The Knife - Monday, Gabor's place

After Gabor had finished his presentation, Greg, Tam and I went over to his place to finish the last two disks. We chatted and watched a movie while the download happened. Greg had advised me to copy the files on to my computer as well so that I can help Gabor with the edit. Gabor at the beginning had been under the impression that he would only have a 3 minute film to edit, but it was now looking like it would be around 15 minutes, so the money we had arranged for him was looking a little budget. Luckily it turns out that we've got a little more money left over from the budget and will be able to pay a bit more, but if I can help by writting down all the time codes of the good footage, it will defintely make Gabor's job much easier. Greg and Tam said goodbye and that was sad, but I had a feeling that I would see them again soon, so I wasn't too emotional! Still, we'd spent a really good weekend working together, so it was sad to see them going now. I said bye to Gabor and arranged to catch up with him on Sunday to go over the footage. Now all I need to do is write up the report, go through the footage, and do my presentation. Easy!

The Knife - Sunday, finishing up at the flat

Eventually we finished the shoot at the flat. Things went well, but I certainly know to pick a location carefully next time - the noise meant that the footage wasn't perfect, but at least we had enough room to move around in. Everyone left in good spirits. Greg, Tam and I went to Gabor's place to copy the footage on to his computer. We still couldn't get it across. Greg's camera is a professional broadcast camera, and it was difficult to find the right drivers to get it to work. Eventually we got it connected to Gabor's mac and started the copy - about an hour for each disk. It was already midnight, Greg took Tamara home and came back after the first disk had copied. Then we did the second disk. Gabor had a presentation to do the next day, so I didn't want to keep him up too late. We left around 2am and went back to Mum's place. We arranged to come back on Monday to finish the copy. I felt bad about this - I didn't want Greg and Tamara to have to stay for another night - they had planned to be back in Hamilton for Tamara's course at 11am.

The Knife - Sunday, 7pm, pizza

Me eating pizza and explaining about the noise problems.



Corey is happy, this is not staged. Honest.



Greg confesses a heroine addiction and Tam finally makes it to the other side of the camera.



Tamara saying good stuff about me: wants dessert.



Aamey liked the rap at Unitec, and the pizza.



Sara wants to be just like Simon Clark. Also enjoys eating pizza.

The Knife - Sunday, 4pm at the Kingsland flat

It was amazing what Colin, Aamey and Corey had done to the flat living room this morning. They had come into the flat, while we were filming John at YouthLaw, and made it look like a Samoan home, wow it looked great!



Next we had to film the "dining room" scene, we put the blinds down and put a deuvet over the windows to keep the sound and sunlight out - it was meant to be night time.

We had some serious issues with the noise, we were on a bus route, near a train station and the windows were leubers (sp?) so the sound came into the living room and made it hard to film anything. The traffic was constantly going, so we would often have to film the same line 20 times before it was ok with no interruption.

It was hard to manage my flatmates as well, I tried to get them into a room so their noise wouldn't come through on the film as well, this obviously pissed them off.

By far this was the hardest scene to manage. But we got pizza, and this made everything better!

The Knife - Sunday, finishing up at Unitec

We finished up at Unitec around 3:30pm, just waiting for security to come and lock everything up before going to my flat for the dining room scene.

The Knife - Sunday 1pm at Unitec

Greg, Tam and I stopped off at Kebabs on Queen on the way to Unitec. We were running a bit late, so I called Grahame to let him know, and called security to make sure there wouldn't be any delays once we got there.

We did the Principal's office scene without any problems, though I was getting tired after a big lunch. I was getting cranky and just wanted to go back to bed by now!

Luckily, at the end of the Principal's office scene, we did Grahame's rap, which was funny as. I hadn't planned it at all, but based on the script, Grahame had made a rap about the story, it was funny seeing an old guy with a cap on backwards and a stereo on his shoulders, rapping. It totally picked my spirits up and was ready to keep going!

The Knife - Sunday morning - John Hancock

We got into recording John, he's the senior solictor at YouthLaw, and I wanted him to talk about various aspects of the scenario I'd written into the script. He would be the "official" voice, the voice of reason. What he said was meant to reinforce ideas and concepts that were in the film, this is the stuff that the youth workers would pay attention to.

My film project had been given to me by Jeanie (Project manager) and Harvena (Lawyer). The module I was working on was Harvena's, she'd created the rest of the resources. I was pissed off when I found out that no one had prepared anything for John to say today. I'd given all the Lawyers at YouthLaw time to prepare some content for John to go from, even given examples of the types of things he might want to say. But despite my attempts to get anyone to write down a few sentences, John arrived with nothing prepared for him. Actually, he'd asked Jeanie if he should prepare something, but she'd said that he could just speak from the top of his head. This pissed me off, because it went against what I'd originally asked, which was for somebody to prepare some content for him to say. I couldn't make the content because I'm not a lawyer.


It didn't quite work, we had to do quite a few takes before we got something that sounded good and was legally correct. The whole time, we had kept a relaxed attitude towards everything, but when we went over the 12pm mark, we had to hurry things along, so that Greg, Tam and I could have lunch before going back to Unitec on time.

The Knife - Sunday morning - too early

Sundays are meant for sleeping in, but not today. We had to be at YouthLaw for a 9am start to record John Hancock's "talking head" clips. I decided I would join Greg and Tam in their van to save on petrol. We went through McDonald's drive through for brekkie and arrived a little early at the YouthLaw office on Federal Street in town.

Katya had decided that she didn't want to continue directing, so I would have to take on that role today.

While we waited for John to arrive, I showed Greg and Tam some videos and photos on the net from Kiwiburn - they are applying for funding to do a documentary on festivals in New Zealand, Greg was interested in Kiwiburn because he hadn't heard of it before and it might fit in with the rest of his documentary.

John was running late and arrived at 9:30am. It was a Sunday morning and we were all relaxed, there was no hurry today, but I was still a little peeved that John was holding the 3 of us up, we could've at least had a bit more of a sleep in!!

