andrewducker (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
andrewducker) wrote2002-07-06 10:39 pm
andrewducker) wrote2002-07-06 10:39 pm
Making Movies
I spent today with Erin on the set of a music video.
Up at 6am. Well, technically, awake at 6am to kick Erin off to the shower, then awake at 5 past to try again, then awake at 6:25 to panic at her. Following that, we get the 7:15 train to Glasgow, where the video for the first single by new scottish pop songstress Redd is being made.
I ought to admit, here, that pop music really isn't my thing generally. I find most of it bland and unexciting. There are occasional standouts that actually seem to have some emotion or thought behind them, or even some music talent, but generally I'm not enthused. Redd's song "What you need" is therefore not something I'd be investing in usually. However, the people involved all seem nice, I've never seen a music video being made, and Erin would like my moral support (she's listed as "Producer" for it, which mostly seems to mean "being the organised one". She hashad some creative input, but the directorial reins are firmly in the hands of Sascha, half of the team that are behind Redd). If you actually want to know a bit about her, go here and look about a bit. The site's Flash heavy, which may be a bit offputting to you puritans and users of obscure operating systems.
Sascha's decided to hire a studio to make this video, to ensure it looks professional. Luckily Scottish Television is nearby and very friendly towards scottish acts, so they do him a good deal, meaning that he got the studio, lighting engineers, cameraman, sound engineer, focus puller and production liason all for a very reasonable price.
Anyway, we arrive at 8:00, running about 30 minutes behind our original schedule, to find that very few people are there ahead of us. Redd's made it, as has the production person, Gill. She's apparently also been up until 6, and wasn't happy to be listening to the radio in the shower and hear the words "Radio Clyde, with you all through the night." I'm certainyl in agreement that 6am is a time that should only be seen when you're on your way to bed. Sascha isn't there when we arrive, but pulls in mere minutes after us. Erin and I had been up until late, putting together a shot list (a process which consisted of her doing all the thinking and me doing all the typing), and she heads off to tweak it with him and produce final versions. While she's doing this, I get to meet the Production Assistant (Lorna) and Gill properly. I tell them that I'm happy to do anything if I can be useful and am given my first vital mission - Go down to the bakers at 9am and pick up the loads of bacon rolls and potato scones that are there for the crews breakfast.
Over the next 2 minutes the rest of the crew and cast arrive and there's repeated rounds of "Andy, meet A, B C and D". I quickly lose track of both everyone's names and their jobs, but am determined to pick it all up over the course of the day - after all, what else do I have to do? I swiftly endear myself to absolutely everyone by being responsible for breakfast and hading out tolls to people. Sascha and John (Cameraman) get involved in lengthy discussions in the corner of the room, so I amuse myself by chatting to the crew (as usual the crew is both less 'creative' than the director/cast and more fun - a bunch of solid down to earth people who enjoy working in the industry, but aren't so emotionally attached to any one project that they incur the high stress levels the cast/director does. Each one of them seems to be ultra-competent about the workings of their equipment and has smoothly got it all set up, ready to go whenever the creative types finish fussing. They seem to have an endless supply of amusing stories about the company, the previous jobs they've done and the history of tv in Scotland, and I gladly avoid talking myself. I give the sound guy a hand by going through his sound track sheet and marrying up the tracks to the shot sheet, so that he can easily find the right bit of music for any particular shot - this kind of little favour seems to go down very well.
