This is the storyboard created during the group meetings for the documentary 'Daddy's in a band', a project for the Nottingham Trent University.
Monday, December 15, 2008
Sunday, December 07, 2008
http://paravan.org/
I recently found out about a new, cutting edge theatrical production company, based in Nicosia, Cyprus. The "Paravan Proactions", was created in 2006, aiming to create a platform where young artists, musicians, actors and creative people can collaborate. The basic target of the company is to challenge the relationship between the audience, the space and the show. A close friend of mine is participating in the current project of "Paravan Proactions", as an actor. I was fascinated not only by their imaginative website, but also by their experimental and post-modern approach to the contemporary theatrical scene.
I recently found out about a new, cutting edge theatrical production company, based in Nicosia, Cyprus. The "Paravan Proactions", was created in 2006, aiming to create a platform where young artists, musicians, actors and creative people can collaborate. The basic target of the company is to challenge the relationship between the audience, the space and the show. A close friend of mine is participating in the current project of "Paravan Proactions", as an actor. I was fascinated not only by their imaginative website, but also by their experimental and post-modern approach to the contemporary theatrical scene.
Monday, December 01, 2008
Daddy’s in a Band
Proposal 12/11/08
“Daddy’s in a band” is a four minute documentary following a day in the life of a single father as he juggles the troubles of caring for his young son, whilst also dealing with the stress of becoming successful in his rock band.
The documentary will be set in Raunds, a small town 20 miles from Northampton, where our character Tom Robbins and his 4 year old son Liam live.
Starting in the morning, we will film the routine of getting ready and the walk to school. During the ten minute walk, we will film him talking and joking around with his son, using long shots as well as close up profiles to give the audience both the wide and the finer perspective. The audio will be gentle morning (walking music).
This opening sequence will be used to demonstrate that our story is about an everyday father-and-son so that we can build upon this image as the film progresses – which will later be contrasted by a substantial amount.
In the next sequence we will be following the private time of Tom as he goes about his daily rituals of household chores and composing music. This is the point where we get to know him better through a series of informal questions, finding out about his past and how he came to be in the current situation. We will then learn his hopes and fears as we move on to discuss his views on the present and the future for both himself and Liam.
As he goes about his song writing, we will be finding out details of the band and the contrasting side of his story. This is one of the ways that we are going to build up the overall energy of the film.
We will be using a talking head style of documentation allowing extra cutaways for post-production. This sequence will be done mainly with medium shots with close ups on his face and his hands (for cutaways and to demonstrate his abilities in creating songs and playing guitar etc.). The mask of the contrasting side of the story will be slowly unveiled to the audience from this point. This, we feel, will also display the emotional depth of their relationship. The bond the Father and son have is an immense dependence. Something that we can hopefully pick up on, this will again increase the energy of the film.
As it nears the end of another school day, we set off to pick Liam up from his class – however due to the complications with filming at schools, we have decided to have Tom and Liam walk through the front door with them in the same clothing they did in the morning to show that time has passed. The audience will accept this cutaway as natural as nothing “new” has been shown. This will not only save hitches with filming at school but also practically speaking, moving the crew around. The next shot will be the pair leaving the house with, setting off to the park for a bit of father-and-son time. The subsequent shots will follow-on from the park playtime to dinner, which will be in the park with chips on a bench somewhere. The style will be similar to the morning scene in which the more emotive side of the story will be further investigated. However, we will start to build up the other side of the story at his point – by perhaps switching the style of audio to something a little more “upbeat”.
The succeeding sequence will be the pair once again returning home to get ready for Tom’s gig – during which we will be able to interview Liam informally and alone, finding out about this amazing 4 year old kid. Further questions will enable us to gain insights on his thoughts and views on daddy and his career. This will be a build up towards the other side of the story too. When they return to the house we want to have a few clips of Liam sat behind his own miniature drum kit and answering some simple questions, if we include this into our documentary we will be able to get another view on the situation that the father and son are in. As the questions are directed to Liam we know we will get an honest account on his thoughts due to his age and our audience are likely to be moved by this approach.
We will then attend the gig with two cameras, one onstage and one downstage. We will film Tom at his gig whilst Liam is sat backstage/within the crowd to watch his father.
This part of the film will be the “gem” showing the contrasting side of his life. Most of it will be long and medium shots to show less attachment (series of close-ups conclusively leads the audience to feel more personally in-touch). However close-ups will be included during the shooting stage to ensure enough editing material is available for post-production.
