My secondary goal for this week was punctuality. I wanted to be at every class on time.
I have to say, I made no improvement this week on punctuality. I wasn't late for any classes, but I was only one minute early, or exactly on time, for three of them. And while that's not technically late, I wouldn't consider it punctual either, because it's so close to being late. 5 minutes is a good safety window for a class, so I would coonsider that to be 'punctual'. So all in all, no improvement on that goal, although nothing to beat myself up over either.
Next week my secondary goal will be "meeting project deadlines", as I have an essay due on Thursday which I haven't started yet, and it will definitely be a good challenge to try and get it in on time. And just to add to that, I will consider success to be handing the essay in before 11am (rather than the due time of 1pm) and NOT doing an all-nighter the night before. We shall see if I can do it!
Friday, March 26, 2010
Professional Practise - Main goal - post 3
I didn't really make any progress with my goal this week, although I didn't regress either.
As per my suggestions from last week on how I could improve, I did go location scouting with Lisa this week, and I did focus on what the locations would add to the TVC, instead of production considerations. I told her I wanted to keep looking - I don't think the locations we viewed hit the spot - but if I was focused on production I would have accepted the Scout camp, because it would be very very convenient. Although I did what I set out to do in this regard, I still don't feel like I made progress, I just did what was needed.
The other thing I suggested for myself was to ask my team members to help pull together visual and sound references for my treatment presentation. I didn't do this because it didn't really feel appropriate. For one thing, Michael wasn't at the meeting, so I couldn't ask for his help on sound. And for another, the presentation is not for another three weeks anyway, so why should my team be asked to do what is normally the director's job anyway? I was going to ask them because it was suggested in the class outline, but I've decided against it. I think part of Ben's assessment for this project includes pulling together references anyway, so I can always just look at those and compare and adopt.
Next week.... I don't see any opportunities for improving on my goal really, as I won't be collaborating with anyone. We don't have any TVC classes and out of school I will be focusing on my essay so... might be a bit stretched next week as far as finding things to write.
As per my suggestions from last week on how I could improve, I did go location scouting with Lisa this week, and I did focus on what the locations would add to the TVC, instead of production considerations. I told her I wanted to keep looking - I don't think the locations we viewed hit the spot - but if I was focused on production I would have accepted the Scout camp, because it would be very very convenient. Although I did what I set out to do in this regard, I still don't feel like I made progress, I just did what was needed.
The other thing I suggested for myself was to ask my team members to help pull together visual and sound references for my treatment presentation. I didn't do this because it didn't really feel appropriate. For one thing, Michael wasn't at the meeting, so I couldn't ask for his help on sound. And for another, the presentation is not for another three weeks anyway, so why should my team be asked to do what is normally the director's job anyway? I was going to ask them because it was suggested in the class outline, but I've decided against it. I think part of Ben's assessment for this project includes pulling together references anyway, so I can always just look at those and compare and adopt.
Next week.... I don't see any opportunities for improving on my goal really, as I won't be collaborating with anyone. We don't have any TVC classes and out of school I will be focusing on my essay so... might be a bit stretched next week as far as finding things to write.
TVC - post 4
Lisa and I went location scouting on Wednesday. I feel a bit sorry for Lisa being my producer; in fact I feel sorry for anyone whenever they are my PM or AD, because I'm generally too ambitious and demanding and the shoot always seems completely unmanageable until the last possible moment.
Anyway, we went down to Blockhouse Bay, to a big park with another big Scout park across the road from it. The first park had quite cool patches of bush in it - Lisa and I took a little track through the densest parts - however the bush was dotted all through with pine trees (ie non-native) and had absolutely no native trees in it. It had native bushes, and tree ferns, but no native trees unfortunately. The Scout camp was almost all native, except for the odd few pine trees, and would have been quite convenient to film in as the undergrowth was mostly cleared away. It also had a great view, which our script calls for - however the view was over a bay, not a forest. All water, no trees. Boo! The other problem was that all trees were pretty small and crappy. They were too young, not enough thick trunks, and there was no undergrowth to film at all. I really want to emphasise the majesty, nobility, timelessness, grandeur and beauty of the native forests, and this one had some beauty but none of the other characteristics. I'm becoming increasingly convinced that we are going to have to film in the Waitakeres, but is this logistically possible??? Our budget is small, and they take a long time to get to, which is a lot of petrol money. Will we be able to park close to where we want to film? And will we be able to find toilets where we want to film? And we will just have to accept that there will be no power. And even more scary, how can we relocate from city to bush (or vice versa) in one ten hour day? The city will be a mission to film in, just because parking is such a pain and so inaccessible.
Anyway, I told poor Lisa that I'm not convinced and I want to keep looking. If we're desperate, we'll go to Blockhouse Bay, but... I really think we can find something better out west.
Anyway, we went down to Blockhouse Bay, to a big park with another big Scout park across the road from it. The first park had quite cool patches of bush in it - Lisa and I took a little track through the densest parts - however the bush was dotted all through with pine trees (ie non-native) and had absolutely no native trees in it. It had native bushes, and tree ferns, but no native trees unfortunately. The Scout camp was almost all native, except for the odd few pine trees, and would have been quite convenient to film in as the undergrowth was mostly cleared away. It also had a great view, which our script calls for - however the view was over a bay, not a forest. All water, no trees. Boo! The other problem was that all trees were pretty small and crappy. They were too young, not enough thick trunks, and there was no undergrowth to film at all. I really want to emphasise the majesty, nobility, timelessness, grandeur and beauty of the native forests, and this one had some beauty but none of the other characteristics. I'm becoming increasingly convinced that we are going to have to film in the Waitakeres, but is this logistically possible??? Our budget is small, and they take a long time to get to, which is a lot of petrol money. Will we be able to park close to where we want to film? And will we be able to find toilets where we want to film? And we will just have to accept that there will be no power. And even more scary, how can we relocate from city to bush (or vice versa) in one ten hour day? The city will be a mission to film in, just because parking is such a pain and so inaccessible.
Anyway, I told poor Lisa that I'm not convinced and I want to keep looking. If we're desperate, we'll go to Blockhouse Bay, but... I really think we can find something better out west.
