Lost in La Mancha

Lost in La Mancha

‘Lost in La Mancha’ is a documentary about the filming of Terry Gilliam’s failed attempt at making ‘The man who killed Don Quixote’. The film was a few days into filming when it was abandoned for several reasons. Financial issues, freak weather and ‘Gods will’ all played a part in the failure of the film.

Although at the beginning of the film all seemed to be going aright, it soon became obvious that ‘The man who killed Don Quixote’ was heading for failure. At the start of the film when they were talking about financial issues, you could start to tell that the film was doomed. Although you can make low budget films that are good, Gilliam wanted lots of special effects, which don’t come that cheaply. So without good financial backing the film was doomed, even with looking for investors in Europe. Another issue which made it obvious that the film wasn’t going to be finished, was when John Rochefort became ill and couldn’t do certain things, such as sit on a horse, which was a key element to the film. By the time that he had fallen ill, it was a little too late to pick a backup actor who would be able to just step in. Rehearsals and filming had already taken place and so to just get somebody else to do it may have be costly and not have worked out as well.

There are a couple of points in the film where I would have considered given up. When the freak weather occurred during filming and most of the equipment and film were damaged would have made me think of giving up. However I think that I would have stopped filming at about the same time they did in the documentary. If I showed the same passion for the project that Gilliam showed for it, then of course I wouldn’t let a couple of set-backs stop me. However when they were talking about the troubles finding financial help at the very beginning of the film, this made it obvious that this film may not be the success that Gilliam was hoping for.

One thing that stood out as being particularly challenging to do was creating the large props and sets. Not only in the designing process but also where to store them once they were created. Also the language barrier between the employees would present a problem, as American, Spanish and French employees were working on the film. It would be unlikely that everybody working on the film would be able to speak all three languages, so finding translators would need to be done so everybody could communicate with each other. Another issue which would have been an issue before they started shooting would be that the actors were busy and so couldn’t make it for rehearsals. This isn’t much an issue but an inconvenience, as when the actors get together to film, they may not know how to work with each other.

The reason why and animatic is used in pre-production is so that the producers, directors and anyone else who see’s it knows how the film looks in the directors head. This helps the crew come up with a plan on how to create each scene, and also to set a budget for each scene. In my opinion this is a good thing to do when shooting any type of film, live action or animated. The animatic will help you be clearer on what you are filming, and how you are going to film it. It would be important to use an animatic in this type of film because of all the special effects that would be used in the film. It just basically helps to see how the scene will look after the effect have been added and it moves unlike a storyboard, which makes it seem much clearer to the people creating the effects.

Several problems occurred while they were shooting the film, but the crew sorted the problems out as they went along. One of the problems that the crew faced was one of the places they chose to film at was on a military base. At certain times of the day fighter jets would fly over the set while filming, so it was decided to just film and add in sound later. Another problem they faced on set was that of the freak weather. At first they just lit the set up to try and match what it would look like in the sunlight. However when the weather turned for the worst not much could be done apart from filming another scene for the time being.

Nobody is really blamed for the films failure; it was just a mix of misfortune and bad weather that contributed to the failure of the film. Blaming the failure of the film on just one person, or group of people for that matter, would just be shifting the blame around and would be a little immature. People may have contributed to the failure but overall in my opinion if the failure was to be blamed on any factor it would be to

I think that the film could have been made if John Rochefort had been replaced and if the freak weather hadn’t of happened, then the film could have been finished. However I think that Gilliam made a good decision by abandoning the project when he did, otherwise the film would have been more expensive to put right than to start again from scratch. However with the attitude and passion that Gilliam had for the project, that he didn’t stop marching forward when the equipment got damage, shows that if everything that went wrong went even okay, the film could have been finished. However in the state that the film ended up in, I think I would have abandoned the project too as it would have been costly and prolonged to sort everything out.

