Now, as mentioned in the previous blog, between viewing all the footage shot that day as well as charging all the batteries, I only managed to get to sleep at 4.30am Sunday morning, getting up at 7am. The fact that I was up and about since 7am the morning before really didn't help either.
The reason I mention this is because the closest thing we had to a problem resulted from this I think.
We met the actors at the same time and went down to the set and prepared. Now, we left scene 6 partly shot the day before. We took it as far as the action comes in. So that's where we started. With the help of the actors, we'd roughly blocked how this was all going to work but then we came to shoot it and I really lost focus of it all. I'm my own worst enemy as I wrote it all into the script!
The problem I faced that morning, apart from the obvious lack of sleep, was the fact that there's four characters involved in the action, all in very different places and simply stuff like figuring out where someone should be, how they get there, how long it takes to get there - it all became very technical very quickly. I knew this going in but then actually running through it, the size of the task presented itself.
The other main problem I had was that up until this whole point, I'd been running a second camera so every single scene I've shot is well covered (I have about 8 or 9 options to choose in editing for any particular line of dialogue/event). And I realised I had to divorce myself from that as having two cameras moving around, one that I couldn't monitor too, was way too awkward. If we'd had more time, we would have been find but we didn't - an end time of 2pm was set in order to allow for enough time to get the final two scenes shot, plus we also had to re shoot for the shot we weren't happy with the day before.
So we shot the action with one camera and broke it down shot by shot. We got everything we needed in the end, we were over schedule by an hour but we at least managed to finish the scene - something that, at 10am that morning, I really didn't think was going to happen.
Something to mention and I will make no attempt to hide this either - there are a couple of instances where I simply didn't direct. Wayne, our sound man, played the 'live' scAIRcrow and amongst all the chaos, I simply hadn't really talked about what we were doing in the scene. It was part forgetting and part assuming that he knew what I was thinking, simply because he was on the crew. It makes no sense but that's where my head was that morning. It made for some very funny outtakes though - two of which will be posted before the day is out. I obviously got it together but I'm appreciative of the fact that everyone put up with me for what I think were three or four ropey hours.
Two key things - action is fine as long as it is very well prepared for and get enough sleep! We've structured the rest of shooting schedule so we don't work consecutive days now. The reason for this is, all we have left is action scenes now!
Because of how tight we were for time, I never got to incorporate any blood into the two death scenes we do have. They were always planned to be shot with effects later on but it would have been nice to have some on set blood and something I wish we could have done. But you live and learn. It won't hurt the scenes at all as they were always scripted and tested to be done separately from the shoot.
So, we finished scene 6, said goodbye to two of our actors and moved location for two of the final three scenes.
I'm loathe to say too much about the final two scenes though there is something that happens that I hope people will remember. There's a very tender moment (played perfectly by our leads Damien and Victoria) that ends abruptly and from far out left and hopefully ends up being something that sticks with people.
One thing about those last two scenes from a technical point of view - the sound was a challenge. We needed a very enclosed, wooded area. Somewhere where it'd be difficult for the scAIRcrows to fly through. We found it but it was right at the back of a pub and by a main road and whilst you can't see any of it - you can hear it! Kids, ice cream vans - the lot. We were obviously very careful about recording this and we'll have sound that we can use but it was another of those moments where I was far too focused on the actual film to notice the ambient sound. It's worth keeping an eye on because, if our characters can hear ice cream vans - they'd by inclined to run towards them for help, not stand there having a very deep conversation.
The good news is, we managed to finish ahead of schedule. We only had half an hour spare so half an hour anywhere along the shoot could have put us back but we did it!
Twenty pages of script for scAIRcrows was shot over two days and now sits on the hard drive. I begin editing next week - just waiting on delivery of software.
So, with that done would like to say the biggest thanks to my actors - Victoria Smith, Damien Warren-Smith, Elisa Armstrong and Gareth Halfpenny. I really hope you guys realise just how important you were to making this work - it will never be forgotten.
And my crew - Jenny and Wayne Diamond and Lindsey Dean. We've all still got a bit of a ways to go but we're that far along because of you all. This film would not have happened without you and that's the honest truth.
Also - another mention never hurt anyone! Biggest thanks to Emily Rudge for the catering - I'm sure some (maybe all) saw it as the high point of the shoot!
Now - we look ahead to the remaining 7 pages where the scAIRcrows do some damage!
The pictures from the shoot are on Facebook and also can be found here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/scaircrows/sets/72157624655759107/
Sunday, 22 August 2010
The Shoot - Day One - 14.08.2010
So somehow, scAIRcrows became a reality on the 14th August.
We met the actors at 9am Saturday morning and proceeded to the location where we just about managed to set everything down before it rained.
Rain is a massive problem for scAIRcrows as it is set entirely outside and even if we were all prepared to work through it - it wouldn't have made any sense. If a bunch of friends are hanging out and it starts raining, they're going to pack up and leave. You just don't sit there in the rain when you don't need to.
So rain could have actually killed the production off instantly. The forecast up until a few days before looked good and then it suddenly changed. Problem I had was that I'd paid for a permit to film and a requirement of the permit was that I also possess public liability insurance. I won't disclose how much it cost me but it was a decent chunk of money. So I had no option but to carry on, scAIRcrows simply couldn't afford to pay that again for the same scenes.
I don't know what happened to me but the second we got the location I became incredibly focused on things, to my detriment. I couldn't see things that were obvious and Victoria, the actress playing Emma, the lead in scAIRcrows, suggested we just shoot under this huge tree that stood alone in the field we were at. It never struck me as an option and I think the reason for this was that I'd had this script in my head for too long and had the film already assembled. And a tree didn't feature anywhere in the film I'd envisaged.
But it made sense. Because even if it was hot, you would still want shade and not to be sat out in the sun all day. It worked better than what I'd been living with for the past two months. I don't know if it's the right approach to film making but I'm 100% open to suggestions because I absolutely recognise that sometimes, I can't see what's right in front of me. This was basically the approach I took to the entire shoot - to just let things play out as they naturally do and only then trying to steer things if they don't work. I don't know if it was weird for the actors to not be asked to do things again but in a different way but I felt happier behind the camera when the scenes were developing organically rather than being geared mechanically a certain way (more about that in the blog relating to the next day's shoot!).
So, with that suggestion taken on board, we started setting up and were shooting in about half an hour. scAIRcrows shot on two JCV HD7 cameras - they look small but for anyone that doubts their quality - do a search for it on YouTube and check the quality of the videos achieved by it. Obviously, a lot of that is also down to whoever is operating the camera but I'm happy with how the footage looks. Sound was taken separately due to the incident mentioned in an earlier blog and it's probably the one thing that's going to give me the biggest headache when editing scAIRcrows. We did the whole clapperboard (though it wasn't actually a clapperboard) picture and sound sync thing so it should be easier I hear there is software that can help do this too if the camera's recording sound - which they were.
We managed to rattle through the first scene fairly easily, it's mostly dialogue taken in one place - I hate to think how many times we read those lines and I'll suffer for asking it to be done over and over when I have to listen to it all in editing! I was probably more cautious about everything we shot, we shot until we nailed it and then a couple more times after it for security. It's probably par for the course but I felt I was starting to get a bit annoying asking for it again and again!