The Knife - Saturday 11pm, home

Greg and I got back to Mum's place and found Tamara was awake now. I was tired as, on my way to bed Tamara said to me how she had really enjoyed working today, she appreciated the catering at lunchtime and explained how that really made a difference to her - it showed that I appreciated their work and their time. She also said how she was glad all the talent were easy to get along with and easy to work with as well. I went to sleep content that things were going well :D

The Knife - Saturday 7pm, BurgerFuel then Gabor

I got some BurgerFuel on the way back and at Mum's Tamara had fallen asleep as soon as she'd gotten back. Greg, however, enjoyed the burger and chips, we left to visit Gabor the film editor. I felt bad that we were intruding on his stag night, we got there about 8:30pm and had problems connecting the camera to his computer.



After a few bottles of beer and a shot of hungerian spirits, I resigned myself to the fact that it wasn't going to happen tonight.


Greg and I left and went back to Mum's. It was Greg's idea to see Gabor tonight, I had originally planned on seeing him on Sunday night, and I was worried that intruding on Gabor's night at short notice might piss him off, setting up a bad relationship.

The Knife - Saturday 4:30pm, "You can come in now"

We finished the suspension hearing by about 4:30pm and it was good that we had made it in decent time. I wanted to shoot the small clip where we had Aamey come out of the boardroom to let the family back in after the board had made their decision, but we were running out of time because Colin, Corey and Aamey had to leave shortly.

We did it anyway and were finished by around 5pm. We all said goodbye, Caroline thanked me for giving her the opportunity to act (she had previously been mostly doing extra work), it was really nice to hear some good feedback. Simon also left with a positive attitude towards the whole thing. I dropped Sara home in town and popped in to see Liz on the way back to Mum's place.

The Knife - Saturday 1pm - Suspension hearing

After lunch, the talent for the afternoon arrived. Aamey was already here with Colin, Caroline ("Board rep"), Grahame ("Principal") and Simon ("Chairman") all arrived. We were in the school of communication meeting room and this would be the board of trustees boardroom. We had a couple of rehearsals while we waited for Sara ("youth worker") to arrive, we were due to start filming at 1pm

At 1:15pm, I was beginning to get worried, I thought of what Simon (a professional actor) had told me by email, that getting non-actors to act doesn't always work. I called Sara a few times, but no answer, if I knew how long she would be, I could work out whether to try another scene (e.g. the Principal's office) while we waited for her. I had already mucked people around, Colin, Corey and Aamey had to leave at 6pm to go their family service after Corey's uncle had passed away, so I had swapped two scenes around - to the frustration of Grahame ("Principal").

At 1:20pm, I decided to prepare for the Principal scene and got Grahame and Colin into Jocelyn's office to rehearse. The others would just have to wait.

1:30pm and Sara arrived, she had got lost in Unitec. The problem was that she was embarrassed that she was late and not very relaxed for the shoot. She also hadn't remembered all of her lines.



The shoot got going and everyone did well, we did a few set up takes, then moved to close ups, doing a close up for each person (9 close up takes!)

Aamey, Caroline and Grahame Master Flash


The air conditioning wasn't on so people were starting to sweat and get anxious. I left everyone doing their thing as I raced to Pak n Sav to get some cold drinks. Unfortunately Pak n Sav didn't have anything cold, so I went to BP instead and got some cold ones from there ($50 was a bit over the top, but I needed everyone to stay cool and get through it).

Sara, Katya, me and Greg

The Knife - Saturday midday - Lunchtime!

We had finished the morning shoots on time and headed over to building 111. Security locked up the classroom, and we messed them around after Bradley had said he'd left his shoes in the room, but then found them in his bag. The catering arrived from gobble and we all had a good feed - the food was awesome, really yum and pretty healthy too. Harvena and her family came in to see how the shoot was going. Max and Bradley got picked up. Katya dropped Sophia home. Aamey (Colin's wife and "Board rep") shot this of us at lunch:

The Knife - Saturday midday - Photo time...

Thanks to Colin for taking a few snaps before lunch!


Greg and I talking about important stuff



Tamara on sound



Sophia chilling on the seat



Corey, Max and Bradley taking a break



Action!

The Knife - Saturday 11:30am - Optional ending

Sophia took this video after she'd finished her role as prefect, do you notice that what Greg and I are talking about is totally irrelevant to the whole thing? - but it looks like we are talking about something very important, haha its all about perception on camera ay?



We still had enough time to do the optional ending scene. I had discussed with Greg last night that we didn't need to do this scene if we ran out of time, instead we could just end when the board of trustees had reached their decision, but we both agreed that it wrapped the whole story up neatly, and it was a bit entertaining too. Max, the shortland street scriptwriter had suggested I cut it out as it was unnecessary and I'd already gone over time, Sophia had said that it was cheesey, but I wanted to keep it in because I thought it added a new perspective on the story - that things aren't always the way they seem. The rest of the content was going to be quite dry - a board meeting, and a family talk - so I thought it would be good to add something a bit lighter and entertaining to the mix. It would be good to have at the end of Harvena's module as a "reward" for the youth worker once they'd finished that module. So we shot it and had lots of fun doing it, after Bradley and Max leave, Tasi brings out nana's cookie and eats it (this is after he'd just said that he doesn't get nana's baking anymore). We went through lots of cookies, and had fun trying to get Bradley to burp on cue!

The Knife - Saturday 11:30am - Atmosphere track

This is the atmosphere track, we wanted to get a take of a school yard, so we got everyone to walk around making a little bit of noise (like mobile phones, people walking, people talking, chip wrappers being scrunched up, etc)

The Knife - Saturday 9:30am - All good :D

We ripped through the morning, did all the classroom takes really well. I didn't know about the "atmosphere" track, but once we had all the footage we needed, Tamara would record a few minutes of "silence" which could be added at the editing stage to even out the background noise. We were on time - I had planned the classroom scene and the outside classroom scene to take until 9:30am. We were ready to do the lunchtime takes and we moved down to a courtyard area around the prefabs. We moved the tables around a bit, and made sure that the smokers ashtrays couldn't be seen by the camera. Katya arrived and was very apologetic, I wanted to hand over the role of director to her, but by now I'd already got the hang of things and Greg, Tamara and I had already got into a bit of a routine, it was hard to let go and let her take over.



We had a few small disagreements, like how I thought she was saying "cut" too early and I'd just been leaving Greg decide when it was best to stop filming. But we got through the most important scene (the lunchtime scene) within time, by 11:30am, and we had enough time to get through the optional ending scene (the lunchtime scene where Tasi was allowed back to school).

