BFI Craft Skills Residential

My attendance at the BFI Cornwall Film Academy provided me with assistance when applying for a residential course up at the National Film and Television School (NFTS), also funded by the BFI. My application was successful in getting me a place there as a producer, and only 66 out of 400 people were able to achieve a position on the course, due to the fact it was highly competitive. I was the only person from the Cornwall/Devon region, which made travelling up to Beaconsfield an extraordinarily nerve wracking experience. We had a pre-residential weekend in March where we got to know each other and were introduced to our scripts- mine was called Look at What the Cat Dragged In. For an intense 12 days over Easter (hence why I was unavailable for the third shooting day of my coursework project) I was given the opportunity to work closely with leading industry professionals who gave me a unique insight into the filmmaking business and guided me along the way. I also received a numerous amount of master classes from people such as Asif Kapadia, Rachel Robey, Nik Powell, Rienkje Attoh, Destiny Ekaragha, Ben Roberts, Marimba Kabalika, Pawl Fulker and lots more, all of which were extremely interesting and insightful into successful people's journeys into the film world. We practised green light meetings and marketing presentations as well which is felt was very beneficial, particularly as I wish to go down the producing route in film.
It was an incredible experience working with so many people my age who shared the same passion for filmmaking and were extremely talented in their specialisms, who were also able to teach me so much about the entire process of filmmaking. I'm still in contact with them all and although they live a great distance from myself, they're useful contacts to have for housing in London etc. This programme also gave me the chance to network with alumni from previous years at the NFTS and other people working in the industry. It also helped solidify my decision to aim towards being a film producer in the future, as I thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of my job.
My role as a producer taught me a great deal more about the pre-production process and although I learnt all these new skills after my project was near enough completion, it will definitely come in use for further projects like A Level coursework I will begin later this year. I learnt about the importance of planning and scheduling and more about the role in general, and the residential helped solidify the decision that I wish to be a producer in the future. I thoroughly loved every aspect of my job and I also got the opportunity to work as a 3rd assistant director on set, another job role I now know I consider enjoyable.

BFI Regional Film Academy

From the beginning of October until February I was a part of the Cornwall BFI Regional Film Academy, which helped develop my practical skills in the art of filmmaking. Me and 20 other young filmmakers living in Cornwall got the opportunity to learn from industry professionals., and they enabled me to gain invaluable experience and to explore my own creativity and passions in a supportive and dynamic environment. The skills I gained from the academy were transferable to my AS Media coursework, specifically in the art of cinematography with aspects of pre-production such as storyboarding and shot listing as I was a cinematographer for our short film, Sink. The experience also got me friends who were interested in film living in the local area, who helped me gain confidence in my own abilities and can be used for any future film projects I decide I want to work on in the future. It greatly helped me progress with my coursework as I learnt more about how you can create a story, represent groups of people and attract the target audience of the film just through certain techniques within the cinematography specialism. I also learned about the importance of detailing every stage in pre-production so as to ensure a professional looking final product.

Shooting Day 3

We agreed on a third shooting day for over the Easter holidays, primarily so we could incorporate dialogue into our opening sequence and include a shot showing the protagonist. We were also unhappy with our title and how it was presented. We attempted it originally with font digitally edited on the a clip of the sand with a wave washing over it, then decided on writing the title name into the sand. We experimented with this but agreed it wasn't working due to the fact the wet sand was too difficult to write in and the name just didn't appear clear enough. We decided on a pan shot down on the beach of the horizon, which ends on a shot of our protagonist saying "Surfs Up".
I personally wasn't present on the third shooting day but I helped organise it:

Equipment List

• Canon 5D
• Filming lens
• Steadicam

Locations List

• Towan Beach

Cast List

• Brooklyn Ash- Jessica Jenkins

Crew List

• Cinematographer- Samuel Scott

UPDATE on Font Choices

Freestyle Script and Segoe Print were unavailable on the Macs so we had to improvise during the edit, but remained with the original idea of a handwritten appearance for the names of cast/crew members. We eventually decided on fourHand_TRIAL for the crew/cast members names as it's very close to Freestyle Script and remains with the handwritten idea. It's also very clear and easy to read, whilst maintaining a professional appearance.

We will experiment with writing the title in the sand but if it fails once again on our third shooting day, we mutually agreed to use Myriad Pro font for our title in black with the opacity turned down. It's extremely easy for the audience to read, especially because it's in bold,  which is essential as it connotes our genre and narrative and represents our audience of surfers and teenagers in school.