Surviving The Toilet Circuit - A Brief Retrospective

These are some pictures that my partner Dee took while we were filming our first full scene for now-defunct project Surviving The Toilet Circuit. 

It was a great experience. We were shooting in a stunning Whitehall block right on the riverside that we managed to get access to thanks to a friend. As you can see, when you're working without a crew, any moment that the cast aren't performing they will be holding lamps or microphones or operating the clapperboard. Dee found herself doing a lot of this too, when she wasn't taking pictures she was invaluable as my AD! I just want to add how wonderfully open, honest and helpful everyone was. I really enjoyed working with these guys.

Big thanks to the ever pleasant and ever hard-working Diana, Brian, Fiona, Vince T, Vince N, Pablo, Frazer Neil and Mark. An extra big thank you to Kitty for securing the flat for us to film in and for tarting up to play our working girl! You all gave so much time and energy to the project and I am so grateful for that.

The pictures are testament to how beautiful the flat and the building itself were. A really great location and opportunity. It doubled as label manager Clint Coxon's opulent pad for the purpose of the shoot.

If you're interested in what went wrong with the project, or why it ended up being unsustainable, I have written about it in a previous entry here.

Click for larger images.

Brian's scene - Clint: the decadent alcoholic label manager

Setting up the corridor entrance

Brian stepping in for soundman duties 

Fiona (playing the A&R agent Felicity) on soundman duties

Neil - playing guitarist Mitch - relaxing in between scenes

Frazer and a hard earned beer for his duties as co-writer and cast member

The writers behind Surviving The Toilet Circuit, Frazer and (the unphotographed) Mark have co-written another project, a short film which we will be shooting this Christmas. One location, one main actor, ten minute running length. That sounds a little more digestible!

Thanks for reading, and keep an eye out for the new project (as yet untitled) and also for the recurrence of the STTC cast, as I will be calling them again for future projects (if they are up for it)!



(Not) Surviving The Toilet Circuit

Well, I guess it was just too big a project. A 45 minute short film with over a dozen locations and 8 main cast members, filmed without any experience.

Unfortunately, the short film project - Surviving The Toilet Circuit - a film about a SE London band not quite climbing the ladder to musical success has stalled and is no longer being pursued.

The biggest problem? It was simply too unwieldy, and finding the time when we're all busy people with jobs and bands and families. It took so long that situations changed and the obstacles began to become too big to climb. It is with a strange mixture of genuine regret and naked relief that we closed the project that had become bigger than I could keep track of.

Mark and Frazer are keeping their script though, and hoping to pass it on to some professionals who can do it justice, maybe even a stage performance. I really liked it, and it really resonated with me. I look forward to seeing what happens with the story in the future.

I learned a metric ton of stuff on our filming and rehearsing for this project, and we're all still great friends, stronger than before. But the lesson is learned. If I'm going to do anything as big as that, I need to do it with far simpler logistics. Fewer cast, fewer locations. These are the limitations I need to work in when this is all being done in people's spare time.

Any cast members reading this, thank you so much for giving up so much of your free time for rehearsals, for filming, for logistics, for everything. You were all so generous, I really can't thank you enough.

Well, I'm meeting with Mark and Frazer tomorrow to use this momentum and education we've had, we're going to decide on a short film to shoot. Something simple, no more than 3 locations, no more than 3 cast members, filmable in two weekends or so. Looking forward to it! The sheer mass of the previous project became a suffocating spectre during my low periods, although this is probably largely because I didn't really know how it was going to work out. Learning on the job is the best way to do it, and I've loved it, but there's always the frightening notion that it could all go wrong, and people would be looking to me to fix it, and I wouldn't be able to. Pretending to lead a project while feeling like a fraud is a bad place to be, which is why I try to be as honest and open as possible with anyone I'm working with. I feel like I've learned so much, but I still feel that this is barely the surface.

Sound is still a big obstacle to climb. I should find some people who know all about that stuff and see what I can learn.

In other news, my rent has gone up by £100 a month (negotiated down from £150) and I am so goddamned broke. Missed an opportunity to film Houdini, one of my new favourite bands (check them out here) because of lack of cash, distance (they are based in Medway, not that far away to be honest) and commitments. I would still dearly love to do a video with them though, we've been talking about it for a long time. I'm happy to have full-time work in a financial climate such as this, but it's leaving me so little freedom to work on what I want to do. I'm really glad to be meeting Mark and Frazer tomorrow, get that spark started again, get myself pulled out of the comfortable mire that I sank into once work on Surviving The Toilet Circuit ceased, and since I finished the trailer video for Sofia The Show. 

I've also been fleshing out the basics on my own screenplay finally. I've got a basic outline that I'm really pleased with. I'm writing it with one eye firmly fixed on how limited my options are when it comes to locations and casting and what can realistically be done. Who knows if it will evolve into something filmable, but right now I'm excited, and working on it makes me happy!

