So after all that hard work over the past year, we finally have a product that were really proud of. Thanks for a great year Justice Productions!
Sunday, 3 May 2015
Thursday, 30 April 2015
Evaluation Question 4
How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
This year theres been a lot of changes to the way we produce our work. During the summer holidays the Mac's and all the software we use had a complete overhaul leaving us to re-learn how to do certain things that we had only used the old software.
Now more than ever, social media was a big thing for our production process, keeping a blog up to date using Google's blogger software, facebook to communicate with each other and organise the cast members. Social media is being integrated into everyday life more and more, film companies now using things like twitter and tumblr to promote the films and gaining an audience even before the film is released.
The technology that we've previously used to create our product last year, for all parts of the production haven't changed, but that doesn't mean we didn't run into any problems with them!
Wednesday, 29 April 2015
Evaluation Question 3
What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
Over the entirety of creating our final products, we received a lot of feedback about the products and what the next steps are in creating, implementing and finalising things to make sure they are as good as can. And like the products we created, I need as much help getting through this as I can. Even right from the word 'Go' we were receiving feedback, even on our practice 'Litter Documentary' task.
The feedback was generally very positive other than maybe so focusing issues but all in all it's constructive to help us create our film. We then decided we would start to look at how to use the focusing on the camera to our advantage rather than adding focus pulls in for the fun of it.
We then had to do individual film pitch ideas we had come up with over the summer and give ideas and how we would eventually create the film. We also had time for people to ask questions about it and give feedback into what had been pitched to them:
We then had to do individual film pitch ideas we had come up with over the summer and give ideas and how we would eventually create the film. We also had time for people to ask questions about it and give feedback into what had been pitched to them:
The next piece of feedback we received was with our film pitch and what we needed to change about our entail film idea to suit a film better, this was to add the Theory of Equilibrium:
The next lot of film based feedback we received was for the rough cut of the film, where the class could give us feedback and then we would have enough time to go back and re-do certain things if the audience felt like it needed to be changed. And here is the feedback we received from the rough cut:
Picture-In-Picture Target Audience Screen & Feedback Screencast
We then took this feedback and then re-developed our film based on what the audience had said. The differences between the two films side by side may be minor but to make sure that it's suitable for an audience viewing we re-did some things.
We also had the opportunity to get some feedback for our ancillary tasks too, to make sure they were a high standard to get us the marks that we needed to improve our final grades. These are the two original products we made:
And here is the feedback that we received about them too:
We also had the opportunity to get some feedback for our ancillary tasks too, to make sure they were a high standard to get us the marks that we needed to improve our final grades. These are the two original products we made:
 |
| Film Poster |
 |
| Magazine Review |
And here is the feedback that we received about them too:
We then took this feedback for these two products and changed them, the poster more so than the review based upon the feedback given. We changed the image of the poster and re-coloured them to look less photoshopped and revised the back ground to blend with the images more. The film review was mainly just alinement issues that had to be fixed. And here are the final version of theses.
Tuesday, 28 April 2015
Evaluation Question 2
How effective is the combination of your main product and your ancillary texts?
I believe that to truly measure how well the three parts fit well together we wanted to ask an audience would be a good way of judging it, So we showed them our three products and asked for their opinions on them.
The Effectiveness of the Combination of Products
Overall the reaction for our products was highly positive and everyone agreed that they link in together. But as the film makers ourselves our opinions still hold some weight. So here's our version of our thoughts on the three products.
Overall I'm very happy with the film poster and the message it comes across to an audience about the film and what it's about. Here's what we thought about the film and our reasoning about what we did and why we did things a certain way in the film to get the point across.
The Effectiveness of our Main Product
The film review is professional looking and fits in with the house style of Empire magazines style. The actual content of the review it's self reflects the film with it's outline of the plot and an honest review that would potentially promote the film to an audience.
The Effectiveness of our Ancillary Products
The review does it's job as it looks professional and uses the house style of Empire Magazine's 'In Cinema' section making it approachable to readers of the magazine. The positive review will hopefully create a good impression on the readers to come and see the film in cinema's.
The Effectiveness of our Ancillary Products
Film Poster
Whats is the audience and the purpose for this poster?
