Bus Stop
'Bus Stop' was the final year student film that I helped make back in 1997 whilst studying for my Film Degree at Southampton Institute (now Southampton Solent University).
The premise of the film is very simple. It is collection of small vignettes containing interesting characters that happen to show up at one particular bus stop.
The initial shoot was conducted over a 5 day period in and around Southampton. Primarily at 'Weston Shore' - a windswept seafront area. However, the entire production effort took over six months to complete; from a blank sheet of paper to the finished product that was screened at the Harbour Lights cinema in Southampton. (No wonder 'Gravity' took 4.5 years!)
The idea for the film, as well as the script, was provided by Nadia Hartley.
The premise of the film is very simple. It is collection of small vignettes containing interesting characters that happen to show up at one particular bus stop.
The initial shoot was conducted over a 5 day period in and around Southampton. Primarily at 'Weston Shore' - a windswept seafront area. However, the entire production effort took over six months to complete; from a blank sheet of paper to the finished product that was screened at the Harbour Lights cinema in Southampton. (No wonder 'Gravity' took 4.5 years!)
The idea for the film, as well as the script, was provided by Nadia Hartley.
Shooting 'Bus Stop' with the Arriflex 16mm BL
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At Southampton Institute we had two decent 16mm film cameras. The Arriflex 16SR and the Arriflex 16BL.
The image on the left, is of me shooting with the Arriflex 16BL at Weston Shore. It was a good camera, but nowhere near as good as the Arriflex 16SR. The BL was fairly noisy when running. Quite a bit of motor sound escaped out the front of the camera (via the lens). In quieter scenes, it was possible to pick up the motor noise on the soundtrack. On our particular film, this was mitigated somewhat, because we were filming outside, so the noise was not so noticeable. Even so, I remember that we used a large glass 'sound damper' to help reduce that noise. This 'damper' was basically just a thick piece of clear glass that slotted in front of the lens. This drastically reduced the camera noise, (though of course at a cost of the amount of light hitting the film!) Shooting took place between 15th - 19th February 1997. |
The Location
Bus Stop was shot on Weston Shore on the South Eastern side of Southampton.
We filmed during mid February and it was bloody freezing during our whole shoot. It was completely windswept and it was constantly windy and raining! You will no doubt be able to tell from some of the shots below, just how cold everyone was at times.
Because of this, copious amounts of hot drinks were required in order to stave off the onset of frostbite. These hot drinks were provided by Emma. In conjunction with this, we would often seek solace in my old Ford Escort estate (which was the carthorse, constantly carrying equipment and people to and from the location), the bus (which we hired) or otherwise in the disused bus shelter itself.
We filmed during mid February and it was bloody freezing during our whole shoot. It was completely windswept and it was constantly windy and raining! You will no doubt be able to tell from some of the shots below, just how cold everyone was at times.
Because of this, copious amounts of hot drinks were required in order to stave off the onset of frostbite. These hot drinks were provided by Emma. In conjunction with this, we would often seek solace in my old Ford Escort estate (which was the carthorse, constantly carrying equipment and people to and from the location), the bus (which we hired) or otherwise in the disused bus shelter itself.
The 'bus stop' we filmed at and the bus we hired
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Shooting a scene
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Nadia checking how it looks through the camera!
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The bus-stop itself was an old concrete one that was no longer used. (Buses no longer ran along Weston Shore when we were filming). Because of this, we had to hire a local bus (and driver) to gain the shots we needed of the bus approaching the stop and the various characters boarding. We only had the bus for short periods of time (due to the cost of hiring it) but whenever possible, it was also used as somewhere where we could get warm and dry and have a bite to eat!
The Equipment
As mentioned, we had the use of an Arriflex 16BL 16mm film camera. Along with this, we had a Ford F4 tripod, a Nagra sound recorder and boom and that was about it! 16mm film is expensive (everything is expensive when you're a student) - and we all had to pay for the film stock we used ourselves.
The upside of this is that it makes you very, very careful about exposing it. You plan carefully and only release that shutter when absolutely sure and ready.
The upside of this is that it makes you very, very careful about exposing it. You plan carefully and only release that shutter when absolutely sure and ready.
Back of the Arriflex 16BL
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The Arriflex 16BL eyepiece
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The scant amount of equipment we had meant that we had to improvise when it came to shooting. For example, we lifted some sheets of plastic we found in a skip (and an old pram) and lashed the camera and tripod to pram to create a make-shift dolly and tracking system. It was rickety but kind of worked!
Lining up a shot, ready for our state of the art dolly shot!
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Our mocked up dolly! (Note how cold we are!)
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I don't even think we had any reflectors or bounce-boards...nothing! Obviously no lights. It was shooting on a shoe-string!
Filming and Conditions
Filming was difficult. We have just five days to shoot the film. Allied with this, we were all in at the deep end and had no previous 16mm shooting experience. Obviously, this being pre-digital (and not VIDEO) - we had no idea how any of the shots would look until they were sent off to London, developed and sent back to us. We had no availability for re-shooting with the actors, so it was just one go and one go only!
