Shoot 3: Smoking/Tea Making Sequences

Shoot 3: Smoking/Tea Making Sequences

Sunday 18^th Sunday 2012

6.00pm – 9.00pm

Cast: Mike Evans (Homeless Man) & Lewis Marks (Support Worker)

Crew: Natalia Gonzalez, Finian Pye & Myself

Equipment: Panasonic HDC SD900, shot gun mic, tripod

Location: Midland Road, Old Market, Bristol & My House

What we did:

The aim of this shoot was to capture some extreme close ups of each character smoking, and each character making a cup of tea. The idea was that the audience will assume that it was the homeless man smoking, and the support worker making the tea. I wanted to film each character doing each action so that I can experiment with this in postproduction, possibly merging the opacity of certain shots to give the illusion the characters are actually merging into one.

What went well?

I managed to capture all of the shots I needed and was also able to capture a couple of nice close up and medium close up shots of both the homeless man and the support worker which I felt looked really good. These shots were similar to the shots in the beginning of Hunger where the prison warden is smoking outside stood next to a wall, except my shots are much closer than these. I’m not sure when or if I will definitely use these shots but I thought they worked well as potential character introduction shots as they simply show each character stood by a wall leaving the audience with nothing but their visual appearance to base an opinion on.

What didn’t go well?

There were numerous problems with this shoot. Firstly, I forgot part of Mike’s homeless man costume so had to drive back to collect it, meaning we were slightly later starting than anticipated – only 15 minutes but still enough to have to hurry a bit more than I’d have liked. Secondly, we were supposed to be filming in the tea making in the Bristol Methodist Centre – a homeless day center where I used to volunteer. I had picked up the keys from the manager earlier in the week but there must’ve been a double booking as there was a meeting in place in the main room where I had intended to film. The meeting was going on till 8pm, which was too late for me as cast and crew had other plans for the evening. We decided to capture the footage in my kitchen in the end. As the shots are all extreme close ups, the background isn’t too important as there isn’t enough visible to give away the location, I did quite want to capture some establishing shots of just the posters on the walls and so on, to give the audience an idea of the setting. This is something I can do at a later time if I still feel it is necessary. Finally, after having to rearrange a location for the tea making shots, we began to lose the light and being outdoors meant there was no way of adjusting this. Luckily I had the HMC camera, along with the Panasonic and my Canon 550D so was able to switch between cameras to find out which one worked better at low lighting- it turned out that the Panasonic was considerably better and we were able to get some light from a street light which is was hopefully enough to light each shot effectively. I have had to warn my actors that we may need to reshoot these sequences but I am hopeful that I have been lucky and that the footage is okay, as it looked good on the camera monitor.

Shoot 2: Support Worker/Estate Agent Interview

Shoot 2: Support Worker/Estate Agent Interview

Saturday 17^th March 2012

2.30pm – 5.30pm

Cast: Lewis Marks (Support Worker) & Sally Bartram (Estate Agent)

Crew: Finian Pye & Myself

Equipment: HMC camera, Panasonic HDC SD900 camera, 2 x shot gun mics, 2 x tripods, Red Head Lighting kit.

Location: Towry Law Offices, Bristol City Centre

What we did:

The aim of this shoot was to conduct the same interview as with the homeless man and the support worker, but with the support worker and an estate agent. The idea is that the support worker is collecting the keys for a new house and is asked by the estate agent to answer a few ‘routine questions’ which then leads on to the same set of questions being asked as in the night shelter. The only difference in this scene is that rather than going through the risk assessment form, the estate agent talks the support worker through the rules and regulations, which are again those that apply to the night shelter.

This is another relatively static sequence in which both actors are sat at a desk the entire time. The aim was to capture similar shots to those in the initial homeless man/support worker interview.

What went well?

Having an extra crewmember to help out worked really well in terms of being able to change the set up of cameras and lights quicker. My mum (playing the estate agent) did a fantastic job. She is a financial advisor and is used to conducting interviews with clients and just acted in a similar, professional way as she would for her paid job. This also really helped Lewis get into character as he admitted afterwards to feeling quite intimidated. He hadn’t actually read the terms and conditions before so was hearing them for the first time on camera in the first shot captured making his reactions much more real as well as some of the rules weren’t what he was expecting.

What didn’t go well?