The Knife - Saturday 8am - No director?

Soph and I arrived at the Unitec prefab area just before 8am. I called Unitec security and they wern't far off. Greg and Tamara were there. Max and Bradley (the "friends") arrived, as did Colin and Corey ("Tasi"). Rory MacKinnon ("Mr. Harrington") arrived. Security unlocked the classroom door with a reminder to ensure no one left the room unattended.

We moved some things around in the room, it was maybe a plumbing room with cylinders and things in the wrong place. Once we had the room right, all I needed was the director. I called Katya a couple of times, but no answer. Once Greg and Tamara were set up and ready to go, I thought we should probably just get started - but I'd never done this before - what does a director do?



Luckily Greg supported me, advising that the director just needs to say "action" and make sure the performance is up to scratch for what we need when it comes to editing. It took a few times before I got used to it, but I got the hang of things pretty quickly. I was a little bit stressed, but I was glad that Greg and Tamara knew what they were doing, they'd both done this lots of times before - I was confident that it would all work out.

The Knife - Saturday 7:30am, picking Soph up

On the way to picking up Sophia from her friend's place in Grey Lynn, she texted me saying that she couldn't find a good prefect's shirt. Hmm, my mind raced to try and think of an alternative. It needed to be a white top / blouse, something a prefect would wear. I called my girlfriend, Liz for help, though I felt bad because it was early in the morning and she'd gone out last night. Luckily she had a top that would suit, I just needed to pick it up from the Kingsland flat. A short trip to Kingsland, a rummage through her drawers and a quick iron, and problem solved. Back on track to Unitec...

The Knife - Saturday 7am - buying some cookies

I was going to bake some "nana's cookies" last night but I didn't get the chance. I didn't want anything that looked too mass produced so I tried the local bakery - Ceramco. The peanut brownies were perfect!

Saturday at 6:30am

Woah, I was actually feeling really good and energised, but I might look otherwise in this video. I felt nervous that things might not go to plan, but also relieved that Greg and Tamara had some confidence in the project from going over the script and rehearsal videos from Thursday.

Friday night at home

After finishing up at YouthLaw around 6, I went to Lynmall to get the rest of the props I needed. I got pens, paper, notepad, lunch stuffers for the students' bags etc. I headed home to mum's place - she's in Singapore now - and tried to get a dinner prepared for Greg (Camera man) and Tamara (Sound), it didn't work out too well, I burnt the garlic and smoked out the house in a matter of 5mins. The pumpkin wasn't quite ready yet (from the garden) and the lamb chops wern't fully defrosted. The brocolli had gone off. I ended up with mashed potatos, chops (turned out ok actually!), peas and pita bread. Meanwhile Greg and Tamara called about 4 times in various stages of being lost in the Auckland suburbs - they claimed that Kaurilands Road wasn't in their Auckland map - but it must be? Why wouldn't it?

Eventually, we established the location of Atkinson Road and they found Kaurilands off that, arriving to a smokey house and half prepared dinner.

After having dinner and getting them settled in, we went over the script together. Greg pointed out that from the script, we would be looking at more like a 10-15 minute film - not a 3 minute one that we'd talked about previously. He explained that it would be pushing it to shoot a 15 minute film in only a weekend. I explained that because it would be going on the Internet and only appear in a small screen on a website, the quality didn't need to be 100%. We talked about it and he said that he was happy to give it a go. After he saw the production schedule I'd made, he seemed more relieved that it would be possible.

I showed them the videos from Thursday's rehearsal and that also gave Greg some confidence in the cast being able to perform tomorrow, with little preparation.

They went to bed and I finished up preparing for tomorrow - checking all the props were ready, scripts and timing.

Friday night at 6pm

Too busy to write stuff down, watch the video instead!!

Last day before the shoot

I've been up since 5am, dropping mum at the airport and my girlfriend at work. Sitting at Esquires updating my blog. I'm still buzzing from the success of last night's rehearsal, and potentially also the two coffees I've consumed this morning.

I've got a few little concerns, I haven't had the contract back from Jonathan at Unitec - he said he would send it to me before he went home yesterday, and he's not at work today. Hopefully it will be waiting for me at the YouthLaw office when I get in.

Also on Saturday, Cory, Colin and Aimee will have to go at 6:30pm to a family gathering to pay their respects to the uncle who sadly passed away. I had timetabled the board meeting to be shot between 3-8pm. I will think about bringing it forward to potentially 1:30pm.

Heaps to do today:

Call Gabor and Greg
Buy notepad, pens, whiteboard
Update script from last night's changes
Make cookies
Finish location at the flat - Samoan theme
Meet Greg when he gets to Auckland and go through the script with him, he's staying at mum's place while mum is in Singapore, so make sure he is settled in there too.
Hopefully Katya will have finished story boarding it, go through that with her
Make sure everyone knows what to wear on the day
Follow up on the talking heads from the Lawyers
Make sure the location is all good (maybe call Unitec security just to be sure!)
Check that Greg knows we won't be filming next weekend.

I've decided not to worry too much, accept that fact that I can't always be a time-nazi control freak and just run with what comes at me. Bring it on Friday!!

Second rehearsal - BUZZING!!

Yesterday, I had just gotten Caroline to play the part of Michael Normal and was feeling relieved that I'd managed to find someone at such short notice! I settled into making the props I needed, the letter of suspension, the envelope, the principal's report, the prefect's witness statement, they all needed to keep in with the script. I thought it might be useful to actually put the documents into the rest of the website as supporting material so the youth workers who are watching the video can also read the statements and letters - that would be great if they hadn't seen one before.

We had our second rehearsal, starting at 6:30. Director Katya arrived at 6pm and we talked about what we needed to achieve today. Caroline and Simon arrived 10 minutes early, Colin and Cory arrived 10 minutes late. But it was much more relaxed than the first one, I started to feel more like people were enjoying being here - and less like I was wasting their time. It's strange, but I'm always aware of the fact that other peoples' time is precious - I don't want to keep them any more than they need to. Maybe I should just chill out!!

We started with the board scene, getting everyone to do the actions - not just read the script. Everyone was much closer to knowing their lines.