We may want to pursue this bit as if he is out there rocking the world, far beyond reach of his child to enhance the contrast between the emotive and the supposed-to-be-successful detached side but somehow deep down Tom and Liam knows that there is something special they have and nothing will change that – and that is what we are trying to show.
We find this story unique and exciting. We feel in most peoples’ minds the idea of a rock star and a gentle caring father simply can’t coexist. We wanted to investigate how this is possible and most importantly, we think it’s a heart-warming story with a twist that’s worth telling.
At the end of this, we hope the audience will be able to hold back prejudice against single fathers and the general perspective of “single parenting is bad”. Although we are only students, we feel that this is an important part of the society that is often misinterpreted and under-valued – hence the making of this documentary, to show the public even with such an “extreme” career, a good father-and-son relationship can still be maintained. We think that it is important to put this message across as there are so few single dads in the UK. In 2004 there were 254 single fathers as oppose to 2829 single mothers. Only 2% of families had a single father. This shows that Tom is in a fairly unique position and yet he manages to juggle being a good father with trying to become famous.
Proposal 12/11/08
“Daddy’s in a band” is a four minute documentary following a day in the life of a single father as he juggles the troubles of caring for his young son, whilst also dealing with the stress of becoming successful in his rock band.
The documentary will be set in Raunds, a small town 20 miles from Northampton, where our character Tom Robbins and his 4 year old son Liam live.
Starting in the morning, we will film the routine of getting ready and the walk to school. During the ten minute walk, we will film him talking and joking around with his son, using long shots as well as close up profiles to give the audience both the wide and the finer perspective. The audio will be gentle morning (walking music).
This opening sequence will be used to demonstrate that our story is about an everyday father-and-son so that we can build upon this image as the film progresses – which will later be contrasted by a substantial amount.
In the next sequence we will be following the private time of Tom as he goes about his daily rituals of household chores and composing music. This is the point where we get to know him better through a series of informal questions, finding out about his past and how he came to be in the current situation. We will then learn his hopes and fears as we move on to discuss his views on the present and the future for both himself and Liam.
As he goes about his song writing, we will be finding out details of the band and the contrasting side of his story. This is one of the ways that we are going to build up the overall energy of the film.
We will be using a talking head style of documentation allowing extra cutaways for post-production. This sequence will be done mainly with medium shots with close ups on his face and his hands (for cutaways and to demonstrate his abilities in creating songs and playing guitar etc.). The mask of the contrasting side of the story will be slowly unveiled to the audience from this point. This, we feel, will also display the emotional depth of their relationship. The bond the Father and son have is an immense dependence. Something that we can hopefully pick up on, this will again increase the energy of the film.
As it nears the end of another school day, we set off to pick Liam up from his class – however due to the complications with filming at schools, we have decided to have Tom and Liam walk through the front door with them in the same clothing they did in the morning to show that time has passed. The audience will accept this cutaway as natural as nothing “new” has been shown. This will not only save hitches with filming at school but also practically speaking, moving the crew around. The next shot will be the pair leaving the house with, setting off to the park for a bit of father-and-son time. The subsequent shots will follow-on from the park playtime to dinner, which will be in the park with chips on a bench somewhere. The style will be similar to the morning scene in which the more emotive side of the story will be further investigated. However, we will start to build up the other side of the story at his point – by perhaps switching the style of audio to something a little more “upbeat”.
The succeeding sequence will be the pair once again returning home to get ready for Tom’s gig – during which we will be able to interview Liam informally and alone, finding out about this amazing 4 year old kid. Further questions will enable us to gain insights on his thoughts and views on daddy and his career. This will be a build up towards the other side of the story too. When they return to the house we want to have a few clips of Liam sat behind his own miniature drum kit and answering some simple questions, if we include this into our documentary we will be able to get another view on the situation that the father and son are in. As the questions are directed to Liam we know we will get an honest account on his thoughts due to his age and our audience are likely to be moved by this approach.
We will then attend the gig with two cameras, one onstage and one downstage. We will film Tom at his gig whilst Liam is sat backstage/within the crowd to watch his father.
This part of the film will be the “gem” showing the contrasting side of his life. Most of it will be long and medium shots to show less attachment (series of close-ups conclusively leads the audience to feel more personally in-touch). However close-ups will be included during the shooting stage to ensure enough editing material is available for post-production.
We may want to pursue this bit as if he is out there rocking the world, far beyond reach of his child to enhance the contrast between the emotive and the supposed-to-be-successful detached side but somehow deep down Tom and Liam knows that there is something special they have and nothing will change that – and that is what we are trying to show.
