A whole lot of Etiquette!

Just a quick message to say thank-you to everyone who supported us with Etiquette. As you can see the DVDs are now back and ready to be distributed. Where humanly possible I will pass these over in person and say thanks, the rest will be posted.

On a side note, I now remember what complete torture DVD authoring can be. On the one hand I love having a physical object to show off at the end of any creative process. On the other, it adds a lot of expense, time, frustration and effort to produce. It is simply so much easier to distribute material online now. Therefore I suspect this is likely to be the last DVD I will end up producing. But never say never. Meanwhile – hope you all enjoy!

Letting go

Of late, I’ve had a nagging feeling of being stuck in a rut both in my day job and film-making. I have already taken a few proactive mini-steps with regards to the day job and they have highlighted what a positive breath of fresh air “change” can actually be. I now need to do the same with the film-making side. Unfortunately I have the type of personality which has trouble drawing a line under something and moving on. So I have been working things through in my mind.

The biggest hurdle has been comedy short Etiquette. For ages (over a year) it has just been sitting doing nothing. I created a large amount of half-finished “bonus material” to put on the DVD (a perk which was promised to the fine folk who backed us – to be fair we did invite all of our backers to a BAFTA screening as a special additional bonus perk). But other things were always getting in the way. So in the spirit of remaining focused, being positive and moving on, I’ve spent the last couple of weeks working hard to complete this.

Now, almost at the finish-line a strange thing has happened. Not only does a great pressure feel like it’s been taken from my shoulders, I feel I am able to finally draw a line under all my other existing projects also. It seems simplistic reading this and thinking to myself: “Why on Earth didn’t you do this sooner?”. All I can say is the mind is powerful thing which can both free and trap you. Regular employment also slows you down a lot, as do small children (yes – especially the small children!)

Anyway, I am almost there. Here is a teaser (the back part of the DVD cover):

Making a DVD takes a lot more effort than I previously recall (it’s been quite a while!). The biggest obstacle turned out to be the fact we shot the film in film/23.975 frames per second, but all other material was shot in 25 frames per second. The DVD format is a fickle old beast which doesn’t take kindly to mixed frame-rates like a Blu-ray does. I had great fun getting the film to play in 25fps UK PAL format and without any stutters or the cast sounding like they are Smurfs.

With the exception of a couple of remaining Spare Change commitments (most notably a screening for the cast and crew), I now feel liberated and ready to take on new and exciting projects. At present my thoughts lean towards a couple of small low-key learning/experimental projects. Soon after those I would plan to tackle something significantly more ambitious – a Ghost story called The Curator. Hopefully I will covering more about this project in the near future.

Being at one

It’s been one year to the day since I started this blog. Here is the part where I personally thank everyone who has been reading it for the past year. I hope you have enjoyed reading it as much as I have writing it. I’ll admit to rambling and having an eclectic mix: part film-making, part composing. If nothing else I’ve documented the process of making of our short film. I’ve been a bit quiet over the past couple of weeks because lots of behind the scenes stuff has been happening.

We’ve suffered a knock-back with Spare Change, this has seemingly been forced back because of scheduling. I’m still trying to salvage something here, but it doesn’t look like it will go into production much before September now. I can’t say I’m entirely happy about this, but there we go!

On a happier note, I recorded a series of interviews for Etiquette yesterday. I’m glad I was able to find time to talk about the project. It didn’t look like we would have time to record any “making of” material on the DVD. I’ve also been busy making image galleries and producing other material for it. It would be great to have the DVD finished by the end of the month – that’s highly ambitious, but I’ll try!

I’ve also been doing some voice work for an online-project. I could tell you more, but I’d have to kill you! So I’ll reveal more about this in a future post.

Meanwhile, I hope you will continue to read the blog over the forthcoming year!

Etiquette screening (27th April)

Etiquette is the code of behavior that delineates expectations for social behavior according to contemporary conventional norms within a society, social class, or group (thanks Wikipedia). It is also our latest short film.

