Salad Daze Website Update

As far as I’m aware, Alex has had his money come through, I’ve paid my share, so the site should be going live this week. I’ve been working on the content for the Services page, but you can see that when it’s ready, innit

Kwaidan

I’ve been playing at pretentious again. I picked up a copy of Kwaidan with my subscription to Sight and Sound and finally got round to watching it last night. It’s a lengthy film, but manageable through being both compelling and a series of shorter films joined together.

The film is essentially a visual retelling of Lafcadio Hearn’s classic Japanese ghost stories, but done so beautifully by Masaki Kobayashi. The lighting and painted sets bring an other-worldly pesence to the film, which is much befitting of its subject matter. I’ve always been interested in cinematography but I have been so inspired the careful use of lighting and set design here as to want to take it to a new level. The way in which light and colour become a part of the film and a narrative device in their own right is astounding. Notice the change from warn reds to cold blues in The Woman in the Snow to signify the husband’s grave error and his wife’s supernatural origin.

There is a touch of epic film here, too. In Hoichi the Earless, the major sea battle we see throughout the film harkens to any numbr of larger scale samurai movies. This is carefully balanced by giving us a sense of Japanese culture, much as Lafcadio intended when he compiled his Japanese folk stories. I am particularly fond of Japanese culture and films, so may be slightly biased here, but it is a worthwhile insight into te paranormal fears of a different nation.

This is certainly not the sort of film you can flick on and dip in and out of, so I recommend setting time aside for it. It’s also not the sort of thing that your average “movie lover” would want to see, most likely because Ben Stiller or whichever flavour of the month isn’t in it. I would, however, recommend it to any true cinephile. As I would a Sight and Sound subscription, as votes are soon to take place for new members of the BFI board, which anyone with subscription can vote for and even become.

Vote for me, yes? NO.

8/10

Excuse the trailer, I couldn’t find an English subtitled version. Use your imagination…or French dictionary.

Latest Showreel

This is the latest showreel we have put together. It contains the footage from the Scum Like Us promo that we worked on and a punchier soundtrack. The only thing missing from it at the moment is the finished logo, as we’re still waiting for that to be sent our way by Ella at Dreamscape

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

I’ve been like a child for the past few weeks. Since the marketing campaign surrounding X-Men Origins: Wolverine really kicked up a gear, I’ve been pretty giddy with excitement. Like any other child of the Nineties, I was bought up on a staple diet of Spiderman and X-Men cartoons, with the added benefit of my mum getting me hopelessly into the comic books, too. Like any other child of the Nineties, I was impressed with X-Men, indifferent about X-2 and horrified by X-Men: The Last Stand. I expected so much of this film, mostly because Wolverine is one o my favourite fictional characters of all time, but also because Gambit is in it, who is my favourtie X-Man EVER. I was left…unimpressed.

The film is, in every sense of the word, cool. There are a lot of really good fight scenes, sharp one liners and explosions. There is a sense of desperation, however, making the film a bit too cool, thus going full circle and looking daft. There are far too many instances where Wolverine walks casually away from an explosion or appears shot from a low angle with the open sky spiralling around him. You may know this shot as The Michael Bay Technique. This all serves to make the film just a little silly.

This silliness is expanded upon when Deadpool/Weapon XI/Wade/WHAT? turns up to confront Wolverine. It seems as though the filmmakers need an ultra-adversary that Sabertooth just couldn’t live up to. Or was it that they needed the “back to back” reprisal scene towards the ed of the film to produce a bit more of a conventional Hollywood feel? Wolverine’s story has always been a tragic one, and Sabertooth has always acted a complete prat.

The thing that really upset me is the fact that Gambit is a complete tool. He’s known for his charm and wit, but this gurning idiot just doesn’t do him justice. I feel like this is a personal insult, as will a lot of other pethetcally single fanboys the world around, especially since Gambit has been rumoured for all of the previous films and has yet to make an appearance. One of the risks you run when making a movie about one of the most popular comic book series of all time is that one half of your audience desperately want to see certain events or certain characters true to the way they were written whilst the other half simply don’t care that much. I feel tha Gavin Hood hs very much optedto cater for the latter here.

I must admit that I enjoyed the film. It was a great cinematic experience and the effects were truly tremendous, but I still left the cinema feeling as though I’d missed something. There is genuine emotion in the film, most notabely when the elderly couple who care for Logan are shot by Agent Zero, which made his death all the more sweet. This emotion if not carried all the way through, and when Logan’s girlfriend is killed (both times) the audience finds it hard to relate.

