MAIN » ARTICLESRandy Movie 3 – Behind the Scenes
The Randy Movie was class, at the time. It became old and outdated soon after the community began sixth form. Certain wideasleep members took Film and Media Studies and soon learnt new skills in editing and camera-work, as well as gaining a real eye for composition and framing. We have Wheatley to thank for a lot of this progress. Randy Movie 2 reflected this. Ryan took the sequel to a whole new level, both with the quality of the editing and the content itself. Speaking with him at The Farmhouse in April 2007, you could tell he would do things differently now with hindsight. No doubt about that. Even so, you look back and you can appreciate the newly acquired skills at work and instantly draw a strong contrast with the first film, both of which stand today as a product of their time, and a reflection of all the people involved, not just Randall himself.
Randy Movie 3; scripted, filmed, produced and edited by me (Jay) is the next in the series. I’m not doing a Film Production degree, nor have I really improved my filmmaking since those hedonistic days of Kesgrave Sixth Form, when anything seemed possible, and any concept, no matter how insane or illogical, could be put onto a digital video camera and shown to whoever was willing to watch. Those days have passed, but the method is much the same. This is the story of the third movie, and how it came to be.
The Intro:
Before we even had any idea what kind of content we wanted to include, I had a firmly-established concept for the introduction. (I say “we” in the sense that Randall and myself worked constantly with eachother in the exchange of ideas, filming practices and execution. It was a joint effort every step of the way.) I wanted a long credit sequence and I wanted it to be as natural as possible. Thankfully we struck gold in terms of lucky coincidence.
Dave was shortly about to return from Nottingham, he was doing his degree in European Politics at the time, and would be arriving in Ipswich town centre on a National Express bus. I offered him a lift and saw the perfect opportunity to get that vital first footage to kick off the third movie, without any pretence or manufactured scenario. The one thing I had to insist on though was one bit of script, which Randall would read after arriving. The last thing anybody wanted was to botch a great entry scene with poor, irreverent dialogue that contributed nothing to the film. And so it was. Communicating through text messages, we decided I would film his arrival, the coach’s arrival, and he would alight, walk up to me and introduce the film. Then the script came into play.
Looking back on the edited version I’m pleased how it worked out, the perfect balance between conscious effort and naturalism. We relied on the light from street lamps alone which gives the scene a grainy realistic feel and whilst the whole sequence is slightly drawn out, it gives time to get people up to date with the series and also a chance to chat in the audience before the nitty gritty. Now all we needed was some substance.
The Party Interview:
This segment of the movie was filmed at Lauren’s house during a particularly raucous party, yet somehow we managed to shut ourselves off from all the craziness and the noise and get some serious interviewing going on. James Davey took to the podium like a fish to water and guided the interview along like a true professional, never mind the fact he was trashed out of his head and had just pissed on himself a few minutes earlier (not voluntarily mind, something to do with Jack – a scene already released in one of the two teaser trailers for the movie).
In this scene we used a static camera position and utilized a simple manual pan-based system. I decided there was no real need for any digital effects on the recording as the brightness of the bathroom bulb cast a golden glow down onto the guys. In the final version it was necessary to make a couple of edits in the dialogue, which occasionally dragged on for too long when James strayed off into a strange and entirely incomprehensible tangent, but overall this scene provided much of the substance that would make up the final version. Complimenting the great dialogue was an impromptu conclusion that not only presented that classic school-boy battle known as ‘thumb wars’ but also gave us all a couple of classic frames – the hug and the thumbs up especially. It was truly a chance event and a one-off success in terms of improvisational filming that owes much to the chemistry of Randall and Davey.
The Acting:
In comparison to the previous scenes, the acting segment was more manageable. We all knew what we were there for and all I was obliged to do was set up the camera on a tripod and film Dave in action, as he would have acted without me even being present. Of course we threw in a couple of additional interviews to stitch the scenes together, but this was altogether a conglomeration of the most unplanned parts of the whole movie and needed little input from myself as a director. The scenes provide a humorous insight into the natural comedy timing of Randall and his skills both in getting the job done and providing multiple amusing outtakes. For some reason this day I decided I’d like to film Dave sitting beside a large mirror to catch his reflection. I would repeat this during the Nottingham recordings to similar effect and now believe it to be a small attempt to compensate for the lack of special effects and sophisticated lighting.
The Nottingham Recordings:
Good stuff. James got really pissed, we got some aftermath, we got some reaction, all in very inferior and unfavourable lighting conditions. The morning after drags on and really offers nothing in particular to the final product, but everything here has interest if you ever found the Randy Movie series interesting in the first place. It breaks it back down to the very grass roots of the Randy movies. You watch because you want to see Randy. In this scene we offer you nothing BUT Randy. 100% Randy. In fact, for most of this section Dave is in bed and somehow under the false impression that it’s an hour later than it actually is. Observable here is my dedication to get the film done, even if it means working early on a Sunday morning after a night of heavy drinking. This was the weekend of James’s infamous attempt at the ‘Campus 14’ pub crawl and also included a trip to town and to a Casino. Unfortunately the recording seemed to take a back foot to most of our exploits and I didn’t get nearly as much filmed as I’d have liked. The footage which ended up in the final edit was mainly scrapped together at the last minute with minimal planning and as such is weaker than the previous two sections.
