JP Conway Manchester Film School

 Another short lecture with Harry. He talked about good blogs to use for research. I've already used a few when writing my report such as stephenfollows  Harry also enjoyed the little research piece that I handed in. He noted that most of the group didn't use Harvard referencing correctly, but I know that I did so his comments didn't apply to me. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- JC allowed me to join a conversation with the white team where we all discussed our film ideas. I, once again, spoke a lot and had a lot of feedback for everyone. In fact, JC actually told the group they were lucky to have me because I "have a million ideas and they're all great". I spoke with Abbie after the session to further develop her idea as it really appealed to me. I am excited to see what she does with it.  "Omg thanks for those ideas they’re all great!! Especially the logline, I’m going to ha...

 Today we had a very long lecture with a  professional who works in the art department. She taught us about the roles in the art department in addition to teaching about things such as "Hero props". I learned that a hero prop is a more detailed version of a prop that will be used for close-ups etc.  She also taught us how to make a prop list and how to do a scene by scene breakdown.  Her four steps were Read the script and become familiar with the story, setting and characters. Read the script again and highlight any scene headings, highlight any props, highlight any hand props. Read the script again and make notes in each scene. Pay extra attention to anything that will require additional work. Look out for stunts such as falls and trips as you must provide a crash mat. Look out for blood as you must contact the HOD of makeup etc. Make the prop list. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We wer...

"Good news, everyone!!! We can't go into university today because a member of the blue team is infected with Covid-19" "Professor, how is that good news?" That was pretty much this morning summed up. I am really annoyed that we are going to miss the photography sessions and our practical filming session :(  Although, this is a solid learning experience because during our last shoot we did not adhere to social distancing rules, so it kind of serves us right. Well, I suppose I can get out with some of my work whilst I wait to hear what the plan is for the blue team. Ah, we have an online session this afternoon anyway!  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lucy got back to me about my recce!  She said " Yes you have done it right! It is well structured and easy to read and you have obviously thought about the shooting day and what may affect it. Try to use a recce checklist next ...

Today, I finished my report and sent it to JC. Harvard Referencing seems to be the easiest thing that I have ever had to do (Conway, 2020)  Bibliography  Conway, J (2020), Personal Communication  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I went shopping today to buy some art supplies for tuesdays lesson, I guess we're going to be building a miniature set based on the item list. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I have completed the research task for Harry and learned about chromatic aberration which is when the different wavelengths (colours) of light end up out of sync so you get a distorted image. Achromatic lenses can fix this by having a convex lens paired with a concave lens which moves the focal point of the wavelengths back in sync.

Today I decided to do Andrews image log. I'll admit I found it sort of hard to connect with this task but I did my best. It made me realise how many images we see in a day which I suppose was the point. I saw hundreds of images but couldn't write them all down? It also made me think for quickly we see an image, we barely have time to digest it before we move on. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have been writing my report whenever I get a chance, I have practically finished! I need to add all my references, I have saved all the links and books etc on a word document and will add them once I've finished the text.  I have found this essay to be fascinating to write! Interesting information that I have learned includes; 80000 homeless teenagers in UK 24% of those are LGBT  Pope Francis is very accepting of gay people Almost 50% of LGBT teens in the US have seriously considered suicide  Priests...

Today was a stressful day, sometimes I wake up and just feel really bad about myself and today was one of those days. I finished my report for JC but in doing this research I have realised that I have zero passion for this project. So, I dropped the idea but now I need to think of a new one. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Most of my day has been spent watching short films and reading news articles in an attempt to spur some kind of creativity.  So far I have an image in my mind. A priest. I love the imagery of the frock and long black robes. But, this isn't a story yet. Just a priest. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ He's suicidal. The priest is suicidal. I just remembered Father Sean, he was a priest who was a family friend and he committed suicide. The idea has always interested me. Why did he do it? I remember s...

This morning Jourdain phoned me and asked for some assistance writing a logline and working on her idea. She pitched an idea about a police officer whose girlfriend is killed in the midst of a zombie apocalypse before he meets a man with a time machine. The police officer goes back in time but doesn't realise he has been bitten and he ends up being the cause of the initial outbreak. I told her I thought it was an interesting idea and was clearly playing around with the grandfather paradox. But, I thought she might refine the idea and cut off the unnecessary details. For example; Do the police officer and the researcher have to be different characters? Do need the establishing scenes before the apocalypse?  Why not start the film with a former police officer locked in a lab trying to build a time machine as the zombies claw their way inside? Perhaps he is obsessed with going back in time because he wants to save his true love? It isn't about saving the world but instead about so...

 Harry went over some basic research methods with us. I'll be honest, I don't think I learned anything new during this session but Harry is always a fun person to have lecturing you! He did set us a task to research something and to use Harvard referencing, however, I feel ahead of the game as I wrote my practice report to get used to Harvard referencing. Ah well, this task will be easy then. Main points to think about. Good sources include; Books Academic papers/journals Magazines Blog posts Websites Interviews Personal Communication  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jean Claude has thrown us in the deep end according to some people as he has set us our first academic piece of writing. Our task is to research a film idea and write a report on it.  I'll be honest, it sounds pretty easy. It's only 1500 words and he gave us this breakdown to follow. 1. The Introduction: A short paragraph that ...