Monday, March 22, 2010
TVCs - post 3
After classes were finished on Friday I had a rather fantastic brainstorming session with Ben, my DP.
Ben had said in a previous meeting that one of the problems he has had with directors in the past was that he didn't fully understand their vision for the piece; he felt they had simply assumed he would take the same interpretation of the script that they had. Although our brainstorming session was unconventional in a "real-world" professional sense, I think it will probably have a huge contribution to remedying that problem, and when it was done I really felt that we were on the same wave length about how this TVC should shape up.
Basically what we did was se ourselves up in an empty classroom with a white board and drew big messy mind maps on the board. We started with the main ideas and images of the script, and worked our way outwards, writing down all the images, concepts and feelings that we could think of that were linked to these key things, and then from that pulling in all the filmmaking techniques that we could think of that might be able to convey these things. We also discussed how the key ideas and images fitted together structurally, ie what parts constitute the journey, resolution, climax etc, and how the audience should feel at given points.
A lot of the ideas came from me, because I have spent a lot more time thinking about the script than Ben, but he also had some great additions that I had not thought of. The most important thing though was that having the opportunity to explore all of these ideas with me means that when I discuss the shots with Ben he will know the ideas that they come from and he will understand the sensations I am trying to convey, and therefore he will be able to offer up ideas and adjustments that will be strongly relevant to the end goal, instead of feeling confused about why I am doing a particular thing in the first place.
I just wish the soundie could have been involved too! But having had this experience now (and seeing how empowering it is for both me and my collaborator) I will make sure that I can share the same information with the soundie and editor, even if it is in a different way.
Ben had said in a previous meeting that one of the problems he has had with directors in the past was that he didn't fully understand their vision for the piece; he felt they had simply assumed he would take the same interpretation of the script that they had. Although our brainstorming session was unconventional in a "real-world" professional sense, I think it will probably have a huge contribution to remedying that problem, and when it was done I really felt that we were on the same wave length about how this TVC should shape up.
Basically what we did was se ourselves up in an empty classroom with a white board and drew big messy mind maps on the board. We started with the main ideas and images of the script, and worked our way outwards, writing down all the images, concepts and feelings that we could think of that were linked to these key things, and then from that pulling in all the filmmaking techniques that we could think of that might be able to convey these things. We also discussed how the key ideas and images fitted together structurally, ie what parts constitute the journey, resolution, climax etc, and how the audience should feel at given points.
A lot of the ideas came from me, because I have spent a lot more time thinking about the script than Ben, but he also had some great additions that I had not thought of. The most important thing though was that having the opportunity to explore all of these ideas with me means that when I discuss the shots with Ben he will know the ideas that they come from and he will understand the sensations I am trying to convey, and therefore he will be able to offer up ideas and adjustments that will be strongly relevant to the end goal, instead of feeling confused about why I am doing a particular thing in the first place.
I just wish the soundie could have been involved too! But having had this experience now (and seeing how empowering it is for both me and my collaborator) I will make sure that I can share the same information with the soundie and editor, even if it is in a different way.
Professional Practise - Main goal - post 2
Last week I set myself specific tasks to ensure that I would improve on this goal. Those tasks were to meet individually with Lisa and Ben, who are the producer and DP for the upcoming TVC project.
Those meetings were successful in helping me to build my understanding of the boundaries between mine and their roles. In the case of the meeting with Lisa, she and I came to an agreeance on how we thought the producer's role would play out, however we also found that we may need to ask for further clarification from our tutors. In the case of the meeting with Ben, we discussed the issues we have encountered working with other DPs and directors in the past, and each outlined the way we would prefer to work.
Ben and I also had an additional meeting; a brainstorming session to discuss the possibilities of our TVC. There was a point in the meeting where Ben actually pointed out to me, "it's not really your job to worry about that". We were discussing ways of shooting a particular aspect of the commercial, and my suggestion had been based on the assumption that we couldn't do a particular kind of shot. Ben was pointing out that it's not up to me to make assumptions about our technical limitations - I should be saying what I want to achieve with the camera, and it's up to the DP to work out whether we are capable of that thing or not. I should not start out by compromising based on assumptions, but should be ready to compromise just in case. I was really glad that Ben pointed this out. It means that our line of communication is very open at the moment, and by showing me the boundaries it ensures not only that I will step back and respect Ben's role, but also gives me the freedom to focus on the things that are most important in my own role.
As for this week, it is difficult to project specific suggestions for how I might be able to improve on my goal. I may go location scouting with Lisa at some point this week, and according to the TVC class outline I will be having a team meeting with the TVC team on Friday. Possible ways that I could contribute to my goal might be to, a) view locations with an eye only for what they can add to the TVC and allow Lisa to worry about production aspects, instead of my usual constant questioning of production issues, and b) in my team meeting on Friday I should make sure to delegate appropriate tasks to memebers of the team, rather than trying to do everything myself. Specifically, I will be asking team members to help source specific visual and sound references to add to the treatment presentation.
Those meetings were successful in helping me to build my understanding of the boundaries between mine and their roles. In the case of the meeting with Lisa, she and I came to an agreeance on how we thought the producer's role would play out, however we also found that we may need to ask for further clarification from our tutors. In the case of the meeting with Ben, we discussed the issues we have encountered working with other DPs and directors in the past, and each outlined the way we would prefer to work.
Ben and I also had an additional meeting; a brainstorming session to discuss the possibilities of our TVC. There was a point in the meeting where Ben actually pointed out to me, "it's not really your job to worry about that". We were discussing ways of shooting a particular aspect of the commercial, and my suggestion had been based on the assumption that we couldn't do a particular kind of shot. Ben was pointing out that it's not up to me to make assumptions about our technical limitations - I should be saying what I want to achieve with the camera, and it's up to the DP to work out whether we are capable of that thing or not. I should not start out by compromising based on assumptions, but should be ready to compromise just in case. I was really glad that Ben pointed this out. It means that our line of communication is very open at the moment, and by showing me the boundaries it ensures not only that I will step back and respect Ben's role, but also gives me the freedom to focus on the things that are most important in my own role.
