In my previous post I talked about our first day and how we were placed into groups for our 2 minute soap opera webisode on Bournemouth University. I was placed in Group 5 so instantly yelled out "Group 5 over here!" in my usual, unphased-by-making-a-noise way once the lecture was over.
Group 5 comprises of James Cleave (myself), Darryl Thomas, Chris Taylor, Jordan Thomas and Baitalikee Ghosh and the following is a brief introduction to the group.
Production Crew:
James Cleave: I've already talked about myself a lot, but my role as producer saw Darryl and myself overseeing the overall filming and administrative work of this mini soap opera. I operated the camera on a tripod, in addition to free-hand (which I am usually very against, however time constraints gave me no choice). I also co-directed the episode in-part due to recruiting all of the actors and actresses and release forms for this particular piece. Furthermore with Darryl, I completed the risk assessment form. I trawled through about 19 CD's of free-to-distribute music and found what I thought was the perfect selection of music for this particular piece. I also obtained necessary filming permission from parts of the University that required it and designed the logo for the show, whilst obtaining feedback from the group as I went along to make sure it complied with their specifications as well as mine.
Darryl Thomas: Our other producer Darryl Thomas (no family resemblance to Jordan) has vast experience in the photography industry which is a major plus when it comes to shoots and generally selected a number of shots for the pilot episode (for the bar scenes) as well as operating the tripod whilst Baitalikee and I liaised with the cast. It was a pleasure working with him as we both work on similar wave-lengths and whilst we are both not afraid to air our opinions, we also both know when do give each other the upper hand and I feel this worked extremely well in our favour as a group and is shown in the final edit. The fact that Darryl works at an Autistic school back in Swanage whilst juggling early trips back and forth to Bournemouth on a daily basis is a true testament to his desire to succeed in this industry.
Chris Taylor: I was lucky in the sense that I had already been liaising with Chris Taylor (our editor) on Facebook before returning to Bournemouth. Chris is originally from Portsmouth and his humour kept the 13 hours of editing eventful and cheerful, not to mention playing a cameo role with Jordan in the intro video of the pilot episode. Chris is a talented editor and even taught me a trick or two on Final Cut Pro during those long hours. I look forward to working with Chris again in the near future as well as listening to Journey in the editing suite in Weymouth House (The Media School Building for the University).
Jordan Thomas: Our writer Jordan Thomas, like myself, has just graduated from Bournemouth (from his BA Scriptwriting course). This means that he also knows the town as well as me, thus putting us ahead of the "competition" when it comes to filming around town...not that we're competitive or anything... clearly not. Jordan has a natural talent for script writing and his masters in MA Writing For The Media will undoubtedly further his blossoming career. He confessed to writing the pilot script in under half an hour which is a testament to his ability.
Baitalikee Ghosh: Baitalikee hails from New Delhi and has worked in the industry for back home for a number of years. She is an extremely sweet yet powerful Director who is unafraid to bring new ideas to the table, which in some cases were unable to be brought to fruition due to time and length of video constraints, but which most certainly will be used in the future.
The Process:
The process of allocating roles and responsibilities was generally well received on the basis that everyone would contribute to the overall process of the 2 minute short and make an appearance on the day of the shoot to help out in one way or other regardless of overall role. However, it was also important that our roles were akin to real life situations where the writer wrote, then collaboratively was edited and redrafted until everyone was happy.
The Concept:
Concepts such as "Lost In Bournemouth" where the storyline followed individuals lost in the media school and in and around the University due to being new to the surroundings were discussed both over the phone and in meetings on a daily basis. It was generally agreed that we should stick to the brief given to us of an episode exactly 2 minutes long and no more (You Tube has decided to place it at 2 minutes 1 second... but it is in fact incorrect!).
In this instance, Jordan did a fantastic job in creating a script based on the types of storylines, direction and general banter that was thrown around the room in a group meeting the day before he handed over his 2 page script. Whilst one or two little sections needed to be tidied up in order to make all parties happy, we all knew that straight away that it was going to be a very humorous short and credit can be handed to Jordan.