I’ve always wanted to make my own superhero movie, and I’ve learned that this is a minefield to be playing in. I would stick as rigidly to the subject maerial as possible out of respect for the superhero, but would bring it to life with my own slant and vision. That’s not to say that I’d completely recreate a story. t’s fair enough that thee are different Marvel Universes, but if a filmmaker is going to try and recreate one visually, they’d bettr stick within it’s walls.Not even Wolverine’s healing powers could mend my broken heart…

6/10

Seminar Streams Ver. II

The past three days have been pretty long, but rewarding. Again, the work isn’t particularly creative or arduous, but it does recquire prolonged bouts of concentration and standing up. The best part was that I acted pretty much as the go-to man for any problems and at the beginning and end of every day. I was in charge of all of the kit, the used and spare tapes and interacting with the managerial staff at Earl’s Court. Jon, one of Blue Tuna’s owners called me with instructions and to find out how things were going. It was like heading my own large-scale production. We also had quite a few different camera operators over the three days, so it was my job to make sure everyone was up to speed and knew what it was they had to do, especially the less experienced ones.

We struck it pretty lucky in that we managed to negotiate with the Earl’s Court staff for us to get a space in the Organiser’s Office to stash the equipment overnight which meant we didn’t have to keep driving it backwards and forwards across London every day. This was my negotiation skills coming into play… It was much more like them offering it to us and we accepting it though, to be fair. I did have to talk to them more on the final day, however, as they needed to get hold of some of the tapes we’d recorded as their pesonal camera operators didn’t manage to catch the lectures they were supposed to. Jon gave me the guy’s number to sort this out with, which meant I was then in charge of not only delivering the tapes to the people at Seminar Streams, but in making sure that Earl’s Court and the companies they were working for were catered for.

Having to know what was going on in six rooms at all points was a pretty welcome challenge, as it gave me the opportunity to prove that I wasn’t just a run-of-the-mill cameraman. The last time I did the Seminar Streams job, the other, more experienced camera crew thought I’d come along just to help carry the kit, going so far as to ask me where the extra camerman was. It was acompletely different tone this time over. I’d worked with Mark on the ACCA job, and he was sound, so it was good to see him here, and the others worked and spoke with me like I belonged there for a change. Which made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Seriously, though, it’s good to feel more accepted as a professional in the industry, whatever level you’re at, than to feel awkward and outof place.

After managing this project for Bue Tuna, I am hoping that this will open up further opportunities with them to take on more work, hopefully of even larger a scale. I am also trying to work my way into having a full-time position with the company, which would put a wide array of skills to use. I’d be on shoots, preping and managing equipment and editing for them, all of which would further my talent and open me up to a wider range of contacts and jobs in the industry. I would also get the chance to work on the more creative jobs that Blue Tuna carry out. I believe I’ve progressed well enough to be considered for this job once my Uni degree is finally over.

Again, jobs such as this aren’t the most exciting, but they are to be treated with just as much professionalism and enthusiasm as any other, as this maintains and buids on your client base. We are much more likely to get more work from Seminar Streams if they are happy with what we’ve done in the past few days, which all helps towards paying the bills. The other cameramen I worked with are also more likely to offer work my way if they are impressed with what they see and the need someone to collaborate with. So I can’t afford to act like a wazzock, can I?

Prep for Seminar Streams

I’m down at the Blue Tuna offices at the moment getting everything ready for the next three days shooting at Earl’s Court for Seminar Streams. I’ve done this before, so I know exactly what we need. I’ve been responsible for sorting out all six Sony Z1 cameras and tripods, making sure each has a set of headphones, all the correct connections and, perhaps most importantly, batteries and a charger. And a whole heap of tape stock. The tripods needed to be checked to make sure that they all had pan arms and the hydraulics hadn’t ruptured. I’ve learned how to do all of this through working on various shoots, so am comfortable with a wide array of equipment. It’s important to know how to use a lot of different pieces of kit as it opens up more specified jobs to you and allows you to select the best gear for any given shoot.

I’ve also had to make male and female XLR to quarter inch jacks and get hold of a million metres of XLR cable. I have learned how to create the desired amount of cable out of adapters from various shoots, especially the ACCA job where I had to salvage all manner of connectors from tubs dotted about. This is something you can only really learn in the field, as most Uni studio shoots tend to be a bit more clinical than the real world. All professional hire companies make sure you get exactly what you need when you’ve ordered it, but is always best to check an go through things yourself in case something has been missed out due to human error. I like to think of myself as an “error net”.