As for this week, it is difficult to project specific suggestions for how I might be able to improve on my goal. I may go location scouting with Lisa at some point this week, and according to the TVC class outline I will be having a team meeting with the TVC team on Friday. Possible ways that I could contribute to my goal might be to, a) view locations with an eye only for what they can add to the TVC and allow Lisa to worry about production aspects, instead of my usual constant questioning of production issues, and b) in my team meeting on Friday I should make sure to delegate appropriate tasks to memebers of the team, rather than trying to do everything myself. Specifically, I will be asking team members to help source specific visual and sound references to add to the treatment presentation.
Professional Practise - Secondary goal - post 1
My secondary goal for the week was "Level of listening". Given that I had planned to improve on my main goal by setting up meetings with Lisa and Ben to discuss how they felt their roles should function in the TVC project, I felt that the "level of listening" goal was an appropriate focus on this occasion.
I felt that I was successful in terms of listening to my collaborators this week. I focused on asking them questions, so that I would hear what their thoughts were before talking about my own. I also asked clarifying questions, to make sure I had understood them properly. Blogging for the TVC assessment also helped, as it meant that I spent time thinking about the meetings later, so that the things we discussed were further cemented in my brain by the time spent reflecting.
Apart from the two meetings I have already written about in my TVC posts, I also had a particularly good brainstorming session with Ben, which I will write about in more detail in other posts. In terms of listening, I think I did well; I made sure to note down all of his observations and suggestions along with my own, and I paused and took the time to discuss the suggestions he made that were new to me. When we finished I had a very strong feeling that we are now on the same wave length about the project and much less likely to have misunderstandings than if we had not had the session.
Despite doing well with listening this week, I think this skill will be tested more, and differently, in the future. This time around I only had to test my listening abilities in a one-on-one meeting context, which is comparitively easy compared with either a group meeting or an on-set context, when it will become much more difficult, and at least as important if not more so.
For this week coming, my secondary goal will be punctuality, since I was late for a class last week and don't want that to happen this week. This goal may present a challenge since time management may be somewhat difficult this week, as I have a lot on.
I felt that I was successful in terms of listening to my collaborators this week. I focused on asking them questions, so that I would hear what their thoughts were before talking about my own. I also asked clarifying questions, to make sure I had understood them properly. Blogging for the TVC assessment also helped, as it meant that I spent time thinking about the meetings later, so that the things we discussed were further cemented in my brain by the time spent reflecting.
Apart from the two meetings I have already written about in my TVC posts, I also had a particularly good brainstorming session with Ben, which I will write about in more detail in other posts. In terms of listening, I think I did well; I made sure to note down all of his observations and suggestions along with my own, and I paused and took the time to discuss the suggestions he made that were new to me. When we finished I had a very strong feeling that we are now on the same wave length about the project and much less likely to have misunderstandings than if we had not had the session.
Despite doing well with listening this week, I think this skill will be tested more, and differently, in the future. This time around I only had to test my listening abilities in a one-on-one meeting context, which is comparitively easy compared with either a group meeting or an on-set context, when it will become much more difficult, and at least as important if not more so.
For this week coming, my secondary goal will be punctuality, since I was late for a class last week and don't want that to happen this week. This goal may present a challenge since time management may be somewhat difficult this week, as I have a lot on.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
TVCs - post 2
As per yesterday's post, I had meetings with the producer and DP today.
The meeting with Lisa was a little bit messy, as neither of us really had an answer to the question, "how does the role of producer function on this project?" It didn't help that we had decided to remain in the production office, where one of the other production students insisted on constantly putting in their 2 cents worth, saying that they thought it was stupid that they should have the producer title on this project. Nevertheless, what I got from Lisa was that she felt it was about managing the relationship with the client, and she agreed with me that it is about ensuring that the client gets value for money. As a result of this we talked about having Lisa involved in the treatment presentation; since we don't have a real client, this is about the closest Lisa will be able to come in terms of presenting to and pleasing a client. It's difficult to say exactly how Lisa can be involved with the presentation, given that the items listed to be presented are the concerns of the director rather than the producer, but I suppose we will consult with Sima about this. Apart from the producer's role we also talked about some of the production management aspects. We have decided that wherever possible we will do location scouting together, although time constraints may sometimes separate us. I also told her about my fingers-crossed plan to add a second character to the ad - a young child to represent the future generation for whom we are preserving the native forests. Fortunately for me, Lisa is a pretty chilled out PM who likes a challenge, and she wasn't phased at all by my suggestion. Sima has also said it seems like a good idea, so now it's just a question of whether it will get through the other tutors and the budget, which is only $150 :-( Assuming we're allowed to add the child, we also discussed the fact that our first preference would be to cast an actual mother and child, as the actress will be able to look after her own child between takes, it won't require an extra person (ie another parent) on location, and the child and mother will already be comfortable with one another and resemble one another. Assuming we not allowed to add the child, I have a young actress in mind who is quite beautiful, with a bit of a girl-next-door look, and curly hair. I like the idea of having a curly haired actress, because it makes it very easy to create a natural-looking visual contrast between her city/work persona and her bush/free persona, all in a close-up.
I also met up with Ben this afternoon to talk about roles/collaboration as well. Judging by our conversation this afternoon I think we might actually work well together, which would be a first for me. We do have differences though; for example Ben hates storyboards and doesn't like to work from them. I, on the other hand, have to draw a storyboard before I can write a shot list. If I write a shot list without them I simply don't trust it. I don't really think this will cause a problem though, as Ben's problem with storyboards is that he thinks it's a waste of time trying to make shots and locations look like your pictures. The reason it shouldn't be a problem is that I don't bother trying to make the shots look like the storyboard because I'm a terrible drawer anyway, and the only reason for me having a storyboard is purely to get a sense of how the shots flow together, and I never use it on set.
A problem that Ben identified from his previous DP-director relationships was that he did not fully grasp the director's vision for the piece, and therefore couldn't fully execute or enhance it. He noted that director's seem to assume that the crew takes the same meaning from the script that they do, even though scripts are in fact very open to interpretation. I can recognise this in my experience too, as I have sometimes had suggestions from DPs that I felt did not serve the story or the vision. Therefore Ben's comment is a very useful one, as it is something I can personally remedy by working hard to make sure Ben sees the same things in the script that I do, and therefore we can make sure we are on the same page in terms of deciding how to turn those things into images.
