The Gift of the Gaby

Borderline Final collaboration project

2010-06-11T02:54:00.000-07:00

Borderline!! Well.. this was the final project for my course and I collaborated with Sam Galantini. It's a project that we're both really proud of and we're happy with the feedback we have received. It was chosen amongst 4 other films to be screened at the BFI in London Southbank June 09 which was a great achievement.

The film is a docu-drama style, and is about the relationship between two characters who live in a house on a border between two countries.

Writing the project was quite difficult to begin with, we had so many ideas of quirky little things that could happen and it all became too much. In the end we had to strip it all back and work out a formula, and once we did that we managed to write the script up in no time.

Of course me and Sam had creative differences at times, however we worked this out with an agreement that we had discussed before we began that project which is we had to have a reason to back up our creative idea or disagreement. This worked out really well, however we still had some disagreements which was only natural.

Our biggest challenge was finding the perfect location that looked like we were shooting abroad. It took a lot of effort and we did a lot of research and contacted a lot of people, we even went around door knocking hoping that some one would just let us use their house. In the end we found help with Stoke Property shop, they managed to find us a good location and even though it didn't look like what we had written down in the script, we had to work with it and it worked out really well.

We were lucky with two fantastic actors, Keir and Simon were a god send. Keir wasn't our original cast for David. The actor who we did cast broke his leg a week before, and felt so bad that he helped us find a replacement. He gave us Keir's number and we cast him without auditioning him simply because there was no time. Luckily Keir was fantastic so it worked out so well.

The shoot its self went splendidly well, we were on schedule that we even had time to shoot improvised scenes. We did try to employ the tactics of 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' and just give them the gist of the scene and told them to improvise. We put the actors up in the location for the night as it was a two bedroom flat that we had access to. We provided them with bedding and entertainment, luckily they got on really well so they were both happy to stay in a flat with a stranger.

Post production was difficult because we ended up having so much funny material that we wanted to put in, our original edit was 17 minutes long, and the brief was 10 minutes. We managed to strip it back to 14 minutes easily, but cutting it down any further proved to be really difficult. We had to be brutal. I asked other people to watch it to see what they would cut because I didn't have the heart to cut it any further. Gradually we made smaller cuts and we managed to get it down to approximately 12 minutes.

Hope you enjoy.

Sleeping Man Winter 08

2010-06-11T02:20:00.000-07:00

So this film was shot in my first semester of my last year. The idea behind this film was that it would be for a charity like Help the aged or Age Concern. I came up with the idea for the story and I co-wrote with writer Stephen Kelly on script. This was my first time writing with someone else and it proved to be a good challenge but I was glad to be working with a writer who was very talented indeed.

For me the main thing I wanted to try out with this project was a particular style. The brief was that we had to use a practitioner who inspired us and adapt his style to our project. I was heavily inspired by Mark Romanek who has directed some of the best videos in the music promo world, examples are Michael and Janet Jackson 'Scream' (which was the first most expensive music video of it's time), Nine Inch Nails 'Closer' and Johnny Cash 'Hurt'.

Romanek's lighting style for 'Hurt' is what inspired my film, I wanted to give it the same warm lighting which we created on set, no lighting was edited in post production. My cinematographer and lighting boys were Ewan Macfarlan and Chris Leese, two very good friends who I knew would help me deliver what I needed. We did some lighting tests prior to production and we found the best method to create this warm lighting.

Casting wasn't too much of an issue, I found Tim who plays my lead, he was just a star. He came with a wonderful attitude and humour and everyone had a good time. The two girls were great too.

I think the biggest problems I had was trying to get hold of paramedic uniforms, I rang round medical places but they wouldn't let me borrow any costumes for legal reasons, I tried ebay but they weren't convincing enough and time was running out to wait for delivery. In the end I had a friends dads Paramedic costume and I used that as a template to make them. I went out and bought the overalls, and bought a Hi-vis waist coat and cut it up to sow onto the overalls. The emblem and the letters are iron on transfer papers and were designed by my house mate Jen Lamb who is a very talented graphic designer. I must say a special thanks to Max who stayed up late with me to help me sow and iron on these letters, his help meant I got some good shut eye before the shoot.

I also must say a special thanks to JD who helped me out by running me around every where and picked up some props for me. I'm very grateful to the rest of the crew, they made the atmosphere fun and still we got the work done.

Western Games January 08

2010-06-10T15:37:00.000-07:00

So this was my first Drama that I had complete control over, I wrote, produced and directed this and had my hand on editing.

