Cinefest Trophy

After entering The Babysitter into the Middlesborough Cinefest we came home with a trophy! We got the best screenplay award.

Aren't You Glad You Didn't Turn on the Lights Shoot

This shoot went very well! Despite the small space in which most of the filming took place I managed to light the shots quite well by bouncing the light from the cool light off the ceiling, however because of the space we did have some issues with the boom pole being in shot, It often would be against the ceiling in the top of the shot so had to be moved to below meaning the sound was not as good as it could be. Thankfully this was the only main issue we had and the rest of the shoot went quite well, both indoors and out. We used both the shoulder rig and the tripod for this shoot which provided an interesting shot, namely the one in which Gary's character comes home drunk and I used the shoulder rig to sway and tilt with him, adding to the disorientated effect. There was a few extra shots on another location that had to be taken but I was not present for them.

Professional Opinions

For my Professional Advice, I spoke to Adam Bouabda, a professional in the industry who is a great all rounder and utilises a wide set of skills in different ways in many different roles. He also went into the industry with a student type background and since then has produced a fan feature film.

1. What was your first industry opportunity?

I worked for Shine TV as a production runner on a Sky One production,  I got it completely by chance, some guy i know gave me an email address.  The company was London based so they wanted local runners.  Talk about starting at the bottom. I carried more cases of water than any human should ever have to.

2. Do you think that establishing yourself in the industry is who you know or what you know?

You have to have talent, but contacts are much more important.  There are loads of shite films out there. they got made because people have contacts and no talent.  there are a load of great short films whose directors/writers or producers have never done anything else because they have no contacts.  Me an Jim were talking about this today, we are in dev on our feature, but know a really talented director who is making people showreels at the moment, maybe he is just biding his time, but i could be that he doesn't have the right contacts.  It's the right people you need to know.

3. What would be your first piece of advise for someone who wants to take up a similar role to your own roles?

To be a producer you have to be very confident, you have to also ask for everything you can, no one is gonna give you anything, but if people offer. take them up on it. get to know as many people as you can, again though, it has to be the right people. Don;t get pigeon holed, try everything, I edit for my day job, produce for my friend but also write and direct my own stuff.,  but know when to prioritise them.

Looking at Statistics

These are the results from my survey in chart form

Seventh Production Meeting

In this meeting we discussed that we were as happy as we could be with the Hook Man footage, that the Babysitter edit was well under way and almost done and confirmed that Aren't You Glad You Didn't Turn on the Lights was the final shoot. I am to provide shot lists for it and ensure my lighting plan is done.