Catch up with the young women on the From Her Point of View training programme, as their time with us is nearing its end. Hear from Kerrie, one of the young women taking part in the training who is also acting as Press Agent for the films…

Week Twelve

It’s week 12 and we’re back from our Easter break straight into post-production. That’s right, both films have now wrapped! Before I tell you about what we got up to this week, I just wanted to backtrack a little to last week, where I have a little anecdote to share around my experience of filming with the Black Cherry crew, whose last day of filming fell on our Easter break from usual sessions at Knowle West Media Centre.

I’ve only ever been on a set once before in my life, as an extra, but have always been fascinated by the energy they create and have around them. It can be by its very nature a hectic and overwhelming place to be, but I personally love being around the whole atmosphere. Being on an all-female crew set is extra special in this respect: it felt very empowering! Though I wasn’t able to stay for the duration of the shoot, I learned a very important lesson: never offer to look after your sound recordist’s car keys if you know you will be leaving set in a hurry. I realised when I got home, and my dad had to drive back up to set and return the keys to Holly, Black Cherry’s producer!

Back to this week though, where Thursday evening was spent watching the rough assembly of Black Cherry. As with watching Blood Warriors’ rough assembly, it was brilliant to see the film start coming together, and everyone was full of praise and helpful critique for going forward and finishing the edit. I marvel at Redi and Sookie’s patience and how easy they have made the editing of both these films look given how frustrated I got over our foray into editing a few weeks ago. [I] thought if both rough assemblies were anything to go by, these films are going to be very special indeed!

Friday’s session saw us recall Tara’s words around film festival submissions, to give us a platform onto thinking about where both teams might want to go in terms of [their] publicity strategy moving forward. Both teams started researching potential festivals, working on crew bios, thinking about tag and log lines for their films and setting up social media pages and profiles. The films aren’t yet ready to screen, but we’ve learned it really helps to plan ahead and we’re all inspired by the potential and possibilities that are ahead!

Next time, we review and grade footage and enter a brave new world of virtual reality…

This programme is supported by Creative Skillset’s Film Skills Fund, with BFI’s Film Forever National Lottery funds.

It’s Week 11 here at From Her Point of View and filming is underway. Catch up with Kerrie, one of the young women taking part in the training who is also acting as Press Agent for the films…

Week Eleven

So, filming is underway, how cool is that? If that wasn’t enough, Blood Warriors have wrapped! Unfortunately I was unable to attend any of their shoot days but all the team tell me they had an incredible time, and if the photography from the day was anything to go by, the ladies have created something they rightly should be very proud of. Much of their filming took place down on Dean Lane at the Skate Park and beyond, where they had amazing weather!

Team Black Cherry were also setting up to film following Blood Warriors’ wrap this week. Unfortunately again I was unable to attend, this time due to my four wheels and the nature of their interior locations. I was thrilled to be attending their final day though, over our Easter break from official sessions at Knowle West. More on that next time…

With filming almost under our belts, we returned to KWMC on Thursday for a session with Tarah Judah: writer, programmer, broadcaster, and Director at Bristol’s very own 20^th Century Flicks. Over the course of her career, Tarah has served on several selection committees and juries for film festivals, including: IFFR, Berlinale Forum, Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen, CIFF, Glasgow SFF, MIFF, Revelations Film Festival Perth, Encounters Short Film Festival Bristol, MIM, and the AACTA and ATOM Awards.

Those impressive credentials in mind, Tarah was the perfect candidate to speak with us about festival submissions. As has been a trend with my participation in the programme, I know nothing about film festivals, so this session was an eye-opener and if I’m being honest, a little overwhelming!

It seems to be a really daunting task, submitting one’s work for a panel of experts to critique and decide whether they want to show it. And it is daunting, but Tarah suggested that proper research and preparation is the way to negotiate the bumpy ride to festival submission. Have a sense of your film’s identity and where you think it might belong on the circuit. Cast your net as widely as you’d like but be aware of each festival’s rules: some may not take a film that has already been screened elsewhere and so on. Costs also come into play for some, especially the bigger, more prestigious festivals.

