First Draft results are back . . .

We handed in our first draft to the teacher today and it went down quite well. He had a few issues with it which is what we expected and we hope to address them in the coming days.
Issues that need to be sorted:

The ending, which we already said needed to be reshot due to lighting continuity irregularities

A soundtrack needs to be written for it because we are using a copyrighted track

Editing and continuity issues throughout the piece need to be addressed

More variety of shots as we have too many standard eye level shots

These are the issues that need addressing so we are going to work hard in order to get them sorted so we can meet our deadline.

4th ManFlick Podcast

This Podcast focuses on the work done filming and we also talk about out first draft

9th Day of Production: The Ending

Today was the last scheduled day of production and although I know we are definitely going to have to do some reshoots, it feels really good to have the main bulk of filming out of the way.
The material shot today was mainly useable but unfortunately lighting issues have rendered a few shots useless. We have kept them in our first draft however because without them the film will not make sense, reshoots are inevitable but luckily it’s not all the much.

8th Day of Production: The Child

Today we filmed the child and her parent. Cassie and Geraldine Rose were the daughter and mother and both were very enthusiastic about the whole thing. The weather became a serious problem for us as we ended up having serious continuity issues. It absolutely poured down to the point filming was impossible. After waiting a while it finally cleared up a bit, however we were left with completely soaking wet ground and cloudy sky. Eventually we decided to carry on filming anyway as we had to stick to schedule and we are going to cover up the irregularity by having a time lapse in between.

7th Day of Production: The Fruit Vendor

Today we did the Van and fruit salesman mix. Colin Thorpe did an excellent job of being our grocer driver and kindly let us use his him and his van for the sequence. It went of relatively smoothly with no real problems. We forgot to take photo’s of the shoot which makes this post look a little boring. Apologies!

6th Day of Production: The Jogger

Today we went out and filmed the jogger scene. Danny Germain was our Jogger and his costume was completely his own design, Why he chose such a random assortment of clothes I do not know. The day went of relatively smoothly, the only main problem being wind mucking up the sound, but that is something we can fix in post production.

5th Day of Production: The Tramp

Today we filmed the tramp scene where Jack is a tramp that drunkenly moves and kicks the apple along to it’s next destination. Again the scene went quite well and Jack did a very good job of pretending to be drunk of a mixture of watered coke in a Jack Daniels bottle, though I have to say he got his fair share of odd looks.

You will also notice that Jack is wearing the same clothes from Witness and that he also has a camera. This is because Jack is an intertextual reference to the photographer. Whether this meant to be the same photographer, driven to a life of alcohol after the events of Witness, or whether he is just a coincidence is entirely up to you.

4th Day of Production: The Dog

Today we filmed the dog sequence. In the end Mike Clarke and his dog Alfie were very happy to do the job. Alfie performed surprisingly well and did something we did expect him to do - he happily kept the apple in his mouth when filming and did not bite into or completely destroy it. We were originally planning on using a tennis ball, which we did have to for some of the later shots were Alfie lost interest, but its great he was willing to do it with an Apple.

3rd Day of Production: The Bike

Day 2 of production saw us filming the bike scene. In this scene the apple falls of the bridge and lands in a cyclists basket. We got Brigitta Rose, our actress to ride a bike through town. This scene was fairly straightforward as it just involved a few shots of her riding the bike and eventually throwing it onto a bench. Our main problems was actually getting the apple into the bike basket, but some excellent throws by Sam Thorpe did the job beautifully.

2nd Day of Production: Opening

Today we filmed the opening sequence of the film where the apple is bought. However the day was not without it’s problems due to restrictions on filming. We filmed the opening sequence in Waitrose, this was not a problem as Jack and Joe work for them and were able to speak to management about it. They were very welcoming and happy for us to film there.

However the part in town was another matter. We were stopped by security when we tried to film there. After a conversation with the managers of the complex, we were told filming wasn’t allowed because it might be linked to terrorism. We found this ridiculous.

On a brighter note the opening sequence went really well and it feels good to have a proper scene of the film finished. Below are some snaps from the day.

1st Day of Production: The Opening

We started our journey through ManFlick 4 today as we started filming. Today we did the sequence where the apple falls down the stairs and I have to say it went a lot better than we initially expected it to. Though we are a few Apple's down . . .

Storyboards Galore 2!

We have finally completed our storyboards. Below is a slideshow with our complete storyboards. Of course these will most likely change slightly during production, but they are a rough guide nonetheless.

Storyboards

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The 3rd ManFlick Podcast

The Cast

We're almost ready to start filming, all that's left is a quick check of props, cast and locations. First, the cast.

ManFlick 4 Cast

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A brief synopisis

Here is a brief video synopsis of Apple so you can get an idea of what it will be like

Location Hunting

We have been location and here is a short video made by Jack Parfitt of some of the area's we plan to shoot in.

Apple's can spark off good ideas

We have decided on the basic premise of ManFlick 4 (Working title). Our A2 coursework will be a short film of roughly 5 minutes about an Apple that saves a man’s life through chance, luck and random occurrences.

An Apple in a supermarket is bought by a lady who proceeds through town after her shopping trip. After traveling through town she is makes her way across a bridge. Two school children from the opposite side of the bridge are playing around and run across the Bridge, one of them knocks into the woman and this causes the apple to fall out of her bag and off the bridge.

At this moment a woman on a bike rides underneath the bridge and the Apple handily lands inside her basket.

The cyclist rides up the main street and after a while realises the Apple is in her basket, confused, she takes it out and throws it onto a nearby bench.

A child and parent also walking along the street happen to go past the apple.

The child picks up the apple and decided to draw a smiley face on the apple. The parent sees this and tells the child to throw the apple away.

The child then leaves the apple on another bench.

That night the apple stays on the bench and in the early hours of the morning three men who have just been out on the town come across the apple. Drunk and rowdy one of them sees the apple and finds it hilarious due to the smiley face. He then asks his companions if he can have his photo taken with the apple. After this event takes place the trio move on.

The next morning a jogger running near the bench stops and sits down so that

they can tie their shoes. They notice the apple and decide to take it with them on the run, eventually throwing it down a staircase.

The apple bounces down the stairs and eventually rolls towards a dog walker and their dog. The dog mistakes it for a tennis ball and runs at the apple, picking it up and running off. The dog walker catches up with their dog and rips the apple out of the dogs mouth and throws it.

A drunken tramp then sees this and decides to go after it. The tramp then walks in along the road before taking another swig of whiskey and in the act of passing out throws it further down the street.

A fruit vendor coming out of an establishment sees the apple and assumes it is part of his shipment and must have fallen out. The fruit vendor place it with the rest of his apples and goes off to deliver his next shipment at a train station. On his way to the entrance he falls over accidently throwing out the box. It lands on the road.

During this occurrence, a business man is coming off a train. In a rush and not looking where he is going he head’s out into the road towards oncoming traffic. It is as this moment the apple saves his life as just before he steps into the road he steps in the apple, and stops walking. Because he stepped on the apple and did not carry on walking he did not walk into the path of the car and therefore was not hit by it; in short all the people in the film contributed the to the prevention of this mans death, and the apple was the tool used to carry out this act of luck. Or random anomalies, which ever way you seem to see it.

Starting Afresh

In the past month we have been busy working on ManFlick 3, our A2 Media Studies film, however after much deliberation we have decided to scrap the idea and start again. The idea has several holes and problems, it would have been a very strong idea but due to time constraints compressing the storyline, it soon became undoable.
We are currently working on a new idea though, still a short film but now something different that should stick closer to "Short film"