So if you see only one film on a big screen next weekend, see Avengers Assemble. If you see two (or you aren’t a fan of Superheroes) and you also live nearby Oxford then why not pop along to see our latest short film?

Etiquette is a comedy which follows the mishaps of Trevor who is once again faced with his two worst fears in life: being social and the fairer sex. Trevor might not like the idea of the screening but hopefully you will. The film has a very “Oxford” flavour to it, being as it was filmed in the county, with mostly local actors and crew.

After the film, there will be a short Question and Answer session with Director Andrew Carslaw and Producer Sherilee Wedderburn.

Still here?

Okay, here are the details:

• The screening will begin at 7pm on Friday 27th April.
• The event is free and you are invited to bring not just yourselves but friends, partners etc along also.
• The film will be shown in The Denys Wilkinson Building, OX1 3RH – which is opposite St Giles Church on the corner of Keble Road/Banbury Road.

Hope to see you there! If you have any questions, please ask in the comments section below or on our Facebook Page here.

Track record

Last week I recorded a director’s commentary track for the Etiquette DVD. I really enjoyed doing the one for my first film Gardening and other crimes.

Commentary tracks are interesting and seem to polarize people. I suspect unless you are a filmy type or the film is of particular interest then they mostly get ignored.

On one hand you get people who love doing them (for example Peter Jackson who recorded multiple tracks for his Lord of the Rings films. Edgar Wright joked that they wanted to record more tracks for Shaun of the dead just so they could beat his record. Peter Jackson turns up in a small cameo as Santa in Hot Fuzz). I guess I fall into this category.

At the other end of the spectrum you get people such as Steven Spielberg who refuses to do them at all (a big shame!). Or you get the directors who just sit there not really giving any insight. Plenty of these tracks around!

Part of my reasoning for doing a commentary track was that I have a very limited presence in the DVD extras otherwise. I believe it’s important for the director to have “some” sort of presence. I’d love to record a brief “interview”, but it’s all about timing.

How did I fare this time around? I have to be perfectly honest and say whilst I enjoyed doing it – the major drawback was the fact that Etiquette only runs for 8 minutes. Pesky timing again! Gardening and other crimes ran for over 20 minutes and I found it much easier to cram anecdotes in on that track. The Etiquette track feels more restless and rushed. There were a few things I would have liked to cover, but 8 minutes just flies by. This is something to bear in mind on my next project “Spare Change” which is likely to have an even shorter run-time. I may not even bother with that one!

So how did I prepare for the track?

Firstly I watched the film and scribbled down a few notes or points I wanted to mention. I feel this is essential! Far too many people who give commentaries don’t do this and it generally makes for a rather dull experience. I didn’t use the notes religiously, but it jogged my memory if I clammed up. The track was recorded using a trust Rode VideoMic in a quiet environment. I was listening to the track via headphones so that only the commentary was recorded and I then mixed it over the top of the film playing at a much lower volume. A couple of things I was planning to cover but I didn’t have the time:

• The shoes story. Mentioned this in-joke on a previous blog entry. Especially as they were cut out at the 11th hour. The shoes were also the only focus pull shot we did in the film. In some ways I am happy we didn’t just do shallow DOF focus-pull shots for the sake of it. There is a time and a place for them and I find them somewhat cliché in a lot of DSLR work being produced right now. I didn’t feel they were right for this project.
• The dropping of the “door opening” scene for Aunt Ethel. Basically we couldn’t get it to work, even though some of the footage was shot (and can be seen in the original cut). This does mean that a lot of the cat props I sourced for the character were essentially eliminated. I had this idea that she was a mix of Blofeld in the Bond movies and mad cat woman from The Simpsons. In the film she is having a cup of tea with her cat mug/cat tea-pot reading a genuine book called The Devious Book for Cats by Fluffy bonkers (a prop I am definitely keeping).
• 
• I don’t feel I conveyed Alex’s improvisation from “good day” to “good neigh” to horse-loving character Alison particularly well on the commentary.  Ah well!
• I didn’t mention that we hoped to get the original Trevor (Ross Sullivan) to play alongside Layla at the end. He was game but sadly the schedule didn’t work out. He did come to our premiere however. I was also hoping to get Brian from my last film playing a character called “good Samaritan”, who comes over to help  at the end. Again, scheduling issues.