Lastly, Saints Row: The Third comes out on Friday. The last pre-order I'll be making for a while until my finances improve. I can justify it because a huge open-world game has real value - I can play it for months - and I'm nerdily excited about it. We all need some down time, and gaming is how I relax. It's my one true vice. You know, apart from all the drugs.

Our first day of filming

It's been a whole week now, but on Sunday we filmed our first scene for the movie.

It was act two, scene three. The band have their first meeting with the record label manager in his plush London digs.

I have never prepared for any shoot as much as I prepared for this. And you know what, it still wasn't enough. But I am gradually learning what I'm doing wrong, and what I'm not doing enough of to prepare.

The whole thing felt strangely anticlimactic, and after arriving and setting up the set (a person's actual home, which lent the whole proceedings a slightly strange air, I was always vaguely aware that I was putting people out) it felt like business as usual.

The shoot went well enough, we got everything in the can, Brian even supplied a boom mic on a grip handle (so you can point it like a gun) that had been sitting around his place for years, most serendipitous indeed, seeing as we were working with capturing high quality sound for the first time. The best thing for me about the shoot was having Dee assist me, she really helped me stay on top of everything and having an extra pair of hands to work clapperboards, lights and microphones was great. Plus there were probably two occasions where time was slipping through my fingers and the task of getting everything filmed felt monumental, and I think I was on the verge of possibly losing all hope a little, but having Dee there kept me sane and kept me together! Thank you Dee, and thank you for the home made scones!

Speaking of food, I was planning for everyone to bring a bit of food along and we could break for a nice buffet style lunch of our own devising, but time was so damned tight that we didn't have a minute to spare. I feel really bad about this as I wanted the shoot to run smoothly and for everyone to have a nice relaxing lunch and chat halfway through the day. Maybe next time I should schedule everything to a timetable, although there is a probability that everything will get clusterfucked after a scene needs twenty takes or I forget to set the sound levels and we have to do it all again.

I've edited together the first 30 seconds or so, and I have some serious audio balancing to deal with because the supposed background silence in certain scenes hums along very loudly in one shot and then disappears in the next (air conditioning or perhaps water boiler?) This will be my first time working to balance audio as well as visuals and so far I think I will have a lot of work to do but I think (hope?) that this is pretty standard fare. The audio capture isn't as sharp as I'd like, voices disappear beneath footsteps and the audio is not crystal clear. I guess I will try my hand and twirling some on-screen dials in Final Cut, shrug my shoulders a bit and then do some googling and see if I can bring up the quality. In future, I need to get the boom mike closer to the actors, judiciously hiding it in the set so it won't show up on camera.

On the plus side, my current concerns about whether I not I kept everything in focus seem to be unfounded, and I got all the footage I was planning to get.

On the negative, I didn't get enough coverage. I never liked the idea of getting coverage, preferring instead to get all the shots on my shot list, but now I'm feeling a little exposed and if anything has gone wrong then it could hurt me later on in the edit. I think I shall correct this in future and get more coverage. I could really use the extra angles, as some of the shots don't quite flow/match up.

The pressure of having the camera in people's faces and being on location, with a time limit, made remembering lines difficult and we went through a lot of takes. I think our rehearsals have had the wrong focus, because we seemed to be finalising a lot of action and acting decisions in front of the camera, and the rehearsals hadn't helped us remember our lines. Admittedly our rehearsals have been mostly sitting around reading the script out loud, when I should have pushed sooner for us to ditch the scripts - although at the time the idea made everyone nervous. Having a script in our hand was like a comforting blanket, and we didn't want to forgo that. I could be wrong but I think everyone probably wishes we had done more to learn our lines in rehearsal, and more to flesh out the scenes, and I take responsibility for that because I really should have been using our time more efficiently. But that's inexperience for you, and this is hindsight. Not much good to dwell on mistakes, far better to learn from them.

I'm looking forward to getting the scene edited together, but life keeps getting in the way. Part of me is terrified that once I put everything together, it's just not going to work (read: it's going to be shittily edited and directed) and we'll have to shoot the whole scene again, without our plush location.

I really should contact the guys and arrange our next rehearsal/scene filming. They haven't heard from me in a week, they probably think I've gone mad with the pressure of putting the first scene together and have shut myself away from the world.

It's taken me a week to get myself together enough to write this.... perhaps they're right.

Our Filmed Rehearsal on Monday

So, after work on Monday I dragged my camera case and tripod (they both get really heavy after a while) to the tube and took myself across town to Mark's place in Greenwich. I arrived early enough to meet Brian (aka Clint Coxon, manager of our fictional Juggernaught Records) for a beer and a bite to eat, then we walked to Mark's. It was nice to have some help with the tripod! Once at Mark's, we had from 7 til 10pm.

