Thursday, 11 December 2014
Fiction Adaptation Unit- Final Film
Above is my final film which I will be submitting tomorrow. In the end, I decided not to add much colour correction to this film, as to keep with the gritty style I have become accustomed to using in my films.
Something I added also was the plane which flies overhead when Andy hears the bomb begin to drop. Although this is my first time using Adobe After Effects for a film since joining this course, I think I did a pretty good job of animating the plane, and it goes well with the style that that particular segment of the film has.
I have also noticed a few issues with sound, one being that my narration is extremely loud for some reason. When playing the film through speakers, the sound seems okay, but when playing through a set of headphones, some issues arise such as noise issues, and the fact that my voice sometimes drowns out the other audio.
I have enjoyed this unit very much, and I have learnt how difficult it can be trying to interpret the ideas and views of another artist into something new. I have also learnt the importance of more technical aspects, such as using a lighting kit etc in order to improve the quality of my work.
Wednesday, 10 December 2014
Fiction Adaptation Unit- Updated Rough Cut
Today I decided to further edit my rough cut for my adaptation of Anthem for a Doomed Youth. This is the finished result;
I still have a lot to do in terms of fine tuning my work, and I still have to add the aeroplanes that will be bombing the city remains. At the moment though, I am very happy with the way it is looking. You may also notice that it is way below the minimum 3 minutes required for submission. I am not worried about this however, as I still have to enter the introduction which the class has decided on, and I also want to try something else with my credits, as opposed to simply having scrolling text on a black background. I am almost positive that once everything is added that needs to be, my film will be over the 3;00 mark.
I still have a lot to do in terms of fine tuning my work, and I still have to add the aeroplanes that will be bombing the city remains. At the moment though, I am very happy with the way it is looking. You may also notice that it is way below the minimum 3 minutes required for submission. I am not worried about this however, as I still have to enter the introduction which the class has decided on, and I also want to try something else with my credits, as opposed to simply having scrolling text on a black background. I am almost positive that once everything is added that needs to be, my film will be over the 3;00 mark.
Monday, 8 December 2014
Fiction Adaptation Unit- Very Rough Cut
Today after submitting my Digital News Production work, I decided to get to Rochester Library and get straight into my Fiction Adaptation Film editing. The reason for this was that I had my hard drive on me, and I was definitely in a work mood, and so I thought I'd take advantage of this.
Within about an hour I'd produced the following video, which is a very VERY rough cut of what I expect my finished film to look like.
The rough cut video below is very unfinished, and so foley sounds haven't been added yet, my directing can still be heard, and the pacing of certain events haven't been messed with yet. Under the video are some time-codes with a brief explanation of certain points, and some notes.
0:00- The black titles that appear in this film are merely placeholders, which simply make my job easier when it comes to editing in certain clips which I plan to create later. These are pretty much for quick reference.
0:11- I really like this change of focus onto the kettle, and this is mainly because the sound of the kettle will be playing over the top of the action in the final video. This particular shot is just to clarify with the viewer that it is the kettle here that is making the sound. I also like the fact that the transition of focus from Andy to the kettle is very soft and subtle.
0:17- Admittedly, this jump in shot leads to a slight inconsistency. The previous closeup of Andy's eyes shows him looking very nervous and somewhat scared, and in the very next shot Andy looks completely fine as he stands up to walk over to the kitchen bin. This is something I overlooked during the initial filming process, possibly indicating that I need to take more care in future shoots.
0:24- Strange bin placement. Of course, nobody really has a bin in front of their kitchen sink, but I placed this here for technical purposes. The original position of the bin was in a very dark area of the kitchen, and due to the fact that I didn't have a lighting kit to use, I wouldn't have been able to clearly light certain areas of the bin up in future shots. Therefore it was important to put the bin in an area which would have been as light as possible, in this case- directly under a kitchen light. As mentioned in a previous blog, a lighting kit would have been useful, but transporting one of these without a vehicle would have been extremely difficult.
0:30- The subtitles used in this part are purposefully bad quality. I wanted to give the impression of some poorly translated indie film, and that is why I chose this style of writing and coloration
0:34- This part of the film is intentionally quick, as it throws Andy's character into a flashback sequence. I do not particularly like the fact that when I sped up the clip that zooms into Andy's eye, it appeared to be very unstable, but since it is a very quick shot, I am hoping that it won't be as noticeable
0:38- For some reason, when these first 3 photographs of Andy were taken outside, the aspect ratio was different to when all the other photographs were taken. Although this is perfectly fixable with a bit of cropping and resizing and such, it is quite frustrating, especially when I do not know why it happened.
0:47- At this point in the finished film, the sound of gun fire will be heard from over the hill, prompting Andy to react in the way he does.
