Production Meeting for Poppy: Of Work Loads, Camera Assistants and Incantations
Today’s day at university ended with another production meeting for Poppie’s Café for Monsters, in which we discussed and settled our tasks for the upcoming week.
The Project’s Outline
Since this is an ambitious project with a lot to sort out – three different locations, five speaking actors and at least seven more extras, an almost endless prop list, three to four new camera and editing techniques each, and approx. 150 different shots (still counting) – we decided that we would dedicate this week to get most of the most basic research done and dusted.
Since there is a lot to handle with this project at this current moment, Lynley proposed that we could use a joint online calendar in which everyone can enter what they will be doing when in order to facilitate meetings, location reccies, auditions, test shoots, and the like, to which we all agreed.
Appointments
Furthermore, we already have two auditions and one location reccy scheduled throughout the week – the auditions on Thursday at 15.00 and Friday at 10.30 and the location reccy at Chilli Cake tomorrow at about 13.00 – all of which I will partake in my role as a cinematographer.
Appointing Tasks and Roles
I furthermore proposed that we could deploy Adam as a focus puller or 1stAC AND a clapper loader or 2ndAC for our project, if he agreed. My reasoning for doing so stems from my experiences on A Good One, on which we tried using two camera setups as often as possible. While it seemed to be an ingenious idea to get coverage quicker and be able to cut more seamlessly in the edit, practically, it resulted in a lot of hassle for various reasons:
Using two camera operators for coverage does not work well in a small areas:
Either you get each other into shot
Or you block relevant lighting
Or you simply don’t fit in with all the people and the equipment.
Using two camera operators for coverage is a difficult and time-consuming process when it comes to education and grading.
You will need to be extra careful with your production logs and rushes to not confuse A’s footage with B’s footage
Trying to keep the use of footage in the final product retraceable during the production of A Good One effectively resulted in loosing 3,5 days of work just for documentation purposes.
The difference in the visual style and application of both camera operators is still visible even with very careful communication.
Because we wanted to avoid potential issues with retraceability and with gradability of our own work, with A Good One we ended up spending valuable time on the documentation of just that, which could have been better invested into improving the quality of the finished piece.
And with the amount of work (and subsequently, clips) we will be facing with Poppie’s Café for Monsters, I fear that we would lose far too much time. For Poppie’s will be twice as long as A Good One.
Furthermore, after doing my work experience with Chris Tritschler as a 2ndAC on Girl Fight, I realised how quickly and effectively you could make progress on set and save a lot of time later, if you dedicate a person to taking care of the clapper board, of the production log, and of marking down people. Whilst it might not sound like the most creative job in the camera department, it is an essential job that cannot be underestimated in regard to its efficiency. And efficiency is what we will need on set.
My Tasks for this Week
In my case, I informed the rest of the crew that I aim to have the storyboard finished together with Lynley by Friday. Since this also includes storyboarding the more and most complicating shots, I will thus have to conduct even more research on relevant camera techniques pertaining to bravura shots, the depiction of shape-shifters, and even a little action sequence in which a character gets knocked out by a cane, in order to know how to storyboard them efficiently and being able to incorporate them in time.
Later on, it also turned out that I would additionally have to have a closer look into aspect ratios, since one of the festivals we aim to enter our film into – Aesthetica – has special requirements regarding this. Since I want my framing to be correct and not cut off by black bars, which is only one of the many requirements, I will need to buckle down and possibly even incorporate that within the storyboard.
Some German Folklore in a British Student Film
Furthermore, Lynley was asking me whether I knew of any incantations that we could use for the witch’s summoning at the end of the script, as she did want to give the actress some lines to prepare instead of making them up on set. Being German, I naturally referred her to the Merseburger Zaubersprüche (or Merseburg Incantations).
These charms are two incantations written in Old High German and preserved in the manuscript with the lovely name ‘Cod. 136 f. 85a’, dated between the 9thand 10thcentury and stored in the cathedral library of the town of Merseburg. They are a remnant of the Germanic pagan belief system, which is in part based on the Norse mythology.
Here is an extract of the first Merseburg charm in German, as taken from the encyclopedia ‘Medieval Germany’ by John Jeep, with the popular science English translation from Bill Griffiths Aspects of ‘Anglo-Saxon Magic’:
Eiris sazun idisi, sazun hera duoder;
suma hapt heptidun, suma heri lezidun,
suma clubodun umbi cuoniouuidi:
insprinc haptbandun, inuar uigandun.
[Once sat women, they sat here, then there.
Some fastened bonds, some impeded an army,
Some unraveled fetters:
Escape the bonds, flee the enemy.]
As this charm is dealing with women using powerful magic, I felt that it was befitting to enrich the background story of Agnes, of which we know that she once escaped the medieval witch trials by trading in her powers. It would serve to show a darker, more serious side and tone to her character.
References:
Anonymous (n.d.) Merseburg Incantations manuscript [online] Image taken from: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d0/Merseburger_Zaubersprüche.jpg/250px-Merseburger_Zaubersprüche.jpg[Accessed on 18 February 2019]
Griffiths, B. (2012) Aspects of Anglo-Saxon Magic Third revised edition. Ely: Anglo Saxon Books
Jeep, J. (2001) Medieval Germany: An Encyclopedia London: Routledge