Teaser Trailer

For the teaser trailer I have decided to do a horror, I chose to do this genre as horror covers a lot of topics and also because it seemed the trickiest to get right. A horror film should make the audience a feel a sense of fright and make them feel a sense of fear. I did some research into horror film trailers, and came to the conclusion that they should intice a person into going to see it, while giving them some hint as to what it will be about.

The idea for my trailer came after reading a book called 'Deathnote: Another note, the Los Angeles BB Murder Caes', which is a murder mystery which involves logic and thinking throughout. Another influence is from the Japanese film 'Higurashi no naku koro ni', in which you meet a group of seemingly normal teenagers, who later turn out to be cursed. My idea is a mixture of these two themes. "A girl name Reina Night" is the name of the teaser trailer, the name Reina Night came to my head when I was thinking about spooky names that sound normal. Reina is a spanish name that means queen or emporess, the last name Night just from the time of day, so together the name means Queen Night.

After looking through a few trailers, I liked to look of the beginning of the 'Easy A' trailer, with the main character talking into a webcam. To make this have elements of horror I decided to film at night with a side light to create a dark tone, this would make it seem more like a horror film. Also making it very simple with a vague sort of outline to the girls life, in my opinion, would attract people to go an see it.

Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni Trailer : This is the trailer for Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni, although it says 'Shrills cries of Summer' the the title actually means 'Higurashi: When they Cry' and Higurashi is the type of cicada, a type of bug, which is found in that area of Japan. I like this trailer as it explains a little of what is going on, as well as showing that it is a horror film. This is one of my favourite films, and in my opinion it is about the hidden flaws in society. The trailer is effective as it creates suspense and makes you want to go an see the film and find out what is happening.

Easy A Trailer : This trailer is effective as it tells you the plot without going into too much detail. I liked the idea of the person talking into a camera and talking about what she thinks. So I including this idea into the teaser trailer, I thought that since it's a teaser trailer it wouldn't have to show scenes from the movie. I also think that this trailer is funny and again will encourage people to go and watch this film

My Teaser Trailer

So here is the teaser trailer I made. I think it could have turned out better but overall I am happy with the result. I filmed the trailer in my room, and just used my side lamp to light the scene, which makes it very dark and spooky. The music I used came as part of the editing software I used to edit the trailer, I used some software I had already called Corel Videostudio Pro 12. I filmed using HD and then rendered it again in HD. I'm still really trying to figure out the software so all in all it took me about an hour or so to edit this, I tried to keep in simple and to the point without adding a ton of effects, which would over complicate the trailer. It dosen't have the production company name at the start of trailer, mainly because the software wouldn't upload it.

Production Paperwork:

Script

Risk Assessment

Storyboard

 

Call Sheet

Codes of Practice and Regulations

If you decide to shoot a film there are some rules and regulations that must be followed. Just like in any line of work there are some rules or guidelines that you should take into consideration. A few of these rules are as follows. When filming permission should be given from all people present that says that you are allowed to film them. This also goes for when filming on private property, permission should be given and on record.
Also if filming in public, members of the public should be taken into consideration. So if there is a load of cables along the ground, then these should be taped down to the ground or sign posted. If there is a particular scene that is going to loud, then filming shouldn;t take place too late at night if the set is in a populated area. Generally you shouldn't make a lot of noise between the hours of 10pm and 8am.
Local authorites should be contacted or notified. Access for emergency vehicals and services should be taken into consideration when selecting a location. If an accident occurs then local services should be able to get to the set with as much ease as possible.
http://www.canterbury.gov.uk/main.cfm?objectid=1448

Lighting Equipment

Lighting a scene correctly is important when shooting a film. If the lighting is off then it can ruin the effect the film is trying to have on an audience. If the scene is too bright in a horror film is won't seem scary for example. Some lighting equipement includes Redhead's and Blonde's. Both of these are open faced lights.

