Dougal First Shoot

This morning I popped over to Dougals home where his studio is, I was really looking forward to this shoot and it didn’t fail to meet my expectations. The videos of his animations he had shown me prior to today were fantastic, my mind was already flooded with speculative imagery of his home and studio. After a long wait on the doorstep he eventually came to the door, I immediately realised the reason for the long wait. Dougal had gone into hospital to have surgery on his leg just two days before now. He was on crutches and was obviously restricted in his movements. After having a brew and a little sit down we got to work.

Now this shoot would be similar to Jocelyn’s, with the added difficulty of structuring shots around hiding his leg, and the fact he unable to stand for too long. As i wanted the film to capture his usual day-to-day routine, i couldn’t have crutches and plaster cast drawing attention. It soon became apparent the only logical way to do so was to have him sitting behind something. Luckily his studio had a desk for him to sit at, unfortunately he was a little reluctant to film in there today as his son had been using it as a bedroom for the past week. So instead we went up to his study. All the shots involving Dougal would be build around him sitting at his desk, so i would be pretty limited with shots involving him, luckily the study was full of little objects that would really help portray Dougals character. As a result this shoot was almost entirely directed, with the exception of reading a few emails and answering phones. With this sort of control i was able to take full advantage of my tracking system,  Dougal was a breeze to direct, he loves the limelight. At the end of the day i knew i had some really nice shots in the bag, the next time i would visit i would be filming in the studio.

Below are some images of the shoot.

Oh.. below is an example of Dougal’s animation work. Check his channel for more.

Jocelyn First Shoot

Tonight I arrange to spend the evening with Jocelyn during her night shift, I’ll be following her about the entire evening, staying mostly out of sight. She tells me not to expect much as the film their showing tonight hasn’t had much interest. I went along unsure of what to expect anyway. The first hour was pretty dead, customer wise, mainly just Jocelyn and Tony the barman sat in the office. It worked out well though, with the lack of customer to server i could almost direct Jocelyn as though filming a scripted piece. One shot i was really eager to get was a slow inward track towards Jocelyn sitting center frame in the pay box. It worked out brilliantly, really looking forward to incorporate this shot in the final edit. Around half 6 customers started arriving for the 7 o’clock showing, at first i was reluctant to film Jocelyn serving them, fearing a bad reaction from the camera. I shouldn’t had worried, using the DSLR’s when making this type of film really come into their own, filming is so discrete. I remained in the background filming away and was never question as to what i was doing, capturing customer after customer, i was pretty limited in angles and distance, but it worked really well, fitting the voyeuristic style perfectly.

I’m really enjoying this style of film making, shots appear from nowhere and opportunities always revealing themselves, discovering little trinkets and details that tell so much about the person without need of words, this reactive approach to filming is so satisfying. Unlike a directing an actor, it’s as though the moment directs you. Below are a some images of the shots i gathered.

Making Myself Known

During the past few days I have been spending my mornings and afternoons at the Rex, mainly to shoot footage for cutaways, but more importantly to make myself known. Its really important for me that i gain a level of trust and friendship before interviewing. The last thing i want is for the subjects of my interviews to feel anxious and stiff in their answers. I really want the guys all to perceive me as a friend, as apposed to a filmmaker. Amongst the passing conversations I’m starting to feel a connection with the guys. I’ve have lunch with Dougal and watch a film with Steve already. Jocelyn is a little harder of a nut to crack, but I’ll get there.

Below are a few images of the first couple of days filming.

Interview Structure

I have decided to structure all three interviews the same, built on underlying core themes:

Childhood.

The Rex.

Working life, both past and present.

Connection with film industry.

I will approach the interviews without a selected list of to the point questions, instead more of a friendly conversation. The core subjects will be hidden within the conversation. I feel this approach will best suit the type of film I’m trying to make, fitting the voyeuristic style of shooting, they’ll feel more comfortable with sharing information, and their answers will be more genuine. Hopefully.

I found a brief description of lives of both Jocelyn and Dougal on the internet, which will help me when approaching the interviews with the two of them. As much as i want the interviews to be a conversation, I will try to steer them into a direction i seem relevant.

Jocelyn

Jocelyn was born in Kandy a number of years ago and spent an idyllic childhood in Sri Lanka, Ceylon as it was called in those days.  At the age of seven she was sent back to England to a convent boarding school in Kent where she excelled in the school   productions especially as Pooh Bear and as the Pied Piper.  After school, she was accepted by RADA and was contemporary with great names such as Dorothy Tutin,  Barbara Jefford, Peter O’Toole, Alan Bates and Albert Finney to name but a few.

