For my person and professional practice I took part in a film by one of the third years on my course Bill Clay. His project 'Higher Education' was a short film about 3 students arriving for university and their first day not going as planned.
I found out about this project through a friend and I was up for helping with filming anything but because it was essentially about someone my age in Leeds so it was definitely very relatable and this made it much easier to get into. The story outlined 'Tom' going off to uni and finding it much different to how he envisioned. Lots of things go wrong and there are many funny moments in a well written and directed script.
My job was mainly the 'Sound Guy' which involved using the recorded or holding the boom mic. Doesn't sound massively exciting, but it really was. I loved the film set atmosphere and talking about how we could develop it more and shot ideas. Everyone listened to everyones opinions and ideas which made it a good friendly atmosphere.
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| Filming at 'Hyde Park Corner' |
The first shoot was at hyde park corner by the statue. This was the scene where the boys have just got kicked out of their halls and are wandering through town and sit on the statue to figure out what to do. For some stupid reason I assume we would be filming the scenes in order but this was about half way through the film. This was a very, very windy day and the use of the fluffy thingy on the boom mic was needed to cut out the wind. We also only had one camera which meant we had to do about 30 takes.
It was a pretty long shoot and very chilly, but still really fun. The main thing I learnt from the first shoot was that everything always takes longer than you think it will, and planning for this can help no end. If theres lots of camera angle in your film you need to have an extra camera. It would have halved the time we were there. Nothing against Billy's planning im sure he would have liked an extra camera as well.
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| The overcast weather made continuity easier |
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Despite the cold and wind the overcast day did make it easier to keep continuity with time of day. If there had been bring sunlight, if it had taken a long time to do, the angle of the shadows on the ground could be noticeable on the footage which would have ruined it.
The next scene was filmed behind some halls in a car park. In addition too 'Tom' 'Jules' and 'Hugo' were the two boys Tom identifies with at the party at the beginning. This is the scene where the boys go outside for a smoke then during this someone spikes the punch with drugs. This scene is just the boys smoking and talking under a street lamp in the cold. This was a fairly simple scene to film but the rubbish light levels and yellow glow from the street lamp. So we required the use of reflectors to re-direct the light towards the actors faces. This did take a while because of the continuity issues. The boys only planned to go out for a bit but stayed outside for while chatting, smoking and drinking. This resulted in a lot of beer cans on the floor that had to be in the same place for each scene.
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| Free beers were a nice touch |
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A cold shoot
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The next scene was a bit of an ambitious one to begin with. The initial idea was to have Jules (above, middle) get hit by a flying milkshake from a car window. This was ambitious as we would probably only have one chance due to the nature of the scene. But like all things, the scene needed to adapt to the capabilities and resources that we currently had. Its not like we didnt have a car or milkshake we just thought it would be too difficult to get right first time, and it needed to be first, because, 'Jules' (Mark) didnt want to be drenched in milkshake more than needed and the act of throwing something out of a car window is much more difficult than you think. Usually when you throw you are outside and you have plenty of room to move your arm. and light to see what you're throwing at. This is much more difficult because its cramped and theres not as much light. Also trying to throw a milkshake, accurately and have this all caught on camera and reacted to properly bought us to the conclusion that it wasn't worth the effort.
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| Where we stored our gear. |
For this shoot we had to store some of out stuff in this cafe called Zizou. This taught me a lot about how on shoot we sometimes encounter difficulties and have to rely on the buildings and people around us in the local area for support. This is also how budgets can be overspent, we didn't have one, but it made me think about extra un expected expenditure.
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| The car in question. |
Its unfortunate that the car scene wasn't used but it was probably for the best because of how many things could have gone wrong, and it would have involved many a trip McDonalds for more milkshake. The scene was then bought down to someone on BMX throwing it but this was dismissed as a bad idea as just as many things could go wrong.
The scene we were then going to be filming was the one where the boys have just got kicked out of halls by the boss man and are on the side of the road wondering what to do. Hugo is left with the bags while Tom and Jules go and try to get a house viewing at the estate agents down the road. The catastrophe which then ensues is that whilst Hugo is minding his own business and watching the bags, a child comes at starts talking to him about call of duty. Whilst Hugo is distracted another boy steals a few of the bags. The first boy then leaves and then Tom and Jules come back and shout at Hugo for losing the bags, which contains all their money and stuff.