Today was actually fantastic! It was broken into two halves. Producer research and first AD research. I never knew how interesting these roles are! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The producer session allowed us to look at the creation of location recces and script breakdowns as well as exploring the role of the producer from preproduction to distribution. The main things that I learned are; Location recces are a way for the producer to examine a location and determine the practicality and the logistics of filming at that particular location. They must take note of background noises, obvious dangers and must take into consideration the size of the location compared to the crew size.  The script breakdown is quite simply what it sounds like. The producer breaks down the script and determines everything that will be needed during the shoot. For example, the scene is set in a bar in the 1950s and a charact...

I had my second practical day at Uni. My first session was with Andrew and we looked over the assignment he had set for us last week. I showed off my six photos and got a much better response than expected. People were genuinely impressed by my images. Some things to think about, people were quite distracted in one of the images due to an open door in the background so this idea can be used to create intrigue when I am making a film. We didn't get to cover all of the topics that we were supposed to because we spent so long looking over our assignments.  Our task for next week is to create an image log and document all of the images we see within a day. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- My second session was with Seba and he was very impressed by my work. The only note he gave me was to increase the contrast of my image slightly. However, I had anticipated that as I had already noted the same thing. But,...

I spent my sunday relaxing. I did some macro photography and managed a few great pictures of some spiders. I  also decided to catch up with my brother, martin. I spent an hour reading my book "Short Films by Patrick Nash" 

 So Saturday! I helped James with his six photos. He decided to remake Indiana jones and I got to be Indy which is always cool. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I managed to successfully update my learning journey to get it to fit onto one page and I have resent it to Jean Claude to see what he thinks!  The new and improved learning journey I still think I could make it be slightly more visually appealing but for now I am happy with it. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I also decided to make a poster about the order of events on set which Gareth went over during the lecture on Tuesday.  I am pretty happy with it! Now I just need to memorise it!  I think I prefer it in red. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This morning I had my first 1:1 tutorial, in fact, I think my tutorial was the first one of the year, during which I spoke with Gareth. He asked me about my history in film making,  my hopes and three jobs that I would be interested in.  I said that I want to be a director, I am interested in the role of cinematographer and also of the screenwriter. I told him about my short films and sent him the links to them which hopefully he will watch. He seemed particularly interested in my animated film, the pink butterfly,  I want to show the full film to him.   I told him about my worries and concerns with academia, however, he reassured me and said "you seem like you have made a great start, you've done all the work and I really like your lighting image. You're gonna be fine" ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Today I completed the task of researching and comparing 5 photoediting apps as w...

So Thursdays are the day that we don't have any set lectures or online learning activities, however, we should use it to study which is what I did today!  I started my morning off by finishing the first of my three power points about the roles during the three stages of production. I sent it to Gareth who said " Yeah they look pretty good, I'm not sure about the difference between a screenwriter and scriptwriter though - I always thought they were the same term for the same thing. Although a script is a generic term (ie could be a theatre, film or tv script), whereas a screenplay is for film & tv."  I think he is right that the terms are interchangeable, however, there seems to be some disagreement in the industry about this. I have read many conflicting articles about it.  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I spent the rest of my morning writing about the rode NT1 and Zoom h4. I deci...

Our second day of online learning, once again the day was broken into two lectures, however, they were quite a bit shorter than the previous day's lectures which I think actually made them easier to engage with. The first lecture was with Harry Stafford. He mentioned that we should be keeping a learning log which is essentially what this blog is, so that is good. He gave us some notes on academic writing.  I learned the differences between an essay, a report and a learning log. An essay is a piece of academic writing and all thoughts must be visualised with the written word alone. NO PICTURES! Havard Referencing is a must! (I am nervous about the referencing, I am going to write a practice essay). You must write in a formal manner and with correct terminology. An essay is making an argument. A report is similar to an essay but pictures and diagrams are allowed! A report is written to a particular audience and for a clear purpose. A learning log is essentially a diary that keeps tra...

 Okay, so today was a long day and I will admit I found it much harder to concentrate over zoom rather than being physically in class. The first session of the day was with Gareth and focused entirely on introducing us to the job roles on a film set. I've decided to try and create a PowerPoint which will sum up all of the jobs on set (there are a lot more than I knew about), this will hopefully clear up the difference between executive producers, producers and line producers etc.  We also were given a task of trying to organise a standard shoot day. Which I was okay at. Here was my order;  Locations arrive 1st AD arrives Art dept to set Director and script supervisor arrive on set Camera, lighting and sound arrive. Set is cleared for lighting team to work. Extras, then main cast arrive. Director blocks the cast. Rehearsal. Last looks for hair and makeup. Last tweaks. 1st AD calls “Turnover” Shoot starts: Focus Puller calls “Camera Speed, mark it”...

 Today was my first day on campus at Manchester Film School, I have been placed into the blue group. My group consists of myself, James, Jordain, Charlie, Matthew, Cameron and Mason. I feel as though I have made the right choice by coming onto this course. My first session was with Seba Kurtis where he focused on teaching us about lighting in photography. He mentioned a few different lighting techniques and gave us practical examples of front lighting, backlighting, bounce lighting and three-point lighting techniques. I feel rather lucky as James and I have bought a fair amount of film equipment which means we can practice at home with some of these techniques. Seba would like everyone to attempt to recreate the lighting from a chosen film in a photograph. (Note: Watch "Dark" on Netflix). I should look into lighting techniques... My second session was with Gareth and focused upon introducing us to the course and university life. He ran us through the expectations and the modu...