Assistant Producer: About the role

The main duties of the role are to assist senior production staff in all stages of a television production or series, with specific responsibility for the execution of a specific programme brief within editorial guidelines.

An assistant producer has to interpret ideas accurately and convey them on screen. During the production phase they must understand editorial roles in order to make balanced editorial decisions. They must also work with researchers to make reseource material accurate and relevant to the programme. After collating the material gathered the must identify key facts and trends and present them accurately while bearing in mind political sensitivity. Any unexpected problems fall first to them, causing them to have ot think concisely about how to solve such problems, however they may refer to mjore senior levels if needed. Budgeting is also key, they must plan within the budget, therefore it is essential to know market values and curretn production costs. This role clearly requires an understanding of all levels of production in order to comunicate with different parts of the crew, providing feedback and motivation when needed.

An assistant producer must be coherent communicators able to act decisively, diplomatically and sensitivly at the same time. They work with many creative people so must be able to view creative ideas in a logical and practical sense, ascertaining ways of collating and portraying this on screen. They are not legally required to be responsible for health and safety procedures however they must be able to complete health and risk assessments. As every member of teh crew they do have a responsibility to ensure their own actions do not cause health and safety problems.

Ed Charles is an Assistant Producer for Wild Horizons Ltd, he has worked on Saving Planet Earth, Springwatch, Nature's Great Events, which won the Best Series award at Missoula Wildlife Film Festival 2009. His current projects are Wild Planet: North America where he is the Assistant Producer on two of the episodes, Mountains and Great Plains.

For me specifically, wanting tHe has worked in natural history television for the last 5 years since leaving university with a degree in zoology and a masters in wildlife photography. He began his career working as a camera assistant for various wildlife cameramen on productions such as the David Attenborough series Life in the Undergrowth, but has since made the move to work more in an editorial role. He has spent the last 4 years working at the BBC’s Natural History Unit on a wide range of programming, including Springwatch, Saving Planet Earth, and the multi-award winning series Nature’s Great Events.


For me specifically, wanting to work in natural history, there are a variety of productions on going at any one time which i can strive to become involved with. Specifically Wild Horizons are given a lot of work by the BBC Natural History Unit. These are two companies i would most like ot work at. Without having a Biological degree i am most likely to gain work through creating a thorough showreel and gaining work experience through the exhibition of this and my knowledge of wildlife film firsthand.

Decisons, decisons...

After much research and deliberation concerning my context 2 assignment I have decided on a career goal I want to work towards, Wildlife Film Locations Researcher/Producer. This is due to my love for Nature and productions concerning it. I also think it will put me at an advantage having a specific niche in mind with which to slot into. I have emailed various respected individuals working in the industry and have had replies from two so far, one purely advice based and the other very helpful indeed. Here it is:

Hi Ollie,

Thank you for your email, see my answers to your questions in bold below. Ultimately this is a hard industry to break into but it IS possible and in my view it has a lot to do with how passionately you want it. This very often involves a great deal of persistence, don’t be surprised if it doesn’t happen instantly and stick with it. The more experience you have (in a variety of ways) and subsequently the more you stand out from the crowd, the more chance that you have.

Feel free to contact me again if any of my answers are unclear or if I can be of more help.

Enjoy Frozen Planet tonight!

Kind regards,

Jonathan

On 01/11/2011 21:20, "ollie@part-x.co.uk" wrote:

Jonathan,



Firstly I'd like to congratulate you on the work you've done so far, Saving Planet Earth, Seawatch and Life were all fascinating productions. I've found a brief trailer for Beneath The Reef on youtube but can't find the 35 minute version. Is there anywhere I might be able to watch this?

It’s on Vimeo, I see so many mistakes in it now but it was a lot of fun to make and I still think OK for our first attempt and with only a VX2000, laptop and 6 weeks: http://vimeo.com/10933396



Secondly, I am a Film student at Nottingham Trent University. I would very much like to become a researcher/producer of Wildlife productions. I have looked into all of the staff at Wild Horizons Ltd and your role amongst the team is definitely the type of work I want to strive to be part of. I'm sure you're very busy but if you could just take 5 minutes to answer a few questions for me I would very much appreciate it:



I know you've come from a science, specifically marine biology background. Would you say it's particularly hard for me to compete to be a researcher coming from a film degree?