The audience for our our film poster would be the same broad range target audience as the film of being a wide range of ages and both genders represented in the demographic due to the genre of the film some people for the supernatural element and some for the romance. The poster does focus more on the romance aspect though however. The purpose of the poster is to advertise the film for the audience to come and see it, but still not give too much away about the actual plot of the film.
Was the poster effective?
From the video with the audience, the poster seems effective as they understand what sort of film it will be and the plot of the film. They seem to understand all the elements of the poster and how they work in the film giving away elements which are needed to be viewed by an audience and after watching the film again the see the twist with the films title and how it link to the story.
Magazine Review
What is the audience and the purpose for this review?
The audience as it is not so much of a marketing tool as the poster, the audience would be different and that being the audience for the Empire Magazine, as that is who would read it unless they were a following fan of the film itself. The purpose of a magazine review is to inform and give a secondary opinion about our film thats not connected to ours.
Was the review effective?
The review does it's job as it looks professional and uses the house style of Empire Magazine's 'In Cinema' section making it approachable to readers of the magazine. The positive review will hopefully create a good impression on the readers to come and see the film in cinema's.
Monday, 27 April 2015
Evaluation Question 1
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our film does match up to a few real media products, but the big one as everyone keeps saying is of course the film Twilight due to the genre of our film being a Supernatural Romance. The films story line to its basic point is very similar to ours, and some of the minor details as you will see in this key frame video:
Even if this is a very close comparison to our film, this is a feature film. So we had a look at some short films that fit similar to the story of The Illusion Of Existence. One film I found that conveys a similar plot line to ours, is Bertie Gilbert's Short Film 'Stray Dog'.
If you can't be bothered to sit and watch 13 minuets of indie film with pretty lighting here's a basic summary of the plotline:
A young man called Miles, is madly in love with his girlfriend finds her cheating on him at a party. Miles then becomes as he puts it 'depressed' when in-fact he's just 'really, really sad'. He wants to seek revenge on whoever took his love from him and so he dons a wolf mask, and then, goes back in time.
This film creates tension in the same way as we do, by having lots of close up camera work with long shots to show a characters emotion clearly to the audience. Sound wise, we had music play through the film and created tension by a change in music, in this music is only used in key moments of the film otherwise the sound would be digetic to the scene. The ending of the film is similar to ours in the way that it's open to an audience's interpretation. In this Milo can be seen to yet again, be using his 'Time Machine' even when he'd promised not to, and then cutting back to a reaction shot of him smirking over the situation. Depending on how the film is viewed as a whole, in my opinion he has used it again as he can't keep away from it and might actually attempt to change the past once more for the kick of it. It's really up to you how you interpret these types of endings, like in The Illusion, as Mallory and Alex walk off, it leaves you hanging on what this new person will be like.
Conventions We Challenge/Develop of The Genre
Conventions We Challenge/Develop of The Genre
- There is no obvious romantic link, you don't actually see any romantic connection with the characters. Where as in Twilight there is often romantic scenes between the two.
- When the female character finds out about the male's supernatural ability but ends up with someone else at the end of the film. In Twilight, Bella and Edward are still in a relationship unlike Mallory and Peter in our film.
- We develop the use of a second male more than other films, due to the nature of the equlibrium of the film. In a number of films like Twilight, P.S I Love You the second male character seen just remains a friend to the female lead where as we take it further and see a possible love interest in this respect.
What are some conventions of Short Films? I here you cry, well I made this one earlier:
Conventions We Challenge/Develop of Short Films
- Short films are known for having a low budget for their productions, we develop this by having no budget at all and having to rely on our own funds to create this (in which we had non too because were poor students) having the actors give up their time to do this for us and not really get anything out of it themselves.
- We develop the use of everyday situations with a plot twist in our film as you can clearly see Mallory going through her everyday life with no question about it and performing normal activities like going to work, relaxing and even falling in love like a normal 20 something year old, until she finds out Peter's secret.
Friday, 13 February 2015
Final Cut
We've only gone and done it, after many months of planning and doing we finally have a film that I think the whole group are proud of, and here it is! Have a watch:
Re-Shoots and Re-Edits
After our film got reviewed (butchered) by our peers we decieded to go out and re-shoot some things and add a couple of extra ambient shots in to bring the film together. One of our main tasks we needed to film was the tracking shot in the park scene.