A little later I talk to Jamie, who is the main A&R person for Glasgow Records, who manage Redd. He's friendly and chatty, knows a lot about the music industry and is once again happy to ramble on at a moments notice, so I happily pump him for information about how he got into the business and what exactly is involved in getting a record onto the air and into the charts. Around this time (10:30), filming finally starts, and I watch them go through their paces. The plan for the video is to break it down into 4 second shots, in a variety of costumes, and then stitch it all together in the editing suite. They've taken the spreadsheet Erin and I created and ordered it by costume, gotten Redd into her first outfit and lot of makeup and she's now ready to go. Sascha has been very smart and produced a 2 minute loop of each 4 seconds of music, so that they can just stick on the 'soundtrack' for each shot and then do the take repeatedly without having to stop and start. The first line is "No-one else can love you like I can" and Redd repeats this numerous times in slightly different poses, giving different looks, while Sascha stares at the monitor, occasonally offering advice to Redd about what to try next. When he thinks that he's got the right one (or enough to choose from) he shouts "Cut" and then set up the next shot/track. It's a system that seems to work very well, and indeed, only a half hour later we've got 18 of the 37 shots finished and are ready for lunch. It's all going according to plan, if not a little faster.
One of the great things about working in this kind of industry is the free food - there's a constant stream of free tea, coffee, chocolate biscuits, etc. as well as free lunches from a local takeaway. I was nominated to collect lunch orders, and dutifully get everyone's choices. Most people choose Pizza of some kind of another - I decide to resist the delights of Chicken, Mushroom and Honey Glazed Bacon Pizza and go for the Penne Carbonara instead. Over lunch I chat to the crew a bit more, and it all passes very quickly.
After lunch I hang about with Jay P, the tall, black, bedreaded coreographer. He's very amusing to talk to, and does a mean Mace Windu impression (including saying "May the Force be with you, Brother.") and the twin male models that are forming part of the scenery. They're both good looking (if you like 6-packs and youthful smiles), but surprisingly good fun, generous and bouncy. They're looking forward to their parts later on, but nervous about the whole thing. They've got a couple of outfits, including one topless one (causing Erin to nearly swoon in delight) and one all white ensemble, causing them to almost fade into the background (the walls and floor are all covered in white fabric, which gives the whole scene a slight surreal "floating in space" look reminiscent of New Romantic era videos). Around this time two female dancers appear. They aren't on until the very end, when they're going to be dancing behind Redd, but have to get makeup, etc. done. The twins decide that even when their bit is done, they're going to hang around to watch the dancers and "pick up some tips". Ahem.
Around this time I started to fade significantly, my lack of sleep catching up on me, so I sloped off into the corner and read for a bit, occasionaly watching the proceedings on the large LCD TV that's been set up to allow people to watch what the camera is doing. I return to watch the closing dance number (the final 40 seconds of the song), which is shot 5 or 6 times, so that it can be cut in close up, medium shot, with dancers, without dancers, with dancers and models (the twins are particularly happy about this change in plans), without Redd singing, etc. The whole thing winds up at 6:10 pm, only slightly over schedule (6:00 was our planned wrap time), we share 2 bottles of champagne between us, and head off.
The whole thing has run more smoothly than any shoot Erin's done, and she bemoans the difficulties that come with working with amateurs, and how the professionals at STV were absolutely fantastic in comparison. She's still completely wired at this point, so we stop off for a drink in an Australian theme pub, before she suddenly deflates and we head for home. She falls apart fairly quickly, and by the time we reach Stirling I have to try hard to get her back to consciousness. We stagger up the stairs on our return and she collapes into bed, instructing me to defrost some chicken, so she can get up and cook it "in a minute." Needless to say she's been snoring from that point on (2 hours ago), with no sign of her actually waking up to eat anything.
I discover that my email program (The Bat) has managed to knacker itself for the first time in about 3 years, so I spent half an hour copying files back and forth before unfucking it, and then start typing this up (pausing only to make myself beans on toast with a couple of fried eggs, the simplest thing I can think of to cook).
Which brings me 1681 words later, to this point, where I'm going to grab my copy of Nobilis and read for 10 minutes, before snoring loudly until at least 8pm (when I have to wake Erin up so that she can interview some Golfer about something or other).
Side thought - when I was in school, 500 word essays seemed insurmountable. As a student, 1000 words seemed like a lot. Nowadays, I seem to be able to ramble on for 1800 words without even thinking about it. I don't know if I've just got more comfortable with writing, or if the fact that I actively enjoy scribing my random thoughts is the factor. Something to think about tomorrow.
