Debbie Post-Production- Sound Design

Having finished the sound design for Debbie yesterday I have quite a lot I can say about it. Back in October, when we were in beyond the boundaries still, I expressed some ideas about the sound design and the sound track. I was trying to base it off of a kind of classical version of a pulp song for the reference to Jarvis Cocker, who was a main inspiration for the film. However, this was when the film was more inspired by film noir and the script was very different:



So my approach and sound design has also become very different.

When given the sound files for the film, the first thing I did was spend some time on noise reduction. Quite a lot of time in fact. One of the first things I realised was that everything take twice as long on a 10 minute film. Which sound silly, but when you've done a five minute film or are really passionate about sound design you'll think it's fine and underestimate how long it will take you to do something!

However, length aside I got the noise reduction done. Then came all the track laying and syncing sound, doing foley etc. Luckily for me, Josh and Marco (who were on sound for our shoot) did a really good job at picking up even the smallest of things like a pen clicking or a cup, which made my life so much easier. It meant I could spend more time on really crafting the sound and perfecting it than spending a lot of time correcting things that could have been picked up on the shoot.

I decided to work from the bottom up in terms of building the sound. Which meant I would start from the lowest sound (the ambient noise of the cafe) and work upwards from there. This was so I didn't start my levels off too low in an attempt to not make the ambiance too overpowering. Because this was my first time mixing a traditional film like this, I looked at a lot of reference material. Looking at various diner and cafe scenes and how loud or quietly they have their ambiance.

Looking at these examples really helped me when it came to mixing. Not only because they gave me a general level, but because they are all so different from eachother. Taking Daredevil and Thor for example, which are set in diners that are similarly quiet. The sound design for those is quite different, but it's nice seeing it like that as it reminds me of the creative choices I can make, and that there is no 'right or wrong' way to do it. However, it gave me a good indication anyway.

The next main thing I did was the drug tripping parts of the film. I had a lot of fun with this, and as the film progresses and it becomes more intense, I got to play around with it more. I already had a pretty good idea how I wanted to do it, but I did look at a few examples:

Again, these are all pretty different. However they were helpful and made me think about my decisions more. I decided to go for a kind of underwater muffled feel. With everything slowed down around Jarvis. Then, later on in the film I made it far more sudden. I combined this with juttery, kind of electronic sounds to go with Lauren's quick cuts. I really liked how it came out. 

The only thing I regret not being able to do was make a soundtrack for it. I wanted to, but because of delays in the edit for Debbie and Dance I didn't have time to. However, I put some just light synth ambient backgrounds in to give the film some feeling, with a view of returning to it later and making something for it.

Another thing I found particularly challenging about this process was the sheer amount of tracks there were. I knew this was going to be a big job, but I hadn't realised just how confusing it could get quite quickly. It really opened my eyes in terms of the amount of workload I could expect in the future with a career in sound. I feel like I need to start improving on my workflow more, to help me better handle those larger projects for next time.

Debbie Post-Production- The Edit

It's the last stretch of Uni now, and particularly with Debbie I think everyone is starting to feel the heat. Back after Easter and we are straight into it!

Over the last couple of weeks I have mostly been waiting around for the edit in terms of Debbie, and I became aware of some issues Lauren was having with the edit. I wish she had said earlier but I can understand why my not being there that much, as I was working on other projects, made her feel like maybe she couldn't contact me. It wasn't as easy as just turning to someone next to her. That being said, once I sat down with her and discussed the edit she was fine.

I think the problem was mainly that she wanted to stick to the script as much as possible, which I can understand because I hadn't expressly told her to just go crazy and I think it made her feel a bit uncomfortable doing so. This reflected in the edit, as every shot was in there even if scenes didn't work and it felt a little forced in at places. However when I spoke to her and actually told her that was fine, the edit became a hell of alot better because of it. I think now after a few tweaks it will be fine and I will be waiting a couple of days for the sound!

Shooting!

The shoot has come and gone! It's really weird to think that you spend all that time preparing for something, and it's gone in a flash! I think everyone is exhausted now though, and rightly so. It's been a really intense and rough few days.