I messed up quite comically in one part of this scene. Basically, there's a part where there's just the two girls talking and I actually cut the scene early, whilst the actresses were still performing. Again, it goes back to being intensely focused. The scene ends with a single word but there's a very similar word further up the script that's all said on it's own and in one take, I took that to be the end scene word and stopped the cameras. Yes I wrote it but I was so fixated on everything else (and also absorbed by the performances) that I was operating instinctively, listening out for certain beats and words rather than actually following the script! It's one thing I'll need to work on, whilst it is obviously no bad thing to be intently watching the scene, you do need some awareness of what's going around. I was stopped a few times because actors said there were planes flying overhead. I didn't hear them until they mentioned it.
We had part of that scene where two characters are throwing a ball back and forth and it was fairly easy to shoot but one of the biggest lessons was learnt that weekend - if you have the actors returning the next day - play back ALL your footage from the previous day's shoot. That way, if something hasn't worked for whatever reason, you can pick up on it and re shoot whilst you still have the actors there. We had one shot in that little scene which stood out from the rest and it happened because of how specific I am about framing things.
I like space, I like keeping things at the edge of the screen if there's nothing else in shot, I don't like things being centred. And this one shot, as it was taken by someone else, was framed centrally and it just clearly didn't work alongside all the other video we had of that scene. We had back ups - two shots etc but because we had the opportunity to spot and re shoot, we did and gave the actor the shot he deserved.
So, always watch the footage back the same day if you have the opportunity to fix it the following day. Now, it isn't the best advice because it physically killed me. We got through watching all the footage at 1am (two cameras shooting - there was probably about 5 hours of footage all in). I then had to go back home and recharge all the cameras batteries. This is something that I didn't get finished until 4.30am at which point I went to sleep before waking up at 7am for the next day's shoot.
It was madness and made for a slightly more hairy Sunday but being able to fix a shot I was going to forever be unhappy with made it worthwhile. And I've caught up on the sleep now!
We had catering provided by Emily Rudge - she made amazing food that kept everyone happy both days of the shoot. It was another thing that I learnt that weekend, the little things count for something. Just having decent food on set kept everyone happy and in turn, kept me happy. Being an unpaid production (how I wished scAIRcrows had more money so that I could've paid everyone - they were more than worth it!) I knew I had to at least make sure my actors were comfortable and weren't out of pocket. If anyone is considering launching a film, paid or unpaid, don't disregard how important something small like food can be! And Emily is a great place to start as I, as well as all the other people working on the film, will testify.
The food also brought about an uninvited visitor to the set - Poppy the dog. There are pictures of her on the flickr/Facebook pages and, as much of a blur as that weekend was, I do remember the invasion distracted me (in a good way) from trying to co-ordinate the rest of the shoot. Poppy, you're welcome back anytime!
The next scene to shoot was an even simpler dialogue scene, one that takes place entirely in one spot and so was a nice thing to work on as it didn't require intense concentration on all the elements!
That scene came and went without incident and this is where I probably had the biggest smile that weekend - we were ahead of schedule. It was always a worry that shooting 20 pages over two days was slightly ambitious but the good thing was - it was mostly dialogue. The leads are the 'interest' characters. They're the ones we spend a bit more time with and there's only one action scene with them - scene 6. Two words I can't say together without inducing nightmares.
But I had that in my favour so with a couple of hours to spare, we went ahead and shot scene 6 up until the point where the action happens. We wrapped on time that night and went straight back to review all the footage.
I would say that Saturday was fairly uneventful - everything worked exactly like it should have done once we'd worked around the rain and had definitely left me confident that this film will actually work. I've probably said it so many times that they're sick of it (so sorry if any of you are reading this!) but the actors were amazing and totally kept the film moving. I would definitely keep an eye on the cast of scAIRcrows and again, if anyone's thinking of putting a film together, I truly doubt you could do better than this talented, committed bunch of people.
Same goes for the crew. No-one was paid and no-one had to put up with the long days but they all did - people like that are worth more than anything.
If scAIRcrows becomes a success - I can't take credit for it. The film is a team effort and the absence of anyone that was present would have hurt it.
Pressure is on to continue in that manner. I will put together a blog re. Sunday hopefully tonight too - it was definitely the more challenging day.
Pictures from the shoot are on the scAIRcrows Facebook page and flickr here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/scaircrows/sets/72157624655163435/
We met the actors at 9am Saturday morning and proceeded to the location where we just about managed to set everything down before it rained.
Rain is a massive problem for scAIRcrows as it is set entirely outside and even if we were all prepared to work through it - it wouldn't have made any sense. If a bunch of friends are hanging out and it starts raining, they're going to pack up and leave. You just don't sit there in the rain when you don't need to.
So rain could have actually killed the production off instantly. The forecast up until a few days before looked good and then it suddenly changed. Problem I had was that I'd paid for a permit to film and a requirement of the permit was that I also possess public liability insurance. I won't disclose how much it cost me but it was a decent chunk of money. So I had no option but to carry on, scAIRcrows simply couldn't afford to pay that again for the same scenes.
I don't know what happened to me but the second we got the location I became incredibly focused on things, to my detriment. I couldn't see things that were obvious and Victoria, the actress playing Emma, the lead in scAIRcrows, suggested we just shoot under this huge tree that stood alone in the field we were at. It never struck me as an option and I think the reason for this was that I'd had this script in my head for too long and had the film already assembled. And a tree didn't feature anywhere in the film I'd envisaged.
But it made sense. Because even if it was hot, you would still want shade and not to be sat out in the sun all day. It worked better than what I'd been living with for the past two months. I don't know if it's the right approach to film making but I'm 100% open to suggestions because I absolutely recognise that sometimes, I can't see what's right in front of me. This was basically the approach I took to the entire shoot - to just let things play out as they naturally do and only then trying to steer things if they don't work. I don't know if it was weird for the actors to not be asked to do things again but in a different way but I felt happier behind the camera when the scenes were developing organically rather than being geared mechanically a certain way (more about that in the blog relating to the next day's shoot!).
So, with that suggestion taken on board, we started setting up and were shooting in about half an hour. scAIRcrows shot on two JCV HD7 cameras - they look small but for anyone that doubts their quality - do a search for it on YouTube and check the quality of the videos achieved by it. Obviously, a lot of that is also down to whoever is operating the camera but I'm happy with how the footage looks. Sound was taken separately due to the incident mentioned in an earlier blog and it's probably the one thing that's going to give me the biggest headache when editing scAIRcrows. We did the whole clapperboard (though it wasn't actually a clapperboard) picture and sound sync thing so it should be easier I hear there is software that can help do this too if the camera's recording sound - which they were.
We managed to rattle through the first scene fairly easily, it's mostly dialogue taken in one place - I hate to think how many times we read those lines and I'll suffer for asking it to be done over and over when I have to listen to it all in editing! I was probably more cautious about everything we shot, we shot until we nailed it and then a couple more times after it for security. It's probably par for the course but I felt I was starting to get a bit annoying asking for it again and again!
I messed up quite comically in one part of this scene. Basically, there's a part where there's just the two girls talking and I actually cut the scene early, whilst the actresses were still performing. Again, it goes back to being intensely focused. The scene ends with a single word but there's a very similar word further up the script that's all said on it's own and in one take, I took that to be the end scene word and stopped the cameras. Yes I wrote it but I was so fixated on everything else (and also absorbed by the performances) that I was operating instinctively, listening out for certain beats and words rather than actually following the script! It's one thing I'll need to work on, whilst it is obviously no bad thing to be intently watching the scene, you do need some awareness of what's going around. I was stopped a few times because actors said there were planes flying overhead. I didn't hear them until they mentioned it.
