(Archive) Scottish BFI Film Academy Experience
*Reposted from my former blog*
About three weeks ago I got the email whilst at my Uncle's house telling me 'you got in to the BFI Film Academy Scotland Residential'. Obviously I was overjoyed; I automatically called my parents and said 'you better get me there'. Despite this excitement there was some overshadowing doubt that filled my every thought. I'm not a particularly confident person; I have a multitude of insecurities that often can reduce me to tears. Where I live I'm a fairly outgoing individual, yet still quiet being the listener rather than the speaker most of the time. However as soon as I'm somewhere I have to meet new people and speak to them, I find it incredibly hard. On top of that, I had never been involved with making films when others most likely have.
I'm not going to bore you by going in to the details of what we did day by day but I will tell you what we made and how amazing it was.
The main priority of the whole residential was to make two short films - one per crew of twelve. How long did we have to develop, write, shoot and edit these films? One week. Throughout the time we worked on our films we also got several masterclass's with Scottish Film Industry professionals to help us understand the roles in film and how to get there.
So we pitched each of our ideas to everyone and then six ideas got shortlisted. We then voted on our top two ideas to make. The winners were a one about a mug enthusiast and one about a partially sighted girl who can't use phones when the rest of the world is entranced by them.
We then got to choose which film we would like to work on - I went for the partially sighted girl as my Mum is partially sighted so I could relate to it. Plus I like deep stuff.
One day we got this glorious intensive learning day, we spent about an hour on each section - Directing, Writing, Acting, Camera, Sound and Producing. This enabled the tutors to see what roles would fit each person best when shooting and allowed us to see what we enjoyed and learn a bit too. During the writing section we each wrote a scene of the short film.
Soon enough we got to shooting, one day outside and one day inside. I was on sound - the choice I had put down as my top.
Now I'm going to interrupt myself to tell you something ironic about me being on sound. I was half deaf for most of my life - a charming condition called Glue-Ear or Middle Ear - which meant I struggled to learn and talk for several years. I tried to use hearing aids in England but I was too stubborn to wear them however when I moved to Scotland I realised how it was impacting my speech, reading and learning so I wore a hearing aid. My right ear was considerably worse than my left. And until about a year ago I had always worn a hearing aid. Even now my hearing is not good, it's just at the point where hearing aids don't help me hear any better because I only struggle really bad if there's lots of sound going on. As a part of my hearing issues I learnt to lip-read and this is still an extremely useful skill that I often have to use. I also used to watch films with subtitles all the time.
So reading this do you see how strange it is for me to enjoy and be good at sound? I believe the reason that I enjoy it is because I appreciate it because I rarely got to experience it properly before and the same goes for film scores.
Anyway, through my Mum's partially sighted state the actress and directors were able to get a better idea of how to play the main character and situation - boy am I a useful sod.
The world of a sound guy is extremely riveting. You spend most the day trying to keep the cables from tangling and the rest waiting for the camera to let you plug in, getting the boom guy to do the right thing and laughing at the actors amusing sing-songs. But whatever, apparently I'm a fabulous sound guy.
Through a combination of several staying up till five in morning and filming for two day most of us were completely shattered by the time we got to the editing stage. I do remember distinctly falling asleep a good few times on the first day. Editing is stressful, everyone got completely down during editing. This was probably due to our short film having a song - composed by one of the crew and it's a beautiful tune - and having sync issues and sound issues and just issues.
In the end we got something that was watchable (but the tutors are working on colour grading and the sound) so the final full day we went to our wrap party at the ten-pin bowling and then got back and viewed both of our films. 'A Mug's Life' was hilarious, honestly brilliant and ours is beautiful and I can see will still get more so in the meantime.
It really was a fantastic experience. It made me realise that film is the place I dream of going and that I don't need to be shy, not when you have twenty-three people with the exact same passion as you going for the exact same thing. It meant so much to me that I cried after the viewing, when each person gave a small speech, I cried because that's how much it impacted me. And now I'm back in my house the house that simply doesn't feel like home anymore. How can eight days feel more like home that eight years?
