Diary of a Film maker: FIlm & Video media73 Leeds

Hello all I thought I would post some of the interesting projects I have been working on, as it may be of interest to some of our members.

I have recently worked on various Film shorts, live events, Promotional films, Training videos courses, Car garages, and
a Documentary, very hetic and diverse but thats how I like it. One of my most recent projects was as Director of Photography or d.o.p as its usually known, as yes i have heard the joke before about being a dope!.

Basically your role as a d.o.p is to go through the script with the Director and actors and suggest camera angles, focal
lengths, and to get a feel what what the Director is looking for. You also have to consider lighting, luckily for me on this
project there was an experienced lighting guy, so a little less for me to worry about. The project was called 'Mayfly' a Sc-fi
short, which is a pitch for a longer feature. Initially when we were contacted the thought of a fairly low budget Sc-fi filmed filled we with dread, the thought of people running round in spandex with laser guns, did put me off to be honest.

Luckily there was a few well established actors onboard including Pete McGowen, who has starred in Corry, East Enders, Casualty and various tv appearances with over 20 years experience, so I knew if they were in, the script would probably be a cracker.

So I packed my kit and headed up to Newcastle to start the 4 days shoot, Most of the crew already knew each other, and there was quite a few Southern Shandy drinker jokes, me!! Southern!! it felt weird, as that was something I always said
coming from Leeds!. (Newcastle is further up for our less traveled friends) .

Part of the shoot included filming in a disused swimming pool, in the byker part of Newcastle also know as the wall,
a weird jail looking village in Newcastle, it looks so futuristic but in real modern down to earth way, (Hard to describe).
Filming in this building was difficult as there was no electricity, we had to take generators in, we all had face masks and did a clear up before the shoot. You name it, dead cats, rats, cockroaches, fleas (we all got bitten) were down there, it was horrible and the heat from the lighting was tremendously hot, it made working down there in cramped 5ft by 4ft corridors difficult and tempers did fray a little.

To protect the camera we devised a genius technique, Plastic bags!!, a full camera case is over £1000 so to late to get hold of one at that stage, the bags worked perfectly, this really was guerilla filmaking. Over the next three long, and I do mean very long days, we filmed in a University Hospital, a Swimming pool, a basement, Reception area, and Hospital ward. Very diverse locations. Initially we were a little worried working with known actors, as the experience they have is vast but having sat down to chat to some of them, I learned a lot about the process and things and techniques they had learned, all brilliant experience.

The film follows a man who wakes up in an old disused hospital basement, with no idea, how, where or why he is here,
I wont spoil the whole film premise but the film revolves around clones, and how would you prove you were the real
original, when the clones have exactly the same memories and thoughts as you. The film is still in post production in
London but media73 keep in touch along side the director on edits and shot flow.

As soon as the film is completed I will post a link so you can all have a ganders.

Thanks for reading, I will post most regularly hopefully. Including my thoughts on the Redrock m2. Any questions about this or my future projets let me know.