One request that I made of Ben is that if he feels he has something to offer then he should please feel free to jump in and interrupt me, rather than waiting around for me to stop and ask, as I am very likely to plough on ahead with my ideas unless someone pipes up with a better one. Ben said that he would not have realised that I would want to work this way if I hadn't said it, so I'm really glad we set up that meeting.
In terms of the creative side of the work, I'm really looking forward to the day in the future when a device is invented that can read and record thoughts, because I can think far more quickly than I can write. I've spent quite a bit of time analysing everything the script suggests and noting down the various ideas and concepts that come out of it. I also went into the city today, to simultaneously location scout and also see what sights, sounds and sensations I could draw from the place. It was definitely a successful trip in terms of seeing and hearing, but it was a little bit depressing in terms of location scouting, because the most impressive, most beautiful, most appropriate locations were also the ones I know we have no chance of securing. As I stand in the perfect location it's so tempting to wander off into thoughts of, "perhaps we could do it guerilla-style and not worry about permits if we just...", but of course that's impossible within the framework of a Unitec assessment. So I'm still at square one in terms of finding an actual usable location, but I do have an idea of what I want the location to actually do for the TVC.
So now I have long lists of ideas, themes and concepts that come from the script. Tomorrow we have class, so I'm hoping there will be time in that class for me to get together with the rest of the team and brainstorm these ideas with them, to see what kinds of images and sounds and styles come up for them. If you have collaborators you might as well milk them, right?
The meeting with Lisa was a little bit messy, as neither of us really had an answer to the question, "how does the role of producer function on this project?" It didn't help that we had decided to remain in the production office, where one of the other production students insisted on constantly putting in their 2 cents worth, saying that they thought it was stupid that they should have the producer title on this project. Nevertheless, what I got from Lisa was that she felt it was about managing the relationship with the client, and she agreed with me that it is about ensuring that the client gets value for money. As a result of this we talked about having Lisa involved in the treatment presentation; since we don't have a real client, this is about the closest Lisa will be able to come in terms of presenting to and pleasing a client. It's difficult to say exactly how Lisa can be involved with the presentation, given that the items listed to be presented are the concerns of the director rather than the producer, but I suppose we will consult with Sima about this. Apart from the producer's role we also talked about some of the production management aspects. We have decided that wherever possible we will do location scouting together, although time constraints may sometimes separate us. I also told her about my fingers-crossed plan to add a second character to the ad - a young child to represent the future generation for whom we are preserving the native forests. Fortunately for me, Lisa is a pretty chilled out PM who likes a challenge, and she wasn't phased at all by my suggestion. Sima has also said it seems like a good idea, so now it's just a question of whether it will get through the other tutors and the budget, which is only $150 :-( Assuming we're allowed to add the child, we also discussed the fact that our first preference would be to cast an actual mother and child, as the actress will be able to look after her own child between takes, it won't require an extra person (ie another parent) on location, and the child and mother will already be comfortable with one another and resemble one another. Assuming we not allowed to add the child, I have a young actress in mind who is quite beautiful, with a bit of a girl-next-door look, and curly hair. I like the idea of having a curly haired actress, because it makes it very easy to create a natural-looking visual contrast between her city/work persona and her bush/free persona, all in a close-up.
I also met up with Ben this afternoon to talk about roles/collaboration as well. Judging by our conversation this afternoon I think we might actually work well together, which would be a first for me. We do have differences though; for example Ben hates storyboards and doesn't like to work from them. I, on the other hand, have to draw a storyboard before I can write a shot list. If I write a shot list without them I simply don't trust it. I don't really think this will cause a problem though, as Ben's problem with storyboards is that he thinks it's a waste of time trying to make shots and locations look like your pictures. The reason it shouldn't be a problem is that I don't bother trying to make the shots look like the storyboard because I'm a terrible drawer anyway, and the only reason for me having a storyboard is purely to get a sense of how the shots flow together, and I never use it on set.
A problem that Ben identified from his previous DP-director relationships was that he did not fully grasp the director's vision for the piece, and therefore couldn't fully execute or enhance it. He noted that director's seem to assume that the crew takes the same meaning from the script that they do, even though scripts are in fact very open to interpretation. I can recognise this in my experience too, as I have sometimes had suggestions from DPs that I felt did not serve the story or the vision. Therefore Ben's comment is a very useful one, as it is something I can personally remedy by working hard to make sure Ben sees the same things in the script that I do, and therefore we can make sure we are on the same page in terms of deciding how to turn those things into images.
One request that I made of Ben is that if he feels he has something to offer then he should please feel free to jump in and interrupt me, rather than waiting around for me to stop and ask, as I am very likely to plough on ahead with my ideas unless someone pipes up with a better one. Ben said that he would not have realised that I would want to work this way if I hadn't said it, so I'm really glad we set up that meeting.
In terms of the creative side of the work, I'm really looking forward to the day in the future when a device is invented that can read and record thoughts, because I can think far more quickly than I can write. I've spent quite a bit of time analysing everything the script suggests and noting down the various ideas and concepts that come out of it. I also went into the city today, to simultaneously location scout and also see what sights, sounds and sensations I could draw from the place. It was definitely a successful trip in terms of seeing and hearing, but it was a little bit depressing in terms of location scouting, because the most impressive, most beautiful, most appropriate locations were also the ones I know we have no chance of securing. As I stand in the perfect location it's so tempting to wander off into thoughts of, "perhaps we could do it guerilla-style and not worry about permits if we just...", but of course that's impossible within the framework of a Unitec assessment. So I'm still at square one in terms of finding an actual usable location, but I do have an idea of what I want the location to actually do for the TVC.
So now I have long lists of ideas, themes and concepts that come from the script. Tomorrow we have class, so I'm hoping there will be time in that class for me to get together with the rest of the team and brainstorm these ideas with them, to see what kinds of images and sounds and styles come up for them. If you have collaborators you might as well milk them, right?
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
TVCs - post 1
It's already Wednesday. How does time fly by so quickly?!?!
I haven't done as much as I would like to on my TVC work. I have images in my head but have yet to actually express any of them on paper.
