Filming...

The Formby trip... What a marvelous day, I really enjoyed it! I don't think my mum enjoyed cleaning all the sand up afterward though! As we went to Crosby beach to film and take pictures of the Anthony Gormley statues, me and Luke were doing so great filming for the dream sequences. I had to film approx 60% of my footage their when we noticed the incoming tide. After filming a scene where I had to run across the beach, the bottom of my shoes were in the water. After rewatching it we decided to retake it and I was suddenly nearly knee high in COLD water! Luke had the easy job, stand there and film, I had to practically swim! On the way back, Mr. Taylor was telling me all about different birds, and I introduced him to a SPECIES of my OWN, The one I made in a hurry the nights before! In the coach I was thinking about emptying out my shoes, but I had to fly down some sand dunes after a short coach ride to Formby, so I left it. On the coach I filmed a scene with Gabriel (who in another scene is a human bird chasing me!!) where he asked me if I was ok, and I had to react to a bird tapping at the window - which wasn't actually there, I filmed this on my green screen and will add it in during editing.
Before I cracked onto more filming Luke decided to stalk two old men whilst wearing his black cloak, I had dinner with Paddy and Gabriel once we finished we decided to go our different ways and film, and so Luke came with me and thankfully spotted a really dreamlike area of tree's that I did a lot of filming in, Luke even made a special appearance as a concerned friend! After doing some more scenes of me screaming and dressing as a bird, I got to do the fun part and FLY down some mountains (head first!!) When I say mountains I mean sand dunes but Oh well! After school I did some more filming in a class room with Patrick and went home for a nice soak in the bath! That weekend I did all the home scenes, I invited my loving family to watch as I seem to remember you need a invited audience to watch some part of the filming. For one scene involving a raven tapping at a window I had to stick a pole up my models bum so my mum could lift it towards the window. My mum happily stood on a chair a lifted it up while I filmed up stairs, there will be a clip of this on the special features bit on my DVD.

Prop making: A log

On Monday 5th October I finally decided what my film was about, and what props I needed. I was going to film the majority of it on the school trip which was on the 7th. For these scenes I needed a Bird mask and a Bird, this is a log of the prop making.

MONDAY PERIOD 1: I paper-mâchéd a plain white mask provided by Mrs. Kearns to make it sturdy

I then made a beak out of card board as the mask didn't have a beak, then I paper-mâchéd that.

Monday Period 2: Once I had completed 4 layers of paper-mâché I left it to dry on the radiator and began to work on the actual bird.

This is the icky gloopy stuff I had to dip my newspaper into to stick it to the mask, I believe its called cellulose, sprinkle a bit of the powder into water and ta-DA!

The mask with all the layers.

The un paper-mâchéd bird prop, I made this by screwing up newspaper and fixing it together with cellotape, I added a card board tail and a card board beak. I was about to paper-mâché it but then the bell went and I had to pack up, Oh no!

Mrs. Kearns kindly leant me a packet of cellulose to take home and carry on making my bird.

Without the beak.

Me doing the bird at home with a cup of tea.

Nearly done.

I needed to put the bird somewhere warm so it could dry ready for painting tomorow, this is a picture took before I put it in the green house.

I had to take it out over night so it wouldn't go damp.
Tuesday night: We decided to use spray paint as it was quicker and the Diploma trip was the day after. This is a little hut my mum made so I didn't spray paint the lawn!

Me spray painting the bird.

Half done.



The completed mask.

Completed products ready for Formby, not the Bird now has eyes made from red sequins and feet made from brown pipe cleaners!

