Social Media, is it really work?

I haven’t done any filming for a while.  There’s all sort of reasons for that, but one is I have a new job.  It’s a kinda cool job, I work in social media.  I want to say where, but one aspect of my job is that I write a social media policy, and it tells employees not to say where they work.  There’s a reason for that, some of what people write could break the data protection act, so if they can’t say it, neither can I.  I have to set an example, right?

I will say it’s a blue light emergency service, which means it’s one of four and not the AA.  They can say it as much as they want, but they are not the fourth emergency service. 

So what does my job involve?  I get to spend about 60% of my day on facebook and twitter.  It sounds like a dream right?  Wrong.  There are all sorts of reasons why it’s wrong.  Firstly, it’s work.  I’m not chatting to friends, playing dumb games or doing stupid quizzes, I’m working.  And work shouldn’t be fun, it should be work.  I’m keeping an eye on things, making sure I post stuff at the right time of day, all those things. 

Secondly, I’m having to make sure what I do post is in line with a social media policy I am still writing, for employees, press officers, CEO’s etc.  It’s a lot of pressure, it has to be right, it has to meet corporate branding, it has to apply across the board.  It also has to have sections that mean I can monitor what some people are saying, not to spy on them, as I will be making them an official branch of what I do, so they will have to meet my standards.

And my standards are kinda low it seems, I need to create new standards just for the job.

And here is the problem.  Before I started the job, I did a little bit of social media work and I was out of my depth.  I did study it a bit as part of my media degree and the one thing I know about working in social media is……no one knows how to use it in the work place. 

A lot of people write about it, call themselves experts in this or that aspect in social media, but really, all it comes down to is this.  Social Media is a branch of Public Relations and Marketing so all the usual rules apply, it just happens faster.  When you start a campaign you can see instantly how it works, what’s wrong with it, how to make it better. 

This is the biggest secret in social media, I read all the blogs (the relevant ones anyway, I’m not trying to sell anything).  Most of them are just common sense – how to avoid a bad comment bringing your business into disrepute? Simple, delete the fucker!  Should you correct bad information online? Of course you twat, it’s called public relations!  Can social media bring in more business? If you treat it as marketing it can!

See, there are no experts in social media, it really is just PR and Marketing.  And that makes me feel like a fraud sometimes, but what I do is important.  Because of what I do, I have saved one life for sure.  I have probably saved a couple more, or at least stopped some people from getting very seriously injured with a ruined life and that’s is good. 

So if I’m a fraud, are the lives I’ve saved fake?  If I can do that in 12 weeks of the job, can I be the first to make social media really make a difference for some people?  I hope so.  What I do is important.  

Editing Continues.....Forever

So I've been editing, not as much as I should have been, I've been getting distracted because I've been wanting to be distracted, but that's a whole other story to be saved for another day.

So the issues with the sound have been causing me a nightmare, do I reshoot or do I dub it all, ADR as it's known in the trade. I had to look it up. That's what happens when you avoid going to film school and do journalism instead, every day is a learning curve, and an interesting one at that.  The HELP button becomes a firm friend.

So fixing the problem.

I've decided to do a mix of ADR and creative technical wizardry, in other words, It's going to be too difficult to get everyone back together to repeat everything, so I'm being creative instead.  using the on camera sound, which is terrible, I've removed as much unwanted noise as I can, then made it sound like a telephone call.

Why a telephone call I hear you quietly asking no one in particular, well, all the dialogue apart from about 10 lines are spoken over the phone, so it works, sort of.  The bit I've done so far is about three minutes in, so if I get the start sounding perfect, this bit should pass as ok, but I won't really know until there are bums on seats in front of the film.

The one bit about the audio issues is it means I'm now going to have to use music more, I really didn't want to have to do that, I really wanted everything to stand on it's own merit, with just a little bit of music, now it will take a more important place in the story, which is a worry, as I'm not a composer.  I do have a music man on the case, and I'm going to get another to have a look as well, I may be able to mix elements of both, see what works best, but for such an emotional piece, I'm nervous.

On the plus side, next weekend I'm going to the Brit Flick Film festival in Portsmouth, which should make for an interesting couple of days. Not least as I think I have a short in it. I'm not sure about that yet, I haven't been told or seen a programme list, I only know as one of the organisers told the actress in it on facebook that it will feature, so I'll wait and see.  If you want to come along and see it, look the festival up on facebook, or get in touch with the Goundlings Theatre for tickets.  If you can;t make, it, you can watch it on YouTube here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnjoWVoEUHM.

Now then, seeing that I don't want to work on the film right now, I'll be doing a lot of ADR tomorrow, I'll get back to that distraction again.

Live well, Love Life, Have fun.

Roger.

Editing Part……Forever!

So the process has begun, but filming hasn’t finished.  I need to wait for it to stop raining, or it will look a bit strange.  Still, at least I have something to keep me entertained.  And when I say entertained, I mean massively annoyed.

The footage looks good, but the problem I now face is sound.  It looks like a technical issue means I’ve lost about an hour’s worth of audio recording, which puts me in a bit of a pickle.

Do I reshoot everything missing, or do I use the audio gained from the camera’s on board mic?  Part of me says I should reshoot, but as there’s no budget, I don’t want to ask people to give up their time again for free. 