It took a few attempts to finally get it right, but we eventually did it and thankfully the weather was good and we had no shadows from the crew appearing in the shot. We also recorded a few little extras to make the narrative flow more like Mallory and Alex meeting each-other and realise they are meant to be also known as the only time we tell the actors to look at the camera.
It took a few attempts to finally get it right, but we eventually did it and thankfully the weather was good and we had no shadows from the crew appearing in the shot. We also recorded a few little extras to make the narrative flow more like Mallory and Alex meeting each-other and realise they are meant to be also known as the only time we tell the actors to look at the camera.
So after the bit of re-filming we did, we went back into editing and managed to add the new clips in by replacing them. We then started looking at the colouring of some of the clips to make look more similar in lighting and shading to make sure they flow better and our different filming days aren't obvious.
 |
| before |
 |
| after |
Rough Cut Feedback
So after showing the class our rough cut of the film we have some feedback on improvements to make and what they thought about the film. It was recorded for us to look back and this is it:
11:19- 'Lighting change too drastic'
This is an issue with this shot however can easily be rectified with the exposure setting on the editing software to bring the light and shade up within the image to blend it in with the other shots in this sequence.
12:23- 'She puts all her hair up here but in other scenes she doesn't have her hair all up'
We didn't want to show the whole 30 seconds of her putting her hair up and so showed snippets of the morning routine to prevent the viewer from getting bored. This shot only shows half of her hair routine not all of it but she does continue to do her hair in this sequence, we just don't see it. Therefore this shot won't be changed as we don't want to waste time showing a not so important part of her routine.
12:47- 'Some things make sounds others don't.'
We have objects within the film that make make sounds and some haven't got sound effects. This can be solved by creating foley sounds ourselves using the actual props in which the actors use to create the sounds. This is a problem that needs to be solved as we either need all the sounds or no sounds for any of the objects which wouldn't be realistic.
13:15- 'Bit to bright.' (Shot overexposed)
The shot is brighter than all the other shots and so you can't see the actress on screen as well as we could have it. This will be improved by changing the exposure and shade of the image to darken the shot and make the actress visible. This is a little change that can be made but we do agree that the image is too over exposed.
13:56- 'Change in pace of walking.'
Ryma and Kris due to the match on action shot, it looks like they are walking at different speeds rather than it looking like a fluent walk. This can be solved one of two ways. We will either be speeding up or slowing down the clip that is too fast or slow to match the two clip speeds. Our second option will be to re-film the shots in which they walk and keep track of what speed the walk to ensure the pace matches. Also if there is speech over the top of the so it would make the audio out of sync or sound sped up and robotic so we will probably be re-filming it.
14:13- 'Too quick of a shot. One second she's walking then she suddenly stops.'
The cut between these two shots isn't smooth. She suddenly stops walking and turns rather than letting her walk a little. This is partially due to continuity error of cars on the road appearing then disappearing but this will be solved by re filming part of the scene when there are no cars or include them within the scene just to look as if there is busy traffic.
14:17- 'Camera wobbles'
The camera does wobble a little as she walks away and so we will be re-filming this. Due to it being a windy day, the camera wasn't as stable as it needed to be to ensure a static shot. It isn't that noticeable but now it has been pointed out we will need to re film it.
15:05- 'Not sure if it's a different day'
The way in which the days change so that the female meets the male character isn't clear to the audience as it needs a transaction or a mother way of showing that the day has changed. We are either going to address this by adding in transitions between the shots or we can use the soundtrack music to show the development of a relationship each day between the two characters.
16:30- 'Sound too loud for males voice'
Due to having the on location recording kit mic closer to the male, it made the sound a lot louder than the speech by others. This can be solved by turning down the volume in this specific clip to ensure that all of the audio of the actors is smooth and of equal volume to each other.
16:58- 'Crew shadow in shot on cast.'
We did debate about this a lot as we felt that the shadow was from the actor rather than the film crew. However if the audience felt that it looked like a shadow then we wanted to make it clear that there definitely wasn't any evidence of film crew to give them nothing to pick out. So, we will be refilling this tracking shot as a solution.
18:09- 'Shot too long.'
The shot in which Mallory is walking towards the train station is said to be too long. We wanted to show her journey, however it was suggested that we just needed to show her part way to the train station. Therefore on the feedback given we agree that by shortening the clip it will prevent the audience getting bored and the shot being to long and unnecessary.