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| Filming outside a garage. |
This shoot went well but it took a while to get the acting right mainly from the boy who Hugo talked to about call of duty. He wasn't an actor so I didnt blame him but it did make the shoot longer. Continuity was an issue with placement of the bags and bags that were at the statue. We also needed to make sure that the bags that were 'nicked' were not then later seen at the statue.
A problem I have noticed throughout this is the transportation of the kit, which was difficult with only one car. It might have been better to sort taxis for it but as there was no budget it would have had to have come out of Bill's money.
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APEX homes were nice enough to let us borrow
their office for a while |
The next scene was filmed in a student letting offices office. Apex homes were nice enough to let us film there which made me think that this was very fortunate. They could have easily said no and we couldn't have said anything. In these situations where there is a possibility of 'NO' there should be an alternative back up scene to use just in case one is impossible for whatever reason.
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| It was a pretty cramped office with all the kit |
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The 'student housing officer' was played by Bill's step dad.
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This scene shows the boys being bollocked by the housing officer for spiking the punch, despite the fact it wasn't them. The housing officer is having none of it and kicks them out of halls. In this scene on another sofa lies Alister. Now obviously it would be easier to know who this guy was if you had read the script in order, but essentially hes the 'student rep' and a bit of a twat. Hes the ex teachers pet kinda guy from school, and as a result of the spiked punch he is throwing his guts up next on the sofa next to the boys.
For the puke we had to use cold soup. Allister, played by Hugh, put the soup in his mouth before the take and then when the housing officer says ''Look what you've done to my little helper!' to which he then chucks up in the bin to the disgust of the boys.
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| Getting a party atmosphere going. |
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| Lots of different filters needed to mask the ugliness of halls |
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| Art Direction was important again, especially for the 'weird' party |
The above images were from the 'party' scene and as a result the boys are kicked out of halls. This was the most stressful scene by far due to planning and timing. We were supposed to finish by 10 but didn't get away till 2 because of how long it took to set up everything and then film a party which isn't as much fun as an actual party, but this was to be expected. It was filmed at one of Billy's mates halls, and his mates were nice enough to let us use their kitchen
It wasn't so much that we finished late its just we didn't know when we were finishing which was annoying but I could appreciate how long these things take to get perfect. However despite the fact it took almost twice as long as planned it looked awesome. We had a really good tracking fish eye shot going down the corridor capturing 'weird' looking people and drunk people. The weirdness of the party is a product of the punch being spiked with drugs. So all the crazy lights and fish eye shots are supposed to represent the difference between when they went down and when they came back up.
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| filming at the |
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| making the house look more lived in. |
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| The Mannequin Maniac. |
This scene involved the boys going to a house viewing with the 'Mannequin Maniac'. The scene was filmed in an empty house Billy got permission to film in. This meant the house was pretty bare so we had to put up some posters and add things like food, bottles, cans and wrappers to make the house look like it was lived in. This was a pretty simple scene to film as there wasn't much disturbance as it was inside but as the 'Mannequin Maniac' (played by the assistant director and writer, Sam) was really funny, the other actors found it very hard not too burst into laughter.
The Mannequin Maniac has his name because of the blow up sex doll, named Martin, which he thinks is his roommate. There is a shot where Martin is sitting on a chair with a banana in his mouth to which the boys see and make a hasty exit.
This could have been considered annoying but this was what I was expecting a film set to be like. Which made me even more sure that this was what I wanted to do. The atmosphere was really good and as everyone got a long there was no clashes of ego's to put strain on the project.
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| more homely touches. |
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The final scene we filmed. It takes places in another of Billy's friends houses and this is the one where they're explaining to 'Samantha' (above, left) about what they've been through with the 'Maniac'. Jules and Tom are explaining their situation when suddenly Hugo bursts in and says the bags have been nicked. This scene takes place directly after the scene withe Hugo and the bags. The estate agents they went to find turned into a house viewing with this nice girl Sam.
This scene was really easy to film with little to no hiccups. It was late and we were all tired from the filming in the previous week, but we all did our jobs well and wrapped it up quickly.
Filming 'Higher Education' was a massive amount of fun and everything I expected from working on a film set. I enjoyed the atmosphere especially as we all worked really well together as a team and listened to each others ideas and thoughts about the current scene. The people I worked with were all really nice, friendly and professional which was definitely an added bonus to the whole atmosphere of the set. None of us were being paid either which was massively encouraging to me as everyone was still professional and punctual without that financial gain. Which just proved the integrity of us all that we liked doing what we do, regardless of financial incentives or benefits.