I think the shooting in general went well, we got everything shot that we wanted and more. I loved working with the actors, they were very friendly and down to earth and seemed to understand what I was saying to them and wanted them to do. I still think reading those books on directing helped immensely and I really believe my confidence has grown because of doing this shoot too. The shots we got were fantastic, and I really appreciated having a good camera and lighting team with me, Tom and Shahid, who I worked with last year on Parallel. We understand each other quite well and share the passion for what we do that I really love.

There were some issues on set, mainly surrounding timing and communication. We were behind every day for one reason or another, but particularly Wednesday because we shot the masters on that day and it took alot longer than expected. However, we finished with time to get out and on the last day we finished early and had time for behind the scenes interviews and such. However, I think we could have expressed our frustrations on set a bit more. Not infront of the actors obviously, as we never would have anyway, but I think when tensions became a bit high I think we could have benefited for stepping to one side for a moment to voice concerns quietly. However, following the shoot we all sat down and spoke about any issues we had so that going into post-production we had clear air to work with.

I think this shoot and set build have taught me alot about the production process, how long things take, the needs of actors and crew and just the way things work. This is the first time I've been on the set of a 'traditional' narrative based film, and certainly the first time I've directed actors. I realise now that I really much prefer being in post-production. Some people thrive on film sets and love the stressful situations it brings whereas I don't. I wasn't by any means miserable but I think it would be incredibly difficult for me to do that for a long period of time.

That being said, however, I did have fun and there were alot of great moments on set, with some really nice shots we got to go with it. Now I just can't wait to come back after Easter and get going on the edit and sound design!

Set Build

Our set building is complete! It's really scary to think that it was just a couple of months ago that we were writing the script for this film and now we are shooting it.

Building the set was really interesting, and a massive learning experience as well as being exhausting and time consuming to say the very least. We had very little time to put the set up for starters, just three days to do it and we ran into a few complications along the way. 

On the first day we put up all the walls and put down the floor. The floor, which was one bought in the studio by another group, was slanted where it had been cut for a slanted set at one point, which made it very difficult to fit to the shape of the set, so we had to build the set slightly differently in order to fit them in properly. It did not affect the amount of materials we needed, but it took a bit of time that we did not have. Towards the end of the day, we were rushing and I was pushing to get the walls wallpapered so that they would have time to dry overnight and we could paint them when we came in that morning.

The next morning, on set build day number 2, we started painting. I had to go over some bits of wallpaper with some more wallpaper paste just to set it a little bit on the edges, but in general I think everyone did a pretty good job. The main thing today was the feature wall. Laura had the idea of creating stencil just to print on the wall, however because we put the wallpaper on before we stenciled it, there wasn't enough pressure behind it to stencil it properly and they came out blotchy or patchy. In the end, we had to have some people go round making the stencils and people following them filling it in with paint. As you can imagine this took a really long time, and we didn't finish this until day three. I think it's safe to assume that everyone was exhausted by the end of day two.

On the last day, we got the wall done by the afternoon, which was good and I'm glad we got a massive chunk of it done during day two. The last day was mostly finishing off painting the rest of the walls and then putting all the decoration and props in. I had my housemate Jess come along to draw on the blackboard we had, which looked really nice! And which we later made a frame for. I was really impressed by how the set looked at this point and everyone who came in said it was looking really good. It was not how I imagined it, but both Laura and Shahid were happy with it and so was I.

During this last day, myself and Laura also had to organise some last minute things for the actors. James Winter, who was playing Pete had just told us he couldn't get a suit for himself so we had to rush and buy one, on top of this not long before we had also had the surprising organisational task and monetary issue of finding him a hotel to stay in as we weren't aware of his location in Peterborough. So it was safe to say we were already feeling the heat of the shoot and it wasn't even there yet!

By the end of the day, Tom and Shahid had started setting up the glide cam and we had got our kit from the stores ready for shooting the next day.

Debbie- Fundraising

Whilst all the casting and rehearsals have been going on, we have still been trying to raise money for our film. Laura's workload was getting too much due to the commitments of the film and everything else, so I offered to organise the fundraising.