There are certainly people in the industry that do not have biological backgrounds. Although I do think that it probably helps to get in the door. Ultimately everyone has a different path to getting started and I really think that you are the sum of your parts. So, if you are lacking biological experience you need to make it up in other ways which will make people HAVE to employ you! Competition is hard to get in and therefore it is good to have an area where you excel, for me this was my underwater / sea experience and knowledge combined with a lot of field experience.


I am currently making and also planning to make more short nature productions of my own to demonstrate my passion for natural history, is this type of demonstration enough? And are there other things I can do to demonstrate knowledge of field work?

This is absolutely the right thing to be doing, I see a lot of showreels that are lot’s of pretty pictures but we really want to see that someone can tell a story / make a sequence. Being able to show short films is the perfect way to demonstrate your passion and ability. Other ways to demonstrate your field knowledge will probably show up on your CV through your past experiences. It’s hard for me to say now without knowing more about your background.


I presume you're based in the UK, if so, how much of your time do you spend here?

Yes, I live just South of Taunton. These big blue chip productions tend to take you away a lot. For example I did a trip to Antarctica that had me away for 9 weeks. I’ve been away for 5 months of the last 7. Generally speaking a cameraman will be in the field for at least 5 months a year and often a lot more. Researchers will be away for 6-8 months, AP’s for 4-6 months and Producers about 3 months. But, this does vary considerably between productions.


How would you describe your average day when in the UK?

It depends on what point of the production I’m at. At the start you are looking for stories which involves contacting a lot of people from scientists to people that spend a lot of time in the field or around a particular animal. By the middle you are running around like crazy getting shoots ready and trying to stay on top of everything. Toward the end you start to get things ready fro the edit. All of this involves being around the office.


What would your average day in the field consist of?

(I am aware that in this type of work 'average' is not something you can apply to it however any kind of example would be great)

As you say it varies so much between shoots that it is hard to answer. You’re generally assisting the cameraman, making sure that everything is running smoothly and normally trying to work out how you can film the impossible behaviour that you’ve been sent to capture!



I am very much wanting to work in Bristol at a Wildlife productions firm this coming summer, I would be willing to work for free and fund the accommodation and living expenses myself, is there any firms you would suggest contacting to enquire about this?

This is a very good way to start getting your foot in the door and to start to get a feeling for what the work will involve. So much of getting that break is about contacts and starting to get to know the right folk. I know a lot of people that started off with work experience at the BBC NHU, myself included. You can contact the BBC directly about this, get back to me if you can’t find the right people to talk with. Aside from the BBC, Tigress and ICON could be worth a shout although I do not have any contacts there to help you with. Also, we’ve had a few work experience folk here and there may be room for you. Try contacting the Series producer Huw Cordey: Huw@wildhorizonsltd.com and the Executive Producer Keith Scholey: Keith@wildhorizonsltd.com. Or alternatively send me your CV and I’ll pass it on.


Finally, is any of your work actually based on set at the time of filming?

We will sometimes do set work to augment a sequence of natural behaviour. Also some sequences may be completely set based, e.g flowering timelapse work or a macro sequence.


I understand that you must be very busy and am aware taking time out for a complete stranger is a lot to ask, however even if you only have time to respond to one of my question I would be sincerely grateful. Keep up the good work, and as a viewer, thank you for helping to bring such fascinating footage to screen.

Thanks!


Kind Regards

Ollie Solan
I was very encouraged by this response, particularly the career part. Although it is a very competitive industry, like all of film I am prepared to put in the effort it takes to reach this goal. I’ve since started a nature blog which I will build up over the next couple of years to document everything I find interesting about the animal world, here’s the link:

http://olliesolanwildworld.wordpress.com

Context 2 Essay Plan

Dress Down Everday- first Storyboard

What to Wear To A job Interview

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpUvygEgVk4

Here's what this man thinks you should wear, but why does it have to be like this? Should you be considered less apt for the position if you aren't wearing a suit? Society today certainly thinks so.

I’ve finished my first storyboard for an idea I had for the Say Something Political brief. My slogan is ‘Dress Down Everyday’. The first idea I had is meant to be a comedy sketch. A man has gone for an interview and is called back in for a talk with the boss of the firm. I have set this in a world where suits at work are inappropriate and have used my idea of what the reaction could be to a man turning up in a suit to an interview. The humour derives from the boss’s eccentricity and his rant at the man for wearing what he deems as inappropriate attire.