In terms of organisational work, I have contacted Lisa (producer) and Ben (DP) to ask whether they are free for meetings tomorrow and am sorting out times as I write. At the moment I purely want to touch base with them and discuss our roles, as per my previous blog post for the professional practise assessment. I'm not prepared enough yet to collaborate properly with them, and I would rather hold off than have messy, confusing discussions that may be a waste of time.
In terms of creative work, I have merely been spending time working out the problems and processes I need to go through in order to explore my options fully, ie listing questions and tasks for myself that will help me create a thorough and effective vision for what I want to achieve. To some people this kind of thing would look like procrastination, but the fact is I am a very systematic, process-focused person, and I need to create these kinds of structures for myself. I can't generate a blissful flow of freeform creativity in a vacuum like some people can, but if I pose lots of questions to myself then I am good at seeing the links between the answers and getting a creative flow from that.
One such question, and the most basic question in a TVC, is 'What is the product? What is being sold?'
Only through asking the question can I realise that I don't know the answer. The ad is titled "Life Cycle", and the end graphic says, "Life Cycle for a Better Brighter Future". But what is this Life Cycle? Unfortunately it's not a question I can answer for myself, as it is not up to the director to decide on the product, so I have emailed Sima about it and work is temporarily on hold.
I haven't done as much as I would like to on my TVC work. I have images in my head but have yet to actually express any of them on paper.
In terms of organisational work, I have contacted Lisa (producer) and Ben (DP) to ask whether they are free for meetings tomorrow and am sorting out times as I write. At the moment I purely want to touch base with them and discuss our roles, as per my previous blog post for the professional practise assessment. I'm not prepared enough yet to collaborate properly with them, and I would rather hold off than have messy, confusing discussions that may be a waste of time.
In terms of creative work, I have merely been spending time working out the problems and processes I need to go through in order to explore my options fully, ie listing questions and tasks for myself that will help me create a thorough and effective vision for what I want to achieve. To some people this kind of thing would look like procrastination, but the fact is I am a very systematic, process-focused person, and I need to create these kinds of structures for myself. I can't generate a blissful flow of freeform creativity in a vacuum like some people can, but if I pose lots of questions to myself then I am good at seeing the links between the answers and getting a creative flow from that.
One such question, and the most basic question in a TVC, is 'What is the product? What is being sold?'
Only through asking the question can I realise that I don't know the answer. The ad is titled "Life Cycle", and the end graphic says, "Life Cycle for a Better Brighter Future". But what is this Life Cycle? Unfortunately it's not a question I can answer for myself, as it is not up to the director to decide on the product, so I have emailed Sima about it and work is temporarily on hold.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Professional Practise - Main goal - post 1
Once again we have been set a blogging task as an assessment. Actually I have two blogging tasks as assessments, but I probably won't begin the other one until tomorrow or Wednesday.
For my main goal of the semester I have decided to combine two of the bullet points from the list of suggested goals. They are:
a) Understanding & Respecting Boundaries between your/their role & others’ roles
b) Ability to Delegate appropriately
I've decided that this is appropriate because I feel that the two go hand-in-hand. I think it must be impossible for a director to delegate tasks appropriately if they do not understand and respect the boundaries between their own and others' roles. In fact I think the primary reason for understanding and respecting these boundaries must be so that the director can delegate appropriately, including knowing who to ask for ideas and opinions and advice. In other words, b) is impossible without a), and b) is the reason for a). If these things are not combined then a director cannot possibly get the best possible output from their collaborators, because those collaborators may be either too restricted or too stretched in their work.
Explain how you perceive yourself to be in need of development in the area you have chosen.
The reason I have chosen this goal is because I think this is an area I continue to struggle with. While I have had greater problems with professionalism in the past - most notably with punctuality and adhering to deadlines - I have in fact made good improvements in these areas and feel confident that I am continuing to slowly but steadily overcome the problem. On the other hand I have never properly addressed the issue of boundaries and delegation. I struggle to be patient on set, and sometimes this leads me to overstep the boundaries of mine and others' roles. This is particularly revealed in a bad habit of trying to help which in fact leads to me getting in other people's way. For example I may move props or pieces of set dressing or lighting and camera equipment. While this comes out of a desire to assist the team I am working with and speed the shoot along for the benefit of everyone, it can have a negative effect. I can get in people's way, or do something wrongly, and sometimes I probably make people feel as though I think they are not doing their jobs properly, which would make them feel defensive and antagonistic. It is in my nature to be proactive and to want to take part in all aspects of the work, however I suspect this is something I will have to learn to suppress in order to prevent the negative effects I just mentioned. One of the temptations I might have to be careful of in the process is that of asking other people to do the things I want to help with myself. Part of learning to delegate appropriately will also be learning when it is not my turn to delegate, as I need to respect the HODs and not interfere with them taking charge of their own departments. Wanting to do everything yourself is not considered a strength in a director, and this is an issue I struggle with.
State exactly what you want to achieve with the Goal and what it will look like once you’ve gotten there.
I want to be able to work in teams that are free of interpersonal tensions, because everybody knows their own place in the team and takes ownership of their role, and does not feel imposed upon by me overstepping my marks. I want to be able to help productions run efficiently by ensuring that tasks are delegated appropriately.
Chart a path for growth which will deliver you to that goal.
I don't think I can chart a path for growth over the entire semester, but I think I can do so over shorter periods of time such as one or two weeks, so in my weekly blog posts on this topic I will try to do this. In the blog posts I will look at the tasks that I face over the following one to two weeks and try to predict times when I may be required to face the challenge of this goal, and try to suggest in advance ways that I might be able to deal with it.
At the moment, I have just found out the script and crew that I will be working with for the upcoming TVC project. In 11 days, on the 26th of March, I am required to submit a treatment for my TVC, including a first draft shot list, casting brief, and location briefs. Between now and that time I will be having two classes with the production students to study scheduling, and one for developing the TVCs with the camera students.
A unique challenge that will arise on this project will be in working with the production students, who will be taking on the role of "producer" on this project, rather than "production manager". Since I have never worked with a producer before it will be difficult at first to understand their role, therefore I will make sure that I take some time this week to discuss this with my producer, Lisa, and ask her to explain how she sees the role of producer. We will discuss how we will collaborate and try to foresee any problems that could arise between us.
