First draft

Having chosen an idea for my comedy sketch (a band discovers that their lead singer has died just before they are due to perform), I told my lecturer my idea and she approved it.

I wrote my first draft within the week and presented it to my lecturer. Her feedback was:

• Top of script we need a brief description of the room we are in.

 

• Number your Scene's

 

• Needs more jokes – humour – currently the dialogue is a bit on the nose (explaining everything)

 

• Characters all sound the same – my give one of them an accent

 

• Tighten up on some of the dialogue IE: The last line “Don’t worry…  that’s how he always dances” – you don’t need the don’t worry bit – make dialogue sharper and it will be funnier. As when people talk they don’t always use the correct grammer etc – so that’s how you need to write it so it reads ‘real’

I have kept this feedback in mind for my second draft.

Idea's for comedy sketches

As part of my PPD module I am going to be showing a step by step process of completing one of my targets. Originally the target was to re-write the script for a short film I pitched to my lecturer, in order to improve my screenwriting skills but she felt that there wouldn't be enough time before the end of the course and suggested a two minute sketch instead.

Anyway, here are my ideas so far:

• The lead singer in a rock band dies just before they are about to go out on stage. The rest of the band panics and wonders what to do, but their manager tells them not to worry and he has an idea. Cut to the band on stage, and the singers body is being puppeteered while his vocals are played on tape.
• A young woman is being chased by a masked killer. She trips over as he slowly moves toward her. She shouts "GO AWAY!" at him, after which he stops, removes his mask and says "That's all anyone had to say" before walking off.
• A "who's on first" type routine in which two friends argue over the title of the 1982 film The Thing.
• A man discovers that his wife is having an affair, but seems more upset her eating a chocolate bar he was keeping in the fridge than her infidelity. 

Once I have chosen the idea I will pitch it to my lecturer, and if she approves of it I will begin a first draft by next week.

NE Hotel Awards

A few weeks ago, I worked on a series of interviews for the North East Hotel Awards. My job was to record the sound. The reason I haven't written a blog entry about this yet is because I have been having a bit of trouble with my internet recently. Now, I offered to do sound because I wasn't particularly interested in doing camerawork. I also thought that, due to the shoot entirely consisting of interviews, the sound would be recorded using a clip on microphone rather than a boom mic. However, I did end up having to use a boom part of the time, which is unfortunate since I've always found them awkward to hold. Still, I managed to capture the sound rather well and all of the interviewees can be heard. The event was organised by the college, as part of the Work Based Learning course. We, the level 5 students, were split up into several groups. Each group was sent to an area of the fitness academy to conduct their series of interviews. There were some complaints about organisation, but my group never had any such problems. Everything went well as far as I know The interviews were to be edited and used as part of the North East Hotel Awards ceremony to introduce each nominee. I'm we will have anything to do with the editing process, nor when the award ceremony will take place. Overall, I found this to be a good experience. It was a good way for us to get an idea of it is like to work for outside clients.

SMART Targets for FD media

For my Foundation Degree Media course at Newcastle College, I was told that I needed to come up with SMART targets for 5 of my modules. For those of you who don't know what a SMART Target is, it stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Reasonable and Time.
Here are each of my targets:

Alternative techniques: For this module I have to create a short video report. My idea was to film at my work experience at Arpeggio films and interview my employers. My target is to ask for permission this by November 4th. This will give me enough time to plan the idea out further before I need to pitch it to my lecturer.


Work Based Learning: For this module I will find at least 2 jobs within the industry by November 17th. I will look at several websites advertising work in the industry and find ones that will be suitable for me.


Drama Planning: I have to have fully planned out a 10 minute fiction film, to the point where I am ready to shoot, by the end of the year. Due to this, I feel that I should tell my lecturer my idea for the film, so he can tell me if it's good enough and I can focus on planning it. I will do this by 12th.


PPD: The area of filmmaking I am most interested in is editing. My target is to find out what specific skills an editor needs. I will do this by looking on websites that have information on the subject. I will then list these skills on this blog as evidence of my research. I will have completed this target by November 7th.


Digital Skills: I am very interested in using the time-lapse technique. As I know very little about the technique, my target is to learn how to do a time-lapse by November 7th. This will give me enough time to find a book on the topic and film some test footage to practise the technique on.


I'll be using this blog to talk more about my progress in each of these modules during my course.