Tied hand in hand with research is having a plan for what you want for your film which will guide where you place it: for example, some festivals have prize money, others filmmakers are drawn to for the prestige alone.

Whichever festival you choose, know that it is often a difficult road, particularly for novice filmmakers so a thick skin is a must. More than that, never lose your conviction. New talent and ideas is how this industry will keep ticking over, and it was heartening to hear Tarah speak so passionately and enthusiastically.

As well as Tarah coming to speak to us, we also watched a rough first edit of Blood Warriors! It was amazing to see the film being completed and start being polished and you’ll see after our Easter break this feeling once again abound when Black Cherry wrap…

This programme is supported by Creative Skillset’s Film Skills Fund, with BFI’s Film Forever National Lottery funds.

Week Ten in the From Her Point of View was a milestone: the two groups began shooting their films! Catch up with Kerrie, one of the young women taking part in the training who is also acting as Press Agent for the films…

Week Ten

Well folks, the week was finally upon us: time to put everything we’ve learned so far into practise and get down to the nitty gritty business of why we amazing women were all brought together: to make two short films!

Before production commenced though, Noomi [Yates, Programme Coordinator] and the team at Knowle West Media Centre held a special event: an opportunity to and network with guests – women who are at the top of their game in the film and television industries.

There was also a panel discussion exploring some of the issues female filmmakers come across.  Those of us on the From Her Point of View programme were also invited, to be a part of the networking and to highlight what the programme is all about. Unfortunately, this Press Agent was ill and unable to attend the evening, which made me sad and relieved in equal measure. I say relieved for the pure and simple reason that I’ve never been great at networking or approaching people to start conversations. I’m not great at selling myself to people or having confidence in my abilities, so I probably would have been the shy one in the corner waiting for folks to come to me; not a great series of traits at an event like this!

Having said that, I’ve learned a lot about myself and how I can be better thanks to the example set by these amazing ladies. If I’m to get to where I want to be and get my foot in the door of a creative industry like this, I need to have confidence in myself and what I’m able to do, so in that sense I’m incredibly sad to have missed the event. I’ll be brushing up my skills for any more networking events that come my way.

There wasn’t a session on Friday, due to the fact the ladies had films to shoot! Stay tuned for next week where, along with some filming updates, we had a lesson on submitting our films to festivals…

This programme is supported by Creative Skillset’s Film Skills Fund, with BFI’s Film Forever National Lottery funds.

This week’s blog from the From Her Point of View programme was a mix of some final pre-production preparation and an insight into post-production editing, with a little help from the puppetry shorts complete last week! Catch up with Kerrie, one of the young women taking part in the training who is also acting as Press Agent for the films…

Week Nine

Week Nine was a rather exciting one here at From Her Point Of View, in that the ladies are very nearly ready to begin shooting their films! Initial auditions for both films have been held, with callbacks and more to come.

I was thrilled to see that the Blood Warriors production crew had such an amazing response to advertising their auditions: there were upwards of twenty young women of all different looks and personalities from different backgrounds and with different skillsets. Myself, Ellie and Rosa  all remarked how surreal but brilliant it was that somewhere in this room Blood Warriors would find their three leading ladies.

The auditions felt pretty relaxed, using some of the techniques Esther had taught us about Intention and Obstacle, but tying these in with games and scenarios to see how the actors interact with one another – important given that Rosa’s film [Blood Warriors] has a central three-way friendship that underpins it. I was blown away by the level of talent and rather sad I wasn’t able to attend call-backs!

