I am Every Dead Thing - Pre Shoot and Introductions

Greetings all.

I was planning to write a daily blog about my film shoot every day that we filmed, but that, like a lot of the film, went to shit pretty quickly. So here are some retroactive blogs and some pretty pictures to stare at.

For those of you who don't know, I made a film. Well I specifically wrote and directed one. It's called "I am Every Dead Thing" and is a zombie film centered around a punk band caught up in zombie madness. The film shot over 5 days, which was less than we needed really, but it all turned out alright (sort of.)

Before I start on the shooting days I want to show you some of the prep work.

We had to provide costume for 18 extras. A trip to Primark later we had 18 tshirts. A pair of scissors and a Kirstie later we had 18 torn up tshirts. So what else did they need?



BLOOD!



galleons of the stuff



Applied via spray bottle, very technical.



I looked like I was wearing one of the tshirts.



Until I tried to pose like I was...



We also made some guts. They looked fucking awesome. (more about them later.)


Anyway - Introductions

These are the wonderful cast and crew that helped make this film. I'd like to say a huge thank you to any of you reading this, you all helped to make something I'd written into a reality and none of it was possible without you.

In no paticular order -



The main cast. Left to right we have Neal Ward, Ryan Morwood, Chris Butler and Charlie Rich



Here they are in charater. Left to right we have Mike, Dick, Johnny and December



Ashleigh Dunn - The producer. - She got us everything needed to make a film, created a schedule (might as well not have bothered...) and kept us well fed throughout.




Pamela Edington - Cinematographer. She made the camera turn on and put lights in places.



Matt Kay - Sound Design. - He recorded people talking and himself taking a piss.



Natalie Brown - Art Director. - She directed the art and put things in places so they looked nice.



Ben Carpendale - Editor. - He put up with me and is currently trying to sort out the mess we put on tape.



Kirstie Laker - Special Effects Make Up/Assisstant Art Director/Awesome. - She made people into the undead, made gorey stuff happen and kept Charlie looking pretty.

AND

Amy Blood - Assisstant Director. - She attempted to keep us on schedule, which was a pointless task and kept me as sane as possible.



Andy Moss - Assisstant Producer. - He Ass proded, attempted to do continuity and made the clapper board go clap before I yelled action.


Andy Moore - Assisstant Sound. - He turned Matt on and off a lot and moaned a lot more.



Kim Vann - Assisstant Camera. - He held lights in places and made the camera turn on when Pam was unable to.

Oh yeah...


Me - Jonniebum - Director/Writer. I wrote things and made people say them, then told people where to stand and where to run if they had to.

I also want a shot of all the equipment we used, but that ended up not happening. Basicly take the equipment from my last post, add another camera, a set of dedos, a kinoflow, a polecat and some other shit and you have what we needed to make this all happen.

NEXT TIME - We actually start making a film, we fake a gig and fill (kind of...) town centre with the walking dead.

Film Shoot - A blog full of photos

Greetings!

My Tuesday consisted of a film shoot for what's known as a "Fast Track" project. Basicly a 90 second film made in about 2-3 weeks from brief to showing. The brief was "Safe" with my group getting "A believable long term relationship in an extreme situation" as an added specialization.

The whole thing ended up being an exercise in dealing with pretty much everything going wrong, but looking back on it, it wasn't as bad as it seemed at the time and hopefully the magic of editing can save the film.

But on to the main event. This shoot has been documented for you all in the form of photographs, so enjoy =].

Equipment



This is all the camera and lighting based stuff - a Sony HDVZ1 Camera, a Tripod, 3 Battery Powered Lights, a Reflector and some Blue Gells.



And this is all the Sound stuff - a Marantz, a Boom mic, a Boom Mic Pole, a Mixer and assorted cables/headphones. Also Matt's arm which was necessary to sound recording, since it was him that did it.

Pre-Shoot

We all converged at Ashleigh's flat, seeing as it overlooked our filming location - Endcliffe Park.



Pam was excited as ever.