I also learned how to attach and prep prime lenses to EX3’s today, as I was asked to sort one out to be hired from us. This is another skill that I can add to my reptoire, as there are often tmes on shoots where you’re asked to do something and then simply left to get on with it. It is obviously much better for me to be able to do this as ote as possible rather than having to ask questions all of the time, which can be professionally damaging on a high-pressure job. After this I was asked to clean and prep a set of Zeiss Superspeeds for another hire request, which required a delicate hand and a little air blower I’d cannibilised from a RED kit (which I also kow how to prep now). Learning about all of this kit is imperitive to furtherin m career and talent. Then I fixed an EX3 that had come back without a microphone holder. Every little helps.

I’ve got an early morning tomorrow as Alex and I have to take the Seminar Streams kit with us to Earl’s Court. It’s nice to be put in charge of making sure everything arrives ready to get cracking on with the shoot, obviously shows how far I’ve progressed as a professional. I just hope I don’t have to bring it all back with me every night and deliver it every morning.

Salad Daze Website

The site has had it’s final confirmation, everything is about set to go into the final stage, which means it’s about to go live! We’ve been in touch with a few problems about the admin panel, such as the inability to work in HTML in it, and Neville is going to sort this out for us. All Alex and I need to do now is scrape together the rest of the cash, finish the site content and upload our videos.

saladdazefilms.co.uk

Aaaaaany week now…

Broadview Job

I’ve been been in London working for Blue Tuna again today. This time we were contracted to provide kit and crew for Broadview, a company that provides online media, both live streaming and other work, to all areas of the business sector. We were working on their live streaming of an event organised by the accounting group .

This was a high pressure job as we had to stick to a very rigid timeframe as the show was scheduled to go out live twice during the day. It was a three camera studio event with the added aspect of everything going out live to tousands of people arround the world, who could e-mail questions into the panel as the show went on. Not only were we filming for the live event, but we were also recording it so that it can be viewed at a later date by anyone who couldn’t watch the live broadcast. The Members Engage show is available here and the Student Engage show can be viewed here.

I was on Camera 2 throughout both events and was largely reponsible for two shots of the guests and close-ups of the leftmost guest. I was occasionally asked by the director via talkback to execute wider shots than this, but all three cameras generally had a reletively rigid role. Camera 1 was the exception as it had the autocue and was the only one that zoomed out. I had never used a DigiBeta camera before, but I was confident I’d pick it up quickly after doing a little research and seeing that it is essentially the same as MiniDV or Flash2 with larger tapestock. The quality is much higher than MiniDV, though. I learned a few tricks from Mark Pengelly, another of the camermen, such as leaving the camera in “save” mode so that the tape isn’t constantly being wound through and using the ring for zooms rather than the handle to execute the move quicker when the director asked for it.

My responsibility during the set-up period was to hook all of the cameras to the vision mixing desk in the gallery and hook this feed up to a plasma television in the Green Room so that people in there could see what was going on. This required the knowledge I have gained from working on other jobs, such as my regular gig at Coventry Stadium and The Huntress Awards to know which connections I’d need for each point and how to do this safely whilst people were still milling around performing their individual tasks. As it was so busy, I was left to get on with this on my own, which was confidence boosting as they must have realised that I know what I’m doing now. Doing this safely recquired people to be aware where the cables were when there wasn’t anything to put them behind, which is unavoidable in most jobs so people expect to have to watch what they’re doing anyway. This is another benefit of working with professionals, you get to learn from them and you don’t have to worry too much about whether they’re doing their part correctly or safely. It also involved a lot of gaffer tape.

It was a pretty tense day at times, as the clock was moving much quicker inbetween shows than during. We had to belt through some of the rehearsals, but it all came togeter really well. I would have perhaps liked to have taken some photographs of the set, buthere simply wasn’t enough time. I’f I’d have messed about doing so just to show on my blog or to Uni, I would have looked completely unprofessional and would have damaged my future prospects with those I worked with today. I feel I have learned a lot by working there today, as I have managed to pick up little tricks that save a lot of time and effort on set. Workin with so many other people has also gotten my name and face out to a wider range of potential employers, so I am pleased with this too.

I managed to land another three days of work for Seminar Streams next week because of today, which is great news. At least I will be prepared for it this time.

