The green light!

Today was the final pitching stage, I felt the pressure more this time and I was nervous last time but there were more questions because there needed to be no holes, or at least less holes in the pitch. With the UFO doc, we pitched as the whole team we wanted it strong as it's something I'm quite attached to. Me and the producer though seem to be on separate pages, so need to get on the same page so this doc is as strong as it can be.

James pitched the bionic man, which is the one I'm camera on. The pitch was clear but again our lecturers were looking for holes in the pitches to pick out the strongest ones from the rest.

I'm technically, on 4 productions at the moment, which is the UFO doc, Bionic man, BMX and the cusp of madness. Cusp of madness is a new one that was brought to the table, about artists trying to reach the goal of fame, looking at ryan keen and also using the access of gaining an interview with the drummer from madness. So, I shouldn't be worried about what gets made but I still felt the pressure incase they all got made.

The UFO doc and the BMX got greenlit, which at first I was a little bit disappointed about because I wanted to do a camera role and those were the roles on the other documentaries. In the end I backed down as producer on the BMX and took on the role as 2nd camera in order to get a camera role. Not as fortunate this time to get a main camera role but I see any experience as being important and I will continue this out of  my studies as well. Now the making begins!!

Recce

Yesterday was the first of two recces before the final pitch. We drove to shropshire to meet Phil Hoyle who is the co founder of the APFU, which is one of the contributors for the UFO doc that I'm directing. He was very inviting and a perfect host. Very well spoken normal guy, who off camera was much more relaxed but was still very good on camera. The information he was saying was interesting but at times a bit too much for me to understand but I definitely felt he was a really good contributor when we left his. This is my first time directing so at first I was nervous but my team is strong and I had the support I needed and I started to picture what we would film next time so directors hat is on.

Yesterday, I realised how important it is to have a good team, driving 10 hours with the sound man and camera man (to shropshire and then to Taunton) means your stuck in a car, with the heater stuck on hot air (my faulty car) on a sunny day trying to find the place. Definitely need to get along and the team was brilliant.

Today, we met David Follett for the extraordinary me brief, this time I was camera so less pressure was felt. He was lovely, and this was harder than yesterday because we didn't know how open he'd be about his accident. He was really co operative and helpful and had such an interesting story. So overall, a positive couple of days.

Now back to cornwall, after what felt like a long couple of days but definitely worth it..lets see what get's green lit.

Here's some stills from the recces.

Crit time, once again.

Again, crit screening approaches and time to hear feedback on the two projects I've been part of.

Firstly, Stripping for a living looked good on the big screen and it was nice to see it on a screen which isn't in a tiny edit room. Waiting for feedback was tense because of the huge effort the group has put in as a whole. Feedback felt more personal as we had so many let downs when making this documentary and seeing it into an edit felt like an amazing payoff. The feedback from the crit included positive comments about the shots used and general good consensus of it being a strong piece. The downfalls were about the contributors stories. I must admit I felt I needed to defend this as gaining access into a club to film is hard. Twofour did this over months with lawyers and for me and the director to gain access in 3 weeks and being students was a massive achievement. When we heard that home life would have made it better, I agree it would have made it more into a documentary as it is something that would probably be a taster tape in the industry but due to time constraints and lack of trust we made the best use of our time.

Finally, Young and Pissed didn't give the audience enough to make full comments as we only had the opening  sequence. The feedback was again positive and constructive, it said it looked promising which is good because I have wondered what the outcome would be like due to time. However, some comments and questions threw the director as the storyline still doesn't seem set. Working on the edit with the team after the crit finally started to see something come together, we had to be more decisive as we are still way behind of schedule. Hopefully, tomorrow will bring something stronger to the table.