The idea behind this film was linked to the rise of youth and gun crime, at that time becoming a slight moral panic in the news. I exaggerated the situation by casting my youngest character really young, and what starts as a playful situation can turn out to be very serious indeed.

I came across a few problems, this was my first time casting and I had to find a child on no money. Luckily a few friends had cast children and had given me some numbers and I followed those up. Mitchell, who plays the young boy in this film was amazing, I didn't get the chance to audition him because of time and he lived a fair distance away, but he was really keen and enthusiastic and I just think his commitment and energy was outstanding for a boy of his age. i must also mention the support of his family who were also amazing which I believe is the key of why everything went so well.

I had complete control over directing the soundtrack aswell, this was created with the fabulous help of Maffy and Lisa and Dan the music man. They did a wonderful job in creating what I wanted and also gave me access to their home for keeping cast and crew fed and warm with fresh tea and to this day I can't thank them enough because they didn't even know me because they inspired and helped me so much from that day to now. I also created some pieces myself with the help of Sam Baz, and I'm happy with everything.

The crew were a true gem, they made everything fun but still we got the work done and we ran almost to schedule. I shall have to upload some pictures.

This upload quality isn't brilliant as this is a web friendly version and when I exported it at the time, there wasn't High Quality web viewing. We were lucky with a beautifully sunny day so the shots on the full size are crisp.

Enjoy.

2010!

2010-06-10T09:33:00.000-07:00

So far 2010 has been busy,

I have had some work as a runner and here is a link to all the music promo's I've been fortunate enough to work on and have been released. Each shoot came with it's own unique tasks, which were a great challenge and I enjoyed each shoot.

Lies

2009-12-25T13:54:00.000-08:00

Finally Lies has been released, this is a project I worked on for Jon McClure from Reverand and the Makers. I was Producer on this along with Chris McClure who did an amazing job. Everyone worked really hard and it was really long days, but we made it through and it's been a long wait for it to be finally released. Feedbacks appreciated and I hope you enjoy it.

http://www.myboxfresh.com/2009/12/24/boxfresh-and-kestrel-films-presents-lies-episode-one/

Gabs x

Tramlines

2009-08-05T06:20:00.001-07:00

Hello,

It's been a long time since I've posted anything so I thought I would take this opportunity to upload some photographs from Tramlines, the Sheffield music city festival. I didn't take many pictures for the whole thing but here is some I have taken of the Violet May and of Reverand and the Makers.

2009-06-28T09:21:00.000-07:00

Hi

As you can see I haven't had any time since day 1 of the shoot to post any more, and that is because shoots would start from 9am til gone 2am the next day and it was like that for 4 days. I was shattered.

There were a lot of problems such as people collapsing on set due to the heat of the sun, (I revived people), and me being badly sun burnt from sitting in it, and the director falling through his loft tearing a ligament and fracturing his leg and being to stubborn to go to hospital as he wanted to get the last scene shot. Oh and on top of that, the van we hired broke down too.

The rest of the shoot went well but really stressful. There was a lot of delays but it was a great experience over all, and I would do it again as I have made friends with some amazing people,

Me and Victoria, she's crazier than me, she's great.
I'm looking forward to seeing the end result and I'm now focusing on what I'm going to do next! I'm getting ready to move back to London soon so that's the next big thing on the cards and then who knows really.

I popped down to London the Friday just gone because the collaborative project 'Borderline' was chosen to be screened at the BFI Southbank which was quite exciting. Courses from other Universities around the country got to see it and it was received really well by audiences. A lot of people always say they really enjoy it and want to know what happens to the characters after the film. Keir Brown, the actor who plays David made it down and my cousins did too.

That's about it for now, trying to get my life sorted. I'm going to be looking into getting a website made and working on a new show reel next week and turn all my film files into mpeg 4 so I can put them online.

Nehoo..Toodles

Day 1 Shoot

2009-06-20T18:21:00.000-07:00

Day 1 is done and dusted

We got all the scenes done that we needed to do with this character and I can tell you it's been a really long day.

The crew have all bonded really well, we've been on it since 9am this morning and we went all day til 12am.

We had a nice BBQ put on for us by two very special ladies which was a really nice treat so a massive thank you to Marcia the directors mum and Donna the main characters mum for a great feast for us to kick start the project.

Everyone's worked really hard today and we've all communicated well and worked really well together. All have enjoyed their time on set today and are now off to bed to catch their winks for another full shoot day tomorrow.

