Final Film

Urban Exploring from Georgie Mcloughlin on Vimeo.

edit of the final film..

sound logs

Shoot - Day 5

Unfortunetely I wasn't able to attend the shoot today as I had a mock exam that I couldn't miss, however I hear went well. Today, the three smaller locations were being shot.

Looking at the footage it seems there are plenty of nice shots, however I think due to the limited time the guys had, one of the locations wasn't used perhaps as much as it could have been. We are now heading into edit to pro res the footage and begin to produce our film.

1st Interview transcript

R’s interview

S: What was your first time like?

0:46

R: Okay, my first time going urbexing was when we went a nature reserve near where I live. It was an outdoor urbex, we didn’t go into a building or anything but we basically there was a load of forest surrounded by fields and in these forests were lots of little hutches and things that were meant to house particular different types of birds and animals and it was all shut off to the public cos obviously they don’t want them tampering with the nature. Anyway, we decided to cut through and go in anyway, wandering through for a while we discovered that we were being pursued by a land rover that was patrolling the area and we had to kind of sneak out through all these fields and different forests back to where we started. Um, yeah that was my first time urbexing, if that counts.

S: Where did you first hear about urban exploring? .....

2.00

R: Well actually cos I’ve always been interested in photography I discovered urbexing through that, through looking at various peoples photographs and thinking oh, you know, these are interesting these derelict buildings or this and that and basically I stumbled across all the forums of urbexing looking for general photography stuff and from there sort of gained a insight into what it was like and then began doing it myself I suppose.

2:45

S: Who did you start going with?

...........

R: I never really went urbexing on my own, um, I never really thought about it like that we just did it as friends you know. At first, we weren’t particularly hardcore about it and didn’t even go out with the intention of urbexing we just sort of would be out and then we’d stumble across something and end up exploring it and that was fun. It wasn’t really till I came to Sheffield that we started specifically going out to find these places. So I suppose I started out with my friends from home.

3:40

S: How often do you go?

R: Well, I mean, during the middle of winter it’s a bit more relaxed we don’t tend to go out very often due to the weather but I’d say a couple of times a month. I mean, especially in Sheffield you have to wait for the good places to have access again you know, so for months it might be closed up so you can’t go there at all and then suddenly you’ll be going to the same place you know, every other day for two weeks because that’s when its open and thats your chance to get in. It’s not part of a routine, I don’t have a routine as a person but fairly often I suppose.

4:32

S: Why do you keep going?

R: I dunno, I wouldn’t say, I wouldn’t say I have a thirst for urbex, I wouldn’t put it like that, I’d say the reason I keep going and doing this kind of thing is because you know, once you see one place you think, well that was nice, I’ve seen that now then when you see another place you think oh I wanna know what that’s like, I wanna go in there. I suppose there’s always something in the back of your head that thinks oh, I might find a really good place or somewhere that someone else hasn’t seen before. Be the first one to document it or the first one to find an entry point......

2nd Interview transcript

A’s interview.

S: What was the first time you went urbexing like?

A: The first time I went urbexing, it wasn’t really urbexing we just like went into this big old, it was the abandoned hotel in Sheffield actually, I mean it wasn’t......That’s to say, we didn’t go urbexing, we just walked around this big old building for a while and found some really cool stuff and just kept doing that.

0:39

S: Er, where did you first hear about the urban exploring?

A: Erm, the first time I knew it was a thing was when I stumbled across this, it was the 28 days later forum on the internet and I didn’t really look at it much or consider much about it apart from.. cos it’s just like so many random shit in internet forums. But this one seemed quite nice.

1:04

S: Er, so... After that first time, how did you get into it, like what made you want to keep doing it.....

A: Well, I.....That’s a good question...........

1:32

I think it was because it was something that was so new to me really....How do you start anything, man?

(...............)

S: How did you get into it, what made you start it as a returning thing, a recurring thing?

2:05

A: I think it was because I hadn’t tried anything like that before and it struck me as something I couldn’t do back home in a boring old town.

S: When you first started, was it something you did you know, on your own or in a group, how did it start in that respect?

A: Well, when it first started it was

(..............)

S: Who did you go with? Did you go alone? How did it start?

2:52

(............)

3:08

A: When we first started doing it, me and my friend er, well I would come back from work quite late and he would wake up late anyway so we would both still be full of energy and we’d just like go out and find buildings that didn’t look occupied and just rummaged through them.

S: How often do you do it would you say?

A: I would say we would go urban exploring about, I dunno, like, two or three times every month. We’re running out of locations.

S: Er, what... why do you keep going? What makes you want to keep going? Wether it’s the same place or a new place, what is it that keeps you interested?

(..............)

Tutorial 3/12/12

In todays tutorial we mainly covered how the edit was going to be approached. We still have one more day of shooting, but we showed some of the footage that we have and received good feedback. We also played some clips from our interviews that we did last week. The main thing that I took frm the session was that because the interviews provide the core story and interest in the film, we should structure our edit around that instead of particular locations.

