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On our first day we were all nervous and shy. We spoke timidly about the usual starter questions; weather and recent news. After a short while we bonded as a group over our love for a director who need not be mentioned. This became an ongoing theme throughout the week. We made a joke trilogy in the evenings called Andy Frank as well as our serious films during the day. After a long day of travelling we met the Swedes who appeared to be in many ways similar to us. The Lithuanians seemed to be more reserved, but just as nice! I was looking forward to making films with new faces with different ideas to mine.
Oliver, UK
We had breakfast then we went to the theatre room where Per Carleson, a short film maker talked to us about sound. It was very interesting as we learnt about aspects of sound that we had never really thought about before. After lunch we had a theatre workshop with Malin an actress and drama teacher. We played some games and got to know each other better. It was fun but strange as a lot of us had never done drama exercises like it before and they were a bit embarrasing! In the evening we travelled to the cinema in Falkenberg to see some of Per's short films and to discuss them with him. Our favorite short film was called '881113-4753' It was a slowed down shot of a baby about to cry. Because it was so slow, all of the expressions were very powerful and built tension. News reports were played in the background and got louder and louder, adding to the atmosphere. When discussing it with Per, we found out that the baby was his daughter and that it was first going to be shot at the birth. This made the film even more powerful because of how personal it was. We also watched a film by Ewa Cederstam , a Swedish cinematographer who we will be working with later in the week. When we got back to the site we watched some films made by some of the people here. We finished the day with some pool and music which carried on to the early hours of the morning!
Bea and Sophie
Today was predominantly rainy with sunny intervals and occasional thunder, with the lowest temperature being 16 c. ten past seven and i am awakened by a knock on the door. i love these early starts, and so does everyone else- or at least this is implied by the way in which everyone skips to breakfast in the morning, with much laughter and big smiles..
later in the day we found out which groups we were in. we were put into groups of mixed age, nationality and sex, and i suppose it was a good thing that groups were chosen by the 'grown ups'‚ because it meant that people who maybe wouldn't talk to each other normally or hadn't even spoken before would.. have to. also it means that no one is excluded, though i am sure that wouldn't have happened anyway because everyone gets on with one another.. or at least so far..
we watched the shortlisted films from DepicT!‚ 2004, as well as the beginning section of silence of the lambs, and 'learnt'‚ about how stories have beginning, middles, and ends (usually) in the big black room, with flourescent lights and red chairs. we also discussed elements of script writing, before hearing, in more detail, the brief for the short films that we have to make in our groups. there were 3 specifications: 1: it must have no dialogue, 2: it must be 90 seconds or less and 3: it had to encorporate the theme of meeting‚ some how.
so with this information we went off and came up with ideas. it was important that everyones idea be heard and no one ignored or dimissed - that is not a good dynamic. so that's what we did.
when the sun came out i had an urge to run in the wheat field so i did. jonathan, a lovely young swede of about 5 foot eight, was confused by my enthusiasm, in the context of wheat, and suggested that maybe we didn't have wheat in england, and it was a novelty for me. i explained that there was nothing novel about wheat and that it was simply a fun way to pass the time.
By Roz
Today we had a visitor. Her name was Ewa Cederstam and she is a cinematographer. She was very nice and polite and she showed us some of her films. One of them, 'The Parasite' was a tragic-drama, which takes place in northern Sweden. It was really good. She also presented a documentary called 'The Stars We Are' dealing with a sub-culture in Swedish society.
Also, we continued work on script and storyboards, though disappointingly for the new 'Michael Bay Foundation' there is a disastrous absence of explosions, helicopters and fast cars. Themes of suicide and violence don't have quite the same crowd pleasing assets. Come to think of it, there has actually been a rather lack of explosions all together. I can think of one, maybe two film-explosions sighted since our arrival at the camp last Saturday. As you can imagine, both I and Billy are quite upset and distraught about this. But otherwise we are quite alright. I'm suffering from a slight cold, probably caused by the late nights and cold weather (and absence of herbal tea and Michael Bay films). Hopefully, a remedy will be found soon. Maybe you can suggest one? Telepathically, if you wouldn't mind. Today, we asked various people: "What is your favourite Michael Bay film?"