The relationship that I have always struggled with most on projects has been the relationship with the DP, and I have to say that I have never once a had a director-DP relationship that I was satisfied with. On the other side of the coin, I very much doubt that any DP has ever been satisfied with their relationship with me. For this project I will be working with Ben, who I have never worked closely with before. I think I will also try to meet with him some time this week, purely to discuss our collaboration before making a start on the creative work we will be doing together. I will prepare by writing down my thoughts on how our collaboration should work, so that when I ask Ben I can focus on listening to his thoughts, without busily trying to formulate my own. Then I can offer my own thoughts and we can find ways to compromise if there are aspects that we disagree on.
Friday, March 5, 2010
Visual references
I don't have a great eye, or a great memory for visuals. My strengths lie more in words, I have to admit. Film, though, is a visual and aural medium, so if I want to make films I had better bloody well catch up on the visual and aural skills.
At some point, possibly quite soon, some camera student is going to ask me for visual references. We will have just found out that we are working together on the advert, and will want to develop a "look".
How can someone with a terrible memory for visuals, like me, give great visual references? By turning them into something that I DO understand and remember: words. Words conjure up visual images in my mind. So if I can just manage to convert some visuals into words then I will have a useful catalogue to refer to when asked for references.
From now on, every time I watch a movie I will add a description of its visual style to this list. I will begin with the films I have seen recently. Hopefully I will remember them correctly...
I Am Legend: Low angles that show how dwarfed the lead character is by the enromous, empty, New York environment. Tight close ups on the the main character and dog, to let us into their emotions. Shots on the Dark Seekers (or whatever they are called) seem to be sympathetic. They are shot straight on, like humans, rather than using grotesque horror-style close ups and sharp angles. The colour palette appears to be very yellow sunlight, giving a feeling of disappearing end-of-day light, with cool greys and bright greens.
Tristan and Isolde: Desaturated colours, accentuating the fact that it's a period piece - makes it seem more like an ancient time. Film becomes more and more drained of colour as the film goes on and the danger and sense of foreboding increase. The film is black and white in some parts of the end. Lots of silhouettes used. Slow motion used during battle scenes and love scenes.
Vertigo: Colours seem dull because of the old film stock. Gives every shot the appearance of a beautiful pencil drawing. Use of jade green as a motif in costume and lighting. POV track-zooms used to accentuate fear of heights.
Goodbye Pork Pie: classic late 70s slight brown tone to film stock. Greens and blues very muted. Yellow highlighted and used as motif in costume and car. Few wide shots - the film is about the characters rather than the places they visit.
Things To Come: Black and white. Fast-cutting, for its time. The old times have an elegance, despite the ruin of the environment. The future times are very bland - not much texture or contrast. Smoothness, hardness, and cylinders are all predominant.
Sione's Wedding: Even though I saw it last night, I can't really describe it. It wasn't very distinctive, although I guess you could say that the colours were predominantly dark when hope was low or the situation was negative, and bright when the mood was good.
Querelle: Fantasy-like. Predominance of striking orange and yellow sunset colours over background and set and creating a golden wash over characters. Creates a feeling of over-bearing heat; compliments images of sweaty-skinned bodies. Contrasted with a sickly jade green light used on characters at times, possibly to highlight times of jealousy and coldness, eg in scene with female character in front of mirror. Lighting is non-naturalistic - gives no indication of time of day or diegetic sources. Used to create atmosphere of other-worldness and oppressive heat. Vaseline (?) used to soften image during sex scene between Querelle and Nono.
Renaissance 2025: Black and white animations. No use of grey - gives very strong film noir feeling. Colour used only in the drawings of one character. Effects such as reflections still used despite black and white animation.
War Lords: Initially a predominance of greys in locations, costumes etc. Indicates cold and poverty and hopelessness. Predominance of brown colours when the bandits join the army. The red of the uniforms is slightly browned - looks like the colour of dried blood. Ending uses brighter colours, more beautiful, stronger constrast and saturation, to indicate prosperity. Camera movement etc are very stock-standard Holywood style.
At some point, possibly quite soon, some camera student is going to ask me for visual references. We will have just found out that we are working together on the advert, and will want to develop a "look".
How can someone with a terrible memory for visuals, like me, give great visual references? By turning them into something that I DO understand and remember: words. Words conjure up visual images in my mind. So if I can just manage to convert some visuals into words then I will have a useful catalogue to refer to when asked for references.
From now on, every time I watch a movie I will add a description of its visual style to this list. I will begin with the films I have seen recently. Hopefully I will remember them correctly...
I Am Legend: Low angles that show how dwarfed the lead character is by the enromous, empty, New York environment. Tight close ups on the the main character and dog, to let us into their emotions. Shots on the Dark Seekers (or whatever they are called) seem to be sympathetic. They are shot straight on, like humans, rather than using grotesque horror-style close ups and sharp angles. The colour palette appears to be very yellow sunlight, giving a feeling of disappearing end-of-day light, with cool greys and bright greens.
Tristan and Isolde: Desaturated colours, accentuating the fact that it's a period piece - makes it seem more like an ancient time. Film becomes more and more drained of colour as the film goes on and the danger and sense of foreboding increase. The film is black and white in some parts of the end. Lots of silhouettes used. Slow motion used during battle scenes and love scenes.
Vertigo: Colours seem dull because of the old film stock. Gives every shot the appearance of a beautiful pencil drawing. Use of jade green as a motif in costume and lighting. POV track-zooms used to accentuate fear of heights.
Goodbye Pork Pie: classic late 70s slight brown tone to film stock. Greens and blues very muted. Yellow highlighted and used as motif in costume and car. Few wide shots - the film is about the characters rather than the places they visit.
Things To Come: Black and white. Fast-cutting, for its time. The old times have an elegance, despite the ruin of the environment. The future times are very bland - not much texture or contrast. Smoothness, hardness, and cylinders are all predominant.
Sione's Wedding: Even though I saw it last night, I can't really describe it. It wasn't very distinctive, although I guess you could say that the colours were predominantly dark when hope was low or the situation was negative, and bright when the mood was good.
