Joseph Kemp

Welcome to My Blog. I am a Media student at Colchester Institute. I will post different things relating to my course here. Hope you enjoy.

[randomunicorndream]

Costumes and Filming

Went to collect the costumes today and discovered that they were of a completely different era to which I was expecting. I cancelled filming for today.

I have a looked at my options and am now (frustratingly) having to consider changing the era in which my video is based in order to fit with the costumes that are available to me. A friend is trying to contact someone in regards to costumes.

I am now also going to be filming at Orwell country park as the travel to get there if far easier than Norfolk.

[randomunicorndream]

Actors, Costumes, Locations and Norfolk

I phoned the Quay theatre in the hope that they would have some costume that I could borrow. Unfortunately they didn’t. On the advice of friend I asked the drama department at the university I attend. I had a look and luckily they had exactly what i wanted. I will be picking them up on Wednesday morning which is when I will hopefully be filming. I have now decided on the Norfolk location. I have also made it so that I can fit everyone in my car. I have done this by making it so that one person is both an actor and crew.

[randomunicorndream]

Actors, Costumes, Locations and Norfolk

Yesterday I sent out emails for actors using the film Suffolk database. The actors on there look really good for the roles I need to fill. There are a couple of them that look perfect for the roles but I will have to wait and see if they are up for acting for me as well as if they are available at the times I will need them.

I will also be calling the Quay Theatre in Sudbury today to ask about the availability and cost of WW1 outfits. Yesterday I contacted “Khaki Devil” to enquire about both costumes and Locations. Unfortunately for one day the costumes cost £75 a piece and the location costs £500 a day for students! I also contacted the “Kelvedon Secret Nuclear Bunker” about their locations and even though less than “Khaki Devil” it is still £120 for three hours for students which is still out of my budget.

Hopefully the Quay Theatre will have the costumes I need and can provide them for me at a reasonable price.

On the subject of locations I am considering using a location in Norfolk which would be free to use. That would just leave travel costs which would be significantly less than hiring out an existing set location. The only problem is that, along with my crew, I would only be able to fit one actor in my car. This means that I would need to get the second actor to travel by train to a nearby train station and i would go and collect them from there.

So still a few things to sort out. Hopefully all goes well.

[randomunicorndream]

Changes to original idea so far

My original idea was a take on the unknown soldier.

Two soldiers have a conversation in a trench, during which the audience find out that one of them has lots of family while the other has none. They would both be killed by a bomb. They would be taken away on stretchers. It would then cut to a grave with lots of people around it followed by another grave with no people around it. It would then cut to modern day with very few people, if anyone around the grave of the soldier with lots of family followed by Remembrance Day where millions of people celebrate the unknown soldier.

The first major change I’ve made to the original idea is that rather than them being killed by a bomb they are surrounded on all but one side. On the open side there will be a forest (this won’t necessarily be shown on screen). They will realise during the conversation that only one of them will be able to reasonably get out (with the other covering them). They initially start to draw straws (sticks) to decide which of them will stay behind. As they do this they continue their conversation during which the soldier with no family finds out the other soldier has a wife and children. He then says that they don’t need the sticks and that he’ll stay behind. They then say their good lucks and goodbyes etc. The unknown soldier then gets in firing position while the other soldier gets ready to run. The unknown soldier then says “go” and starts firing while the other soldiers starts running. It thens fades to black as the soldier runs off screen.

The rest of the video then continues as before.

[randomunicorndream]

Script

Made really good progress on my script today. Mostly done. Just the last little bits to finish off now

[randomunicorndream]

Script

Today’s main task will be to write the script. I will also potentially start on some of the other Pre-Production paperwork

[randomunicorndream]

Project pitch

Yesterday I pitched my idea to my tutor and peers, the general feedback was that it might be fairly logistically heavy. I was also advised to cut a couple of scenes completely.

[randomunicorndream]

Since I last posted I have continued on to the University course of “Digital Film Production”.

Today I will be pitching an idea for a short film to my tutor and peers. This will allow me to get feedback from them as to how I might adapt the idea to make it more suitable for video as well as what techniques filming and editing techniques I can use and also how I can flesh it out to make it more attention grabbing.

[randomunicorndream]

Presentation pt2

preparing the presentations again today. 

[randomunicorndream]

6/06/17: presentation

continuing with making the powerpoint for the presentation of the final project on tuesday.

[randomunicorndream]

1/06/17: Finished Rendering the final copy of the video. Dan got all the editing done. Just waiting for it to render and encode etc now.

[randomunicorndream]

1/06/17: More editing and sound fx Today Dan is doing more editing. I am also finding more sound for him to use. Should have the video done today.

[randomunicorndream]

31/05/17: watch through Just having a watch through of the video to see what needs to be adjusted etc.

[randomunicorndream]

31/05/17: editing and music Yesterday Dan put in all the gun shot sound fx. Today he is now putting in the credits. Gavin and I are also finding music to use.

[randomunicorndream]

30/05/17: Editing Today we are editing the video. We should be able to finish it this week. I am looking for sound fx such as gun shots for Dan to use in the edit.

[randomunicorndream]

24/05/17: More photos from the shoot yesterday.

[randomunicorndream]

24/05/17: Filming Day 2

Had another good day of filming yesterday. Got the majority of the leftover shots done. Just have one more shot to do. That shot is the continuous shot that I have posted about previously. I think this may be one of the most difficult shots of the project as it is going to be filmed in quite close quarters.

photos of the shoot are below: