First Light Film Project

First day of the Cobblers Study Centres First Light Film Project ‘Accidently in Daventry’ was a massively productive one as Pre-Production of the project got into full swing. After planning out the script and assigning jobs for the day, the students set about building the numerous sets and models needed for the production.

Graham, Dale and Andrew quickly turned the back room into a working light studio as they built a small spaceship interior in the corner of the room. Using a combination of chipboard, lino and materials that had been collected over the previous weeks, the aliens mini spaceship was turned from concept to reality across the day.

Lewis, Aiden and Tre, one half of the animation team built an alien city miniature set and landing pad out of plastic bottles and LED lights, ready for shooting later in the week. Whilst Josh and James built an Alien throne for the Emporer Zorg.

Take a look at the video log of the day made by Josh and James below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSbnlCRKuQo

Today the production was joined by the actors ‘Chris and Ben’, who will be filling out the roles of Think and Zork in the film. After arriving the students assessed and admired what they had done from the previous day, repainting and touching up the models from Monday. Dale and Graham (the two directors) then began costume tests for the three aliens and stars of the film Think, Zork and Tim.

Think

The Brains and leader of the group. His head is massive with his giant brain,

Zork

Son of the Emporer ‘Zorg’, is described a giant obese walking sock.

Tim

The short mental phycotic alien, he’s Think’s ‘Right Hand Man’, though a little unstable.

The costumes were very varried in size and style with different difficulties and challenges with each. Zork the giant sock, involved stuffing a XXXXL boiler suit with a double duvet and bubble wrap. Making the frame of the actor unnatural and MASSIVE.

Think involved the use of an alien Latex head, which thanks to some ingenius ‘redesigns’ and double back sticky tape, by Graham was able to talk with the actors movements underneath. With red and blue lighting underneath, the character of Think came alive!

Tim was more easy to design, however being the only alien without a mask made make-up an essential!

Tre, Aiden, Lewis and James also contiuned preperation in practicing their rotoscoping and Laser effects for the coming film. Joshua also managed to complete the throne room set, covering it in alien language and graphics ahead of Thursdays effects filming.

After lunch the entire group sat down for a table read of the film with the actors, giving the entire group a chance to hear the film ahead of production and directors and writers a chance to see which jokes landed and which fell flat.
Tomorrow the Cobblers Production will be moving to Daventry to shoot scenes across the town, with us all hopeing the rain will hold off long enough to film.

Check out the short test film made by the animation group below:

Review of the day
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTQvYAhp0uY

Today the Cobblers group went to Daventry to start filming “Accidentally in Daventry”. Arriving early the lads set about setting up the first scenes of the film, converting an empty office in a school into a Fast Food ‘Office’. Using a combination of lights, posters and costumes the students managed to shoot two scenes at the school before heading out onto the South Brook Estate to film the next part of the film.
As a six-foot and 4 foot alien headed across the estate, the locals didn’t even batter an eye lid…which was a surprise to us all. Filming outside Dales house and using his dog as part of the film, the group managed to get another scene shot.
After a lunch of pasta pots and hoola hoops, we headed out into Daventry to film around the town.

With the rain clouds setting in, time was short and after moving location twice we managed to film the landing of the spaceship and first meeting of the aliens.
A massive congratulations to all those involved today and thanks for all those who helped out.

The Animation Teams Day:
http://www.youtube.com/user/cobblersfilms#p/a/u/2/IdYZ1fp3WJY

Today was a frantic and amazing day of Film Making and Animation at the Cobblers Study Centre. After yesterdays filming in Daventry, the lads were filled with great level of enthusism at the start of the day.
Starting off bright and early, the entire group made its way into the stadium, turning one of the open air burger stands into live and active fast food joint. Using the halogen lights and lighting gells, Graham and Dale created a warm and active feeling to the concrete set, with Ben and Lewis in as the two burger stand employees (one alien, one human).
After filming, the group split once again, with the film group filming more in the stadium and finnally using the Spaceship set in the centre, whilst the animation team created the green screen effects and city-scape scenes ready for the edit.

After a short lunch, filming moved lakeside as Chris in full alien makeup, and assisting actors and crew made their way in the rain and cold to the lake to film the last outdoor scene of the day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDmHKJyd5hU

After 5 long days of set building, animation and photography, filming today finally ended on the ‘Accidently in Daventry’ short film. As the film group completed the last ‘pick up’ shots, the animation team set about creating the motion and green screen effects for the film. Aiden (the self crowned ‘Motion-Master’) created an amazing alien city scape with flying hover cars and smoking chimneys, whilst Lewis and Tre created the last visuals and ‘background’ paraphanalia for the pick up scenes.
After an intensive mornings work, cake and donuts were passed around at lunch for all those involved, as a well done for keeping cool and working amazingly hard for the entire project.
But it wasn’t all ‘thankyou cake’, as Dale and Graham created a thankyou film, for all the staff who had taken part in the project.

An emotional day all round, at the end of an amazing week. Thankyou again to everyone involved, it wouldn’t have been possible without you.

Video Blog