Film Production Workshop Programme

What the film production workshop involved

The students were introduced to the principles of film production. They viewed a number of Deaf films and for each film were asked to guess how much the production cost, how many locations were used and how many crewmembers there were.

The students were then split into four groups. Two groups were given a synopsis for a horror movie:

A group of friends go to the Chubb buildings to view a film. Whilst chatting amongst themselves, enjoying their drinks, they get distracted by something lurking in the background. An unusual and hard to distinguish figure catches their eye. The figure seems to appear rough looking, weary and dull. The friends set out to investigate this intriguing figure. As they continue their investigations into this mysterious figure is, several things begin to happen which takes them by surprise

The figure could be;

1. Serial killer
2. Lonely tramp with an intriguing past
3. Ghost
4. An unidentified face

The other two groups were given a synopsis for a comedy:
  
A reserved and timid young man seeks help and support in finding his ideal girlfriend. Unable to succeed by his own tactics, he approaches his best friend who he knows will help. His best friend certainly knows all the ‘pulling power’ antics, so has confidence in him. However, despite all the advice he receives, he still struggles to gain the ‘right’ confidence to impress. With a new date in hand with a stunning young girl, he tries to overcome the trips and falls of stupidity to gain her interest and heart.

Characteristics of the young man could be a nerd, lack of self-confidence, nervous, unintelligent, gullible.

Best Friend’s characteristics: Jack-the-lad, wind up merchant, school prank pulling, helpful etc. 

The groups then started coming up with ideas for their film and started to write their scripts.

The students were taken through the basic of camera shots and angles. See Clock Works and Wolf Wood Productions discussing this:

They were then shown how to sue the camera and kit. See how Brick Houze and Glassbox Productions got on:

The teams were then let loose on the production! The teams had planned the order of their shoot and logged every scene and the corresponding timecode on the camera throughout the filming. Watch Brick Houze and Glassbox Productions filming here:

Marketing is an important tool to help get your film to its audience. The filmmakers discussed different marketing techniques and then produced their own DVD cover and poster.

Editing techniques were introduced to the teams by Bim Ajadi. They “paper” edited the film first, which means they went through the “shot log” to select which takes they would like. They then uploaded the footage and edited it using AVID and Final Cut Pro software, using the paper edit as a guide.

At the end of the workshops, the films were screened at the Lighthouse and were introduced by the filmmakers.