This is different from the way Steve was originally planning to edit the piece but I personally think that this alternate way will make our film far more interesting and engaging. Now, Grace (sound), Alli (edit ) and Steve are going to work out which parts of the interviews should be used, with Steve choosing the main themes he wants to come across in the film.

Overall, positive.

Shoot - Day 4

Today was our first day shooting at a new location. As seems to be a recurring theme on this shoot, it got off to a bit of a slow start. This was due to an appointment our contributors had over running by an hour. Though this is something we couldn't control, it was pretty frustrating as we were already going to be pushed for time.

However, once on location, time pressures were very much on everyones mind so we got off to a quick start and the day ran efficiently. The great thing about this particular location is that though it is far smaller than Stanley Tools, there are a lot of interesting things to shoot; the place is filled with really great graffiti as well as rooms with old safes and filing cabinets. Some of the rooms have pretty dodgy floors that would probably have fallen under our weight had we walked on them, and there are many parts that no long have ceilings  or walls, just the remaining wooden beam structure.

The highlight of the day was when someone came to the location while we were still shooting. It just happened that this was the guy who did much of the graffiti in the place as well as a lot of stuff that we had seen around Sheffield. He started to do a new piece and was kind enough to let us film him a bit while he was doing it. This is one of the pieces he did while we were there;

Location Reccie #2

After our tutorial today, we went looking at further locations to use with the help of one of our contributors. In our minds, we were looking ideally for two really great locations that would provide enough interest for a max of 3 mins.

The first location we arrived at was great, it had big rooms, small rooms, roofless rooms and floor less rooms. There was a large variety of graffiti on the walls as well as objects left behind. There was a lot of foliage outside it too which I think could provide a nice contrast to the vast concrete of Stanley Tools.

We then went to look at a further three locations. All of these were interesting places, such as an abandoned, crumbling church, however none on their own would be able to provide enough footage. All were either too small or too destroyed to use on their own so we have decided that we are going to shoot a little bit at each. I don't think this is a bad thing and in fact I think the added variety could add to the film.

Tutorial 26/11/12

Todays tutorial involved getting further feedback from our Poetic piece as well as looking at what we were going to do next from our final doc.

We have been given 68% for the poetic which I am pleased with. I hope that for the final piece we can aim for a 1st, as I think that the project does have the potential to do so. The main point that let us down was our sound. As said in a previous post,  I think that here, our director should have listened to the advice of our sound recordist and designer.

For our final film, Debbie heavily emphasised the importance of our interviews. We were planning on doing a bit of shooting this evening with the guys at their homes. However, after this feedback we decided to cancel that and book out the sound studio and record the interviews with them both this evening. Doing this now also means that we can look for anything while on location that might relate to points both have mentioned in their interviews.

The interviews went well, both approaching nearly and hour each. One interview was better than the other, who was pretty easily distracted but i thnk that because both interviews were so thorough, we shouldn't have a problem with finding suitable material for the film.

Edit

I think editing took a while to get going.. I had arranged to meet Steve to being pro-ressing the footage with Alli (editor) at 10.30. Steve it turned out had forgotten that he had made this plan with me. Therefore I left it up to him to go in with Alli, but he didn't actually let her know for while that he was in edit, so as I said it was a bit of a slow start.

On Thursday, after my workshop in uni, I went up to edit see how things were going. Both Steve and Alli were in disagreement about what shots should be used and the finer details of the edit. This created a bit of a tense atmosphere, so after I arrived Alli went off to get some lunch and some space.

I think at the this point what they had put together was good, however there were one or two shots that I think could have been better selected. Though I understand that Steve wants to keep some things till the final film.

Grace began her sound edit; Steve asked her to recreate a piece of music he found online that he really liked. Later on, after I had left, Neil came in and told Steve that this was a really bad idea and that the music told you nothing of the place. Im told Steve reluctantly agreed to do a soundscape. As with Alli, I think Grace had difficulty with Steve's direction in edit as she disagreed with a lot of his ideas. He was very insistent that things be done as he said though so for better or worse, he has gone against her opinion. Im not sure how I feel about this as Steve doesn't do sound and has said many times that he doesn't' know a lot about it. Therefore I feel that he should probably take Grace's ideas into account.

There was also a problem in that no one brought in and dvds to burn the film on. I offered to go back into uni with some but then I was told Robin was going to bring some in on his way to the train station. It turned out that in his rush he brought CDs not DVDs, so the film is going to have to be burnt this weekend. This is pretty frustrating as Alli should have brought these in with her and it should have been checked that they had been brought in.

It feels like it has been a difficult end to the week with many members of the group, including myself at times, struggling again Steve and his directing style. He has already been told by a member of the group a few weeks ago that he wasn't stepping up however now it seems he is a bit too dictatorial. I am meant to have a meeting with him after we present the poetic film on Monday. If he has not brought or prepared notes on our final film I thnk I will have to talk to him, because it is becoming increasingly difficult to see how we can produce a successful documentary, when half the group is finding impossible to work together.