Querelle: Fantasy-like. Predominance of striking orange and yellow sunset colours over background and set and creating a golden wash over characters. Creates a feeling of over-bearing heat; compliments images of sweaty-skinned bodies. Contrasted with a sickly jade green light used on characters at times, possibly to highlight times of jealousy and coldness, eg in scene with female character in front of mirror. Lighting is non-naturalistic - gives no indication of time of day or diegetic sources. Used to create atmosphere of other-worldness and oppressive heat. Vaseline (?) used to soften image during sex scene between Querelle and Nono.
Renaissance 2025: Black and white animations. No use of grey - gives very strong film noir feeling. Colour used only in the drawings of one character. Effects such as reflections still used despite black and white animation.
War Lords: Initially a predominance of greys in locations, costumes etc. Indicates cold and poverty and hopelessness. Predominance of brown colours when the bandits join the army. The red of the uniforms is slightly browned - looks like the colour of dried blood. Ending uses brighter colours, more beautiful, stronger constrast and saturation, to indicate prosperity. Camera movement etc are very stock-standard Holywood style.
Can it possibly be Friday already?
Monday: The first "Documentary Research & History" class. The class was mostly some theory from Scott, and an intro from Sima. Scott focused on one of his favourite topics, the Truth, and threw us all into an uncomfortable place of confronting our roles as aspiring doco makers and how that sits with ideas about truth/authenticity/fact. Far more uncomfortable for me, however, was Sima's request that we all bring a documentary idea to class next week to begin working on our treatments.
WHAT?!?! NOOOOO!!!!!!!
I was so, SO looking forward to NOT having to make decisions on that for a while. I looked at the course title and thought, "Hurrah! A whole semester of analysing, discussing and researching documentary and documentary ideas!" Admittedly it would be great to spend so much time researching one idea, but I was expecting time to look at options first!!! I wish I had known ahead of time, so that I could have looked more thoroughly at options during the holidays. Maybe I should have been doing that anyway. But anyway, I cannot possibly convey HOW BADLY I want to write one of the treatments that gets chosen to be made next semester. The idea of making a film that I know inside and out and back to front sounds awesome. Sure I could make someone else's but it could never measure up. The research would all be second-hand. No thanks. Anyway, I need a great idea/s fast. And I currently have none. Eep!
Tuesday: Film theory in the morning. Turned up to class on time and the movie was already going. Actually, it had already been going for an hour. What the?! Turned out there had been an email during the week that I had missed out on, saying that the screenings would begin at 8am from now on. I won't make that mistake again. Vertigo was thoroughly confusing after missing the first hour and if there was a point to the film I did not get it. I did find the look of the film extremely beautiful though. The discussions afterwards were good in that I could actually grasp them, and for once I had done the reading, but to be honest the information has gone in one ear and out of the other (and same with the reading, although I don't know where it exited) as I cannot actually remember what the reading was about other than "film form". What did that mean again? I guess I'll have to skim over it before moving on to the next, EVEN LONGER reading.
The afternoon was directing class with Sima. Script analysis. I quite liked the script we worked on - it didn't read like a student script for once. The script analysis questions she gave us though were confusing to me, although she kept saying they were great because they were straight forward. I prefer the questions we got last year from Athina and will probably stick with those.
Wednesday: I missed the emerging technologies class in the mornin to go to the first Faculty Academic Committee for Creative Industries and Business (FAC CIB) meeting of the year. Sigh. It was disappointing to miss emerging technologies, and although I learned a lot at the meeting, unfortunately I also came to the realisation that the issues that are brought to that committee are things that I am very unlikely to have any useful input on.
My evening was spent in Grey Lynn park, snuggled on a picnic blanket with Rayner watching Goodbye Pork Pie in the open air. Unfortunately we were late and missed the start of it, and we didn't have a great view because some people who were even later than us plonked themselves in front of us, but nevertheless I was able to follow and enjoy the film. It took a while to get used to the HORRENDOUS acting but once that was achieved I could relax. The film has some very bizarre and some very funny moments, but despite its status as a class I can't say it's a film I want to emulate.
Thursday: Directing class in the afternoon was spent on scene analysis with the same script as the previous class. was glad to spend some time on that as even though I feel I'm quite strong with script analysis and understanding scripts and characters and mood etc as a whole, I really want to improve my attention to detail and ability to convey meaning throug the minutiae. I will definitely be using scene analysis when planning the shots and design for my next shoot.
The first genre studies class was held in the evening. The genre in focus will be "science fiction". It's a pity that I will only be able to go to every second class (I have USU Exec meetings in the weeks in between) as the first class was very interesting, despite the movie ("Things To Come") being extremely dull. Initially I thought to myself, "I don't really like science fiction", but actually that's not true. I just don't like specific films or sub-genres of science fiction, particularly Star Trek and most (but not all) space travel films. I do like many though, such as The Matrix, District 9, Gattaca, and I Am Legend, which I saw for the first time recently. Here's hoping the screenings for genre studies class fall primarily under my "like" column.
After genre studies Rayner was SUPPOSED to come and pick me up straight away so that we could go to another Movies In Parks session; this time to see Sione's Wedding. Unfortunately, he forgot, and so once again we missed the beginning of the film. Sione's Wedding had definite strengths and weaknesses. On the one hand, many parts of the film were very funny and entertaining. On the other hand, most of the parts that were supposed to be touching were so over-indulgent that they ended up being slightly repulsive. The acting was good and so was the script, but just wish the director had had a bit more of a sense of subtlety sometimes!
Today (Friday): "Advert development" in the morning, with the students from the other disciplines (except the writers). The class was run by Sima, who seems to have found her groove at the front of a class, which was nice to see. She also had a lot of interesting ads to show and interesting things to say about them, which made for an enjoyable class. I'm pleased that she's writing social ads for us. As much as I would love to sell a glamorous product (especially because I really want to practise constructing great visuals) I just don't think we could achieve something at Unitec that looks anything less than cheap (*cough* HD *cough*). On the other hand, social ads seem to very achievable in the time and budget constraints, and lend themselves to the crappy look of HD, which we will be shooting on. Fingers crossed that we get great scripts that lend themselves to creativity though!
WHAT?!?! NOOOOO!!!!!!!