We had part of that scene where two characters are throwing a ball back and forth and it was fairly easy to shoot but one of the biggest lessons was learnt that weekend - if you have the actors returning the next day - play back ALL your footage from the previous day's shoot. That way, if something hasn't worked for whatever reason, you can pick up on it and re shoot whilst you still have the actors there. We had one shot in that little scene which stood out from the rest and it happened because of how specific I am about framing things.
I like space, I like keeping things at the edge of the screen if there's nothing else in shot, I don't like things being centred. And this one shot, as it was taken by someone else, was framed centrally and it just clearly didn't work alongside all the other video we had of that scene. We had back ups - two shots etc but because we had the opportunity to spot and re shoot, we did and gave the actor the shot he deserved.
So, always watch the footage back the same day if you have the opportunity to fix it the following day. Now, it isn't the best advice because it physically killed me. We got through watching all the footage at 1am (two cameras shooting - there was probably about 5 hours of footage all in). I then had to go back home and recharge all the cameras batteries. This is something that I didn't get finished until 4.30am at which point I went to sleep before waking up at 7am for the next day's shoot.
It was madness and made for a slightly more hairy Sunday but being able to fix a shot I was going to forever be unhappy with made it worthwhile. And I've caught up on the sleep now!
We had catering provided by Emily Rudge - she made amazing food that kept everyone happy both days of the shoot. It was another thing that I learnt that weekend, the little things count for something. Just having decent food on set kept everyone happy and in turn, kept me happy. Being an unpaid production (how I wished scAIRcrows had more money so that I could've paid everyone - they were more than worth it!) I knew I had to at least make sure my actors were comfortable and weren't out of pocket. If anyone is considering launching a film, paid or unpaid, don't disregard how important something small like food can be! And Emily is a great place to start as I, as well as all the other people working on the film, will testify.
The food also brought about an uninvited visitor to the set - Poppy the dog. There are pictures of her on the flickr/Facebook pages and, as much of a blur as that weekend was, I do remember the invasion distracted me (in a good way) from trying to co-ordinate the rest of the shoot. Poppy, you're welcome back anytime!
The next scene to shoot was an even simpler dialogue scene, one that takes place entirely in one spot and so was a nice thing to work on as it didn't require intense concentration on all the elements!
That scene came and went without incident and this is where I probably had the biggest smile that weekend - we were ahead of schedule. It was always a worry that shooting 20 pages over two days was slightly ambitious but the good thing was - it was mostly dialogue. The leads are the 'interest' characters. They're the ones we spend a bit more time with and there's only one action scene with them - scene 6. Two words I can't say together without inducing nightmares.
But I had that in my favour so with a couple of hours to spare, we went ahead and shot scene 6 up until the point where the action happens. We wrapped on time that night and went straight back to review all the footage.
I would say that Saturday was fairly uneventful - everything worked exactly like it should have done once we'd worked around the rain and had definitely left me confident that this film will actually work. I've probably said it so many times that they're sick of it (so sorry if any of you are reading this!) but the actors were amazing and totally kept the film moving. I would definitely keep an eye on the cast of scAIRcrows and again, if anyone's thinking of putting a film together, I truly doubt you could do better than this talented, committed bunch of people.
Same goes for the crew. No-one was paid and no-one had to put up with the long days but they all did - people like that are worth more than anything.
If scAIRcrows becomes a success - I can't take credit for it. The film is a team effort and the absence of anyone that was present would have hurt it.
Pressure is on to continue in that manner. I will put together a blog re. Sunday hopefully tonight too - it was definitely the more challenging day.
Pictures from the shoot are on the scAIRcrows Facebook page and flickr here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/scaircrows/sets/72157624655163435/
Wednesday, 18 August 2010
An Update
Whilst I still don't really feel I have the time to do a proper blog around the weekend's shoot, I figure I'll drop a quick update in.
Twenty pages of a twenty seven page script have now been shot and this video is currently sat on a new external hard drive that I bought purely for scAIRcrows. We're shooting at full HDV so the files are pretty big - we've got 100GB of footage. I don't know how many hours that translates to but it's probably a lot for twenty pages of script.
I've deliberately kept a distance from the video for this week - the events of the weekend are still fairly fresh in my mind and I need to approach this with a clear head.
I'm happier than anything though - for me, this was an idea I had over a year ago and bit by bit, this thing slowly formed in my head and I eventually wrote it down in May. And it's weird to think that the script now actually lives. That something I'd created in my head now has an audiovisual presence. It truly is like dreaming something and then having it come to life and it's truly bizarre. I've been through this process before but with others quite heavily involved - scAIRcrows, I can safely say is 100% my vision.
I can't exactly stop working as there's still plenty to do but I'm focusing on other aspects of the film to break it up. And right now, that's the website. It isn't going to be overly spectacular as I do just want it to be one central point where people can go and then link to this blog, YouTube, flickr etc... I think the more basic it is, the better. So, hopefully by Saturday that will be live.
In the next few days, the first proper meeting re. the second block of shooting should take place. All actors we've offered the parts to have accepted but we haven't really progressed details there as we've been focused on the first shoot (which, at twenty pages, was the bulk of the film).
I will also write detailed blogs on the two days of shooting as well as posting pictures from the shoot - I will probably hold back on any video for the moment - as much as I want to get more video on the YouTube channel, it has to be right.
So, that's basically where the next week of scAIRcrows will be - it's getting really interesting now!
Twenty pages of a twenty seven page script have now been shot and this video is currently sat on a new external hard drive that I bought purely for scAIRcrows. We're shooting at full HDV so the files are pretty big - we've got 100GB of footage. I don't know how many hours that translates to but it's probably a lot for twenty pages of script.
I've deliberately kept a distance from the video for this week - the events of the weekend are still fairly fresh in my mind and I need to approach this with a clear head.
I'm happier than anything though - for me, this was an idea I had over a year ago and bit by bit, this thing slowly formed in my head and I eventually wrote it down in May. And it's weird to think that the script now actually lives. That something I'd created in my head now has an audiovisual presence. It truly is like dreaming something and then having it come to life and it's truly bizarre. I've been through this process before but with others quite heavily involved - scAIRcrows, I can safely say is 100% my vision.
I can't exactly stop working as there's still plenty to do but I'm focusing on other aspects of the film to break it up. And right now, that's the website. It isn't going to be overly spectacular as I do just want it to be one central point where people can go and then link to this blog, YouTube, flickr etc... I think the more basic it is, the better. So, hopefully by Saturday that will be live.
In the next few days, the first proper meeting re. the second block of shooting should take place. All actors we've offered the parts to have accepted but we haven't really progressed details there as we've been focused on the first shoot (which, at twenty pages, was the bulk of the film).
I will also write detailed blogs on the two days of shooting as well as posting pictures from the shoot - I will probably hold back on any video for the moment - as much as I want to get more video on the YouTube channel, it has to be right.
So, that's basically where the next week of scAIRcrows will be - it's getting really interesting now!
Wednesday, 11 August 2010
Rehearsals
We held rehearsals for the leads in scAIRcrows tonight.