About three weeks ago I got the email whilst at my Uncle's house telling me 'you got in to the BFI Film Academy Scotland Residential'. Obviously I was overjoyed; I automatically called my parents and said 'you better get me there'. Despite this excitement there was some overshadowing doubt that filled my every thought. I'm not a particularly confident person; I have a multitude of insecurities that often can reduce me to tears. Where I live I'm a fairly outgoing individual, yet still quiet being the listener rather than the speaker most of the time. However as soon as I'm somewhere I have to meet new people and speak to them, I find it incredibly hard. On top of that, I had never been involved with making films when others most likely have.
I'm not going to bore you by going in to the details of what we did day by day but I will tell you what we made and how amazing it was.
The main priority of the whole residential was to make two short films - one per crew of twelve. How long did we have to develop, write, shoot and edit these films? One week. Throughout the time we worked on our films we also got several masterclass's with Scottish Film Industry professionals to help us understand the roles in film and how to get there.
So we pitched each of our ideas to everyone and then six ideas got shortlisted. We then voted on our top two ideas to make. The winners were a one about a mug enthusiast and one about a partially sighted girl who can't use phones when the rest of the world is entranced by them.
We then got to choose which film we would like to work on - I went for the partially sighted girl as my Mum is partially sighted so I could relate to it. Plus I like deep stuff.
One day we got this glorious intensive learning day, we spent about an hour on each section - Directing, Writing, Acting, Camera, Sound and Producing. This enabled the tutors to see what roles would fit each person best when shooting and allowed us to see what we enjoyed and learn a bit too. During the writing section we each wrote a scene of the short film.
Soon enough we got to shooting, one day outside and one day inside. I was on sound - the choice I had put down as my top.
Now I'm going to interrupt myself to tell you something ironic about me being on sound. I was half deaf for most of my life - a charming condition called Glue-Ear or Middle Ear - which meant I struggled to learn and talk for several years. I tried to use hearing aids in England but I was too stubborn to wear them however when I moved to Scotland I realised how it was impacting my speech, reading and learning so I wore a hearing aid. My right ear was considerably worse than my left. And until about a year ago I had always worn a hearing aid. Even now my hearing is not good, it's just at the point where hearing aids don't help me hear any better because I only struggle really bad if there's lots of sound going on. As a part of my hearing issues I learnt to lip-read and this is still an extremely useful skill that I often have to use. I also used to watch films with subtitles all the time.
So reading this do you see how strange it is for me to enjoy and be good at sound? I believe the reason that I enjoy it is because I appreciate it because I rarely got to experience it properly before and the same goes for film scores.
Anyway, through my Mum's partially sighted state the actress and directors were able to get a better idea of how to play the main character and situation - boy am I a useful sod.
The world of a sound guy is extremely riveting. You spend most the day trying to keep the cables from tangling and the rest waiting for the camera to let you plug in, getting the boom guy to do the right thing and laughing at the actors amusing sing-songs. But whatever, apparently I'm a fabulous sound guy.
Through a combination of several staying up till five in morning and filming for two day most of us were completely shattered by the time we got to the editing stage. I do remember distinctly falling asleep a good few times on the first day. Editing is stressful, everyone got completely down during editing. This was probably due to our short film having a song - composed by one of the crew and it's a beautiful tune - and having sync issues and sound issues and just issues.
In the end we got something that was watchable (but the tutors are working on colour grading and the sound) so the final full day we went to our wrap party at the ten-pin bowling and then got back and viewed both of our films. 'A Mug's Life' was hilarious, honestly brilliant and ours is beautiful and I can see will still get more so in the meantime.
It really was a fantastic experience. It made me realise that film is the place I dream of going and that I don't need to be shy, not when you have twenty-three people with the exact same passion as you going for the exact same thing. It meant so much to me that I cried after the viewing, when each person gave a small speech, I cried because that's how much it impacted me. And now I'm back in my house the house that simply doesn't feel like home anymore. How can eight days feel more like home that eight years?
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