18:54- 'Shot too bright.'
It was said that the shot was too bright, however others disagreed and said that the light isn't always going to be consistent depending on where you are standing. We are unsure whether to change this however we are considering changing the exposure just to take the light down a little to see if it has a major effect on the way in which the shot looks.
19:27- 'Incude a focus pull down the track'
It was said that it would be nice to include a focus pull to show how empty the track was when Peter appears. However, we didn't agree with this idea much as we had a focus pull as the next shot, as well as their being speaking and not fitting the moment within this scene. Mallory is supposed to be shocked and so the shot changes quickly to see him to show her quick reaction and Peter's sudden appearance.
19:56- 'Suddenly sounds like Ryma is locked in a box'
We don't understand why but for some reason, Ryma suddenly sounds like she is trapped in a box for this particular shot. It was all filmed on the same location so we don't get why the sound changes. We have one of two things we can do. Either manipulate it within final cut or re record her saying the lines in the same environment again.
20:13- 'Sound a little out of sync.'
Some of the talking is a little out of sync when one of the actors talks it doesn't quite fit their lips. This can be solved by a little shuffle of the sound audio along the timeline to sync with the actors speech.
20:47- 'Needs an establishing shot.'
There isn't really a shot that leads the audience into the new setting and so with an establishing shot, we can show the audience where the actress is before showing her actions. That or we will move the fire shot to the beginning of this scene to show she is in a homely environment.
21:41- 'Crew members talking on top of the shot'
There is some of taking from the crew member giving directions to the actors. The sound hadn't been cut in time to miss this out and so will be rectified by cutting the speaking not needed off the beginning.
22:21- 'Other keys don't make a sound but the enter key does.
The keys on the keyboard don't make a sound other than the enter key which is rather loud so that needs turning down. This is the same as previous points and so can be rectified by adding in the foley sounds of her typing.
24:03- 'Sorry, What was that?! Sound too loud!'
For some reason this sound was much louder than the first alarm even though it was copied across so this needs turning down as we managed to deafen the audience! We needed them to hear our film really...
24:24- 'Music too happy after finding out the bloke she liked is dead.'
The music is a little jolly considering yesterday she found out the man she was starting to like isn't real... so we need to either change the music round so that the sad music is at the end and the happy at the beginning or find new and varied music for the shots and scenes. This will be depending on their emotions within the scene so we will probably be getting a new set of music to vary the film and its emotions.
26:00- 'Shots too long for a repeat sequence.'
This sequence began the film and so the audience don't really need to see it in full again. We will be shortening the clips as suggested to ensure that the audience can just glance through and see that she does the same thing every morning.
26:54- 'Need a shot before they meet'
There isn't really a smooth transaction between Mallory and the new male Alex. So we really need to shoot another shot to fill this gap within the sequence to show that she is going through the same routine again before she meets the new male.
27:29- ' Sound a little out.'
The sound again is a little out of sync with he actors speech which again can be solved by moving the audio along the timeline until synced in final cut.
27:38- 'More intimate shot, eye shot.'
It was suggested that we have a shot of the two new lovers gazing into their eyes to show that they like each other. This is another shot that needs adding to the film to show the relationship building between the two character to match the music that will accompany it.
28:00- 'Walking off into the distance shot over credits'
Another good suggestion was to have the male and the female characters walk off into the distance after meeting, having a conversation and looking as if it was the start of a relationship for Mallory. This would be under the credits to show the two walking off into the distance and that as one thing ends another begins (deep stuff).
Evaluation
Overall, the feedback was good and we did get a lot of positives come back from our film. We will now send it back to the editing suite and create our final version of the product. The thing we need to work on the most is the sound, that we will re-record and over dub to the original footage. We've also been thinking about changing the soundtrack too and hopefully it will make the narrative much clearer to the audience. Here's a little video we put together about our opinions on our film:
This was also the criteria we were marked on by and given a level rating for:
So after watching our film twice through we got a list of feedback and things we need to improve on. Here i've listed what was said through the video and our feedback:
10:47- 'Alarm came in too early'
We disagree with this completely. The Alarm is perfectly timed so that it goes off the moment it turns 7. The only reasoning for this comment we can think is if the board was lagging in which it was presented on but this will not be changed as it is timed perfectly for when the clock changes.