MY FILM IDEA

My film is called OBSESSION, named after the main character who becomes OBSESSED with birds, the main character in my film is Ben, average kid likes rock music and wears a lot of band t-shirt, it is heavily implied he has serious mental health problems and he gets obsessed with things, other characters are Luke and Gabriel, worried friends of Ben and Patrick a serious teacher. I want to use RAVENS in my movie as a main symbolism of death and destruction, the plan is to have a raven in EVERY shot, although this may be difficult for some of the home/classroom/running scenes, but when you do not see it you will certainly hear a bird crowing in the background. As people are watching I guarantee they will be thinking “why birds?” I’ll tell you why, when I was younger I had a fear of birds. I thought to make something truly scary have something you are scared of yourself. Other inspirations include the fact they are so innocent, they are small and you know they cannot hurt you but if you see them everywhere and they appear to be watching you, you will probably get scared. The boy in my movie will have dreams of ravens and eventually believe he is one, for the scenes involving ravens I will need a model raven as I cannot buy a real one! These are some pictures of ravens so I can make a detailed prop:

In my movie after he see’s all these birds he gets obsessed and he seems to think he is one. There are 2 dream sequences one of which where he is running through a beach where human statues erupt which are all wearing bird masks, I want to make one which is very simple but effective, a lot like the ones a plague doctor would wear in the 1600's. this symbolizes the boy is sick, mentally.

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I wanted the human bird statues to have wings which I was planning to buy from 'poundland' as when filming this it was around Halloween time, sadly I couldn't purchase any in time, so my friend (and diploma student) Luke Beech lent me a long black cloak

Here is the ORIGINAL script idea;

SHOTS OF A RAINY STREET, IN THE DARK, BIRDS FLUTTER ABOVE

BOY ASLEEP, ROLLING AND GROANING

DREAM- HE IS RUNNING THROUGH A BEACH, STATUES ERUPT FROM THE SAND, THEY CHANGE INTO BIRDS

THE DREAM BUILDS UP AS HE RUNS FASTER AS BIRDS SCREAM OVER HEAD, THEY GET LOUDER AND LOUDER HE FALLS INTO A PIT, HE CANT HERE ANYTHING EXCEPT BIRDS HE DIGS INTO THE SAND TO ESCAPE AND FINDS A BIRD BURIED IT IS A RAVEN, MUSIC STOPS AND HE WAKES COVERED IN FEATHERS

HE RUNS TO THE WINDOW AND SEE’S THE SAME RAVEN AS BEFORE TRYING TO GET IN, HE PANICS AND RUNS DOWN THE STAIRS INTO THE GARDEN TO SCARE THE BIRD AWAY , THE GARDEN IS ALL DUG UP AND COVERED IN WORMS, HE SLIPS AND BIRDS FLY DOWN TO FEAST AS THE WORMS CRAWL ON HIM

HE WAKES AGAIN, REALIZES IT WAS A DREAM*

SHOT OF CALENDER, SCHOOL TRIP CIRCLED, GETS CHANGED AND GOES DOWN STAIRS. FAST SHOT OF EATING BREAKFAST, ETC AND WALKS TO SCHOOL, MISSING A NOTE ON THE FRIDGE SAYING “MENTAL HEALTH CHECK UP –DOCTORS APPOINTMENT TONIGHT- LOVE MUM**” QUICK SHOT TO SCHOOL, TEACHER ANNOUNCES TRIP TO BIRD SANCTUARY, BOY STARES, DRAWING BIRDS IN HIS SCHOOL BOOK. HE DAY DREAMS OF RUNNING THROUGH A FOREST BIRDS FLYING OVER HEAD.

HE GETS ON THE SCHOOL BUS, SITTING ALONE. SUDDEN SHOCK AS A BIRD HITS THE WINDOW SQUAWKING, THE BOY PANICS

WHEN THE BUS STOPS, HE RUNS OFF AND THROUGH THE WOODS SEEING BIRDS. EVERYWHERE HE GOES, HE HEARS MORE AND MORE BIRDS, HE SEE’S THEM EVERYWHERE, UNTIL EVENTUALLY HE CLIMBS A MOUNTAIN, WHEN HE REACHES THE TOP HE IS A BIRD. HE JUMPS THROUGH THE AIR.

FADE TO BLACK.

THE BOY IS ON THE FLOOR, NOT A BIRD. POLICE CAR’S AND AMBULANCE’S SURROUND WITH RED TAPE AS HE IS SECTIONED OF, BLOOD TRICKLES OUT OF HIS EAR.