The auditions process for Black Cherry was much more intimate: involving a read through of Kam’s script and being asked a few questions, all on film. The auditions I attended were brilliant, but I think it was decided that they needed more time to focus on finding their leads, specifically [the character of] Ange. That in mind, more auditions were pencilled in for this evening

Now with initial auditions out of the way, Thursday’s session involved the final nuts and bolts of pre-production prep: shooting dates were locked in for both films, shot lists and storyboards finalised, call sheets [were] put together. Blood Warriors had sorted out their location for their first day of shooting and were busy putting together an event to publish on social media to attract extras for the crowds. Black Cherry were also coming together to go through their next steps ahead of shooting, including catching up on where things stood in relation to sets, costume and locations, before heading off to meet more of their prospective cast members and audition them!

Friday’s workshop saw us reunite with all the puppet brilliance we’d created last week, to have a go at editing! We had to [look through] every single piece of footage, known as rushes, find the shots we liked best, and edit them into a unique film. This was probably the only time in the history of the course so far that I found the workshop difficult, given that I personally found the software really fiddly and intricate to use that by the end I hadn’t produced anything I was happy sharing with the group. That being said, I did enjoy learning about the process and will practise more in future.

This programme is supported by Creative Skillset’s Film Skills Fund, with BFI’s Film Forever National Lottery funds.

This week’s blog from the From Her Point of View programme features a lesson in puppetry: both the creative scope it can lend to a project and practical puppet making techniques.  Catch up with Kerrie, one of the young women taking part in the training who is also acting as Press Agent for the films…

Week Eight

Week Eight brought with it the bonus of an extra session on Wednesday, a newcomer to the Blood Warriors crew, and our first session outside of Knowle West Media Centre! We headed to KWMC: The Factory, a space for all kinds of creative enterprise, including furniture making, signage, installations, exhibitions, and bespoke commissions.

We POV ladies would be receiving a masterclass in puppetry from Marc Parrett, whose company Monster World specialises in the making of all kinds of puppetry and animated theatrical props. Marc began by showing us a few of his creations, including a fuzzy felt mouse on rollerblades, a dog with a chainsaw in place of a head , a miniature version of Audrey from Little Shop of Horrors in bud form (the bigger, more maniacal plant, Audrey 2 is also a specialty!) and a smaller version of the puppet used in Bristol Old Vic’s 2016 production of The Snow Queen, which I was overjoyed to realise I’d watched. I’m a massive fan of theatre, and the design of sets, props and puppetry, like the kind Marc does, really excites and interests me.

I loved Art at school, but haven’t actually made anything arty or crafty for a good few years, so just on the basis of those two things alone I was incredibly excited to see what Marc had in store for us. On the other hand, my disability means I don’t have great co-ordination which is a bit of a challenge when doing a workshop like this. I needn’t have worried though, Marc was ever patient and accommodating.

We all started with two things: newspaper and tape. Marc talked us through the various stages of creation, and eventually after much folding, cutting and sticking, we each had the bare bodies and heads of our respective puppets. We could accessorise and animate them as we saw fit and the variety of individual characters we ended up with was pretty amazing, including a granddad, a manic chef, a punk rocker and a mummy!

After our creations were complete we did a little filming, just of all of us sitting round together having a mess around with our puppets. This sparked a plan for our second day…

The plan? Make a  short film featuring our eclectic cast of puppets!

Day Two with Marc was spent coming up with ideas for the film and delegating jobs when we were set on our vision. It was decided to emphasise the newspaper print aspect of our puppets and shoot in black and white, and we settled on the puppets being on a cruise where all kinds of shenanigans ensue, including a run in with a sea monster!

Some incredible props were made by the ladies, including a dining room table, a chandelier decorated with nuts and bolts and motorised fish main course, as well as the boat and waves. I gave Marc a hand with the sea monster, making the mechanism to move the head, and painting our creature.

On Day Three we filmed!

It was so much fun and I think we were all really proud of our achievements – and how much we achieved in such a short space of time with no set brief. Being let loose to have a bit of fun and create something from nothing is really liberating and I think I once again rediscovered my love of being arty, even though my disability sometimes means this is a little bit trickier for me!

This programme is supported by Creative Skillset’s Film Skills Fund, with BFI’s Film Forever National Lottery funds.