Three point lighting is the basis off how to light a scene properly. The main lights are the Key Light, Fill Light and Back Light. The Key light is the main light source in the scene, it will be the strongest influence. It is usually placed a little of to the side of the object, so one side is lit and a little bit of shadow is present. The Fill light is placed on the opposite side of the Key light and is used as a secondary light. The Fill light is often a lot softer than the Key Light. The back light is placed to the rear of the object, such as the name suggests. The role of this light is to define highlights and also to show some subtle definition of the object.

MCPS and PRS

MCPS is the shortened version for Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society, this is part of an alliance with PRS, the Performing Right Society. This is a non-proft organisation that is based within the United Kingdom and they were created to make sure that royalties are paid to songwriters, composers and publishers. It is usually enforced when their work is used on Televsion or is distributed in other ways.

Fesitvals

Entering film festivals is always a good idea when you are wanted to get noticed. Although enetering a festival can be costly, and you may not always be gauranteed to win something, it can help you to meet people who have similar interests to yourself and allows you to meet people are share information.

There are plenty of festivals to enter, locally, nationally and internationally. Some examples of film festivals are below;

Raindance: (http://www.raindance.co.uk/site/index.php)
Raindance is a film festival that was founded in 1992. It provides training and support for film makers, and these training programms have been highly successful. Raindance had produced some feature films that have won awards, and example is The Living Dead which won 11 awards. Raindance is of benefit to me as it is a well known film festival and has a good reputation.

The End of The Pier: (http://www.eotpfilmfestival.co.uk/)
The End of The Pier film festival is a festival that is mainly for low-budget, independent film-makers. It is for both short and feature films, which is good as you can get a mix of different styles. This is a good festival for me as I don;t have a lot of money to spend on making a film, so with a competition that is for people in similar situtations to myself, it means that I have more chance of winning.

The Keswick Film Festival: (http://www.keswickfilmclub.org/kff/)
The Keswick film festival is the best option for me to enter, mainly because it is a local festival. With it being local, it means that local independent film-makers will attend and so it'll be a good chance to meet people wholive locally and share ideas.

Withoutabox: (https://www.withoutabox.com/)
Withouabox is a film festival that is in over 200 countries worldwide and it allows film-makers to distribute their films themselves. It also allows film-makers to view other peoples work, and for film-makers to eneter their work into other festivals and competitions.

Professional Paperwork

Some examples of professional paperwork can be found all over the internet, but you can also find examples in books. Different pieces of paperwork can look the same but all have different jobs and purposes.

Storyboards:
A storyboard looks very similar to a comic strip, it shows how a scene will be played out. Storyboarding helps to plan out how each scene will look, and how each scene will be made. This includes figuring out where the camera will go, where it will move to, where the actors should stand and so on. Storyboards can be very simple, basic stickmen and arrows, or have lots of detail and description. An example of a professional storyboard can be seen below on the left. On the right is a storyboard that i completed for the teaser trailer project, as you can see my storyboard is very simple compared to the more professional version.

  

Scripts:
A script is important as it not only tells the actors what to do an say in film, but it also helps the producer, director and cameramen figure out how to make each scene. A script again can be very simple, with basic dialogue and vague stage directions which means that the screenplay can be changed easily. Then you can have more in depth scripts which include loads of detail and description, and makes it easier to follow and stick too. During pre-production and production the script can be edited and changed if something dosen't work, or if a better idea is thought of. Below is an example of a professional scrip on the left and a script I wrote on the right. Both use a similar layout, however the professional script is a little bit more in depth.

 

Schedule:

A schedule helps to keep the project on track, and if the project is on track it means that deadlines are met, and also if any money is being spent, the cost is kept down. 

Crew/Cast Release:

Crew and cast release forms are documents which just say that you are allowed to use the actors/actresses image in your original work. If the actor or actress does not give you permission to use their image it can breach copyright law. These documents also have information such as docters names, contact information and information like that.

