Day One
On day one for the first two hours I was on the registration desk creating passes and registering people for the festival. The turn out was fantastic and we must have registered around 200 people within the first couple of hours. The photo below was taken by Dawn Field:
Designing the sound for The Gospel of Us
The first sesssion I managed was entitled 'Designing The Sound for The Gospel Of Us'. It was a seminar with Dai Shell & Eli Russell who spoke about the work they did on this film which was about an event called 'The Passion' which was a huge production run by the National Theatre of Wales. The event was supported by 1000 community volunteers and took place over 3 days in Port Talbot. It was directed by Dave McKean who worked with hundreds of hours of audio and video footage. Dave Mckean is also a world renowned Illustrator.
Dai Shell and Eli Russells' job was to pull together all of the sound files.
Dai began by telling us a bit about his background. He works on news, dramas & films and got into the industry through his music. He plays a guitar and has worked with well know bands such as Super Furry Animals & Catatonia. His first decided that he wanted to work with sound when he visited a sound studio and heard the song Live & Let Die played through a fantastic sound system. Dai refers to sound as a circle of sound. He then went onto open up his own studio.
Eli Russell is a Sound Editor/Designer. She began life as a secretary and whilst working for a company she made a film and that gave her opportunities to change her career. She said she would rather work with sound than moving image as she fees she can be more creative with sound.
They both talked about their experiences working on the film.. The Gospel of Us was the brainchild of Michael Sheen & Owen Shears. It was filmed over an Easter weekend in 2011 with an audience of 20,000 people. The film began with a performance by the Manic Street Preachers. 13 cameras and 8 sound recordists were used (4 of which were multi track recordists) during the event. One of the sound men was 'disguised' as a member of the audience and carried a small Zoom sound recorded which he used to record crowd noise. Unfortunately much of the dialogue had to be re-voiced due to an echo on the PA system. This was a major challenge particularly for some of the actors who weren't professional and had to re-record a particular scene in character. However Dai explained that for the professional actors this wasn't a problem as they were used to getting into character.
When Dai & Eli first landed the job they were given all of the sound files but none of them ewere referenced so they had to listen to every recording to match it to the video. This manual process took about 6 weeks. Eli said she would normally have access to a script and an edit decision list (EDL). It therefore took 3 months to reconstruct the sound when typically it would take 6-7 weeks for a theatrical film & 2-3 weeks for a TV drama.
Dai went on to explain the differences between working on Film as opposed to TV. He said that the quality threshold on TV is lower than Film and that TV is more forgiving than film often due to the speakers used in cinema as opposed to TV.
During the Q&A at the end of the session Dai & Eli were asked for their 3 tips for sound on budget films.
1. Never say "We'll fix it in post".
2. Test equipment & get a written guarantee if it's hired
3. Employ the best person you can afford to record the sound.
International Fiction Showcase 1
Next on the agenda was The International Fiction Showcase. This was a collection of 3 foreign films. The first was called F5. F5 is a Russian film about two dance performers who enter a dance festival in the hope of getting their 'big break'. It explores the relationship between the two dancers, the festival organiser and the audience. The film has a darker side that reminded me of the film 'Black Swan'. It was an entertaining film with good performances by the actors although I felt the ending was rather abrupt ending and wasn't explained.
The 2nd film was called La Madre, and was set in Mexico. It begins with a Mother being woken one early morning to noises in an outbuilding. Whilst investigating the noise she finds her son and daughter who (it appears) are washing themselves. The son says to his mother 'We have killed the motherfxxxers'. They then go onto remove their clothes and burn them. No explanation is given as to who or why they have killed. The story continues with the mother attempting to get money so that the her son and daughter can run away. She visits the son's father but he refused to give her money so she ends up giving them all of her savings. However, she finds that the son has money of his own that is hidden and he still takes his mother's money. I believe the filmmaker was trying to show that the son was not the person his mother thought he was. The daughter hardly says anything during the film and probably could have been left out without having much impact on the final piece. An explanation as to why the son and daughter had killed someone would have added greatly to the film.
The final film is called Nothing Can Touch Me. It is based upon the events during and after a school shooting in a Danish town. the film takes an interesting angle on the topic and pulls no punches.