I had to rearrange the call sheet for tomorrow due to problems with an actor which is very personal and delicate, but he's being a real soldier and is going to trooper on for the shoot.

We're shooting in HD with steady cams for today and omg, it looks amazing!!! I couldn't get over it and kept saying how great it looks all day.

Luke, the main actor for today has been brilliant, he's been focused and on the ball giving us attitude in character and having a laugh with us when not in character. I reckon he's gonna be mega big one day. He follows direction well and has learnt a two page monologue in the space of 2 days.

It's half 2 in the morning now and I have to go to bed, another early start tomorrow and I need me beauty sleep

T'Lion T'Witch and T'Wardrobe

2009-06-19T15:11:00.000-07:00

Hi all, It's been a long time since I've update my blog but since I'm on an exciting new project post finishing my course, I've been extremely busy and it's been a bit secretive up until now.

I'm working on a film project for a known Sheffield musician for a month now. My role is creative producer and I'm loving every minute of it. So far my role has involved:

Sending out casting calls, casting and auditioning actors
Creating budget sheets for costumes and props
Gathering props
Making costumes
Hiring costumes
Liasing with a vintage shop to borrow costumes
Liasing with cast and crew
Creating call sheets
Creating contact sheets
Keeping the Director on schedule for the past week
Solving and working our way around each and every problem that arises.

This week so far started off with an amazing audition on Monday in which everybody scheduled in turned up! I know! This has never happened before in my whole 2 years of casting and I was delighted. So we were casting from about 2-9pm and then made our way back to Stoke.

Tuesday I had a semi day off with a nice trip to Alton Towers (gotta have breaks) - however was in close contact with the director most of the day.

Wednesday midday made my way back to Sheffield with the director to start picking and buying things such as costumes and essential equipment, aswell as meeting our lead actor and having a rough rehearsal with him and going to dress him up in a costume, in which we had another actress come along for. I've got pictures but i'll put them on when the shoots done. It got really late on and stayed over in Sheffield so we could have an early start to do things on Thursday but that was great because I got to experience Sheffields nightlife. I went to a gig at the O2 academy and saw a great band called the Crookes (check their myspace out) and then went on to another pub and saw another great band called Shake Aletti (who are brilliant so check their myspace out).

Thursday - Really productive day, and then made my our way back to Stoke.

In Stoke - had to clean with housemate as we're soon moving out, and I don't mean light surface cleaning, this was grotty grease grime hard to reach and places you don't wanna go cleaning. - Nice!

Then had to pack for 5 days in Sheffield on shoot. I hate packing! I never enjoy it and it takes me a long time to think about what I need because I just want to avoid it.

This now brings me to the really long day of today.. up 9am
shower and pack a little bit more and ready for 10.30am to go to town to buy some fabric stuff for a costume.

Back home, burning some music for the van we've hired (Need tunes for the road - Kasbians new album! and Empire of the Sun) then load up the van and go to pick up kit from Stoke campus, then from Stoke campus we went to Stafford Campus to collect the rest of the kit which is ALOT. Traffic on the way to Sheffield and finally made it around 7pm. Had some Yam (mmm Yam) & carried on with paper work. And this is where I've been since.

Rest of the crew arrived at 10pm and we just had a production meeting in the garden. Now I'm writing this and might chill out for half hour before carrying on.. we still need to do food shop for tomorrow eeek.

I've really enjoyed Sheffield so far, but it seems that I'm not picking up the sarcasm as easily as down south because the tone in voice just doesn't change, and they miss out words which makes conversation topics a bit hard to follow. Like Michael Mcintyre says 'The word 'the' just seems to disappear somewhere off the M1 heading up north.

Food time! am off

If I have time I will try and update everyday whilst on shoot as this is a great experience to remember

All over

2009-05-22T02:11:00.000-07:00

It's all over for me now, no more student world. I had my last assesment on wednesday for my individual and my collab project and I'm now finished. I'm currently helping out for the degree show which is the 5th of June in which one of my films will be screened along with many others.

Leading up to the deadline of course was a really busy and stressful time, but now it's all done. I want the weather to heat up so i can start enjoying it.

Me and Sam after our assesment.

Delivery Poster/DVD cover

2009-05-02T10:41:00.000-07:00

I've been working on the cover for my individual project. It's nice and clean which is what I like about it. It doesn't say too much about the film, there is text on the back along with stills from the film, but for now I thought I'd put the front up. The open box is a nice touch I think, if you see the film you'll probably understand. This is just one idea so far, but I like it. Clean. Simple.