Looking down the lens
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Preparing for a shot with Nadia dreaming of a warm bath
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Here comes more rain - protect the camera!
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When I look at the film, I am frustrated because so many shots are very under exposed. Shooting in the bus stop itself was very difficult because it was cast in shadow all of the time. Sometimes we had pan shots going from blinding sunshine and then into the gloom and they ended up being very dark. Ted Shorthouse at Colour Film Services in London, (which was the company that developed and graded all of the student 16mm films), did his best to grade and highlight dark scenes but they were so mismatched, it was very difficult for him.
If we had just had the opportunity to shoot on film once before this, all of the student films would have been 200% better technically. It was the technical aspects that were so hard to get a handle on. Also, shooting outside on location was very tricky in terms of continuity. I've noticed that some other films that were shot in studios had far better consistency of lighting. (Which is to be expected!)
A few weeks after the shoot finished, I did manage to grab a camera for an afternoon and shoot a few extra wide shots and inserts (no actors available though). I managed to get some birds taking off, a couple of fisherman chatting etc.
If we had just had the opportunity to shoot on film once before this, all of the student films would have been 200% better technically. It was the technical aspects that were so hard to get a handle on. Also, shooting outside on location was very tricky in terms of continuity. I've noticed that some other films that were shot in studios had far better consistency of lighting. (Which is to be expected!)
A few weeks after the shoot finished, I did manage to grab a camera for an afternoon and shoot a few extra wide shots and inserts (no actors available though). I managed to get some birds taking off, a couple of fisherman chatting etc.
Cast and Crew
Below is the list of cast and crew. I'm still trying to find out the names of the actors we used....When I make contact with Nadia Hartley, I'm sure I can fill this information in!
- Nadia Hartley: Writer/Director/Editor
- Me: Camera/Lighting/Editor
- Martin: Sound recordist
- Emma Marks: Producer/Tuna pasta salad!
Nadia had beautiful eyes!
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Leslie, Nadia, Emma and ?
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I said to the girls, 'look sexy' and this is what I got!
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Like any good team, we all had our strengths and weaknesses and I think we had a good division of labour which got the best out of each of us!
Our young actress - Katie Lyons
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Tea break in the Bus Stop!
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Our mighty exterior location - and my Ford Escort!
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Our brilliant actor who played the quirky conductor!
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Leslie peers down the camera
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Film vs Video
Everyone who was making a film as part of their dissertation, had a choice. Either shoot on film or shoot on video (SVHS).
This (for me) became an interesting thing to analyse and you could largely predict which groups of people would shoot on film and which wouldn't.
This (for me) became an interesting thing to analyse and you could largely predict which groups of people would shoot on film and which wouldn't.
Shooting the Credits
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Creating the credits was a tricky and long winded process. Both myself and Paul Melton (who I lived with at Uni and whose film, 'Topspin Lobs' I also worked on) wanted 'classic' credits; that is, we wanted clean white text on a black background.
Working out how to achieve this was tricky. We didn't just want to 'write' freehand onto black paper, and in those days, we had no way of printing clean white text onto a completely black background. (Imagine that!) Although I did first try and create a black 'image' and print white text onto it, forcing the printer to use gallons of black ink - but the black was neither 'black' enough, nor uniform enough. It just wasn't anywhere near good enough. So we struck upon the idea of trying to create them as photographs and then filming them. - But how to create the photographs? 
Acetate version
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Start of the process (the scribble was added afterwards!)
We started by firstly creating the text for each 'credit tile' in 'Wordperfect' or 'Word' (I can't remember which), and we then printed out these onto normal white paper. It's worth noting that at this point in human existence, it was still pretty nifty to even have a printer; many companies were still using typewriters.
Next, we used a photocopier and photocopied these print-outs. But instead of photocopying them onto paper, we photocopied them onto acetate. For those of you who don't know what that is, acetate is clear thin plastic stuff that they used to use in 'overhead projectors'. It's like a sheet of A4, but made of clear plastic. Overhead projectors were commonly used in lectures halls around the world for displaying text and hand-written content. If you don't know what an overhead projector is, then congratulations - you must be very young! |
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After this photocopying process, we had a thin piece of clear plastic with black text on it. The image above shows you how this looks.
The next stage was to turn the text 'white' and the background, black. At the Institute, we had a dark room. (Again, if you don't know what a dark room is, you are probably a child of the digital age!) So we used one of the enlargers to effectively turn this 'negative' into a 'positive' onto 10x8 photographic paper. We did this by simply laying the acetate on top of a 10x8 piece of photographic paper and then projecting light onto it. The idea was that the 'black' on the acetate would 'hold back' the light, keeping that area of the paper white, whilst the rest of the paper would turn black. After our first attempt at this however, we noticed that there was considerable light 'bleed' through the black text. Consequently, the 'white' text ended up being 'grey' on the photographic paper. So I went back and created an additional acetate versions of the text and layered it on top of the first, to increase the thickness of the black. |
The finished credit tile photograph - ready for filming
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The tricky part now was ensuring that the two layers aligned perfectly and were also held in place whilst we exposed them on the photo-paper. After re-enlarging these, I still felt that there was room for improvement, so I created a third acetate layer and exposed them. However, this seemed to be worse than two layers. The width of some of the text characters was so small that it was very difficult to get the sheets to align perfectly.