We follow four survivors of the shooting as they go to the gunman’s house and piece together the lead up to the tragedy. The students are forced to consider their role in the killings and the results are unexpected; a disturbing and memorable piece.
All three of these films were beautifully shot. My favourite was Nothing Can Touch Me as the filmmaker took time to develop the characters and the story had a beginning, middle and end so it was easier to follow that the other two in which the audience had to make assumptions about what was going on.
Vinyl Premiere
The final session was a premiere of the film 'Vinyl' which was directed by Sarah Sugarman. The film was inspired by Mike Peter's who heads up a band called 'The Alarm'. In 2004 the band recorded a single under a fictitious band that contained much younger band members from North Wales. They were called 'The Wayriders'. The band wanted to expose the shallow and youth orientated side of the music business. Phil Daniels excellently played the lead character with Keith Allen supporting. The film was funny and entertaining although it did follow the typical tried and tested Brit formula that other films such as 'The Full Monty' has followed. The soundtrack to the film provided by Mike Peters was excellent.
Day Two
Ffresh Works: Dream
A show case of short films from students at Yale Wrexham and other filmmakers. Nerd Bomb is a comedy about a nerd at college who falls in love with a girl and enlist the helps of his Danish friend to help him win her heart. He decides to do this by unveiling a banner asking her out. Unfortunately this coincides with a fire alarm & the Danish friend uses language which contains the word 'bomb' so the students thin there's a bomb!
The other films were about the loss of a mother due to drink driving and finally a music video. There was an animated film by Laura Orme called You Got Beautiful that highlighted the issue of body image for women. It was an interesting take on the subject.
Documentary Masterclass
Jes Benstock is a documentary filmmaker some of his credits include and he was here to talk about his experiences whilst working on these.
- The British Guide To Showing Off
- Orders Of Love
- Holocaust Tourist
- Where Is The Fish
- The Alley Man
Jes said as a student you don't have a big budget but you can still have great characters. In documentaries there are no actors so no rehearsals. People tend to walk into a room and switch on it's great to capture this moment. Jes spoke about another documentary filmmaker who does interviews for 5 hours straight. The reason for this is he believes after 2 hours people tend to drop their guard. He's recommended that whilst making a film only the documentary filmmaker (not crew) should build a relationship with the person they're interviewing as other crew members can be a distraction. He recommends building a one to one relationship with a person, although the crew to talk to them after the job is done is fine. Jes said you have to be a team when making a documentary. He went on to say the edit suite is very important and a powerful tool.
The British Guide to Showing Off is a documentary about the alternative Miss World competition. During the making of the film he sent a cameraman to spend some time at the home of the main protagonists. Because of this he caught a great comedy moment when the drains were blocked and they had to get someone out to unblock them.
Jes then went on to talk about his experiences whilst filming The Holocaust Tourist which is an animated film about how holocause tourism can distory history. He's said being Jewish he felt he had a contract to make a film about the holocaust. His film focused on Auschwitz. He told us one story about the 60 year anniversary liberation ceremony where 75 survivors were left without transport when delegates were given priority. Apparently someone said to him "Well they've been through worse"!
Other film Jes has made are Where is the fish that never swam? Which is about Arnold Brown, a septuagenarian Glaswegian Jewish surrealist comedian with an overactive imagination, is forced to return to the city of his youth. Shot in a noir style with extensive CGI, Arnold's 'Glasgow of the Mind' is a nostalgic 1950s Glasgow shot through with a 21st century sensibility (Source: RandomActs.Channel4.com).
I really enjoyed this session with Jes he had some very interesting stories about his experiences which were often with difficult and controversial subject matter. I met him after and he was also a very nice man.
Tomato Masterclass
Dylan Kendle is a London based creative who is part of Tomato. Tomato was founded in 1991 and is a collective comprising artists, designers, musicians and writers. The group develops cross platform, multi-media projects; both commercial and research based. It has no pyramid structure with alll members being seen as equal. The collective first found widespread attention when it created the title sequnce for the film Trainspotting by Danny Boyle. Dylan began by showing us a number of different typefaces he had created and a number creative ways he had used them. He told the audience that he likes to find new ways of creating his art, not only sitting at a computer. He also spoke about the installation of a gallery in Rome and the emotional responses to art. This part of Dylan's presenation seemed more suited to graphic designers than filmmakers.