As well as the indiegogo campaign, and the money we were being generously given by our family and friends, I wanted to organise a bake sale and raffle, as well as organising a night at the SU. We had spoken about doing a Britpop night for a while because of our film's original connections to Jarvis Cocker and the band Pulp. So, I went to find out more about how this would work and what our limitations were.

The following is some conversation I had with Kelly Weston, the bar manager at UCA:

Kelly was incredibly helpful when it came to organising the SU night, but I had to deal with the head of catering when it came to the bake sale, and this included doing quite a few risk assessments and organising with caretakers for tables and such. However, we hosted the bake sale on the 22nd February, and the SU night was on the 29th February. 

We did some advertising for these events on the Farnham UCA Facebook page, as well as on our own Debbie Facebook page. I also made some posters for the events to advertise them more visually. Especially the SU night, with the posters being displayed around the SU:

Our fundraising efforts paid off quite nicely, our night was quite popular and was fun for us to be at as well as helping us raise money for the film. Laura supplied the music for the SU night and I supplied the cakes for the bake sale and the night, as well as organising the raffle. We managed to raise about £100 for the film, which really has helped us out alot.

Debbie Updates- Casting and Rehearsals

The last couple of months have been very hectic in terms of Debbie. Straight after Christmas we started casting for our film. We did Skype auditions over a couple of days and finally got our cast together:

I found it really easy to cast the guys as they were both fantastic and it was believable that they were brothers straight away. They really stood out to me and I could not have picked anyone else. I feel like we got very lucky in that regard. The girls I had particular trouble with. We had many fantastic candidates with very different styles, however Kesia stood out in particular to me because of her friendly attitude, and I loved her French accent aswell. That combined with her look really suited the kind of character I wanted her to play, whilst getting very good vibes from her that she would be reliable.

I am really happy with these guys, they are all equally reliable and friendly, as well as being fantastic actors. On Monday 15th February, we had a rehearsal with them to go through the script and play some different actions to see what kind of performances look best, try out different directing techniques, and to get to know my actors in general. 

In terms of directing technique, I have paid particular attention to 'Directing Actors: Creating Memorable Performances for Film and Television' By Judith Weston. 

I went into the rehearsal with an annotated copy of the script, which had lots of notes on how I could get the actors to play the roles and particular lines in different ways:

This book helped me see directing from an actor's perspective and I think has improved my direction on the whole. The book talks about using playable notes rather than result direction, which would be telling an actor you want them to be angry or be sad, rather than giving them something they can act on. I could see quite easily the differences in performance from one direction to another and to me that confirms that I'm succeeding at what I've set out to do. So now I feel prepared for our shoot in that regard!

Organisation wise, since Christmas it's been focused on shot lists and call sheets. Since the script is now finished, what I had to do was go through the script and write all the shots I wanted in there so I had a basic structure I wanted to work to. 

Then I had to write up all these shots into a spreadsheet with all details such as movement, props etc. So Laura could organise these into shooting schedules for each day of shooting:

In general now, I think we are prepared for the shoot. With just a few odd bits and bobs needed to do left. A couple of props here and there to get and we are set for the studio.

Indiegogo Fundraising and Trailer/Pre-visualization for Debbie

During all the script writing duties, the rest of the team were working hard making mock storyboards and production breakdowns, working on budgeting etc. We are wanting to raise £1500 for this film and to do this we wanted to make a trailer to give people an idea of what the film would look like, the tone and style and what it is about.

The experience of doing a pre-visualization was good as it allowed us to try out shots we might find difficult and also allowed Thomas to try out some of the VFX for the film and see how that could be created, how long it would take in post etc. Shahid also got an idea of how it should be lit to achieve the effect that I had envisioned. In general it gave a good idea of how much time each shot would take us. All in all it was a good experience.

This is the end result of the video:

In addition to this, we also took photographs of each Team member with information about them, and information about the film. With indiegogo, you can also give people perks dependent on how much money they donate which we will factor into our budget.

We have also launched a Facebook page for people to be able to get updates on our project and what we are up to. Both of these things can be accessed here: 

https://www.facebook.com/debbieFilm/?fref=ts

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/d-eb31e/x/12822846#/

Script Development- Implementation of Feedback and Group Feedback.