Tasi reading his letter to the board members:



We went through the board scene 3 times, then the students arrived around 7:30pm as I'd asked. I could send Simon and Caroline home.

Katya and I split up, she took the school yard scene and I took the principal's office scene.

Principal's office:



We made a few small changes to the script at the principal's office, Mr Tamatoa needed to react more when the Principal said the keyword: Knife. Mr Tamatoa didn't know about this at this point, he needs to get angry. I learnt that the Samoan way to handle the situation would probably be to say very little, but with facial and body expressions be getting very wound up inside.

Back with Katya, the school scene was going really well. The prefect, Debby Rhodes (actor - Sophia) arrived and Katya was happy with everyone. Rehearsing:



We also ran through the home scene with Tasi, Mr Tamatoa and the youth worker.

I got Sophia to write a witness statement in her own writing and Cory to write an apology letter in his own writing.

We finished with giving directions for when to go on Saturday, what to wear and what to bring.

I gave Sara a lift home then I went home BUZZINGG!! (and a little bit tired)

All the time and effort I'd put in finally felt like it was starting to pay off, I was totally confident that this thing would actually work!

No go Chris

Oh dear, after telling Grahame not to come along, Chris has been unable to make it. So I've decided not to offend Grahame any more and just try to find someone else.

I've called johnson & laird, background talent and odd to get an extra person to play the role. Sarah from background talent was really helpful and has got Caroline to do the part. Woo hoo. Pretty stressful right now.

Props - The Knife

Went to First Scene early this afternoon to get some knives.



Needs to be for fishing, don't want actors cutting up their hands.



$11.50 later and I have 3 to choose from!

Location - Unitec

I went to see Jonathan today at Unitec to confirm the rooms that I will need available over the weekend. It all went well, I've signed the agreement and he needs to get someone to sign it at his end. It's cutting it a bit fine, but I'm sure it will be alright. He will send me a copy of the agreement once it's signed today.

Location - flat

I've spent the morning at my Kingsland flat sorting and clearing out the living room so we can use it for the Samoan family's home.

I've taken one car load to my room at nana's place, and maybe take another car load tonight after the second rehearsal. I need to start thinking about how to make the room look Samoan.

I've pissed off my flatmate Becks because I threw out a few flyers that were on the wall, I didn't think they were hers, I thought they were the previous flatmates'. But anyway, hmm, I probably should have at least kept them for a few days. oh well I'll know for next time.

Hopefully everyone will keep it clean and tidy over the next few days!

Dramas with the lead role + others

I got a call at 8 yesterday morning, from Colin (Cory's uncle) saying that he can now play the lead role because the funeral is on Monday.

So now I have to make a decision whether to keep Jonah on, who I'd already mucked around by saying he couldn't have it, then falling back to him when the others didn't want it. Or to muck him around even more and let him go, getting Cory - the original actor, to do it. I'd already dreamt - after having a few too many shots in my coffee before bedtime - about making him cry in front of his family that night and him stressing about learning lines in so little time. So I wasn't in a very good headspace. I called Katya, director, to ask her advice. She was really helpful and explained that because Colin and Cory are related, they will have much better natural dialogue. She helped me through how to diplomatically let Jonah go.

I called and left a message for Jonah at home at 4:30pm, then called again around 5:30pm. To my relief, he was told that he'd be kicked off the rugby team if he played the part on Saturday. I didn't want to affect his life like that.

In other news, the board of trustees member who had wanted to change the script won't be playing the part anymore, I had to explain diplomatically that because he has had experience as a BOT member rather than an actor, he couldn't as accurately portray the emotion and expressions I needed. He was too much of a nice guy, I needed an asshole! I've got Chris Molloy to do it instead. Yay.

First rehearsal

The first rehearsal went well last night. Iggy who I had found by calling St Peters College and his Dad arrived 45 minutes early, which was awesome but I was caught unaware and unprepared.

The director, Katya came and we went through the script.

It was good to meet some people who I hadn't met before, who had been recruited from YouthLaw contacts.

We ran through the script 3 times. The actor for the chair person is a professional actor and had real talent, as did the teacher.

We had dramas with the lead actor, who was going to be played by Cory, but his uncle recently passed away. Instead I asked Iggy to play the lead. He was good, but not as confident.

Jonah arrived late and so I didn't get him to read many lines. At the end, I told Jonah that I wouldn't need him and asked Iggy to play the role. But Iggy didn't want it anymore, so I gave the part to Jonah, having not heard him speak much.

Some of the actors were opinionated about how the script should be changed, saying that they had been to suspension hearings, and that was not how they worked. Which is fair enough to be an opinion, but I had written the script based on input from lawyers who had been to hundreds of hearings and had checked to make sure it was realistic.

e.g. they were saying that the principal had a voting right in this situation, but in actual fact, they don't.

We finished up around 8:30pm, hopefully I'll be able to get a picture up of the students.

No blog posts, lots of work

I haven't been keeping up to date with the blog posts lately, but I'll put up some photos and videos that I've taken in the last month to track my progress. I'll also write up some stuff that I've been putting into my diary about events retrospectively.

Things are going good, I've decided to can the second film and concentrate on the first one.

The time of the film has gone up to approx 10 mins.

Last Friday I met with Max who helped me polish the script. Then Saturday morning I met with Gabor who will be editing the film - he's got a good site at http://www.outlinestudio.co.nz

Yesterday I ran into some location problems, I still don't have Unitec confirmed, but I've been in touch with Jonathan, Timetabling who I'm confident will pull through with something. If he doesn't it could be serious problem, it is quite hard to get schools involved because we need to use a principals office and board room, they need to have someone supervising us...

Cast is difficult, I still haven't had confirmation that Colin's nephew will do it (main role), so I called St Peters College and Patrick (a Dean) has helped me find another student to play the part. It might be hard if they both turn up wanting to do it.

First rehersal tonight, can't wait!

18th April: My first script

Today I wrote my first ever script. I found a handy screenplay template for Word (http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/TC010186361033.aspx?CategoryID=CT101445101033) and a handy writers' resource at the BBC website (http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/scriptsmart/)

Jeanie was asking for ideas to help illustrate the concept of Natural Justice. Natural Justice is the concept that decision makers should act fairly and resonably in all circumstances. I thought up a scene where an enthusiastic rugby coach is encouraging his team to pass the ball to his "rugby hero" son. Jeanie & Neha liked it. I've sent it to Max for his opinion.