0:50- I am also thinking about possibly inserting crossfades between each frame of movement, to make the movement of Andy's character softer in sequences such as this where he moves from one area to another. I will experiment with this idea further.
1:13- This shot will be a bit of a reveal of the battle-zone that Andy now finds himself in. I am not particularly fond of having this shot as the reveal shot, as the background is blurred. If I could go back and collect more material and such, I would probably have collected more to allow me to have a long-shot reveal so that all the details of the background could be taken in.
1:17- I am aware of the cloud looking bigger, Originally, I was just hoping that the cloud would look as though it was moving, but instead it just looks really obvious that it is being made bigger.
1:19- At this point in the final film, a plane will fly over Andy. I am thinking about using Adobe After Effects to animate the plane flying overhead, and I haven't gotten around to this point yet, which is why the sky appears blank. I really like the emptiness of the sky also, and I believe that the black and white colour scheme I chose for this section of the film compliments it perfectly.
1:28- This is Andy's reaction to the bombs which will be dropping from the plane. I chose a close-up for this part to really capture his expression. I think Andy did a great job of selling the emotions that his character was going through, which is basically shock and terror.
1:47- At this point in the film, the nuclear bomb that the plane dropped will detonate. The fading to white is supposed to represent the explosion engulfing Andy. If there was some way I could make the fade to white engulf him from the middle outwards, I think this would be a lot more effective, but unfortunately I do not know how to do this. The sound of an explosion will be used over this.
I am also tempted to have the line "Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes" played over this part of the film. The fact that the word "goodbye" is used in that sentence gives it a nice transitional element which makes sense when going to the next scene, which is Andy returning from the flash-forward, effectively "snapping out of it."
2:10- This is a particularly long scene in which Andy dials the number of the recruitment hotline listed on the letter. I am considering speeding this section up using the speed tool in Final Cut. Of course, the problem there is that speeding it up too much will make Andy move unrealistically, which could look ridiculous. I will have to be careful about how I go about this.
2:20- At this point I plan to insert controversial war images very rapidly, which will hopefully get a bit of a scare out of the viewer. This is to bring some life back into the film after the silence and slowness of Andy dialing the phone number. The images I am inserting will probably be found from Google images and so I will have to make sure anything I used is free to use and non-copyrighted.
2:35- I want to end my film with the line "A drawing down of blinds." This to me represents the scene going black, and I thought a pov of the bin lid closing would be a good way to do this.
As you can see from the rough-cut, I still have a very long way to go in terms of getting it completed. Some of the effects I have added at the moment look very cheesy, and although I will keep some of them, I will definitely consider using higher production values and such in my future films. Unfortunately it is a little bit too late to re-shoot anything, and so the graininess that some of the shots have and the darkness is something I will just have to work on.
I have learnt the importance of making sure I have all the equipment I require, and also the importance of shooting something well in advance.
If I take care with these steps in the future, there is nothing stopping me from producing great quality work.
Within about an hour I'd produced the following video, which is a very VERY rough cut of what I expect my finished film to look like.
The rough cut video below is very unfinished, and so foley sounds haven't been added yet, my directing can still be heard, and the pacing of certain events haven't been messed with yet. Under the video are some time-codes with a brief explanation of certain points, and some notes.
0:00- The black titles that appear in this film are merely placeholders, which simply make my job easier when it comes to editing in certain clips which I plan to create later. These are pretty much for quick reference.
0:11- I really like this change of focus onto the kettle, and this is mainly because the sound of the kettle will be playing over the top of the action in the final video. This particular shot is just to clarify with the viewer that it is the kettle here that is making the sound. I also like the fact that the transition of focus from Andy to the kettle is very soft and subtle.
0:17- Admittedly, this jump in shot leads to a slight inconsistency. The previous closeup of Andy's eyes shows him looking very nervous and somewhat scared, and in the very next shot Andy looks completely fine as he stands up to walk over to the kitchen bin. This is something I overlooked during the initial filming process, possibly indicating that I need to take more care in future shoots.
0:24- Strange bin placement. Of course, nobody really has a bin in front of their kitchen sink, but I placed this here for technical purposes. The original position of the bin was in a very dark area of the kitchen, and due to the fact that I didn't have a lighting kit to use, I wouldn't have been able to clearly light certain areas of the bin up in future shots. Therefore it was important to put the bin in an area which would have been as light as possible, in this case- directly under a kitchen light. As mentioned in a previous blog, a lighting kit would have been useful, but transporting one of these without a vehicle would have been extremely difficult.
0:30- The subtitles used in this part are purposefully bad quality. I wanted to give the impression of some poorly translated indie film, and that is why I chose this style of writing and coloration
0:34- This part of the film is intentionally quick, as it throws Andy's character into a flashback sequence. I do not particularly like the fact that when I sped up the clip that zooms into Andy's eye, it appeared to be very unstable, but since it is a very quick shot, I am hoping that it won't be as noticeable
0:38- For some reason, when these first 3 photographs of Andy were taken outside, the aspect ratio was different to when all the other photographs were taken. Although this is perfectly fixable with a bit of cropping and resizing and such, it is quite frustrating, especially when I do not know why it happened.
