Monday 30th November 2009 - The Disaster Meeting!

Today we had a meeting to discuss the shoot tomorrow. Sam slept through his alarm in Stratford so there was just the four of us today. We didn’t get off to a very good start today. Nicola spoke to Josh about including the best shots rather than the shots which he’s happy with himself in, and this wasn’t taken very well. It wasn’t said in an offensive way at all, but Josh clearly felt targeted by it and I do feel bad about that.

Having said that, we have an important shoot tomorrow that needs a lot of planning and organisation, so to carry it on for the whole meeting was ridiculous. It should have waited until after the meeting rather than being carried on the entire way through. It made it very uncomfortable and held us back a lot. Furthermore, it has put us all on a downer for tomorrow. I’ve tried really hard to get in actors and get a room sorted for tomorrow and, before this afternoon, I was really looking forward to it.

Anyway we didn’t end on good terms either and so me, Mark and Nicola went through the rest of the script between us. I hope Josh is ok and also hope, that rather than reacting like today, he will talk to us about anything he is uncomfortable with so we can work together to sort it.

Josh, I understand why you are uncomfortable with some of the shots (he is in Y-fronts to be fair!), but you’ve got to understand that having the attitude that you are editor and so we don’t have a say is completely unfair. To follow saying that with ‘none of you know my password so none of you can get the footage to do anything about it’ is even more unfair. We are getting marked as a group and so it’s important that we work as a team and take on board everyone’s ideas, suggestions and opinions in every aspect of the making of the film.

Anyway! With the help of Annie, we have a room booked for tomorrow at 12-2pm. This is a VERY short amount of time. We need to allow ourselves 45 minutes to set up and pack away the equipment and props etc, leaving us just an hour to film the scene. This isn’t long at all so pleaseeee let’s not fall out and just get on with it.

I’ve asked the extras to come in for 12pm and was thinking that, whilst some of us set up the room, one or two of us could run up and meet them outside Owen building.

We checked out the room tonight and it has A LOT of echo, so Mark will have to do his best with the sound. The classroom also holds 44 and, as we only have a few extras coming in, we will have to move the furniture around to make this less obvious – if worst comes to worst though, it could be quite effective that people are skipping his class.

Sam, the props list for tomorrow is as follows:

• · Condoms
• · A clear plastic box
• · A banana
• · Pads of paper
• · Posters for the walls
• · Calculator
• · Whiteboard markers
• · A coffee cup
• · A register – the names can be made up apart from Shaun Robinson
• · Shirt/tie for Jack
• · A small bin
• · Dictionary

See you tomorrow at 10.15am everybody. We’re thinking that Josh can have a short rehearsal and I think we should maybe put together a filming schedule. We also need to pick up the equipment.

First footage in

We managed to get our first tape load of footage onto a computer and captured. So preliminary editing can start and we can have a foundation of work and footage to start adding to.

The footage we have looks good to go with and there is little to no footage that needs reshooting, which is a good start. I can start editing the scenes we have together and give us a better idea of what's missing and what we need.

Sunday 29th November 2009 – I’VE FOUND EXTRAS!

Hey guys. I have sent practically every person in my phonebook a text about the filming day on Tuesday and have got two texts back saying that they can do it 12pm until 1pm. I also put it as my status on Facebook and have had four people show an interest. A few people from the course have agreed to help us out as well, but don’t have too long as they have to get on with their own filming. I know we are meeting at 10am but we need time to prepare and most people have lunch breaks at 12, so I have told all those interested to meet outside Uni at 12pm with a white shirt. I said it will last about 2 hours but said if they have to leave early that’s fine, and just to let us know before (for continuity purposes).

A couple of them asked whether they would get paid, I obviously didn’t lie but I said that they would get a copy of the finished film and their names listed on the credits. It’s worth a couple of pounds each for DVDs if it’s the only way we can get extras in. I also thought we could put to and get some water and stuff for them, we have to treat them nicely they’re doing it voluntarily!

I’ve tried really hard to get people in for this so please can we be professional and on the ball when they arrive? Hopefully we will get a room sorted tomorrow and I’d like for everything to be set up and ready for when they get here so we can get straight on with it, especially as some of them can’t stay for long.