After my meeting with Craig, I immediately went back and implemented what he had suggested, especially in terms of structure and it made the film 100% better for it. It flows much better and makes much more sense because of it. At a point I was happier with it, I had a tutorial with Kathleen where she went through some things on the script:

• Amy should be called Jen
• Jarvis wouldn’t wear a watch
• More natural dialogue (Jarvis and Pete)
• Jarvis should look at Debbie on a tablet
• Get rid of toilet scene, drug should be taken in the cafe
• Try the film with and without the narration as it gives away too much of the plot.
• Should get rid of coffee shot at the beginning because people think waitress is main character.
• Shahid’s storyboards don’t match the atmosphere of the film, he needs to meet with Tom more to discuss how shots are set up for VFX.

I went back over and changed some of the things Kathleen said, but I didn't agree with everything she suggested. Then I let the rest of the group have a look. 

Laura gave me a pdf with a lot of notes on, mostly small things to do with dialogue re-wording, and minor details. She had some concerns about the ending, but I disagreed and sent an email to Craig asking for his opinion. He said it was solid, and Laura had a re-read and she agreed that it wasn't as bad as she thought. 

The rest of the group seem to have the same concerns. Shahid mentioned that he didn't like the flashbacks at the end, and felt that it was too 'Fight Club' and that we should have a transition shot instead. Also Lauren voiced a concern about the beginning scene in terms of style and it fitting with the rest of the film.

I agreed with most of what was said by the group, and liked the idea of the transition shot that Shahid mentioned. I also understood Lauren's concern and aim to have a conversation with Shahid to see how it could be lit and shot to allow it to be consistent stylistically. I now think the script is getting to a point of being something that everyone is happy with. Which is perfect and on schedule.

Script Development- Meeting with Craig

After a couple of re-writes of the script, Kathleen sorted out a tutorial with Craig Jordan Baker, the creative writing lecturer on campus to look at my script and give me some feedback on it. I found the meeting very helpful and it really helped me look at the script in a different way. The topics we discussed were:

-Structure
-Dialogue
-Scriptwriting format/technique
-General Feedback

The main thing that was brought up in this meeting was to do with the structure of the script. The structure of it meant that there was too much setup to the story and the ending felt rushed if we were to make a 15 minute film. So his advice was that I introduced Pete's character in a lot earlier, with an establishing scene with him to allow the audience to know why Jarvis is waiting in the cafe and to set up their relationship faster, then to have him arrive by page 4. They then have conversation, and Jarvis is starting to come around to Pete's way of thinking by page 7. This then allows more time for the story to resolve.

The next thing was the actual scriptwriting format. I was writing a sort of mix between a spec script and a shooting script. What Craig advised that in order to focus on the story I leave the shots out at first and then come back to it later and do a full shooting script.

Another thing was that Debbie had more to say than she should have done. If Debbie is an extension of Jarvis's consciousness then she shouldn't say what he's thinking. She should say something that then leads on to him finishing the thought, but not necessarily finishing her sentence.

Other than a few other bits, I asked Craig what he thought of the script in general and he said it could be a strong short film if I got the structure right and improved on the areas we discussed.

Script Development and Moving on with the Pre-production.

After many different versions of the script, myself and Laura kept going round in circles about ideas for the script, particularly the dialogue. I spent a fair while on the structure, so for the most part that stayed the same.

Because we spent so long on the script, Laura decided to break the script down into a visual structure, using elements of the different versions of the scripts. This is so we can continue with the bulk of the preproduction and come back to the script later for improvements.

Because of this, I took the version that Laura produced and spent a couple of days going through and developing a rough shot list. I then relayed this over to Shahid so he could start on the storyboard for the film. As this is a longer film and there is only one of Shahid, he is only doing the complicated shots and the ones I specifically asked for.

Also, after our group tutorial with Kathleen which gave us a lot of references to use when continuing to develop the story, Kathleen suggested I write the film as a short story, which I am more familiar with, and then later pointed me in the direction of the Creative Writing lecturer for some advice on the development of the story. I'm sure this will be very helpful.

Script- First Draft and Keeping on track.