Borderline (Collaboration project)

2009-04-28T09:56:00.000-07:00

Great success! Collab shoot is shot and now in post production. The whole shoot went great with out a hitch and without too many arguments from me and sam, however leading up to the shoot was a different story, two tempered italians working together is always going to be heated in arguments.

Keir and Simon; our actors were amazing! I couldn't of asked for better actors who have played the characters so well. Sarah; our camera lady has also been amazing, even though she had her own work to do she was there filming for us which shows great commitment. With her great eye for shots came Andy's great ear for sound, he also did a fantastic job for us and we couldn't of asked for a better shoot.

Special thanks to Stoke property shop too who sorted us with the location, what a great location it was. http://www.stokepropertyshop.com/

Here are some pictures from the weekends shoot.

David and Miguel

Me giving directions for a scene

Mr. West

Sarah on camera

'Friend, car friend, friend'

The two co-producer/directors Me and Sam

Presentation is Done!!

2009-04-23T03:45:00.000-07:00

Ahhhh, done.

One deadline down, another one and a half to go! ee yay! I feel quite elated, it went so quickly, just talked for 10 minutes and then was asked a few questions...ahh.. blimey all done.

Few more weeks now til it's all over for me.

On shoot this weekend, going to be a long weekend, but then I can spend the rest of my life in editing and then party party party.

Good times.

Going to catch up on some telly i've missed now because I deserve a little break at least.

Dentist shoot

2009-04-17T09:22:00.001-07:00

Todays shoot went really well for Mr.G. We were shooting scenes at a dentists today, luckily the kind surgery of Alchemy in Stoke let us have the upstairs surgery for the whole day. I was on stills and often on sound as well as setting up. I'm quite ill at the moment and I encountered the hiccups 3 times today.

The staff there were great, really helpful and co-operative, they showed us how to use the cool chair and even made an appearance in the film. It's always good when people are willing to give you time.

Mr.Hippo and his healthy clean teeth.

Orchestra shoot

2009-04-16T09:40:00.000-07:00

On shoot yesterday evening for Glenn. My job was to pull the tripod along the track and also to help set everything up and to take some photos. As we didn't have an SLR, I just used my compact camera, so i have the images here. The concept involves music, so we filmed the local Staffordshire Orchestra.

The track and dolly! Set up in 10 minutes, Huzzah!

Chris being the dummy whilst we test the lighting and make sure the shots will work.

DVD cover shot me thinks?

Before the shoot:

BAD BAD news. The actor for my collaboration film emailed to say he'd broken his ankle, we're suppose to be shooting this weekend! Me and Sam were devastated, but we spent all day yesterday calling around and I think we may have found someone now. Scripts finally drafted, and location seems guaranteed. We went around just viewing a few more today. Only problem is that we're having to push back the shoot for another week! So we have to get it done next weekend now, which I didn't really want, but we'll do what we have to do I guess.

I was highly stressed yesterday, but I'm feeling a bit better now. Going to get on with other work to just take my mind off the collab for the evening.

Another shoot tomorrow morning. 8.30am call time ...grr.. could be worse I guess, then it's carry on with paperwork time again.

Righto, back to work. x

Trains + Bowls

2009-04-14T11:26:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

Had a very interesting couple of days.

Jumped off the train from London to Stoke, which by the way was crazy! I couldn't sit down anywhere in economy. It was the first train back up North on Monday after the no service, and it was the first train that day to leave without taking 3 changes just to get to Stoke. So me and hundreds of other people thought, hmmm it shouldn't be busy, lets jump on that, I need to get back as early as possible and don't want the hassle of changing....yep. So I decided to go sit in first class. Yep, that's right my first experience in first class, wasn't anything spesh, just more room really.

Soon after many other people followed, and those too scared to go to first in case they got charged extra, were told by the train managers to go sit in first class because they were stood in the door ways, and the next stop wasn't for another hour and half. Busy busy.

Nehoo, jump off the train, and I go straight to set with my suitcase and everything, like a pro.. I get straight on set and help shoot. It didn't finish til late, after which i crashed out, and then woke up today to do it all again....but it was for a different director, and it was a bowls shoot.

The concept is great, as plain as bowls to us youngsters may seem, but I don't want to give the concept away until the films finished and distributed. If i can get some stills I'll pop them up.

I'm not feeling too good either, I think I've caught mums sore throat which I said I wouldn't get off her...great. Lots of honey in my coffee now.

I'm starving, time to eat.

2009-04-08T15:28:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter everyone.

