Filming

Well we've finally moved forward and  have got started with the filming!  Up until this point I have felt like our group productivity has been a little bit lacking, particularly with the recent purchase of our graphic tablets. I have found through today's filming that despite having planned out everything through our storyboarding and script a lot of our shots were changed quite dramatically and didn't follow the storyboard much at all. This may have been the lack of collaboration between Edrian, Lucy and myself as it seems there were a number of different ideas that we all had regarding the filming which didn't really come up until we were actually filming. I know a lot of the storyboard is loose and is just a rough outline but without clear direction with what we are doing it can end up being discarded.

On that note however, there was still a good amount of filming done and we sorted out our intro scene and a few of the key dramatisations needed to help push our story along at the beginning. We did find ourselves distracted quite easily being in a more relaxed environment which I think we need to try and avoid in the next few days in order to churn out the rest of this film.

It seems like our group is working really well so far, and I have been enjoying working with everyone, I just think we need a little more direction at times from some of our tutors, from looking round and observing the way other groups were getting on, it seems a number of us are struggling a bit with concepts and just need reassurance when finalising those ideas instead of discarding them and starting over. On the other hand it is nice having Zoe around to talk to on a Monday and we have been utilizing her expertise in the industry in terms of planning out what we were going to do, she had lots of really useful information for us and gave us good direction with where to take our film.

Networks: Planning Our Film

The first stage obviously was to be the planning of our film, at first we were a little unorganised in terms of distributing roles out amongst the group and we sort of floundered about trying to come up with a story where all our ideas fit together rather than choosing the most efficient idea, considering our deadline was drawing closer and we needed something to hand in. Eventually we assigned roles to direct, script write, edit, film and find music  amongst the group and we found we started moving somewhere. Each person was in charge of writing dialogue for their character and I was also tasked with creating a basic run-down of all the events in the film for Lucy to storyboard. Being the director meant I had to collaborate with everyone a lot of the time particularly Edrian and Lucy at the beginning while we were figuring out events and shot types. I also had to tell Tim exactly what sorts of music and audio we would need in the film so that he could begin either composing or sourcing what we needed.

Basically our film is set in a futuristic world just after a giant solar flare/geomagnetic storm has wiped out all electricity. The main focus is on the stories of 3 particular people affected by the loss of electricity and shows the effects that it had on their lives, shown through a number of interviews and dramatisations of events. Our 3 characters include: a facebook addict whom after the flare suffers major withdrawal symptoms and shows her recovery, an online dater that loses contact with his beloved partner that he struggles to talk to in real life, and a representation of the average citizen that relies upon the news and communication companies for information about the happenings of the world and to keep in contact with his sister who tragically dies in an earthquake.

We chose characters that had potential to be quite humorous to our audience and chose to film in the mockumentary style as it allowed us to portray a lot of character as well as the information we needed in a light hearted way whilst still leaving our message quite obvious to make sure it is not forgotten.

Our First Project - 2012

So basically we were thrown right in the deep end with this project, we have been given the task of making something either based on a network (like the internet for example),  that looks into information surrounding a particular network or just creating an entirely new network all together. Personally I like the sound of delving into the creation of a new network or at least alternative networks to the existing networks we have.

My group for this project had been sorted a week beforehand after being sick that Monday and quickly organising a few people to work with out of fear of being stuck with a terrible group if we were given a brief that day, so basically picked out the people I wanted to work with. Those people were : Tim Haines, Lucy Tang, and Edrian Santiago.

We spent the first half of the week planning what we wanted to do and explored all sorts of different networks, things like biological networks like the circulatory system and how the human body is a centralized network where blood flows because of the heart and without the flow of blood our brain wont function and we die, we looked at creating theoretical pump systems placed strategically in the body to create possible "backup hearts". We also looked at pathogens and disease spreading through networks and the concept of chain reactions through the Rube Goldberg machine. We looked at a few examples of the Rube Goldberg devices including the video below.

Most of these ideas though all seemed to lack the potential to last an entire semester and the group as a whole was really struggling to grasp a concept to create for both parts of the semester ( It didn't help that with a lot of the biological networks we all had very little base knowledge surrounding our ideas). Due to this we decided to push aside these ideas and look at the concept  of creating an alternative network system to the current digital and electronic based networks we have at present.

I had been thinking about creating alternatives to the email and digital communication networks we so easily take for granted, that if we had an electrical shortage for some reason, that whole system would be compromised. I was beginning to think of ways of delivering messages that didn't involve electricity, the obvious hydro and solar power thoughts came to mind as well as air flow but also decided to think a little bit out side the box and look into rocket power!

The project however is going to last a whole semester so the first half of it will be based on justifying the alternate network system, through the use of a short film or documentary highlighting the reliance that modern society has on electrical and digital networks and creating a fictional environment in which there are no longer any digital networks.