NFTS Residential- Day 6

Another great day today! We spent today looking at key skills to help give us more successful careers and learnt to build on these skills in various forms. For example, we had to 'pitch' each other to various leaders from the Academy, trying to persuade them to 'hire' us- which helped us to appreciate various different methods of communication and presentation skills. We also created a timeline of our lives, looking at what events had led us up to this point and learning how we can channel these things to direct our futures.
Besides this we also got to speak to Shola, the alumni officer at the Academy individually, discussing with him potential future career and work experience opportunities in order to get ourselves actively out there in the film industry.
We also looked at giving advice to future applicants to the Film Academy, looking at various examples of good and bad applications. One of the major things that we noticed everyone here had was a wide selection of other skills, meaning everyone was more well-rounded outside of film; the big hobbies seemed to be music and drama. Another piece of advice we came up with was to come across as more of a sociable, friendly person who's prepared to network with others (which is pretty much the whole point of the Residential). Another piece of advice was not to say "I'm really passionate about film"; the NFTS know that! The key thing was to be more specific as to why this was.
After another brief production meeting, we got to go to the first screening of first years MA Cinematography, Production Design and Animation NFTS students' short films, which used stop motion- but with real people! They made the films over the last week, creating full-sized sets in a day on the main soundstage and shooting/editing over the rest of the week. They were really interesting (and funny) to watch and gave a great idea of what to expect during a first year there.
Overall, it was a really good day- can't wait for tomorrow, when we begin shooting "French Cricket" on location!

NFTS Residential- Day 5

Had an amazing day today!
We got to go up to London today, stopping for a talk by BAFTA-nominated Producer/Writer/Director Caroline Harvey at BAFTA. She showed three of her short films (one of which starred Christopher Eccleston) and spoke about how she went about making the films and getting them noticed in Film Festivals.
After this, we visited the National Gallery to have workshops about the importance of composition, lighting and symbolism in art, studying examples of paintings in the Gallery and the ideas and techniques behind them.
Overall, an amazing (but tiring) day!

NFTS Residential- Day 4

We spent today largely working in our production group, discussing practicalities for the shoot on the weekend, and preparing ourselves for the Green Light Meeting later on in the day. While most other groups were able to go on a Location Recce, we were unable to as the owner of our Interior location was away- giving us extra time to plan our storyboard for legendary DP Brian Tufano, who will be working on our film to help realistically bring our car scene to life!
The day began with a talk on "What to look for on a Location Recce", which, although our group didn't attend one, will be useful for future reference nonetheless.
The Green Light Meeting consisted of ourselves and two other groups explaining our proposed film to a panel of professional. We included factors such as our budget, schedule and ideas for creative elements (for example, sound/music and cinematography). This helped us to get used to talking about our films and identify problems and obstacles for our films in order to help solve them. Overall, a very good day.

NFTS Residential- Day 3

We started off the day with a talk from Ian Knox on Set Etiquette. He basically gave us a run down of all the basic procedures and protocols for working on a professional shoot, including the general 'rules' for working with other crew members. These included things from reading the day's call sheet to knowing exactly how to say the word "action".
We then spent the next 5 hours working in craft workshops according to what skill we will be doing for the film; mine will be sound, so I was taught by Fraser Barber (Silent Witness, Confetti) along with NFTS graduates about how to practically use a boom pole, radio mics, a mixer etc. We spent a large part of the day working in smaller groups mastering the basics of using microphones to capture a simple two-person conversation, before working up to some of the more complex stuff (for example, using an additional radio mics to capture the sound from a long distance). One of the big things I learnt was that it's not as easy as you think- it's actually really difficult (certainly not just holding a stick)! As Fraser Barber said, holding the boom is probably one of the "most skilled job on a set".
At the end of the day, we watched three NFTS student films, followed by chances to talk to the Directors and Writers of each about the processes they went through to achieve such high standards of film- in some cases in a similarly short amount of time to what we have. We also watched another short film, the Director of which was unable to be there (he was working on a project with Sky TV).
Overall, fantastic (but very long) day!

NFTS Residential- Day 2

Great day!
We started off the day with an insight talk from Director and Actor Brian Gilbert, who spoke to us on Working with Actors (continuing on from David Morrissey's theme yesterday). It was so helpful! He gave us loads of great tips on how to get the best, most natural performances out of actors, including the idea of relating an emotion to a particular story personal to the actor and how the Director can help evoke these emotions. He also taught us how actors respond best to being given physical tasks as opposed to 'psychological maps' or other such complex devices a Director might use. According to Stanislavsky, he said, an actor feels most relaxed when performing a task as opposed to a feeling. Overall, I think it was the best talk we've had yet!
After this, we spent several hours in our production teams discussing both the tone and style of our films and the production/practical issues involved, including those of actors, locations etc. By the end of the day, we felt a lot readier than before!
This was followed by a 'sharing session' at Lane End Conference Centre (our accommodation), in which all, say, Directors, Editors, Production Designers etc from the various groups got together separately and discussed each others plans for the films- including a basic synopsis, the practical implications, production tasks and parts we were most looking forward to. I think this helped us gain confidence in talking about our own films, ready for the Green Light Meeting later on in the week!

NFTS Residential- Day 1

Awesome day today! Today I was back at the National Film and Television School for the main residential fortnight for the BFI Film Academy.
As well as discussing more about our short film (which will be shot in a few days time) in our production teams, we got to meet David Morrissey (who's had major roles in things like State of Play, Doctor Who and more recently the Governor in "The Walking Dead)! He lead a masterclass on working with actors- it was really helpful in showing all the various tricks for getting the best performance out of an actor (as a Director).
Met some more really great people also on the course, can't wait for the next two weeks!!!

NFTS Film Academy Pre-Residential- Day 2

I've had such an awesome time at the NFTS Pre-Residential weekend!
Today I got to look at some more on the film we'll be working on in three weeks time at the actual Residential and thinking about the practicalities of shooting it- we've got quite a sizeable budget as well, which is nice! We're looking at hiring rain machines, traffic lights, a stunt co-ordinator, a car... it's going to be pretty cool!
Not only that, but to top it all off we got to have a Q&A with Mike Newell, the Director of "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" and "Four Weddings and a Funeral"- which was so cool! He gave some really useful information on the Director's job, in particular in taking the role as leader and the importance of rehearsing. A really interesting guy to talk to, he's done basically every genre out there, working on a load of shorts when he began in television.
Anyway, I'm pretty exhausted now but had such an amazing weekend and met so many amazingly talented people! I literally can't wait to go back!!!