Night all, sleep well.
Up at 6am. Well, technically, awake at 6am to kick Erin off to the shower, then awake at 5 past to try again, then awake at 6:25 to panic at her. Following that, we get the 7:15 train to Glasgow, where the video for the first single by new scottish pop songstress Redd is being made.
I ought to admit, here, that pop music really isn't my thing generally. I find most of it bland and unexciting. There are occasional standouts that actually seem to have some emotion or thought behind them, or even some music talent, but generally I'm not enthused. Redd's song "What you need" is therefore not something I'd be investing in usually. However, the people involved all seem nice, I've never seen a music video being made, and Erin would like my moral support (she's listed as "Producer" for it, which mostly seems to mean "being the organised one". She hashad some creative input, but the directorial reins are firmly in the hands of Sascha, half of the team that are behind Redd). If you actually want to know a bit about her, go here and look about a bit. The site's Flash heavy, which may be a bit offputting to you puritans and users of obscure operating systems.
Sascha's decided to hire a studio to make this video, to ensure it looks professional. Luckily Scottish Television is nearby and very friendly towards scottish acts, so they do him a good deal, meaning that he got the studio, lighting engineers, cameraman, sound engineer, focus puller and production liason all for a very reasonable price.
Anyway, we arrive at 8:00, running about 30 minutes behind our original schedule, to find that very few people are there ahead of us. Redd's made it, as has the production person, Gill. She's apparently also been up until 6, and wasn't happy to be listening to the radio in the shower and hear the words "Radio Clyde, with you all through the night." I'm certainyl in agreement that 6am is a time that should only be seen when you're on your way to bed. Sascha isn't there when we arrive, but pulls in mere minutes after us. Erin and I had been up until late, putting together a shot list (a process which consisted of her doing all the thinking and me doing all the typing), and she heads off to tweak it with him and produce final versions. While she's doing this, I get to meet the Production Assistant (Lorna) and Gill properly. I tell them that I'm happy to do anything if I can be useful and am given my first vital mission - Go down to the bakers at 9am and pick up the loads of bacon rolls and potato scones that are there for the crews breakfast.
Over the next 2 minutes the rest of the crew and cast arrive and there's repeated rounds of "Andy, meet A, B C and D". I quickly lose track of both everyone's names and their jobs, but am determined to pick it all up over the course of the day - after all, what else do I have to do? I swiftly endear myself to absolutely everyone by being responsible for breakfast and hading out tolls to people. Sascha and John (Cameraman) get involved in lengthy discussions in the corner of the room, so I amuse myself by chatting to the crew (as usual the crew is both less 'creative' than the director/cast and more fun - a bunch of solid down to earth people who enjoy working in the industry, but aren't so emotionally attached to any one project that they incur the high stress levels the cast/director does. Each one of them seems to be ultra-competent about the workings of their equipment and has smoothly got it all set up, ready to go whenever the creative types finish fussing. They seem to have an endless supply of amusing stories about the company, the previous jobs they've done and the history of tv in Scotland, and I gladly avoid talking myself. I give the sound guy a hand by going through his sound track sheet and marrying up the tracks to the shot sheet, so that he can easily find the right bit of music for any particular shot - this kind of little favour seems to go down very well.
A little later I talk to Jamie, who is the main A&R person for Glasgow Records, who manage Redd. He's friendly and chatty, knows a lot about the music industry and is once again happy to ramble on at a moments notice, so I happily pump him for information about how he got into the business and what exactly is involved in getting a record onto the air and into the charts. Around this time (10:30), filming finally starts, and I watch them go through their paces. The plan for the video is to break it down into 4 second shots, in a variety of costumes, and then stitch it all together in the editing suite. They've taken the spreadsheet Erin and I created and ordered it by costume, gotten Redd into her first outfit and lot of makeup and she's now ready to go. Sascha has been very smart and produced a 2 minute loop of each 4 seconds of music, so that they can just stick on the 'soundtrack' for each shot and then do the take repeatedly without having to stop and start. The first line is "No-one else can love you like I can" and Redd repeats this numerous times in slightly different poses, giving different looks, while Sascha stares at the monitor, occasonally offering advice to Redd about what to try next. When he thinks that he's got the right one (or enough to choose from) he shouts "Cut" and then set up the next shot/track. It's a system that seems to work very well, and indeed, only a half hour later we've got 18 of the 37 shots finished and are ready for lunch. It's all going according to plan, if not a little faster.