Protest, like profit, has been globalised...

I found a great article in the Independent today that is very relevant to our Say Something Political brief. It was about the recent ‘Occupy the World’ movements, and really made me think, to the credit of our lecturers, what a great time to be involving our selves in this kind of task at such a relevant time.
I think it’s great that the ’99 percent’ i.e. the majority not in control of the worlds assets and resources, have finally had enough of the faux form that democracy has now manifested itself into. After reading the article it made me think a lot about my own choice of political theme with which I plan to base my gust concept on, ‘Dress Down Everyday’. I have often wondered, since coming up with the slogan, if it was political enough for this project, and even more so since there are some great movements happening around the world at the moment; this had me feeling like it would be a shame not to involve myself in this in terms of my coursework.
When considering how political my topic really is I came to the realisation that my theme is in fact an example of the abuse of capitalism and stereotyping. Being undervalued and judged because of what you wear by those who believe expensive designer suits are imperative to a working environment is, in a sense, what all the occupiers stand for, in its most primal form.

However these people, as has become evident over the last decade, who hide behind the expensive suits are to blame for the awful state the global economy is in. So this does cause me to beg the question, do suits and formality in the workplace convey the traits of trustworthy, reliable, responsible people? Evidence so far would suggest not...

Here's the link for the article in the independant:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/after-the-demos-the-sitin-begins-ndash-in-london-and-beyond-2371589.html

Initial Idea's

As I'm not really sure what the Malak project is (i had to miss the first two lectures due to the dentist) I've spent my time today looking around gaining inspiration for our first term DP3 assignment.

On first sight, looking at the brief last night, I got the impression it was aiming to create an 'anti' message, and in a way it is. However i think i was way off the mark with my initial idea of 'anti drug addict parents' campaign video. In this I visualised a young boy going about his daily routine and it is not untill the end of the 30 second advert that he finds his mother dead from an overdose.

Maybe that's for another time, because now I've found some great inspiration and a new idea, which i am very passionate about. Here's my favourite advert/revolutionary mnessage so far:



This ad, literally gave me goosebumps and it does convey an important political message; something that Levi's have used in an ingenius way, to ingratiate the wearing of their jeans. But gosh, did it give me food for thought, it makes sense because life these days is so driven in the direction of success and relevant chronological measure of a person's success, I am definitely a victim of this! Although this concept definitely ticked all the boxes for me I knew i had to do something that was origional and it is something which i think and talk about a lot so i think it will work out well as a concept for my assignment. I want to make a campaign against wearing suits in the workplace.

Contacts In Multimedia

Here are some of the contacts I've made so far. i was going to title the post 'Contacts in The Film Industry' but i thought it would be better to use media as a whole as depending on what career choice i make people such as modelling agency owners or music artists could definitely prove useful to me.

Summer Internship

After completing my two weeks unpaid work i was asked to stay on for the rest of the summer to continue working for the firm onn some more music videos and their new feature film, 'Last Move'. Here are the music video's i filmed in which i made directorial decisions about the script and on set.. They also asked me to appear in one of the music video's, i could hardly say no could i?

Perfect Day



Inkling



What They Wanna Hear



Dreams



Starry



Hell Of A Life



Bring Me Down

Ember Phoenix Video Shoot

So I’ve just finished my first two days of work in the film industry. I can honestly say I’ve thoroughly enjoyed myself! The first two days were filmed against a green screen in Camberwell Studio’s. The team there were really helpful and I would recommend it to anyone, as nothing is too much trouble for them.

Working for Atori Van Der Puye films was excellent as they are a great team. My main tasks were the rigging and de-rigging of equipment but most importantly I got to spend valuable time watching and learning how the whole process of filming a music video. The second day saw me finding myself on playback for the majority. This was only a case of setting and resetting the relevant track for the artist to use as a guide to rap along to, I did enjoy this though as it was sure to keep me on my feet, having to be alert and aware of where the director wanted the track to be set to (not always the beginning).

Ember is a very talented artist and I do truly believe if there’s any kind of justice in this industry he is certainly one to look out for. His whole team, in fact, were a pleasure to work with, ensuring we were all integrated nicely and, most importantly, well feed with a constant supply of sandwiches and crisps and a hearty dish of jerk chicken and rice for lunch!