Despite having been to my mum’s office many times in the past, I hadn’t come down to access it in terms of a potential film set, this meant that the layout was quite new to me. I the choice of three potential meeting rooms to film in one was simply too large and would’ve looked strange with only two people in it, and the other one’s, despite being a much more appropriate size, had a very large table in the middle of the room which was too big to move and became quite awkward in terms of setting up equipment in order to achieve the best angles. As a result, I wasn’t able to recreate the same shots I had captured in the earlier shoot and had to become slightly more creative with the positioning and angling of the camera.

There was also a large white board behind my actors, which caused a major glare when the lights were turned on, this again meant I had to work really hard when positioning the equipment as unfortunately I was unable to move it.

Shoot 1: Homeless Man/Support Worker Interview

Shoot 1: Homeless Man/Support Worker Interview

Saturday 17^th March 2012

9.30am- 12.30pm

Cast: Mike Evans (Homeless Man) & Lewis Marks (Support Worker)

Crew: Myself

Equipment: HMC camera, Panasonic HDC SD900 camera, 2 x shot gun mics, 2 x tripods, Red Head Lighting kit.

Location: PH86, St Matthias Campus, Fishponds, Bristol

What we did:

The first shoot this weekend was the main interview between the homeless man and the support worker. This was filmed in one location, with both actors sat at a small table for the duration of the scene. I wanted to experiment with different camera angles, high and low angles to show power switches between the characters, shots with both actors talking directly to the camera to put the audience in the position of each character, close ups of each characters’ eyes and mouth and establishing shots based on the interview sequence in Hunger. I also wanted to film each actor reading each set of lines; so once with the homeless man answering the interview questions as you would expect a homeless man to, and once where he’s asking the questions, something you wouldn’t expect him to do – and the same with the support worker.

 What went well?

I knew I wasn’t going to have a crew with me to help with this shoot so I tried to plan everything as best as possible, I also was very aware that Mike had to be finished and dropped off as close to 1pm as possible. I spoke with the campus CSOs and the technical instructors and was able to set the equipment up in PH86 on Friday afternoon and leave it locked in there overnight. This was really good as it meant on Saturday morning I didn’t have to spend a further 20 minutes getting everything in the correct position.

Having previously held a run through in PH86, once with Fin practicing with the equipment, and once with Mike and Lewis, I already had a clear idea of the shots I wanted to achieve. This again meant that I could quickly set up each shot without having to worry about what was and wasn’t going to work.

My actors were both really prepared for the day following briefing earlier in the week and I ensured that we all took regular breaks to get out of the room which quickly became stuffy due to the small size and the hot lights. This gave my actors time to relax and gave myself a few minutes to collect my thoughts and mentally assess the footage I’d captured, and what I had left to capture.

What didn’t go well?

Not having a production crew made things a little harder, especially since I was filming on two cameras simultaneously. This meant that I had to set one camera up and rolling then run over to the other one and set that one up before calling ‘action’. It also meant I couldn’t monitor the sound or what the each camera was capturing constantly. However, having already held the practice shoot meant I was confident in what each shot looked like. Sound did prove problematic and I have ended up with the footage from the HMC camera being recorded in mono rather than stereo which is annoying but is something I know can be fixed in postproduction.

Script Run Through/Briefing for Shoots: Thursday 15th March

I spoke with Mike Evans, my actor playing the Homeless Man and suggested a meeting to run over the script as he had a few suggestions for re-phrasing some of the lines so they felt more natural.
I spent the evening reading through the script with him so he could grasp the lines. We attempted running through using the 'homeless forms' that I'd created (shown in a previous blog entry) with Mike improvising his lines. This proved very useful as it made the interview conversation seem much more natural, it also made Mike feel more confident overall about the coming film shoot.

Having spent this time briefing Mike on the coming shoot, I called Lewis (who lives in Exeter so was unable to meet with us this evening) and took him through all the changes and suggestions we had gone through.

One of the main changes I have made to this scene came following a discussion with my workshop leader Rod. Rod suggested that rather than have the Homeless Man instantly start interviewing the Support Worker, I lead up to the change with both characters taking on their normal roles - so the Support Worker beginning the interview then the Homeless Man taking over. This was a good idea as it played on the existing stereotypes with each character acting the way the audience would expect. I decided to have the Support Worker ask the initial, basic questions (name, date of birth and so on) and Mike suggested that the turning point could be asking for the Homeless Man's national insurance number.