Also don’t forget I have only had around 8 people agree, and they aren’t guaranteed to turn up so don’t stop rounding them up! If we could all get around the same amount of people interested we should end up with a decent number of them turning up. I’ve just emailed the four actors I know to see whether they can make it, but it’s a bit short notice so I reckon we should still try and get back up.

Nicola what do you think about meeting at the University tomorrow rather than at Josh’s so that we can find Annie and sort out a classroom for Tuesday?

Thanks guyssss see you tomorrow!

Friday 27th November 2009 - Meeting about Actors

We met today to arrange the next filming day and discuss our actors. The two actors that Josh found for us have been stolen by another group! Therefore they don’t have much time free for our film and so we may have to reconsider. Tuesdays are the only full days that our group is available and, unfortunately only one of the two actors is available on the Tuesday coming. We need to film on this Tuesday as the project has to be in in three weeks and we need two weeks to edit! ARGH!

Luckily I had a guy work with me in another module who could play the role of Shaun, and so I am trying to get hold of his number. I also have the numbers of three other actors, so hopefully at least one of them will be able to make it! We also need extras for the piece so we will all be contacting practically everybody we know to try and get them in.

aOne problem we have is that we cannot book rooms and we NEED a classroom for this scene. We went to Sheaf and asked but apparently our tutors need to book them for us. We tried finding Annie but she had disappeared, so hopefully we can find her on Monday. In fact not hopefully, we HAVE to!

Josh also began capturing the footage from the last shoot today so that he can begin editing it. I’m a little worried that Josh will go for the takes that he looks best in, rather than the best and most successful shots – Don’t do it Josh!

We will also be filming the sex scene and pub scene again on Tuesday. Oh and I forgot to mention before, Sam got us the pub as well!

Tuesday 24th November 2009 - First PROPER Day of Filming

We met at Nicola’s today to begin filming the opening scene of our film. As we had already had a practice shoot of this scene, I already had quite a good idea of what shots I wanted to get. This sped the process up a little.

We then filmed the PE scene, which was one of the funniest things I’ve had to film – Josh in tight shorts and a sweat band on a muddy wet field! We used a still shot of the field and directed Josh to enter the frame and pause when he gets to the centre. The idea in this scene is that he is shouting at the class to keep running and tells them that he’ll catch up, but the audience can see that he can barely breath! Josh played this really well.

Next we filmed the pub scene. This scene involves Josh having a pint with a friend (played by Sam) and then leaving as he is not himself – he is thinking about Nicole. We used shot reverse shots during the conversation between Jack and his friend and mid shots of the pair talking. Although some of these shots were ok, if we have time I would like to go back to the pub and get some better footage – we were rushing as we were almost out of time.

Finally we filmed the sex scene. Possibly the most awkward time of my life. I played the girl who Jack was having unprotected sex with as we couldn’t get anybody else to do it. Therefore Sam took over camera. It made me cringe having to straddle Josh on the back seat of my car!! SO wrong! We agreed that Josh would PRETEND to kiss my neck as I drank out of a bottle of vodka (which was actually water). It was very difficult to get shots in such a small space, Sam just sat on the front seat and got a still shot of us from there. I like how we disappeared out of shot, leaving it to the imagination of the audience – it meant we didn’t have to actually act it any further too! Another shot which Sam got was from outside the car whilst Josh was shaking it. I think this will look really funny. I think that we definitely need to shoot this scene again and plan some more shots. I quite like the idea of the camera looking through the window of the car over the shoulder of me or Josh. We used this shot in a previous project, check it out at the link below (shot example at 1 minute 30 seconds):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IBaxuGlpYw

Mark had a few technical difficulties with the sound at first today – I’m not sure exactly what the problem was so I’ll leave it to Mark to explain, but I think that he had to use the Marantz to record all of the sounds rather than connecting the boom to the camera. This isn’t great as it means that he will have to synch the sound to the moving image in post-production, which will obviously take up a lot of time that we don’t necessarily have. Despite these technical difficulties, Mark got on with his job without complaining.

Again Sam brought all of our props – clothes, shirt and tie, shorts, sweatband, shaving foam, razor, etc. Sam’s really reliable with bringing the props, he always makes sure we have everything we need and if we realise that we need something at the last minute he’ll walk wherever necessary to get it. He’s great!

