Cheyenne Joseph // UCA Television blog

For my drama production I want the themeless to be quite dark with cold temperatures, lots of blueish, bleak hues.  I think this will be the best theme for the production because the idea of rick leaving hospital and finding himself alone with no one there isn't exactly a happy moment. I couldn't imagine the scene with lots of bright yellows and greens flooding through as it would be the opposite to what is actually going on. That can work for a lot of things but  for my production I want to keep it true to the motifs.

Location 1 Plus 1 back up location Old Rochester Station Pros Recently closed down therefore it should be much quieter than a main busy road Has an elongated pathway, would be great to show the length that Rick has walked before coming across the bicycle.  outdoors, open space, will be well lit people will not be walking towards it since it is out of service Cons There may be engineering works on the day as there are stationary tractors there. Although this corner is abandoned, it is right next to the main road so car sounds would be picked up when its supposed to sound empty, abandoned and lifeless. Sound design will play a big part in this as I may have to take away the sound entirely.  Location 2 (back up option)       Bath Hard Lane tunnel Pros The darkness of the tunnel would create a lovely silhouette of Rick if he stands at the other end. would create a nice reveal as he comes to the light at the end. elonga...

I was getting quite worried because I couldn't quite get a balance for the characters and no one else was applying. My actor Julien who I thought would've made a good Rick decided to withdraw his application after asking to see any previous work I had done. Wasn't too happy about that as I find it rather obnoxious, especially as you know you've just applied to a student project so of course I am no Steven Speilburg yet. I made sure I put it in capitals that it was a student project so I'm not sure what people were expecting. So now I was down to 3 actors and nobody else was applying. I decided to go and search for actors instead. I sent around 20 messages and only two people got back to me saying they were unavailable.  Brian Potter was unavailable for the 6th which then brought me back down to 2 actors and no one suitable for Morgan. I was now stuck between someone with no experience but ready and willing to contrib...

For my casting I decided to opt for casting call pro as it seems to be a very big database filled with budding actors and actresses. Below is the job that I posted on the website. I made sure I carefully listed the roles and everything it entails so there would be no confusion with the applicants. After hearing how many applications some of my peers where getting I was so confident that I would receive a vast amount of applications too but I was wrong. Out of the 2 weeks that it was advertised for, I only received 4 applications.   Morgan AARON BEHA This actor applied for Morgan but I felt as though he did not fit the description of Morgan and he did not have any acting experience but was looking to build on a showreel. I was still grateful for the application JULIAN This actor applied for Morgan and Rick, when I looked at his show reel I thought he would've made a great Rick Grimes because he has...

David Fincher Producer | Director | Actor Born in 1962 Started working for John Korty when he was 18 years old Left ILM to direct TV commercials and music videos after signing with N. Lee Lacy in Hollywood. David Fincher is definitely one of my favourite directors simply because of the subtle yet dramatic decisions he makes for his films.  I've noticed a few things that I would consider some of his trademarks or directing style. First of all, Fincher brings a different perspective on how you can tell a story. For him it seems to be what you don't do or what you don't show instead of what you do show. David does not do handheld, Dragon tattoo has only two scenes of handheld action, Zodiac has one and The Social Network has only one shot of handheld. Seven has the most handheld shots as it has 5 but this is still a low number in comparison to other hollywood movies. Some are almost completely shot with a handheld technique. Even when he uses it, he ...

Director workshop 1 & 2 with Steve Finn We had our first workshop with the director Steve Finn. He is a director for Eastenders and the whole experience has been amazing because we've been able to get great insight into what its like to be a director for television. I must admit, the whole thing seems very daunting as there is so many things for you to consider all at once. Steve showed us snippets from a few scenes that he had directed and we had to try and think about how he filmed it and what issues he may have had whilst filming. In all honesty I did try to suggest some answers but I was still not quite hitting the mark. It just made it clear to me that there is a certain level of thinking involved when it comes to directing and I have gained so much more respect for directors as a whole.  Workshop 2 . This workshop was much more hands on and I enjoyed it a lot. We were all given the same script and had to decipher it...

True Detective Directed by  Cary Joji Fukunaga True Detective Season 1 is an 8 episode, dark crime drama that aired on HBO in 2014. It received a worldwide applause for its superb cinematography, directing and execution of the characters by Woody Harrelson and Mathew McConaughey. It has received a variety of awards and nominations, ranging from BAFTAS to Emmys and even internationally renowned awards. In my opinion, I truly believe the show deserved all the recognition it received because it was a truly amazing show. For me, there was something wonderful about the way in which Fukunaga was able to capture the true essence of the surroundings . It heightened the believability of the entire programme and it seemed somewhat authentic with the use of props (i.e the wooden ritualistic items). The fact that Fukunaga had the ability to make something like a trailer park seem so cinematic and "beautiful" i...