THE END

(Everything underlined will hopefully be filmed at Formby and wherever else we go on that trip)

* When he wakes up there is a note on his bedside table saying “doctors check up tonight, don’t forget. REMEMBER” there will not be a direct shot, so people will have to look close for it

** I do not want to name the mental illness; it’s up to the imagination

I do not want to many hint to the illness as I don’t want the whole film to be about this, I don’t want it to obvious, I want people to really guess. The film is about DREAMS and REALITY, the whole film revolves around a boy who doesn’t know the difference, and the end brings it all down to earth.

Due to filming restrictions and the trip to Formby in 2 days when this was written I had to change the idea a little, so it was easier to film. here is the FINISHED film idea:

The film starts with Ben having a nightmare, where he is on a beach full of bird like figures, he closely inspects a few but runs after seeing their sinister bird masks, after being chased by one of them, he walks up with a shock and gets out of bed drearily suddenly he sees a bird tapping at his window he panics and watches in terror when he suddenly awakes again he is in shock not knowing if he is dreaming now or not, he slowly calms when he realizes he has a nice school trip to look forward to that day, he gets changed and goes down stairs to get his breakfast, he doesn’t notice a bird following him. He leaves in a hurry when he notices the time and misses a note from his mum telling him of a mental health check up that night. He walks to school, hopping over a gate, when he see’s a flock of birds over head, he runs the rest of way. When he gets to school the teacher tells them the trip is to the Bird Sanctuary in Formby and he panics again, and asks the teacher if he was joking or not as he had a really weird dream about them, the teacher tells him not to worry as they are surely not following him, this audio bite will play again at the end. He walks down the corridor when suddenly the weather changes a bolt of lightning strikes the school and he is thrown to the floor. A figure dressed in a extravagant cloak walks down the corridor, he has giant wings and a hideous melted face, he is a bird. Behind him are other bird figures dancing and laughing. The Bird figures tells Ben to join them as he holds out a bird mask, Ben weeps and they disappear. The teacher comes in telling him to get a move on. He stays silent on the school bus as his friends try to talk to him. A bird taps at the window, and in a mad panic he runs of the bus to find himself at the same place of his dream. He seems to think he is a bird now, he runs through a wood panicking at this revelation, his friend Luke chases after him. Ben notices a hill, and if he is a bird, he can fly! He climbs to the top and see’s birds flying around him. He is NOW a bird, dressed in a long black cloak and mask, in fact he is the bird figure from before. His teacher see’s him at the top of the mountain and screams after him. Ben laughs manically and jumps and after a long painful fall and roll down he reaches the bottom, dead.

The bird figure with the melted face will be made for my artwork, which I am working on now. The birds dancing behind him will be wearing masks kindly donated by the Drama department. The Human figures masks on the beach and the bird prop its self were made just in time to film at formby, in my next blog post will be a log of the making of these props.

Main Film Influences

Gormley:
-Statues
-Still Images
-Space between reality and dreams for the boy
-The bird figure its self

Hitchcock:
-The film "The Birds" Which has swarms of birds
-Type of shots
-Slow pans
-Fast action shots

Lynch:
-Bizzare Idea's
-Innocent thing turned evil
-Crazy/New shots
-Ending doesn't necessarily make sense
-Leaves you feeling confused and shocked

Magritte:
-Surreal forest
-Surreal artwork for DVD cover

Soundtrack

For my film I want not so well known scores from films people won't necessarily know, because during the screening of my film I don't want people distracted thinking "Oh listen that's the Pirates of the Caribbean music!" etc. I want some Twilight music as I have the sound track and it is very good, maybe some doctor who and torchwood music as they are very well produced by the wonderful Murray Gold. In the end scene I want a Marilyn Manson track as he is my favorite artist, ever. He is often misunderstood and his music is dramatic, heavy and thought provoking, well his old stuff is anyway.

So far I have filmed all the Formby Scenes, home scenes and most of the school scenes. I need to complete my art work so I can film the corridor scene, once I have completed it I need to film the Bird figure in front of a green screen and incorporate this into the Formby scenes. I need to carry on editing my film and produce a DVD cover.