The scene we were filming this weekend took place the morning after the infamous boxing match. As such we needed to ensure that Jon had various cuts and bruises on his face. Sadly he wouldn't let us put real ones on, so we had to settle for make-up.
Showing posts with label props. Show all posts
Showing posts with label props. Show all posts
Tuesday, 19 February 2008
Tuesday, 12 February 2008
Video Diary #7: Breakdown
On Sunday, we completed the last of the filming on our Office set. We had lots of individual shots to pick up in order to finish off scenes or bridge parts of scenes together and most of our cast descended on the set. Special thanks goes to Glenis, who was suffering horribly from what she claimed was a heavy cold, but seemed to closely resemble SARS - yet she struggled in valiantly for us!
Once we'd finished the office scenes, we had to break down the set and turn it from an office into a meeting room, so that we could film an additional scene that we felt we needed. More on that in a moment. First though, here's the video:
More on that exposition. As Jon mentioned at the end of the video, we realised fairly late on that, although we knew exactly what our characters motivations were and why they were doing what they were doing, the script didn't really lay it out clearly for the viewer. We decided that the best way to do this was to write in a short scene where we simply laid our cards on the table and said 'this is why we're all here'. As the film is set in an office it seemed obvious that they way to do this was in a briefing. So we set up a teleconference (which meant we didn't need to cast any new characters - just find some voices at a later date. Lazy? Yeah, probably. But it does the job and gave us the opportunity to add some visual comedy and a little characterisation).
The new scene will probably only last about a minute on screen, but will hopefully make things a lot clearer to the audience!
A brief note on props: It turns out that even second hand teleconferencing units and flip chart boards are really expensive. We got around this by 'acquiring' them from our day job (several members of the office facilties guys were in on the conspiracy). We brought them back again the next day. Honest.
Also... you can't remove permanent marker from a whiteboard surface with turps. We found that out the hard (and slightly panicky) way. Fortunately Dr Karen was on hand with nail varnish remover - it's the acetone, you know! Always handy to have a chemist around the house.
Once we'd finished the office scenes, we had to break down the set and turn it from an office into a meeting room, so that we could film an additional scene that we felt we needed. More on that in a moment. First though, here's the video:
More on that exposition. As Jon mentioned at the end of the video, we realised fairly late on that, although we knew exactly what our characters motivations were and why they were doing what they were doing, the script didn't really lay it out clearly for the viewer. We decided that the best way to do this was to write in a short scene where we simply laid our cards on the table and said 'this is why we're all here'. As the film is set in an office it seemed obvious that they way to do this was in a briefing. So we set up a teleconference (which meant we didn't need to cast any new characters - just find some voices at a later date. Lazy? Yeah, probably. But it does the job and gave us the opportunity to add some visual comedy and a little characterisation).
The new scene will probably only last about a minute on screen, but will hopefully make things a lot clearer to the audience!
A brief note on props: It turns out that even second hand teleconferencing units and flip chart boards are really expensive. We got around this by 'acquiring' them from our day job (several members of the office facilties guys were in on the conspiracy). We brought them back again the next day. Honest.
Also... you can't remove permanent marker from a whiteboard surface with turps. We found that out the hard (and slightly panicky) way. Fortunately Dr Karen was on hand with nail varnish remover - it's the acetone, you know! Always handy to have a chemist around the house.
Friday, 5 October 2007
Joyriding
Our hero needs a car. But not just any car. It wouldn't be in keeping to give him a ropey Astra or a Focus. No, our man needs something with a bit of status attached to it. So we got him a Merc. Of course our budget ain't big enough to buy him a brand new Merc, nor do we know anyone who: a) has a Merc; and, b) trusts us to drive it round for a day. So we hired one. This mighty beast, including insurance cost us £100 for the day. Bargain!Thanks to Karen for the photo!
Saturday, 29 September 2007
Set Dressing
So, we have all the equipment, we've knocked up some props and we've done our casting. Now we just need to find somewhere to record our movie. A lot of the action takes place within the confines of an office. Nice as it would be to film on location in a real office, the costs involved are phenomenal. So we have to make our own!
I'd like to introduce you to... Jon's bedroom. It has all the standard features of a bedroom - a bed, a chest of drawers, curtains, even a treadmill.
Jon very generously allowed us to decimate this room and turn it into our set. He will be spending the coming weeks sleeping rough in his spare room!
The first job is to strip the room of all of it's traditional bedroom acoutrements. Now the purple walls (a girl assures me that it's lilac - I don't know how to tell - it just looks purple to me) aren't really appropriate to an office setting, so that has to go!
We actually managed to con one of our cast members, Susan, into helping out - in fact she probably worked harder than anyone getting the nasty cheap B&Q paint on the walls. It took 3 coats and a whole day!
Eventually, the paint was on and our next job was to furnish the room.
Details such as replacing the light fitting with a flourescent strip light will help maintain the illusion that we're not just filming in someone's bedroom!
A few budget desks and cupboards and a salvaged filing cabinet later, we had a room that was really starting to look like an office.
Finally, it was time to dress the set like a proper office - a pinboard covered in notices - monitors and keyboards on desks, stationery, files, reference books and other bits and bobs finished it off nicely. I think you'll agree that the finished product looks pretty good! Note details such as the health and safety poster behind the lamp and the canteen menu on the pinboard. We're all quite proud of ourselves!