10:54- 'Not an appropriate sound for turning off an alarm'
We agree with this as it does sound more like she has just punched someone rather than her turning off an alarm which wasn't exactly what we were going for. So this will be changed. We thought it might work if we turned it down but realistically we will be searching on online royalty free sites for the right sound as apple loops don't have any that are appropriate as you can see. 11:19- 'Lighting change too drastic'
This is an issue with this shot however can easily be rectified with the exposure setting on the editing software to bring the light and shade up within the image to blend it in with the other shots in this sequence.
12:23- 'She puts all her hair up here but in other scenes she doesn't have her hair all up'
We didn't want to show the whole 30 seconds of her putting her hair up and so showed snippets of the morning routine to prevent the viewer from getting bored. This shot only shows half of her hair routine not all of it but she does continue to do her hair in this sequence, we just don't see it. Therefore this shot won't be changed as we don't want to waste time showing a not so important part of her routine.
12:47- 'Some things make sounds others don't.'
We have objects within the film that make make sounds and some haven't got sound effects. This can be solved by creating foley sounds ourselves using the actual props in which the actors use to create the sounds. This is a problem that needs to be solved as we either need all the sounds or no sounds for any of the objects which wouldn't be realistic.
13:15- 'Bit to bright.' (Shot overexposed)
The shot is brighter than all the other shots and so you can't see the actress on screen as well as we could have it. This will be improved by changing the exposure and shade of the image to darken the shot and make the actress visible. This is a little change that can be made but we do agree that the image is too over exposed.
13:56- 'Change in pace of walking.'
Ryma and Kris due to the match on action shot, it looks like they are walking at different speeds rather than it looking like a fluent walk. This can be solved one of two ways. We will either be speeding up or slowing down the clip that is too fast or slow to match the two clip speeds. Our second option will be to re-film the shots in which they walk and keep track of what speed the walk to ensure the pace matches. Also if there is speech over the top of the so it would make the audio out of sync or sound sped up and robotic so we will probably be re-filming it.
14:13- 'Too quick of a shot. One second she's walking then she suddenly stops.'
The cut between these two shots isn't smooth. She suddenly stops walking and turns rather than letting her walk a little. This is partially due to continuity error of cars on the road appearing then disappearing but this will be solved by re filming part of the scene when there are no cars or include them within the scene just to look as if there is busy traffic.
14:17- 'Camera wobbles'
The camera does wobble a little as she walks away and so we will be re-filming this. Due to it being a windy day, the camera wasn't as stable as it needed to be to ensure a static shot. It isn't that noticeable but now it has been pointed out we will need to re film it.
15:05- 'Not sure if it's a different day'
The way in which the days change so that the female meets the male character isn't clear to the audience as it needs a transaction or a mother way of showing that the day has changed. We are either going to address this by adding in transitions between the shots or we can use the soundtrack music to show the development of a relationship each day between the two characters.
16:30- 'Sound too loud for males voice'
Due to having the on location recording kit mic closer to the male, it made the sound a lot louder than the speech by others. This can be solved by turning down the volume in this specific clip to ensure that all of the audio of the actors is smooth and of equal volume to each other.
16:58- 'Crew shadow in shot on cast.'
We did debate about this a lot as we felt that the shadow was from the actor rather than the film crew. However if the audience felt that it looked like a shadow then we wanted to make it clear that there definitely wasn't any evidence of film crew to give them nothing to pick out. So, we will be refilling this tracking shot as a solution.
18:09- 'Shot too long.'
The shot in which Mallory is walking towards the train station is said to be too long. We wanted to show her journey, however it was suggested that we just needed to show her part way to the train station. Therefore on the feedback given we agree that by shortening the clip it will prevent the audience getting bored and the shot being to long and unnecessary.
18:54- 'Shot too bright.'
It was said that the shot was too bright, however others disagreed and said that the light isn't always going to be consistent depending on where you are standing. We are unsure whether to change this however we are considering changing the exposure just to take the light down a little to see if it has a major effect on the way in which the shot looks.
19:27- 'Incude a focus pull down the track'
It was said that it would be nice to include a focus pull to show how empty the track was when Peter appears. However, we didn't agree with this idea much as we had a focus pull as the next shot, as well as their being speaking and not fitting the moment within this scene. Mallory is supposed to be shocked and so the shot changes quickly to see him to show her quick reaction and Peter's sudden appearance.
