House of Delinquents - Interview with Danny Cox

Here is a short interview with Kevin played by Danny Cox











Danny's Evaluation:

'I've known Lawrence for around 4 years since I met him at college, we were studying media production at the same time & we also shared mutual friends, so it wasn't a surprise that we became friends ourselves! Lawrence approached me a few months ago asking me if I'd be interested in playing the role of 'Kevin' in his short film 'House Of Delinquents'. After explaining the character & plot of the short film I happily agreed to take part. I'm a beginner actor/voice actor so this was a fantastic opportunity to get experience appearing in a short film as well as working with a good friend!

After meeting my co-stars and doing a table read of the script, we began shooting at our location in Maidstone. I can say with absolute confidence that it was one of the most enjoyable experiences I have ever been involved in! Since day 1 we all became incredibly close and genuinely felt like a group of house mates, which made getting into character a lot easier for us all! Lawrence was friendly, professional, punctual and pleasant throughout the entire project and was kind enough to offer us food, drink and assistance with travel if we couldn't get ourselves to the location on shooting days.

He was extremely easy to work with whilst maintaining a positive attitude and encouragement to his co-stars & crew, and I would happily recommend anybody who gets the opportunity to work with him to do so. I would also work with Lawrence again on future projects if the opportunity arises!

Backbone (Short Film Evaluation)

I was cinematographer as well as a producer on Alex's film. The short film is a story of Racism with two foreign brothers who hitch a ride at the back of a truck being driven by a man listening to the radio. He eventually stops the trunks and hears the two brother from the inside and tries to do something about. He is about to take a heavy approach to almost have the two boys arrested but instead hears a familiar sound on the radio, and the host convinces him to let the brothers go.

Day 1

The majority of day one was making sure the cast of the two brother turned up and making sure the truck Alex hired turned up on the day as well. The shots where going to be filmed inside the back on the truck. Boxes had to be quickly made up to be placed inside the truck not only to give out that the main character who would be driving the truck is delivering something but also it's like a temporary home for the two brother as they made this place their home.

With this particular shot as seen above, the way we made each shot look realistic was to use two production assistants to be set on the back of the truck and to wait till the director said action. From there they would use their legs to bump the truck around to give the motion that the truck was moving  while our actors where do their roles.

Next came the scenes where the two brothers are running after they get out of the truck and are let go by the truck driver. There was a huge long path for the actors to run down and was a few easy steady shots to get it done. At the same time we were making sure to get as munch coverage as possible.

Day 2

The second day involved in getting introduced to the main character who was playing the truck driver. He portrayed the character externally well and did very well in being a troubled father at the same time when his son's voice goes onto the radio.

We had to move the truck to a different location in order to set the scene of where the truck has to stop as the driver hears the sound of the two brothers from the back of the truck.

We wanted to make sure to get as much coverage as possible and to ensure that the story was told and shown in a very visual well. Alex was quite professional when directing, he had a good vision and he kew exactly what he wanted. He communicated well with the actors all though he could have ensured we had a location that didn't have so many distractions and people walking constantly onto our set.

What went Well

• The scheduling and timing to get the film done went very well, everyone turned up on time and then everyone got to work.
• The shots were handled nicely as Alex our director managed to land a great D.O.P to take a black magic camera and get the shots that he needed.
• The actors who participated were very professional, especially the man who was playing the truck driver.
• Everyone got along and everyone did their parts in a professional manner.

What didn't go so well?

• On location there were quite a few interruptions, horses and lots of people out for a walk had to be stopped at some point in order to get a few shots done.
• The was a bit of trouble on location when a Lady came up to our director and was quite angry and stated that the land we were filming on belonged to her and not the other person that gave Alex permission to film on this location. Though we managed to per say her to leave and measured her that everything would be okey, it was something that we did not expect. We were filming on private property even though our director definitely thought he had the right permissions in order to proceed with the filming.
• On the last day most of the crew where stuck in traffic and had to hold up most of the film because of many incidents occurring on the motorway.

