Austen On Campus

Upon telling anyone that I’ve just signed on to film an updated vlog adaption of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility called Elinor and Marianne Take Barton, with a projected run of 27 episodes, the two most common responses I’ve received are “Vlog? What on earth is a vlog?” and “Are you insane? How are you going to film 27 episodes before summer? What about your exams!” The answers to these questions are pretty simple.

A vlog is a shortening of video-blog, otherwise known as a video diary. The character of Marianne, redesigned as a naïve, enthusiastic university fresher (Bonita Trigg), decides to document her first year of university using her web-camera, convincing her introverted sister Elinor (Abi Davies) to help out. Unlike a majority of student films, most episodes are filmed with a static camera, meaning that several episodes can be filmed on each shoot. As a director, this makes life really easy – we use also an interior set, hence avoiding problems like bad weather and stray pedestrians who want to get on camera. Sense and Sensibility itself has been a great story to adapt and rediscovering these characters in a contemporary environment has forced us to re-evaluate their motivations. Ultimately though, the themes and messages remain very similar – Austen’s text is about growing up, so what place could be better to use in an adaption than a university?

Filming at university is challenging but completely possible. A tip: both IATL and the English department are good places to start if you need to hire out some free tech, although some heavy-duty organisation may be necessary. This project is independent of WTV, but they also provide a lot of technical support to budding film-makers. Casting is always a big issue but Facebook is your best friend in this regard – create an audition page and paste it on every relevant group and page you can find. People may hate you, but it gets the job done and you’ll have your cast on set in no time.

We’ve got four episodes in the can, with several more scheduled towards the end of term. It’s been a lot of fun, and a whole lot more relaxed than student theatre, probably due to the frequent breaks for catch-ups, cookies and croissants. A lot of early mornings are needed too – ironically I wake up earlier for shooting than I ever do for my actual course – but those daylight hours are really worth catching. Film projects need a whole lot of time, effort and organisation, but the experiences you’ll get from being on a film set are definitely worth the input.

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