These are the additional lines/stage directions I have added following this:

SW: Okay, and what's your national insurance number?

HM: (taking questionnaire and pen from SW) Why don't you tell me your national insurance number?

SW: (confused) I'm not telling you that! Why are you asking me the questions?

HM: These are just routine questions we ask anyone who's staying in our night service.

The interview conversation will then continue as per the original script.

I ran through all of this with Lewis over the phone and he understood the changes and is happy to go ahead with them.

In terms of costume I have asked Mike if he can bring some old trousers and an old t-shirt that are slightly mismatched and ill fitting if possible. This will give the impression that they are either really old, or items he has had donated from various other shelters that weren't selected out of fashionable choice, but out of lack of other options. I am going to provide a large black puffer jacket, a woolen hat and some fingerless gloves - the hat and jacket to suggest he has been using them to shelter from the elements, and the fingerless gloves as they are something I feel are commonly associated with homeless people. For the support worker, I have asked Lewis to wear normal clothes, jeans and a shirt - working in the night shelter required us to dress comfortably but not overly smart in a way that deliberately separated us from the service users visually, making them feel uncomfortable in their clothes.

In preparation for the shoot on Saturday, I am clearing the room of all it's clutter - there are lots of filing cabinets and bags of old papers and so in there which are quite distracting. I want the scene to be as visually simple as possible so as not to distract the audience from the conversation and the characters.

Preparation For Filming

Below is are the storyboards I created illustrating
 the opening sequence. In this sequence we see someone rolling and smoking a cigarette, and someone making a cup of tea. The idea is that the audience automatically assume it was the Homeless Man smoking and the Support Worker making the tea, however, I plan on filming each sequence twice with each actor doing each role. The shots are extreme close ups so it will be hard to tell which actor is doing which action, I'm hoping to be able to experiment with this sequence in post production potentially adjusting the opacity of each shot so the two characters literally merge into one.

I also drew a rough sketch showing the costume I have in mind for my Homeless Man character. The clothes are based on the images shown in my early blog posts and my own experience.

Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity

Goffman, E (1968) Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity Penguin Group: London

I read the opening chapter of 'Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity' by Erving Goffman to get a bit more inspiration for my film shoot this weekend. I found the information particularly interesting and despite being quite an old source, very relevant to the subjects I am exploring in my film - stereotypes, identity, and so on.

Goffman begins the chapter by discussing how in Ancient Greece, any social deviant was marked so society could see that they were different - this was called a stigma. A stigma can take three main forms; physical stigma which relates to deformities or visible disabilities for example, stigma relating to a flawed, weak or undesirable character traits, and finally 'tribal' stigma which refers to the race, religion, personal history and so on of the individual in question (Goffman, E: 1968) Goffman believes that we have been culturally trained to react in certain ways to people carrying with them the various stigma described above. He talks mainly about the stigma that are immediately recognisable upon meeting or encountering an individual, and expresses the view that we automatically, subconsciously, categorise an individuals social identity/status within the first few moments of meeting them. (Goffman, E: 1968)

Goffman also believes that we are able to anticipate the certain interactions we will have with stigmatised individuals and have again been culturally trained how to react and interact in such situations,
"The routines of social intercourse in established settings allows us to deal with anticipated others without special attention or thought" (Goffman, E: 1968: 12)

How this relates to my project?

This is all relevant to my film as according to Goffman, homelessness is a stigma. We have been brought up with a stereotypical view of how a homeless person dresses and behaves, where they typically 'hang out' and so on. We have also been culturally conditioned with how to interact with a homeless individual, for example, putting a few coins into their hat if they are begging, or simply ignoring them.

The character of the support worker in my film has been brought up with a slightly different set of rules for dealing with interactions with homeless people due to the nature of his job, however, he still has a set of expectations for such encounters. My film breaks these anticipated set ups involving homeless people through the role reversal of the two characters. The homeless man behaves in a way that neither the audience or the support worker has anticipated thus forcing them to question what it was that immediately made them assume he would behave that way in the first place. The character of the support worker embodies the confusion of the audience, and in his line "Have you answered these questions?" he emphasises the idea, here suggested by Goffman, that stigmatised, in this case homeless, individuals are slightly 'less than human'. (Goffman: 1968)

Shot Lists for Saturday and Sunday

Below are the shot lists for each different location - I will print out a copy and tick off each shot as I capture it. Having already carried out both a practice shoot and a script read through with my actors, I have a good idea as to which shots work and which don't. I also have a few ideas I would like to experiment with.