While we waited for one actor to arise from bed, and to see if the other was actually going to show up, Pam decided to play around with the camera.



And here she is again, this time telling Mike to get a move on. I don't know why Matt was so happy about the situation.

The Shoot



Matt prepares to record sound - and shit himself by the look on his face.



We kept all the equipment very neat and tidy.



Pam sets up a shot.



Matt looks like a wounded puppy. I'm going to assume it's because he had so little sound to record in this scene, he clearly fucking loves sound.



Mike showed up at last. Seen here using a light that made absolutely no difference to the shot.



At this point an old woman had walked into shot, and kept stopping and staring at us for no reason. Matt found this scary, although Kate obviously found it funny.

At this point we broke for lunch. I have no photos of this, but I assure you it was a tasty lunch.



Matt thinks about recording a tree.



Ashleigh attempts to find out where Kate went after lunch, and Nat hides from the camera.



I look depressed. Also have no idea what's going on with my leg.



ACTION SHOT of Kate and Ashleigh running for their lives!



They ran through dog shit, Pam and I found it hilarious.



Pam continues to film, even in the face of a Nuclear explosion.



Ashleigh and Kate exhausted after I made them run up a hill and scramble over a log.



Mike appears to have fallen asleep here. Also Matt looks really tiny.



Pam films a tree. It's acting was very wooden.



Pam, Nat (finally caught on camera) and myself pretend to give a shit what the shot looks like for the sake of a photo.



Matt, having heard a sound he must record, races into action!



Bright lights and eyes don't mix well.



Mike looking slightly camp.



Kate doing her best "Blair Witch" style acting.



At this point we all just wanted to go home. Or die, I don't think anyone was that fussy.

And that's when we gave up on taking photos. In fact we gave up on the shoot as a whole and retired to Asleigh's for tea.

Then we had to deal with a bunch of stuff that went wrong in relation to getting the equipment back. Good times.

BONUS PHOTO -



An attempt at make up from Kate's photo shoot on Thursday, went alright considering none of us knew what we were doing.


Well hope that was interesting for someone out there. I should really go to bed now.

Farewell =]

Coded Meditation

University Work

As anyone reading this is likely to be aware of, I study "Film and Media Production" Ba Hons at Sheffield Hallam University.

This course leads to me having to create varied pieces of work, here are some of my favourite pieces I have created so far.

ZOMBIE NATION



(Forgive the poor quality Youtube link. I uploaded it there a while ago and have since lost the original file.)

This piece was whats called on my course a "Mini Project." This basicly means we had only one day to film footage, record sound and edit both into a workable film. We had to incorporate Moving Image, Non-synched Sound and Photography into the piece and its theme was "Something You Are Passionate About."

We chose this idea due to its comedic premise, meaning it would not be as stressful to make as other films, remaining fun even under the preassure and because it would be easier to cover up the mistakes likely to happen in a one day shoot/edit.

It stands as the most fun I have had on a project yet, and while it isn't great, it did recieve a First when marked.

The crew were:

Director: Jonathon Neill
Cinematographer: Tuesday Holland
Photorapher: Mark Winter
Sound Recordist: Andrew Moore
Sound Editor: Matthew Kay
Editor: Benjamin Carpendale
Make Up Artist: Kirstie Laker

DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE



style="font-weight: bold;">The brief for this piece was "Journey." I took this idea and went with Alice's journey down the rabbit hole from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. I decided the best way to create a piece around this idea was to make an audio book version of the first chapter accompanied by sound effects.

NO DIRECTION

This is a script I wrote last year for my "Writing and Selling Screenplays" unit. I had to write the first half of an hour long pilot for a new drama series. I've uploaded the Script itself, the synopsis of the full episode, a list of characters and a summary about each one, an idea for the second episode in the series and my writer's statement, explaining why I wanted to write this script.

Download it all Here

I'm aware of a couple of flaws within it, but it remains my favourite Film/T.V script I have ever written, and it was one mark away from a first when marked.

Any feedback to any of this work is greatly appreciated.

Love you all <3