We mocked up Mark's basement to the orientation of the London flat we'll be using on Sunday (luckily it has many similarities in terms of furniture and door placement). We did a run through of the scene and talked about how we would do things. We probably spent a bit too long doing this because once we finally started filming, we were only able to film about two thirds of all the shots.

I had a trusty shot list, which had the shot number, the camera angle, and room for writing the timecodes and making notes. I had put my list not in shot order, but in shooting order, so I would do one camera setup, film all of those scenes, then do the next set-up, and so on. There were 50 seperate shots to film, and we didn't get them all. In terms of the scene, we got all of the middle, but missed a chunk from the beginning and end. I also had a floor plan with all the camera angles and another sheet which listed all the shots and gave a description of dialogue/action in each shot. I think before Sunday I will combine the shot list with the list of shot descriptions to save me flicking constantly back and forth between two sheets.

We didn't worry too much about lighting, we stuck the camera on idiot-mode and the cast often had a script in hand for some of the dialogue as not all the lines had been thoroughly learned yet. We didn't have much time to strive for perfect performances. Until now we had only rehearsed the scenes from beginning to end and shooting it in bits and pieces, out of script order, was disorientating. I knew it would be, but I don't think I accounted for how disorientating. I suddenly began to realise that while I thought I had a hold on the scene, and where the characters would be, I actually didn't. Fiona would ask me where she should be during a scene and I had no idea. It made sense when we rehearsed it all in order, but filming out of order I often became befuddled. I think I will need to make a much more developed set of floorplans including character movement so I don't get so confused! There was unfortunately, a heck of a lot of standing around and waiting for the cast, even though we actually got through the shots pretty quickly and weren't trying to light each setup. Any notions of movie-set glamour soon disappeared. (note to self - set up a room where people can wait when not needed so they don't have to stand in the corner trying to be small)

Although we ran out of time and I found myself constantly losing pens or sheets of paper or getting confused (despite some pretty heavy - but not heavy enough - planning) the shoot was never stressful and we laughed quite a lot. Everyone was really enthusiastic and they put up with me and my incompetent boobery. I feel especially sympathetic for Neil and Frazer, as they don't even have any lines, they just have to sit there looking interested and not like they have numb arses, which was probably the hardest of all.

We wrapped up shortly around 10.15pm and made our way home. Being far luckier than I deserve to be, I went home to an incredible homemade pizza made by the amazing Dee, whose patience and support has been consistently amazing. Dee, if you're reading this, thank you. x

I spent Monday night with my brain still wired, directing people in urgent but mundane tasks in my dreams until my alarm went off and I had to go to work.

Yesterday (Tuesday), after work I decided to start transferring the video. After a big delay that required me to trash all my Final Cut preferences (the program stopped recognising the camera) I managed to get the footage imported. The lighting is harsh and the cameras automatic mode was pretty ugly. The picture also lacked sharpness and clarity, which I am a little surprised by, but I know it can do better and I only have myself to blame for using the automatic settings and autofocus. I was careful to check my white balance this time, having learned from previous mistakes.

But there was one thing I didn't check before we started filming. Audio levels. In my utter incompetence and inexperience, I shot the whole scene with the volume setting on the camera left on it's previous settings, which was when I filmed the deafening Frau Pouch/Explorer's Collective live gig. Barely a word registers when I playback the footage, and no matter how much I amplify the audio on Final Cut I can't hear a thing. My plan, to assemble a rough cut rehearsal of the scene that we could use to critique direction, camerawork, and blocking, has pretty much crumbled. I am incredibly disappointed, devestated even, given all the work that everyone put in to make this rehearsal happen. This was meant to help us feel utterly prepared going into our filming on Sunday, and all we're left with is a badly edited silent movie. Not that I've had time to edit it together yet, which should be difficult without any audio cues.

God fucking damnit.

On the plus side, if the footage makes sense (all the timecodes for each take have been recorded so assembling it then trimming the fat shouldn't be completely impossible) without audio then we know that visually, our plans are sound. We can also use this dodgy footage to make sure our continuity and blocking works and make changes where we need to. And on the super-positive side, at least I've learned my lesson BEFORE setting foot on the location. I'm really mad at myself for the oversight, but learning the hard way... sometimes it's the best way. I'm making a checklist, so this never happens again.

I was organised on Monday, more so than I have been on any of the music video shoots, but I realise I am still not organised enough. But I'm getting there!

Thanks for reading x

Filming next weekend! Rehearsal filming on Monday.

