First Day on Campus
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 module criteria for the first semester. Actually relieved some stress that I had about the "written test" which is actually a multiple-choice test.
The third session was with Jean Claude and he showed us around the university. We met the studio manager who showed us the sound recording room and the foley room.
The final session was with Andrew and he once again spoke about photography. He gave us a list of photographers to take a look at which I will do asap. Also, we have been given a small task for next week. Recreate the opening of a film using our phone and only using 6 photographs. I think I will attempt to recreate the opening of Clerks.
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After the end of the fourth session we were told that we could go home, however, I had emailed Jean Claude the night before about a few film ideas that I have. I'd sent him some log-lines and titles which I will list here;
Moriah
Wracked with guilt, an estranged father struggles to fulfil his promise to climb a mountain with his son.
Who
are you?
A charming man has a date with a beautiful young woman but has no idea how he got there.
Someone
Like You
Two friends do not see eye to eye whilst discussing the idea of a possible romantic relationship.
Dear
Santa…
Santa Claus drops down the first chimney of the night and directly into an ongoing hostage situation.
Safire
An
astronaut adrift in space is overwhelmed by the beauty of the cosmos as his
oxygen supply depletes.
Jean-Claude seemed interested in every idea that I presented, I believe his exact words were that I have an "embarrassment of riches" and that he would be interested to see any of these ideas developed into scripts. The one that I am most excited by is "Safire" as II think the film would be a wonderful visual experience with minimal dialogue. However, as this would require a rather significant amount of CGI it might be better saved until the third year.
Jean-Claude also mentioned that a script should have a universal theme. For example, "acceptance of death", "love conquers all" and "good versus evil". We discussed that Safire could easily fit into the "acceptance of death" theme (additional note: we agreed that Safire could have a much more intriguing logline).
Jean-Claude and I both agreed that "Someone Like you" and "Who are you?" could both be done very easily with a small crew and quite possibly with only two actors. Perhaps, I should focus on one of these as my second-year project? JC also mentioned that "Someone Like You" could be made COVID-friendly by filming it over zoom - definitely something to think about.
Dear Santa... seemed to be his favourite. He chuckled as we discussed it and told me to watch some Christmas horror films to research the film. I made the point that we'd need a studio for it and he agreed, so maybe this could be a third-year project?
Jean-Claude also solidified my belief that the first draft of a script should have no subtext and should have a very clear dialogue so that characters intentions are clear so that subtext can be added later when the full narrative is understood.
After my meeting with Jean-Claude, I emailed Gareth and he recommends three books to buy to study scriptwriting. I decided to purchase one of these books; Short Film by Patrick Nash.
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After university James and I decided to complete Seba's task. I attempted to recreate a shot from David Lynch's short film "What did Jack Do?"
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| Quick shot of behind the scenes. Using a bit of Aluminum foil as a way to bounce the light |
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| I decided to shoot in black and white rather than convert in post-production as this allowed me to get the shadows right during the shoot. |
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