I have suddenly realised that i have yet to blog about a side project that i've been working on all year >.<
A few months ago, as Nerve began to recruit new members, I attended a Nerve TV meeting in which people were given the chance to air ideas for new shows on the channel. one of the ideas was to have a comedy panel show which seemed to go down well. i put myself forward to be a camera operator but soon after chatting away to the producer, Scott (the guy who suggested it), I found myself with the role of director.
Over the next few months we planned, then stalled (mainly down to work), planned some more and then stalled some more as we began to piece together our beginners' comedy panel show.
Eventually we had a final script, I knew what I wanted in terms of camerawork, we had panellists, and a venue in The Allsebrook Lecture Theatre. We also gave ourselves a 2 week deadline to get everything finalised and prepared before we would finally shoot. Posters were printed, the date was confirmed as Thursday February 26th 2009 from 6-8 and so we duly pulled our socks up. However, we still were unsure of what to do with regards to lighting and sound which is where I will end this introduction and begin more detailed backlogs of what happened next...
Tuesday 3 March 2009
Backlog 7: Sci-Fi convention, day 2 review
This has been the best weekend I've had for a looong time. If yesterday was good, this was even better...
We did some more of the same with the whole filming/vision mixing for talks in addition to wondering around with gleeful expressions whilst holding a camera and rubbing shoulders with international actors.
i was honoured to be asked to film an interview with Caroline Munro - ex Bond girl - and the director, producer and actors of an upcoming sci-fi show (I have unforgivably forgotten the show's name at this moment in time). it went well. we got to talk with the guys after the interview and the director was generous enough to spend 10 minutes with me talking about the industry and feeding me well with advice. i will find out the name of the show soon and the director's name because i really owe him a hell of a lot of gratitude. afterwards, Caroline remarked of me and Reece, "I love these guys" so I will forever claim truthfully that a Bond girl has said that she loves me. hey...some things are worth milking..
after the final event of the weekend finished (a sci-fi version of Family Fortunes), we wrapped and finished with "the dead dog's dinner". here, the technical crew were treated to a tasty roast dinner with the stars. i sat opposite Peter Jurasik and we chatted. again, the man was a diamond and he happily gave advice, a picture and personal autographed message to a young, enthusiastic student hoping to work within the film/television industries. i won't forget that soon. Mary McDonnell graciously apologised to me, Reece and Liz for not having enough time to give an interview to us earlier and the night ended with karaoke. We made our departure as Robert Picardo took to the stage...
On reflection, this weekend was quite simply, brilliant. i was given the chance to work with professional actors, a suitable amount of real-life pressure (filming knowing that hundreds of people might be watching) as opposed to having the comfort of filming say on a studio day where we'd just be making programs for us to see and all of this within a ridiculously friendly environment. there was a real sense of community and everyone seemed to see one another as family whether they were from Bournemouth, Manchester, Denmark or even Australia. i have no doubts that when various visitors said to us that the weekend was "the highlight of my year", they were telling the truth. i must confess that i feel a bit bad that i had access to their heroes for free when they literally had to fork our hundreds to be here. I also have no doubt that next year, I would like to come back even if I had to work 126 hours.
We did some more of the same with the whole filming/vision mixing for talks in addition to wondering around with gleeful expressions whilst holding a camera and rubbing shoulders with international actors.
i was honoured to be asked to film an interview with Caroline Munro - ex Bond girl - and the director, producer and actors of an upcoming sci-fi show (I have unforgivably forgotten the show's name at this moment in time). it went well. we got to talk with the guys after the interview and the director was generous enough to spend 10 minutes with me talking about the industry and feeding me well with advice. i will find out the name of the show soon and the director's name because i really owe him a hell of a lot of gratitude. afterwards, Caroline remarked of me and Reece, "I love these guys" so I will forever claim truthfully that a Bond girl has said that she loves me. hey...some things are worth milking..
after the final event of the weekend finished (a sci-fi version of Family Fortunes), we wrapped and finished with "the dead dog's dinner". here, the technical crew were treated to a tasty roast dinner with the stars. i sat opposite Peter Jurasik and we chatted. again, the man was a diamond and he happily gave advice, a picture and personal autographed message to a young, enthusiastic student hoping to work within the film/television industries. i won't forget that soon. Mary McDonnell graciously apologised to me, Reece and Liz for not having enough time to give an interview to us earlier and the night ended with karaoke. We made our departure as Robert Picardo took to the stage...