I know what you're thinking, what is this? It's half a cow with a man coming out of it... and you're right it is!

This was taken for the Ray Ban cow birth shoot that has had over 1million hits on YouTube in it's first week. I was lucky enough to be on the set for the shoot and here are the pictures from my experience.
The wonderful actor being covered in goo so he can be born from the cow. He was a great guy, and the other actors were great too.

The massive, really expensive jib, it's controlled by the computer and is programmed to move exactly the same for each take, completely flawless, and they made it move to look like it was handheld. Brilliant! We spent half the day setting up the shots and the jib, and then the rest of the time shooting. It was a long day, a long process, for 48 seconds of film, but it was definitely worth it.

Here's the video:

QVC + me

2009-04-07T09:32:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

Finished shooting yesterday morning, and then had a busy day sleeping and cleaning, and sleeping lots more.

Up early again this morning, left Stoke at 8am and went to QVC studios, had a tour with a lovely lady thats an ex student of my course. Went with a few others. It was such a great experience to see.

As you know it's live television being broadcast 17 hours a day, which is alot. So to see how they all run the show behind the scenes and the constant preparation that is going on for the shows is amazing. It's a leading television channel for selling things and it's just amazing to see it all, all that preparation for a few minutes of air time.. really good.

We got to go around the studios and see all the sets, they have minimum of 4 sets per studio, which all interchange easy as you can imagine.

This was us guys sitting on the set, we went a bit crazy with the happy snappy of pictures.. but they didn't mind which was cool. They were all really nice and friendly and really helpful. I'm hoping to go back for a bit of work experience and just throw myself into the action. They didn't look too stressed and looked like they had a laugh as well as work hard, so i'm going to go try see if I can spend a couple weeks there.

I've gone from Battersea and am at my home in London now, I've got meetings with more companies tomorrow, so I hope they go well. Just going to talk to them about the industry and see what kind of things they do, so it's another long day. Will be great to walk around London tomorrow, I miss being here so that will be fun going to go window shopping as I have no money :D story of our lives ey..

Stress

2009-04-04T01:55:00.000-07:00

Long day already, been up since 8am and have been preparing for my shoot tomorrow. I'm scared that everytime my phone goes, some one is calling to cancel on me, I think thats why I'm not sleeping properly and waking up early.

Now I'm getting a headache..ow.

I've picked up some more bits ready for tomorrow, and I'm writing up the call sheets for everyone, just waiting on one piece of information.

Apparantly I look tired...

I feel tired. Going to be a long few days coming up, I'm doing two hours shooting on Monday morning and then going to sort out more collab stuff.

I had level 3 screenings to attend on Wednesday which was cool. Last semester films were being screened at our BFI Film Theatre, and we dressed up a bit for the event.

Sams bowtie is made from black card. We're still looking for a location as our back up plan has failed, so back to square one. Still lots to do, so little time.

Long Day + Location

2009-03-31T10:23:00.000-07:00

Hi all, have had a bit of a long day today. Trying to get a location for a collaboration project, we're basically trying to find a bungalow in the Staffordshire area. Not knowing anyone with a bungalow we went door knocking to see if anyone would be interested for the exciting opportunity of a film being shot there, but they were all elderly home owners and didn't want the bother which was fair enough, but it means me and Sam are stuck a bit without a bungalow.

The bungalow is crucial to the story but we might have to make do with an ordinary house, location scouting is a nightmare when you're trying to make a film without money. I'm hoping something will come through, maybe a local friend of ours, friend might be able to help us out.

Fingers crossed because times ticking so we need something fast.

Jeremy Clarkson

2009-03-28T15:04:00.000-07:00

This was taken on my first work experience, I'm sure you all saw the episode where Jeremy Clarkson rode this thing around London. I happened to be working for the BBC at the time, and on an errand back to the office, I see none other than Mr.C about to get into this car. I can't remember what it's called. We had a good little chat and he kindly allowed me to take a photo of him getting into the car, because once he was in, there was no getting out.

My first blog

2009-03-28T14:03:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

This is my first blog posting, I've never really done this before and I don't know what to write.

A little about me:
I'm a 20 year old Londoner who loves film and music. Both are and have been major moments of inspiration to me and I live my life following them. I've taken film alot further as I feel I have more of a talent for film than music, but I have been heavily involved in music too where ever I have been able to volunteer.

I aim to show you all my life, what I get up to, the people I meet, and the things I see. I aim to work in the film industry as a producer and this is my journey of my work and life.