So ultimately I ended up using two layers. This seemed to be the best compromise. Although not perfect, they were as good we could get. After this, we did indeed end up with 10x8 photographs with white text on a black background. The next job was to film them.
So ultimately I ended up using two layers. This seemed to be the best compromise. Although not perfect, they were as good we could get. After this, we did indeed end up with 10x8 photographs with white text on a black background. The next job was to film them.
Filming the credits for Bus Stop
I already find it slightly amusing how all of this was non-digital. How quickly the world changed after we left university!
In the shot above, you can see us filming our finished credits on the wall of Paul's bedroom at our student house in Milton Road. The tricky part was lighting them well, to avoid shadow and obtaining a good exposure so that the 'black' was black and the 'white' was white! (Not as easy as it sounds!) We also had to make sure that we exposed enough film so that we had some leeway in the editing room for ensuring each credit would be onscreen for a consistent (and relevant) amount of time.
In the shot above, you can see us filming our finished credits on the wall of Paul's bedroom at our student house in Milton Road. The tricky part was lighting them well, to avoid shadow and obtaining a good exposure so that the 'black' was black and the 'white' was white! (Not as easy as it sounds!) We also had to make sure that we exposed enough film so that we had some leeway in the editing room for ensuring each credit would be onscreen for a consistent (and relevant) amount of time.
Editing
I don't think I realised (I'm not sure any of us who made our films did) - just how long and laborious the editing process would end up being. It went on for months. Because we were all novices, each stage seemed to take an age. Starting with the syncing of the soundtrack to the rushes.
Editing Bus Stop on a Steenbeck
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At the Institute there were several editing rooms all in a row. Each was a small room containing a 'pic sync' and a mighty 'Steenbeck' editing machine.
Before we could do anything of course, we had to learn how to use all the equipment. The Steenback was good, (and fun) to use, but the issue I had with it, was that sometimes it would slip a frame or two out of sync with the soundtrack. Although it took a lot longer to edit on, I preferred using the pic sync machine. The Pic Syncs were physically sprocketed and therefore 'locked in' with the soundtrack. As this is all very hazy now (in my memory), I believe that often times, we had to use the Steenbeck, because we had not yet had the sound/film transferred onto sprocketed stock. |
Me in one of the editing suites
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Nadia with the pic sync machine - see the joy it can bring! Hang on a minute...why isn't she wearing gloves?!!
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The image above shows the Steenbeck which I used to edit the film. You can see a shot of our 'conductor' from the film on the monitor. These machines were all situated in tiny little editing rooms. These little rooms became home from home for weeks and months. We would edit for several hours and then walk upstairs to the student bar for a few drinks. Take a few deep breaths and then come back down again and do some more.
I remember strangely bumping into the football commentator John Motson one day, down in these rooms. Very odd. And Anthony Mingella. And Ken Russell.
Sometimes we would drop a frame on the floor and it would flutter away into a corner and we would all freeze! Where is it? Arrrghghh! The picture and sound are then one frame out of sync!
Sound was cut diagonally - which I believe was a practise employed by the BBC to make a slightly smoother edit. (Less abrupt).
I remember strangely bumping into the football commentator John Motson one day, down in these rooms. Very odd. And Anthony Mingella. And Ken Russell.
Sometimes we would drop a frame on the floor and it would flutter away into a corner and we would all freeze! Where is it? Arrrghghh! The picture and sound are then one frame out of sync!
Sound was cut diagonally - which I believe was a practise employed by the BBC to make a slightly smoother edit. (Less abrupt).
Editing was finally completed at the beginning of June 1997.
Summary
I recently found a VHS copy of my film in the loft. So I dug out my old SVHS recorder from the shed and slapped it in and watched it (whilst a bit drunk in Brighton) and it was fantastic to see it again! My next mission is to record it digitally and get it onto this site at some point.
Once we completed our films, everyone who had made one in their final year, had the pleasure of seeing them projected at the 'Harbour Lights' cinema in Southampton. Friends, actors, and local people all came to see them and it was a great ending to a long, (but rewarding) process!
The head of the Film degree course called Bus Stop, 'Magical Realism'...which I always thought was a lovely comment!
More photos from this time and other details to come! Stay tuned!....
Once we completed our films, everyone who had made one in their final year, had the pleasure of seeing them projected at the 'Harbour Lights' cinema in Southampton. Friends, actors, and local people all came to see them and it was a great ending to a long, (but rewarding) process!
The head of the Film degree course called Bus Stop, 'Magical Realism'...which I always thought was a lovely comment!
More photos from this time and other details to come! Stay tuned!....