Josh got in to character and played it well – when he did what he was told! Ha. I think that because Nicola and Josh have so much banter, it is difficult for Josh to have Nicola directing him. We therefore spend quite a lot of time waiting to get on with the scene.

Nicola’s doing a good job at directing, keeping us all motivated throughout the day. I think what Nicola tries to do is work WITH us rather than telling us what to do. For the group members that co-operate with her this works really well, but it makes it easy for others to take advantage of this and therefore the job doesn’t get done – or takes ten times longer. My advice to Nicola would be to work with us and be a little more relaxed with us while ever we’re all co-operating and working as a team, but as soon as anybody starts to slack take control! I know you don’t want to control us, but if we’re not listening when you’re been nice who cares!

Friday 20th November 2009 – Tutorial With Annie

Today we had a tutorial with Annie. We discussed what we had done so far and how we were getting on as a group and in our roles. Mark said that he thought it might be restricted when exploring sound design when doing a comedy piece. I do understand where Mark is coming from, although I still think that he can get experience recording good quality sound whether it be in atmosphere tracks or conversations. I think Mark will enjoy using foley to get sounds such as keys, footsteps, banging, creaking, etc. He is very dedicated to his work!

I also brought up that our story might not be told in terms of the plot points given to us by Annie. I think we’ve all been confused with the plot points and wanted Annie to explain them to us in more detail so that we could fit our story to them. Unfortunately our story wasn’t quite hitting the plot points exactly so we had to meet after the tutorial to discuss this. We are now all clear on this, they are as follows:

We see Jack roll out of bed late and go through the montage of him teaching the different subjects

Inciting Incident – Jack meets Nicole at parents evening

Plot Point 1 – Jack begins to mark Shaun’s grades down so that his mother has to come in again

Midpoint – Jack realises that this isn’t the way to go about it and plucks up the courage to ask Nicole on a date

Plot Point 2 – Jack goes in to work to find that Shaun has been moved school due to his poor performance

Jack goes back to his unhappy life

Resolution – Nicole comes in to the school to pick up Shaun’s things and agrees to a date with Jack!

We have arranged to meet up on Tuesday to begin filming. We will be filming the following scenes:

Jack waking up late in the morning

The changed Jack – ironing his shirt, making an effort etc

The car scene – Jack having unprotected sex in the back of his car

The pub scene – Jack not himself in the pub with a friend

The PE scene – in the field

Although we have decided to film these films we don’t have a proper filming schedule, so hopefully we’ll keep track of time!

Wednesday 18th November 2009

Ok so Nicola has sent the first half of the script to us all. She has asked us to have a read and write any comments, good or bad, which we have on the script. It’s great that Nicola is giving us all the chance to have an input in to and give our views on the script. Mine is as follows:

Making an Entrance

Scene 1

It’s really early in the morning, Jack aged 29 is fast asleep in bed, he has missed his alarm twice already... he is now 45 minutes late, the alarm goes off once more, he rolls over fumbles toward the alarm before finally checking the time.

JACK

Oh shit!

He jumps out of bed, throws his clothes on and runs out of his room.

Scene 2

He is running down the school corridor, he’s badly dressed, he pauses before he gets to his classroom door, straightens his tie and walks in.

STUDNET 1

Sir, you’re...

JACK

Fuck off Simon... Right quieten down, (pause)

(He sits at his desk n rummages through his class notes)

JACK

Oi! I said quieten down! (Pause, he goes to stand up) SHUT-UP!!

(The class settles down) Right now... where are we? He says this while looking through a textbook)

SEAN ROBINSON

In a classroom Sir!

I think that Sean should be more innocent than cheeky – if he’s naughty anyway Jack won’t have to do much to get his mum in to school, and therefore the middle act won’t be as effective.

(The class begin to laugh)

JACK

(Looks up from the textbook)

Right do you think I’m in the mood for this? One more crack out of you and your out of here, you got that?

I don’t think Jack should be portrayed to be angry – just clueless and a bit stupid

(The class fall silent again).

I thought so ... (he whispers) dickhead.

Right, what’s the plan for today then (he checks his schedule) right so we have P.E, Sex Ed, Maths ...and English, wow how much do I hate Mondays! (He mutters under his breath).