Anyway, would love to hear some feedback about people’s favourite commentary tracks – so please leave a comment below if you know of any good ones in your DVD collection!

Palpable fiction

pal·pa·ble  [adj]        capable of being touched or felt: tangible.

Before I can fully let go of our Etiquette project and move forward with Spare Change there are a number of things that are still remaining I want to tick off. One is a local screening for anyone who was unable to make the mid-week BAFTA premiere. The other is developing a DVD as promised (either as a thank-you to the team for their efforts or as a thank-you perk for our IndieGoGo supporters). I am currently deciding what we have time for on the DVD. The current line-up on the DVD is looking suspiciously like:

• Three versions of our film, so you can see how the editing process evolved. The first is Sherilee’s original edit. The second sees me take Sherilee’s edit and add a few flourishes of my own. The third is the final version, which is a collaboration between us both.
• A commentary track. I was hoping to do a track with Sherilee, the crew and actors. However time constraints getting us all together means this is unlikely. At the very least, I will fly solo. I really enjoyed doing the Gardening and other crimes commentary, so hope I feel the same this time also.
• We have had the “okay” from the Yellow Square team to put the original version of the film by Dan Collier on the DVD. Now you can compare and contrast the original version against our shameless remake.
• A few short interview clips with the cast.
• A copy of my first film – Gardening and other crimes, as promised on the IndieGoGo campaign.
• A trailer for Sherilee’s “Unspoken” project

What you won’t be seeing is:

• Any making of featurette. We were hoping to do one, but don’t really have the time right now with Spare Change waiting in the wings. It could materialise at a later point, but don’t hold your breath! Send me an email petition if you really want this!
• Bloopers. We had a lot of fun during the production. For whatever reason (probably time related), there were not enough clips to make a full blooper reel like we did last time.

Whilst we are on the subject of DVDs:

It appears online streaming is overtaking optical media now. I can’t deny that the market is certainly changing in this direction (DVD consumption is definitely reducing). However I guess I am that rare individual who likes to have a “physical copy” of something. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have a problem with the use of streaming. I use streaming, my first project was streamed (it wasn’t a huge success when I did it, admittedly two years ago). I am curious to dip my toe into the Distrify waters at some point. Meanwhile I still believe there is a market place for both streaming and optical media (for the next few years at least). When Internet TVs are the norm, things will of course change. But for now, a few issues I have with streaming are:

• If your network/bandwidth disappears (and occasionally it does here living in a village), it ruins the whole viewing experience.
• Not that this is applicable to all online services, but if I like the film, I don’t want to have to pay each time I want to see the film. I don’t want to install anything to get around the digital rights management so I can view it. I don’t want it to expire after a set period. I just want to pay a set amount and re-watch at my own leisure without fuss.
• I find it much easier to forget about films in the “online” environment. They are more disposable. If I have a copy, I can look through my collection and there it is! Streaming works well with things I am only ever going to see once.
• Personal one this: I don’t know if others the same. If I sponsor a project on the likes of IndieGoGo, Kickstarter etc, I rarely show much interest in “online streaming” versions. If I sponsor a project, part of the charm is getting something tangible at the end of the process as a perk.
• The quality still isn’t quite there. Perhaps I am way off here as I’ve not researched recently. Has anyone streamed anything from an “online” source which has DTS surround sound from a legitimate service? Did it come with commentary tracks, extras, subtitles etc or was it just the film?