The four scripts I need to write next week are:

1) Gross misconduct ending in suspension
2) Continual disobedience
3) Independent nominated person
4) Natural justice (there may be a few other clips to write up)

I'm really enjoying this, but also slightly scared!

17th April: Max Rocks!

I caught up with Harvena and we started to expand on the films she wants done. We're going to start with the gross misconduct where a student gets suspended. Jeanie's idea is to have a kid go out pig hunting with his dad over the weekend and forget that the knife is still in his bag - when he takes the bag to school, a teacher finds it and takes him to the Principal who suspends the kid.

I met Max at the Shortland Street offices - South Pacific Pictures - Henderson. It was cool to catch up with him. It was good that he asked me lots of questions about the purpose, the audience and the budget. He explained that shooting 10 films was too ambitious, should aim to go for 1 film per 1 day shoot. So that means a maximum of 4 films to produce. He wrote up the first page of Jeanie's idea into a script and that was invaluable and inspiring! He wrote it so fast and it really captured what Jeanie had been talking about - later when I showed it to Jeanie she was well impressed. He sent it to me in PDF - he uses Final Draft, but I'll just use Word templates and formatting for the scripts. He also advised that maybe the shoot in the bush while pig hunting might be hard to shoot because you would need generators etc.

He also suggested I check out http://www.script-o-rama.com/ for example scripts.

I came back to the YouthLaw office with lots of energy, finally I have some direction around where I'm going with the project!

16th April: Proposal complete - Too much Unitec not enough YouthLaw

After the Internship course, I went to the lab to finish off my proposal. I'd actually dreamt about proposing last night, it was a slightly scary dream about a ring I'd bought that I thought was gold but it started flaking away to leave a crusty iron core.

I guess the moral of that dream is that, if it's worth doing, it's worth doing properly.

Anyway.

I ironed out the little bits and pieces that needed doing in my proposal, making the tables sorted alphabetically, inserting references, attaching the BIC marking sheet etc. I went to the copy centre to get it bound and the TOC was printed incorrectly - luckily I could reinsert it without paying another $12.50 to print it again. Woah the copy centre is expensive!

I was quite stressed out today - I just wanted the proposal in, so I could start actually working on the project. Consequentially, I was slightly frantic running around Unitec, and I left my laptop power adapter in the lab. I'd been planning on getting into YouthLaw mid-afternoon, but by 3pm back at the flat and realising I'd left the adapter at the lab, I gave up and stayed at home - working on chasing some contacts like my nana's next door neighbour who does video editing for the fishing show and getting hold of Roshni who did the post grad in digital animation at Unitec.

It was a shame I didn't get into YouthLaw because I would have liked to talk with Harvena about expanding on the scenarios she has given me.

16th April: Tim Marshall

We had Internship class today and it was great to meet Tim Marshal and gain some real world perspective on the life of a person in PR. We looked at the qualities that employers are looking for when recruiting PR graduates. We also looked at PRiNZ trends research and the PRiNZ database. I learnt that most PR people are in-house (approx 2/3rds) and approx 1/3rd are consultants.

He mentioned "father of PR" Edward Bernaise and later I went online to read up a little more about him - found this interesting commentary on "controlling the masses - from religion to Bernaise" http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14763.htm.

He also quoted Anne Gregory by saying that "PR operates where issues collide".

Some interesting stats from PRiNZ preso:
82% of PR consultancies have less than 5 fulltime staff.

I was quite interested in PR people in Investor Relations because they have such high requirements for ethical decision making - preventing insider trading.

Last of all, I asked about some of the companies in NZ that assist PR companies. For example:

Media Watch by Chong (who would charge $500 - $2,000 to monitor a PR as it gets covered by the media - www.chong.co.nz)
Media Monitors (www.mediamonitors.com.au)

Media Com (who specialise in distributing PRs in NZ http://mediacom.nzpa.co.nz/)

All in all - it was well worthwhile attending today's lecture

Tim Marshall is the Managing Director at Communications by Design

15th April: Meeting with Business Mechanix

Jeanie invited me down to the meeting at Business Mechanix discussing the progress of the PLEAS project. Business Mechanix are doing the backend work of the PLEAS website.

I asked Wayne and Alan (Business Mechanix) about my concern from last meeting - the external connector license from Microsoft Office SharePoint Server becoming a big expense for YouthLaw. It turns out that Microsoft have discontinued this licensing and so it's not a problem. The users don't need a windows license either - they are just SQL users.

We talked about the design of the website, YouthLaw will get a graphics designer to create a "look and feel" for the website. Wayne gave some good advice about using text instead of graphics, where possible, to ensure pages load fast for people on dialup connections. If YouthLaw are going to get some flash animations done, a non-flash conduit to the content will also need to be created. He suggested setting limited with the graphics designer on logo file sizes and number of colours. The frontpage will need to have the Digital Strategy Community Partnership Fund, YouthLaw and partners' logos on it.

We discussed my film project and how the videos will be served to the users. The videos might be streamed through Windows Media Player, Real Player, QuickTime or just linked to a YouTube clip. I asked them about dimensions - width and height requirements - but nothing was set in concrete except that standard YouTube sizing might be appropriate. I also asked for a required format, but they just asked for a test copy that they can play around with - unfortunately I can't provide this until I've confirmed who will be editing the films (right at the end of the project), so that will be a problem.

I contacted Thane Kirby from Alt TV and he has asked me to send a flyer through about the project and he might be able to get some people involved. I've been emailing Steve Marshal at Unitec and Mayo at Saatchi to get some advice on equipment and crew.

Unfortunately Max (Shortland Street writer) had to cancel the meeting we had planned tonight, but we've arranged to catchup at lunchtime on Thursday.

14th April: Yikes

Yikes! It's Monday and I need to get my proposal done. A little bit stressed at the moment, last week I planned my time and the next two weeks I've dedicated to scriptwriting. I've just decided now that I'm not going home until my proposal is finished.

Looking forward to seeing Tim Marshall from the Public Relations Institute of New Zealand on Wednesday.

