George Wing Television Blog

Today we had a masterclass with the British award-winning director (film and TV) and screenwriter Farren Blackburn. Blackburn won, in 2012, the BAFTA TV award for Best Drama Series for "The Fades", a British supernatural drama TV series. Thos opened doors in America for him. He then went to direct 2 episodes of "Daredevil" for Marvel/Netflix, he was the previous lead director on "The Interceptor" for the BBC. He has also been involved in the successful crime series "Luther", the adventure series and episodes of "Doctor Who"including one of their Christmas specials. In the beginning, film making started off as a dream and he didn't think too much about it realistically,  but decided in the end to take a master degree in Film at Bournmouth University. When finished, he went on to becoming a trainee on a two-year contract with BBC, where he would meet new contacts and job shadow people. When the two years as a trainee was over ...

The Ladykillers is a classic black comedy; a sweet little old lady, alone in her house, is pitted against a gang of criminal misfits who will stop at nothing… Posing as amateur musicians, Professor Marcus and his gang rent rooms in the lopsided house of sweet but strict Mrs Wilberforce. The villains plot to involve her unwittingly in Marcus’s brilliantly conceived heist. The police are left stumped but Mrs Wilberforce becomes wise to their ruse after One Round spills the money. Marcus concludes that there is only one way to keep the old lady quiet….. Mrs Wilberforce is the victim in all of this. After posing an advertisement letting rooms in her lopsided old house, she finds herself bombarded with a group of criminal masterminds, who she believes at first, to be musicians. She soon becomes wise to their ruse, and looks to do the right thing; hand them into the police. But unknowingly, she was a vital element to the robbery. Marcus is the leader of the pack. The robbery is his devi...

Sound Design What is sound design The sound designer Sound layers: Sync, FX, ADX, Music, Atoms Point Blanc Clip Footsteps continuous even in cuts  Carries on until he bursts through the door Builds tension  Sound replicates a ticking clock/heartbeat. Doesn't speed up but almost sounds as though it does.  Sound design in film and television essentially describes the process of capturing, layering and mixing of individual sound elements to create one single Soundtrack for the project.  Just like you shoot and edit the image as part of a project, you shoot and edit the sound. Sound design occurs at all stages of the production, but it is essentially a post-production stage. Originally, all sound editing of a film was completed by a Sound Editor or a team of sound editors.  In the 1970s, demand for more complex sound editing was rising.  Walter Merch- First to get credit for sound design on Apocalypse Now This is the end song...

  Scene 2 Extreme Close Up Shot of Louis opening door with his hand POV of Louis looking at all the men. Tracking across them Marcus walks in and closes door ECU of door shutting ECU of opening and dropping needle on record (fast Cut) Shot of Marcus composing music and smiling  Hitchcock-camera not camera.  Tracking shot around room of violins not being payed  shot of record spinning Close up of Louis “it makes no sense” Marcus lying on the bed.  Shot of Louis with major in background laughing Louis turns his head to stop him- cut to shot from behind Major from Louis POV shot from when Louis stops Major Laughing Major POV of Louis face. Louis turns back to Marcus Shot of Mrs. Wilberforce coming up the stairs Cuts to them still talking  Shot of knock at the door ( Hitchcock audience ahead of characters ) ECU shot of Marcus surprised face and Louis surprised face Run to get instruments pick up Louis puts violin ...

Writing the script was also proven to be quite difficult. I couldn't find a copy of the original film script online, only the Coen Brothers' adaptation. This meant the process was more lengthy, but did mean I know every single detail of the script, which his good to know when directing. I wanted my scenes to flow well together so the whole ilm doesn't look scattered. I knew that directing the robbery scene would be unrealistic on my budget. The first scene where Alec Guinness (Marcus) has his Silhouette at the door is iconic and something I would like to re-create in my own directors style. The scene where the characters all enter individually is unnecessary so I felt it best to skip ahead to when they all meet in the bedroom together, and Louis questions Marcus' plan. After that they will talk about the robbery and Mrs Wilberforce's involvement. The final couple of scenes I chose to do was then they all arrive back at the house and see that the case has arrived ful...

For this unit I’ve chosen a few scenes from Alexandre Mackendrick's film ‘The LadyKillers’. The film is a classic black comedy; a sweet little old lady, alone in her house, is pitted against a gang of criminal misfits who will stop at nothing… Posing as amateur musicians, Professor Marcus and his gang rent rooms in the lopsided house of sweet but strict Mrs Wilberforce. The villains plot to involve her unwittingly in Marcus’s brilliantly conceived heist. The police are left stumped but Mrs Wilberforce becomes wise to their ruse after One Round spills the money. Marcus concludes that there is only one way to keep the old lady quiet… In the first scene Marcus arrives at Mrs Wilberforce's house. The build up of tension here is crucial to the scene. Marcus explains how he and his group of 'musicians' are looking for a room to let for them to stay and recite their string quartette. Although we are made suspicious of Professor Marcus' true intentions in this scene, i...