Obviously there are several key benefits which make streaming extremely attractive however:

• The most obvious is the huge reduction in overhead costs and delivering it to others. I mean you can upload to YouTube or Vimeo for free. There are other solutions such as the aforementioned Distrify. With online-rental, I’d be curious to know if recent “stamp price increases” will have an affect. Perhaps it is driving the likes of LoveFilm even more towards this model.
• It is more portable with things such as mobile devices
• It can be available almost instantaneously.
• Optical media physically takes up more space than files on a hard-drive.

I’m sure everyone has their own take on it, love to hear other opinions. Meanwhile speaking of project sponsorship a moment ago, I see the US is introducing some new laws for Crowd-sourcing. Interesting!

For those of you still reading, one last thing. I’ve slightly updated the Ferny Films website content. Aesthetically for anyone who’s already seen it, it’s much the same. The content was out of date however and it was becoming a royal pain to update. Hopefully now improved a bit.

Cloud nine

So our BAFTA premiere screening has come and gone. Time to come off cloud nine and return back to reality! But not before I blog a bit about the experience so I can look back at this at a later point when moral is perhaps a bit lower.

The first thing I can recall is all the last-minute flapping that occurred – lots of it! It mostly revolved around train-times.

I was frantically trying to improve the sound quality for the showing, which involved editing/re-encoding/re-authoring onto a Blu-ray disc. Not exactly a snappy process when in a hurry. I eventually managed to do this with about two minutes to spare before having to run for the train (in a tux). This might have been quicker had I not picked up on a couple of other small errors in the edit which I also wanted to fix. I had to sit through the film three times that day before even seeing it on the big screen – to make sure things were technically “sound”! The next train issue came when our original train ran late. We had mere seconds before making our connection to Paddington. In fact we all thought at one point we had missed it. Really didn’t want this to happen as I had to hand the latest version of the film over to the technical team at BAFTA *before* 5pm if they were to even consider it. Thankfully all the hard work and flapping was worth it and they showed the “two minutes to spare” version in the end.

With producer Sherilee Wedderburn

One vivid memory I recall is sitting down in the theatre, near Alex Babic.  We knew we were the first film playing. Alex leaned over and asked “So what happens if nobody laughs at it?”. For some reason this simple question hadn’t yet crossed my mind in all the earlier chaos. First film, comedy, no laughing… The next few minutes seemed excruciatingly long whilst I playing worst case scenarios over and over in my mind. I can only assume with all the effort Alex invested into the character he was probably doing the same. The main difference being Alex would be recognisable afterwards, whereas I could fade into the background. But this only added more pressure. Obviously I had to take responsibility being the director and I certainly wouldn’t want to make any of our actors look bad. Stresssss!

Thankfully we needn’t have worried. The film got an excellent reception and the audience got behind it. We even found ourselves worked into one of the speeches during the Disability and Development Partners presentation during the middle.   Was also nice to hear the chap behind me saying he liked our film best when the screenings were over. Based on audience reaction, I feel we held our own extremely well against the other films. So what about the other films?

Well, for me the highlights were Cucumber (another comedy) and Unremembered (which was a sort of mystery piece) – perhaps my favourite film of the evening. I’d say that both of these clearly had bigger budgets than our effort, clearly they had more time and better equipment. Both were slick and technically superb. The stories were fun. This said I think all of the films shown had merit.

After the screening we did a bit of mingling. It was great to catch up with all of the members of the Etiquette team who could make it (sadly being mid-week some were busy or couldn’t make it at the 11th hour). One highlight was our Trevor (Alex) meeting the original Trevor (Ross Sullivan).

Team Etiquette!

Also managed to catch up with the lovely Gail Hackston, who is the writer on my next project Spare Change. Great to meet and chat in more detail, perfect for keeping me focused on what’s next… Although to be honest with the absence of any dinner before-hand and the amount of champagne consumed, I lost a bit of that focus!

As mentioned in an earlier blog entry, Gail originally sent over her “Working Late” script.  Well, since then some Canadian chaps who go by the name of Filmstormers have gone and made it. Absolutely love those sound-effects!