After putting together a structure of the film, I started writing the first draft of the script. It was very rough and took me a couple of days to get through but I did it! I then left it for a couple of days and re-read it. There were some elements I liked and some I didn't. I went back to my screen writing books and saw ways in which I could improve the script.

One piece of advice given in one of the books that I hadn't implemented so far was a board with all the scenes on. Using the beat sheet from Blake Snyder's book and from the short film book I have, instead of writing up scenes I put down the major plot points. I figured each plot point could come down to about a page each, leaving me with 15 plot points. This is how it looked on my bedroom wall:

each row represents an Act, with the middle 2 rows representing Act 2. It is read from left to right. This is what the cards looked like up close:

In this I've given: Location, brief description of what happens and what beat this represents in my film.

The +/- Is the emotional progression that goes on at this point. Blake Snyder points out that a film should be an emotional rollercoaster, so you need to make sure that your characters' emotions are constantly changing throughout.

> < This symbol represents conflict that happens in the scene or at this plot point. There has to be constant conflict of interests in the film between characters or things otherwise the audience will feel like nothing is really happening.

After my first draft, I put all these cards up and moved them around, took some cards away and wrote new ones. It was a good exercise as it allowed me to easily see the weakest and strongest points of the script and fix them to make them all of equal quality. After this I changed the script a lot, and while I still think it has a long way to go, I'm much happier with it now than I was. 

D-eb31e Structure

Having read through most of the screenwriting books I have a hold of, I now felt comfortable to start writing the structure of the film.

Both 'Save The Cat!' and 'Writing Short Films: Structure and Content for Screenwriters' have been very helpful in clearly laying out how your film should be structured to be successful. Although there are exceptions to these rules, in my research I noticed that the films that did follow these rules, I enjoyed the most.

In Save The Cat! the structure is laid out as such:

Opening Image- Sets the tone, mood, type and scope of the film. Gives a before shot of the character.
Theme Stated- Someone makes a statement to the main character, an offhand remark.
Set-Up- The Hero, The Stakes, The goal of the story (Opening Image and Theme Stated come under this)
Catalyst- Moments which knock the world down that you’ve just showed the audience
Break into Two- Hero decides to leave the set-up world and go into a new one.
B story- It gives us a break from the main story, but supports it.
Fun and Games- Provides the promise of the premise. A more light-hearted section of the script.
Midpoint- Something negative or positive happens here that changes the motion of the script.
Bad Guys Close In- The bad guy tightens their grip on the hero, who is about to suffer a fall.
All is Lost- False defeat, opposite to midpoint. Stick a whiff of death in there.
Dark Night of the Soul- A moment of defeat where the character and the audience know it. Short.
Break into Three- The idea to solve the problem emerges. A and B story combine.
Finale- Dispatching the bad guys, leading to a triumph for the hero.
Final Image- opposite to the opening image, showing how change has occurred.

In general I found this to be true of short films as well as feature length films. However, as feature films have the time to explore multiple concepts, things such as a B-story might not be included in a short film.

In  Writing Short Films: Structure and Content for Screenwriters I found the structure to be very similar in Save The Cat! However, it is more specified for short films:

Setup (1-3)- Protagonist and Main conflict (Something the character wants and something it needs, and something to conflict with these)- Main Exposition (What the audience needs to know in relation to the character and situation)- Inciting Incident (The catalyst that sets the hero in motion to pursue what he wants and needs)- The Problem and Sub-Problem (A main problem that has consequences for the character.)
The Rising Action (4-14)- The Antagonist (A character that personifies the hero's obstacles)- The Plan (The hero's plan to get what he wants that shows surprises and presents further obstacles)- Obstacles (Something that opposes the protagonist as he attempts to achieve his goal.)- Complications (Something unexpected that can cause a change in action.)- The Reversal (An unexpected event that turns the direction of the film 180 degrees)- Crisis (An attempt to capture the goal by the hero, but is temporarily thwarted)- The Main Crisis (The conflict intensifies and increases)
The Climax & Resolution (15-20)- Climax (The highest, most exciting point in the drama)- Resolution (Tying up loose ends and solving problems/falling action)

