Trent's BCT Journal, Entry Two
'The Three Little Pills'
Well, I have to say, this project was... Interesting.
Taking a radical departure from building and programming robots, this time we were asked to do film... With a twist. Instead of just simply making a film about whatever we fancied, we were to make an adaptation of a fairy tale. Of course, there had to be another twist, and we were put in groups based on the results of our last project in which we were each given a specific genre to make a film of.
Unfortunately (or fortunately?) a few of us were stuck floating between groups, but after some awkward running around the final two of us came together to form a small group of our own. So far, it was myself and Jonathan (AKA The Swedish Box Man), whose idea from the start was to make a movie entirely in flash. Being a person who is quite familiar with and interested in Flash, I was on board from the start. However, we were told that two people was simply not enough and we had to either find someone else or split. By the next day, we had 'poached' a new member from another group - Conor. With our small size sorted, we continued to develop an idea, eventually settling on a black comedy adaptation of 'The Little Red Riding Hood'.
Our success was cut short, however, when we talked to one of the tutors and found out that we would not be able to do the movie entirely in Flash as it would omit much of the filmmaking process. We discussed various way around it, and settled on a 50/50 approach - half Flash, half live action. Many concepts for Red Riding Hood were created, but it was decided that it would be too hard to blend these two approaches with the fairy tale we had selected. After some discussion, we decided to use the Three Little Pigs as a basis instead, using fast food restaurants as analogues for the three pig's houses. Of course, we had to have some way of stopping the actor in the real world at the equivalent of the biggest and baddest house, which we solved by having the character run out of money at BurgerFuel (home of the biggest, baddest and most expensive burgers).
With the idea sorted, we laid down a simple script for the movie. Interestingly, we left the live-action script fairly open while the Flash script was quite strict. We did this in order to both make the Flash easier for Jonathan to do at home, and to provide contrast as Flash is a highly scripted, programmed form of video whereas film has much room for improvisation - something I, as the actor, did quite a lot of.
Filming was straightforward enough; aside from the complication of acquiring a burger without filming inside the premises of a restaurant, it went fairly smoothly... Even with the obligatory asshattery in between takes. Afterwards, Jonathan put in some late nights working on the Flash content and we were almost done.
The last touch was the soundtrack, which we used to better take advantage of the film's cartoonish nature. Along with old-style cartoon sound effects, we used a lively classical soundtrack. This was in part due to the fact that it made the film seem rather whimsical, and also because most music that old is free from copyright. Needless to say, Beethoven's 'Ode to Joy' was a rather fitting compliment to my ecstasy upon smacking a large burger into my face.
Overall, I would say this project has been both the most stressful and most fun out of everything we have done this year. Due to the nature of the film we were able to have a fair few laughs, but it also highlighted the importance of time management and planning - something we (myself more than anyone) were somewhat lacking in - as well as helping us develop our skills in filmmaking. Still, even with our somewhat unorthodox approach to the video, it was well worth both the final product as well the skills and insight we gained from making it.
Taking a radical departure from building and programming robots, this time we were asked to do film... With a twist. Instead of just simply making a film about whatever we fancied, we were to make an adaptation of a fairy tale. Of course, there had to be another twist, and we were put in groups based on the results of our last project in which we were each given a specific genre to make a film of.
Unfortunately (or fortunately?) a few of us were stuck floating between groups, but after some awkward running around the final two of us came together to form a small group of our own. So far, it was myself and Jonathan (AKA The Swedish Box Man), whose idea from the start was to make a movie entirely in flash. Being a person who is quite familiar with and interested in Flash, I was on board from the start. However, we were told that two people was simply not enough and we had to either find someone else or split. By the next day, we had 'poached' a new member from another group - Conor. With our small size sorted, we continued to develop an idea, eventually settling on a black comedy adaptation of 'The Little Red Riding Hood'.
Our success was cut short, however, when we talked to one of the tutors and found out that we would not be able to do the movie entirely in Flash as it would omit much of the filmmaking process. We discussed various way around it, and settled on a 50/50 approach - half Flash, half live action. Many concepts for Red Riding Hood were created, but it was decided that it would be too hard to blend these two approaches with the fairy tale we had selected. After some discussion, we decided to use the Three Little Pigs as a basis instead, using fast food restaurants as analogues for the three pig's houses. Of course, we had to have some way of stopping the actor in the real world at the equivalent of the biggest and baddest house, which we solved by having the character run out of money at BurgerFuel (home of the biggest, baddest and most expensive burgers).
With the idea sorted, we laid down a simple script for the movie. Interestingly, we left the live-action script fairly open while the Flash script was quite strict. We did this in order to both make the Flash easier for Jonathan to do at home, and to provide contrast as Flash is a highly scripted, programmed form of video whereas film has much room for improvisation - something I, as the actor, did quite a lot of.
Filming was straightforward enough; aside from the complication of acquiring a burger without filming inside the premises of a restaurant, it went fairly smoothly... Even with the obligatory asshattery in between takes. Afterwards, Jonathan put in some late nights working on the Flash content and we were almost done.
The last touch was the soundtrack, which we used to better take advantage of the film's cartoonish nature. Along with old-style cartoon sound effects, we used a lively classical soundtrack. This was in part due to the fact that it made the film seem rather whimsical, and also because most music that old is free from copyright. Needless to say, Beethoven's 'Ode to Joy' was a rather fitting compliment to my ecstasy upon smacking a large burger into my face.
Overall, I would say this project has been both the most stressful and most fun out of everything we have done this year. Due to the nature of the film we were able to have a fair few laughs, but it also highlighted the importance of time management and planning - something we (myself more than anyone) were somewhat lacking in - as well as helping us develop our skills in filmmaking. Still, even with our somewhat unorthodox approach to the video, it was well worth both the final product as well the skills and insight we gained from making it.
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