I'd like to introduce you to... Jon's bedroom. It has all the standard features of a bedroom - a bed, a chest of drawers, curtains, even a treadmill.Jon very generously allowed us to decimate this room and turn it into our set. He will be spending the coming weeks sleeping rough in his spare room!
The first job is to strip the room of all of it's traditional bedroom acoutrements. Now the purple walls (a girl assures me that it's lilac - I don't know how to tell - it just looks purple to me) aren't really appropriate to an office setting, so that has to go!
We actually managed to con one of our cast members, Susan, into helping out - in fact she probably worked harder than anyone getting the nasty cheap B&Q paint on the walls. It took 3 coats and a whole day!
Eventually, the paint was on and our next job was to furnish the room.Details such as replacing the light fitting with a flourescent strip light will help maintain the illusion that we're not just filming in someone's bedroom!
A few budget desks and cupboards and a salvaged filing cabinet later, we had a room that was really starting to look like an office.Finally, it was time to dress the set like a proper office - a pinboard covered in notices - monitors and keyboards on desks, stationery, files, reference books and other bits and bobs finished it off nicely. I think you'll agree that the finished product looks pretty good! Note details such as the health and safety poster behind the lamp and the canteen menu on the pinboard. We're all quite proud of ourselves!
Tuesday, 18 September 2007
It's all in the preparation
Years ago I remember some manager type banging on to me about the "7 Ps" which stood for "Perfect preparation prevents p1ss poor performance" and despite the fact I always felt that was only 6 P's, the message stuck. So with this in mind we've been set building, prop creating and make up testing prior to some pretty full on filming activity that is due to take place over the next week or so.
Firstly, and I'm not going to tell you why just yet, we needed to convert a rather nice looking office chair into something a bit more... well... used... so with the application of coffee, violence, fire, violence, wood and violence we 'aged' this fine looking chair and made into something a bit more... um... crappie
Next up, due to the boxing scene which we covered below, there is a need to play about with some make up and so that we dont look like complete morons in front of all the hired help on the day - we thought we'd have a bit of play at making Dazza look like he'd done several rounds with Ivan Drago.
Its worth noting that this was the output of a massive 2 minutes work - we were more interested in 'proof of concept' than anything else - also I was pretty happy that I was able to reassure Dazza that the burning sensation in his eyes the next day was quite normal.
Jon
Firstly, and I'm not going to tell you why just yet, we needed to convert a rather nice looking office chair into something a bit more... well... used... so with the application of coffee, violence, fire, violence, wood and violence we 'aged' this fine looking chair and made into something a bit more... um... crappie
Next up, due to the boxing scene which we covered below, there is a need to play about with some make up and so that we dont look like complete morons in front of all the hired help on the day - we thought we'd have a bit of play at making Dazza look like he'd done several rounds with Ivan Drago.
Its worth noting that this was the output of a massive 2 minutes work - we were more interested in 'proof of concept' than anything else - also I was pretty happy that I was able to reassure Dazza that the burning sensation in his eyes the next day was quite normal.
Jon
Friday, 14 September 2007
Star Avengers!
One of the characters in the movie is a sci-fi nerd. In one scene, a toy spaceship is tossed around and the pros and cons of a tv series are discussed. Our original plan was to seek permission from the owners of one or more well known sci-fi franchises to display some of their toys around Dave's workspace. Unfortunately, the permission was not forthcoming, either because the owners were unwilling to allow us to use their images, wanted a larger fee than we were prepared to pay (i.e. more than free), wanted to know waaaaay too much about the script (with the implication that if their product was portrayed in what they conisdered to be a negative light, they would decline or request changes) or simply ignored our request. I guess that's their perogative!
In order to get around the problem, we had to create our own pseudo sci-fi franchise. So we needed a toy spaceship and a few pictures to put around the place. Here's how we did it: First up, take a ropey hands free kit that never really worked properly from the car. It already looks a bit like a spaceship, see. Then take some bits and pieces from a model kit. (You can click on these pictures for a bigger version).
Next, (supervised by a responsible adult) take some super glue and stick the bits and pieces from the model kit onto the ropey hands free kit, being careful not to stick your fingers together in the process (ahem).The resulting abomination looks pretty awful, doesn't it? Yup. But how can you make this appalling travesty of random bits of tat look cool and spaceshippy, I hear you ask.
Well - that's where the silver spray paint comes in! Now, it looks awesomely cool, huh?Next up, take some generic action figures that no-one's ever going to recognise (one of which looks suspiciously like a key member of the cast) and give them the deluxe silver spraypaint treatment as well.
For the final touch, photograph them all, give them a spacey background, knock up a cheesy name for the TV series, order a mug an a mousemat with the reuslting picture on and hey-presto, you have an instant fake 80s TV classic (which probably looks better then anything they knocked out in the 80's anyway).
Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the STAR AVENGERS™!
Star Avengers™ are © 2007 RMW Films. Any reproduction of their distinctive likenesses is prohibited unless you have appropriate executive permission from RMW Films to do so (which can be applied for in writing along with a 32 page application, a £500 fee and a writing credit). Your first couple of e-mails will be ignored. :)
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