Risk Assessment:

The purpose of a risk assessment is to help cast and crew pin-point anything that is a hazard and could cause harm to either a person or the location. Once these hazards have been spotted and the risk pin-pointed, measures can be put into place to stop any accident occuring. Just like if you were working on a construction site, a film set can also have its share of hazards, and certain measures must be put into place to stop accidents happening. If an accident does happen, then it can lead onto legal action, which can be costly. An example of a professional risk assessment can be seen below on the left, on the right my version of a risk assessment. 

Call Sheet:

A call sheet is a piece of paper that includes contact details of everybody on the set. Usually call sheets are distributed at the beginning of the week, to allow for any changes in schedules that may occur while on set. A call sheet helps with organising days that filming can commence. A rule to creating a call sheet is to assume that everybody involved is always going to be available, unless they have said otherwise.

Budget:

A budget is what the name suggests, this paper helps teh producer figure out how much the filming will cost. A budget will generally help to work out how much should be allocated to what, so how much actors should be paid, how much props should cost ect.

Location Scout:

A location scout helps teh producer and directors pick an apporpriate place to shoot a certain scene. Usually these will include details about the location and pictures. It will also contain information about how much the locations will cost to hire, if they are private, details about parking, nearest conviences ect.

BBFC, PACT, BECTU ect...

BBFC: (http://www.bbfc.co.uk/)
The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) is an organisation that deals with the classification of films in United Kingdom. The BBFC are in charge of deciding the certificate of moving images, more so for films and dvds. The BBFC, in my opinion, will be helpful as they will determine what certificate that any film that I may produce will be. However this may also effect who will be able to see it, if I made a film that was aimed at 12a and was certified as 15, then it may not have the same effect on people of the different target audience.

 PACT: (https://www.pact.co.uk/Homepage/)
PACT is an association in the United Kingdom who both promote and Represent independent films and television companies. They will be helpful in the future as they will be able to represent my if I choose to work for a company.

BECTU: (http://www.bectu.org.uk/home)
BECTU is an independent trade union for those who work in broadcasting, film, theatre ect. The union represents freelance workers who are mainly based within the United Kingdom. BECTU help to negotiate pay, working conditions and also sorts out contacts with employers. Their aim is to make sure that there is equality among employees.

EQUITY: (http://www.equity.org.uk/)
EQUITY is another trade union who represent people who are proffessional performers or are within the creative and cultural industries. EQUITY are not part of the goverment, but work along side other trade unions to ensure that people within the creative community are given at least the minimum wage. This may be a problem if I decide to use actors/actresses who are a part of this union, as it means that I will have to pay the actors at least minimum wage.

The Arts Council: (http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/)
The Arts Council is a british organisation who are trying to encourage people to take more interest in art, whether it be drawing or media. The Arts Council is lottery funded and is currently investing in over 880 organisations up and down the United Kingdom.The Arts Council will be helpful in future at I could get funding for projects from them.

Shooting People: (https://shootingpeople.org/account/auth.php)
Shooting people was set up over a decade ago to connect independent film-makers together, which would allow them to share information and tips on how to make independent films. They help give support for the film-makers and encourage people to make films.

Vision and Media: (http://www.visionandmedia.co.uk/)
Vision and Media exists "to help grow the digital and creative industry in England's Northwest." They help people in the Northwest to expand the creative and digital economy within the northwest region. The way that they plan to do this is by investing in projects across the region and help companies expand upon their skills.

Signal Films: (http://www.signalfilms.co.uk/aboutus.asp)
Signal Films are a cumbria based company who produce films for television and cinema, but as well as this they also provide training in creative and digital media. Signal films may be useful to me in the future as they are a local company who will be able to help me train in new software.

Wrightwalker Productions: (http://www.wrightwalker.co.uk/aboutus.html)
Wrightwalker Productions was created by Jonathan Wright and Lyndsey Walker and specialises in digital film-making. They provide various services for different aspects of film-making. You can find crews, cameras, greenscreens ect from their website. This may be useful when it comes to finding crew members to help when making a film.