I found this equally useful as I could compare with the other structure type and find that they were very similar. They both explain why each point is necessary using relevant examples. When I then went on to create my structure, I decided to mainly use the one from Save The Cat! as I found it a little bit easier to understand, however I always used the other structure for reference to make sure I was putting it into a short film context. This is the structure that came out:

1. Jarvis comes into the cafe with a box of office belongings dressed like he’s just come from work and has had a rough day. He orders a black coffee. Sits down and starts looking at a picture from the box.
2. A man comes in and sits opposite him. The man, we discover, is his brother and the brother is showing concern over his well-being (job etc.) He sees Jarvis looking at the picture and warns Jarvis to not spend too long chasing something unattainable.
3. Jarvis goes to the toilet and pulls a pill from a small bag in his pocket which he takes. As he’s washing his hands a woman comes into the toilet and starts talking to him seductively.
4. He returns to the table and the woman is talking over his brother’s shoulder as he has two conversations at once. Jarvis begins to hallucinate even more and gets up and follows the woman as she walks away from him.
5. Meanwhile, the brother is trying to suss what Jarvis is up to as he starts wandering aimlessly around the cafe, talking to himself.
6. Inside the hallucination, Jarvis is trying to seduce the woman. However everything he does is also reflected in the outside world (e.g. kissing the woman looks like he’s kissing the air or inanimate objects).
7. Eventually the woman agrees to be with him
8. However, she will only give him what he wants if he chooses her over his brother.
9. He hallucinates an image of his brother, chained up and screaming. Outside of the hallucination, Jarvis is now screaming at the top of his lungs and his brother tries to calm him down. He lies him down on the floor as Jarvis starts convulsing, he searches his pockets and finds the drugs.
10. Jarvis looks into a mirror and he is suddenly gaunt, his eyes glazed over like a slave or a tortured soul.
11. The brother has now called an ambulance, and medical staff are around him trying to hook him up to liquids, attempting to stabilize him. Jarvis feels this in the hallucination, and has a moment of clarity.
12. Jarvis sees that Debbie is trying to harm the chained up brother, and jumps in between them. Debbie throws herself at them both, her hand touches his chest. Outside of the hallucination, Jarvis goes limp and the brother is crying, asking if the ambulance staff if he’s going to be ok.

As of right now I still don't have an ending for the film. I know various ways it could end, but I want to start writing it and decide on that later as myself and Laura are still in a debate about it.

Script Development and Research

In the first few weeks back in Farnham I have begun writing and researching the script for our film. To start with I read a few books on screenwriting to aid me with the structure and how to build a stronger film. Although most of the books I have are made for feature film writing, I also have read a book on short film writing to bring it all into the context I need it in.

The books I have read are:

Syd Field's Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting
Linda Cowgill's Writing Short Films: Structure and Content for Screenwriters
Blake Snyder's Save The Cat!
Mark Axelrod's Constructing Dialogue: Screenwriting from Citizen Kane to Midnight in Paris

I all found these very helpful in trying to build a structure for the film, and also for just general screenwriting tips and advice.

The next step was to screen films which relate to the subject matter we are trying to address and review their structure, and why the do or don't work. I analysed their structures to see where the main plot points were and then made a note of one line or two to about what I thought of them. I won't give all the details, but here is generally what I said:

Feature Films

Altered States (1980)- Not enough of a likeable main character, I'm not rooting for him as I feel sorry for his wife.
Trainspotting (1996)-Very funny, likeable main character even though he's a bit 'damaged goods'. Clear story, clear plot points.
127 Hours (2010)- Interesting exploration of hallucination, killer sound design,

Short Films

The Going Away Party (2015)- A bit all over the place, no real character development.

                  
                  The Going Away Party from Connor Hurley on Vimeo.

Good Grief (2015)- Funny, clear story. Some character development but I don't root for the main character.


                  
                  Good Grief from Jim Owen on Vimeo.

Fallin' Floyd (2013)- Funny, uplifting, good character development. However the demon is too cute, I feel sad when it leaves.


                 
                  Fallin' Floyd from il Luster on Vimeo.

I have yet to look at a few more films, but I now feel comfortable doing the structure of the film.