On reflection, this weekend was quite simply, brilliant. i was given the chance to work with professional actors, a suitable amount of real-life pressure (filming knowing that hundreds of people might be watching) as opposed to having the comfort of filming say on a studio day where we'd just be making programs for us to see and all of this within a ridiculously friendly environment. there was a real sense of community and everyone seemed to see one another as family whether they were from Bournemouth, Manchester, Denmark or even Australia. i have no doubts that when various visitors said to us that the weekend was "the highlight of my year", they were telling the truth. i must confess that i feel a bit bad that i had access to their heroes for free when they literally had to fork our hundreds to be here. I also have no doubt that next year, I would like to come back even if I had to work 126 hours.
Backlog 6: Sci-Fi convention, day 1 review
What...a...day!! =0
(before i proceed i with the rest of my backlogging i'd just like to warn that i've given up on "proper English" so excuse the lack of capitals, apostrophies, spelling, grammar and sense)
i was a little bit apprehensive of this weekend. i was a fool. today has been one of the most rewarding and enjoyable saturdays i've had for a while. i'm so glad i put my name down to take part in this project...
the day started with me and the guys (Reece, Liz, Ollie and Laura) being briefed on what we are to do shortly before the first talk of the day commenced. up came Neil Roberts, an actor who's been in Charmed, Love Soup, Beverly Hills 90210, Babylon 5 and old coffee adverts. he's the closest that Britain has to Hugh Grant apart from Hugh Grant. the man was filthy (jokes wise) as a remarkable amount of inuendos poured out of his rather posh mouth. i worked with Liz on one of the three cameras and it went pleasantly smoothly to help settle nerves.
the day rolled on and we took it in turns to operate the live cameras that stream onto the large television screens placed next to the stage and around the hotel as well as vision mix for guest speakers including, Robert Picardo, Peter Jurasik, Stephen Furst and Mary McDonnell, all stars of various sci-fi shows.
in between talks we were given a very nice camera and microphone to wonder around with and capture anything that we wanted to from around the hotel in all its sci-fi conventiony glory. we started out by interviewing some very friendly and enthusiastic visitors and asked them to re-enact any favourite death scenes from anything Science-Fictiony. that went well and was enjoyable. we soon found out something even more satisfying. if you walk around with a flashy camera complete with flashy microphone, you get...privileges. we were actually allowed to get into the green room where the stars stayed and didnt need to queue up for access to the autograph room. this meant that we could actually film professional, internationally known actors that hundreds of people had paid hundreds of pounds to see for free. the actors were great and we got an interview from everyone of them apart from Mary McDonnell or Mary as i think of her now (we count as friends now in my opinion) who was the star of the weekend and understandably busy at all times. We shared eye contact for a few seconds during the meal which is something i'm secretly chuffed about.
The evening saw perhaps my personal highlight of the day. I got to work with a Bond girl. Caroline Munro to be precise who played as Naomi in The Spy Who Loved Me *shivers from realising how much of an honour it is to have done this in my life*. I followed her on camera as she interviewed various visitors (fans) and celebs and it was (to take a copyrighted cereal slogan) grrrreeeeeattttt (apologies to Tony the tiger and everyone connected with Frosties breakfast cereal). our hands briefly touched as she wanted to see how the camera felt so I, Adrian Permata Scanlon, have touched a Bond girl *shivers again*. (these shivers are the "Oh my Gosh how amazing is this" variety of shiver as opposed to the "eww gross" line of shivers. i'm making sense to me which is all i care about mwahahaha >:D
I also managed to achieve a personal target that I created for myself, I managed to make every famous person I saw laugh (with me). Happy days.
(before i proceed i with the rest of my backlogging i'd just like to warn that i've given up on "proper English" so excuse the lack of capitals, apostrophies, spelling, grammar and sense)
i was a little bit apprehensive of this weekend. i was a fool. today has been one of the most rewarding and enjoyable saturdays i've had for a while. i'm so glad i put my name down to take part in this project...
the day started with me and the guys (Reece, Liz, Ollie and Laura) being briefed on what we are to do shortly before the first talk of the day commenced. up came Neil Roberts, an actor who's been in Charmed, Love Soup, Beverly Hills 90210, Babylon 5 and old coffee adverts. he's the closest that Britain has to Hugh Grant apart from Hugh Grant. the man was filthy (jokes wise) as a remarkable amount of inuendos poured out of his rather posh mouth. i worked with Liz on one of the three cameras and it went pleasantly smoothly to help settle nerves.
