Ducky Steps Communication Issues

Since going on Easter break, I have found it increasingly difficult to contact the Director of Ducky Steps. This was because of the director not having any credit on their phone/ internet access being dodgy/ phone being turned off or misplaced. In another circumstance, I would have arranged a meeting face to face, however I know from experience that timekeeping isn't a skill the Director has greatly mastered so was reluctant to do so as I was very busy and didn't want to have to waste time waiting around for someone.

As a "solution" to these communication issues, I make a point of texting/ emailing and facebooking the Director about the same thing in order to make sure my message gets seen. It is a bit annoying but as long as it produces results I don't really mind doing it. For the organisation of our beach shoot, I gave my number to all the cast just in case they couldn't reach Anya.

However, still feel I am being kept out of the loop to certain extent in regards to the information the Director gives me. Often I find out information about problems that have arisen from other people, rather than from the Director themselves despite me confirming details and being reassured that certain details are sorted.

Obviously I realise that people sometimes get mixed up and make mistakes but I feel frustrated that I am trying to organise shoots but then find out that the Director is helping to shoot with another group.
I will be addressing the communication issues with the Director once I see her face to face, and get her home phone number off her so I know I can contact her on there if desperately needed.

Vegetarian Cutaways: Possible Locations

Today Victoria and I scouted out possible loctions we could use for cutaways that would tie in with our documentary.

We thought we could include cutaways of menus to show what is offered to vegetarians when they eat out:

We are also maybe going to do cutaways of fruits/ vegs in grocery stores or food in shops to show suitablity for vegetarians. We are going film at least some of the cutaways on Wednesday, and probably film some more after our interview with Richard.

 

 

 

Ducky Steps Beach Scenes Shoot

Today we shot our beach scenes at Holywood Beach.
Present at this shoot were:
Me
Anya (Writer/ Director)
Andy (Camera Operator)
Matt (Sound Mixer)
Chris (Barney)
Michael (Candid)

We all met on Holywood Beach at 4:30. We did the scenes at the bench first, followed by the scene when Barney and Candid skip stones. We did the scene with Barney retrieving the duck last, as the director wanted it to be darker for that scene to reflect the Noir of the character.

Here are some photos from the shoot:

Ducky Steps Production Meeting 10/04/14

There are still some things we have to confirm/ tie up, of which I plan to make sure are sorted no later than this Saturday:

 

1. Shot Lists- I did intend on the shot lists being completed by today at the latest, however despite me setting up a meeting between the camera person and the director, the Director seemed reluctant to sit down and go over them with him. I continuously tried to prompt her to complete them; however I could not focus all my energy on making sure this happened because I was also attending a production meeting for the other film.  

When talking to the Director later on, I suggested that we could meet tomorrow and do them, but she said she would just do them herself. I will be badgering her over the weekend for copies of the shotlist to make sure they are completed, and will be ready to help if she needs it.

 

2. Schedule for Tuesday sent out- We have decided Anya and I meet at 9:30am, the crew come at 9:45am, and the cast come at 10:15, but I want an approximate time to aim to finish the scene at.

 

3. Costume List for Tuesday sent out- We have already told our actors what to wear, but this is just to remind everyone.

 

4. Make sure everyone can get to the location at the times needed

 

5. Print out indemnity and release forms

 

6. Print out extra copies of scripts

 

7. Make sure all props have been sourced- Propswise for this scene, all we need is a notebook, pens, a jotter, an apron and some boat or sea related props.

Feedback and Changes to Vegetarian Documentary

Today we got feedback from our tutor about the interview we had filmed with our subject.

Based on the feedback, we have decided not to use the subject in our final film, and instead try to find another subject.

 

The problems with our subject were mainly appearance based, and these were concerns Victoria and I had, but to an extent we pushed them out of our minds because we felt we were more focused on what our subject had to say rather than how she looked.

 

Our tutor pointed out that film is a visual medium, and that our film may be negatively impacted as a result of our subjects appearance.

It was useful to get this feedback from someone who was seeing our film purely as a viewer, and has given us a better idea of what we do want in the film and what we don’t want in the film.

 

We also talked about the framing of our subject, and realised that we needed to make the background and surroundings abundant with colour, food and nature to help portray the documentary subject in a way that reflects the healthy and fresh lifestyle of vegetarians.

 

We also need to further hone in our focus for the documentary, because knowing this will allow us to ask more in depth questions, and receive more thought provoking answers.

 

I think that this has been a very important learning point and has made us think even more about the exact look and feel of our film.