I called rehearsals after realising that whilst I might have the film in mind - it was probably handy for the actors involved to run through the script and work off each other ahead of the actual day.
I'll admit that the way I work in life generally is to just go for it and worry about what goes wrong when it happens - so I would've been quite happy to just show up on the day of the shoot and just start shooting. Clearly, it's the wrong approach to take and after confessing to the actors that I didn't really have much of an idea as to what we were going to do in rehearsals, I was promptly shown.
And again, this is what's great about scAIRcrows - I am genuinely learning from every part of this project. Having run through the script with the actors - I know exactly how rehearsals should be handled and what the actors and myself need from them. I'm sorry that the four that worked with me tonight were the guinea pigs but they've given me so much that already, I'm much more confident about doing this in the future.
Which is handy because we'll need to do rehearsals for the other parts later in the month or early September. And I will come across a lot better there than I did tonight because I know what to expect and how to gear it now.
As for how the evening went - I felt like I should have offered more comment but to be totally truthful, they took the script beyond what I'd imagined and I think any comment I could've brought in would have been redundant. I'm really excited for people to see this now because it became clear to me tonight that there's four great people carrying this film, turning what I'd written into something that flows and sounds 'right'. I know now that scAIRcrows will be a film to be proud of - I honestly cannot wait to be in a position to get it out there.
And that's the other thing - it's given me confidence. I'm always doubting myself. It's something that I'm told by family, friends, school reports and work appraisals. And so, whilst I wrote scAIRcrows as something I would love to watch, I really didn't think anyone else would be interested. But tonight's showed me that yes, people will be interested and that the right people can give credence to something that, on paper, doesn't look like it'd work. So I'm not worried about Saturday at all. I should be nervous about it but I'm really not because I know that this will end up being good.
It's hard to explain but I wrote this about two or three months ago now and have lived with it in my head for that long but to see it actually turn into something real and be EXACTLY what I'd written - it's something else. Obviously, we're not 100% there - there's still a few things on the technical side to clear up but as far as what happens in front of the camera goes - I've no worries and it's such a good thing to be able to say that.
scAIRcrows will definitely be something to look forward to now!
I called rehearsals after realising that whilst I might have the film in mind - it was probably handy for the actors involved to run through the script and work off each other ahead of the actual day.
I'll admit that the way I work in life generally is to just go for it and worry about what goes wrong when it happens - so I would've been quite happy to just show up on the day of the shoot and just start shooting. Clearly, it's the wrong approach to take and after confessing to the actors that I didn't really have much of an idea as to what we were going to do in rehearsals, I was promptly shown.
And again, this is what's great about scAIRcrows - I am genuinely learning from every part of this project. Having run through the script with the actors - I know exactly how rehearsals should be handled and what the actors and myself need from them. I'm sorry that the four that worked with me tonight were the guinea pigs but they've given me so much that already, I'm much more confident about doing this in the future.
Which is handy because we'll need to do rehearsals for the other parts later in the month or early September. And I will come across a lot better there than I did tonight because I know what to expect and how to gear it now.
As for how the evening went - I felt like I should have offered more comment but to be totally truthful, they took the script beyond what I'd imagined and I think any comment I could've brought in would have been redundant. I'm really excited for people to see this now because it became clear to me tonight that there's four great people carrying this film, turning what I'd written into something that flows and sounds 'right'. I know now that scAIRcrows will be a film to be proud of - I honestly cannot wait to be in a position to get it out there.
And that's the other thing - it's given me confidence. I'm always doubting myself. It's something that I'm told by family, friends, school reports and work appraisals. And so, whilst I wrote scAIRcrows as something I would love to watch, I really didn't think anyone else would be interested. But tonight's showed me that yes, people will be interested and that the right people can give credence to something that, on paper, doesn't look like it'd work. So I'm not worried about Saturday at all. I should be nervous about it but I'm really not because I know that this will end up being good.
It's hard to explain but I wrote this about two or three months ago now and have lived with it in my head for that long but to see it actually turn into something real and be EXACTLY what I'd written - it's something else. Obviously, we're not 100% there - there's still a few things on the technical side to clear up but as far as what happens in front of the camera goes - I've no worries and it's such a good thing to be able to say that.
scAIRcrows will definitely be something to look forward to now!
Sunday, 8 August 2010
'Problems'
Today was a really good day for scAIRcrows - things went a bit wrong. I'm really glad that things went wrong though because there's such a thing as too easy and whilst the pre-production so far has been tiring (mentally more than anything else), it's been fairly straight forward.
What was supposed to be a day of testing a bunch of things in the run up to the shoot ended up being spent trying to resolve two things.
The first thing was that I bought a Steadicam style device for one of the cameras (didn't buy two because I wanted to see how I'd get on with one first). The equipment cost £80 (I supplemented this with a further £20 for additional weights) and is supposed to keep the camera still whilst being supported in the hands. No matter what we did, we could not get this thing as steady as it is in the tutorial videos and a good hour or two was spent balancing the weights, counteracting the weight of the camera and we almost got there but not quite - if the thing takes this long to set up, its impractical for the shoot and so is effectively £100 unnecessarily spent.
It gets better.
I'd bought a Rode NTG-2 microphone for this shoot. Despite it being low budget - I want to get the best equipment I can afford and £180 for a microphone seemed like a worthy investment. It was bought on eBay however so I cannot claim I spent £180 on it - it cost me £140 with postage. Still a considerable amount when you're counting every penny.
The question was raised as to how we power this and I then remembered that it has a battery compartment. We went wrong from the very beginning, unscrewing something that didn't need to be unscrewed. There was one screw that was incorrectly threaded and consequently jammed - it took a good 2-3 hours to get this screw out using all sorts of methods. When we did get it out, we realised it was holding together the part of the microphone we weren't supposed to detach - consequently gutting the mic. We put it back together and can happily confirm that we have destroyed it. It picks up about a second or two of sound before cutting out and back in. So £140 thrown away there too.
Which means, today, we wasted about 10 hours of valuable testing time and also managed to establish that a £100 piece of equipment was impractical for the shoot and destroyed a microphone that retails at £180.
And I'm glad it all happened. Mistakes made and things learned - the back up plan for the microphone will probably work better than the microphone would have (though we'll never know!) and the camera stabiliser - well, I could have bought a pair straight up.
I'll keep saying it but scAIRcrows is a learning experience for me and so I welcome mistakes - it's the way that I learn. If everything worked perfectly throughout production, I would obviously feel happy but I wouldn't feel like I'd learnt anything and would lack that extra confidence I'd get from knowing that certain things will happen in certain ways. As long as you take something from it, nothing that can ever happen to you is a bad thing (99% of the time!).
What was supposed to be a day of testing a bunch of things in the run up to the shoot ended up being spent trying to resolve two things.
The first thing was that I bought a Steadicam style device for one of the cameras (didn't buy two because I wanted to see how I'd get on with one first). The equipment cost £80 (I supplemented this with a further £20 for additional weights) and is supposed to keep the camera still whilst being supported in the hands. No matter what we did, we could not get this thing as steady as it is in the tutorial videos and a good hour or two was spent balancing the weights, counteracting the weight of the camera and we almost got there but not quite - if the thing takes this long to set up, its impractical for the shoot and so is effectively £100 unnecessarily spent.
It gets better.
