Water Colours in the rain, with a dash of Grave consequences!

In 2001 I finished my time with Heathcote School, leaving with not the most satisfying results. My confidence had been battered, and all I had as a plan of action was to move back to Aberystwyth with my parents, and start studying AS Media and Photography at Coleg Ceredigion. 2001 was to be the year of soul searching, and finding a new path in life.

We moved back to Wales, the weekend before I was meant to start College, we left our old house in Aston, and made our way to the beautiful hills of Wales. Within moments of arriving I was inspired, writing poems and a story that I never actually finished. Hmm maybe one day I will. I was full of excitement starting at the college, and meeting new people. I remember my first week in college, clearly, the sun was shining, we played introductory games, which consisted of throwing a beanie fish around the room, and I had made instant friends. The time passed and we had been enclosed in this bubble for the entire day, it wasn't until my folks picked me up that reality hit home. It was September 11th, and my parents arrived in a state of shock. They had been watching the telly only for the news to interrupt their programme, showing a terrorist attack on the Twin Towers. When my parents told me I thought they were lying, it wasn't until I got home and saw the news that I realised it had really happened. It didn't seem real, more like something out of a film. Little did I realise that this day would go on to inspire some of my later work. My final piece for Photography, encompassed images from the day mixed in with images I had created, in order to create an anti-war poster, I then went on in Uni, which I'm still writing today, to write a script that deals with terrorism.

So they were the beginning days of college, where does this link with the title of the blog you may ask...Well the title of this blog is actually the titles of the first films I ever made. When I was younger I had made little animations with my next door neighbour, and all the kids in the street made ghost type film, but I had never actually done it properly.

So the first film I made was Grave Consequences, which Dean and Peter in our group had written, and Pip and I took on other roles within the production. My key role was cinematographer. The film was to take on the style of silent movies, this meant Pip, Dean and Peter could act in it with out having to speak, saved us a lot of hassle with sound, especially as we only had a simple JVC home camcorder. So off we went and spent a day working in the local graveyard. As the cinematographer, I had to get into the most awkward positions, standing on broken graves, and sitting on tombs. Scary stuff, there was even a weird sound on one of the recordings, very Eerie Indiana! As I concentrated on getting the best shots possible, the others dressed up in old suits and bowler hats. Pete was playing the ghost and so at one point we made him lay across an old grave. This we used and edited in Adobe premiere, creating a spooky effect making him look like he had slowly appeared out of the grave. It is probably still to this day, one of my favourite films I've made so far.

Water Colours in the rain, was something different. It was my first time writing an idea into a script and then producing it. And of course being my first full film, it was something quite complicated. A fault in most first time film makers. Top Tip - KEEP IT SIMPLE!!!

The film dealt with the issue of drugs within young teens. I researched into the subject, and the story was told through my protagonist. The film was very arty in style, I guess that was my theatre influence seeping in. I also, did it this style so that it created the illusion or feeling of being under the influence of drugs. The sense of confusion, and things feeling out of reach. The experiences of making this film was hard work. I took on a couple of university actors, who played the role of Rizo and Lucy, and some college actors, one to play a smaller part and one to play the main protagonist. We filmed in various locations, night scenes shot at the castle, in the college, for class and bedroom scenes, and along the promenade for some. Aberystwyth is full of great locations, which is why it is the perfect spot to make student films.

The filming of it was very challenging, trying to get the actors together at the sames time, and being students not all of them bothered to learn lines. This gave moments of laughter on set as we ended up having to do several takes. The university students for instance couldn't stop laughing during the takes of one of their scenes together. What made even more amusing was the fact it was a scene where one of them had to be very angry and violent. Luke who played the protagonist, had line issues, as in he never learnt them. So every shoot with him, would have the first half hour spent quickly learning lines, and then getting the take. Some scenes he actually has the script on his lap, and he is reading from it. We just cleverly angled the camera so you couldn't tell. :) Genius huh?

After hours of editing, the film was finally made, and to be honest wasn't the greatest. The script was poor, some of the acting a bit rubbish. That's why I say: KEEP IT SIMPLE!! However, it was good fun to make and it did have an awesome opening sequence, its amazing the effects you can make from filming a lava lamp from different angles.

So they were the college years, September 2002 came, and it was time for 3 years of University film making fun!!

(I will try and get some pictures to add to this!)