Check out some of the shots I took:

Work Experience

Last week I applied for a job as a runner through www.mandy.com for what I thought was 2 days. I went to Ealing Broadway for an interview and got the job helping film 10 music videos for a west London rapper- Ember Phoenix, spanning 7 days.



^^^Ember Phoenix

So after brushing up on some lighting knowledge I’m going to have to get an early night in anticipation for the 6am start tomorrow. The first 2 videos will be filmed at Camberwell Studios, South London with the following 8 videos on location around London (I guess). Here’s my first appearance on a call sheet:

Final Edit of 'Dog'

Here's my final edit for 'Dog'

Finito!

Here's my completed homepage:

About Me page:

Portfolio page:

Social networking, alt tags and linking to my online marketplace

As social networking is a key aspect of marketing i thought it imperitive that i link the site to my facebook and newly formed twitter account, something i did specially to link to the site and add another avenue for marketing and communication, when needed. These links are shown at the footer of each page, this way visitors can easily view/contact me through my facebook and twitter. I used the same photo of myself for my twitter as is on my hompage so it is obvious straight away to any visitors that they have come to the right place.

I added alt tags so that different aspects of the page are named when you hover your mouse over them. This will be helpful for relevant content if and when i come to optimise the site for google in future. According to the tutorials i used to help me build the site inserting alt tags is also considered 'good practice'.

Finally, as i already have an online marketplace (www.part-x.co.uk) i thought it would make sense to link both my personal portfolio and this site, and make it obvious they are owned by the same person. I have a link both on the home and portfolio page which can direct users to partx. This is to ensure i capitalise on all visitors to my portfolio in terms of marketing my online marketplace. It also shows potential employers that i have skills in aspects of business and marketing as well as the film aspect of my resume.

Google Maps

I wanted to integrate my website with google maps, primarily to make my site, and thus my image, more competitive in the short term. However i believe if i was to ever do free lance work in the future this would be beneficial for clients or anyone else wanting to find me. Although for the time being the address is set to my term time flat this can be easily changed to whatever premisis i decide to work from in future.

I found some open source code for both the enquiry form and google maps integration which was relatively simple to copy and paste into my page.

Open Source Code

I found a few different types of open source code which i could use to make my site a little more interactive, as this would serve as my professional site for the forseeable future i wanted to create a site good enough to create a positive first impression of my work, potentially for employers to use to gain an insight into what skills i have to offer.

I searched on google for a rotating banner so that the picture of me, which i photoshoped on to a brick wall earlier, would rotate continuously. This would give a sense of interactivity and allow the hompage to avoid looking static and stale. I found some code called jquery that would do the job so i inserted this into my CSS using the demo.

Lightboxes

As i mentioned before i could have embedded my portfolio videos, or just made each video open in a new window, however i decided against this in order to continue with the clean minimal theme of the site. Instead i used lighboxes so when the screen shot of my worked is clicked on the video opens up in a centred, small window while the rest of the screen goes black.

In order to achieve this i used a lightbox called 'prettyphoto. This was simple to insert with their documentation and you can easily play youtube and vimeo video which was perfect for the nature of the work i wanted to present. Below is a link to what I used: http://www.no-margin-for-errors.com/projects/prettyphoto-jquery-lightbox-clone/

The hard part-Divs and CSS code...

Once i had found my imagery and general theme for my site i went on to set up the divs, containatives and then the CSS code to instruct and route the divs. This was an arduous task and had me regularly confused, unable to work out why the site was not following the instructions i set out in the code. However after what has seemed like a very long time my about, portfolio and homepage are all done, which just leaves the contact page to complete.

I have kept the file structure as simple as possible keeping all html pages in the root folder and images, css in another folder.

Previous to setting up the divs and CSS i took screen shots of my two short films in order to resize and use later as i want to set up lightboxes for both of my videos, rather than just embedding a link.

Homepage banner?

I wanted to personalise my site with a banner, so I found an image of a brick wall, similar to banksy and photoshopped a photo of me. I used the pen tool to cut me out. For the fonts, I went to dafont.com and found a graffiti style I wanted to use.

Theme...