This week’s blog from the From Her Point of View programme features an insight into production design and filmmaking theory. Catch up with Kerrie, one of the young women taking part in the training who is also acting as Press Agent for the films…

Week Seven

Week Seven was a pretty exciting one, as we are getting ever closer to the crews being able to commence shooting on their films!

Thursday’s session was a mix, partly devoted to more pre-production prep: talk about locations, shot lists, shooting schedules, props, production design and script drafts abounded. Team Blood Warriors were also abuzz with excitement about finalising their upcoming audition workshop at the weekend to find their three leading ladies! We also had a masterclass in Feminist film theory, exploring such things as how the “male gaze” dominates the film industry and how the “female gaze” differs… one might say incredibly appropriate for International Women’s Day, right?

Being the publicist on the project, I had an idea of conducting/filming a mini interview with each of the ladies, for our readers to get to know us all a little better and what attracted us to want to be involved in From Her Point of View. Florence, Blood Warriors’ Director of Photography, even bought her camera in and we had an awesome black and white photo shoot of team and individual portraits.

Gallery

Production Design

Friday’s session saw us joined by Carrie Love, for some insight into production design. Carrie has worked as a freelancer in a vast range of TV and film projects and been everything from a runner to prop-maker, designer and Art Director. She spoke with us about her creative process when she designs the look and feel of a set and how it might be useful for [our] Art Department to make themselves a spreadsheet for the duration of shooting, to make notes of anything they need for particular dates, scenes and so on.

Being involved in this side of the industry is probably the one I find most appealing beyond writing, but I’ve never found myself as the kind of person who is good at the practical side of making things and I’m not much better when it comes to the programmes on a computer that let you do […] this kind of thing!

That in mind, I watched in adoration as both teams set about making props to dress their sets – Black Cherry were working on posters for [their character] Ben’s room, record sleeves, and patches for Ben’s costume, while Blood Warriors were also working on posters for bedrooms and BMX competitions!

Next week I found I would be more hands-on as we ventured out to KWMC The Factory, where all kinds of building and making type magic happens. Our kind of magic? The puppetry kind…

This programme is supported by Creative Skillset’s Film Skills Fund, with BFI’s Film Forever National Lottery funds.

This week’s blog from the From Her Point of View programme features an introduction to visual storytelling and a run-down of animation techniques commonly used in film and TV. Catch up with Kerrie, one of the young women taking part in the training who is also acting as Press Agent for the films…

Week Six

Week Six saw us ladies delve into the realms of visual storytelling and animation. As has been the awesome thing about this course, it’s given us the opportunity to learn so many new skills and once more I was a complete novice (been a bit of a habit this, eh?) to animation beyond appreciating the final product and not really knowing much about the depth of the process it takes to put one together.

First though, we began with visual storytelling. This is essentially about the choices the creative team make and techniques they use that allow them to tell their story and convey their message in the best possible way. For example, do they have dialogue? No dialogue? Music? Do scenes refer to earlier ones, or foreshadow later events?

Shot Choices will often be important to your storytelling and we focused on wide shots and close ups. We explored their significance to a film’s tone (for example, wide shots are useful for comedic scenes) and how such choices affect our reaction to the scene.

Films we looked at in relation to many of these techniques included: Braveheart, No Country For Old Men, Harold & Maude, Up, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. We also looked at a couple of commercials, including one for furniture that threw us all a total emotional curveball! 

As an aspiring professional writer, I often find it difficult to think of my work in visual terms instead of words on a page. After this session though, I began to think that if I shift my focus and try to imagine these words on film and how certain “scenes” look rather than just read on the page, I might become a more rounded writer and better storyteller. I was even beginning to think I should try my hand at writing a screenplay, a desire I’d only briefly indulged during our screenwriting session a few weeks back. The session generated some lively discussion of some of our favourite techniques, directors and styles, and once more left me with a raft of works to check out, as it seems I have lived a very sheltered film viewing life to date!