the day rolled on and we took it in turns to operate the live cameras that stream onto the large television screens placed next to the stage and around the hotel as well as vision mix for guest speakers including, Robert Picardo, Peter Jurasik, Stephen Furst and Mary McDonnell, all stars of various sci-fi shows.
in between talks we were given a very nice camera and microphone to wonder around with and capture anything that we wanted to from around the hotel in all its sci-fi conventiony glory. we started out by interviewing some very friendly and enthusiastic visitors and asked them to re-enact any favourite death scenes from anything Science-Fictiony. that went well and was enjoyable. we soon found out something even more satisfying. if you walk around with a flashy camera complete with flashy microphone, you get...privileges. we were actually allowed to get into the green room where the stars stayed and didnt need to queue up for access to the autograph room. this meant that we could actually film professional, internationally known actors that hundreds of people had paid hundreds of pounds to see for free. the actors were great and we got an interview from everyone of them apart from Mary McDonnell or Mary as i think of her now (we count as friends now in my opinion) who was the star of the weekend and understandably busy at all times. We shared eye contact for a few seconds during the meal which is something i'm secretly chuffed about.
The evening saw perhaps my personal highlight of the day. I got to work with a Bond girl. Caroline Munro to be precise who played as Naomi in The Spy Who Loved Me *shivers from realising how much of an honour it is to have done this in my life*. I followed her on camera as she interviewed various visitors (fans) and celebs and it was (to take a copyrighted cereal slogan) grrrreeeeeattttt (apologies to Tony the tiger and everyone connected with Frosties breakfast cereal). our hands briefly touched as she wanted to see how the camera felt so I, Adrian Permata Scanlon, have touched a Bond girl *shivers again*. (these shivers are the "Oh my Gosh how amazing is this" variety of shiver as opposed to the "eww gross" line of shivers. i'm making sense to me which is all i care about mwahahaha >:D
I also managed to achieve a personal target that I created for myself, I managed to make every famous person I saw laugh (with me). Happy days.
Backlog 5: 26 hours of work in two days isn't THAT long...........oh who am i kidding?
I've put myself forward to film at a Sci-Fi convention in a Bournemouth hotel this weekend which should provide useful experience and a welcome addition to the ol' CV. One thing though...I'll be working for 26 hours ;_;
If I'm being honest I'm a little bit apprehensive of this as it's going to be a whole weekend working for more than a complete day so its off to bed nice and pre-midnight for me, hope its good!
If I'm being honest I'm a little bit apprehensive of this as it's going to be a whole weekend working for more than a complete day so its off to bed nice and pre-midnight for me, hope its good!
Backlog 4: Mama, I don't think I want to work on sound
Just to start things off, I don't actually call my mum, girlfriend (ew) or anyone else 'Mama' but thought it would make for a nice, mildly amusing title.
Today, my group and I filmed our Narratives assessed piece which was a response to the program Extras. Having not yet worked on sound I put myself forward for the role which will act as the focus of my mumblings. The boom pole with the mic on isn't very heavy if you were to pick it up right now. If you were to hold it for the best part of 6 hours, your opinions may change. I have to say I've a new found respect for sound recordists (is that a real term??) because it was one of the toughest production roles I've had so far. As well as the achey nature of holding it up for a while at a time, you also have to ensure that you are safe with the thing. On more than one occasion today I found myself bumping into crew and very nearly cast, especially in the long-shot takes in which I had to extend the pole. You also have to multi-task as you keep an eye on sound levels whilst following the script to be able to twist the mic to the correct direction with increasingly shaky arms.
In spite of our camera operator turning up an hour late, the shoot went well, the cast were on form and we wrapped in time to return the equipment to a human as opposed to a close door.
Today, my group and I filmed our Narratives assessed piece which was a response to the program Extras. Having not yet worked on sound I put myself forward for the role which will act as the focus of my mumblings. The boom pole with the mic on isn't very heavy if you were to pick it up right now. If you were to hold it for the best part of 6 hours, your opinions may change. I have to say I've a new found respect for sound recordists (is that a real term??) because it was one of the toughest production roles I've had so far. As well as the achey nature of holding it up for a while at a time, you also have to ensure that you are safe with the thing. On more than one occasion today I found myself bumping into crew and very nearly cast, especially in the long-shot takes in which I had to extend the pole. You also have to multi-task as you keep an eye on sound levels whilst following the script to be able to twist the mic to the correct direction with increasingly shaky arms.
In spite of our camera operator turning up an hour late, the shoot went well, the cast were on form and we wrapped in time to return the equipment to a human as opposed to a close door.
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