11th April: Neha's birthday

Happy Birthday Neha! I arrived in the office and she was in a bad mood, stink for her birthday!

We went down to Aotea Square for lunch, Dosas are the traditional Friday YouthLaw lunch, and I bought Neha some mini-donuts for her birthday, but ended up eating half of them because I couldn't find her in the market - she'd already gone back to the office.

The day went well, I made a lot of progress on my proposal and have set up some expected timeframes. In the afternoon I called Max who is a scriptwriter for Shortland Street and talked to him about the project, he sounds enthusiastic about it and we are going to meet next week to discuss. Hopefully, he will be able to support me writing the scripts for the films. So I left YouthLaw on a high note, keen to get the proposal finished and the scriptwriting started.

10th April: First day

It was my first real day back at YouthLaw today.

I cleared a desk for myself and got setup on the network with printers etc.

I mostly kept quiet and worked on my proposal all day, but we did all go out to lunch at Mezze which was cool. Jeanie was funny, impatient to get out of the office and didn't wait for us outside so we could all walk down together- off she went down Queen Street ready to order lunch!!

Harv came back to the office (even though she wasn't working today) to give me the video briefs and that meant I had something to start working on.

9th April: Got into the office!

I went into the YouthLaw office today to say hello and see how everyone was post-trailwalk.

I dropped Nick's shoes back to him, and had a chat to Harvena, Jeanie, John, Neha and Nick.

Jeanie showed me some cool YouTube videos from the Oxfam trailwalk (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiE28rp8lhc) and from the Polyfest (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtprtsjGgII) that she had made.

We decided that it would be best for me to 'officially' start tomorrow, so that I didn't have to pay so much for parking in town.

9th April: Internship (no class)

No class today due to awards

Oxfam Trailwalk 5th-6th April - YouthLaw team

I went down to Lake Taupo on April the 4th with mum. Neha had organised a walking team for YouthLaw consisting of:

Herself
Nick
Effie
Me

We also had a support team of:

Jeanie (YouthLaw)
Harvena (YouthLaw)
Luke (YouthLaw MSG)
Robin (My mum)

It was quite an experience. We woke up on Saturday at 5:45am ready for the 7am start.

The walk during the day was good, we were all in high spirits and the support team at each checkpoint did a wonderful job of feeding us and giving us massages. After-dark was a different story, I must've injured my knee at some point and this kept getting worse the more I walked. I carried on for another 20km with a limp, but gave up at around 2am, having done 65km of the 100km walk; the st johns officer said I'd torn a ligament and it could be permanent damage with risk of more damage if I kept walking. So Neha, Nick and Effie kept going through the night, finishing the walk, with no sleep, just under 32 hours later at around 3pm on Sunday.

What an effort! Check out our team page here:

http://www.oxfam.org.nz/events/teams.asp?a=show_team_pages&eventid=15&teamid=3204

2nd April: Internship (5th lecture at Unitec)

Today was good, we discussed how to write proposals. It was good to be able to tell everyone about what I've been up to, how it's been unfortunate that I didn't get a job at Saatchi & Saatchi etc. I talked to Julian about the Oxfam Trailwalker, so I might see him in Taupo! I also talked to Sheena about the Comedy Festival, that will be cool working for her and earning a bit of money to keep me going. Not much else to report, I'm desperate to actually get into the YouthLaw offices now and start working on this project! But I've still got the rest of the week working for Saatchi & Saatchi before I can do that.

26th March: Internship (class cancelled)

No class today :)

19th March: Youth Social Innovation meeting

I went along to the first ever Youth Social Innovation meeting tonight at the Media Design School. Unfortunately, I had to arrive late because I also had a YouthLaw MSG meeting that night. Anyway, I arrived in time for the important stuff: beer, pizza.

I caught up with Jade who is working for a small design company (4 people www.initiatedesign.co.nz) and we talked about the YouthLaw project. She said she'd be willing to help out during the editing stages of the project. Jade also introduced me to Lisa who is doing some cool community work in South Auckland, they are applying for funding with the city councils to run media workshops with kids. We exchanged numbers and she might be able to source some fun actors for the films.

I ended today completely zonked, Unitec Internship course, work at Saatchi & Saatchi, meeting at YouthLaw then the Youth Social Innovation meeting. I'm tired and going to bed now!!

19th March: Internship (4th lecture at Unitec)

Today we were visited by someone (I forget her name!) from the Careers and Employment Centre. To be honest, I was stressed out outside of Unitec, the last thing I wanted to do was attend class. But I did and I regretted it. It was really boring. The worst thing that can happen for me when I’m stressed out, needing to get things done, is to get stuck in a boring class or traffic jam. Not that it was the fault of Sara or the person taking the class from Careers, it just wasn’t what I needed to focus on at that particular time. I needed to get back to Saatchi & Saatchi to get through the work I’d been assigned for the day. I wrote in my notebook, “this feels like alcoholics anonymous”, not that I’d had anyt experience of those particular meetings.

Having said that, and getting it off my chest, I actually did learn a bit:

The key idea of a CV is to get an invite to an interview. You can structure a CV like so:

- Name, Address, Phone
- Key skills (match these up with the job description)
- Quals

I also found out about some sites that might help with my project and my life in general:

http://www.thebigidea.co.nz/ - online community for creatives
www.writerfind.com/nz - freelance writing site
http://www.freelance2008.co.nz/ - I found out about this conference through the freelance writing site above
http://www.talentonline.co.nz/ – in case I can’t find any actors (I don’t think this will be a problem)

18th March: TV production meeting at Saatchi & Saatchi

I was lucky enough to attend a TV production 101 meeting at Saatchi & Saatchi today, some of the material might be relevant. It was mostly advertising focused, but still interesting and possibly relevant to my project. I learnt that most talent is valid for 12 months, after that you need to renegotiate royalties (unless it’s already specified in the contract). Copyright for songs is normally two-fold, one from the artist and one from the producer or label. There will be no more 4:3 dispatch from April 1st 2008, meaning everything will be shot and dispatched in 16:9 – but we still need to keep everything 4:3 “safe”. By 2012, 4:3 will be obsolete. Digital Post and Oktober are the only grading suites in Auckland.

12th March: Internship (3rd lecture at Unitec)

Unfortunately, I couldn't make it to class today.