Like all young actors there were periods of ‘resting’ but work came along – with Margaret Rutherford in ‘The Importance of Being Ernest’ which toured Ireland.  She starred with Joss Ackland in ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Oxford Playhouse and later went with the production on its European Tour. 

Jocelyn toured as well with the play ‘I am A Camera’  adapted from Isherwood’s book ‘ Goodbye to Berlin’ in 1951 by John Van Druten and later again adapted as a film ‘Cabaret’.  Jocelyn took the lead as Sally Bowles.

In 1955, Jocelyn played for a year at the New Theatre in St. Martin’s Lane in the production of ‘The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker’ with the great stage and screen actor, Nigel Patrick.  It was at this time that an up-and-coming photographer asked her to sit for him – Tony Armstrong-Jones – later Lord Snowdon.

In between the theatrical engagements, Jocelyn took on film and television parts ; Jocelyn met a young Peter Sellers whilst doing a television special  for  ‘The Dickie Valentine Show’ – they did a sketch together and Jocelyn played Desdemona to Seller’s Othello.

Films included ‘The Beggar’s Opera’ in which she played Molly Brazen,  ‘a Lady of the Town’  –  which was shown at the Rex Cinema during the 2006 Purbeck Film Festival.  Sir Bill Cotton presented Jocelyn with a bouquet of flowers but she modestly refused to come up on the stage for the audience acknowledgement.  The film was directed by the legendary Peter Brook with a screenplay by Christopher Fry and a star-studded cast which included apart from Jocelyn James, Lawrence Olivier, Dorothy Tutin, Stanley Hollloway and  one of the first performances from a singing Kenneth Williams

The demands of a stage career are great and Jocelyn gave up the brilliance of the footlights for love, marriage and her children.  She would never return to the stage.

In 1989 a year after the responsibility for The Rex Cinema was taken over from Rusty Irons, Jocelyn was asked to help.  Like so many good Rex volunteers, she started from the Ice Cream Sales and Usheretting but the lure of the swishing red velvet curtain became so strong that she became more and more involved with the running of the cinema. With her knowledge of stage and film and her enthusiasm, Jocelyn was asked to become a director of the Cinema.

Dougal

Dougal Dixon was born in Dumfries, Scotland, in 1947, and spent most of his youth in the Scottish borderlands. He graduated Bachelor of Science in geology from The University of St Andrews in 1970 and Master of Science in 1972. He has a special interest in fossils and evolution and his research thesis was on the subject of palaeogeography.He is now a full-time writer and book editor specializing in the earth sciences, and has many children’s books and encyclopaedias to his name. He his acquired a reputation for putting over the concepts in a totally novel way. Along these lines his most notable books are After Man: a zoology of the future in which he explained the workings of evolution by postulating the types of animals that may evolve in times to come (optioned by Spielberg’s Dreamworks company); The New Dinosaurs, in which he described the zoogeography of the world by describing what life might be like today had the dinosaurs not become extinct; Man After Man, in which the physical changes to the earth’s environment over the next few million years are described through the eyes of people who have been genetically engineered to cope with them, and Time Exposure (aka The Age of Dinosaurs) in collaboration with wildlife photographer Jane Burton, in which extinct animals are dramatically portrayed in lifelike photographs.

He has made several television appearances, and acted as a consultant and animator for a video programme about dinosaurs. He has acted as presenter for a Japanese television programme about evolution, during which he worked in the Serengeti, the rain forest of Costa Rica and the Galapagos Islands.

He is a great enthusiast of science fiction and has addressed several conventions – usually on the subject of the evolutionary and ecological veracity of science fiction aliens. He is a director and projectionist of the Rex Cinema – a job he does for love of the art-form, not for the money! Dougal is also a skilled caricaturist and with talents in claymation and stop motion has has produced, directed, written and modelled the ever popular Rex Intros.

Confirmed!