Shot List

Saturday 17^th March 2012

9.30am – 12.30pm

PH86, St Matts

Actors: Homeless Man (HM) played by Mike Evans & Support Worker (SW) played by Lewis Marks

• ·      Medium shot with both actors on screen
• ·      CU of HM from the side
• ·      CU of SW from the side
• ·      CU of HM from front
• ·      CU of SW from front
• ·      Over the shoulder of HM
• ·      Over the shoulder of SW
• ·      Shot of HM shadow
• ·      Shot of SW shadow
• ·      ECU of HM hand filling out form
• ·      ECU of SW hands holding cup of tea
• ·      ECU of SW drinking tea
• ·      Shot of HM and SW in each others costumes
• ·      ECU of HM mouth talking
• ·      ECU of SW mouth talking
• ·      ECU of HM hand/pen tapping on desk
• ·      Low angle of HM
• ·      High angle of SW

2.30pm – 4.30pm

Towry Offices, Bristol City Centre

Actors: Estate Agent (EA) played by Sally Bartram & Support Worker (SW) played by Lewis Marks

• ·      Medium shot with both actors on screen
• ·      CU of EA from the side
• ·      CU of SW from the side
• ·      CU of EA from front
• ·      CU of SW from front
• ·      Over the shoulder of EA
• ·      Over the shoulder of SW
• ·      Shot of EA shadow
• ·      Shot of SW shadow
• ·      ECU of EA hand filling out form
• ·      ECU of SW hands holding cup of tea
• ·      ECU of SW drinking tea
• ·      Shot of EA and SW in each others costumes
• ·      ECU of EA mouth talking
• ·      ECU of SW mouth talking
• ·      ECU of EA hand/pen tapping on desk
• ·      Low angle of EA
• ·      High angle of SW

Sunday 18^th March 2012

6.00pm – 7.00pm

Bristol Methodist Centre, Midland Road

Actors: Homeless Man (HM) played by Mike Evans & Support Worker (SW) played by Lewis Marks

• ·      ECU of hands tearing green card
• ·      ECU of hands pulling out rizla
• ·      ECU of hands putting tobacco into rizla
• ·      ECU of hands rolling
• ·      ECU of tongue licking rizla
• ·      ECU of thumb sparking lighter
• ·      (ECU of hand striking match) – possible alternative
• ·      ECU of cigarette ember glowing
• ·      ECU of mouth blowing out smoke
• ·      ECU of hand flicking cigarette
• ·      ECU of foot stubbing out cigarette
• ·      ECU of hand grabbing cup
• ·      ECU of turning kettle on
• ·      ECU of sugar going into cup
• ·      ECU of tea bag going into cup
• ·      ECU of kettle steaming
• ·      ECU of kettle switching off
• ·      ECU of water being poured
• ·      ECU of tea bag being squeezed
• ·      ECU of milk being poured in
• ·      ECU of tea being stirred

(I want shots of both HM & SW doing each action)

Preparation for Film Shoot: 17th - 18th March 2012

This weekend is my official production weekend. I am hoping to capture all of my footage this over Saturday and Sunday which is a very short space of time meaning everything needs to be planned very precisely. I am filming in 3 different locations over the whole weekend and am using 3 different actors. I have decided to add in another interview sequence in which the Support Worker is meeting with an Estate Agent to collect the keys for his new house, when collecting the keys, the Estate Agent asks to run through some routine questions and then proceeds to go through the same interview questions as in the previous interview sequence. This is still currently a work in process - I am re-working the current script to make it relevant for this sequence and am editing the questionnaires slightly so they are more relevant for the Estate Agent sequence.

Below is the 'To Do List' I have conducted to ensure I am on track with organizing everything for this weekend.

