Research and Writing

I have been really productive the last few days I have thought a lot about different plot ideas and discussed them with both Rosy my Producer and Tasha my Editor. I've written the first step outline and I believe the story is really starting to take shape.

I have taken inspiration from watching apocalyptic films and tv dramas that have a similar feel what I want to achieve. I have watched things like The Walking Dead, The Fades series, Children of Men, The Road and Cloverfield. I have found this a very useful exercise and believe it has helped me understand how to make a good 'post apocalyptic' film.

We have also secured a make-up artist and art director which I am really pleased about, a film like this needs people specialising and focussing on the small details. I put together a few mood boards and sent them to the art director to give her a feel for what I want costume wise and the kinds of things I was thinking for a painting and pollinators.

Today was quite an exciting day :) I got to meet Doug Allan an amazing wildlife cameraman. He did a talk at uni and it was truly inspirational and just reinforced that I definitely want to work on wildlife documentaries! I bought one of his books and he signed it "see you on the credits" :)

I also had a tutorial with Rachel, by drama tutor about the points that my script needs to hit to make it work. There needs to be 3 acts, a midway turning point, climax, the point where the audience decides they genuinely care about the character etc... I'm quite looking forward to getting stuck in to writing, that's such a strange thing to see myself say...

Filming at Stonehenge

The opportunity arose to film a drumming ceremony at stonehenge for a charity called Sanctuaries of the Earth Mother  and I jumped at the chance. I have never been as close to the stones as I was today, it was a truly magical experience with the amazing weather, the jackdaws building nests and the immense sound of the drum resonating through my body. I am looking forward to seeing how the edit comes out, I'm just not sure how I will be able to fit it in to my busy schedule!

Actors and Locations

Along with my Producer Rosy Pearce I have been working at securing some great actors and locations. I am lucky in the actor department seeing as I went to the BRIT School I happen to know lots of extremely talented up and coming actors. I've got 4 actors attached to the film now, with some great credits including The Inbetweeners Movie, The Fades and The Script Music Video. We are also in negotiation with the Eden Project with regards to filming in their rainforest biome, they said they are "working to accomodate us" fingers crossed they will let us cause that would be amazing!! We have also got access to locations like an abandoned house, land on bodmin moor, clay pits and more...

I am getting really excited about this film and can't wait to actually get into production.

A New Term, A New Project...

I am really excited to get stuck into my final project. Much to mine and many others surprise, I want to do a drama. I came on this course fully intending on focussing on documentaries, I was pretty sure that my final piece would be a doc on bees as I seem to have a weird obsession with our flying pollinators. But seeing as I could not find a great story, or find something new that had not been covered in already broadcast docs, I decided to come up with a drama idea about bees instead. I have a lot of work to do to be able to pull it off, but if I manage it I believe it has the potential to be pretty good.

Boozin' and Schmoozin'

Tonight I attended a networking event for Raindance at Envy's Foley Street location. It was great fun and I met a lot of really interesting new contacts. I gave out quite a few business cards, fingers crossed they will lead to great things!

Experience at Envy

Images from Google

This week I have had work experience at Envy Post Production house and I loved it. I learnt a lot and had so much fun. I got to sit in for hours with an amazing online editor who talked me through what he does, spent time in the machine room, took a look in at the colour grading suites and sound rooms and  ran tapes to different buildings. I enjoyed working alongside the runners, they were all really lovely and helped me learn the ropes. I hope I will be able to return to Envy for some more work experience in the near future. 

A bit of painting

It was my sisters 30th birthday yesterday and I decided to paint her a picture of a Mummy and Baby Giraffe as they are her favourite animal. She was really pleased with it but I wish I could have spent a bit longer on it as I only spent most of one day on it.