Sound edit..

Shooting Day 3

For our final days shoot it was good to see that we actually got a bit of sunshine and it wasn't raining!!
We had a little bit of a slow start as some people over slept and the caretaker of the site arrived a little later than usual. However, our contributors promptly showed up so we could get to filming right away.

We spend most of the day on the third floor, which we didn't really cover yesterday. This floor is filled with abandoned boxes of plastic moulds and a lot of paper work and stickers for boxes. We could also go one the roof which was pretty cool as you get a great view of the city from there.

A highlight of the day for me was finding an old notebook in which injuries made on site were recorded. There were some really nasty ones noted down, such a slicing fingers in half!.

Overall we managed to get more than enough footage, which is good. This means that we may not need to return to this site when we film our final piece. The difficulty is going to be in choosing what to include in the two minute poetic...

Schedule

Shooting Day 3

10.30AM – Meet outside Sainsbury’s (opposite uni) for taxi

10.45 AM – Arrive at ST

11 AM – Long shot; Shot of the outside of Stanley tools.

11.15AM – set up on 3^rd floor

11.30 AM - Bathroom, peeling walls and vegetation in better light

12 PM – Contributors arrive

12.15PM - Long shots of the large rooms, position urbexers CU and LONG

1 PM – cut aways

2PM  - Wrap. Taxis back to accomodation

Shooting Day 2

After the various issues that we have had which have led to us being pushed for time, today was actually a very good days shoot. I think everyone was very aware of how pushed we are for time and therefore how important it was that we didn't mess around today. All of the group came prepared and this time we did have shot lists. However, the airsofters were in today (normally they are only on site at the weekend) which meant that we had stick to their schedule more than our own. In a way though, this was helpful because the added time pressure of knowing that we had to move to a different floor by a certain time, or risk being hit by a pellet, meant that everyone worked even harder.

All the group were very proactive and I think this encouraged people more to continue to work hard throughout the day.

This time round we also booked out the portable lights. This made a huge difference and I think really improved the look of a lot of the shots we had to reshoot. It also enabled us to shoot things that perhaps last time round we wouldn't have been able to, because it was so dark. We also got a lot of good footage with our contributors who as always were very helpful and cooperative. It is very easy to just sit back and watch and film them too because, left alone, they are like kids in a playground running around finding new objects of interest.

From the footage I have seen I'm really pleased with what we managed to get. Hopefully tomorrow will be as productive.

Schedule

Shooting Day 2

10AM – Meet at uni and pick up equipment

10.30 AM – Taxi from outside Sainsbury’s to Stanley Tools

10.45 AM – Arrive at ST and set up on 2^nd floor

11.15 AM – Long tracking shot of chair and TV

12 PM – MCU tracking shot of windows

12.15 PM  - Med tracking shot of Peacock graffiti. Steve begins static shots of grids  

12.30 PM – Contributors arrive

12.45 PM – Med tracking shot of urbexers looking at graffiti timed cam flash and walk away

12.55 PM – Med shot: Urbexer walks from darkness over cam

1.10PM - Med shot: Urbexer walks from behind cam into darkness

1.30 PM – break for lunch

2. PM – CU urbexer with cam in front of their face (Background should be 1 point perspective)

2.15PM - CU urbexer with cam in front of their face (Background should play on square motif)

2.30PM –  Long shot ;urbexer ‘defacing’ window

2.45PM – CU; Silhouette goes past round window

3PM - Med; Urbexers go down the stairs

3.15PM – wrap. Taxi back to houses.

Shot list

X	#	SHOT	Action	Notes	S.
	1	MED	Urbexers go down the stairs	Ariel shot	2
	2	CU	Silhouette goes past round window	Expos for outside	2
	3	MED	Urbexer walks from behind cam into darkness		2
	4	MED	Urbexer walks from darkness over cam	Opposite of sh3	2
	5	CU	Aaron with cam in front of face	Background should be 1 point perspective	3
	6	CU	Aaron with cam in front of face	Background should play on square motif	3
	7	LONG	Aaron Defacing a window. Shot from behind him to hide identity.	Try exposing for outside and inside lighting	3
	8	MED	Track of urbexers looking at graffiti timed cam flash and walk away	DOLLY	1/ 3
	9	LONG	Light version of chair and tv tracking shot	DOLLY	3
	10	MED	Lighter shot Peacock graffiti or urbexers shooting the graffiti	PAN	2
	11	MCU	Tracking shot of the windows	DOLLY (like the practice shot)	2
	12	LONG	Long shots of the large rooms, position urbexers CU and LONG	One urbexer left+close Other right+long	2/ 3
	13	MED	Bathroom, peeling walls and vegetation in better light		2
	14	LONG	Shot of the outside of Stanley tools.	Show the urbexers entering	2