Somethign which i plan to express in my about section is the type of work i admire, and aspire to become involved with in the future, all raw true life stories, often documenting the darker side of life. Because of this i wanted to make the feel and look of my site relevant to the type of work i hope to document in the future, giving the viewer an all encorporating experience when they visit the site.

After giving this idea some thought i decided upon a graffiti font style and background. A film/documentary that i admire is Exit Through The Gift Shop, a Banksy production. I wanted to give this sort of graffit/street art feel to the site so i googled some banksy imagery.

Once i found a good enough quality image i kept it to use as a background later.

Wireframes

Once i had chosen a rough sketch version it was time to create wireframes to work to. After some thought i realised that 4 pages would be neccessary to contain all the content i would need for my portfolio, i am building this with a view to using it in future as a platform to document my work and reference point for any potential employers in future. This was one of the reasons i decided to familiarise myself with the process, what's the point in paying someone else to create something you can learn to do perfectly well on your own!

I decided i would need an about, contact, portfolio and homepage to display my work and personality effectively. Here are my wireframes:

Sketching out designs

The first step i took towards creating my online portfolio was to do some rough sketches of how i wanted my site to look.

I sketched out two alternatives and chose which one i liked the most

I ultimately decided upon version 1 as i prefered the central top logo(my name) and felt that it looked cleaner, something i believe is essential to a good website as unecessary images and text can make it seem cluttered.

Interactive Space:My Portfolio

It's been a while since my last post as I've been pretty bogged down with creating this online portfolio for myself. When doing my first interactive space for design practice 1 i realised firstly how difficult code and html seemed initially, secondly how easy it could be if the right amount of time and effort was spent learning it and thridly how useful this skill could be to me in future.

Bearing this in mind i decided to use my time over the easter break to emerse myself in tutorials and books to crack css. Although at first it was an uphill struggle i found that things started to click in my mind far more quickly than i had expected.

Final Group Edit of 'DOG'

DOG LIFE from Gush Sembhi on Vimeo.

On Set Still Shots

Here's some shots we took while we were out filming

Music Decisions

Right, I've been sifting through music tracks on youtube and just any other sounds in general for ages, in search of appropriate audio to use for my short film. Because there's no actual talking, apart from one scene (the cafe) which i decided not to use as it didn't tie in with our adaptation of the script; so the audio is pretty importnt.Here it is:

Shot 1



Shot 2

Noises of scraping and slamming cupboard doors

Shot 3(montage)



Shot 4



or



Shot 5

No music, sounds of birds in the background, sniffing as he smells the dog shit and growl

Shot 6

No music, lapping water sound

Shot 7

I haven't been able to find the actual noise yet but i have a clear idea in my head. I want a deep sinister sounding bass drum beat do depict the fact that although it is clearly funny that a man has starting acting fully like a dog there is a dark, sad side to it too; hence the genre of film: black comedy.

I have compiled this choice of music using my story boards as a reference for the shots, as we filmed them out of sequence its hard to remember it in order. But i know that while filming we developed the scenes from the story boards so there may be some tweaking needed when we come to edit tomorrow.

Ed Sheeran Interview

I received a bit of a surprise phone call yesterday from an old friend and MC turned internet television channel, Champagne Bubblee TV owner, Quinton, or ‘Champagne Bubblee’ as he’s more commonly known. When I asked about how things were for him he told me about the interviews he’s been doing recently for his television channel, the likes of Giggs, Gyptian, Ed Sheeran(all fairly high profile new artists) among them. Here are some of the links:





This conversation got me thinking of how I could incorporate this into the film side of my course and what I want to do in the future. I knew this was something I could reference in my visual essay as a way of illustrating why my chosen pathway will be moving image, through my love for real life documentaries. So in that sense this type of work is something I could definitely see myself doing after I graduate. However, I’d like to differ from this in that I believe it would be interesting delve into the individuals life experiences as opposed to purely what direction they are going in with their music.

This is very similar though, to a project I plan to start following the Easter holidays, a series of short documentaries about people I have met, or know who I believe have a fairly interesting story to tell. At the minute I have two musicians whose lives I aim to film an insight into. I also plan to include another character from a different field.

Opening scene music

After a couple of hours sifting through music on youtube i think i've found a track i want to use for the opening scene, and yes its the Beatles!