The Director In a workshop with Simon, we first went through what a director usually does and how many different departments they would have working with them on a shoot. Roles such as DOPs (director of photography) , camera man, assistant directors and other roles like that. It was interesting because it is clear that the director plays a very important part in terms of how the shoot will be run but it is important to note that the director only focuses on what is going on in front of the camera and where the camera is seeing it from. The director needs to have a vision and also the ability to answer any questions that is thrown their way. This means that they have to be super organised and super prepared, as well as maintaining communication throughout with the whole team so everyone knows what their role is.  I learnt that on a shoot, the Director must;  check the location - make sure everything looks okay to f...

Lighting Workshop 2 In this lighting workshop I learnt the importance of detail when it came to lighting. We watched a video where they went  into depth about how certain film scenes where lit and it honestly blew my mind with the amount of detail and effort it takes. When you watch films to don't even realise that some of the "basic" looking scenes and shots probably have around six different lights in the lighting set up. Its honestly amazing. In our lesson we also looked at the ARRI handbook where it gave you example lighting set ups that you could try out with the kits. After going through an example with the whole class, we were then sent off to do one each. I selected the example from page 22.  Here is the result;  We had problems with burnout because we just couldn't seem to dim the key light down enough but after fiddling around with it some more, we were able to calm the light down a little bit by moving it away more and adding two diff...

Lighting Workshop 1 In our first lighting workshop with Fergus, I learnt a lot about different types of lights and the variety of accessories that are available to use in order to enhance the light or give it a completely different look.  We first had to learn the basics of lighting and that was Three-point lighting. This consists of having a back light of low intensity, a Key light, usually the brightest of all the lights, facing the subject and a Fill light, usually medium intensity but its purpose is usually to fill in the shadows of the subject.   We went through the basics of the health and safety when setting up the lighting, for me the most important one for me to remember was making sure the switches for the lights are off before plugging them in. You could easily damage the equipment and the eyes of either yourself and anyone else. We went through the uses for the sand bags, using gloves when handling the barn doors. ...

After completing quite an intense workshop with simon the day before, We got to experiment with the Canon 7D's and it was really fun. We went through the functions on the camera, found out where and how to control the ISO and aperture for the cameras. We spoke about sound and how limited it is for a canon, you almost always have to have an external microphone attached if sound is an important part of your production. We also watched a video where we were able to see what kind of beautiful images you could create with a canon 7D and I found it rather remarkable. The image is so crisp and so clear, especially with natural light so that is definitely something I will keep in mind for future productions.  We were then given a task to go and attempt to create a music video where we would then have to go in and sync the sound after. Saskia and I thought it would be a good idea to do something fun so we chose Dirty Dancing - Time of my life and we tried to mimic the dancing.  Wh...

Portrait Shot List Here is my shot list, for scene 1, I am to get a variety of shot from different angles. This differs from scene 2 because I will wear different items of clothing to give a more diverse effect when it will be projected. For scene 2, my aim is to have on tighter fitting clothes in order to illustrate the skin. I will wear a vest top and some leggings as I want to create a silhouette look for the post production.

Final idea  If decided that after gathering inspiration from a variety of places, there are a few elements from each that have stuck out to me the most.  I will set up an installation in the corner of my room for the projection. I want to have two different sized boxes to be able to have a variety of sides to project different images on.  I have been unable to test out the projection idea itself because the projector I ordered has not arrived yet. - I am unable to use the schools projector or conduct it ins school because the projector needs to be in a controlled environment, one were it cannot be moved and where the settings and aspect ratio of the projector cannot be changed. This would be very hard to do if I were to create the projection at Uni as there are so many varying factors that could disrupt it. Therefore I have chosen to set up a space in my room. I then want to project different parts of my body on different sides of the boxes, a...

After struggling to find a software for morphing images, I came across an image that inspired me. This image is from the opening titles of True Detective, season 1 . The entire opening titles features a technique called double exposures. This is when you have two (or more) different sequences overlaying each other to create a somewhat "blended" effect. After being reminded of this great title sequence, It sprung so many new ideas in my head. I immediately knew that if I learned the technique  for overlaying and double exposing, I would be able to combine past videos of me with a "current" me.  I found a video on youtube demonstrating the style that I would like to incorporate in the production and it was also a tutorial. Although the tutorial is in Spanish, some parts of it seems simple to follow to get the desired effect. I also found an english version: What I love about this ef...