I'd bought a Rode NTG-2 microphone for this shoot. Despite it being low budget - I want to get the best equipment I can afford and £180 for a microphone seemed like a worthy investment. It was bought on eBay however so I cannot claim I spent £180 on it - it cost me £140 with postage. Still a considerable amount when you're counting every penny.
The question was raised as to how we power this and I then remembered that it has a battery compartment. We went wrong from the very beginning, unscrewing something that didn't need to be unscrewed. There was one screw that was incorrectly threaded and consequently jammed - it took a good 2-3 hours to get this screw out using all sorts of methods. When we did get it out, we realised it was holding together the part of the microphone we weren't supposed to detach - consequently gutting the mic. We put it back together and can happily confirm that we have destroyed it. It picks up about a second or two of sound before cutting out and back in. So £140 thrown away there too.
Which means, today, we wasted about 10 hours of valuable testing time and also managed to establish that a £100 piece of equipment was impractical for the shoot and destroyed a microphone that retails at £180.
And I'm glad it all happened. Mistakes made and things learned - the back up plan for the microphone will probably work better than the microphone would have (though we'll never know!) and the camera stabiliser - well, I could have bought a pair straight up.
I'll keep saying it but scAIRcrows is a learning experience for me and so I welcome mistakes - it's the way that I learn. If everything worked perfectly throughout production, I would obviously feel happy but I wouldn't feel like I'd learnt anything and would lack that extra confidence I'd get from knowing that certain things will happen in certain ways. As long as you take something from it, nothing that can ever happen to you is a bad thing (99% of the time!).
Monday, 2 August 2010
Auditioning
Yesterday (Sunday) we finished auditions for scAIRcrows. From the first weekend we'd cast three of the four leads but needed to go back and cast the remaining fourth character. It was looking slightly tricky as we've pretty much locked our first shoot weekend - everyone involved has set that weekend aside so despite being awfully close to the date, we had to knuckle on and find an actor in time.
By Friday we're sure we'll have confirmed an actor and then we're all set for the first weekend's shoot.
scAIRcrows was initially going to be a more 'friends and family' type thing and it'd been discussed in that manner. The only thing that happened was that I then went and wrote the script. And the second it was finished it became abundantly clear that it needed 'proper' actors. I'd written myself into a corner. The thing was, the script needed to be what it was. It needed to have halfway decent characters and a certain amount of dialogue to give the audience some connection.
The whole thing very nearly died there and then. I weren't confident enough to bring in people who were professional actors - I didn't feel like I could deliver something that was worthy of professional actors. But by that point, the film had been talked up so much that it had to go ahead so I put the ad out not really knowing what to expect. I'll post the ad in it's entirety as a separate blog as it seemed to go down well - it got across the fun of the project.
And we got an unprecedented response. Whilst I didn't really know what to expect, I certainly didn't expect to get over 100 applications.
We slowly whittled it down (which was very tough and time consuming). We decided we wouldn't do in person auditions for what I call the fodder roles (the characters that are in the film just to die) as they only speak a few lines and so we opened up video auditions to them.
For the leads, we did in person auditions. It was really good to see people understanding the script, liking it and also interpreting it in their own way. Some people absolutely nailed the lines and others went beyond that, seeing things that I hadn't written in the script but were so right for the character. Everyone brought something and I am so appreciative of everyone that showed up - it's really encouraging to see other people share an interest in something that started out as a joke but became very serious.
I just wanted to give an idea of the sort've low budget/independent world that scAIRcrows inhabits. We held auditions in a music rehearsal studio. The website for the studio is www.archstudios.co.uk - I highly recommend this place. The people there are great and it's a nice environment, easily accessible by tube and cheap. This would definitely be my go to place for any future projects - really can't imagine many other places being more suitable.
So on Sunday, we got there and unpacked. I'd forgotten the plate for the tripod as seen:
So, we improvised and rested the camera on a drum - typical low budget creativity at work there...
Then, we had camping chairs as seats:
The actors coming in were given the dearest one (when I first bought them in Argos, I wanted five chairs but they only had four of the cheapest ones so I had to buy the next level up - I hope the actors all appreciated the extra level of comfort!).
And these were our chairs. Funny thing was - the first day of auditioning, I had three other people sit in with me (as I wanted a rounded opinion). On the second day it dropped to two and on the third, there was just one other person with me. Which is why I won't do any more auditions for scAIRcrows as there's a definite trend there!
But, despite how it all looks, it worked - I researched proper casting studios and we managed to get three full days of auditioning in for less than the average price of one day in an actual casting studio. And hopefully none of the actors were put off by the camping chairs and drums doubling as tripods.
By Friday we're sure we'll have confirmed an actor and then we're all set for the first weekend's shoot.
scAIRcrows was initially going to be a more 'friends and family' type thing and it'd been discussed in that manner. The only thing that happened was that I then went and wrote the script. And the second it was finished it became abundantly clear that it needed 'proper' actors. I'd written myself into a corner. The thing was, the script needed to be what it was. It needed to have halfway decent characters and a certain amount of dialogue to give the audience some connection.
The whole thing very nearly died there and then. I weren't confident enough to bring in people who were professional actors - I didn't feel like I could deliver something that was worthy of professional actors. But by that point, the film had been talked up so much that it had to go ahead so I put the ad out not really knowing what to expect. I'll post the ad in it's entirety as a separate blog as it seemed to go down well - it got across the fun of the project.
And we got an unprecedented response. Whilst I didn't really know what to expect, I certainly didn't expect to get over 100 applications.
We slowly whittled it down (which was very tough and time consuming). We decided we wouldn't do in person auditions for what I call the fodder roles (the characters that are in the film just to die) as they only speak a few lines and so we opened up video auditions to them.
For the leads, we did in person auditions. It was really good to see people understanding the script, liking it and also interpreting it in their own way. Some people absolutely nailed the lines and others went beyond that, seeing things that I hadn't written in the script but were so right for the character. Everyone brought something and I am so appreciative of everyone that showed up - it's really encouraging to see other people share an interest in something that started out as a joke but became very serious.
I just wanted to give an idea of the sort've low budget/independent world that scAIRcrows inhabits. We held auditions in a music rehearsal studio. The website for the studio is www.archstudios.co.uk - I highly recommend this place. The people there are great and it's a nice environment, easily accessible by tube and cheap. This would definitely be my go to place for any future projects - really can't imagine many other places being more suitable.
So on Sunday, we got there and unpacked. I'd forgotten the plate for the tripod as seen:
So, we improvised and rested the camera on a drum - typical low budget creativity at work there...Then, we had camping chairs as seats:
The actors coming in were given the dearest one (when I first bought them in Argos, I wanted five chairs but they only had four of the cheapest ones so I had to buy the next level up - I hope the actors all appreciated the extra level of comfort!).And these were our chairs. Funny thing was - the first day of auditioning, I had three other people sit in with me (as I wanted a rounded opinion). On the second day it dropped to two and on the third, there was just one other person with me. Which is why I won't do any more auditions for scAIRcrows as there's a definite trend there!
But, despite how it all looks, it worked - I researched proper casting studios and we managed to get three full days of auditioning in for less than the average price of one day in an actual casting studio. And hopefully none of the actors were put off by the camping chairs and drums doubling as tripods. In the next couple of days we should have the last of the mundane details sorted and then there's about a week and a half of planning shots ahead of the first weekend's shoot.