Beacon Hill Arts

I've been doing some work experience with Arpeggio films, who helped establish Beacon Hill Arts (whom I have worked with previously). I have been mentioned on their Facebook page which I have posted a link to below

https://www.facebook.com/BeaconHillArts?fref=ts

Here are also a couple of short films I worked with them on:

The Mystery Case
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXzVVvcFJbs

North Tyneside Steelband
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zp6-kPbPuuY

The Greatest scene in Cinema History

The following is a clip from the western The Good, The Bad and The Ugly directed by Sergio Leone, and in my opinion it is the greatest moment in the history of cinema.

For those of you who haven't seen the film, here's some context. Blondie (Clint Eastwood) and Tuco (Eli Wallach) are looking for gold that is buried in a grave. Tuco knows the name of the cemetery and Blondie knows the name on the grave stone, so they are unwillingly forced to work together. They find the graveyard, however Angel Eyes (Lee van Cleef), who is also looking for the gold, has managed to catch up with them. Blondie writes the name on the back of a rock and the three prepare to duel.

Essentially it's three blokes standing still for 5 minutes, but it's so expertly scored, directed, edited and acted that it has you on the edge of you're seat.

If you like the look of this clip, give the film a watch. Hell, go watch Sergio Leone's entire filmography, it's amazing.

 

The Holcroft Covenant (1985) review part two

You know I don't think the first part of this review really reflected just how stupid this film really is. Every scene has at least one moment that makes you go "eh?" The only reason didn't point out every single dumb moment in this film is because if I did this review would be the length of a small novel. Okay, not that maybe not long, but it would still be quite a long review.


Once again, in some places I will tell you to play this clip.

So Noel and Helden go to a festival, which is a bit like a cross between Mardi Gras and a screening of The Rocky Horror Show, with lot's of topless women. Helden is then kidnapped and Noel makes chase. He's then stopped by a guy who tells him that he's on Noel's side and he should head back to the hotel before he gets both of them killed. Noel ignores him and continues his pursuit. He wonders into some kind of sex club and the guy stops him again, telling him that it's not easy keeping him alive. The guy then has a look at the gun that Helden gave Noel earlier and tells him that it's broken. Now, if he had any common sense he would suspect that this was possible sabotage, but seeing how this is Noel Holcroft we're talking about, he thinks nothing of it. And again, why is Helden sabotaging his gun which will surely get him killed, if the bad guys need him to sign the contract.
The guy, who's name is either Hartman or Hoffman, it's difficult to make out what he's saying on my copy, fixes the gun and Noel asks a nice fat lady wearing a Nazi officers cap which way the bad guy went. She tells them and they go after him.

The Un-Dynamic Duo make chase

After some tilted shots of Noel and Hartman/Hoffman running, they split up. Noel is shot at, but when he tries to return fire they've disappeared. Either that or it was the Invisible Man. Noel goes to investigate, but then Hartman/Hoffman catches up and tells him to get down. A car pulls up and a couple of bad guys get out. Hartman/Hoffman shoots both of them. The bad guy who kidnapped Helden, who turns out to be none other than Mr. Mann, shoves her into the car and kills Hartman/Hoffman. Mr. Mann starts to drive away, but then Noel jumps out in fort of the car and shoots Mr. Mann in the head. That's a pretty good shot for somebody who doesn't know how to fire a gun, but I guess it's just beginners luck. The car crashes into some rubbish bags and Noel and Helden flee the scene.


We cut to Noel and Helden back at the hotel room, even though according to "The Drill" they should change rooms every night. Noel is having a nightmare about the previous scene, and he of course wakes up jumping up and shouting "No!!!!" in a manner that characters in films often do, and yet absolutely no-one does in real life. Noel is horrified at taking a human life, but Helden calms him down by telling him that she's "never met a man like you before" and they have sex.


After the act, the phone rings and we cut to Noel and Helden meeting Captain Moustache. He tells Noel that the covenant must be signed at once. Captain Moustache also states that Noel and Helden must drive to Geneva, while he goes by train, and to tell Mass to meet them in 3 days.
He asks Noel to prove that he is totally committed to this, so Noel tells him that he killed Mr. Mann. Captain Moustache tells Noel that he has also killed a man (in South Africa I should add) and that they are now truly brothers. See, the writers put this exchange in to show a growing bond between them and to make it more of a surprise that Captain Moustache is the villain. Of course the audience doesn't buy their friendship at all so it just comes off as pointless.