I haven't updated for a little while, not because of a lack of things happening, but an abundance! We're filming next Sunday and right now we're meeting quite often to rehearse (we might even be over-rehearsing) and on Monday we're going to have a filmed rehearsal in which we'll practice not only walking and talking but also the different camera angles and shots. I've been mapping out the camera angles on a plan of the location for the past few days now on my lunchbreaks at work. It's something I've never bothered to do before but it really helps you visualise and plan a full shot list and I'm finding it invaluable. I guess how useful it actually is will become apparent next weekend. Sadly our filmed rehearsal won't be on location (a wonderful central London apartment that a friend is lending us), but in Mark's basement mocked up to represent the space as much as we possibly can.

Right now I'm looking forward to our filmed rehearsal, and especially to editing the footage together and seeing if it works as a whole. I've done similar "dry runs" on music video rehearsals, and it has always shown me where my planning was weakest, which scenes needed more thought and which didn't really work, and allowed me to fix that.

Editing is like assembling the jigsaw puzzle. After the hustle of filming, I always find editing to be a real pleasure, ensconced in the study behind a computer screen with a cup of tea and a notepad filled with scribbled timecodes. Maybe a bit more time spent editing will kill that cosiness off, but currently it's one of the things I look forward to the most.

We've been working really hard towards this first piece of filming, doing a lot of rehearsals. If we continue at this rate, filming a scene a month, it will take us 18 months. That's just stupidly long. I'm hoping that once we get this first scene done we'll start moving things a long a lot more quickly, and we'll be more confident. I don't want this shoot to go on forever or become a millstone or a chore for anyone, as everyone is working for free on this project.

Let's hope it doesn't drive anyone insane. As each day passes it dawns on me more and more how complicated this project is and how utterly inexperienced I am.

Filming begins ... soon!

Lots happening right now, I've been meaning to write an update for ages!

We've had read throughs with all of our major characters now, only just this week we met with two of our new cast members and had a good time going over the script together. The project really feels like it's building steam when you start bringing in the actors, and it's not just a bunch of mates chatting over some beers in a bar somewhere.

Our read throughs have been pretty free flowing so far, I've purposefully not taken steps to influence how people read the lines or the inflections they use, because I want everyone to lose any inhibitions about acting in front of others, but now that we have had nearly all our introductory readings, I will start directing the cast a bit more and trying things out. Importantly, the cast need to have faith in me, to believe that I won't make them look stupid on film (well, video). And I won't. I will make sure of that. I may be new to this, but I'm hoping that I know when something isn't right. If they don't have that faith in me, then they will be less willing to really go out on a limb and try something, in case it fails.



HOWEVER the big news is that an opportunity to film our first scene has arisen. An amazing location has become available within a limited timescale, provided we can get everyone together on the same day! This does mean that we will be filming earlier than originally anticipated, probably by at least a month, but if time was no object we probably wouldn't begin filming for til late summer because I'd feel bad about rushing anyone or moving before we are ready, so perhaps this is a blessing because it forces all of us to jump in with both feet.

The scene in question takes place in the hotel room of the manager of Juggernaught Records, and was recently begrudgingly rewritten to take place in a less impressive but more available location, and has now been re-rewritten to take place in an impressive space in London. Right now we're working out all the details, and we will have one day to shoot the scene.

I plan to storyboard this thing out as much as possible. I want to be flexible on the day, and try things as they are available, but I want to make sure I have a solid plan to fall back on, as I won't have time to faff around. If we run out of time on the day then we run the risk of having wasted everyone's effort.


Well, we start filming our first scene in one month! The ball feels like it's rolling now. I guess it's good that I feel like I'm inside the ball and steering it, rather than feeling that the ball is rolling down a hill like a boulder in my direction. I'm sure that feeling will come later!

An office, an office, my kingdom for an office

All the parts in the short film project are cast, rehearsals are underway, painfully slowly right now, but it's tricky pulling lots of people together, especially when they're giving their time away for free, for which I am eternally grateful of course! Hopefully we can have at least one thing happening each week.

The next step is locations. We've already earmarked and set aside quite a few, houses and businesses of friends being our main source of locations, as well as the odd live venue which will carry their own set of challenges. But one location, which is pivotal, is the office of Juggernaught Records A&R executive Felicity.

I set up a minimalist "office" for the Grenade music video that I did with the Explorer's Collective, it was just a table, two chairs, a laptop and some charts in an empty room. And that is exactly what it looked like. It didn't convince as an office at all. I don't want to make the same mistake. I guess I want to find an office that is almost ready to go. I know I won't find that, and that I will have to compromise, but then I began to even question what it was I was looking for. I don't even know what the office of an A&R executive looks like. What would be in there? Am I looking for something which only exists in my mind, pinned together from various films and books and stories and hollow anecdotes about record labels? Sure, I was in a band for years, but we never made contact with anyone who worked for a record label. Well, there was one guy, from a very small independent label, but that was a brief informal meeting in a pub where he said he wasn't looking for any bands to take on but he liked us. That hardly helps the situation. Then or now.

