able to do the run and the injury had spread to both because of my limping to compensate. 


It was a short week since we had a few early finishes and Friday off. From there, we just had to worry about getting to Delhi...

"I've never gotten to home base so many times in a month before"

"Stop making bad puns, Flick."

The reason we Delhi crew have been a bit lax in blogging lately is that Bootcamp has been utterly exhausting, and even if we had the energy there's very little we could say without breaching our confidentiality agreements. I haven't even been able to fit in much cinema/tv time what with the 9 hour rehearsals.

I can tell you that it will be a fantastic show and that it was absolutely worth doing, even if I have jiggered my knee in the process (things I have learned: when you hurt yourself, you shouldn't just carry on and hope it gets better, stop while you're ahead so that it heals quickly). We've had a lot of fun and it's going to be surreal to go back into the real world... we may start doing intense circus-inspired warm ups before class.

Once we're back and my brain has recovered (it's gone into temporary hibernation for the duration) I'll write something more detailed, since it has been a very interesting experience for everyone involved. In the meantime, tune in on Thursday and watch out for the very short one limping around pathetically.