Saturday, 31 July 2010
Post Production
I've had a few questions about post on scAIRcrows and I've always answered the question from an effects point of view and no-one's stopped me or pushed me further so I presume that when people ask about post, they're asking about the effects.
Whilst I may have touched on this previously, scAIRcrows will be entirely practical. It helps me not knowing the first thing about CGI on a low budget but also, I honestly wouldn't want to use it. I'll try and not be a purist about this as I know it has it's uses and if done well, can really look good (I was convinced that only the tentacles on Davy Jones' face were CGI in the Pirates of the Caribbean films - honestly didn't think the whole thing was animated). But most of the time it completely takes me out of a film - I've never understood why CG blood is used, it stands out a mile.
So yes, practical 100% of the way - I know why the question comes up though. For anyone that reads the script, it reads like it should be really expensive. You have scarecrows that fly and then people dying in fairly elaborate ways.
As the YouTube channel (quite low on content at the moment - I know, it's something I will address!) demonstrates, things that I've written into the script that sound impossible can actually be pulled off - fairly well I think too as well. We're not going to rival commercial productions but I wouldn't want to - I think this adds to the charm and tone of the project - being hands on with absolutely everything.
Whilst I may have touched on this previously, scAIRcrows will be entirely practical. It helps me not knowing the first thing about CGI on a low budget but also, I honestly wouldn't want to use it. I'll try and not be a purist about this as I know it has it's uses and if done well, can really look good (I was convinced that only the tentacles on Davy Jones' face were CGI in the Pirates of the Caribbean films - honestly didn't think the whole thing was animated). But most of the time it completely takes me out of a film - I've never understood why CG blood is used, it stands out a mile.
So yes, practical 100% of the way - I know why the question comes up though. For anyone that reads the script, it reads like it should be really expensive. You have scarecrows that fly and then people dying in fairly elaborate ways.
As the YouTube channel (quite low on content at the moment - I know, it's something I will address!) demonstrates, things that I've written into the script that sound impossible can actually be pulled off - fairly well I think too as well. We're not going to rival commercial productions but I wouldn't want to - I think this adds to the charm and tone of the project - being hands on with absolutely everything.
We have a lot of time to get each of those shots right and because the bulk of the effects shots will be performed off set - if I spend a whole day just putting together one shot, then so be it.
So yeah, as far as post goes - not a single spot will be digitally added. We'll colour grade and that but no effects will be performed inside the computer. If, for whatever reason, I can't get the shot physically, I'd rather not include it. And I say that with confidence of knowing that everything I've written can be pulled off, one way or another.
I hope this has actually answered the question re. post and that I am actually referring to the correct intention of the question - if not, if someone is genuinely interested to know more, throw the question at me!
And, if you want to know why, above all else, I wouldn't touch low budget CGI - check out the trailer to Birdemic and look at the shots with the birds. Truly, having plastic birds on strings, to me, would look better and the option that I would have gone for.
Friday, 30 July 2010
Inspirations
I'm taking a break from talking about production because we're neck deep in casting and I'd rather talk about that process once we've finished it but it's been great. This being my first non student production, it's a brilliant thing to have your work taken seriously and listening to people simply elevate it. Logistically though, it's been a nightmare, organising dates and times etc but, as with this entire thing, it's a learning experience and I already know how I could make things so much easier the next time around (though I'm definitely not thinking 'next time' at this very moment!).
So anyway, I'm calling this blog 'Inspirations' but I don't want to give the impression that I'm just name checking a bunch of films I've ripped off. I would hope that people don't see too much of the following films in scAIRcrows but they are definitely films that pushed me in this direction.
So anyway, I'm calling this blog 'Inspirations' but I don't want to give the impression that I'm just name checking a bunch of films I've ripped off. I would hope that people don't see too much of the following films in scAIRcrows but they are definitely films that pushed me in this direction.
Firstly, Tales From The Crypt: Demon Knight. I've loved this film ever since it came out and have watched it more times than anything else listed here. It's hard to say what I really like about this - it really just comes down to the fact that it's just a fun film. That's all I ever want from a film - to not get bored. And with this, the characters are all so quirky that the film keeps moving even if nothing particularly interesting is happening at the time. But it rarely does slow down and it's the one thing that I wanted to bring to scAIRcrows - a pace that means you're not more than a couple of minutes away from the next action sequence. scAIRcrows has it's character moments (more on that in a second) but it still moves. And the casting is too good - Billy Zane and William Sadler as opposing forces - whilst I still think it would be good with other actors, the cast really do raise the script up a level.
Feast is pretty much the same film as Demon Knight - again, there's a pace to this film that masks over some of the lesser aspects. I don't like this as much as Demon Knight as I don't think the cast and the characters are anywhere near as interesting which means Feast relies more on the action than Demon Knight does. But I still think it's great and again, you won't be bored watching this which is definitely the mission statement for scAIRcrows. If your mind wanders for even a second, I'll feel like I failed.
Right, so, moving on from the action/pace aspect of scAIRcrows, the following two films have a really nice set of characters and atmosphere that I'd like to capture in scAIRcrows.
Cabin Fever is a good film to mention here as it's tonally a bit 'off'. You have the serious side of things contrasted with some quite silly and OTT situations that should be jarring but somehow aren't. scAIRcrows has the same sort of tone I think where the film is fairly straight whenever we're with the leads but then deviates slightly when we move over to our secondary characters.
But scAIRcrows isn't really anything like Cabin Fever, though hopefully it shares a similar sense of doom as far as our leads go.
I really love the scene with Rider Strong and Jordan Ladd on the raft - it plays really innocently and you get a sense of history between these two characters but at the same time, you feel sorry for them because you just know it isn't going to end well. It's really great because bubbling under the surface is this great feeling of dread - I think the score in this instance really helps inject that.
Roman is a really slow burning character film. Really slow. It isn't even that nice to look at but something about it just works. I think again, between the acting and the writing, this is something that just sounds like it should be terrible but isn't because it has the right people behind it.
Like Cabin Fever, there's this feeling of hopelessness running throughout the entire film. As strangely likeable as Roman might be, he is capable of bad things and when he meets someone with a similar outlook on life to him - well, it's doomed before it's even started.
And the last film I mention here is Final Destination 2. One of the characters in the film shares a very similar death to the guy that's impaled by the ladder. I just thought that particular way of killing someone is very easy for a scarecrow to deliver (they're typically fixed to large wooden posts that could do some damage if brought down on someone's face) so I had to include it.
What the Final Destination films also share with scAIRcrows is inventive death scenes. I'd watched pretty much every scarecrow film possible AFTER I'd written the script for scAIRcrows and I didn't feel like any of them really capitalised on the fact that they had scarecrows as their killers. I wanted the deaths in scAIRcrows to be something that was relevant to scarecrows or they might as well be anything/anyone. So there's the straw death previously discussed, a crucifix death and the post through the eye death as just mentioned as well as others.
Being a full on horror fan, there's probably millions of other films that've influenced me and scAIRcrows in some way but those are the ones that really stand out as being guiding forces in writing the script.
The next blog will probably go back to the production itself - we've gone back and tested a few other things here and there. Some things look really cool for what they are and I genuinely think, if we keep at this level, we could end up with something we're actually quite proud of. Tomorrow will be the first day in a few weeks where I take a complete break from the film before diving back into auditions for our final lead on Sunday.
'Til next time...