So what do I want? I want a room that can convince as one office in London or Greater London. Felicity will need a desk, I guess I'm imagining more of a desk in the centre of the room rather than a corner unit like most people have their computers on at home, purely for dramatic purposes. She will need a computer or laptop, probably a printer, and I envisage piles of CD samples sent to her by various bands. A CD player or record player with good quality speakers. She is after all, in the music business. I'm trying to just get by on logic here, but the more I think about people meeting in an office over a desk, the more I subconsciously try to dress up the office like one from a private eye movie. Venetian blinds! Table lamp! Desk fan! Ashtray!

Is she organised or messy? Are the Juggernaught offices in a dingy cellar or a room with a view? Clean white surroundings or dripping pipes and rot? These seem like decisions the script or story should dictate, but interestingly, either option works with the narrative.

Maybe I need to make it a home office just to simplify things. But I feel that I've made too many compromises like that already, and I want the thing to have some production value, and not be set entirely in what are clearly people's houses.

I need to find a location. Somewhere, someone is sitting in a room just like the one I need.

Where are you hiding?

Casting complete!

Yesterday I met with Fiona, who we are casting as the role of Felicity, the a&r of a record label that shows interest in our down-trodden band, The Electric Edwardians. She has some experience with filming small projects and has even done a little acting work before, so I'm really looking forward to our first readthrough.

On Saturday we met with Tom Edwin-Scott, musician and all around nice-guy, who has agreed to play the role of Archie, the band's um... pharmacist.

That's it, all parts cast! Now just need to arrange individual readthroughs, and then we can start doing readthroughs with everyone present. Sort our locations out, schedule everything.... then? Filming!

Before we do the group readthroughs I am going to arrange a big get-together for all the cast and anyone who will be helping me with filming, so we can all talk and get to know each other over a few cold drinks, just to eliminate the notion of anyone having to work with strangers. I'm envisioning a picnic or barbecue in a London park in the summer. I can smell those burgers already.

Maybe we could go one step further and organise a fight club, you know, help with the bonding and all that. Definitely a possibility.

Locations

Right now we film 18 scenes in 15 locations.

That's a HELL of a lot of locations for a no budget movie.

On the one hand, having that amount of variety might make our short film look less "cheap" but on the other, I might be biting off more than any of us can chew. I don't want to be making this movie forever, so I am taking a look at our location lists and seeing where I can move things around and re-use locations. Sometimes we can even use one location but film it as two, for example, seperate rooms of a house could double as completely different locations.

Some scenes can be quite easily tweaked, for example, instead of the band members visiting a friend, he visits them, as we've already got a scene based in their flat. That takes one location out of the equation. The scene might need a tiny bit of a re-write because of that but doing so also enables us to get creative and see old lines from a fresh perspective. I think I'll go over this in detail with the writers, we can get together over a cold one and work out some solutions.

First readthrough with a non-principal character

On Tuesday we met with our friend Vince, who will be reading for Ken, the manager of the Electric Edwardians. Ken is the non-principle character with the most scenes, and the first casting we've done outside of the band who are all playing versions of themselves.

We had a laid back readthrough at my place (the bonus of not having to travel!) over a few beers, and Vince was absolutely brilliant. We had a great laugh and read over his scenes a few times and tried a few things out. It was utterly relaxed and everything came very naturally.

I think Vince is our man!!

Over the next few months we'll probably have similar readthroughs, with the principal cast present to read with the new cast member. Once we have had a low-key rehearsal with each cast member I'm planning to bring everyone together at a party, perhaps a barbecue, so that everyone can meet and mingle. We're all untrained actors, and I think everyone probably feels nervous about acting next to a stranger, so we'll remove that barrier.

The last thing I want on this project is for people to feel stressed. Perhaps I might need to help myself out and get some people to assist me during shooting, I've got a lot on my plate!

Got the footage from the other day...

So I got the footage (of our rehearsal of act 1 scene 1) on to the computer and everything looks and sounds fine. The lack of preparation hurt it a little, there were lines of dialogue for which I had no usable shots as I hadn't planned my angles, I just filmed several takes of them acting out the whole scenes with me focusing on different elements each take. Very rough and ready. I made a quick edit to show the band and they like it. The acting was pretty good, and I can see where I need to be more careful and plan my shots better.

I switched the audio to manual control to film their song at the end, they played very loud and the camera handled it very well, the levels were set correctly. But the vocals were of a very poor quality, even though the rest of the instruments came across very nicely.