It was all indoors, so I can play about with it, and it should be ok, but it’s an issue, and it means the overall quality of the sound will drop.  This is a bad thing.  There is nothing worse than bad sound, bad pictures can be forgiven, but the sound…..well not so much.

So what do I do, do I continue and see if I can get away with it, or reshoot?  I’m thinking of putting the hours in trying to fix it, but having tried to do that before, I know how hard it is.  I suppose the best option is to see if I can fix it, but basically I’m just trying to put it off.

On the plus side, even with a very basic, quick edit, I’m pretty happy about it.  It could be a lot worse so I can’t really complain.  Time to put the hours in I think, more syncing, more mind numbingly boring work, but essential.  Then it will be time to start thinking about the music I will need to include to try and hide the audio problems.  Not a good solution, as Mike Figgis says, once you add music, you can’t take it away.

Other than the filming and editing, I'm extremely happy.  It's nothing to do with filming in any way, but I just wanted to share!

Live well, love life, have fun.

Filming, Days 1&2

So, filming has begun, cameras rolling, or least, the little red light in the corner saving data to the memory card.  As always, with filming there are nerves before you start, so in retrospect I'm happy that I was waiting around for a while before we started.  Happy because it meant I wasn't thinking about it what needed to be done, only getting myself annoyed for no reason.  It distracted me from getting nervous about everything and the huge job I've created for myself.

The first day's filming did create one issue I could have done without.  Namely, having to sack an actor and get a replacement.  Never a nice thing to sack someone, and I suppose I really should let him know he's surplus to requirements, but then, they never got back to me......

The replacement wasn't what I expected or wanted, I know they can act a bit, but they didn't really want to the part, hates being on camera, and dislikes the whole process.  Namely, me!  Thankfully it's a very small part, and doesn't take up a lot of screen time, so I should be able to get away with it.  Taking the role was a slightly traumatic experience, and as always, I'm amazed anyone wants to be an actor.

The actual technical aspects to filming went very smoothly, the lighting rig worked perfectly, looks ok and everything so no complaints there.  All I used were a couple of desk lamps, with spot light bulbs in.  Worked a treat.  The rest went smoothly, the shot list worked, although there is the continuing fear that I didn't shoot something, despite all precautions I doubt that will go away till I finish the edit.  I arranged the shot entirely by camera set up, so it wasn't just shot out of order, but all over the place.  As I was acting as director/cameraman/1st AD/production manager/actor there was so much to think about I had to put the fear away.

Day 2 began with the lead actress, who has a lot more experience than the lead male.  She's also an excellent actress, meaning she comes to the table with an actual character in mind, knows her lines, and needs minimal direction.  All things that help to make a day go well.

Her preparation meant that the first two scenes/segments finished 45 minutes ahead of schedule, despite starting 45 minutes late. That's how I like filming to happen.  I didn't even feel an once of stress, until we were on our way to the next location, when we had to turn round to get an important prop.

The scene filmed today was the ending, and this meant that the two leads would be meeting for the first time, and they had good chemistry on meeting.  I can't imagine what it must be like to use two actors that hate each other.  It must be really draining to everyone on set.

I was very tempted at this point to move on and film the last scenes for the lead male, but decided to give it miss.  Partly I was tired, but mainly as there was a market near the filming location.  A market being visited by Russell Crowe and Hugh Jackman.  They were in town filming as well, and why it would have been fun to have tried to get them to do a cameo, I really didn't want the extra hassle.......

Jesus!  What the hell am I talking about.  Getting them to do a cameo would have been brilliant!

I should have done it.

Love, chilly sauce, and cliches

Its funny how things happen.  It’s never where you look.  It always rains on my day off.

Clichés.

Cliches are clichés for a reason.  I’m making a short film, and the ending is a cliché but because of the genre, I can’t think of anyway to not have one at the end.  It’s a love story, so it has to have a happy ending, right?  Well, maybe not, but I wanted to make a nice little film, beginning, middle and end, that will make you smile when you watch it.  But the most important thing about it is that it is based on a real event. 

An old friend of mine, not old as in age, but in a while ago – and a while ago as she’s barking mad – received a text, and she replied.  Fast forward to a year and a half later and they get married, so happy endings do happen.  Where happy endings are rare is when you are in pre production for a short film made with no budget (sorry guys, you have to buy your own tea).

The script was ready, the kit was ready, the locations…..well, that’s another story, but basically everything was ready to roll.  Apart from the actors.  “Yes, I love the script, I really want to do it.”  Me, “When are you available?”

Them, “…………..”

Nothing, I waited, they weren’t being paid after all, so I didn’t want to hassle them too much, but nothing.  I waited, then gently asked again, “Yes, still want to do it.”  But still no available dates.  I got so frustrated I asked an award winning film director for advice, and they provided it.  @VickiFilm provided good advice, namely, replace them.  So now I have a cast, locations and everything

Which is a good thing, as this film is the one I really care about, everything before now was practice, or corporate, this is the one where I really like the script/story.  Basically,  this is really important to me, it’s the one that will show if I can really cut it as a director/filmmaker. 

I’ve worked so hard on everything about it, the shot list, planning camera movements, the look of it.  Everything.  If it doesn’t work, no one can say that I haven’t tried. 

If it doesn’t work, I’m not stopping.  The one after will be even better.

And if that’s a cliché, I’m a monkey’s uncle.