Today i got the email confirming my permission to begin filming! She also, added everyone is prepared to partake in an interview if needed. This is fantastic news, I’ll be heading to the Rex tomorrow to begin gathering some cut away and general location shots. I had asked Julie to also email me a list of the employees, their job role and times they worked. I already knew i wanted to include Jocelyn Barnard and Dougal Dixon in the film, as they are both between them the longest serving employees and have particularly interesting backgrounds. With Dougal having connections with Steven Spielberg and Dreamworks and Jocelyn a long serving theater actress with many stories of brushes with fame, working along side Lawrence Olivier and Peter Sellers to name a few. However i was struggling with another who i felt would benefit my film. After a little research I believe i found the last of my three interviewees, Steve lake.

Steven has developed short film and art projects working with UK Government organisations such as V-Inspired, the National Lottery and the Department for Children, Schools and Families.Steven received critical acclaim for his short film And Everything Before (2007), a controversial experiment on 16mm film featuring death and decay, and exploring the process of skinning a deer. Steven continues to show a considered and provoking thirst for matters of fairness, morality and humankind. He has recently completed a feature length documentary, that he is in the process of trying to get it aired on national TV.

Steve is perfect for my film, and will give a nice balance to the content. Each interviewee covering their own area of film.

Change of Direction

I decided to really give this change of idea a go, with a little under 2 months until the deadline for the EMP i have to think on my feet. Realising the amount of time, rather than coming up with a totally different idea i will incorporate some of what i have explored so far, specifically camera movement. An idea that I’m running with is to create a 10 minuet short film based on the people of The Rex, featuring a series of biopic interviews mixed with voyeuristic shots of them at work and location shots, building a better picture of the characters of The Rex. The idea being that The Rex is a totally different cinema experience to what we have become accustom to, the people involved with The Rex aren’t your typical employees you find at your Odeon or Empire. Instead the people of The Rex have a passion for cinema, a passion for film and in cases, real connections with the film world.To give the film a little difference i plan to approach the shooting of the film with the same way i would a narrative based film, I want this piece to feel cinematic, focusing on dynamic shots and building a story of the people I’m interviewing.

With my new idea I had arranged to meet the manager, Julie Sharman at the Rex to go over with her my idea. She seemed very interested and like the idea a lot. However even though she was more than happy to let me go ahead with the film, she had to first propose the idea to the rest of those involved in The Rex at the next committee meeting. She assured me all would be fine though, i spent the rest of that afternoon at the Rex, getting to know a few of the employees and scouting out shots.

I made a little video of some of the shots I’m considering for the film.

Susan Hiller Exhibition

Still with my project stuck in a rut, without a replacement location that felt wright, I went along to London today to see Susan Hillers latest exhibition at Tate Britain. The exhibition focuses on Hiller’s interest in the subconscious or unconscious mind, whether in the form of dreams and memories or as supernatural or visionary experiences. As my film would rely heavily on similar ideas that Susan was exploring with this exhibition, I went along hoping for inspiration. The work was fantastic, two pieces that stood out most for me were ‘An Entertainment’ and ‘Witness’. I couldn’t really see a relevance to my own work, other than the way that my film could emphasize and idea with the use of audio.

The whole day i had my films playing on my mind, reflecting on the chaos of the shoot before last i began to doubt the films success. I have already sacrificed a lot of ideas during the scenes filmed so far, caught up in the spectacle of directing a rather fussy actor, and to be honest he is fussy, constantly making me aware of the time, huffing and puffing in between takes, not the easiest person to direct. Mix that with having to arrange lighting positions and composing the shot, then mix that with a location that’s availability can change in an instant, it’s easy for things to slip your mind. However i have stayed positive until now, i think anyone who has a vision for an idea needs to come to the realisation at some point that everything in their head will not be the final product. Their vision will undoubtedly change through out production, for better or worse you never end up at the exact point you first imagine. I had already come to terms with that, yet the whole time i was questioning just how much i was prepared to loose,  with its production at a stand still i decided to rethink my options. Maybe I’m just simply not cut out for the role of director, with a bigger team i might have a better chance, but considering i wrote the script with simplicity in mind I’m not too sure.

Inspired by a visit to The Tivoli Theatre in Wimbourne, I remebered how interesting the people that ran it where, specifically Andy the projectionist. I got thinking just how cool it would be to shoot a film at a theater, strictly from a location stand point. During the coach trip home i thought up the basis of a film based on and around the people who run The Rex, I had visited it a few times now, and always remember the spectacle of watching a film there. Then it hit me, why not shoot a film based on the The Rex and the people that run it? As my current film ‘The Recluse’ wasn’t really going anywhere at the moment i didn’t see any problem with looking into this idea further.