These are some of the answers that we gathered from around the place.
"Pearl Harbor. It had everything I like about film. Good looking boys, explosions and Michael Bay." - Oliver, UK
"It is a silly question - I can't choose just one." - Jonathan II, Sweden
"Pearl Harbor, because of the explosions." - Jenna, UK
"Armageddon. I like the songs. They make me happy." - Hannah, UK
"I don't think I've seen any of his films..." - Per, Sweden
I hope you‚ve enjoyed todays digest. We're not doing I tomorrow so you will have the B-team. Never mind. It's meant to rain anyway
Goodbye...
Forever...
BILLY and JONATHAN
Today was Hannah’s birthday so this morning she was treated to three beautiful versions of happy birthday in English, Swedish and Lithuanian. From the look on her face I could tell she was impressed, is there no end to our talents?! Probably not.
We started today with some work in our production teams, unfortunately most of the English group had missed breakfast so it was hard discussing our plans when our stomachs were making so much noise.
At 12:30 we all met back up again to go out on our day trip. If you are a big fan of rocks and pebbles we suggest you take a look at our fabulous selection of photographs. Apart from the odd few wimps who shall remain nameless (LASHANA and SOPHIE) the rest of us decided to climb the huge rocks, it was a death defying challege but we made it in the end.
After that we went shopping in the city and the two of us spent most of our one hour looking for somewhere to change our money and checking out the Swedish talent! We stumbled across a sweet shop in which we spent most of our money because of this we were late back to the coach and had kept everyone waiting but the less said about that the better. Still...at least they waited for us!
When we arrived back it was time for guess what...More food! During dinner in one of our many deep and meaninful conversations at our table there was some interesting information kindly shared by Jordan as we ate our pasta, this was that he had now gone 4 days without managing to disengage anything in the toilet. We are very worried for him and his health, maybe he should see a doctor (who knows if he will make it to the end of the week). Hannah was then treated to a homemade cake AND another brilliant rendition of happy birthday.
We are sorry for this short diary entry however we must go now as we are joining the group to make our first film together “Andy Frank” a Michael Bay Production’s re-write of the classic story of Anne Frank. Only this time there will be lots of huge explosions, ninja folk and maybe, just maybe, some more explosions! Check back to see how it goes...
Jenna and Lashana
Today after breakfast all of the groups started to shoot their films. The beginning of the day was very rainy and it was perfect weather for one group to shoot and for other groups such weather resulted in many problems.
We also had to find a method which would be good for everyone in our group, because we all had a very different image of the film.
Everybody were very busy all the time. We had lunch together and after that we went back to work.
Also we had a meeting with Anna. She is a costumemaker /designer and she had worked with various films such as the new Batman Begins. She told us about her work in Kazakhstan where she had to make many costumes too.
Then later on at night saw some shortmovies one of are really good, it was produced in America and it was called “A Ninja Pays Half My Rent”. Later that night we saw the trailer from the upcoming Michael Bay movie “Andy Frank II” and for the first time the people from England didn’t go to sleep so early, which they usually do. This is the reoprt from Dalia (LUT) and Kalle(SWE) and remember people! GOD BLESS MICHAEL BAY! Over and out!
Today i missed breakfast because we were up late last night because we were up "bonding". I was woken up this morning by Bea screaming in my ear and pulling my duvet cover off and when i opened my eyes i had a camera crew filming it all i was annoyed but later forgave them all.
I missed the morning briefing because i was so tired and we were asked how much filming we had left to do in the day.
We started filming again today. I shot my scenes in the bathroom and kitchen we got most of it finished but we had to go and find a steep hill to shoot a scene for our movie. It rained all day and now we have to stay up all night editing our footage.
We have a deadline of five o'clock tomorrow evening and still have three scenes to shoot, a storyboard to make and i'm doing this! greatly important of course!
Jonathan did a good stunt scene where he put on makeup to look as if he was dead as he was meant to have fallen out of a high window and it all looked very realistic.
So far at the end of this day i am ready to do more editing and sleeeeeeeep!