Introduction to Animation

BAFTA winning Bristol-based filmmaker and animator Emma Lazenby joined us a little later on in Thursday’s session, to give us a crash course introduction to animation. This included a little history and a run down of the types:

3D stop motion (everybody say: Wallace & Gromit!)
2D Computer cutout
2D Computer
Cell Animation
2D Drawn

We also had a practical where we got to try our hands at PIXELATION, which was great fun!

Sadly I was absent for Friday’s session, but team Black Cherry seemed to have a lot of fun experimenting, so I was informed ?

Next time, it’s Art Department’s time to shine as we are joined by Carrie Love to talk us through Production design!

This programme is supported by Creative Skillset’s Film Skills Fund, with BFI’s Film Forever National Lottery funds.

This week’s blog from the From Her Point of View programme features a lesson in copyright and some practice working with actors to help them inhabit their roles. Catch up with Kerrie, one of the young women taking part in the training who is also acting as Press Agent for the films…

Week Five

Thursday’s session began with Noomi, the mastermind behind From Her Point of View and Knowle West Media Centre’s Creative Skills Co-ordinator, giving us a presentation on copyright. This grants the creator of an original work exclusive rights to its use and distribution.

For filmmakers like many of the women here, copyright can be a bit of a minefield so it’s imperative we tackle it correctly; finding out who owns the rights, acquiring permissions, protecting our own work and so on.

Copyright covers a pretty broad range of elements in filmmaking:

1) Stills
2) Moving image or archive footage
3) Music
4) Brands
5) Artwork

After this presentation, I snuck away and had a chat with Thomasina Gibson, a producer who has recently completed her first feature film. Thomasina is also a prolific author and has been a director and journalist but started her career as a publicist. Thomasina has worked with the likes of the BBC, Sky and Channel 4 to name a few, and she talked with me about her career path and gave me some insight and advice – with me being an aspiring writer and journalist – about the next steps I could take to get my foot on the ladder of the industry.

The biggest thing I took from our conversation is how useful it is to have the confidence to put yourself and your work out there and reach out to people in the industry who you aspire to or want to work for, and see if they can offer you some experience or point you in the direction of ways you can. They may not give you the time of day, but it’s important to persevere and have a sense of pride in your aspirations and your skills. I’ve never been great at networking or initiating this kind of contact, but Thomasina was welcoming and her enthusiasm infectious; I left the meeting feeling inspired and that I should try putting her advice into practise. The worst that can happen is someone rejects you and in that case you will dust yourself off and try again; because, eventually, somebody somewhere might take a chance on you, and that could lead to amazing things.

Working with Actors

Esther May Campbell joined us once more on the Friday for a more in-depth look at working with actors. Intention and Obstacle were once again the order of the day, but we looked at them in terms of how we approach discussing scenes with an actor, and how our approach might change if we are working with non actors, leading us to ways of introducing scenarios and how we might want the scene to be approached:

• ‘As if…’
• ‘It’s like when…’
• ‘Imagine…’

This gives us context, and sets the scale and energy for the scene. Esther worked with team Blood Warriors on a read through of a particular scene and talked about what worked well and what could be improved and how, while we watched team Black Cherry run through a scene for blocking and how a good director can bring out the best in their cast performances.

We ended the session with a kind of meditative technique with Esther talking us through a scenario in order to get us into the heads of characters from their films: their emotions, what makes them tick. If you didn’t want to be a character, you could do it as yourself. I’d never done anything like this before, but I found it to be an interesting way of getting under the skin of your ideas – I’ll definitely apply it to my own writing!

Next time, we head into the realm of animation with a little help from a Bristol-based BAFTA winner, and Noomi tells us all about visual storytelling!

This programme is supported by Creative Skillset’s Film Skills Fund, with BFI’s Film Forever National Lottery funds.