10th March: Meeting with Richard Mayo Smith

I took the time to meet with Mayo, a TV producer at Saatchi & Saatchi today. He was really helpful, offering advice and helping to organise my ideas.

We talked the project through as follows:

YouthLaw will need to provide a brief that has the scenarios and outcomes of the films. From there, scripts will be written which specify what we need to shoot and where.

If filming in parks, we will need to organise permits from the council.

We probably don’t need a director, but we could approach some contacts for a director of photography who may be happy to do some pro bono work.

We might need to shoot over two weekends.

Camera will likely be mini-DV (e.g. Sony 3chip). Will need a tripod. Possibly sound recorders, lighting and make-up.

People: Script writer, Camera person (and assistant), Talent (up to 30 people), Editing, Lighting (but probably not necessary), Catering, Make-up person (maybe).

He suggested I contact Greenstone and Screentime (Communicado) to see if they have anything they could offer.

5th March: Internship (2nd lecture at Unitec)

We talked about journals today and it’s okay for me to continue this blog as my journal. So this is good. One thing I need to be aware of, however, is that because the journal is public, I might not be as forthcoming in writing about specific people and events – in case it offends people or causes arguments. Because I’m aware of this problem, I might not write “just whatever comes to mind” and go through more a screening process before publishing posts. I’ll take a look through the blogging settings, because I think you can make some posts private, only available to certain people.

My philosophy in life is to remain as open and transparent as possible. I don’t like to have secrets. So I don’t actually think that blogging will be a problem, if there’s an issue that’s on my mind, I probably would have told the affected people anyway. Unless they are particularly worried about the event being written about publicly, I don’t see any problem publishing my thoughts on the Internet.

In class we talked about “Keeping a journal will help me to …” and these are the answers we came up with:

• Record ideas & information from meetings
• Provide a place to reflect on personal ideas, emotions and thoughts
• Record what people have said, times and dates of events
• Journals will be interesting to look back on at a later date
• Organise thoughts
• Store information that might not be relevant now, but could be in the future
• Show others the amount of effort that has been put into the project “behind the scenes”

Some of the others in the class have been doing well getting internships, Liz is working at Juice TV on the NZ music month campaign, Hayley is working at Draft FCB, Sheena is working for the Comedy Festival.

Coming up we have:

19th March – Careers and Employment Centre visit
16th April – Tim Marshal

3rd March: StudyLink sucks

My student loan for the internship project (course fees) was declined because I'm only studying part-time part-year. Something should be done to change these rules, because what I'm doing is exactly the sort of thing that StudyLink should be encouraging, i.e. students working hard on their internships in order to gain positive experience in their chosen fields (possibly going on to paid employment).

Anyway, I decided to dodge the system (enrol in a random course in second semester) rather than try to argue (where I could end up paying late penalties or being locked out of the computer system).

1st March: Meeting with Gabby

I met with Gabby today to talk about Unitec's A midsummer night's dream, I'm writing up some Press Releases for publication in In Unison, Tearaway and Vamped Up. Seeing as she is in her 3rd year Directing at Unitec, I thought I should ask her about the YouthLaw project.

She was very helpful and will send through some of her scriptwriting notes. She also gave me the names of some people who will be good to get in touch with:

• Rita - possible actor
• Charlie - possible actor / director
• Tai - possible actor / director / scriptwriter (used to be a drama teacher so might know some good school student actors)
• Nicola - possible director / camera operator (the sort of person who is always into new things)
  
• Liam - possible camera operator
• Jarred - possible actor
• Simon Good - possible video editor

I will follow up with Tai next week as he will be at the SmackBang drinks on Thursday, he sounds like a good person to get onboard.

27th February: Internship (1st lecture at Unitec)

The first day of the internship course at Unitec. I felt good that I already had an internship organisation and I knew exactly what the project will entail. It was good meeting Sophie (who is doing an internship at GoFM) and Andrea (from Germany and doesn't know where to go yet).

See my column in In Unison about the first day back to school, and in particular, meeting Andrea at: http://www.usu.co.nz/inunison/columns/latest-columns/add-me-pt-3/

The timeframes are a bit of a pain because YouthLaw's deadline for the production of video content is the 30th of June, but Unitec's presentation day is the 4th of June. I think it is possible to meet the Unitec deadline, but I will need to spend some time planning a schedule, and it also depends on how quickly Harvena is able to produce the written modules.

Anyway, I think I've got sufficient information to write up the "Project Proposal Plan" so I will try and get that out of the way asap and start focusing on actually getting this thing going.

26th February: Video content meeting

Jeanie and Harvena came down for lunch with me at the Saatchi & Saatchi building today to start working on what will be my internship project.

We had already decided that a manageable project will be to create video content to supplement the modules that Harvena is writing. The meeting was more to discuss timeframes and how we would go about doing it.

I will need to know what format to produce the videos in. I don't really know what formats are available, but we do need to decide where the content will eventually end up. Putting the videos on YouTube opens them up to the public and YouthLaw has less control over quality and the amount of content that can be stored. The other option is to store the videos on the SharePoint site, this means YouthLaw has more control over who sees the videos, the quality of the videos and how long each video can be. We will need to ensure that this video functionality will be available in the website that is being developed.

Speaking of website development (and this is outside of my internship project), Jeanie isn't sure who will be designing the site yet. I hope some decisions are made around this soon as it could impact on timeframes.

We discussed "A fair hearing". A fair hearing was a video that was created in the 90's about a Board of Trustees meeting to discuss a student's behaviour. It ran for 20 minutes and provided information about advocacy under the Education Act. It will give me a good idea of the sort of stuff that has been done before and what YouthLaw may want for the new project. I've now got a copy of the VHS and will take a look at it soon.

We talked about how the final website will look. Harvena explained that each module will be divided into a number of sessions. At the end of each module, there will be an assessment that the user must pass before going on to the next module.

Harvena showed me the video brief that she had created for the modules she wants video content in. She explained that there are two ways to go about creating video content:

1) Lots of different scenarios to illustrate different areas of the law, e.g. a stand-down, a suspension, an expulsion etc. This would lack "a story", but each video would be very relevant to each module.
2) An ongoing storyline, where a main character progresses through different areas of the law (e.g. a real bad student who gets stood-down, then suspended, then excluded etc).