When I first took on this project, I knew casting would be an issue. I was required to get 5 males and one elderly female. In my interpretation I wanted to make some of the male cast younger. My reasoning behind this was that I felt someone younger would not have the same kind of respect for Mrs Wilberforce as someone who is more mature would. Their impression of her is a dotty old lady, who they can pull the wool over her eyes. I also wanted to portray them as not being violent thugs, but nymph young people who are trying to find an easy way to get money, but fail dramatically. I sorted actors who wanted to take part as it is something to put on their showreel, and had worked with them before so was pretty confident they will be able to pull the roles off. However, after speaking to Simon, I realised that it is not my job to re-cast. This unit is about directing, not re-writing, so it would make more sense to have an older cast of the ages of those in the original film. I then...

Editing is about storytelling. Its important to know about editing before filming because you need to know what to film and how it will work in the edit. The very first narrative film to use editing s a storytelling device was The Great Trap Robbery.  The language of film editing has developed over the years, refining every generation. Up to the early 2000's, all films were edited together using a machine called a Steenbeck, splicing the film together with sellotape. Making a single cut could take a few minutes, which meant every cut had to make a difference. It taught you the economics of storytelling. Though there are exceptions, if you look at the film from before the 1990s, there is always a lot less  cutting in them. The physical process meant films were 'slower' in pace. In the digital age there are more cuts and a lot faster pace. Video Linear editing meant placing one shot after the other. You would record one, then record the one next to it. You cannot mover ...

During todays Lesson with Ferg, we began with lighting elements. This was a very useful technical workshop when looking into three-point lighting. We started off learning the different types of film lighting, and all the variations such as: LED                                  Tungsten Fluorescent Daylight/HMI-series      Open Faced An open faced lighting fixture is used to create hard light that casts hard shadows. It is not much more than a housing and reflector for the bulb, and provides nothing in between the bulb and the subject. Fresnel A Fresnel lens is a special type of lens that is divided into concentric circles, resulting in a much thinner lens than a conventional lens of the same power. This lens evens out the light and allows for the beam to be varied from flood to spot by changing the distance between the lamp/re...

She's still, slow motion in the background. Well done flashbacks, aren't too generic. film like poe tilted camera in lift birds eye view shots narrative What is a metaphor? Traditionally in literature its a figure of speech in which a word or phrase makes an implicit, implied or hidden comparison between two things that appear unrelated but share come common characteristics. Shakespeare's "all the worlds a stage" A creative means to simulate audience by getting them to think in new ways. Allegory - An extended or complex metaphor, or connected series of metaphors. Often used as a homage or to a related show or film, or writer/directors' inspirations. Alien was a successful film. It wasn't util years after that film buffs started looking into it. They came up with the idea that there is an allegory for things like the fear of sexual reproduction and motherhood. Plays on thee metaphors to convey the subtext. Analogy - A l...

During todays workshop we were based in the studio. Steve began the lesson by showing us a page go script. This script at first seems like very basic dialogue, between a male and female character. When reading it at first it was clear the man had been in trouble at work, and forced to resign/fired. My first impressions of this were that its pat of a script and it tells only part of a story. However, its storytelling is much more complex than it would first have appeared. We spent a fair bit of time going through the script with Steve, and form hints in the dialogue, we worked out as a group there is much more to it than that. We worked out that the two characters were previously in a relationship before. The female seems to be very moral, and thinks what the male did was wrong. Although its not guaranteed, we came to the conclusion that they both work for a tech firm and the male was quite high up, and possibly brought out by a bigger company. In the script she says "no publicity?...

Today was our first Lecturre with Steve Finn. We were introduced with a clip "Moons Fire" from Eastender; a complex scene he directed.  Throughout the lesson we watched several clips: "Le deuxième souffle" Dir: Jean-Pierre Melville, 1966 (Master shot) "How Alfred Hitchcock Blocks A Scene" YouTube: Nerdwriter1 (Blocking) "Pickpocket" Dir: Robert Bresson, 1959 (Choreographed movement) "A Man Escaped" Dir: Robert Bresson, 1956 (What's not shot?) Preparation is key for directing to make a shoot work. Steve explained that he will have 4 weeks of prep before a shoot. The director works through all the departments and work through each department working up to the block of the scenes and shoot and then on the forth week, the entire crew meet together and the director will talk through the schedule and what he is going to shoot and how.  Directing is about being able to see the entire production/scene in your head as it will be ...