I'm filming a few bands this weekend live, and there doesn't seem to be much of a chance that there will be any separate audio recordings made, or even the opportunity to go through a mixing desk (as it is such a small venue they only put the vocals and the kick drum through the PA). Will have to do some reading and see what my options are.

Crowd noise is also going to be a problem if I can't get a microphone close to the bands....

The Tripod Arrives - Test-Filming the First Act

The tripod arrived yesterday!
It's big and chunky, really nicely packaged, and it feels like a quality piece of kit. Very strong and sturdy.

The head has a half-ball and socket fitting so you can get some full movement and then can lock it in place. It has metal locking plates for the bottom of the camera. The panning is really smooth once the locks are loosened. For the price, this is a great piece of kit, there's not a flimsy thing about it.

I'm hoping the tripod feet will fit nicely into the tripod wheels I bought a long time ago. This heavier tripod and camera should hopefully be stable in the wheels, which caused vibration in the lighter tripods.
(link to old blog post about the wheels)

Last night I met with the principle cast for our short film, Surviving The Toilet Circuit, in the rehearsal studio where the band meets for practice. I had decided to come down during one of their rehearsals to film a scene where the fictional band will be rehearsing. It was a good opportunity to get used to the new camera. I planned out the shoot as much as possible beforehand and mapped out all the physical actions I wanted the cast to perform. It all went pretty much to plan, and we managed to shoot several different angles of them acting out the entire first act. With each reading everything got better and began to look more realistic and genuine.

I think when we do the final run we'll film it shot by shot, but for this early run it was great to act the whole scene out in one go with minimal references to the script. I think it felt a lot more natural this way, to keep the flow of the dialogue and the actions consistent.

Everything was shot handheld as I couldn't bring my tripod, the car is currently awaiting repair/euthanasia so I had to get public transport and walk from one end of New Cross to the other to get there. Dee came with me on the journey and brought the dog, so we had a big hairy escort to protect our precious cargo. She also made rhubarb kuchen cake for when I arrived home! Thanks Dee! You're the greatest!!

This means I haven't yet used the camera on the tripod yet, although I will soon and I will let you know how it all fits. I really don't think the weight of the camera will be a problem, this tripod is beastly enough to handle it.



I'll get the footage onto the mac this weekend and do an edit to show the guys. I'll also discover what the pitfalls are, and where I need to make improvements with my planning.

The lens appears to be fine!

Good news!
The foreign body inside the camera lens is not visible at all when filming. I took some footage at various zooms and light exposures and on the computer screen I can't see anything untowards. What a relief!!
On a side note, the footage is lovely, it has so much more richness and depth than my trusty Panasonic camcorder, which despite being a consumer camcorder can still produce above average imagery in the right settings. Controlling the focus will still be tricky. The focus ring will help, but it has no markings as it is essentially an electronic focus ring, not a classic manual one, and I still don't quite trust autofocus to be looking at the right things at the right time.

Had my weekly wobble this morning, where I wake up panicking and feeling crushed under the weight of my various projects, wanting nothing more than to jack it all in and regain all my time, spending entire weeks ensconced in bed watching movies and eating cake with Dee. You see, as well as the video projects (got two on at the moment) I also work as a 3d model builder, level designer and producer on a video game project and I have a full time job with up to 3 hours of commuting a day. It's no wonder I feel overwhelmed. These wobbles always seem to follow the weekends, probably a side effect of the Monday blues. But this morning I have sat down and started tackling the problems that I imagine will cause me the most stress, and I've actually managed to work out creative solutions for nearly all of them, and I feel so much better and re-invigorated about the project.

I'm actually quite glad that I have certain restrictions regarding the amount of control I have over certain areas in which we will be filming. It means I have to be creative and plan things out to get the best out of a situation. It's always good to have limits and obstacles to your work, it gives you focus.

3rd Draft written, camera case finished.

In the end that foam packaging wasn't such a dogs dinner after all. Pretty proud of it. Certainly better than paying a few hundred quid for some bell-end to do the same job.
I am however, massively depressed by what looks like a crumb inside the 16x lens that comes with the Canon XL1s. It's on one of the inner lenses, I don't know how on earth anything could get in there. It doesn't look like condensation or mould, which would be awful but explainable, it looks like a solid object. The lens is the most expensive part of the whole camera. I need to do some tests to see if it ever comes up on film. If it does I don't know what I'm going to do but I'm confident weeping will be on the agenda. I never saw it when inspecting the gear from the seller, so I don't know if it's new or old. Fuck a duck.

Today I finished the redraft of the Toilet Circuit script, combining all my readthrough notes with electronic suggestions from some of the team too while listening to Chopin and Beethoven. On my lunch hour. Don't think I'll email the script to the boys just yet, I think I'll give it to them at the next readthrough so they don't have a chance to pre-prepare, or get specific line readings stuck in their heads. I've only made small changes, but I think it works, I need to hear them say it all first before I'll know for sure. Hopefully Frazer and Mark (who wrote the script) won't stare at me like a man who just butchered their child.