The Conclusion:
As of July 2007, the final edit is in place at TON HQ, however the movie has not been exported since some small edits have been made and this is still to be done. A conclusion was planned repeatedly during Spring and early Summer but nothing has yet materialized. I haven’t had much discussion with Randall over how, or even whether, we’d like to finish the movie. It may end up being released online without any further changes, which would be a shame due to the anti-climatic Nottingham Recordings, but at the same time would finally draw a line under the most drawn-out and nightmarish films I’ve ever worked on. By the end of the year we may see what becomes of the Randy Movie 3, but as it stands, these were notes on all progress up to this point.
Written by Jay.
Randy Movie 3; scripted, filmed, produced and edited by me (Jay) is the next in the series. I’m not doing a Film Production degree, nor have I really improved my filmmaking since those hedonistic days of Kesgrave Sixth Form, when anything seemed possible, and any concept, no matter how insane or illogical, could be put onto a digital video camera and shown to whoever was willing to watch. Those days have passed, but the method is much the same. This is the story of the third movie, and how it came to be.
The Intro:
Before we even had any idea what kind of content we wanted to include, I had a firmly-established concept for the introduction. (I say “we” in the sense that Randall and myself worked constantly with eachother in the exchange of ideas, filming practices and execution. It was a joint effort every step of the way.) I wanted a long credit sequence and I wanted it to be as natural as possible. Thankfully we struck gold in terms of lucky coincidence.
Dave was shortly about to return from Nottingham, he was doing his degree in European Politics at the time, and would be arriving in Ipswich town centre on a National Express bus. I offered him a lift and saw the perfect opportunity to get that vital first footage to kick off the third movie, without any pretence or manufactured scenario. The one thing I had to insist on though was one bit of script, which Randall would read after arriving. The last thing anybody wanted was to botch a great entry scene with poor, irreverent dialogue that contributed nothing to the film. And so it was. Communicating through text messages, we decided I would film his arrival, the coach’s arrival, and he would alight, walk up to me and introduce the film. Then the script came into play.
Looking back on the edited version I’m pleased how it worked out, the perfect balance between conscious effort and naturalism. We relied on the light from street lamps alone which gives the scene a grainy realistic feel and whilst the whole sequence is slightly drawn out, it gives time to get people up to date with the series and also a chance to chat in the audience before the nitty gritty. Now all we needed was some substance.
The Party Interview:
This segment of the movie was filmed at Lauren’s house during a particularly raucous party, yet somehow we managed to shut ourselves off from all the craziness and the noise and get some serious interviewing going on. James Davey took to the podium like a fish to water and guided the interview along like a true professional, never mind the fact he was trashed out of his head and had just pissed on himself a few minutes earlier (not voluntarily mind, something to do with Jack – a scene already released in one of the two teaser trailers for the movie).
In this scene we used a static camera position and utilized a simple manual pan-based system. I decided there was no real need for any digital effects on the recording as the brightness of the bathroom bulb cast a golden glow down onto the guys. In the final version it was necessary to make a couple of edits in the dialogue, which occasionally dragged on for too long when James strayed off into a strange and entirely incomprehensible tangent, but overall this scene provided much of the substance that would make up the final version. Complimenting the great dialogue was an impromptu conclusion that not only presented that classic school-boy battle known as ‘thumb wars’ but also gave us all a couple of classic frames – the hug and the thumbs up especially. It was truly a chance event and a one-off success in terms of improvisational filming that owes much to the chemistry of Randall and Davey.
The Acting:
In comparison to the previous scenes, the acting segment was more manageable. We all knew what we were there for and all I was obliged to do was set up the camera on a tripod and film Dave in action, as he would have acted without me even being present. Of course we threw in a couple of additional interviews to stitch the scenes together, but this was altogether a conglomeration of the most unplanned parts of the whole movie and needed little input from myself as a director. The scenes provide a humorous insight into the natural comedy timing of Randall and his skills both in getting the job done and providing multiple amusing outtakes. For some reason this day I decided I’d like to film Dave sitting beside a large mirror to catch his reflection. I would repeat this during the Nottingham recordings to similar effect and now believe it to be a small attempt to compensate for the lack of special effects and sophisticated lighting.
The Nottingham Recordings:
Good stuff. James got really pissed, we got some aftermath, we got some reaction, all in very inferior and unfavourable lighting conditions. The morning after drags on and really offers nothing in particular to the final product, but everything here has interest if you ever found the Randy Movie series interesting in the first place. It breaks it back down to the very grass roots of the Randy movies. You watch because you want to see Randy. In this scene we offer you nothing BUT Randy. 100% Randy. In fact, for most of this section Dave is in bed and somehow under the false impression that it’s an hour later than it actually is. Observable here is my dedication to get the film done, even if it means working early on a Sunday morning after a night of heavy drinking. This was the weekend of James’s infamous attempt at the ‘Campus 14’ pub crawl and also included a trip to town and to a Casino. Unfortunately the recording seemed to take a back foot to most of our exploits and I didn’t get nearly as much filmed as I’d have liked. The footage which ended up in the final edit was mainly scrapped together at the last minute with minimal planning and as such is weaker than the previous two sections.
The Conclusion:
As of July 2007, the final edit is in place at TON HQ, however the movie has not been exported since some small edits have been made and this is still to be done. A conclusion was planned repeatedly during Spring and early Summer but nothing has yet materialized. I haven’t had much discussion with Randall over how, or even whether, we’d like to finish the movie. It may end up being released online without any further changes, which would be a shame due to the anti-climatic Nottingham Recordings, but at the same time would finally draw a line under the most drawn-out and nightmarish films I’ve ever worked on. By the end of the year we may see what becomes of the Randy Movie 3, but as it stands, these were notes on all progress up to this point.
Written by Jay.