19:56- 'Suddenly sounds like Ryma is locked in a box'
We don't understand why but for some reason, Ryma suddenly sounds like she is trapped in a box for this particular shot. It was all filmed on the same location so we don't get why the sound changes. We have one of two things we can do. Either manipulate it within final cut or re record her saying the lines in the same environment again.
20:13- 'Sound a little out of sync.'
Some of the talking is a little out of sync when one of the actors talks it doesn't quite fit their lips. This can be solved by a little shuffle of the sound audio along the timeline to sync with the actors speech.
20:47- 'Needs an establishing shot.'
There isn't really a shot that leads the audience into the new setting and so with an establishing shot, we can show the audience where the actress is before showing her actions. That or we will move the fire shot to the beginning of this scene to show she is in a homely environment.
21:41- 'Crew members talking on top of the shot'
There is some of taking from the crew member giving directions to the actors. The sound hadn't been cut in time to miss this out and so will be rectified by cutting the speaking not needed off the beginning.
22:21- 'Other keys don't make a sound but the enter key does.
The keys on the keyboard don't make a sound other than the enter key which is rather loud so that needs turning down. This is the same as previous points and so can be rectified by adding in the foley sounds of her typing.
24:03- 'Sorry, What was that?! Sound too loud!'
For some reason this sound was much louder than the first alarm even though it was copied across so this needs turning down as we managed to deafen the audience! We needed them to hear our film really...
24:24- 'Music too happy after finding out the bloke she liked is dead.'
The music is a little jolly considering yesterday she found out the man she was starting to like isn't real... so we need to either change the music round so that the sad music is at the end and the happy at the beginning or find new and varied music for the shots and scenes. This will be depending on their emotions within the scene so we will probably be getting a new set of music to vary the film and its emotions.
26:00- 'Shots too long for a repeat sequence.'
This sequence began the film and so the audience don't really need to see it in full again. We will be shortening the clips as suggested to ensure that the audience can just glance through and see that she does the same thing every morning.
26:54- 'Need a shot before they meet'
There isn't really a smooth transaction between Mallory and the new male Alex. So we really need to shoot another shot to fill this gap within the sequence to show that she is going through the same routine again before she meets the new male.
27:29- ' Sound a little out.'
The sound again is a little out of sync with he actors speech which again can be solved by moving the audio along the timeline until synced in final cut.
27:38- 'More intimate shot, eye shot.'
It was suggested that we have a shot of the two new lovers gazing into their eyes to show that they like each other. This is another shot that needs adding to the film to show the relationship building between the two character to match the music that will accompany it.
28:00- 'Walking off into the distance shot over credits'
Another good suggestion was to have the male and the female characters walk off into the distance after meeting, having a conversation and looking as if it was the start of a relationship for Mallory. This would be under the credits to show the two walking off into the distance and that as one thing ends another begins (deep stuff).
Evaluation
Overall, the feedback was good and we did get a lot of positives come back from our film. We will now send it back to the editing suite and create our final version of the product. The thing we need to work on the most is the sound, that we will re-record and over dub to the original footage. We've also been thinking about changing the soundtrack too and hopefully it will make the narrative much clearer to the audience. Here's a little video we put together about our opinions on our film:
Wednesday, 11 February 2015
The Illusion Of Existence Rough Cut
So I guess here we are, we know that rough cuts are never perfect and there is a lot of improvement to be made. But we're all in all still very proud of our work, so here it is.
Tuesday, 10 February 2015
Editing The Footage
Editing the footage is a long, strenuous, tiring task that takes the most time to do. Staying after school for days on end to get a film done and a lot of money spent in Esso to keep us going for hours. Editing is not just about putting clips together and leaving it at that, its everything else too from soundtrack, colouring, visual/sound balance etc. Here's some things we've done to edit the film as well as cutting and placing clips:
Here is where we expand the video/audio clips to make sure the balance between the two is right, and the syncing of the sound with the clip.
This is where we began to blend the audios of different tracks together to make the sound more fluent and flowing. Making the sound quality better over all and not jumpy.Editing was a bit different this year as we had to edit both the footage and sound on the same software, where as last year we used Soundtrack Pro to make the soundtracks and the implemented them back into Final Cut. In a way, this year was easier as we could edit sound as we went along rather than having to edit the entire film and then the soundtrack to put them back together. So the editing did go alot more fluently that what we expected it to be like.