(The bell rings.)

Right you all have P.E so go get into your kits and I’ll see you in 10mins.

BEGIN MONATGE

Jack emerges from the male changing rooms sporting a tight white T-shirt, tight navy shorts, sweat bands and whistle, we don’t get to see much of the class but we hear the whistle blow, students emerge from the sports hall looking energetic. We then catch sight of Jack, panting heavily, sweating profusely and having difficulty breathing. The corridor is empty now so he appears to be talking to himself.

I think there should be a bit of dialogue in this scene…at the moment I don’t really ‘get it’. Maybe him shouting at the kids to keep going whilst he sits on a bench reading a magazine? Or perhaps him taking the mick out of them being unfit and brags about how much of a sportsman he is, then a flashback to him on a very slow moving treadmill gasping for breath?

JACK

Right well, I’ll see you in (pause to catch breathe) Sex Ed then...ah Christ!!

Jack walks into a full classroom of students, the girls are giggling and the boys are being rowdy. Someone has written “SEX” on the board with an illustration of a large Penis next to it. He walks round the classroom handing out condoms to the pupils, before putting one discreetly into his pocket. He notices the illustrations on the board and lazily rubs the penis off.

Love this ^^

JACK

Sex, right so someone fill me in on what we know about sex,

(The classroom falls silent all apart from a few giggling girls)

Someone must know something... who draw that cock on the board? Perhaps they could tell us?

No? (Pause) right who can tell me what it was that I just gave you?

SEAN ROBINSON

A jonny Sir

JACK

And what do we use them for?

SEAN ROBINSON

To stop girls getting knocked up

JACK

Yes, well that’s on way to put it.

Right open them up... don’t be shy, Simon take it out of your mouth!!

LOVE that bit ‘Simon take it…mouth!’

STUDENT 1

But it’s a strawberry one

And that bit ^^

JACK

Did you hear me? ... Right now

If I’m picky maybe get rid of the ‘Did you hear me?’ Again I think it makes him seem aggressive

The scene ends with him holding a banana. (FADE OUT)

I think that this is a good way to end the scene before the flashback, but he should say something about them ‘always needing to use protection’. Emphasis should be put on this so that the flashback contradicts what he has just said, creating humour.

We now see a drunken Jack holding a Kebab in one hand, and leading a drunken woman with the other, they are both laughing. He chucks his kebab on the ground and starts passionately kissing the young woman’s neck; she pushes him away for a brief moment.

WOMAN 1

Do you have one?

Jack carries on having not heard her.

Do you have one... a condom?

JACK

We don’t need one, its better without one, come on Sarah.

WOMAN 1

It’s Stephanie?

JACK

Ah yes Stephanie... sorry.

Love that he gets her name wrong, think it sums up that he doesn’t even care who he’s sleeping with – making it more dramatic when he actually falls for Nicole Robinson. However, I would prefer to see them in the back of a car and cut the bit of him eating the kebab etc.

We next see Jack in a Maths class, he’s teaching the pupils timetables.

JACK

Right so 7 times 7 would be... Jenny?

STUDENT 2

Err... 48. No 49

JACK

Ah... (He pauses turns around and taps about on his calculator) yes correct!

Think this bit is great! ^^

SEAN ROBINSON

Sir can we do area and perimeters, you know of shapes?

JACK

He looks nervously through a textbook

I won’t be teaching you area or perimeters today but I can talk to you about shapes, how about the shapes I was throwing out on the dance floor this weekend?

SEAN ROBINSON

What?

JACK

Nothing, were doing timetables today, right next question to you then err...

Don’t think this bit is needed, from ‘Can we do perimeters…’

(Once again he looks through his class notes) FADE OUT

Its fourth period English, Jack comes into the class holding a cup of tea, his tie hangs loose, his top button undone and he appears to have a blue patch of ink under his shirt pocket. The class are once again rowdy, and throwing balls of paper to each other one of which lands on Jacks desk.

JACK

Ok ok settle down, hey what’s this?

He picks up the piece of paper and unravels it. He reads aloud:

Mr. Allcock literally is All-. Who wrote this?

Like this bit ^^

The class fall silent.

I’ll ask again, who wrote this? Right seeing as none of you want to admit it, your all in detention, until that one person comes forward.