 

We have made some changes to the shooting schedule, and as it stands we plan to shoot:

Cutaways: Saturday 19^th April/ A day of the week beginning 21^st

Richard’s Interview: Saturday 3^rd May

Problems encountered when finding a Vera

Finding an actress to play the character of Vera has proved to be more difficult than originally thought. About two weeks ago (17 days to be precise) I advertised for the role on Gumtree and Studio NI. We had around 12 people interested at the initial stage, asking from more information about the film. I sent a copy of the script to all the possible Vera's and the provisional shooting dates. I arranged a casting for Monday 31st March for the people who continued to be interested in the role after reading the script, and four people let me know that they could attend.
Over the weekend, two of these people emailed me to let me know that they could no longer attend. On the day, they girl who we had been most interested in seeing, based on the CV and showreel she sent us emailed to let us know she could no longer attend but would be happy to send a video audition instead.
Nobody ended showing up the casting, and although I left the casting feeling quite dejected, I was not altogether surprised, having sat in on one or two other castings where little or no people have shown up.
More people responded to the post on Gumtree, and I sent them the script and shooting dates. I also updated the Gumtree with our more precise shooting dates. We have one girl interested who says she will come for an audition on Friday, but at this stage I'm still in the mindset that we still need to find the Vera, so am coming up with a Plan B (and possibly a Plan C) in case the actress doesn't work out for the role.

Vegetarian Lindsey Interview

We filmed the main bulk of Lindsey's interview today. The location was Victoria's kitchen.

Victoria was camera operator and she conducted the interview.

I was on sound.

Lindsey answered questions for about 15 minutes, so we got a good lot of information from her. We also filmed some nice shots of Lindsey chopping up buns (suitable for vegetarians of course) to show that all meals take a little consideration (breakfast/ lunch/ tea/ desserts/ snacks).

Ducky Steps: Recording Voiceover

Today we recorded the voiceovers for the three scenes in the film. It took about two hours, including getting the equipment set up, rehearsing the lines, and actually recording the dialogue.
Here are some images from the shoot:

Vegetarian Production Meeting 3/4/14

We are filming the first of our subjects on Saturday, so we just confirmed the logistics of the interview. The interview is taking place at Victoria's house, as we wanted quite a relaxed, informal setting (but one that looked nice.) We are going to Victoria's at two, and then setting up the equipment, and will interview Lindsey until we feel we have got all the information we would like to have for the documentary.

In the meeting with our tutor today, she talked about wanting us to interview Lindsey using inventive camera shots, rather than a sit down and talk straight to the camera interview. At first I wasn't really sure what she meant by inventive camera shots, but then she showed us a short documentary film about a street artist, which was really well filmed.

Victoria and I are going to think of different camera shots we could use (in addition to the ones we already had in mind), and then discuss our ideas to see if they fit with the documentary themes and messages.

Ducky Steps Production Work and Meetings 3/4/14

Ducky Steps:
We had a brief meeting earlier on this week about the possibility of recording all the voiceovers needed for the film this week. I had been looking over the script in detail, and large amount of the dialogue comes from the voiceovers.
I think both Anya and I would both feel a lot more settled if we had something concrete done for the film before Easter so we decided to see if the actors would be free a day this week to record this dialogue. We also think it will be useful in shaping the rest of the scenes, because the scenes with the voiceovers tend not to have any live dialogue, so this will give us a better idea of the mood/ atmosphere we are getting from the voiceover.

Some notes I made re: the script:

The script consists of six seven scenes, and once you remove the voiceover parts, they can be described something like this:
S1: Barney sits at desk, writing, deep in thought. Barney looks confused, then startled.
S2: Dialogue between four characters. (I think this will be the most difficult to set up shots wise, as there are a lot of characters involved and it is set in a public cafe)
S3: Barney sits on bench at the beach. He has a long conversation with Candid.
S4: Barney and Candid have a conversation and skip stones by the sea. (As regards sound, this might need ADR in post production due to it being really noisy by the sea)
S5: Barney paces around his office, clearly distressed
S6: Barney has brief conversation with Vera.
S7: Barney retrieves duck and skips stones

What the characters wear:
S1: Barney- Suit
S2: Barney- Work Clothes, Four Extras- Work Clothes
S3: Barney- in suit for first part of scene (until the rubber duck makes an appearance), then changes in casual clothes. Candid- Casual clothes
S4: Barney and Candid in same casual clothes as S3
S5: Barney- suit, looks more dishevelled and stressed than we have seen him previously
S6: Barney- suit (As S5, but perhaps a little calmer), Vera- heels, red lips, red/ black dress
S7: Barney- casual clothes

We are doing the voiceover recording tomorrow, using a lapel microphone and the sound recorder we used for our readthroughs. Because we could only confirm the actor would be able to do it last minute, I have been unable to book this equipment out, but will be going in early tomorrow morning, so I can cancel and reschedule if need be. We are hoping to record in the soundproof radio room, but again I am not sure if that will be available, but as a back up we would try to use the radio studio.

At our production meeting today we also got positive feedback about our pitch, which makes us feel more confident about filming it.