From Museum to College
Regarding my “Incompetent Robbers” idea, one nagging doubt is that I am concerned that I won’t be able to film in a museum because it depends on what happens with Covid, but there are a couple of local museums, Hughenden Manor and Wycombe Museum that I could approach if this idea develops.
I decided last week that I could adapt the story to have the robbers try to steal a valuable film prop, a trilby hat from a James Bond film. My research has shown me that the steel-rimmed hat that Oddjob wore in “Gold Finger” sold at Christies Auctioneers in 1998 for £62,000 so it is feasible that an original “James Bond” hat from a movie would be valuable and worth stealing.
My idea is that these 2 robbers would get into all sorts of comic problems trying to steal the valuable James Bond trilby, then find out just at the end that the one they had stolen is a replica that was pretty much worthless.
I really like this idea because it ties into my brand as “Hatman”, since everyone knows that I constantly wear trilby hats and I have over 50 of them (it’s not excessive, really it isn’t). I even have a trilby hat to represent me on our 90%Bloopers Logo. So I am happy with this Hat Idea, and am planning on calling the film “The Wrong Hat”
Unfortunately, my investigations into the 2 local museums have showed that I will not be able to film there due to Covid. To be honest, I had expected that, and had been a bit concerned anyway due to Covid Restrictions.
I was a bit stuck for location, which was rather limiting because my idea depended on a location that was either suitable or that I could dress to look like a museum. In one of my Journals, I have written a more detailed description and explanation of the “wrong hat” theft idea, including starting to think about what shots I could use to tell the story, to see if this helped me come up with other feasible locations.
Some more brainstorming and I wondered if I could make the College look like a museum. I went down this route for quite a while, since it was a determining decision in my idea choice. It’s no good having the best story line if it depends on a certain setting that is impossible to get under Covid Restrictions. Everywhere is jittery about location at the moment, and our tutors have advised us to be ambitious but not to create problems that don’t already exist. It would be tricky to make all the areas that I would need to use (like corridors and reception) look like a genuine museum. I could film the outside of a real one, but I just wasn’t convinced about the inside.
I decided that rather than turn the College into a museum, I could use the fact that we are a Creative College and have a travelling collection of movie memorabilia setting up in the College for a few week’s exhibition. I did lots of research. I took location scouting photos at College and started planning locations, shots, costumes.
I’ve done loads of prep work and research on it. I even bought 2 new trilby hats to use as props since, even though I have over 50 trilbies, I didn’t have the right colour trilbies that James Bond wore.
I still have a nagging doubt about filming this at College, mainly because of needing Corridors. I also haven’t fixed the idea of how to make it feel like it was happening at night. I know I could do fancy Postproduction Colour Grading effects to make it look like night, but the results on the YouTube videos that I watched to see how to do this were not that impressive. I am a perfectionist, and I’m just not convinced by the results.
But a key thing about filming in College is that I could build in lots of contingency for filming days, so I am happy that I can make it work, and I feel it has lots of potential for good story-telling shots. Also, it gives me good control over matching the lighting from one day to the next if I have to spread my filming in a particular corridor over multiple days, by using the same lighting set-up each day. And the weather doesn’t matter since we are indoors. It has been a long creative journey, with lots of problem solving and solutions, but I am finally there.