To Do List

General

• ·      Hire equipment
• ·      Complete risk assessment and get it signed
• ·      Pick up equipment
• ·      Format SD cards
• ·      Charge my camera battery

Interview Sequence in PH86

• ·      Get permission from CSOs to have PH86 opened on Saturday
• ·      Clear excess clutter from PH86
• ·      Work out costumes for actors
• ·      Write shot list
• ·      Meet with actors to run through script and brief

Interview Sequence in Office

• ·      Create slightly different questionnaire
• ·      Write script
• ·      Work out costumes for actors
• ·      Write shot list
• ·      Meet with actors to run through script and brief

Stereotype shots at Bristol Methodist Centre

• ·      Complete storyboards
• ·      Collect keys from Ian Webb (centre manager)
• ·      Write shot list
• ·      Meet with cast and crew to brief

Performativity and Affect in the Homeless City

Cloke, P et. al (2008) Performativity and Affect in the Homeless City. In: Society and Space vol 26 pp 241-263.

In this journal article, Paul Cloke et al explore the different performances homeless people engage in across the city as a means of manipulating the space they are occupying to their advantage. They split the 'homeless city' into places to sleep, eat, earn and hang out and explore the different performances put on in each different space.

The description of the performance and behaviours that take place within the homeless day centres and night shelters were of particular interest to myself with regards to my current project - although lots of the information seemed to only emphasise what I have already learnt from my experience working in such places.

'Places to Sleep' (Cloke et al: 2008) and the influences this has had on my project

Cloke et al discuss life within a hostel being extremely regulated,
"Hostel life is highly regulated both by the formal rules restricting entry and residence (no alcohol or drugs, no families, couples, or visitors) and by informal codes of practise established amongst residents themselves..." (Cloke et al: 2008: 247-248)
The strict rules and regulations mentioned here back up my own experience working in the night shelter and are echoed in the 'Homeless Forms' I created as a prop for the film.

One quote that I found particularly interesting and relevant for my project is as follows:
"...hostel life was characterised by many emotions as moving around often envoked acute feelings of despair anger, frustration, and fear. More specifically, far from hostel life providing for the feelings of safety, comfort, and control more usually associated with a sense of 'home', for many it meant engaging in constant and careful impression management in order to both gain access to the facility, to supervision, and to staff, and more simply to make it safely through the day." (Cloke et al: 2008: 248)
The emotions being described here are expressed in my film through the character of the Support Worker. Despite him not actually being homeless, his frustration and confusion with the altered reality he is experiencing cause him to submit to the behaviour expected of a homeless person in this situation - the 'impression management' discussed in the above quote.

Although lots of the information discussed in this journal article echoes my existing understanding, it has been really interesting to have someone else back up my own thoughts. Reading this article has emphasised how the rules in place in the various homeless services I have worked in are transferable and recognisable across many other such spaces. This is very useful to know as it means that anyone watching my film, coming from a background of support work or experience working with the homeless will hopefully also pick this up immediately.

Ideas Development Workshop : 29th February 2012

In our workshop today, we were asked to re-pitch our ideas to the rest of the group. This gave us the chance to articulate our ideas, and other group members the opportunity to ask us questions about our projects. This was really useful in developing our ideas as some of the questions asked were things we hadn't necessarily thought of.

When pitching our ideas, our tutor Rod asked us to think about the following:
What form is the project taking?
How are you questioning this?

My project is a short film with a fictional narrative questioning the stereotypes of homelessness.

The importance of this session was to realise that my film isn't a film ABOUT homelessness, it is a film in which the stereotypes of homelessness are explored in a manner that leaves the audience questioning their use of such stereotypes and the impact this has on their knowledge and understanding of the homeless subculture.

Homeless Questionnaire Sheets

Below are the questionnaire sheets I have created to be filled out by the homeless man/support worker throughout my interview sequence. They are based on the questions asked at the Night Shelter where I used to work and I have tried to make them look as real as possible. The questions form the fundamental elements of my script for this scene and thrrough the use of the questionnaire, my actors can taylor their lines if they need to. Mike, the actor playing the 'Homeless Man', has already made a few suggestions as to how he could rephrase certain lines to make them seem slightly more natural which I am very open to. Having the questionnaires in front of the actors as a prop in this scene also gives them both a guideline if they forget a line.
I might ask both actors to go through the scene without using their scripted lines, just imagining they are actually in that scenario filling out the questionnaire. I feel this would be beneficial to both myself as director and my two actors.