A Grand Job

Today I delivered the stand and graphics to the Grand Hotel, Hartlepool, for their Airport themed New Years party.

This work was undertaken in an exchange for hiring rooms for Championship Hunt; it was intended to be farmed out to students but the end of term hit too soon, so the ball fell back into my court.

Here's some pictures of it's development:

Intitial concept art

Concept art for VIP room

Working drawings

 

Pre-painted stand

 

 

The finished stand

 

 

This was a bigger job than I'd anticipated, although it was straight-forward and nothing went wrong, thankfully!

 

Thanks to the Entertainment Design team and the IT Technicians for their support, and thanks also to Kathleen from the hotel for trusting in me to realise her project within the limited timeframe.

 

The Grand Hotel, Hartlepool is a beautiful hotel and has served Cleveland College of Art and Design on many an occasion, and we look forward to working with them many more times to come.

 

http://www.tavistockleisure.com/best-western-grand.htm

There's Something in the Fog..!

 We had a rather lucky break this weekend when a location scouting trip turned into our very own fox hunters-hunt! A visit to Castle Howard, rendered all but useless thanks to thick fog, was followed up with a trip into deepest Yorkshire and an abundance of horse boxes suggested there was a hunt underway. As we drove through the lanes - in the mysterious fog - we were quickly caught up in the procession of horses and hounds, taking part in a drag hunt. We spoke to one of the riders who allowed us to take some quick pictures and I feel these could be used in an early montage in 'Championship Hunt'.

 

Here's a couple of snaps:

Here's a link to Castle Howard on Google Maps:
https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&tab=wl

 

Don't Shoot...

Until 25th January, 2013!

Yes, that's our official start date for principle photography on Championship hunt!

Although it seems an age away, the script needs to be locked down, costumes designed, locations established, sets dressed, props made... Gee-Whizz!

The Championship Hunt web site came online today too, check it out:

http://championshiphunt.com/

Call The Cops..! No need, there's dozens of 'em!

Today i headed up a team of CCAD FdA Creative Film students as we shot a police training exercise at Tees Port.

We had five cameras; the emergency services had eight fire engines, four police cars, six ambulances and a helicopter!

It was a long day but between us we vaptured some outstanding footage.

Halloween Launch for 'Championship Hunt' Facebook Page

Yikes, that was scary..!

Halloween you say?

Nooo! Tonight I pushed the 'GO' button on the 'Championship Hunt' Facebook page that I've spent the last week building; it makes you feel quite naked, putting everything you have out there for the world to see and hoping that it's enough!

As a launch package I'm very satisfied with what I have; plenty of artwork and photographs, all with notes to explain what you're looking at and help someone utterly fresh to the world to understand what I'm attempting to turn into a film.

Here's a link:

http://www.facebook.com/ChampionshipHunt

And here's the teaser poster:-



In other news this week, I had a fantastic session at film school last night when a scene from Championship Hunt was filmed by two groups of students, with little-to-no input from myself. The results really helped me get a feel for the scenes and will allow me to add more action notes to the script.

This group wanted to use strong shadows to add character

 This group kept one character in shadow

The actor in shadow was playing the part as though he was Satan himself!

 

 



With all the social networking fuss behind me, I can concentrate on further script revisions and get back to prop making, costume and set design!

But first some pumpkin carving and light a few candles to celebrate the turning of the wheel once more.

Social Network Expanding

I've been 'off' social network pages for a while; I feared that they were a distraction away from the cause of making the best short film I can, but I always knew that one day I would return...

This week, I began to compile a Facebook page, dedicated to 'Championship Hunt', but I'm holding off on going fully public until it's a lilttle more developed.

I've worked with quite a few film makers over the past year, all of whom use Facebook to a greater or lesser degree and I do find that the regular updates really make the projects come alive - here's an example:

http://www.facebook.com/groups/104155326383237/

This is the Hydra-X films page; they recently shot a short film called The Bad Samaritain Must Die and at one point, were posting two or three times a day to update the production.

I will follow a similar template, by rolling out exclusive behind the scenes photos and news, design artwork, music links and opening up group discussions about the project.

I'll post a link when there's more content..!

VERY Early Screen Tests - A Modest Success!

There's nothing like time constraints to motivate a person and the onset of Autumn has certainly done that for me!

A few weeks ago we filmed James running through the countryside, lush and green - you know how it is; then Autumn hits and the trees start to turn orange, red and brown - well that's gonna wreck my continutiy!?!

With a script still being tweaked, extablishing shots to capture while there's still a little green on the trees and character development work to do, time is tight. This weekend I drove down to Nottingham to work with Luke on facial hair creation and script improvements. Luke is currently sporting a seven-stitch scar on his forehead thanks to a fight scene he filmed a week previous - he was a trooper though and allowed me to glue a fake eyebrow over the wound!A scriptwriter himself, Luke offered suggestions to enrich the characters' backstories which sent me away buzzing - I will try and write these additions into the script tonight - so much for cropping it down - or my other film school homework!

My time in Nottingham was cut short due to family business but this afforded me the opportunity to film some landscape plates in and around North Yorkshire and Teesside, to use in the montage sequences.

I was using the Panasonic P2 camera on my own and, for the second time running, forgot to check every single switch for every single shot; top tip everyone: check that the ND Filter is where you need it to be for each shot - these things can get knocked and your images may end up a little darker than you want them... very rich colours in the clouds mind!

I am in a good position this week to sculpt a stage #1 and #2 fox makeup on the bust I made of James but obviously the way I draw Jonny Fox allows me to distort the proportions of a man - with James I might need to adapt the mask or employ a little computer trickery - or a combination of both!

Jimmy Hagri contacted me with script feedback earlier in the week too, his suggestion was that Lord P and Sebastian Delaval ought to be drinking fine old whiskey; Luke would like to see a gamne of chess being played as well - I think both are great details and both shall be included!

One big piece of news from mid-week - we now have a producer onboard: Sophie Crawford, CCAD graduate from 2011. Sophie will make sure locations and cast and crew all function correctly, leaving me to concentrate on creative... on a different day I might need to employ a production designer and model shop manager too!

Here's a look at Sophies work:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTSdcBOEfr8


And here's a few photos from the past week:-

Roseberry Topping Sunset - with the ND filter set quite high!

Building facial hair

Add more layers and comb through

Trim the hair to a little longer than necessary so that it can be fine-tuned with the actor

I have a couple of copies of James' face with which to make prosthetic appliances