Our first idea was to use something along the lines of this



or this



but after some deliberation i think it would be wrong to include either of these just because it is about cannabis and our main character is also smoking cannabis when the frame opens, pretty basic stuff! Instead i think it would be more effective to use a sad, reflective more introverted song to emphasise the characters state of mind, depression over his dog dieing. As opposed to glee at the fact he happens to be smoking cannabis, something he is actually doing as a means to remedy his depression.

Moving image shot idea

Here is an idea i thought of after watching Guy Ritchie's Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrels.



The part i gained inspiration from in particular strats from 4 mins 20 seconds in where he looses the poker game and the realisation that he now owes £250,000 to some very bad people.

It looks like the camera man uses the zoom to focus in on the characters face while moving away from him to illustrate his dismay at the situation(also used in goodfellas in the cafe scene between Jimmy and Henry). He the films the characters face from below but still using a close up face shot.

I have interpreted this and applied it to our short film. We could use a wobbly, low but close up shot to reflect our main characters mind state when on drugs, and also loosing his insanity. My idea is to film this around three or four times, getting the actor to wobble from alternate sides. We could then use after effects to vary the opacity on the shots and layer each take to create a variety of shadows all in the same shot.

Back to adaptation 1

Following the changing of our adaptation of the script we have been to Phil's seminar. He liked the original script and thought it would be be more realistic to shoot in the time we've been given. So just as a reminder here it is:

Shot 1 opens to smoke floating across the frame. As the camera follows the smoke it pans past a framed picture of a dog to a depressed looking man smoking a spliff. There is rubbish littered around the room and the man is dressed in just boxers socks and a vest, he looks scruffy and un washed.
The second shot opens to complete darkness, all the audience can hear is scraping of cupboards and opening and shutting of doors. The shot will be filmed from inside the cupboard and the door of the cupboard will be opened to reveal the man’s face. He is shown to be looking at piled up tins of dog food, the only things in the cupboard.
He then sits down at the table with a plate and cutlery and empties his tin of dog food onto the plate and starts to eat it.
This is then followed by a montage of different bowls of dog food being eaten by the man and more drugs being consumed as he plunges himself deeper into depression. The camera angle could be pointed up at him and made deliberately wobbly(see lock stock for an example of this, it’s just after the main character looses to Harry the Hatchet in a card game). This would reflect the mans mind state under the influence of the drugs.
Contained within this montage I visualised the scene where he is walking down the street with a ‘distinct pronounced spring in his step’ having just bought some drugs from a dealer and clearly happy that he is going home to consume them.
As he is taking more drugs he begins to act more and more like a dog we see him get down on the ground to sniff some dog shit. The shot opens with a piece of dog shit on the floor and the man lowers himself into the frame before sniffing it and leaving the frame again the same way he came into it.
The next shot it of the man in his living room he goes to drink the water out of a glass but stops just before it reaches his mouth. He then puts the glass down on the floor before lapping the water up out of the glass with his tongue. It is clear he is sad at the thought of doing this.
The final shot shows the man running around in circles as if chasing his tale before laying on the floor rubbing his back on the carpet as a dog would do.
Credits

Second adaptation of script

On consulting Deborah she seemed keen for us to change the script to create a mroe poignant reasoning and ending to the short film. Here is a new adaptation i wrote up following her advice.

The film opens with a few short news reports either on the radio or with motion picture about a man escaped from a mental institution, going on to warn the public that he may be dangerous and not to approach him, but to report any sightings to authorities immediately.

The audience then see our main character “Dog”(I’ll refer to him as this as I know we haven’t decided on a name yet). Dog is shown crossing a road tentatively, looking around him as he walks. He is then shown to peer around before jumping a fence; the audience then hear a smash. We then see Dog smelling different parts of the house and searching through doors as if looking for something. At some point Dog finds a framed photo of a woman and a dog.

The man is then shown smashing the photo frame before revealing to the audience that the woman in the photo is his mother and her Dog, in a tone that conveys resentment.

Next we see Dog becoming hungry but seems scared to go out because he is the asylum escapee and will be taken back if he does. After what seems a long time he searches the cupboards finding nothing but dog food.

We are already aware that the man is technically insane but it must be clear to the audience that he is not dangerous, as the news reports are suggesting. Following the break-in and revelation that it is his mothers house, a woman he seems to resent as a result of her neglecting his needs as a Son he begins to act as a Dog, according to the script we were given.