Don’t think he should have this reaction. Again I think he seems aggressive and like he thinks that this kind of behaviour is wrong – I imagined that he is as immature as the pupils. Maybe he could look confused, say ‘who wrote this?...Nob heads’ then shrug it off?

The class let out a drone.

STUDENT 1

Sean!

STUDENT 2

Sean, idiot

JACK

Ah Sean was it? Look I may have a funny sounding name there mate, but maybe next time you could go into detention for being a bit more creative? I mean all cock? I practically handed that one to you there didn’t I? Right Sean see me after class, right “Metaphor’s” anyone tell me what one is?

He turns and miss spells Metaphor on the board, while picking up a dictionary,

Because I honestly cannot tell you!

I do like this bit of the script, I really like that he continues to say ‘Because I honestly cannot tell you’, but I think that we need to be careful not to let the script get to repetitive. Like because we have just seen him check the calculator for a sum, it might begin to get a little predictable when he asks what something means that he is going to look in the dictionary. Maybe we should leave it as it is and look at it in post production.

Its drawing to the end of the day, Jack is seen sipping his brew by his desk, he fondling a parents- evening slip in his hands having noticed them in a pile on his desk.

JACK

Right the bell is about to go, we have a parent ...evening thing on at the end of this week apparently, (jack looks at them curiously)

So if you could take one, give them to your parents and then bring them back so we know whose coming.

ACT 1

Jack is his classroom; he is sat behind his desk. He is finishing up with another pupil’s parents. He gets up and shakes their hands. He looks at the next name on the register and looks up to see Sean Robinson stood outside the door talking to women with her back to the wall. He signals to Sean to come in, Sean signals to his mother and she gets up.

JACK

Right only have more to go and then I’m done.

He checks his notes before he see’s Mrs. Robinson walk through the door, she walks over, he turns and looks up. She is the most beautiful woman he has ever seen, she has wavey blonde hair, blue eyes, she is dressed smartly and smile at him. Her hair is waving about her face seductively; she says something to him and holds out her hand. She carries on talking but he can’t hear a word.

MRS. ROBINSON

It IS Mr.Allcock isn’t it?

JACK

Huh? What? Yer, yes...err- hem I’m sorry, would you like to take a seat?

Jack signals to her to sit down.

JACK

Can I offer you a drink?

MRS. ROBINSON

Oh you know that’ll be great thanks

She smiles at him, Jack starts looking round his desk only to realise he has nothing to offer, he looks up nervously.

JACK

Honestly it looks like I’m all out! I do appologise.

I don’t really get this bit – does he mean an alcoholic drink? If so would he offer a parent this? If not would he offer her a drink out of the blue when he doesn’t have any

MRS. ROBINSON

Ah well (pause) nevermind.

JACK

So your Sean mother, Mrs. Robinson, pleased to meet you.

MRS. ROBINSON

Ah, call me Nicole

JACK

Shall we get started? Here are you son’s marks from previous assignments.

Jack presents them to Nicole, he seems to get lost in Nicole’s face he hair, her lips. She reached for the piece of paper Jack has in his hand, and before he can control himself, he stands up, pulls her face towards his, pushes her body towards the desk and passionately kiss’s her, she whispers his name again and again. This time a little louder.

Love this bit

MRS.ROBINSON

Mr. Allcock, Are you sure you alright?

JACK

Erm, I’m... I’m sorry what?

MRS.ROBINSON

I said are you ok? You seemed to be somewhere else? Can I see Sean’s assignment?

JACK

God, yer ha I’m sorry it’s been a very long day, here, now as you can see his is under achieveing, (pause, he looks like he is thinking) we need to tackle this head on, with your co-operation we can help Sean achieve a high standard of work. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


Ok so I think what you have written is great and almost every sentence made me laugh! The only thing I think that we need to be careful of is that it doesn’t get to repetitive. I’m worried that it may be like this:

Open scene

See Jack being thick

Close scene

Repeat X3

I know that we were aiming to show different examples of him being clueless and contradictory, just think we need to be careful of it getting tedious. We’ll probably be able to see for sure in post-production.

Sorry Nicola I feel like a teacher marking your work! It's only an opinion anyway, not necessarily correct - just what I personally think!