From Friday 31st May to Sunday 2nd June 2013 twelve Scouts enjoyed a film making weekend. The weekend was organised by Luke , normally known by everyone as ‘Atko’ . The target for the weekend was for the Scouts to produce a short film which would have it’s premiere on Sunday afternoon before the Scouts went home. This would be quite a task even for professionals but could it be achieved by a group of youngsters with no previous experience.
All aspects had to be thought out, planned and executed in less than forty eight hours. The Screenplay had to be written, auditions held for the main roles, props and costumes had to be made, all of the technical positions such as Camerman, Grips , First Assistant Director had to be filled and of course there was a need to rehearse. All of this had to be done at the Scout Hut on Friday night before everyone headed of to Beaudesert Scout Camp on Saturday morning for location shooting. All of the shooting had to be completed on Saturday so that the whole movie could be edited on Sunday.
The youngsters were magnificent and rose to the challenge. ‘Atkko’ who has worked with professionals said that they were one of the best groups he had ever worked with. They met their targets and the eight minute film was premiered on the Sunday as planned. All of the Scouts concerned gained a well deserved Photographer or Advanced Photographer badge. All of the Scouts and ‘Atko’ want to make a sequel next year. Eat your heart out Spielberg!
There follows a report by Melanie who was one of the Scouts on the weekend. She has titled the report ‘Zombie Camp’ as this is what the weekend became known as once it was decided to make a Zombie film
Zombie Camp
On Friday evening 12 Scouts arrived at the hut ready for a movie making weekend.
First Acko sorted out what jobs that needed to be done, all of the girls took up the jobs of costumes and makeup whilst the boys took on jobs like camera man, or props manager..
Devon and I were told to start making some fake blood for the movie, getting it to the correct colour. After that we tested out the effects on Shaun.
Following all the preparation we had some free time and then were told to get good nights sleep as we had a busy day ahead.
Saturday, following breakfast , we headed off to Beaudesert ready to start filming. At Beau the camera men got the cameras ready and the props team set up their props, and we were ready for the first shoot. After a while it was finally time to make up the zombies ready for filming, some actors co-operated with makeup whilst others were ticklish. After a rehearsal it was time to film the Zombie scene, this took several attempts at filming from all different angles with pauses for makeup touch up.
Once all the daytime outdoor filming was complete we headed back to the hut for tea and to wait for dark to be able to film the last two scenes. It never did get quite dark enough so we had to hold up long lengths of black cloth to get a better effect.
Once all the filming was complete we had the usual tradition of a ghost story form Woody.
Sunday morning we all had a go at editing different section of the film and by just after lunch we had a movie ready to show.
If you would like to view please pick up a slip with the link from the Scout HQ
Sequel to follow next year!
Melanie
Thank you Melanie for a great report if you are not able to get up to our Scout Hut and pick up a slip with the link to watch the movie please email [email protected] and we will send you details of how you can view the film.