I think one possibility for why he is acting like that it that his Mother loved her dog more than him so through his insanity he assumes the role of a dog in the hope of gaining the love he was denied.

I was thinking maybe he uses the dog act because he, through his insanity starts to think that he won’t get recognised by the authorities if he acts like a dog. Obviously his act wont work and we could maybe end it with him getting taken back to the institute, but we’ll have to discuss this in seminar.

Initial adaptation of script

Here is a fairly brief write up i constructed which outlines how i envisioned the short film to be when it's finished.

Shot 1 opens to smoke floating across the frame. As the camera follows the smoke it pans past a framed picture of a dog to a depressed looking man smoking a spliff. There is rubbish littered around the room and the man is dressed in just boxers socks and a vest, he looks scruffy and un washed.
The second shot opens to complete darkness, all the audience can hear is scraping of cupboards and opening and shutting of doors. The shot will be filmed from inside the cupboard and the door of the cupboard will be opened to reveal the man’s face. He is shown to be looking at piled up tins of dog food, the only things in the cupboard.
He then sits down at the table with a plate and cutlery and empties his tin of dog food onto the plate and starts to eat it.
This is then followed by a montage of different bowls of dog food being eaten by the man and more drugs being consumed as he plunges himself deeper into depression. The camera angle could be pointed up at him and made deliberately wobbly(see lock stock for an example of this, it’s just after the main character looses to Harry the Hatchet in a card game). This would reflect the mans mind state under the influence of the drugs.
Contained within this montage I visualised the scene where he is walking down the street with a ‘distinct pronounced spring in his step’ having just bought some drugs from a dealer and clearly happy that he is going home to consume them.
As he is taking more drugs he begins to act more and more like a dog we see him get down on the ground to sniff some dog shit. The shot opens with a piece of dog shit on the floor and the man lowers himself into the frame before sniffing it and leaving the frame again the same way he came into it.
The next shot it of the man in his living room he goes to drink the water out of a glass but stops just before it reaches his mouth. He then puts the glass down on the floor before lapping the water up out of the glass with his tongue. It is clear he is sad at the thought of doing this.
The final shot shows the man running around in circles as if chasing his tale before laying on the floor rubbing his back on the carpet as a dog would do.
Credits

Moving Image DP2

On arriving at our first Moving Image Seminar we were seperated into groups and given a script, at random, to adapt and make our own. Our groups script is entitled 'Dog':

1.
1 INT. KITCHEN. DAY 1
TITLE SCREEN: DOG
Cupboard doors are flung open and rapidly slammed as the cupboards are
revealed as empty. Eventually... one cupboard is opened and shut
quickly and then re-opened. We see inside. there is a dog bowl and a
tin of dog food. Freezeframe
MAN
(v/o)
Ordinarily I wouldn't have considered it
but...
2 INT. KITCHEN. DAY 2
The plate of dog food sits on the table. The Knife and fork are
straightened to become perfectly aligned
The man gently drops a sprig of parsley onto the dog food.
He picks up the knife and fork and stares at the plate
3 INT. LANDING. DAY 3
From outside the toilet we hear a difficult shit taking place
4 EXT. STREET. DAY 4
Our man is walking down the street. He has a distinct, pronounced
spring in his step
5 EXT. STREET. DAY 5
We see our man sitting in a cafe. He is talking ten to the dozen
2.
6 INT. KITCHEN. DAY 6
Our man unloads his shopping. Tins and Tins of dog food. Plus some
herbs and milk
7 INT. KITCHEN. DAY 7
What follows is a montage of a series of jump cuts as plates of dog
food are eaten, piled up, eaten, plates clean. Knife and fork
switching sides and spoon to fork. Different plates. Each time a sprig
of parsley is left on the plate uneaten. Sometimes the plate is a bowl
8 INT. LANDING. DAY 8
From outside the toilet we hear a difficult shit taking place. It is
so difficult our man is still trying to defecate as day turns into
night
9 EXT. PARK. DAY 9
Our man studies a pile of dog shit. Slowly he stands and shuffles off.
Almost under his breath we hear him growl
10 INT. FRONT ROOM. NIGHT 10
Our man sits and watches television. Picking it up his glass of water
he begins to lap it with his tongue
11 INT. KITCHEN. DAY 11
Our man slowly spoons dog food onto his plate. The plate is smaller
than any we have seen before
12 INT. KITCHEN. DAY 12
Sitting at the table our man slowly, reluctantly eats the dog food. As
he eats tears run down his face
3.
13 INT. FRONT ROOM. NIGHT 13
Our man runs around in a very tight circle. He is trying to see his
back. As he run he barks
THE END

On looking at the script the first thing i thought was how bizarre the concept was and the fact that it could only be presented as a feasable situation if our character were to be presented as insane to some extent.