What we could of done differently:

Conclusion:
All around this was a pretty big project to work on. The truck, the location as well as most of the actors all had to be scheduled for only a few days. The script had to be in check, although the film isn't very long, the script had to put a lot of information and show that from the time that we had. All the cast and crew got along and were fed alright, and although we had quite a few interruptions with most of the people and the lady who owned most of the private land, the rest of the shooting went as planned and we committed to this project quite late up the iso on the camera couldn't turn up anymore in order to insure that we got the coverage we needed.

Major Project - Final Edit Review and Evaluation

The editing software I used was Final Cut Pro X as I deemed it more convenient as I have this software at home so I wouldn't have to worry about hustling about to go all the way to the Maidstone Studios to work on a computer that might not always be free as most are occupied by first and 2nd years.

Understanding that programmes such as Adobe Premiere Pro was close to industry standard software than what the university had to offer, I unfortunately had limited experience with this type of video programming. My confidence did not feel right in using a software I hardly understand and I felt like my time was more into making sure that a 1st draft of my film was done instead of having to spend almost over 24 hours into understanding a programme that could potentially help boost the quality of my film.

Otherwise I was more than happy and comfortable in ending my final University year in a state of mind I was settled in and familiar with.


Comparing my first Draft film to my script:

After completing a first draft in putting everything together to form the story, I realised with the shots taken I had over stepped the time and length I had originally pitch and found myself having a film that was over 26 minutes long.

In order for me to tackle the issue, I knew I would have to make sacrifices by insure that over half of my film was brutally cut.


Editing while referring to the Script:

• Dialogues were cut to insure that my story was told visually.
• Flashback scenes were cut to insure I met my target time.
• The Rochester High Street scene was cut entirely as it didn't work. It was necessary that my main character gets in contact with the delinquents as soon as possible to keep the story moving in the right direction.

All in all I had to almost shorten the script down by about %25 in the edit so that way I could reach my target time, the challenge was I had to make sure that my story made sense to the viewer.

In the end around 15 Drafts of my film were taken before a decision was made by my tutor and agreed that no more tweets were necessary. My sound design were perfect my levels were as balanced as I could make them.

Sound Effects Galore:

• Since I had an Animated title, I wanted to have my character's in an animated world. With colourful crazy characters with their own personalities and motives.
• Alongside funny sound effects to aim up the comedy, just like the editing style of director Edgar Wright as explained in my pre production.
• What made things even more interesting is that one of my main actors, Danny Cox (Kevin) actually plays the guitar and I decided to use his skills to amp up the sound design by having him play cords on his guitar so I could add them in certain sections of the film.

Some sound effects included:

1. Electric guitar chords and strums
2. Lightning to when the delinquents find out they were going to get kicked out.
3. Squeaky Toy sounds for Robert's Teddy Bear Gary.
4. Scary Horror ambience for Agnus's room to make her environment spooky and gothic to suit her character.
5. Bottles and metal can sounds to amplify the crashing of when Robert falls into the kitchen.
6. A Punching sound effect to when my main character punches the land lord in the ending scene.

• Example of lightning in effect

For the sound design to get praised not only by my tutor but also my peers as well was a huge relief. That meant my comedic formula was working and it helped really stand my film out from my other peers.

Transitions:

In terms of editing, I wanted an Edgar Wright feel to how I move in the same location make the story more engaging and interesting.  The Edgar Wright uses cleaver transitions using a comedic formal he uses to engage the audience so that their attention is still focused within the same location but at the same time, the characters are still in fall motion as the magically move throughout the scene and keeps the story moving forward.

There were moments while shooting that I was thinking, I can't see how I could pull this off. I almost dropped the idea all together until I started getting the hang of shooting within the limited space that we had.

Opportune moments came into vision as the shooting progressed. For an example there was the scene where Derek and Henry are playing video games and all of a sudden Derek has to switch with Kevin. Henry tries to get Derek's attention with his Watch Tower Magazine and then out of nowhere, Kevin turn up and snatches him from the sofa and a quick transition with a video game sound effect attached to it made it possible to put Henry automatically into another room in the house without making it awkward or boring.

Colour Grading:

I thought it would interesting to put my trading colours into the film by inputing two types colours to show the transformation for the main character.

The dull blue colour is to represent the clam yet trapped lifestyle of a Jehovah's Witness. The red colour is to represent the rebellious lifestyle that Henry craves. 

In order to get the Red colour right, I decided to copy a formula to refer to ignorer for each of my shots to drive with that same style of warm colour as the film goes along. 

