Auditions

This Saturday we started off the audition process by auditioning three actors to play the part of the best friend.
This was a very different experience for me as usually I'd be the one auditioning, so in this case it was nice not to feel so nervous.
The three women we auditioned were very good, professional actors. All of them had different styles. Here are a few things I noticed about them as individual actors. The first actor got into character very well and there was a distinct change from when she was being herself to when she was playing the character. The second actor used the space very well and she also liked to include props with her monologue, this is a technique some actors like to use to help them feel more in character, her audition went well. The third actor was very confidant and filled the room with her lively presence. I felt a little sorry for the women auditioning as I'm sure this was a bigger panel than they've had to audition in front of before, but they managed well. I loved auditioning them, telling them about our film and our ideas for it was great. It felt nice to be the one who gets to make the final decision.
I was worried it was going to be tricky deciding which would play our character best. However after we'd seen them all perform their monologues it was clear who was going to be best for our film. I felt happy about the decision we made about the actors. I thoroughly enjoyed the auditioning process.
Next we will be doing auditions for our main character which I think is going to be a little bit tougher but we shall see.
Not long until we start filming. At the moment we're still sorting out props and fixing our locations, but with one actor sorted we shall shortly be saying "lights, camera, action!"

Interview With Kasim Mitchell

I wanted to find out how the participants of the Uncommon Shorts project thought the process was going. So I did an interview with Kasim to find out about his thoughts and feelings. He had quite an opinion on some particular points, but in general he was very chatty and easy to interview.



How did you find out about the Uncommon Shorts Film Project?
I found out about it through my mother who received an email about it from her work colleagues.

What made you want to join the project?
I like to create and design. I enjoy writing stories and making plays for my friends.

What do you enjoy most about the project?
Interacting with the other people, just chilling and chatting.

What do you think about the film's story?
Awful. I don't like it because it's dull and boring. I do not watch stuff like that on TV, so why would I be involved in making one? I feel like a hypocrite.

Because you're involved with this kind of film, do you think it makes you appreciate it more?
I love what I'm doing, I don't particularly like the storyline. But I'm gaining experience and I'm learning to appreciate it a little.

What are you looking forward to as an end result?
Being able to watch a film that was made by me.

What do you want to take away from this experience?
I want this to go on my CV. I want to be able to go to a job interview with this as my experience. Also just learning about different film and camera shots.

Have you enjoyed the film project so far?
I find it really interesting. Even when we have to get down to work, I still really love it! I find everything really great.

Interview conduction by Aimee Sutton.
With Thanks to Kasim.

The Importance of Storyboarding

Storyboarding, setting all your ideas out and getting an idea of what each shot is going to look like. It can be a daunting task and for major feature length films, storyboarding can take a long time. However it is worth it, it can in fact save you time.
So why do we use storyboarding? Here are a few reasons:

It's economic, it can save you time. If you have a well worked out storyboard, it can save time in editing later. If you know exactly how many shots and what the shots are meant to look like, you won't have to add anything last minute.

It prepares you for exactly what your film is going to look like. In that sense it can save you from disappointment. With your storyboard you will know what each scene will look like and it will give you a clear idea of how it's all going to work out. You can practically see your film just by looking at your storyboard.

It's ready. Hitchcock's storyboards were so detailed and so well worked out that they could be read and fully understood. A bit like a cartoon. This made sure his film was ready to be shot.

So before just going right ahead and filming, we had to make sure we had a well worked out storyboard. We did this by jotting down what was in each scene, then we did some sketched storyboards. Finally we went out and took pictures, lots and lots of pictures. Each was a shot that we would take with the camera. Looking at our full storyboard now we can see what our film is going to look like come shooting day.

The dreaded introduction...

So, I think I should start off with my name: Brandon Walsh-Alexander - a bit long so we'll just stick to first name terms ;). I’m 15 and in my final weeks of high school - finally. My first exam is on Monday with a further sixteen, gonna be an ace few weeks for me *note the sarcasm*! My sixteenth is in July and I really can’t wait – party after all the exams and just get to have an ace birthday really.
I’m currently just writing this in my first session, everyone’s story boarding and it’s looking really good! I’m really glad I’m apart of this, such a good opportunity for everyone.
I hope that you all come and see the end result because from this session it looks really good and everything is getting done in rapid time. There’s one more storyboarding session and then the location will be scouted and then the filming commences!

I have a few more blogs to put up tonight, you're in for a treat.

(apologies for the really bad photo, I don't really have a good one)

xxx

Putting Ideas Together..

It was important from the very beginning to start getting some ideas together about what kind of film we wanted.
to start with we came up with a very loose, rough outline of a story. We came up with a character to go in this story. We gave him a character profile to get an idea of what he would be like. We also tried out having the same story line with a different character. For instance a woman instead of a man or someone younger than the age we'd originally planned. We did this to see how it would change the story but also to see how it would change how the audience would view the story, or sympathise differently with the main character. We decided to do character profiles of the man and the woman. After putting down a few ideas of what they'd be like, we decided we preferred the woman character, and as it's important to like the character you want to use, we thought she might make our film more warm and colourful.
So now we had our main character, it was time to make our rough concept into an actual story.
We wrote a background story, which wouldn't be seen in our film, about where she came from and what her upbringing was like. Then after we knew lots about her we moved on to what we would like to show through our film and what was important to get over to the audience.
By the end we had a basic story and an idea of what we wanted to get across to the audience.