Alpha, UK
Today was a nice day, because we ended the shooting and started editing, it was the first time i had edited so it was interesting but hard work. We had some problems as the screen kept turning itself off for no reason at all! The last shots we had to take had to be in evening so we had to wait all day until it got dark. Then we had to put makeup on Jonathon because we had to shoot a scene where he had to look like he had fallen out of a window, so i put so much blood on his face, it looked really awful and realistic! You can see it in the photos!
And i think we are going to have a night without sleep! I havn't been getting much sleep so far this week but of course i can survive. I was having so much fun that there was no time to sleep. The weather though has been really awful, it has been raining all day. And as we have had to film in the rain lots of people are getting colds, including me! This week i have learnt that group work is really hard but it's fun some of the time anyway. Its hard because you have to compromise with everyone, sometimes you have to go along with other people's ideas even though you don't agree with them. You must learn to be patient.
Also this week has been hard work because im always having to speak English, i understand almost everything but its so hard to explain what i think. People here have had to be patient with each other in trying to communicate but it has worked really well.
I will remember this week-the people, the teachers and the guests forever. It has made a tremendous impression on me. I have had a lots of brand new experiences, doing things that i have never done before.
Juste!! ;)
It's the last day we have together and everyone has been working very hard to reach the deadline. People are now really tired,physically and mentally. Although I made it to breakfast on time today. Fanny fell asleep on the sofa in the basement at 7:00 a.m this was because all five groups were working throughout the night to edit their films. Some people were getting very stressy (Mr. Billy Kenber) and were forced to have caffeine injected into their veins.The coffee is really important here. I had some finishing shots to make, aswell as some pick-ups, i also had to act in another groups film (in the rain).Everybody was rushing to finish their films.By the afternoon the films were finished. There were a good range of genres including emotional drama and comedy. Kalle had produced an original piece of music for his groups film, it was sort of electronic/industrial - i had a sneak preview. In the evening we assembled in the theatre hall to watch the films, all of which were brilliant and looked very well made. Later on we had a bite to eat and then! It was time for what i dubbed the M.B.F.A 2005
(The Michael Bay Foundation Awards), where we had to vote for our favourite films in each category. The categories and winners were....
BEST FILM: Splat
BEST MALE ACTOR: Leo
BEST FEMALE ACTOR: Hannah
BEST ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK: Two people, One toothbrush
BEST DIRECTOR: Dissilusion
BEST SOUND: Dissilusion
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: Alone with Company
BEST EDITING: Splat
By Jordan and Fanny
Our last day began by saying goodbye to the Lithuanians. We all felt the week had gone fast, yet known each other for a long time. We signed each others’ t-shirts and caps and before long only a few people were left at the camp. The English group had 10 hours of trains, buses and aeroplane journeys to look forward to. At the airport we were in a bus which had been driving around a circuit of runways for twenty minutes before we heard the following speech on the loudspeaker ”We are sorry, one person had not left the aircraft from the previous flight, sorry for the delay. The person had been locked inside which resulted in a time delay.” This baffled us; many guesses were made about what had happened. Whether the person had attempted to fly to England free of charge, fallen asleep or attach a bomb to the engine was left up to our own imagination. It almost felt like a Michael Bay film script, anything could have happened, I personally was anticipating an explosion. Luckily we arrived safe and sound, but Alpha had a little trouble getting through customs due to a recent change of appearance (in the passport his physique was a little different), also Jordan was wearing a name tag which read ”Michael Bay” which baffled the authorities and he was questioned before allowing him to pass through the gates. Jordan also managed to momentarily lose his boarding card, but fortunately it had been found on the floor and handed in. We had a great time and made many new friends. We are very thankful to all the leaders, organisers and teachers involved. We hope the films are enjoyed as much as we enjoyed making them.
Oliver, UK
Our trip back to Lithuania was really interesting but also tiring. It took us 36hours to come back and we had 3 different types of transport: train from Falkenberg to Stockholm, ferry from Stockholm to Tallinn and and bus from Tallinn to Vilnius. During trip with ferry we saw 2 strange objects. First one was flying boat and second one was ghost island. Both of them you can see in the pictures. Everybody felt a bit tired after a few last sleepless nights which were spent for video editing in filmhouse. So more than half of our journey was dedicated to sleep. All the rest time we talked about all the experience we got and all the adventures we had during this summercamp.
Linas, Lithuania