Yesterday some new miniDV tapes arrived along with a DV tape cleaner, I thought it would be good to spruce up the insides before putting my tapes in. I don't know what tapes the previous owner used but I read that using different makes of DV tape can cause problems because of the subtle accumulation of the different types of goop that each tape uses. I don't recall the specifics but I remember reading several people saying "find a tape brand and stick to it, you idiot" and I took their advice on board. There was more to it than that, and I used to understand better, but there's only so much room in my head so I've had to simplify certain knowledge so it takes up less space. Either way a tape cleaner could do no harm. Maybe I can start using this camera to film things with rather than having it locked away in a case, and only getting it out to fawn over it and stroke it and then putting it back very carefully.

I also think I will start carrying the camera around for ten minutes a day just to strengthen my arm and wrists. It's not huge, but it's no featherweight, and if I jump straight into filming for several days straight then I will probably give myself some horrendous RSI. My goodness, I'm not very butch, am I?

Update and a great website

I can't believe I've not stumbled across this website before, it is exactly the kind of thing I have been looking for. Something written by a guerilla film maker with genuine tips and enthusiasm.

Lots of great articles and features and advice!

http://www.filmsensei.com/

I did a bit more work on the new draft for Surviving The Toilet Circuit today, trying to pull in 3 separate scripts, rewrites, and lots of notes.

Slow progress! Screenwriting is so painful sometimes, you can agonise over every word!

I still haven't written anything beyond an outline for my own future project, but I look forward to writing my own one! Although it's also a terrifying prospect. One project at a time though, otherwise I'll burn out!

New Draft, New Camera!

The "Surviving The Toilet Circuit" short film project is moving ahead at full steam. We collaborated on a rewrite  just this week and I have a highly scribbled on script and some files on the computer that will all tie together to a brand new draft.

We also went and bought a camera that will we use on the shoot, the Canon XL1s, the little brother of the benchmark (and pricey) Canon XL2.

Here it is:

It is a prosumer camera that you can pick up these days for about £750, despite a couple thousand when it first came out. They used these bad boys to film the deserted London scenes in 28 Days Later, and if they are good enough for Danny Boyle, then they are good enough for me!

Very exciting times. I can't wait to get my hands on it.

Been beavering away on the film project since the last update, have read through the highly recommended book "Directing Actors" by Judith Weston.

(Amazon link)

Directing Actors: Creating Memorable Performances for Film and Television

I echo the praise this book has already received, it was incredibly enlightening and has honestly changed my perception of not only acting and actors but also on the role of the director. I feel like I've been re-educated.

There were almost too many important pages to bookmark! Every second paragraph was practically a gem.

I'm also reading On Film Making, by Alexander McKendrick, another seminal and highly regarded book aimed at directors. I can confirm that it after a lengthy introduction, it gets really good, but I almost feel like my brain has reached saturation point and I don't want to waste the knowledge imparted, so I've picked up a fiction novel for the first time in months and I am claiming back my lunch hours and train journeys for relaxation rather than education! Maybe I can take a week or two off from learning just to wind down. I look forward to picking McKendrick up again once I can fit more knowledge in!

(Amazon link)

On Film-making

A friend of the family imparted a useful quote to me recently, it wasn't in the context of film-making, but he said "knowledge without experience is just information".

All this knowledge I've been gathering from so many texts, it really is just words until I put it into practice. I really need to get in there and get my hands dirty and get practical. The Directing Actors book has already made a difference to the way I run rehearsals, and it's allowed me to open up and penetrate the script and gain a new understanding of what is going. I'm working with non-actors, so not everything in the book is going to be of use, but reading the whole thing was honestly invaluable.

I'm doing my best to take notes, read actively and not let all this golden information just seep away.

As for the current project, I've cast a few more characters with non actors, again asking friends and people we know. We're meeting this week with the principles to work on backstory, get the new character in, and do another draft of the script. I've also created a few tables to help me break down the plot and the flow and the character relationships.

I made a lot of progress recently on a music video I've been working on for months now, it's one I've mentioned before and I've taken lots and lots of footage of things and places to make a video without people in it. I basically threw edits and effects at one another until things started to stick, it was very experimental and highly satisfying. It's the most progress I've ever made on it and the first half of the video is pretty much done. I would like to finish this one soon as I have a large workload, I have another non-film related creative project outside of all this as well as a full time job and a wonderful partner whom I want to spend more time with and a big, demanding dog and a lazy cat. To be honest that last one takes up nearly none of my time, he don't do nuffin!