Monday, 26 July 2010
More Tests
Tests continued on Sunday. Again, everything we did was focused on that first weekend's shoot - I'm trying not to think any further than that at the moment!
There's two death scenes in the first weekend. We covered the first one yesterday. The other unlucky character dies by being ripped in half.
It's a fairly simple one compared to the straw death but a lot more awkward due to the fact that we can't reset this easily if it doesn't work.
Anyway, very simply, I bought a mannequin off eBay (pretty much where everything for this film has come from). I paid £40 for it and it's fairly good apart from the fact that it has no head and two right hands. It separates at the waist so was perfect for us - it already comes apart so we just need to dress it right.
So, we took it apart.
You can see both halves in this picture (wasn't intentional), all we needed to do was get a flesh like substance in there and then pull it apart and the effect would be done.
We took a load of cotton wool, dipped it in poster paint and glued it to the body with PVA glue. On the final build for the shoot, we'll dip the cotton wool in stage blood and fix that to the mannequin. But the poster paint looked okay.
We did the same for the top half of the mannequin and then held them together as close as we could. There was a bit of a gap still that we'll need to address in doing the final build - we managed to mask it somewhat by layering liquid latex over the join.
It looks a bit messy but it sealed the gap. It is still noticeable but again, for a test that's purpose is to see if the effect is physically possible, it works. And also, this mannequin will obviously be clothed which will help in masking any imperfections.
We didn't paint this one either which again, doesn't help as far as realism goes but again, fine for the test.
Now that we've tested this all out - it's on to the more boring aspects of the preproduction...
There's two death scenes in the first weekend. We covered the first one yesterday. The other unlucky character dies by being ripped in half.
It's a fairly simple one compared to the straw death but a lot more awkward due to the fact that we can't reset this easily if it doesn't work.
Anyway, very simply, I bought a mannequin off eBay (pretty much where everything for this film has come from). I paid £40 for it and it's fairly good apart from the fact that it has no head and two right hands. It separates at the waist so was perfect for us - it already comes apart so we just need to dress it right.
So, we took it apart.
You can see both halves in this picture (wasn't intentional), all we needed to do was get a flesh like substance in there and then pull it apart and the effect would be done.
We took a load of cotton wool, dipped it in poster paint and glued it to the body with PVA glue. On the final build for the shoot, we'll dip the cotton wool in stage blood and fix that to the mannequin. But the poster paint looked okay.
We did the same for the top half of the mannequin and then held them together as close as we could. There was a bit of a gap still that we'll need to address in doing the final build - we managed to mask it somewhat by layering liquid latex over the join.
It looks a bit messy but it sealed the gap. It is still noticeable but again, for a test that's purpose is to see if the effect is physically possible, it works. And also, this mannequin will obviously be clothed which will help in masking any imperfections.
We didn't paint this one either which again, doesn't help as far as realism goes but again, fine for the test.Video of the test is up on YouTube - www.youtube.com/user/scAIRcrows
Then we took what's becoming our signature scAIRcrow down to where we're shooting. This one is called Nuffara. We took him down for pictures and also the opportunity to test their ability to fly. Video of the flights is also on YouTube.
What amazed me was that after being thrown about twenty times, he was still intact. They're tough, these scAIRcrows.
Now that we've tested this all out - it's on to the more boring aspects of the preproduction...
Sunday, 25 July 2010
Special Effects
Yesterday we did the first effects tests. We have two death scenes in the first weekend's shooting and needed to start figuring out if doing them was possible as I'd have to change it somehow before shooting otherwise. Of the two deaths, one reads as being a lot more complicated and so this was the one that we mainly focused on.
The character that gets killed dies by having straw from a scAIRcrow stuffed into his mouth until his eyes are pushed out by straw. Yes, it probably isn't medically accurate or even possible (I haven't researched) but I just know it'll look cool and people won't care about small details.
As outlandish as some of the death scenes in the script may sound, I've ensured they're all achievable (and on a budget) by watching tutorials here: http://www.indymogul.com/backyardfx
Armed with the knowledge that the effects are possible, I bought 10 polystyrene heads on eBay. They cost £30 and unfortunately, I weren't at home when these were delivered and so, had to pick them up from the local sorting office. I got on the bus carrying a very big box adorned with the following label:
The character that gets killed dies by having straw from a scAIRcrow stuffed into his mouth until his eyes are pushed out by straw. Yes, it probably isn't medically accurate or even possible (I haven't researched) but I just know it'll look cool and people won't care about small details.
As outlandish as some of the death scenes in the script may sound, I've ensured they're all achievable (and on a budget) by watching tutorials here: http://www.indymogul.com/backyardfx
Armed with the knowledge that the effects are possible, I bought 10 polystyrene heads on eBay. They cost £30 and unfortunately, I weren't at home when these were delivered and so, had to pick them up from the local sorting office. I got on the bus carrying a very big box adorned with the following label:
I bought female heads as they were slightly cheaper and these were never going to be the final build, just something for me to test on and be confident that what I wrote could actually be pulled off.
Unpacking them was slightly creepy:
I then took three of these heads over to my producers' house and the testing started!
Out of the bubble wrap, the head looked like this:
We then put a couple of coats of liquid latex over it to try and smooth out the skin. This didn't go as well as we had hoped and we realised that it was because we were leaving the latex we were painting with out in the air and it was drying up just being in the pot. Consequently, the skin flaked quite a bit and didn't really look how it should have. We're glad that happened though - it was the whole reason for testing this effect and we know now not to leave the latex out.
Anyway, we then spray painted it with a colour that was way too pale and this is what it looked like:
We then painted some very crude cotton ball eyes:
Before anyone thinks that this is the quality we're achieving - these were just tests. We will be getting glass eyes that match the actor's eyes for the final effect and obviously, the skin texture and tone will be sorted out so that it will look a lot more convincing though Hollywood won't have anything to worry about!
Anyway, the aftermath of the effect:
Video footage was taken which will be going up on YouTube shortly.
For a first attempt without the proper materials, I'm really pleased with the results. It's important for me that the effects are in full view in scAIRcrows. I'm bored with seeing half hearted horror where the people are killed in mundane ways. A little creativity and fun never hurt anyone! I understand the value of having understated or off screen deaths (scAIRcrows has one character die off screen) but that only works if it matches the tone of the film.
And in testing, we thought up new ways to kill characters which may replace some of the deaths as they are written. It was a very creative day and I think a milestone in the scAIRcrows project - with a bit of work, we can definitely meet the ambitions of the script and that's a very encouraging thought!
We're not going to reveal all of the scAIRcrow designs as I'm aware that, at points, this blog may reveal too much so I'm keeping one eye on retaining some level of surprise for the final product. However, this is the nearly finished build (we haven't sorted out the face on the head yet) of our second scAIRcrow. If you read the previous blog, you can see that it bears some resemblance to one of the sketches. His name is Espantalho:
As I mentioned, YouTube video will be going up shortly and the best way to keep track of that is to follow the scAIRcrows twitter page - http://www.scaircrows.com/ redirects to it.
Friday, 23 July 2010
The scAIRcrows
When this whole thing came about, I knew I didn’t want ‘traditional’ looking scarecrows. I wanted scarecrows that, whilst, still looking like scarecrows, came across as fairly unique.
I sketched up quite a few. Some looked more normal, some weren’t scarecrows in any sense of the word. What we’ve ended up with is a mix of some of the original sketches and some new ideas that really only happened once we started physically putting the scarecrows together.