Dylan showed us a two timelapse films that he was involved in creating one was for Radio 4 and involved the use of liquid and type. He also showed us a music video for the band Underworld. Whilst some parts of this Masterclass were interesting I felt it was tailored more towards artists rather than filmmakers.
The Mill Masterclass
This session was hosted by Suraj ‘Sid’ Odedra a visual effects supervisor at the The Mill. The Mill is a world-renowned and Oscar winning visual effects company that has offices in London and the U.S.A. Sid talked the audience through the entire creative process and the challenges his team faced when they were given a brief to create a tv advert for a new car model the Kia Cee'd. Having a serious interest in visual effects I found this talk extremely interesting Below is a link to the final ad.
http://www.youtube.com/user/KiaMotorsUK?v=MzvXjS_z924
International Fiction Showcase 2
There were some really excellent films shown during this session. The first was Bez sniegu (Without Snow).
It's a story about a 16 year old boy called Linus who falls in love with his best friend's girlfriend. Linus is a bully and it's behaviour thats brings about tragic consequences.
Die Schaukel des Sargmachers (The swing of the coffin maker) was the academy award winner of best foreign film at the Student Academy Awards in 2012. Beautifully shot and fantastically acted by the two main characters it told the story of the relationship between a father and son who had learning difficulties. The father builds a coffin for his son after he discover he has a terminal illness. The film is set in the wilderness of Azerbaijan. Elmar Imanov, the filmmaker held a question and answer session after the film giving some fascinating insights into the challenges of making a film in Azerbaijan.
Ffresh Documentary
Day two was rounded up by Ffresh Documentaries. The first two films are about British Landscapes. The first was about the sea around Devon and Cornwall and the people that work it. It was an insight into the different characters that make a living from the sea and how it impacts their lives. The 2nd film called Idris combines beautifully shot mountain landscapes to tell the mythology of the area.
The Schoolgirl, The Nazis, and the Purple Triangles presented in a traditional documentary style is about the persecution of Jehova's Witnesses during the second world war by the Nazi's. It tells of the struggles of one girl and her family during those terrible and frightening times.
Finally Paws For Thought is more lighthearted albeit about a serious subject matter - the death of pets and the work of a pet funeral director. The film has an interesting sense of humor that could be seen as trivializing a serious and upsetting time for pet owners. The film ended with a montage of cats pulling strange faces. It reminded me of a black comedy, but pet owners may have a different view!
Day Three
Producer Masterclass
The final day as Ffresh began with a Master Class by Film Producer Chris Auty. Chris started out as a Film Critic working for a newspaper which he said is not a good route into the industry as critics are often then enemy of filmmakers! Chris got into the industry by first becoming a distributor. He went into business with an associate. The first film he bought to distribute was a Japanese film that cost him £5000. Unfortunately, this is where Chris made his first mistake. He bought the film before actually finding a cinema to show it! After several meetings with various cinemas he managed to find one in Notting Hill that agreed to show his film. However, there were further complications has he was told that this cinema was about to go into receivership and he would not make any money. He therefore spoke to his business partner and said "If we move quickly then we can buy this cinema before it goes out of business and for a good price". His business partner agreed so they then had a cinema to show the film. Chris said that most of the time you don't earn a living so you have to be mentally tough but if you get it right the job can make you very rich. It can be a lonely job on set with all the egos Directors, Actors etc so Chris said as a Producer you potentially have to have the biggest ego of all! He said the job is intellectually stimulating and you get to shoot films in many interesting places Chris has been to India, Balkans and Argentina amongst other exotic destinations. As a Producer you're effectivcely a 'Ringmaster' that has to network, meet Directors, read scripts, find acotors, get funding, and distribute films. One of Chris's first major successes was The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover which he had to raise funding for.
The film cost $2m and although controversial was a huge success in a number of countries around the world. This was a real platform for Chris to go on an produce future films. Unfortunately Chris wasn't credited in the film for his contribution which which to this day annoys him deeply!