• I needed to make my characters stand out by enhancing the light. 
• I also thought by darkening their shows would make the main location look classy like the band colours of red and black with a little help from adding enhancing could to make the delinquents house seem worm yet dangerous.

• Shot comparison 1st is a shot from the original footage.
• 2nd is the colour graded footage.

I wanted the main character to be in an environment that he hasn't grown accustomed to but yet there is something familiar about his surroundings that he thought he had forgotten.

What this colour grading has done is evil more or the characters but also the environment they are a part of.

Hitting the punchline with the running gag:

Because my film was a comedy I had to make sure my film had the right flow and pace in order to hit it's mark into what I wanted to achieve. A funny, quick, loud and wild short film that everyone could relate to but also have fun while watching it. 

This was also why I had to make sure that my film was cut way down, even bellow 15 minutes. To ensure that the comedy and the characters were quick and yet the story would still hit that ranting gag where the Jehovah's Witness is trying to tell them about Jesus but yet in constantly being distracted and manipulated by the delinquents before he is found out. 

All with the ending still being that the delinquents still ending up in trouble as the main character, filled with happiness and having a delinquent personality, punches the real land lord, all in result of the delinquents still being kicked out. 

Evaluation:

What went well?

• Each shot turned up on screen perfectly, the lighting set ups we did were just right for even the original footage look professional.
• The sound design was received with positive feedback. This help stand the project out and helped to give each of my characters an animated environment which brought out each of their different and quirky personalities.
• The music I picked went well with the film and helped bring a more professional sound quality for the production. Especially my chosen Band Spyer Byte who gave me permission to use their music for the project.
• The comedy throughout the edits quick and had a nice flow to it and the plot never lot it's place and my classmates were laughing the majority of the way through which was very reassuring.
• I accomplished shortening down almost half of my entire edit in order to achieve my goal.
• The feedback was mostly about me hitting the nail on my inspiration 'The Young Ones', this further convinced me that I had achieved what I had originally pitch to the class.

What didn't go so well?

• There were some aspects of sound I wish I would have recorded again just incase. There is the scene where Agnus is showing Henry her work and a voice over from an actress hired to play the mother of Michael (Henry's best friend). The sound quality was quite low as we originally planed the voice over to come from downstairs. Since that scene was cut so I had to make do with what audio was recorded in order for the scene to still make sense.
• I do regret not using more professional editing software such as Adobe Premiere pro as I could imagine a better variety of effects and adjustments to use for sound quality.
• So aspects of spelling corrections had to drastically be made as there are were some in earlier drafts that I noticed and unfortunately everyone else.

What could have been improved?

• Aspects of the sound quality could have been greatly improved in my opinion.
• According to my tutor the film could have been cut down even more.
• I could have tried using Adobe Premiere Pro to see if any quality differences might have been made to change the outcome of my project.
• In terms of camera, I wanted to have a go at the Black Magic but due to to many groups wanting to use it I had no choice but to go with the Cannon 6D as my DoP felt more comfortable using it.
• My lightning effect could have been a little more unproved in terms of the actually lighting. It made my film look too bright at times.

What will I do next time?

• Be sure to learned and update myself with proper industry standard editing software knowledge so I can better equip myself to editing better quality videos and films.
• Be sure that the sound mixer has the right levels and balance before at age so that way when it comes round to the editing I would have a lot less sound problems to work with.
• Get a bigger team! Most people I wanted for my team either went away or were too busy to help me. So for this particular project I had to almost fend for myself if it weren't for the help of Alex and Plamen which I know my project couldn't have been completed without them.

Conclusion:

All in all, this is the best work I have produced here at my time at UCA. I had so much fun put together a message in a script and taking it to people who were more than happy to help me in my time of need in order for this finished piece of film to be completed.

This is so far the closest I had to work in a professional practice before heading off into the big wide industry. Though I love directing I have also fallen in love with many aspects for some other roles behind the camera to make a film.

This experience has taught me that team work is essential and even after University I know I will be learning a lot more. I have already started job searching and some companies wanted to watch my finished film so I thought I would take advantage of that.

This project has been fun to make as it was to put together to show all of my uterus and peers and I can't wait to start showing it to other people.