0:47- At this point in the finished film, the sound of gun fire will be heard from over the hill, prompting Andy to react in the way he does.
0:50- I am also thinking about possibly inserting crossfades between each frame of movement, to make the movement of Andy's character softer in sequences such as this where he moves from one area to another. I will experiment with this idea further.
1:13- This shot will be a bit of a reveal of the battle-zone that Andy now finds himself in. I am not particularly fond of having this shot as the reveal shot, as the background is blurred. If I could go back and collect more material and such, I would probably have collected more to allow me to have a long-shot reveal so that all the details of the background could be taken in.
1:17- I am aware of the cloud looking bigger, Originally, I was just hoping that the cloud would look as though it was moving, but instead it just looks really obvious that it is being made bigger.
1:19- At this point in the final film, a plane will fly over Andy. I am thinking about using Adobe After Effects to animate the plane flying overhead, and I haven't gotten around to this point yet, which is why the sky appears blank. I really like the emptiness of the sky also, and I believe that the black and white colour scheme I chose for this section of the film compliments it perfectly.
1:28- This is Andy's reaction to the bombs which will be dropping from the plane. I chose a close-up for this part to really capture his expression. I think Andy did a great job of selling the emotions that his character was going through, which is basically shock and terror.
1:47- At this point in the film, the nuclear bomb that the plane dropped will detonate. The fading to white is supposed to represent the explosion engulfing Andy. If there was some way I could make the fade to white engulf him from the middle outwards, I think this would be a lot more effective, but unfortunately I do not know how to do this. The sound of an explosion will be used over this.
I am also tempted to have the line "Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes" played over this part of the film. The fact that the word "goodbye" is used in that sentence gives it a nice transitional element which makes sense when going to the next scene, which is Andy returning from the flash-forward, effectively "snapping out of it."
2:10- This is a particularly long scene in which Andy dials the number of the recruitment hotline listed on the letter. I am considering speeding this section up using the speed tool in Final Cut. Of course, the problem there is that speeding it up too much will make Andy move unrealistically, which could look ridiculous. I will have to be careful about how I go about this.
2:20- At this point I plan to insert controversial war images very rapidly, which will hopefully get a bit of a scare out of the viewer. This is to bring some life back into the film after the silence and slowness of Andy dialing the phone number. The images I am inserting will probably be found from Google images and so I will have to make sure anything I used is free to use and non-copyrighted.
2:35- I want to end my film with the line "A drawing down of blinds." This to me represents the scene going black, and I thought a pov of the bin lid closing would be a good way to do this.
As you can see from the rough-cut, I still have a very long way to go in terms of getting it completed. Some of the effects I have added at the moment look very cheesy, and although I will keep some of them, I will definitely consider using higher production values and such in my future films. Unfortunately it is a little bit too late to re-shoot anything, and so the graininess that some of the shots have and the darkness is something I will just have to work on.
I have learnt the importance of making sure I have all the equipment I require, and also the importance of shooting something well in advance.
If I take care with these steps in the future, there is nothing stopping me from producing great quality work.
Sunday, 7 December 2014
Digital News Production- Entire News Piece (Rough Cut) Nearly Finished!
Andrei has been hard at work editing the footage we have filmed together into 2 separate video pieces, the live piece and the package, and then once again into the final news piece. As such he has created a rough cut of the news piece, which is almost finished. It can be seen here:
Personally, I love the way this has turned out. There are one or two things with the video which have been addressed that need fine tuning (such as the fact the transition from my live piece to Ren in the studio has a brief fraction of a second that isn't supposed to be there) and the fact that the sound is abnormal in some areas. This is easily fixable however, and Andrei has stated that he will definitely be able to get these small problems sorted before submission tomorrow.
As an extra thing to add, I also suggested that a "LIVE" watermark be added to my live piece to reinforce the fact that it is a live piece, and also we could possibly add the address of the Youtube channel and other online social networks that we use when Ren asks the viewers to subscribe to the youtube channel for more news.
I believe once these two things are added, and once the audio and wrong frame problems are fixed, our film will be ready to submit.
I believe all the original problems that were found with our rough cut, such as Ren sounding too formal and the branding of our news network not being obvious have been alleviated and as such our news piece looks believable and professional.
I am genuinely pleased with the way this has turned out.
Personally, I love the way this has turned out. There are one or two things with the video which have been addressed that need fine tuning (such as the fact the transition from my live piece to Ren in the studio has a brief fraction of a second that isn't supposed to be there) and the fact that the sound is abnormal in some areas. This is easily fixable however, and Andrei has stated that he will definitely be able to get these small problems sorted before submission tomorrow.