We then cut back to Oberst's house, he is speaking to Noel's mum (play the clip). She moans about how much she hates Clausen some more, which makes me wonder why she even married him in the first place. Her excuse is that she was 16 and he was good looking. They also talk about the assassination attempt on her and how Noel is in danger.


We cut to Noel and Helden driving to Geneva. They are soon followed by a helicopter and another car. "probably just another Sunday driver" *groan* "On the other hand, as it is Tuesday, why don't you put you're foot on the gas and see what happens" *double groan*. We then get the shortest car chase in the world, which leads to our heroes being captured. They are taken to a house and Noel gets angry about the fact that none of the bad guys seem to speak English, "I thought you all learned it in the goddamn first grade" he shouts. Leighton shows up and Noel gets even angrier. Helden however seems relieved that he was the one who had them brought there. We also find out that Hartman (I'm pretty sure Leighton says Hartman) was working for Leighton. He tells Noel that his mother is with Oberst. Helden objects to this, telling him that they have to be in Geneva but Leighton tells her to go on a head and he will take Noel back to London.


Speaking of which, Captain Moustache shows up at Oberst's house and kills Him (play the clip). He explains to Noel's mum what exactly "the list" (play the clip) is. Apparently it's a bit of paper with a thousand names on it. He also gives a speech about how the world has gone to shit since the German's lost the war. He also tells her that they need Noel's signature. As I've been saying through out this review, if that's the case why have they been trying to kill him? 
We cup to later that night when Leighton and Noel pull up to the house where they find the bodies of a guard, Oberst and a dog. Oh no, not the dog, will Captain Moustache stop at nothing? They watch the security tapes and find out it was Captain Moustache. Noel asks "What about Helden? She's meeting him tomorrow". Leighton instructs him to tell her about the murder but not who did it. Leighton also tells Noel that he doesn't actually work for the British government, rather for Oberst. Noel then finds his mother's corpse. Leighton tells him that he must sign the convernant, and after that he'll kill Captain Moustache "or you,can ,if you like". "I like" replies Noel. That's a pretty awful line on paper, but Caine sell it quite well.

Not even animals are safe from Captain Moustache's wrath

Helden goes to meet her brother in his hotel room and we find out that, she's a bad guy... (play the clip). We also find out that the two of them are shagging.
Helden then goes to see Noel and Leighton, telling them that she is shocked by the murders, and described it to Captain Moustache the same way Noel described it to her, even the nasty business with the dog. She leaves and Noel tearfully tells Leighton that "I never mentioned the dog" (you know what to do).

Because the fact that they're Murderous Neo-Nazi's just doesn't make them evil enough



The next day Noel, Helden, Mass and Captain Moustache go to the bank to meet the bad guy from Moonraker, who gives them the covenant to sign.
They go to the lobby, where a bunch of reporters are gathered. Apparently Noel, being spokesman, called a press conference. He announces the other's evil plan. Apparently they're going to use the money to bring every terrorist group in the world to create global chaos. This will cause total anarchy and then Captain Moustache will come along as a new world leader. Appently the names on the list are contacts for each of these terrorist groups. Captain Moustache pulls out a gun. Mass tries to stop him, but ends up getting shot. Captain Moustache tries to kill Noel, but in the end Noel ends up reigning supreme.
Apparently in the book, the finale involved helicopters and explosions and stuff, but it was too expensive to film, so we got stuck with this anti-climax.

"She was only 17 years old!!"

We cut to a hotel room where Helden tells Noel that she loves him and that they will get married. He tells her that he knows she was in on it the whole time. He tells her that he is still in love with her but it wouldn't work, what with the whole killing his mother thing. Helden pulls out a gun and Noel tells her he sabotaged it the same way she did earlier in the film. Now rather than shoving her into the boot of his car and then pushing it into a river, he fixes the gun and then gives it back to her. Noel turns to face the window as the camera zooms in to the back of his head and tilts. We hear a gun shot and a tearful Noel turns round to reveal that Helden committed suicide.
At last the film is over.

Sir Michael Caine reacts to his performance in The Swarm

Before I sat down to re-watch this film for the review, I had forgotten just how bad this film was. Every cliché of the genre is used, to the point where it is at no point suspenseful, and the hero is so inept it's almost comical.
Like I said, something like Jaws: The Revenge is probably far worse, but that's not saying much.
Unless you're a Michael Caine fan who feels that you need to see every single film he's ever made, avoid this it at all costs.