Production Companies

Setting up a production company takes serveral steps, and although it may have a few disadvantages, overall it is a good idea to have one.

One thing that you should take into mind is that the people that you take on for the company have good knowledge with the software that is available, and are reasonably up to date with new software. Being up to date with software and knowing how to use it means that competition between revialry companies and your own isn't as big an issue. It also means that you can produce work which can compete with other comapnies.

Another thing to take into mind is that of a name, it's a good idea to research names to make sure that the name you have chosen isn;t already taken and copyrighted by another company. As discussed in the Copyright section, if you are found to use a name that is already taken without permission, even by accident, you could face legal action if teh name is found to be copyrighted.

One of the disadvantages is the expense of setting up a company. If you are setting up a company, you will be entering a legal contract, this means that if any issues arises you may be responsible for any charges put against the comapny. For more information on this, the link below will take you to a good website which explains this in more detail.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/filmmaking/guide/production/setting-up-a-production-company

It is helpful to have your own production company as it means that if you enter into festivals and your logo is shown, it helps people indentify your work better. It also looks more proffesional to have a company logo and  name.

For my own production comapny, I decided to use the name 'Neo-Angel Productions'. I decided upon the name as 'Neo' means new and angels have links with being spiritual and free, so together the name means 'New-freedom'. When choosing the font and colours I wanted to use in the logo I wanted colours that looked fresh but also make a bold statement, and also so it is easily recognisable.

This is the logo I created. The colours are choosen because of what they mean. The colour purple denotes mystery and also royalty and being upperclass. I then chose they grey as it looks very industrial and modern, as cities and modern life is a 'concrete jungle' they grey gives it a contempory feel. The font I used was 'Pump Demi Bold' for the 'N' and the 'A', then for the other letters I simple used 'Arial Narrow', as the two fonts complimented each other nicely. The chibi wing is there for two reasons. Teh first being that it goes with the angel theme of the name, and secondly it is a simple design. This logo can go on all the production paperwork and anything else that i produce.

Producers and Directors

Producers:
A film producer is in charge of selecting appropriate screenplay and also is in charge of overseeing the film-making process. A producer is usually in more contact with the client than other memebers of the filming crew, and so is in charge of the more organisation part of the process. An executive producer is somebody who has moreof an interest in teh financial aspect of the film-making, and is in charge of the fundraising and budgeting of teh project. They are also in charge of the hiring of other crew members, such as the film director, other producers and accountants.

Directors:
Under the Film Producer, a Film Director is in charge of teh creative aspects of the film. The Film Director is in charge of the aesthetics of the film, and are in charge of making the film suit the needs of the target audience of the film. The director will work more closely to the Cast and Crew than the producer, and help to shape the film by doing rehearsals and discussing how the different scenes should look and be like. The director also plays a key part of the post-production process, so they talk to the editors and discuss how the film should look.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IK1WJ-oveE  and interview with Gareth Edwards.

Copyright and Using sound + Visuals

Copyright is a legal agreement which gives the rights of any piece of original work to the author. Copyright is applied whenever an individual or a company creates a piece of original work, this orginal work has to show a 'degree of labour, skill or judgement' (http://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/copyright/p01_uk_copyright_law).


Copyright applies to any audio or visual that you did not produce yourself. This means that of you do want to use an audio clip or visual you must ask permission before you use them. Fines can be put into place if a clip is used without permission, and these fines can be settled in a court of law. Although the copright law changes slightly depending on which country you are in, the overall guidlines are the same.

 If you wanted to use footage that wasn;t your own you could use copyright free footage, or stock footage. Stock footage is footage that is not a part of any particular production, and can be outtakes or libary footage. An example of a film that used stock footage is Forrest Gump, using stock footage it was possible to make the main character meet the historical characters he did such as John F. Kennedy.

As for Music and Sound effect, there are many websites that supply royalty free music and sound effects. Royalty free means that it has no copyright as the original owner has given permission for the music to be used, so you download the original work and use it straight away. http://www.partnersinrhyme.com/ this is a website where you can find Royalty free music.

