The Geek Beat: Celluloid Saturdays - The End!

It's The End Of This Blog As We Know It...

(and I feel rough)

Hey all and welcome to this week's blog. It was a late night and early morning so I'll be keeping The Geek Beat tighter than a Peaky Blinder short back and sides today. A month or so ago I mentioned that the next edition of Celluloid Saturday would be the last - and so it has come to pass. I do have one or two projects lined up for later in the summer but I'll blog about those as and when. In the meantime, I've been busy beavering away to make sure that the final filmmaking blog of mine (at least for the present) has a few interesting tidbits to say thank you for reading along - I know out of all my blogs it's perhaps the least interesting so if you've been along for the ride, this is for you. 

Celluloid Saturdays started out as a lazy excuse to reprint an older filmmaking blog and give myself a weekend off from blogging once in a while - usually though I'd end up writing just as much as usual around the older blog. Today marks the final reprint of that older material; the last blog that I completed as a filmmaking noob. Without any further ado, let's have it:

Wednesday, 13 November 2013

Week 7

A hearty welcome to the final entry in my weekly blog; throughout the course of the last seven weeks you have softly trodden through the forest of my thoughts, frolicked in the silver-flecked stream that is my mind’s musings and made daisy chains upon the grassy plains of rumination. Now youngling, ‘tis time for you to go home. All that remains is for me to bid you a fond farewell.

Only first we have to talk about Health and Safety.

Oh yes, no blog is complete without it. Alongside the equally maligned entity that is Political Correctness, Health and Safety usually gets mauled by Joe Q. Average as being the chief cause of all of the world’s ills when in actual fact people should be pointing fingers at the Prime Minister and his implacable band of Lizard People. I on the other hand happen to believe that Health and Safety plays an important role. Part of this could be that one day I might just want to work for myself, maybe even employ or collaborate with others and being responsible for the welfare of others is a big deal.

Especially when they can sue you...

Like most aspects of Health and Safety, monitoring and regulating the welfare of others primarily comes down to common sense. A small amount of thought preceding a shoot can easily reduce any significant risks and lower the risks involved for everybody. As part of my day job I’ve had to fill in Risk Assessment forms before (haven’t we all? They’re like death and taxes) and whilst they often elicit a groan from the person charged with scribing such documents, their importance cannot be denied. Whether by alerting the assessor to potential new risks or forcing them to consider controls for ones that are already apparent, the purpose of a risk assessment is undeniably useful. That’s why they are standard practice across the media production industry.

For me, the application of controls is the simpler part of the process. Once I’ve figured out what the actual hazard is, determining an effective precaution is relatively simple; the part that I find tricky is deciding which hazards stand a real chance of occurring- an example being the zoo/wildlife park scenario that we discussed in class. I wouldn’t in a million years have thought about the possibility of a pregnant woman causing the animals to act differently. I suppose what I’m saying is that it isn’t possible to adequately assess every discernible risk although that in itself doesn’t negate the purpose of the Risk Assessment itself.

I did find an interesting form online that outlined the functions of different roles within a production company with regards to Health and Safety. Whilst most of the responsibility falls on the shoulders of the Producer or whoever heads up the organisation, there is a whole host of duties that cascade right down to the least experienced member of the team such as ensuring they have adequate protective gear or taking reasonable care of themselves. That in itself is pretty daunting. It makes sense though.

Anyway. Random Thoughts over.

Thanks for tuning in for the last few weeks. Hope you’ve enjoyed it.

Excelsior!

The Noob

That's right - my final blog was on Health and Safety. Talk about exciting! But don't worry dear reader: I'm not going to leave you like that: it may be the last Celluloid Saturday (yes, I'm aware that today is Sunday) and I may be seriously sleep deprived but I'm not going to say farewell like this. Instead I'm going to leave you with three videos that give you a taste of my filmmaking experiences. I've tried to choose a range; one was a large group collaboration that that I produced and later edited; another was a team effort with just myself and the talented Mr Andy Evans; the other one is all me. One is action; one is a music video; the other is a kind of human interest piece. One is old, one is newish and one is getting its world premiere right here, right now.

I suppose what I'm trying to say is that they're all different in lots of ways. Just like people are different really, only the films don't bomb each other just because they don't look the same. Or maybe they do. Did I say I was sleep deprived?

The point then, is to give you, dear reader a slice of my moviemaking pie, from past to present... and leave you then to wander into that great blue yonder. (Figuratively, not literally; it's raining outside and I'm not really dressed for it.)

Here we go then:

Film 1: *World Premiere* Tokyo Flash Rogue Advert

This one is brand new. The footage is actually pretty old - I shot it with a bunch of student filmmakers and apart from designing and storyboarding the concept, played no further part in its completion apart from at a production level. O the night of the shoot I was so hands-off I even got to play one of the ninjas! Eventually, I got a hold of the rushes and decided to have a go at recutting it with the aim of making it look closer to my original intentions. 

Actually, that's a fib. I just wanted to have a go at editing a fight scene. If you only watch one of the vids, watch this one. Enjoy.

Film 2: Alexandra Jayne's I Won't Break

Shot a couple of months ago in Worcester and released last month - this was a collaboration with Andy Evans and the very talented Alexandra Jayne. It's a simple setup - much simpler than Troubadour, our last creation together. Nuff' said. Enjoy.

Film 3: Every Blade of Grass: The Nick Amos Story

I don't do everything in black and white. Honestly, I'm not some try-hard auteur who does it for the sake of it. This film proves it. It's colour and was completed back when I was still studying. I just like it because the legendary Nick Amos, star interviewee gives a great account of life in the lower leagues of the sport as well as just being really interesting to listen to. It's a bit rough around the edges but this was very much a solo project and I was still learning back then so back right off man! Oh, for some reason the sound doesn't work well if you're listening to this on an iPhone. So there.

Anyway, hope you liked them. I'm of to catch some Zzzzzs. And thus ends the mighty saga of Celluloid Saturdays, at least for a little while. I'll be back next week to sitter on about something else. So long.

That's all from The Geek Beat this week folks. This has been a Vertigo production.

Head back this way next week for something else... maybe an update on The ANA Project.

Until then be sure to follow me @VertigoDC but know that this aggression will not stand, man. Later Potatoes.