We find this story unique and exciting. We feel in most peoples’ minds the idea of a rock star and a gentle caring father simply can’t coexist. We wanted to investigate how this is possible and most importantly, we think it’s a heart-warming story with a twist that’s worth telling.
At the end of this, we hope the audience will be able to hold back prejudice against single fathers and the general perspective of “single parenting is bad”. Although we are only students, we feel that this is an important part of the society that is often misinterpreted and under-valued – hence the making of this documentary, to show the public even with such an “extreme” career, a good father-and-son relationship can still be maintained. We think that it is important to put this message across as there are so few single dads in the UK. In 2004 there were 254 single fathers as oppose to 2829 single mothers. Only 2% of families had a single father. This shows that Tom is in a fairly unique position and yet he manages to juggle being a good father with trying to become famous.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
BackStage :
Creating a documentary
Even though the documentary is commonly thought as a 'boring' kind of film, I've found that making one is extremely interesting.
The good communication between the group, the mutual artistic vision, and the desire to produce a truly professional piece of cinematography are the elements that bind us together in this project.
Short Plot of the Documentary
Tom Robbins is by night a guitarist and a music composer in an up and coming rock band called "The Arbitors". But during the day he transforms into a normal loving single dad to his four year old son Liam.
This film follows his everyday life, and his struggle to balance fathership and a career in the music industry.
Creating a documentary
Even though the documentary is commonly thought as a 'boring' kind of film, I've found that making one is extremely interesting.
The good communication between the group, the mutual artistic vision, and the desire to produce a truly professional piece of cinematography are the elements that bind us together in this project.
Short Plot of the Documentary
Tom Robbins is by night a guitarist and a music composer in an up and coming rock band called "The Arbitors". But during the day he transforms into a normal loving single dad to his four year old son Liam.
This film follows his everyday life, and his struggle to balance fathership and a career in the music industry.
Daddy's in a band!
This year my project for the first term at Nottingham Trent University, is the creation of a short documentary film, titled "Daddy's in a Band".
There's a group of five people including me, undertaking this project, as it is important to compartmentalise our work, in order to complete this demanding film.
My official assignment is director of photography. To explain this as simply as possible, a director of photography is someone who supervises the filming of movies, essentialy being responsible for the look and feel of a piece of cinematography. Three things are necessary to become a good director of photography : training, experience and a good eye. On set, he/she supervises camera and lighting crews, and he/she will work closely with the set designers, costumers and make up artists. The director of photography and the director work closely together to achieve the desired look of a finished piece. A director of photography may also be involved with the post production, working with the sound and colour artists, to develop the film.
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
David Lynch
David Lynch is a filmmaker, painter, composer, video artist and performance artist. I really like his insight of reality through film and images, the complexity of his aesthetics and presentation and his distinctive and unorthodox approach to narrative filmmaking. Projects like Eraserhead, Rabbits, Twin Peaks,
.
Shirin Neshat
She is an inspiration for me. First of all because she is a woman and because she represents Middle Eastern culture closes to the Cypriot culture. The fact that an Iranian woman of a strict Muslim background is today acknowledged as one of the premier contemporary visual artists of our times encourages women of all backgrounds to pursue their dreams and aspirations in this field.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Few days ago when I was surfing on the Internet I found this web site http://www.bitefight.gr/. It is a game that gives you the opportunity to create a character and be a part of the war between werewolves and vampires. I liked it because it is easy and funny.
Second life
In Second Life there are a lot of places to visit, hang around, explore and meet people. Today I made two new friends. I joined some clubs, shopping malls and observed what people is doing in this 3d environment. I really liked a place called
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Second Life
My first thoughts when I created a character in Second Life were not so positive. At first I didn’t like the graphics and after that I couldn’t imagine my self spending time in a virtual world.
Soon all these changed because I realized that as much time as you spend in that kind of games you start appreciate what they have to offer and you start to like them. Furthermore, you have the opportunity to meet people, make friends and visit virtual places. Each day you will catch your self wanting to log in and spend some time in there.
My first thoughts when I created a character in Second Life were not so positive. At first I didn’t like the graphics and after that I couldn’t imagine my self spending time in a virtual world.
Soon all these changed because I realized that as much time as you spend in that kind of games you start appreciate what they have to offer and you start to like them. Furthermore, you have the opportunity to meet people, make friends and visit virtual places. Each day you will catch your self wanting to log in and spend some time in there.
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