Final Business Card Design

We’ve had another version of the business cards come through, and I think it’s safe to say that they’re the final draft. We’re much happier with them this time, and have had two different cards done, one for myself and one for Alex. We decided to do this so that people would be able to get through to whpoever it was that they spoke to when they were given the card. Though we are planning on leaving some in the Tin Angel or other places where they may be found useful, most shall be given out directly to people. If we do this, we’re probably going to have engaged whoever it is in conversation, so it makes sense for whichever one of us gave out the card to continue takling to the person who received it. This is especially true if they are prospective clients and have already begun talking about what they want. It saves us time, stops wires getting crossed and therefore makes us look a lot more professional.

I have learned the importance of having one person dealing with a particular customer from my time at Coventy Dogs, where I produce DVDs live on the night and of previous race meetings. Though most people get in contact with my boss for back dated races, he then passes these on to me to take care of, so that I react with our customers both online and face to face. This way, I know exactly what needs to be done and what has already been done. I generally do about thirty DVDs a week of each twenty-five minute meeting, so my cutomer relation skills need to be spot on to manage people who all expect their DVD within seconds of ordering it. By having a personal business card for Salad Daze Films, I will be able to interact with each customer on a personal level whilst maintaining a knowledge of what they want and what they have already received.

The back of the card looks as thus:

We much prefer the textured background to the green one we had previously, and the main logo still manages to stand out enough to be easily noticeable. Having “Freshly Tossed” on it should also immediately convey our image, give people the cheap laugh they love and make them want to pick up the card to read the other side. Once they haveit in their hand, it becomes much more tangiable and they’re more likely to take it away with them or remember the name and pass it on to somebody else who may need our services.

Alex’s card looks like this:

And mine goes like this:

We wanted to keep our contact text simple and black, but wanted it to belong to the same font family so that it didn’t look too disjointed, which I think has been accomplished well. We are having them printed on good quality card, as there’s nothing less impressive than a paper busness card, you may as well have a sole flapping off your shoe and a nap-sack. It also makes them feel better in a clients hand, which they will automatically take as us being professionals of a good quality. This is psychology working in our favour. I’m not going to get all Norman Bates about them, but it is importat to come across as being at the top of your game at all times.

Now you can get hold of us at our Salad Daze accounts without the cards even being printed. Blogs are brilliant.

The Wrestler

Before I get onto the film itself, I want to talk a little about the cinema atmosphere. I went to one of the Director’s Chair screenings that Odeon do on a Tuesday night to see this film, as it’s rare that they’ll show anything outside of the major blockbusters or the latest American drivel. They’ve got to make money, but it’d be nice if there were other oppertunities to watch arthouse, independant and world cinema other than late on a Tuesday, as though the cover of darkness excuses them hosting us. Anyway, I think all screening should be like this, there were loads of people there who all genuinely love films, so there was no rustling of sweet wrappers, “silent” (not silent) texters and talkers. The talking was saved for afterwards, just as it should be.

The film itself was absolutely brilliant. Emotionally charged, personally engaging and beautifully put together, it was a pleasure to watch. The Wrestler is every bit as good as people have been making it out to be, and is worthy of its awards. Darren Aronofsky described it as a “simple little film” which, in a sense, it is. There is no camera trickery and the characters are built out of easily identifiable pieces, but it is the way in which these pieces fit together which makes the film as good as it is.

Mickey Rourke’s character is intentionally left faceless at the beginning of the film; snatched glimpses of his back are all we have. This lends the character a sense of being more about his wrestling gear and persona than his actual personality, which ends up being played on much later in the film. Much of the film is washed in a sort of golden sepia tone, colours are mute and drab, with the exception of the wrestling costumes and blood. Visually, we are being led to accept that tis drabness reflects how he views the world outside of the ring.

Emotionally, the film plays on certain conventions – the father maing ammends with his alienated daughter and the lonely man pining for his strip-club working soul-mate – but each is built up and broken down in the film. The Ram’s family is his audience, those who remember and truly love him regardless of age or what he has done in the past; those who love him for the instant of the fight. When the audience expects something to work out for him outside of the ring, he ruins it for himself, or is spurned by those around him. These instances build towards the films perhaps tragic end.

The Ram is told he will die if he continues to wrestle, but it all that he knows. His fellow wrestlers respect him, his audience adores him and his family abhors him – it’s not a hard choice for him to make. The final scene, where his love interest finally comes to her sense, proves that it is all too little too late as he walks into the ring to face his old adversary. Even this wrestler tries to end the match early as The Ram seems to be struggling, but The Ram has one final move to perform for his audience. The film cleverly cuts to black and rolls the titles as he flies through the air, presumably to death, glory or both.

9/10