Ffresh Welsh Language
A couple of Welsh language films were shown unfortunately they didn't have English subtitles so it was difficult to follow what was going on. The first film was about a Welsh woman with two young children who was in a relationship with an abusive partner. The partner gets extremely angry and violent towards the mother when the children speak in Welsh, he demands they speak in English. The woman goes out one morning to take the kids to school but one of them has forgotten her inhaler so they go back to the house. On entering the property the woman hears noises upstairs an in one of the most disturbing scenes in the films finds her partner in bed with another man,. He tries to apologise but she kicks him out.
The second film was set in one room that appeared to have 3 doctors and one patient. They were presumably discussing the patients welfare. Each of the people spoke in a different language, one in French, one German and another Spanish. It wasn't clear what language the patient spoke in. Unfortunately the subtitles were in Welsh so I couldn't understand what was going on.
I really anjoyed working at the festival they were long days but it was a great opportunity to meet with a variety of filmmakers from different genres whilst developing my Profession Practice PDP. I was also lucky enough to be working in most of the sessions that were of interest to me. I also got some great feedback from the festival organisers after the event. They were very happy with the work I had done over the 3 days. I'm looking forward to Ffresh 2013 already!
The British Guide to Showing Off is a documentary about the alternative Miss World competition. During the making of the film he sent a cameraman to spend some time at the home of the main protagonists. Because of this he caught a great comedy moment when the drains were blocked and they had to get someone out to unblock them.
Jes then went on to talk about his experiences whilst filming The Holocaust Tourist which is an animated film about how holocause tourism can distory history. He's said being Jewish he felt he had a contract to make a film about the holocaust. His film focused on Auschwitz. He told us one story about the 60 year anniversary liberation ceremony where 75 survivors were left without transport when delegates were given priority. Apparently someone said to him "Well they've been through worse"!
Other film Jes has made are Where is the fish that never swam? Which is about Arnold Brown, a septuagenarian Glaswegian Jewish surrealist comedian with an overactive imagination, is forced to return to the city of his youth. Shot in a noir style with extensive CGI, Arnold's 'Glasgow of the Mind' is a nostalgic 1950s Glasgow shot through with a 21st century sensibility (Source: RandomActs.Channel4.com).
I really enjoyed this session with Jes he had some very interesting stories about his experiences which were often with difficult and controversial subject matter. I met him after and he was also a very nice man.
Tomato Masterclass
Dylan Kendle is a London based creative who is part of Tomato. Tomato was founded in 1991 and is a collective comprising artists, designers, musicians and writers. The group develops cross platform, multi-media projects; both commercial and research based. It has no pyramid structure with alll members being seen as equal. The collective first found widespread attention when it created the title sequnce for the film Trainspotting by Danny Boyle. Dylan began by showing us a number of different typefaces he had created and a number creative ways he had used them. He told the audience that he likes to find new ways of creating his art, not only sitting at a computer. He also spoke about the installation of a gallery in Rome and the emotional responses to art. This part of Dylan's presenation seemed more suited to graphic designers than filmmakers.
Dylan showed us a two timelapse films that he was involved in creating one was for Radio 4 and involved the use of liquid and type. He also showed us a music video for the band Underworld. Whilst some parts of this Masterclass were interesting I felt it was tailored more towards artists rather than filmmakers.
The Mill Masterclass
This session was hosted by Suraj ‘Sid’ Odedra a visual effects supervisor at the The Mill. The Mill is a world-renowned and Oscar winning visual effects company that has offices in London and the U.S.A. Sid talked the audience through the entire creative process and the challenges his team faced when they were given a brief to create a tv advert for a new car model the Kia Cee'd. Having a serious interest in visual effects I found this talk extremely interesting Below is a link to the final ad.
http://www.youtube.com/user/KiaMotorsUK?v=MzvXjS_z924
International Fiction Showcase 2
There were some really excellent films shown during this session. The first was Bez sniegu (Without Snow).
It's a story about a 16 year old boy called Linus who falls in love with his best friend's girlfriend. Linus is a bully and it's behaviour thats brings about tragic consequences.