Furthermore sticking to the soap opera theme was imperative as it is widely conceived that soap operas have horrendous acting. I emailed the cast the following messages throughout the process prior to shooting:
James Cleave 03 October at 19:58
Hi guys,
So I would like you to look at the following You Tube clips to see exactly what we're trying to achieve with this film. Corny, cheesy, over-the top parody of Hollyoaks, passions, Loveboat, 90210 and all those things!
Our intro will be similar to neighbours below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mc9CU7vDCbQ
or even Home and Away:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFZcSRI9PJ8&videos=3-vQwNU3gXU
The acting is intended to be so bad that the viewers "in the know" realize that it is a parody of the real thing. similar to the clip below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUpxahdcSz8
Passions is so over the top. You can have a look here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HB8LHegCia0
I hope this helps
Cheers,
James
I also followed this message on with:
James Cleave 04 October at 20:16
OK, so can we all aim to meet at 11:15am at the reception of Weymouth House Downstairs (those who've agreed). my number is 07********* if you don't already have it.
Girls, I'm looking for stunning everyday wear, like you see in Hollyoaks or Miami Beach. things like that. not loose-fitting skirts kind of thing. More clothing to accentuate the look that you are in fact, stunning people.
http://blogs.pioneerlocal.com/entertainment/425.new.90210.051308.jpg
That link is an example of 90210.
Thank you all so much for helping out again and see you tomorrow! bring your cheesiest smiles and ALSO ALL PLEASE CAN YOU BRING TWO OUTFITS tomorrow so that the intro video will be different to the series. thank you!
Cheers,
James
These emails intended to get the actors and actresses into the right frame of mind when it came to filming. They were also sent a copy of the script to get familiar with the filming.
It has to be mentioned that this soap opera parody has been shot with a 4 hour filming limit. We were unable to obtain lighting or additional equipment other than a standard camera and tripod. We obtained a boom mic, which subsequently cut out the sound out of one of the scenes, thus rendering it useless and forcing us to improvise and not using it at all.
The way the camera-work is done is similar to soap operas of cut and shoot operations, over-the-top zooms into over-acted facial expressions. The intro scene and series video aims to recreate those similar to soap operas and the overall intention was to produce a high-quality programme badly, thus achieving the parody feel and look we were going for. I would personally be disappointed if people watched the episode and didn't realise it was a parody and that they thought we were aiming for a high quality production
Originally the title of the show was going to be "Bournemouth BH15 5BB", an idea I coined as a general tongue-in-cheek version of Beverley Hills 90210, using the University's postcode as the zip-code's equivalent. Whilst it was generally agreed upon by the group, a day before shooting Darryl had a brain wave and came up with Jollyoaks...(don't worry that wasn't even in contention)... because he immediately followed with "How about The Young and the BU-tiful?" which instantly caused a wave of enthusiasm and acceptance from us all. Whilst I think both names work very well, I will accept that the postcode is a bit of a mouth-full (regardless of the fact that it was meant to be a parody or not).
Below you can watch The Young & The BU-tiful pilot episode here:
I would also like to personally thank everyone involved with the filming of this episode including all of the cast and crew below:
Cast:
Jason/ Gary - Liam Thomson
Ella - Vicky Kidby
Josh - Luke Smith
Tori - Vicky Crouch-Marlow
Brad - Tim Donald
Kimmy - Karin Blomkvist
Charlie - Tom Mogridge
Amber - Rachel Suzanne Valentine
Kerry - Hannah Louise Wright
Directed By:
Baitalikee Ghosh
Produced By:
James Cleave
Darryl Thomas
Written By:
Jordan Thomas
Edited By:
Chris Taylor
Cinematography By:
James Cleave
Technical Operator:
Darryl Thomas
I hope you enjoyed the behind-the-scenes look at The Young & The BU-tiful and we would like to mention that we aim to film a further 5 episodes in order to complete a 6-part mini-series that will be aimed to be distributed on national television as digital shorts representing us, the producers, directors, editors, writers as well as Bournemouth University as a whole. Your support is imperative to our success as well so spread the word!
Thank you and have a fantastic weekend.
James