T-Minus 24 hours

So there is under 24 hours to go until our Etiquette premiere/screening at BAFTA. Getting very exciting now, I’m sure the evening will just whistle-by at an alarming rate. I am also looking forward to seeing the other films which have been shortlisted for shortfuse@BAFTA 5. The full line-up (in order) is:

Etiquette

Trevor is preparing to learn the etiquette required to greet his partner Joanna’s guests. Unfortunately Trevor has a history of selecting an inappropriate form of greeting. Will he get the hang of it this time?

Written by Dan Collier
Directed by Andrew Carslaw
Produced by Sherilee Wedderburn

Principal Cast: Alex Babic, Natalie Hughes

Dogme Stride

Another dinner together, the same old routine. A husband and wife, stuck in a rut, no longer even able to communicate or even acknowledge each other. Things appear to have reached boiling point. Surely it’s only a matter of time before something has to give?…

Written, directed and produced by Genia Sophie Krassnig

Principal Cast:
Wife – Melissa Hartzel
Husband – Thomas Sidali

Cucumber

A woman prepares to enjoy an undisturbed lunch break on a park bench. Soon, she is joined by an unwelcome, brash, boastful and insensitive young man who appears to be trying to impress her…

Written, directed, produced by Edward Andrews

Principal Cast: Francesca Cherrault, William Nash

Unconditional 24/7
Cleo is on the phone, relating anecdotes from her recent social life. The more she shares, the more the picture builds of a self-absorbed and delusional woman, seeking attention, approval and social acceptance. Can she keep her grip on reality?…

Written, directed and produced by Jasminka Letzas

Principal Cast:
Cleo – Eva Gray

Unremembered

Reverend Smith becomes intrigued by a pauper’s grave in the grounds of his new parish church in Hampstead. He encounters resistance and hostility from parishioners, other clergy and the local historian, in his attempts to unravel the truth behind the headstone. Desperate measures are called for, before the shocking truth is revealed…

Written and directed by Kelly Parslow
Produced by Scott Bingham

Principal Cast
Reverend Smith – David Manson

Sounds like quite a mix! Finally, a few bits and bobs:

• Sadly it seems as if filming for Family Portrait is temporarily suspended for a bit longer due to unforeseen circumstances which of course I hope come to pass as soon as possible. I remain attached, but obviously no one can predict what will happen in the future.
• Meanwhile the “Dad” project I am involved with keeps gathering pace. The shoot date is August. I will be editing and composing on this. However also been giving a few bits of advice behind the scenes. It will be the directing debut of Rhys Lewis who I met at last years the Guerilla’s Film-making master-class. It is being produced (and written) by Sean Langton who I’ve also been chatting to for some time behind the scenes. Really hope it works out with these lads and can’t wait to see what they can achieve!
• If you wanted to listen to last weeks slightly tongue-in-cheek Radio Interview on HayesFM with the lovely Layla Mirmalek (or if you just want to hear me suffering through man-flu) – you can hear it here: http://www.fernyfilms.co.uk/hayesfm.htm – The interview was conducted by Becky Talbot and Mike Shephard – who were a joy to chat with. You can “stalk” them on Twitter under @BeckyTalbot1 and @MikeShephard respectively.
• Speaking of Layla, I’ve now seen some of her amazing storyboards for Spare Change – which I can’t wait to share with you at a later point. They are just how I pictured things, I can’t wait to compare them against the final film to see how close they actually are! Wonderful work Layla!
• Finally – if you haven’t seen it yet – I just want to show off some fantastic production design (headed presumably by Dennis Gassner) on the new Bond movie SkyFall thanks to the ForagingPhotographer and his excellent blog. It really makes you appreciate how much detail goes into things – and it’s fascinating to see the process go from nothing but a plywood frame, to looking absolutely convincing!

Hayes FM Radio interview

Hello everyone!