Die Schaukel des Sargmachers (The swing of the coffin maker) was the academy award winner of best foreign film at the Student Academy Awards in 2012. Beautifully shot and fantastically acted by the two main characters it told the story of the relationship between a father and son who had learning difficulties. The father builds a coffin for his son after he discover he has a terminal illness. The film is set in the wilderness of Azerbaijan. Elmar Imanov, the filmmaker held a question and answer session after the film giving some fascinating insights into the challenges of making a film in Azerbaijan.
Ffresh Documentary
Day two was rounded up by Ffresh Documentaries. The first two films are about British Landscapes. The first was about the sea around Devon and Cornwall and the people that work it. It was an insight into the different characters that make a living from the sea and how it impacts their lives. The 2nd film called Idris combines beautifully shot mountain landscapes to tell the mythology of the area.
The Schoolgirl, The Nazis, and the Purple Triangles presented in a traditional documentary style is about the persecution of Jehova's Witnesses during the second world war by the Nazi's. It tells of the struggles of one girl and her family during those terrible and frightening times.
Finally Paws For Thought is more lighthearted albeit about a serious subject matter - the death of pets and the work of a pet funeral director. The film has an interesting sense of humor that could be seen as trivializing a serious and upsetting time for pet owners. The film ended with a montage of cats pulling strange faces. It reminded me of a black comedy, but pet owners may have a different view!
Day Three
Producer Masterclass
The final day as Ffresh began with a Master Class by Film Producer Chris Auty. Chris started out as a Film Critic working for a newspaper which he said is not a good route into the industry as critics are often then enemy of filmmakers! Chris got into the industry by first becoming a distributor. He went into business with an associate. The first film he bought to distribute was a Japanese film that cost him £5000. Unfortunately, this is where Chris made his first mistake. He bought the film before actually finding a cinema to show it! After several meetings with various cinemas he managed to find one in Notting Hill that agreed to show his film. However, there were further complications has he was told that this cinema was about to go into receivership and he would not make any money. He therefore spoke to his business partner and said "If we move quickly then we can buy this cinema before it goes out of business and for a good price". His business partner agreed so they then had a cinema to show the film. Chris said that most of the time you don't earn a living so you have to be mentally tough but if you get it right the job can make you very rich. It can be a lonely job on set with all the egos Directors, Actors etc so Chris said as a Producer you potentially have to have the biggest ego of all! He said the job is intellectually stimulating and you get to shoot films in many interesting places Chris has been to India, Balkans and Argentina amongst other exotic destinations. As a Producer you're effectivcely a 'Ringmaster' that has to network, meet Directors, read scripts, find acotors, get funding, and distribute films. One of Chris's first major successes was The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover which he had to raise funding for.
The film cost $2m and although controversial was a huge success in a number of countries around the world. This was a real platform for Chris to go on an produce future films. Unfortunately Chris wasn't credited in the film for his contribution which which to this day annoys him deeply!
Ffresh Welsh Language
A couple of Welsh language films were shown unfortunately they didn't have English subtitles so it was difficult to follow what was going on. The first film was about a Welsh woman with two young children who was in a relationship with an abusive partner. The partner gets extremely angry and violent towards the mother when the children speak in Welsh, he demands they speak in English. The woman goes out one morning to take the kids to school but one of them has forgotten her inhaler so they go back to the house. On entering the property the woman hears noises upstairs an in one of the most disturbing scenes in the films finds her partner in bed with another man,. He tries to apologise but she kicks him out.
The second film was set in one room that appeared to have 3 doctors and one patient. They were presumably discussing the patients welfare. Each of the people spoke in a different language, one in French, one German and another Spanish. It wasn't clear what language the patient spoke in. Unfortunately the subtitles were in Welsh so I couldn't understand what was going on.
I really anjoyed working at the festival they were long days but it was a great opportunity to meet with a variety of filmmakers from different genres whilst developing my Profession Practice PDP. I was also lucky enough to be working in most of the sessions that were of interest to me. I also got some great feedback from the festival organisers after the event. They were very happy with the work I had done over the 3 days. I'm looking forward to Ffresh 2013 already!