There’s four in the script and I really wanted each of them to be unique, you’ll be able to tell them apart and maybe even have a favourite! They’re all going to be named because to me, they’re characters in the film and as such, deserve names. They haven’t been decided yet though. 
I think all in, the scarecrows cost £50 in total to make. They’re made from two sticks of bamboo, forming the classic cross shape. Our scarecrows, they aren’t tied to the wood – the frame is their skeleton. I bought about four bags of clothes from FARA – not much thought was put into the choice of clothes either. The way I’ve always approached these scarecrows is that they’re homemade. Someone somewhere has been building these things and they’re going to put them together with what they’ve got. And I’m sure whoever really does build scarecrows doesn’t think too much about them beyond their resemblance to the human form.
The bags of clothes cost £30 and then it was just about making their faces different – each of them has a unique head and again, save one for one, they aren’t terribly typical. 
And believe me, scarecrows look like they should be a lot easier to build than they actually are! This is our first fully built scAIRcrow:
One down, three to go! Hopefully after this weekend there should be some new pictures.
Wednesday, 21 July 2010
The Script
scAIRcrows is truly an independent production. The entire thing is funded by my annual bonus. It was just one of those things where it became time to stop talking about it and actually go ahead and do it.
On a coach trip from Orlando to Miami, I’d pretty much written the script in my head. The idea had been there for about a year but that coach journey gave me the time to piece it together. And a day or so after I landed back in the UK, I just put it to paper. I wrote the first draft in about four or five hours – it seemed to happen really quickly as I already had the entire thing in my head, it was just getting it from there to paper.
And then I spent about a week or so tightening things up, correcting mistakes and reordering scenes. The current draft is basically the same as the first draft with things just happening in a slightly different order, less draggy dialogue and better spelling but fundamentally, there’s no real difference.
Further tweaks may still happen just to tighten up the running time, it's something I've got an eye on. But I need to deliver on the crazy deaths and it needs to carry some sort of weight so it's becoming harder to slim it down without emaciating it.
People seem to like it though which is encouraging but also slightly weird - I wrote this for myself and I thought, with my fairly unique taste, I'd be the only one that enjoyed it
so it's slightly strange to see people responding to it.
But having a script is just the beginning...
On a coach trip from Orlando to Miami, I’d pretty much written the script in my head. The idea had been there for about a year but that coach journey gave me the time to piece it together. And a day or so after I landed back in the UK, I just put it to paper. I wrote the first draft in about four or five hours – it seemed to happen really quickly as I already had the entire thing in my head, it was just getting it from there to paper.
And then I spent about a week or so tightening things up, correcting mistakes and reordering scenes. The current draft is basically the same as the first draft with things just happening in a slightly different order, less draggy dialogue and better spelling but fundamentally, there’s no real difference.
Further tweaks may still happen just to tighten up the running time, it's something I've got an eye on. But I need to deliver on the crazy deaths and it needs to carry some sort of weight so it's becoming harder to slim it down without emaciating it.
People seem to like it though which is encouraging but also slightly weird - I wrote this for myself and I thought, with my fairly unique taste, I'd be the only one that enjoyed it
so it's slightly strange to see people responding to it.
But having a script is just the beginning...
Monday, 19 July 2010
About scAIRcrows
It just started with the title. Just a silly little play on words – I have more but I won’t share them here in case I plan to make a habit of it but this was the one that stuck with me the most. There’s just something patently ridiculous about flying scarecrows (hence the ‘AIR’ for those who haven’t caught up yet!) that it just needed to be explored. But yeah, once the title was there, the whole thing arrived fully formed really.
It did go through a few incarnations though. Originally, it would have been a feature and tonally would have been a bit different – not massively but it would have more resembled Texas Chain Saw Massacre with flying scarecrows than it does now. The scarecrows would have been a bit more calculating – the victims would have just been driving through the country when a cow was just dropped onto the car, destroying the car but not harming the people inside but leaving them with no easy way to get out of the area. Problem with the feature is that it would have taken a lot longer to sort out and scAIRcrows isn’t paying anyone (as much as I’d really love to) and I didn’t want to piss on people’s good will with a protracted production schedule. Plus, I don’t think it could have been effectively realised on the budget we currently have.
So then it was just going to become one or two scenes from the feature that we could use as a way of getting interest and hopefully some sort of backing to do the idea justice. That wasn’t really a viable idea however – I weren’t really too comfortable putting my own money into something that was incomplete by design.
So, following along those lines, the best way to do the idea justice was to create a fake trailer. Just something where I would be bound by the loosest of narratives but able to throw in a lot of outlandish stuff in a short space of time. And again, hopefully get that interest in furthering the concept somehow.
That idea I still like but like shooting two scenes from a feature, it didn’t really feel like something that I wanted to be left with if I didn’t hook anyone.
Really, it had to be a short in the end. Which, at the moment, is possibly the best format for flying scarecrows to make their debut – if the worst happens they at least won’t outstay their welcome.
It’s a long short, the script runs at 27 pages which is longer than I would’ve liked but I felt that it needed characters that you follow rather than just scene after scene of scarecrow mayhem. It does feel like there’s more going on than just mindless slaughter which I felt was important – the scarecrows bring a greater sense of threat with them if you (hopefully) care about the people in the film.
And the story in a nutshell – four friends are idling a day away in the park whilst flying scarecrows are making their way across the park, killing everyone in their path. Inevitably, the two groups meet and the results won’t be pretty.
It did go through a few incarnations though. Originally, it would have been a feature and tonally would have been a bit different – not massively but it would have more resembled Texas Chain Saw Massacre with flying scarecrows than it does now. The scarecrows would have been a bit more calculating – the victims would have just been driving through the country when a cow was just dropped onto the car, destroying the car but not harming the people inside but leaving them with no easy way to get out of the area. Problem with the feature is that it would have taken a lot longer to sort out and scAIRcrows isn’t paying anyone (as much as I’d really love to) and I didn’t want to piss on people’s good will with a protracted production schedule. Plus, I don’t think it could have been effectively realised on the budget we currently have.
So then it was just going to become one or two scenes from the feature that we could use as a way of getting interest and hopefully some sort of backing to do the idea justice. That wasn’t really a viable idea however – I weren’t really too comfortable putting my own money into something that was incomplete by design.
So, following along those lines, the best way to do the idea justice was to create a fake trailer. Just something where I would be bound by the loosest of narratives but able to throw in a lot of outlandish stuff in a short space of time. And again, hopefully get that interest in furthering the concept somehow.
That idea I still like but like shooting two scenes from a feature, it didn’t really feel like something that I wanted to be left with if I didn’t hook anyone.
Really, it had to be a short in the end. Which, at the moment, is possibly the best format for flying scarecrows to make their debut – if the worst happens they at least won’t outstay their welcome.
It’s a long short, the script runs at 27 pages which is longer than I would’ve liked but I felt that it needed characters that you follow rather than just scene after scene of scarecrow mayhem. It does feel like there’s more going on than just mindless slaughter which I felt was important – the scarecrows bring a greater sense of threat with them if you (hopefully) care about the people in the film.
And the story in a nutshell – four friends are idling a day away in the park whilst flying scarecrows are making their way across the park, killing everyone in their path. Inevitably, the two groups meet and the results won’t be pretty.
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