"Dislocation" Filming.

The filming for "Dislocation" is complete! We started on Monday 28th April and finished on Tuesday 29th April. For the first guy, we had Richard (Josh), Ryan (Dan) and Patrick (Old Man) on set and we filmed in the car park of Hillsborough Forest Park and in the park itself. The first day we ran out of battery so we didn't get all the scenes done that we had scheduled to shoot for that day but the footage we did get, we were very happy with. For crew, we had our sound recordist Pearse, our camera operator Conor and our director/writer Andy on set.

Ryan and Richard got on really well and had fantastic chemistry that you were able to see on camera right away, which we were all very pleased with. Below is a photograph (taken from Andy's Facebook) of Richard (left) and Ryan (right) on set.

Tuesday was slightly different. Crew was changed around slightly, both Pearse and Anya had to go and shoot part of Pearse's film the same day, which I had known about. What I didn't know however was that Anya would be helping so we had to find out from Pearse, and not Anya, that she wouldn't be there on the Tuesday. The only thing I'm thankful for is that we were told a few days previous and not the night before. I still wasn't very happy though, because throughout meeting with Anya and recalling the last big production meeting we had, she didn't seem to have a strong interest in what Andy had asked her to do, even though she aid she was up for it weeks before. I volunteered to do make-up that day, I didn't think I would be any good at it, but we needed to have someone doing it. I only had a few days to find out what I had to do in regards to applying gashes and make-up to actors, and it simply wasn't enough time. I didn't do a very good job of Melissa's make-up, I dabbed in white paint which in hindsight I shouldn't have done because white make-up is normally zombie, and that wasn't the look we were going for. Andy then said to me to take the make-up off Melissa because it wasn't what he was looking for, and I got her to apply dark eyeliner around her eyes and smudge it in. Applying the gashes was a lot easier and looked the part a lot more than Melissa's make-up. I wasn't annoyed at Pearse for not being there, he was the one that told us and he apologised a number of times for not being able to complete the shoot, so I stepped in to do sound recording and this enabled me to do sound work too and I could use it for another module on the course. I just wish Anya had've told us herself that she wasn't going to be able to do it, or that she wasn't really into doing it in the first place. Maybe she was, but previous meetings and constant requests to play about with the make-up and test out the gashes before the shoot that had gone unheard, told me otherwise. For cast on Tuesday we had Richard and Ryan again, along with Dave (Groundskeeper) and Melissa (Dead Girl)

The previous day Andy and Conor went up to see the old house that we wanted to use but they couldn't see anyone about, so they went over to the house across the street and the woman who they were talking to, her brother owns the house that we were looking at. She gave us his number but we couldn't get through until the next day. I rang around lunchtime on the Tuesday and I got talking to his wife who was unaware of what we wanted to do, so I explained it to her and she passed her husband's mobile number on to us. I then rang him and explained what we wanted to do, which was just to film a few scenes near the house. Thankfully, he said that that was fine and we came up to see how we were getting on a few hours later. They were both really nice about it, and they were really interested about what the film was about, and we couldn't be more appreciative.

Overall, I'm really happy with how both days went. Everyone was a professional on set, everyone got along, and we all ended up swapping details afterwards. 

Day One: Lindsey's interview.

Filming day had arrived (Saturday 5th April) and both myself and Caoimhe were really excited. I picked them both up from Belfast and brought them up to my house.

It didn't take us too long to set up, and it was a really nice day outside so the sun was coming through the window nicely. Caoimhe was on sound, while I was on camera as well as asking the questions. We had originally planned to stop at every fourth question and change camera angles, and had fully intended to do this but we were too interested in her answers and it was just flowing like a real conversation, that we completely forgot to do so.

We then got her to cut up some buns that were vegan as well as gluten free, and I wanted these to be cutaways for when we were taking about desserts and buying food in general.

Caoimhe and I were really happy with how the day had gone, all three of us got on great and the answers that Lindsey gave us to our questions were great and quite eye opening.

Pitching Time!

Thursday (27th March) was pitching time! We had briefly gone over what we were going to talk about in the pitch on the day, just to keep it fresh in our memory. Below is a photograph of Caoimhe and I after our pitch and you can see our t-shirts.

On Caoimhe's t-shirt, I wrote "Vegetarians Do Eat..." because a lot of people think vegetables just eat vegetables so I listed a number of different foods (including vegetables) below this and on the back of the t-shirt, I drew and coloured in a few foods.

On my t-shirt, I wrote in big letters "What is a Vegetarian?". This was my first idea for the documentary; I wanted to dispel the myths and find out from vegetarians themselves what others think when they hear they are vegetarians. So on the front and back, I wrote questions and phases that vegetarians are likely to hear when people ask them about being vegetarian. 

For our pitch we talked about a number of different topics:

The title: "Green Beans and Everything Inbetween", I actually give credit to Pearse for this quirky name because he came up with it and we thought it wasn't a generic name for a vegetarian documentary but it was enough for people to be interested, just by the name.

Subjects: Lindsey Mitchell and Richard Andrews. We spoke very briefly about how we were glad to have a man and a woman involved so we could get two different perspectives. Richard has been a vegetarian since he was born, so he didn't choose the choice to be vegetarian, whereas Lindsey did make the choice so it will be nice getting those two different sides too.

Audience: We want these to go out to a wide range of audiences. We want people to watch this who are skeptical of the vegetarian lifestyle or don't know much about it. We want people who are interested in getting involved in becoming a vegetarian. We want vegetarians to watch and feel like they're not dislocated from society like a select few make them feel.

Research: I feel our research has been strong; we watched a film called "Vegan Love" about a guy who wanted to make a documentary about his best friend who was vegan, and trying to find a vegan girlfriend. I also ordered a lot of resources from the Vegetarian Society including leaflets, pamphlets and posters which I had posted about before. 

Themes: Both our themes and locations are heavily dependent on our questions and our subjects answers. Our themes include whether it is their choice to be vegetarian or not, their lifestyle, the reaction of friends and family, common myths and their experiences eating out and shopping.

Locations: As I previously mentioned, this will be dependent on our subjects answers. For example if Lindsey said to us, she did it for the animals, we would go somewhere like Streamvale Farm and get a few shots of the baby animals. However, if she said she did it for the health benefits, we would get shots of health food shops. A few examples of locations are; Holland and Barrett, St. George's Market, Streamvale Farm, supermarkets.

Interview locations at this point are depending on shooting dates; we have Caoimhe's house and my house down as possibilities but when we know when both subjects can film, a decision on interview locations can be confirmed.

Shooting Dates: We were thinking the 4th or 5th April for Lindsey's interview and 8th April or 12th April for Richard's interview and then going on the 13th April for cutaway shots once we watch the interviews back. We feel this will be much more productive due to time restraints, instead of going to get a lot of cutaways at all different places, at least if we know their answers, we can base locations off them.

I was really happy with how our pitch went; we had an innovative idea with the t-shirts and no-one had the same idea. It stood out, it was memorable and we were able to explain how our original idea started in a more colourful way.