Post Production

In post production you deal with the editing and finalising of teh film. Tjis process can also inlcude the (re-)writing and (re-)recording of scripts, adding in any special effects and converting the film to a suitable format for release. This post-production can take longer than the filming part of production, mainly because the editing can take weeks to months to complete. 

A Post Production facilities house is a place where you can go and edit you original work, such as a film. Places such as envypost ( http://www.envypost.co.uk/ ), allow you to go in do some work and also chill with other people.

Production

The production process includes the shooting of the film. This process is hwere you create a balance between the aesthetical aspects aswell as the Financial and Organisational aspects as well. The production process also includes a little bit of a planning, as when you are shooting you are planning the next days shoot as well. It is also important that you get people to sign release forms during this time, using a persons image without their consent the person can refuse you permission to show your work.

In production you have to think about what sort of format you want to shoot yoru film on. This will determine what your film will look like when it is played back on the big screen, and also has a part on deciding whether the film will be a success or not.Some different shooting formats are explained on this website http://hsvmovies.com/static_subpages/formats/shooting_formats.html. Depending on what sort of film you shoot on determines how your film will come out. If you chose a wrong format then the aesthetical appearance or the feel of the film will be compromised.

Pre-Production

 Pre-production takes part before you start to shoot a film. In pre-production you hire cast and crew, decide upon a script and sort out the finance for the film. You design and storyboard you film and decide upon which actors and actresses you want to use in your film, and also the most appropriate locations for the film. This is also the stage when you work out all the budgeting for the film and how you are going to finance teh film. So sorting out sponsors or raising money is all a part of the pre-production process.

There are many places you could go to find cast and crew, that includes asking family and friends. However, there are casting agencies where you could look for cast and crew, a few can be found online or in the phone book.
A local casting agency for Cumbria is Lakeside Castings, which is based in Carlisle and covers the whole of Cumbria and the Border regions., this is a link to their website http://www.lakesidecastings.com/ . For some national casting agencies you have http://www.uk.castingcallpro.com/index.php, where you can search actors and actresses within the United Kingdom.

http://www.kftv.com/group-KG04.html is a website where you can hire out film equipment. This website is a worldwide site, but you can chose to view rental companies that are UK based only.

For costumes you could make them yourself and it means you do not have to pay extra if you damage them, but if you wanted to hire costumes out there are places who will rent out costumes at a price. Struts partystore is based in Carlisle and rents out costumes http://www.struts.co.uk/.

Making a film does not need to cost alot of money, however there are many ways you could get money for your film. You could do a fundraiser or ask people to sponsor your film, if the film was a big production then you could have people invest in your. One way you could get money is go to the Arts Council and ask for funding, http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/.

When it comes to finding locations, several issues may arise and with may bring some problems. One such issue could be that the land you wish to shoot may be privately owned, and so special permission may need to be sought in order to film on that particular location. Another issue may be that the location could get affected by the weather. When you select a location it may look fine and perfect, however if the weather changes, the location may also change.

Mobile Phone Project

One of our first project was to create a 30-90 second video using the camera's on our mobile phones. I had lots of different ideas, but I settled with a tutorial. 

I did the tutorial using MS paint, and edited it using Corel Video Pro12. The tutorial was to show people how they could easily colour in an anime styled eye on MS Paint. I chose a picture that I had already drawn and just used the eye from that. I then did a very simple design in the eye which only took about five minutes to draw. 

After I had the footage I transferred it on my computer and edited it using Corel Draw Pro. As teh video was longer than the time limit I cut some longer pauses out and any mistakes that I had made when drawing the eye. I also sped the footage up. Along with this I added music, the music came free with the software, and also some text. I decided to use text instead of a voice over as it was easier than recording a separate voice over. 

I uploaded the video to you tube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-U1oFNQPOF8