Monday, 9 February 2015
Filming On Location - Day 4 (19th December)
On the 13th December we filmed scene 3 which was the scene where Mallory meets Peter in the park. Overall the filming went well, however there were one or two minor problems as there always is when filming. I will detail these later in the post.
After meeting at Charlotte's house, (which was closest to the location and therefore an ideal meeting point) between the crew and the cast we managed to carry all the equipment to our location. Upon arriving we set up the camera and tripod and adjusted the framing and focus for the park bench shot. We then recapped with the cast their lines and actions as well as crew and equipment movements. Just before we were ready to shoot we realised that Mallory, played by Ryma was missing her hair bobble. This was the first of two minor problems we stumbled upon however it was an easy mistake to make and nobodies fault as we had checked and doubled checked everything else. Whilst Charlotte had the task of running back for the bobble, myself and Tom set up the tracking kit ready for the later shots as this would take some time to construct the track. Lucy shot some B-roll footage, and then we finished up by having another run through with the cast. By which time Charlotte had returned so we made use of the time we had.
The rest of the filming went well. We managed to record some really good footage, as well as clear sound from the location recording kit. Despite it being the middle of winter and quite a windy day, no one suffered to badly and fortunately the wind was not picked up on the location recording kit. After a few attempts, we managed to film a good tracking shot with Peter (Kris) and Mallory walking towards the camera whilst the camera moved back with them. The second minor problem was when we were showing Peter walking away into the distance. For the sake of continuity, we had to wait for the path to empty so that we didn't have a passer by in one shot but then not the other. Therefore we had to wait a while before we could shoot that particular shot. Once we had got that out the way we packed up and headed back to drop off the equipment.
Overall I think the filming went really well. There were only two slight problems that were quickly overcome and we got all the shots we planned to film without difficulty. The location wasn't too difficult to get to or from and since there wasn't that much equipment to take, we did not struggle to carry all of it. Also the weather stayed consistent throughout the day so the lighting in our shots was not affected.
After meeting at Charlotte's house, (which was closest to the location and therefore an ideal meeting point) between the crew and the cast we managed to carry all the equipment to our location. Upon arriving we set up the camera and tripod and adjusted the framing and focus for the park bench shot. We then recapped with the cast their lines and actions as well as crew and equipment movements. Just before we were ready to shoot we realised that Mallory, played by Ryma was missing her hair bobble. This was the first of two minor problems we stumbled upon however it was an easy mistake to make and nobodies fault as we had checked and doubled checked everything else. Whilst Charlotte had the task of running back for the bobble, myself and Tom set up the tracking kit ready for the later shots as this would take some time to construct the track. Lucy shot some B-roll footage, and then we finished up by having another run through with the cast. By which time Charlotte had returned so we made use of the time we had.
The rest of the filming went well. We managed to record some really good footage, as well as clear sound from the location recording kit. Despite it being the middle of winter and quite a windy day, no one suffered to badly and fortunately the wind was not picked up on the location recording kit. After a few attempts, we managed to film a good tracking shot with Peter (Kris) and Mallory walking towards the camera whilst the camera moved back with them. The second minor problem was when we were showing Peter walking away into the distance. For the sake of continuity, we had to wait for the path to empty so that we didn't have a passer by in one shot but then not the other. Therefore we had to wait a while before we could shoot that particular shot. Once we had got that out the way we packed up and headed back to drop off the equipment.
Overall I think the filming went really well. There were only two slight problems that were quickly overcome and we got all the shots we planned to film without difficulty. The location wasn't too difficult to get to or from and since there wasn't that much equipment to take, we did not struggle to carry all of it. Also the weather stayed consistent throughout the day so the lighting in our shots was not affected.
Filming On Location - Day 3 (13th December)
Location: Strawberry Lane
Scenes: 2 and 7
This day was dedicated to filming when Mallory meets her two 'love interests' throughout the story, so all actors were present on set on this very cold day.
We began filming with just Ryma and Kris as we didn't need Alex until later. We briefed each actor on what they had to do in each bit of the scene and also let them improvise a bit due to there acting skill with the way they say there lines and perform things. While recording the scenes we used the Location Recording Kit to record the dialogue but due to the whether and location of the set it became a bit of a struggle to get a clear, crisp sound.
