The Turing Test

The Turing test was the first proper feature short film I had worked on; It was my first experience as a Runner.

I started work at 13:30 and finished at 03:00 in the morning, such is the way of things in the media industry on projects.

My work on this short film project is unpaid and as they say you have to start some where and that is at the bottom.

I spent most of my time making Tea and Coffee, this was also something new I learned on the day to lol as I admit, I did not know how to make tea or coffee. 

I also fetched and carried things that where needed, lent a hand in sticking up some gels, sat in a van to look after equipment it contained and did some tidying up.

Furthermore I’ve found that my brother is no longer a runner and is Best Boy.

He is assisting and helping the GAFA, the man who was head of lighting.

I however learned some new media film based terminology I did not know such as turning; which is the same as rolling or action.

Also we were using a proper film camera that was not digital and used proper film, I have not come across this before and would like to learn and find out more.

I continue my Runner work tomorrow and on Saturday.

Tomorrow according to my call sheet I’m at The Civic Center in Newcastle, I shall be working in the Civic Centers Print Room.

I need to be on set for 16:00 and the estimated Wrap which is the finish time is 01:00.

Also tomorrow I hear there will be extras and I found that my old outdoor utility vest has come in real handy as it has loads of pockets.

Another day of filming over, one more day to go tomorrow, I’m back at the Civic Centre again but this time I shall be working in the Call Centre.

Today I think was a better day but in part mostly just like yesterday.

I’ve started by fetching and carrying things and taking them to where they needed to be such as a store room where some scenes were being filmed and clearing and emptying a corridor of equipment where we kept some equipment and also where we did some filming.

For the most part I spend most of my time making more tea’s and coffee, furthermore I begin with station nearby storeroom where they were filming but later moved to a staff cafeteria area.

The cafeteria area was in fact where I spent the majority of my time making various refreshments, applying people with cups of water for example and helping with food for the crew.

I have to say though the Civic Centre as a filming location is rather great, is quite an interesting building, as it has a rather intriguing interior, structure and layout.

What struck me though was the various ways in which some of the rooms were decorated that I went through, for example the place we used as our Green Room.

I have also found out more about the Short film the Turing Test itself, the director wrote a script idea are and shot a piece of test footage and presented it to Northern film and media for their shorted competition and won a small budget to make this film.

The whole film and everything along with it that entails the film making process, should be finished by September, and also it may be entered into various film festivals.

Tomorrow I have to be at the Civic Centre four 12:30 and the estimated that time will be 00:30, although another interesting facets about tomorrow years we shall have extras on hand and there shall be 20 or more from what I hear, so tomorrow should be long and tiring but interesting.

The other day was the last day of filming that took place for this project at the Civic Center in its call center.

It was quite good, I had a couple of conversations with the Loader, Assistant Camera Operator and  Producer as well as the DOP (Director of Photography).

Once again as a runner I made plenty of tea and coffee, I was also given the task of guarding a door which had to remain open because for security reasons and somebody had to keep eye on it, otherwise wouldn’t have been able to use our filming location.

We for this film also had extras and I had to look after the extras for a time; They also even made me an extra for a time because we did not have enough for the film.

As usual I helped with the preparation of food and I helped keep an eye on our lead actress to see when she was ready.