Greta Madline D&AD Make Your Mark Competition

I was approached by Greta Madline, a graphic design student at Leeds College of Art, to help film her D&AD Make Your Mark competition brief. When i joined to help film she had about two weeks left to hand it in. Her idea was a written piece of dialogue, that complimented a domino effect made out of small cardboard installations painted in blue. Each item would have its personal connection between Greta and the dialogue. There was a team of 5 of us, Greta the director, Mark and Martynas were the engineers putting the installations together, Jamie was the documentary cameraman and I was the cinematographer. I helped out with most of the filming on for her final piece which was filmed in a rented studio space in Bradford where i worked on it for two weekends traveling from Leeds.

It was a long process, the installation was getting prepared and built as i was filming parts of it. It was a real team collaboration, everyone was helping eachother. The next part of the installation had to get built, painted and ready to work so that i could them film the next part. We were scraping materials from near by dumpsters and the two engineers had a real grasp of what they were making, so when i wasn't filming i was helping clean, paint and even cut out some materials.

Greta wanted to try make the camera moving around the installation seem seamless, however, that would be impossible as the installation was being built bit by bit. As I was filming, my aim became to capture the information and movement with a smooth as possible camera flow so the audience will be fully focused on the installation rather than the camera movement.

We really made full use of what we had. For example, there were two mini skateboards and one was going to be used to transfer a coconut and hit a book along its way, which would fall onto a cake that would light it's own fire. We wanted to make the viewer feel as if they are on this journey and give them a reason to believe that these objects are moving automatically, so i put the camera on another skateboard and moved it alongside the coconut on the other skateboard at the same time .

Greta had dominos to make a real domino effect to enhance the whole installation and we discussed the best and most steady way to film the dominos falling. I placed the tripod at it's lowest point, and put the dominos a set distance surrounding the circumference of the camera I could follow the dominos as they were knocking eachother down and keep it all in focus. Obviously we had to have a few takes at this due to some dominos not falling or the camera not being in the right sync with the dominos.

We had minor troubles throughout, for example for some reason the balls would not want to fall down and into the glass, one was always popping out. Originally we wanted a wide shot of the balls falling down the wall, along side the cardboard installation hanging on the wall and then into the glass but because the balls were being so inconsistent, we filmed close up shots of each movement.

We used other techniques to help tell the story such as stop motion animation. Greta had a head and a hand painted in blue, as well as the number 8 that she wanted to change into an infinity sign. The 8 was attached by string and would turn the hand with a face stuck to it, to show this in it's least mechanical form, we decided on using stop motion. After every picture i took, Greta tilted the 8 slightly more and turned hand and head to make it look like it the 8 was moving itself.

Greta wanted a big ending using all the parts of the installation to create her name. I tried two different ways to capture this, i knew she wanted the camera at a birdseye view panning over her name, so we tried the least sensible way of doing this first. We attached the camera to a ladder facing downwards, put the ladder on top of the walls of the studio and panned the camera across the studio. We then tried another way where we attached the camera to a pole, I took one side and Greta took the other, and we walked either side of her name. (which is what she went for in the end)

This experience was extremely beneficial. If i hadn't learnt already, i learnt how to be a serious team player. Everyone may have their assigned roles but that doesn't mean we shouldnt be helping each role out and making the most of what we've got. It was ashame Greta didn't win because she had put so much effort and so many hours into the project, however, it is a piece i am proud to have been apart of. I was challenged on every frame i was constructing, having to question Greta to find out what exactly she wants so I can help her tell her story how she wants it. I was able to try new camera angles and tricks that i may not have considered before until i was mentally challenged.


The Making of:
https://vimeo.com/89441999

Make Your Mark 2014:
https://vimeo.com/89700186