Both scenes we had to keep refilming shots several times due to traffic and walkers coming along onto the set and the light did keep changing as the sun began to set, however we still managed to film everything we needed to and got footage that we wanted to initially get
Scenes: 2 and 7
This day was dedicated to filming when Mallory meets her two 'love interests' throughout the story, so all actors were present on set on this very cold day.
We began filming with just Ryma and Kris as we didn't need Alex until later. We briefed each actor on what they had to do in each bit of the scene and also let them improvise a bit due to there acting skill with the way they say there lines and perform things. While recording the scenes we used the Location Recording Kit to record the dialogue but due to the whether and location of the set it became a bit of a struggle to get a clear, crisp sound.
Both scenes we had to keep refilming shots several times due to traffic and walkers coming along onto the set and the light did keep changing as the sun began to set, however we still managed to film everything we needed to and got footage that we wanted to initially get
Evaluation
The filming day was good overall just the location as we realised was a little un-ideal with the amount of Saturday traffic, cold weather and people seemed to be constantly walking dogs and even a couple of horses. That was a strange one. We lost some time too walking to the location due to some complications.
We still got all the shots we needed, and they looked good despite the actors nearly dying of hypothermia everyone did great. Alex who had rarely acted before did a great job and really impresses all of us! All together the footage was good quality and well framed. Hopefully this will look good for the editing.
We still got all the shots we needed, and they looked good despite the actors nearly dying of hypothermia everyone did great. Alex who had rarely acted before did a great job and really impresses all of us! All together the footage was good quality and well framed. Hopefully this will look good for the editing.
Monday, 26 January 2015
Filming On Location - Day 1 (5th December)
Location: Chestnut Drive
Scenes: 1, 5 and 6
So we finally started filming, for our first session we decided to film our inside location due to the weather being rather rainy and too dull for filming. So we filmed scenes 1, 5 and 6 which are set in the different rooms of Mallory's house.
We started with some of the easier shots to film like Ryma (Who plays Mallory) putting the kettle on, pouring Tea and making her toast. We then made our way through the house, basically and filmed scene 5 where she finds out that Peter is actually dead and doesn't exist. We ran through the script and movements with Ryma before we filmed her performing. We made sure everything was focused properly and we used the Location Recording Kit to record the dialogue as the the sound feed from the camera itself isn't the best quality.
We then moved upstairs to film the two versions of Mallory's morning routines, we will re-use some of the shots in both like her waking up and opening cupboards etc the only things that really need to be changed are the shots where you see what clothes she's wearing Maroon or Blue dress and when she's styling her hair. We practiced the movements Ryma was going to do directing her on how we want her to look through the sequence and then filmed it and repeated it several times from different angles to see what would look the best. We all think that the footage looks good quality and well framed and focused so fingers crossed it's good enough to edit.
Scenes: 1, 5 and 6
So we finally started filming, for our first session we decided to film our inside location due to the weather being rather rainy and too dull for filming. So we filmed scenes 1, 5 and 6 which are set in the different rooms of Mallory's house.
We started with some of the easier shots to film like Ryma (Who plays Mallory) putting the kettle on, pouring Tea and making her toast. We then made our way through the house, basically and filmed scene 5 where she finds out that Peter is actually dead and doesn't exist. We ran through the script and movements with Ryma before we filmed her performing. We made sure everything was focused properly and we used the Location Recording Kit to record the dialogue as the the sound feed from the camera itself isn't the best quality.
We then moved upstairs to film the two versions of Mallory's morning routines, we will re-use some of the shots in both like her waking up and opening cupboards etc the only things that really need to be changed are the shots where you see what clothes she's wearing Maroon or Blue dress and when she's styling her hair. We practiced the movements Ryma was going to do directing her on how we want her to look through the sequence and then filmed it and repeated it several times from different angles to see what would look the best. We all think that the footage looks good quality and well framed and focused so fingers crossed it's good enough to edit.
Evaluation
Overall the session went great and we got everything we needed to film done to what we believe was a high, good quality standard with accurate focus and framing of the shots with little or no continuity errors. Ryma filled her role really well and suited the characters attitude to life perfectly. Hopefully the rest of the filming days goes as well as this one did and the footage is good ready for editing into the film.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)