One of the great things about working in this kind of industry is the free food - there's a constant stream of free tea, coffee, chocolate biscuits, etc. as well as free lunches from a local takeaway. I was nominated to collect lunch orders, and dutifully get everyone's choices. Most people choose Pizza of some kind of another - I decide to resist the delights of Chicken, Mushroom and Honey Glazed Bacon Pizza and go for the Penne Carbonara instead. Over lunch I chat to the crew a bit more, and it all passes very quickly.
After lunch I hang about with Jay P, the tall, black, bedreaded coreographer. He's very amusing to talk to, and does a mean Mace Windu impression (including saying "May the Force be with you, Brother.") and the twin male models that are forming part of the scenery. They're both good looking (if you like 6-packs and youthful smiles), but surprisingly good fun, generous and bouncy. They're looking forward to their parts later on, but nervous about the whole thing. They've got a couple of outfits, including one topless one (causing Erin to nearly swoon in delight) and one all white ensemble, causing them to almost fade into the background (the walls and floor are all covered in white fabric, which gives the whole scene a slight surreal "floating in space" look reminiscent of New Romantic era videos). Around this time two female dancers appear. They aren't on until the very end, when they're going to be dancing behind Redd, but have to get makeup, etc. done. The twins decide that even when their bit is done, they're going to hang around to watch the dancers and "pick up some tips". Ahem.
Around this time I started to fade significantly, my lack of sleep catching up on me, so I sloped off into the corner and read for a bit, occasionaly watching the proceedings on the large LCD TV that's been set up to allow people to watch what the camera is doing. I return to watch the closing dance number (the final 40 seconds of the song), which is shot 5 or 6 times, so that it can be cut in close up, medium shot, with dancers, without dancers, with dancers and models (the twins are particularly happy about this change in plans), without Redd singing, etc. The whole thing winds up at 6:10 pm, only slightly over schedule (6:00 was our planned wrap time), we share 2 bottles of champagne between us, and head off.
The whole thing has run more smoothly than any shoot Erin's done, and she bemoans the difficulties that come with working with amateurs, and how the professionals at STV were absolutely fantastic in comparison. She's still completely wired at this point, so we stop off for a drink in an Australian theme pub, before she suddenly deflates and we head for home. She falls apart fairly quickly, and by the time we reach Stirling I have to try hard to get her back to consciousness. We stagger up the stairs on our return and she collapes into bed, instructing me to defrost some chicken, so she can get up and cook it "in a minute." Needless to say she's been snoring from that point on (2 hours ago), with no sign of her actually waking up to eat anything.
I discover that my email program (The Bat) has managed to knacker itself for the first time in about 3 years, so I spent half an hour copying files back and forth before unfucking it, and then start typing this up (pausing only to make myself beans on toast with a couple of fried eggs, the simplest thing I can think of to cook).
Which brings me 1681 words later, to this point, where I'm going to grab my copy of Nobilis and read for 10 minutes, before snoring loudly until at least 8pm (when I have to wake Erin up so that she can interview some Golfer about something or other).
Side thought - when I was in school, 500 word essays seemed insurmountable. As a student, 1000 words seemed like a lot. Nowadays, I seem to be able to ramble on for 1800 words without even thinking about it. I don't know if I've just got more comfortable with writing, or if the fact that I actively enjoy scribing my random thoughts is the factor. Something to think about tomorrow.
Night all, sleep well.
I particularly liked the bit....