This is really just a heads up! I have been invited along with the lovely Layla Mirmalek to Hayes FM tomorrow evening (8th March 2012) to do an interview. This will most probably cover what is happening with our latest short “Etiquette” and hopefully a few details on what we have planned after this. Obviously this is somewhat regional, but hopefully we can obtain a copy of the interview to share with you all at a later point. I’ll no doubt blog about the experience in a bit more detail soon. We will be featured as part of the Becky, Craig and Emerson show, and should be on at 7.45pm. Cheers!

Getting back on track

Had a feeling recently that I’ve not been composing enough and really wanting to get back into it! I was then shocked to discover that last year’s output consisted of only three tracks, two of which were experimental playing around (ie. Not that great and well under the minute mark). Eek!

1. Original Etiquette opening for Dan’s version
2. Aunt Ethel for Dan’s version [mp3 download link]
3. Serene Beauty (by far my favourite out of the three!)

Therefore I’ve set myself a task of trying to compose at least one track a month (or at least 12 new tracks – one for each month). Already I’ve equalled last year’s output!

For January I composed two demo variations for video for Culham Centre for Fusion Energy. They were unhappy with the original music used (can’t say I blame them, the track they used was non-stop, overbearing and it felt like the footage was being edited to the track rather than following its natural flow). Unfortunately the original video editors have shown no sign of providing us with an dialogue only audio track (!?). Hopefully this situation changes in the near future, if not I’ll release the track online at a later point. Meanwhile this one has to remain under-wraps! Oh the politics!

February was the month where I did a short cue for my latest short film Etiquette (track name was Bumbling Trevor) at the 11th hour. To be honest, I much prefer it to the earlier cues linked above.  Nothing fancy but certainly fits the film better than being a stand-alone track. Also composed a short piece for the Baby Oak logo, which probably took little more than about 5-10 minutes to compose.

So on to March and a new track! A new piece called “Tracking the package“. I decided to go back to my favourite genre: Spy/Action. So I made a spy surveillance/chase styled track. I was adamant that I would not fall back to my safety net which is a harp (which I love), and would try to keep my piano/flutes to a minimum also. It started off rather Bourne in style but towards the end it evolved into what could be described as my own personal style. Tremendous fun to write! The track is not perfect (mixing/timing/orchestration), but you’ll get the idea. So here it is:

Andrew Carslaw – Tracking the package (Spy/Surveillance chase demo track)
I class this as my style because I can’t help but ignore the similarity between this and a track I wrote almost 20 years ago (showing my age now!). Here is an excerpt – for comparison purposes. It was a track called “The Countdown” based on the ticking time-bomb device used in many a Bond film.

Original excerpt from The Countdown (circca 1994) [mp3 download link]
Excerpt from Tracking the Package (2012) for comparison [mp3 download link]

Bear in mind in those days I was using very basic tools – namely a soundtracker program with 8 bit samples on an Amiga, no midi whatsoever! Obviously it can’t quite compare to a full-blown midi sample library, the tracks were not only limited by the number of channels available but also by the size (around 300k). Orchestral style tracks were quite rare back then, everyone seemed to be doing dance/rave numbers. I found it interesting anyway, so thought I’d share it – anyone else agree?

The track was written over the evening of Monday/Tuesday. Therefore technically it’s really a February tune. However, well call it March because it’s only just being released. I’ve recently been upgrading some of my virtual instrument libraries with a few new additions (Albion and ProjectSAM Orchestral Essentials. I may well decided to do a comparison between the two of these for a later blog entry – should anyone show any interest (get in touch if you do). They are both playing to a similar market.

I also decided to try the Sample Logic “Try Pack” for $5. Well worth the money should you have the full version of Native Instruments Kontakt 4 or 5 at your disposal! This was of course nothing to do with the 50% off Sample Logic deal that DV247 is available until March 11th! Oh no! 🙂 Hopefully you can be expecting a few more tracks from me soon. I will try to change my pace from my usual more “reflective” style for a bit. I will get plenty of chance to revisit this territory soon when my “happy families” duo (“Family Portrait” and “Dad”) hit later in the year.

Meanwhile, to end on a somewhat cool musical note and being the Bond music fan I am – how much fun is this?