Here's our big idea!

Hey!

So it's been two months since the last post, and not a lot has actually happened. Well I say nothing but actually we've finished one film and finished the shooting of another.

The first film is a nice and short documentary about the ancient greek philosopher Heraclitus who is famously known (kind of) for his doctrine of flux. Basically that's the idea that nothing in the world ever stays the same, which is true!

The film was written, directed and edited by Mr Michael Dodds (likes to do as much as he can, clearly). It was filmed by me: Oliver Watson. And I believe we both dabbled with the sound equipment which went great!

We used a friend of ours and coursemate Josh Gajree and another long time friend Connor Doherty for the dramatisations. Josh played Heraclitus whilst Connor played Plato, another ancient greek philosopher who disagreed with the doctrine.

We were pretty lucky being in Edinburgh for the shoot as we had access to some really spectacular locations. One of these locations was the peaceful River Almond in Cramond, where we found a good secluded spot to have Josh don a toga. Connor on the other hand didn't have the luxury of privacy. No, he had to change at one of Edinburgh's most famous monuments at the top of Calton Hill surrounded by Japanese tourists in the typical Scottish weather of rain and hail stones.

Getting to these locations would have been near impossible or at least extremely time consuming without the great help of our drivers. Eve Jarron and Connor.

I feel like its necessary to mention that we celebrated the completion of the shoot by having a lovely meal at Frankie & Benny's where we went in soaked through and made a rather large mess at our table.

Anyway that's enough for that project! You can check it out on our YouTube page! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFgNDa7cDWI

I'll write a new post concerning our latest quest! An advert for the ludicrously tasty Crunchy Nut Cornflakes!

Bub-bye!

Oliverus Watsonus (I'm Greek now!)

New Project - Through The Lens

We've been talking about making a short film with a love story. The main narrative is about two photographers that meet by seeing each other through the lens' in their cameras. They then inevitably fall in love. As for what the more meaty side of the story will be I don't know as of yet. Michael has his ideas and I have mine. I wished for a more tragic side of events which ultimately tore the couple apart but I believe Michael wishes it to have a happy ending. I'm sure we'll get together at some point to discuss this film in more detail.

New Project - Blu Tack Advert

It came to our attention yesterday that blu-tack were holding a competition that specified that the public were to create the next blu-tack advert. It could be anything from live-action to animation. So far, we haven't really had a chance to discuss what we should do but, we are definately going to enter the competition and try to win.

The prize is £2000 worth of computing and film equipment that would be incredibly beneficial to us. And if we don't win but become runners up instead we get our hands on £200 worth of equipment which would still be beneficial to us!

Castelletti

Castelletti is a gripping tale that follows the interrogation of a 1940s gangster named Antony Castelletti. This work of fiction was written and directed by Michael Dodds, aided by a small team consisting of 5 other members. The majority of the camera work was undertaken by Oliver Watson with the rest done by Matthias Fischer, Harry Grieve and Neil McGlashan.

The film took a reasonable short time to create. The film process began with the pre-production work in September 09 - October 09. Filming then commenced once the storyboard had been created and locations had been confirmed along with acting roles. The filming of the short film took approximately 2 months, October 09 until the middle of November 09.

The editing of the piece was a painstakingly difficult yet enjoyable process. A lot of care was put into the editing by Michael and Oliver. Due to the extremely low budget we had to download pre existing sound effects for gun shots and even Officer Fischer's footsteps at the beginning of the film. This took 2-3 weeks for the team to finish which meant that the film was finished before Christmas. It also meant that some of the team got a copy to show to family.

Although a few copies of the film exists it has been sworn to stay off YouTube until the confirmation that Group 6 has won from the competition that it has been entered in. The idea of the competition is simple. Young film makers who have made a short film (around 5 minutes) can enter their piece to be shown at the International Edinburgh Film Festival. However, due to the large amounts of entries that they receive a jury has been formed, of which 2 members of Group 6 are part of, in order to judge the films and pick the best ones to be shown. An extract of Castelletti has been submitted as the full length version is 12 minutes long and was not an acceptable length for the competition.

Let's hope that Group 6 can win their first premier at a prestigious event but hopefully not their only premier there!

First Post

Hello. I have created this blog so that members of Group 6 Productions can easily keep track of what is going on for us. Also it will allow us to easily advertise our films to readers or internet users that have found this blog accidentally.

So without further ado lets introduce the current members of Group 6 Productions.

Michael Dodds and Oliver Watson. Both aspiring film makers. Currently they have made a short film, around 12 minutes in length. This will premier hopefully at the International Edinburgh Film Festival. After the festival the film will be uploaded on youtube for the public to enjoy and critique.

Michael previously created an earlier short film, 'The Classics Reloaded', which is essentially a selection of clips from famous films that have been spoofed. It is a humorous piece that I am sure that the many who watched the film enjoyed. The film can currently be viewed on youtube.