This week’s blog from the From Her Point of View programme features a return to screenwriting and an in-depth exploration of sound, microphones and recording. Catch up with Kerrie, one of the young women taking part in the training who is also acting as Press Agent for the films…

Week Four

Week Four of our endeavour to create two amazing short films and shout about how talented and creative us ladies (and women in general are, of course!) began on Thursday with a brief return to screenwriting to reinforce what we have learned so far in terms of our old familiar friends: Intention and Obstacle and how important these are to developing our ideas and projects.

We were split off into pairs and had to choose a mystery scenario from a selection and then talk in our pairs about how we would explore these on film. A character would have a particular intention and we would have to come up with the tone, obstacle and plot idea, and also have a go at fleshing out the characters a little more in terms of personality.

I paired up with Ellie, producer on team Blood Warriors. Our scenario involved character A wanting to get money from Character B, and we came up with the idea of a crime drama or thriller piece, with Character A maybe in deep debt from a loan shark, who reunites with  an old friend, who is now trying to distance himself from his former criminal life, now settled, maybe married with a child.

We imagined Character A being very charming, smooth talking and manipulative. When Character B refuses to hand over the money, the tension and drama comes from how their relationship has changed, we thought perhaps that character B used to look up to and admire A in their younger days, and would normally have done anything for his respect, but the stakes are now too high and he knows it’s the wrong thing to do, so he has a moral dilemma. A can see this, and so uses it to his advantage.

It was a fun little exercise to get the creative juices flowing. Other scenarios from the group included someone trapped in a room with no clear means of escape beyond a rope and barred window, and car trouble whilst making your way to a destination!

The group then split off into their crews for a pre-production meeting. The major element for both crews was the fact that a rough draft of their script needed to be ready for the following session, as Esther would be returning to work with us more after her Intro to Working with Actors a few weeks back.

For Blood Warriors and Black Cherry, the focus was on fine tuning the ideas and the direction they wanted to take their projects in, but they started thinking about other elements as we’ve had a little more insight: going around I heard talk of ‘we could shoot this scene like this,’ ‘I’d light it like this’, ‘how do we want this look,’ dipping our toes into art department and talking about ideas for locations. It was all very encouraging to hear everyone so enthusiastic about what we have learned so far!

Sound

This leads us on neatly to Friday’s session, where at least as someone who has no experience of what we were going to be learning, I felt thrown in at the deep end! Having said that, this course has thus far taught me to embrace new things and hit the ground running.

Friday’s workshop was devoted to sound, led by composer and sound designer Laura Izzard. Laura’s impressive portfolio of work includes a wealth of commercials and animations, and I was astounded to hear the extent to which women working in sound are a very very rare thing indeed.

When you work in sound, the main tool of your trade is the microphone. These can appear in many different sizes, and used in different ways.

When you record dialogue your best options would be directional, shotgun or boom mics. The longer the mic is, the better it is at getting rid of extraneous noise.

Stereo mics come in three categories:

• Omnidirectional will give you an equal 360 degree recording of all sound
• Cardioid is useful for recording in front, but will pick up some sound from the back
• Hypercardioid used mainly for recording close to.

Whatever kit you use, follow this rule: the camera is king. Always match your sound to your camera and shots, for consistency.

Levels of sound and sound quality

• In this industry, the level of sound will impact the quality, and you work on the signal to noise ratio. Levels will either PEAK (be too loud) or be too quiet, so it’s important to get the levels right.
• Sound is in bits, or kilohertz
• Highest quality is 192k
• Broadcast standard sound is 48k
• CD Quality – 44.1k, 16 bit

More bits give you a smoother sound.

Methods to record sound

• Recorder to mic to camera
• Recorder directly to camera via cable
• Recorder with a mic to camera via wireless connection

Timecode

• Set your audio and camera to the same time, so everything will then be in sync.

 Laura let us all play around with her kit and I joined Blood Warriors to record one of their scenes.

Next time, we delve deeper into working with actors, and learn a little about copyright along the way!

This programme is supported by Creative Skillset’s Film Skills Fund, with BFI’s Film Forever National Lottery funds.