The day started off with a trip to the National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield in which we learnt more about the craft film course and how the NFTS can improve our careers as filmmakers. We were told that the NFTS is only a university for masters students and will help you specialize in a specific area of film. On a tour, we were shown the site which looked incredibly modern and welcoming and I was excited by the library they had, which I was told, included a film archive and lots of film theory books to help you with your studies and to help you develop your own style. Later on the tour we were shown a large workshop which was used for production design, housing all their props including; flags, lamps, suitcases, rugs, posters, mugs and anything you can think of from all periods in history. I was immediately drawn to this because it reminded me of working in theatre and I love working on mise en scene and how it effects the message of a production.
The craft workshop that the NFTS were advertising sounded incredibly interesting but I want to specialize in directing and cinematography which doesn't have many spaces so I would rather work on other projects for now to build up my reel. Furthermore, I would love to do the course if I could do an equal amount of work on all the other skills, but the course is designed for you to specialize in something so I can't.
After we visited the NFTS we were taken to the Harry Potter studios at Warner Brothers in Watford, to go on the tour and get a private talk about costume. I was really excited because I love the Harry Potter franchise and I know that a phenomenal amount of work went into its production so I was looking forward to seeing all the costumes and special effects that went into it. Before we got to go on the full tour we were given a short talk about costume distressing, which explained that when a lot of action happens within a film, the clothes have to mimic that action or else it creates a continuity error. The lecturer then explained that a lot of these shots would not be completed in one single day, so there would be multiple items of the same costume but in different stages of the action. We then got to have our own attempt at distressing a piece of cloth which needed the assistance of a wire brush and special paints to give earthy or burnt affects. It was really insightful as it showed that you can't just tear a piece of cloth, but you actually have to think about how the character is going to be affected by what is happening in the scene and where on the characters body they would be affected. We then got to go back on the tour, which was magical. My favorite section was about the graphic design and the concept art because it was so detailed and beautifully drawn, which just shocked and amazed me. I wish that I could produce the same kind of work as these artists but I don't have the skill.
The Harry Potter tour, although fun, was actually really insightful because it reinforced the message that a lot more goes on in a film than meets the eye. An interesting fact that we were told was that in each film, there were 4,000 people working on production, so there is always a job in the film industry and all of them are important.
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