We discussed both ways and it became apparent that the ongoing storyline would be the best option as we would only need the one actor (and their parents / teachers etc). Harvena is going to update the video brief to reflect this and resend through to me.

Harvena needs video content for the following modules:

• Gross misconduct (Education Act advocacy)
• Continual disobedience (Education Act advocacy)
• Youth justice (Youth Justice Act)
• Possibly also a special needs section. However, concerns were raised that parents might not be willing to allow their kids to be filmed and so photos might have to be used instead. Personally, I see this as no obstacle and Red is willing to try and find actors to fill the parts required

Jeanie also asked if I could produce some video content (2-3 clips) for her module

• Natural justice (and how it applies to everyday life)

We identified some requirements for the videos

• Produced in a format that will integrate easily into the rest of the content (website text)
  
• Produced in a style that can be easily cloned (so that additional video content can be added later)
• Clips should be no longer than 3 minutes each
• Clips will need to be viewed and accepted by YouthLaw as well as a select group of National Youthworkers Network pilot testers
• Clips should be funny and entertaining where appropriate (e.g. a joke cracker student / or a hard case principal)
• Clips should be fairly generic so as to be appropriate even if the law goes through minor changes, but not too generic so as to lose value or be boring
• There was an additional request to create a module on how to create your own videos in similar format (this could be made available to selected people who are interested in expanding the content of the site)

We finally discussed timeframes

• The modules need to be completed (written) by 30th April, but Harvena expects to complete them earlier (approx end of March)
• The video content needs to be completed by 30th June

The entire PLEAS project will be completed after pilot testing and national roll out by 31/08/2009.

New project: PLEAS

The new project I will be working with YouthLaw on is called PLEAS.

It will be an online training resource for the approx 2,000 youth workers as part of the National Youth Workers Network (http://www.youthworkers.net.nz/). It will also contain modules for workers at the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB), school guidance counsellors, and community law centres.

It intends to train youth workers on how to advocate for children and young people.

I went to a meeting yesterday with Jeanie and Harvena from YouthLaw, and Alan and Wayne from Business Mechanix. We discussed the possible software that could be used for the project. As Microsoft partners, of course Business Mechanix suggested using SharePoint. They had also considered using Moodl.

I thought it might be a good idea to check out Blackboard and Dot Net Nuke as well.

I agree that SharePoint will be a well suited piece of software to achieve the project's goals, but the licensing could become a problem. The licensing works on named users, not concurrent users. That means that YouthLaw would have to select, for example, 20 youth workers to have access to the resources for a period of time. This would make it hard roll out the resources nationwide in a short period of time.

Wayne suggested we look into using the external user connector license, which is a one-off license for any users that are external to the organisation (YouthLaw). I expect this would be fairly easy to argue as the national youth workers are external to YouthLaw.

Business Mechanix advised that SharePoint contains a lot of ready to use applications, for example quizzes and surveys. They can also create custom webparts and have them interact with other webparts.

For piloting, there will be approximately 50 youth workers go through and do usability assessments of the software, the modules and the final resource.

We also talked about using Adobe Captivate 3 for creating digital content, either as a replacement or supplementary to SharePoint.

We discussed live Webinars, but decided against including them now as they don't deliver what the funding has been allocated for. "We need to keep it as simple as possible in order to deliver what we said we would deliver."

We discussed who the stakeholders are. The National Youthworkers Network could come into play later. The printer might be another stakeholder. The sponsor / funder will be another. Other community law centres could be involved. Are children and young people stakeholders as well?

Focusing on the scope of the project, Business Mechanix need to deliver a website that:
- Can host training modules and materials
- Can be used for piloting and fine-tuning
- Can be rolled out across the country (provision)

In terms of content, we discussed the prerequisite modules (modules that all workers need to complete before accessing other modules):
- YouthLaw background
- Guiding ... (something)
- Principles of Advocacy

For each organisation that accesses the website, we discussed having a "Training Administrator" role (e.g. the CLC Training Administrator, the School Counselors' Training Administrator etc). There would be a "Train the administrator" module and a possible need for custom workflows for different organisations and roles.

From YouthLaw's perspective, Harvena will be writing the content (the modules) and Colin has made himself available for video work. Jeanie will be managing the project. I still need to work out what my part of the project should aim to achieve.

The next meeting will be on February 19th 2008 including Harvena, Jeanie, community law centres and Business Mechanix. This meeting will set the budget and work on contingency planning. Unfortunately, I won't be able to make this meeting as I will have started working for Saatchi & Saatchi by then.

yMedia challenge conquered: what next?

Last year, I had the privilege to work with the YouthLaw whanau to come up with a digital media project that helped empower children and young people with legal information. My best friend, Red, and I worked with YouthLaw whanau members, Jeanie and Nick, to create Facebook and Bebo pages that helped to achieve this purpose. For example, on the Bebo page there are quizzes that help children and young people better understand the law.

The whole thing was part of the yMedia challenge, a challenge that gets students together with Non Profit Organisations (NPOs) so that students can put their skills to use in the real world, and the NPOs benefit from the project outcome as well. Check www.ymediagroup.org for more information.

Well, we won it, and that has spun off a whole swagload of cool opportunties for Red and I. Money for starters, like $1,000 for winning the competition. And an internship for us both at Saatchi and Saatchi. And an invitation to last year's Digital Future Summit, check http://www.digitalsummit.org.nz/.

For me, one of the best outcomes of the challenge was the opportunity to continue working with YouthLaw on a new project, a national youth advocacy programme delivered over a digital medium.

Last year, YouthLaw applied for funding to develop a digital media programme that helps youth workers, like counsellors, advocate for youth in their day to day jobs. With the funding almost through, YouthLaw is looking to start working on the project, developing a framework, a network of youth workers and digital resources to make it all happen.

While I'm not sure exactly what my role will be in the project, I hope to do some research work (e.g. find the best software to do the job), documentation work, project management work, and maybe even work on some video resources for the project.

I've selected the project as my Unitec internship, part of my Bachelor of International Communication. That requires 120 hours of completed work for YouthLaw, but I think I will probably go over this amount. Who knows?

I'm really looking forward to it, and of course I'll keep you posted on how things go in this blog. Hear more from me soon!