We Ran through some ideas in our groups but ultimately decided upon one.

Narrative Vs Authenticity...Shameless?

While watching the new series of Shameless I picked up on something that we discussed in the lecture earlier today (24.01.11). The video we watched was about finding an authenticity of the true self through narratives. I understood this discussion in a variety of ways, firstly to find ones true self a person must tell stories about their life. In doing the allow themselves to piece together and make sense of the chaos contained within their lives. In doing this they gain feedback which conditions them. This feedback helps us to regulate our behaviour through the relevant social and cultural context in which we live. However in doing this many people automatically find themselves telling what they believe people want to hear.

I know on the surface this doesn't seem very relevant to multimedia but on the contrary I believe it outlines just how important multimedia is in both a motivational and philosophical sense. Multimedia is often used to depict all manner of narratives, in doing this it allows people to find their true self, in other words, authenticity.

This is a journey depicted in the new series of shameless. Frank Gallagher finds himself in a psychiatric unit due to his erratic behaviour resulting from a lifetime of physical and chemical neglect. Throughout the time he is missing he meets various aspects of his true self, all using their own narratives to depict his life. In doing this he manages to piece together the chaos that is his life, and thus his sanity.

Animation: Week 2

In week 2's seminar we were taught to create a cart to travel a long our track. When doing this we created a seat for the passenger, including back rest and an area for their feet; and also a barrier to protect their feet, just like at a real amusement park!

Here is my cart, mounted on the track!

Animation: Week 1

Assignment

Our task for this term is to create an animated Haunted House on Autodesk 3Ds MAX.

During week 1's seminar we created the theatre with which to contain the track and haunted scenes. We used the plane tool to create a floor and with the use of lines, refining and smoothing we made it suitable for the cart to travel along.

Considering eXistenZ

Narrative

When considering David Cronenberg’s eXistenZ in terms of its narrative, I believe a key issue to be the player’s willingness to give up their free will in order to join the multiplayer gaming experience. The director clearly recognises the imitations contained within the balance of free will and the necessity for a narrative structure in order to create an accurate realism; however this realism must come at a price to the realism. In short the forced dialogue is used as a tool with which to progress the game, powering the narrative of the film.

Interactivity

Cronenberg creates interactivity with the audience is through the two main characters Allegra and Ted repeated references to recognising people within the plot on the games manifestation. This firstly provides the audience with a challenge, to workout for themselves why the characters would recognise what turns out to be other players within the game; secondly it urges the audience to carry on watching to either see if their guess is right or alternatively find out why the recognition occurs.  The whole idea of this interactivity is noted by Cronenberg through Allegra Geller, when Pikul asks what the purpose of the game is and Gellar responds, "You have to play the game to find out why you are playing the game." This statement is also true with regard to the audience of the film in that they must keep on watching to grasp the plot entirely; an urge which is continually forced by Cronenberg through the obscurity and pace of the plot.

Convergence

The collision of the two themes contained within the film, fantasy and reality was something I found particularly poignant. In a sense, both the audience and characters playing eXistenZ in the film have to allow themselves to obtain a willing suspension of disbelief. This is essential for the audience as it allows us to open our minds to the concept of eXistenZ rather than questioning its viability of the game in reality, in order to enjoy the film. As I mentioned earlier a similar willing suspension or free will allows the character to progress through the game successfully.

A further matter contained within this issue of fantasy vs. reality is the two layer of fantasy contained within the reality or all the characters playing the actual game at the seminar in real life. This second fantasy world had to be created by the director in order to give and thus justify the characters belief in the environment that the game play forces them into. Give this the seriousness with which they play the game, as if a question of life and death, is feasible to the audience.