I was so, SO looking forward to NOT having to make decisions on that for a while. I looked at the course title and thought, "Hurrah! A whole semester of analysing, discussing and researching documentary and documentary ideas!" Admittedly it would be great to spend so much time researching one idea, but I was expecting time to look at options first!!! I wish I had known ahead of time, so that I could have looked more thoroughly at options during the holidays. Maybe I should have been doing that anyway. But anyway, I cannot possibly convey HOW BADLY I want to write one of the treatments that gets chosen to be made next semester. The idea of making a film that I know inside and out and back to front sounds awesome. Sure I could make someone else's but it could never measure up. The research would all be second-hand. No thanks. Anyway, I need a great idea/s fast. And I currently have none. Eep!
Tuesday: Film theory in the morning. Turned up to class on time and the movie was already going. Actually, it had already been going for an hour. What the?! Turned out there had been an email during the week that I had missed out on, saying that the screenings would begin at 8am from now on. I won't make that mistake again. Vertigo was thoroughly confusing after missing the first hour and if there was a point to the film I did not get it. I did find the look of the film extremely beautiful though. The discussions afterwards were good in that I could actually grasp them, and for once I had done the reading, but to be honest the information has gone in one ear and out of the other (and same with the reading, although I don't know where it exited) as I cannot actually remember what the reading was about other than "film form". What did that mean again? I guess I'll have to skim over it before moving on to the next, EVEN LONGER reading.
The afternoon was directing class with Sima. Script analysis. I quite liked the script we worked on - it didn't read like a student script for once. The script analysis questions she gave us though were confusing to me, although she kept saying they were great because they were straight forward. I prefer the questions we got last year from Athina and will probably stick with those.
Wednesday: I missed the emerging technologies class in the mornin to go to the first Faculty Academic Committee for Creative Industries and Business (FAC CIB) meeting of the year. Sigh. It was disappointing to miss emerging technologies, and although I learned a lot at the meeting, unfortunately I also came to the realisation that the issues that are brought to that committee are things that I am very unlikely to have any useful input on.
My evening was spent in Grey Lynn park, snuggled on a picnic blanket with Rayner watching Goodbye Pork Pie in the open air. Unfortunately we were late and missed the start of it, and we didn't have a great view because some people who were even later than us plonked themselves in front of us, but nevertheless I was able to follow and enjoy the film. It took a while to get used to the HORRENDOUS acting but once that was achieved I could relax. The film has some very bizarre and some very funny moments, but despite its status as a class I can't say it's a film I want to emulate.
Thursday: Directing class in the afternoon was spent on scene analysis with the same script as the previous class. was glad to spend some time on that as even though I feel I'm quite strong with script analysis and understanding scripts and characters and mood etc as a whole, I really want to improve my attention to detail and ability to convey meaning throug the minutiae. I will definitely be using scene analysis when planning the shots and design for my next shoot.
The first genre studies class was held in the evening. The genre in focus will be "science fiction". It's a pity that I will only be able to go to every second class (I have USU Exec meetings in the weeks in between) as the first class was very interesting, despite the movie ("Things To Come") being extremely dull. Initially I thought to myself, "I don't really like science fiction", but actually that's not true. I just don't like specific films or sub-genres of science fiction, particularly Star Trek and most (but not all) space travel films. I do like many though, such as The Matrix, District 9, Gattaca, and I Am Legend, which I saw for the first time recently. Here's hoping the screenings for genre studies class fall primarily under my "like" column.
After genre studies Rayner was SUPPOSED to come and pick me up straight away so that we could go to another Movies In Parks session; this time to see Sione's Wedding. Unfortunately, he forgot, and so once again we missed the beginning of the film. Sione's Wedding had definite strengths and weaknesses. On the one hand, many parts of the film were very funny and entertaining. On the other hand, most of the parts that were supposed to be touching were so over-indulgent that they ended up being slightly repulsive. The acting was good and so was the script, but just wish the director had had a bit more of a sense of subtlety sometimes!
Today (Friday): "Advert development" in the morning, with the students from the other disciplines (except the writers). The class was run by Sima, who seems to have found her groove at the front of a class, which was nice to see. She also had a lot of interesting ads to show and interesting things to say about them, which made for an enjoyable class. I'm pleased that she's writing social ads for us. As much as I would love to sell a glamorous product (especially because I really want to practise constructing great visuals) I just don't think we could achieve something at Unitec that looks anything less than cheap (*cough* HD *cough*). On the other hand, social ads seem to very achievable in the time and budget constraints, and lend themselves to the crappy look of HD, which we will be shooting on. Fingers crossed that we get great scripts that lend themselves to creativity though!
Monday, March 1, 2010
A new week
There were no classes after Tuesday last week as most of the year level were away on the marae trip Unfortunately I missed out on this, as I stayed back to be available to the Beijing Film Academy students. Although we had finished shooting by the time the marae began, I'm still glad I stayed behind as I was able to save myself a bit of stress by having time to tie up loose ends, such as sending thankyou gifts to our interviewees, repaying petrol and phone debts, and making sure the BFA students copied the footage to their hard drive before going. The bonus was that I was also able to go to the Sounds In The Sun music festival, which was brilliant!
This week brings the first of many classes. I'm particularly looking forward to Doco Research & History. It's quite exciting to realise that we will have a whole semester to explore the genre and research a topic, rather than the very short and shallow research that I've been able to do in the past. The week also brings the first Creative Industries and Business Faculty Academic Committee meeting, which I am both looking forward to and dreading. I am about to discover whether I will ave a great opportunity to bring change this year, or whether I am just going to be sitting through many hours of boredom. I really hope it's the former, as I will be missing an emerging technologies class in order to be there.
This week brings the first of many classes. I'm particularly looking forward to Doco Research & History. It's quite exciting to realise that we will have a whole semester to explore the genre and research a topic, rather than the very short and shallow research that I've been able to do in the past. The week also brings the first Creative Industries and Business Faculty Academic Committee meeting, which I am both looking forward to and dreading. I am about to discover whether I will ave a great opportunity to bring change this year, or whether I am just going to be sitting through many hours of boredom. I really hope it's the former, as I will be missing an emerging technologies class in order to be there.
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