JoeH - What I did before blogging...

Back in December last year I started my blog here, and it was pretty well received. I now consider Blogging my foremost hobby, right behind Video Games. Though, before my first blog I considered film making my most prominent hobby. I had a camera, tripod, all the software. I read the books, I wrote the scripts and I shot the films. So here is the complete Filmography of Joe Hart.

Star Wars Episode 3.9: The Rising of the Shadow

Synopsis:
Jedi master Garnek and his apprentice have landed on a remote planet. Darth Ty'kie is close on their tails. They are searching for a mythical jedi religion said to be hiding there. Will they find these mythical jedi before Darth Ty'kie Kills them?

Story behind it:
This was my first official film, well my first film with a story. I had made a previous 2 minute film which was just a load f lightsaber effect clips stuck together with an opening crawl sequence at the beginning. This was a Star Wars Fanfilm. I was inspired to make this when a friend of mine introduced me to this website.

I looked at those films with awe. I was 11 at the time, the same period when I was playing SWG. SO I was fully pumped with Star Wars Mania. So I explored the interwebs, found the tutorials, got the software, tried it out. And about 3 weeks of writing, 2 weeks of shooting, and about a year of rotoscoping culminated to this:

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First, let me apologise to you for watching that. The video below is the trailer, which I think is much cooler than the actual film.

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Now although the film was atrocious, the fact that I was eleven made it seem tolerable in some peoples eyes. Specifically a producer from a media company. She was doing research into Star Wars Fanfilms and coincidentally found mine, the fact that I was eleven meant that she e-mailed me. She basically asked if I wanted to be interviewed by Al Murray and have my film showed on national television.

Being 11, and idolizing the magical TV box in my living room, naturally went mental. I phoned my parents first, and had them check the e-mail because I was almost certain that it had to be some sort of joke or scam. It wasn't. So I then rand up my mate who starred as the orange haired Jedi, and we had about a half an hour conversation basically going "Oh my god".

Thankfully the interview was on a school day, which not only meant I missed school, but when everyone asked me "Where were you yesterday?", I was able to respond "Being interviewed by Al Murray for National television". It was a strange experience being interviewed by him, since I knew I should be nervous because he was famous, but since I was 11 I hadn't the faintest idea who he was. Oh and I also met Chris Eubank while I was there, he was being interviewed by Al Murray too. It was a strange show.

Unfortunately in the end my interview had to be cut out, since they had to decide between putting Adverts, Chris Eubank or me. Naturally I didn't make the cut. I actually didn't care. Because I was interviewed. And they still made me feel all tingly and magical since they put a 3 second clip of my film on the show, That aired on National Television, on Channel 4.

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I was so spurred on by this I even wrote, and began to plan a sequel, I even started to think about making a trilogy. Unfortunately My dreams of turning my bedroom into a Coronet cnatina just were realistic. But here's the script for those who want to have a quick flick through.

Faith:

A few years after my Star Wars Fanfilm, I started to think bigger. Much Bigger. I was 12, and I wrote my own 80 page
feature length film script. It was called Faith because I couldn't think of anything better,

It was all about a small town, which was right in the way of the invading Orc forces from the North. It was set in a world much like ours, but every thousand years the Orc army would rise up from their Icy prisons in antarctica and Invade the world. Thankfully the Gods had measures in place to stop them, in the form of a prophecy:

"When the darkness rides. They will flow as tides.
The gifts will fall. And the heroes call.
The Darkness halts. The heroes stare.
The Darkness charges. The heroes stand.
Blade and bow entwined. Norak shall be confined.
And the Gods’ crown given."

I'm not going to tell you what it means, I want you to read it. I spent about 11 months writing that. And remember, I wrote it when i was 12/13. It's here.

Unfortunately I couldn't make this film because the projected budget was around £32,000($63,000). Which on my pocket money of the time would have taken me 266 years to save up for.

A year later:

Divisions of Men

Synopsis:
Private Jack Simons (Joshua Wilce) is stranded alone behind enemy lines. He must avoid German patrols while still trying to get back home. But when he spares the life of a German Soldier (James Hogarth) his perceptions of the war will be changed forever.

Story behind it:
With a few more years on my age, came realism. I realised that producing my own feature film was impossible. So I set much more realistic targets. This was around the time when Call of Duty 2 came out, I was 14 or 13, I can't remember. Games like CoD2 and Brothers In Arms Hells Highway opened my eyes to the international phenomana that was the Second World War.

Naturally I went out and saw Saving Private Ryan and Band Of Brothers, I immediatly started to think of ways I could make a War film without having to stage D-Day in my back garden. So I came up with the solution, A lone soldier who missed his jump spot, against about 3 Germans. That simply required me and four of my mates. Easy done. So I started writing the script and planning. I told my history teacher about this project, and she was also a film making enthusiast, so she instantly thought, not "Ooh why don't I help you.", but "Ooh we could do a school competition!". There was no prize though, all this competition served to do was give me a deadline. So it took us about a month to film and two weekends to edit. And we got this:

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By the way, the quote at the end is "All wars are civil wars, because all men are brothers." - Francois Fenelon.

French Football Frenzy:

This film I made about a week ago. The school arranged it, since they now know I make films, they want me to make all sorts of things for them. And me and about 20 others went off to the local college to do a month long course on Film Making. And the school loved this, so they bought some cameras and a laptop with Premiere, and now we basically have to make whatever films they tell us to. This was an entry for a Languages film competition "Reasons to learn a language". I'm not going to tell you the story, try and figure it out for yourself.