But I think it's getting to me, my left eyelid has been twitching for a month now and it's driving me crazy. Stress related apparently. I don't feel stressed, but I know I am stretched pretty thin. I think things will be better when I get the music video finished, although I'm really enjoying working on it and learning a lot, not only about visuals, but also about Final Cut and the whole editing process.

Plus I haven't played more than 15 minutes on the Xbox for weeks. Shocking!

Will post more soon

x

First work of the new year

It's been a quiet time since before Christmas, with not much happening as everyone has been too busy and the snow had thwarted any opportunities we had to get together to discuss the next step in the "Surviving The Toilet Circuit" short film project we're doing, based on a script written by members of the Explorer's Collective.

Last week I met up with two of the project members in a pub in West Croydon called the Indian Elephant - a good opportunity to promote my good friend Amerish's fledgling pub, if you're ever in Croydon check it out and give one of the nicest and hardest working men I've ever known some of your business because damn, he deserves it. We had a good night and discussed the project a little, but mostly it was great to catch up with the guys.

We met up again two days ago with all the principles and did a read through, followed by some script editing and analysis and talked about how to "act" as none of us are actors. I've been reading some books on the subject and I'm halfway through Directing Actors by Judith Weston which is a deservedly seminal book on the topic, a real horizon expander which gave me a lot more confidence to talk to my non-actors and find ways to deliver the lines more truthfully. It's written mainly for working with professional actors but the book tells you so much about the craft of acting and how to overcome hurdles that I think it would be useful to anyone. Acting well is a lot more difficult than many people realise, including myself.

The readthrough and analysis, which was a couple of hours in Mark's basement music rehearsal space, was really constructive, and rather than degenerating into the usual beer and spliffs and giggles, we covered a lot of ground and are in the process of making some large changes to the script including a possible new character in the fictional band, which would solve our logistical problems of having four musicians playing what currently is a three piece band, but done so in a way that won't hurt or mutilate the script. Everyone is getting better and more professional already and I think we're beginning to focus. We've got a long road ahead though and so much still to organise.

Until recently I've not had a problem with the workload of producing, directing, shooting, recording, editing, organising, location-securing and lighting this movie all by myself but the last few nights have been a bit sleepless as the weight of the project begins to make itself felt. Every now and then during a tranquil train ride or a quiet moment at home an abyss of apprehension will open up and swallow me whole for a few seconds, but the key is staying optimistic. Not everyone gets a chance to indulge themselves and learn like this, and I am grateful for the opportunity. The key is to stay calm and in control, not something I have a great track record of, but this is where I need to rise to the ocassion. Preperation is my ally, and I've made some mistakes and learned a lot on my last few projects. As long as I can do this on my terms, then I should be able to stay in control.

It's a special, intoxicating and fun kind of terror.

Our first read through of "Surviving The Toilet Circuit"

So we gathered at Mark's place to have our first official read-through, with all principal cast members present. That is, Mark, Frazer, Neil and Pablo. The usual suspects!!

It went surprisingly well. We rehearsed a few run throughs while lounging across sofas and sipping icy beers and then practiced an "acted" version of the first scene which also gave me the opportunity to try staging the scene and seeing how the actors would move, turn, emote. It was a lot of fun and very relaxed. We managed to identify a few lines that didn't quite work or might need rewriting and we took notes. Everyone got better at delivering the lines with each read through, and honestly, although no-one is an actor, some of the line delivery was almost perfect. I was expecting there to be nerves, and everything feeling a little wooden, but a lot of the lines were done with real gusto. Everyone is really keen and it feels good!!

Mark's two year old son Oliver joined us for some of the later read throughs, having awoken from his slumber upstairs. He pottered around with his plastic helicopter and was wearing Mark's sunglasses, being ridiculously adorable. I hope the coarse language of the script won't cause too much embarassing mimicry.

We headed out for some indian food in Greenwich to celebrate a great start to the project.

Now that is all sorted, I shall plough on with work. Yeah I'm at work on a Sunday. Gotta bring home the bacon.

Surviving The Toilet Circuit

I like this new background. Think I'll keep it.

Going to do our first read-through of the script with the band members on Friday. I might bring my camera, just to get everyone used to being filmed as they rehearse.

The script is titled "Surviving The Toilet Circuit".

Mark, one of the co-writers from the script, has just had his second little boy born a few days ago! I wonder where he finds the time to work on the script as well! Frazer, the other writer, was very recently married, so they are both becoming "real people"!

Looking forward to Friday. This will be my first real experience of prepping a narrative with story and dialogue. My first experience since I acted in the school play 15 years ago at least. I actually remember it incredibly fondly, several months of after school rehearsals were by far some of my happiest memories.

I really hope we can have the same easy going, totally laid back atmosphere here. Who wouldn't want that?

I'll let you know how it goes!!