As an extra thing to add, I also suggested that a "LIVE" watermark be added to my live piece to reinforce the fact that it is a live piece, and also we could possibly add the address of the Youtube channel and other online social networks that we use when Ren asks the viewers to subscribe to the youtube channel for more news.
I believe once these two things are added, and once the audio and wrong frame problems are fixed, our film will be ready to submit.
I believe all the original problems that were found with our rough cut, such as Ren sounding too formal and the branding of our news network not being obvious have been alleviated and as such our news piece looks believable and professional.
I am genuinely pleased with the way this has turned out.
Fiction Adaptation Unit- Call Sheet and Shoot information
As mentioned in a previous blog, I have recently completed my Fiction Adaptation Unit film shoot. In this blog I will be discussing how the shoot went and also showcasing the call-sheet which I provided my cast and crew with.
Firstly, I provided my cast and crew with this call sheet several days before the shoot. This would give them plenty of time to familiarize themselves with the contact numbers and locations beforehand, ensuring that they would arrive on time and know the location they would be arriving at.
Having a call sheet is always an essential part of film-making, as it makes us look more professional to actors and crew members as film makers. A small sign of preparation can build faith in film contributors, and they will be much more likely to want to assist in later projects.
When the time came to begin the shoot, I made sure to already have the equipment ready to go. By this I mean, cameras charged, memory cards formatted and all the equipment packed away in easy to transport bags and carriers. This not only made it easier for me to simply get up and go when my cast and crew arrived, but once again made me look like a pro, which is an important trait to have in this industry,
Shooting itself was relatively easy, aside from one thing I hadn't considered. It was absolutely freezing on the day I chose to shoot (which is hardly surprising since it is winter) and the costume my main character was wearing wasn't the warmest of gear. As a result, during shoots Andy had to keep putting his coat on to keep warm.
While this didn't hinder the film in any way, it was a minor inconvenience and quite uncomfortable for him.
During the editing process, I also noticed that the sky was very dull on the day I chose to film. At the time, I thought this would make my film look boring, but I in fact discovered that the dull white sky made editing a lot easier in terms of cropping Andy's image out and inserting him into new landscapes. It was sort of like a makeshift greenscreen, except white.
The indoor shoots however were something I was not very happy with. Tim, who I had as my cameraman was very good at what he did, but unfortunately the lighting of the kitchen in which I chose to film wasn't too great. Although I wanted a dirty, dingy looking environment, (which is a perfect description of the kitchen I used) for technical purposes, the lighting wasn't too great.
Andy appears flat against the background of the kitchen, and in some shots (in particular one from a POV inside a bin as Andy drops a letter into it), you can hardly see Andy's face.
This to me suggests that taking the extra care and effort to take out a lighting kit next time might make my film a whole lot better. I chose not to this time for transport reasons, as I didn't really like the idea of carrying a heavy lighting kit on my back home from the studios in the dark for over an hour. if I had some form of transport, I would have had no problem doing this though.
I am looking forward to the editing process, which I will be beginning this coming week. I am hoping that my story-telling style and the editing I do in conjunction with the shots used will be enough make people appreciate the work I put into this film.
Firstly, I provided my cast and crew with this call sheet several days before the shoot. This would give them plenty of time to familiarize themselves with the contact numbers and locations beforehand, ensuring that they would arrive on time and know the location they would be arriving at.
Having a call sheet is always an essential part of film-making, as it makes us look more professional to actors and crew members as film makers. A small sign of preparation can build faith in film contributors, and they will be much more likely to want to assist in later projects.
When the time came to begin the shoot, I made sure to already have the equipment ready to go. By this I mean, cameras charged, memory cards formatted and all the equipment packed away in easy to transport bags and carriers. This not only made it easier for me to simply get up and go when my cast and crew arrived, but once again made me look like a pro, which is an important trait to have in this industry,
Shooting itself was relatively easy, aside from one thing I hadn't considered. It was absolutely freezing on the day I chose to shoot (which is hardly surprising since it is winter) and the costume my main character was wearing wasn't the warmest of gear. As a result, during shoots Andy had to keep putting his coat on to keep warm.
While this didn't hinder the film in any way, it was a minor inconvenience and quite uncomfortable for him.
During the editing process, I also noticed that the sky was very dull on the day I chose to film. At the time, I thought this would make my film look boring, but I in fact discovered that the dull white sky made editing a lot easier in terms of cropping Andy's image out and inserting him into new landscapes. It was sort of like a makeshift greenscreen, except white.
The indoor shoots however were something I was not very happy with. Tim, who I had as my cameraman was very good at what he did, but unfortunately the lighting of the kitchen in which I chose to film wasn't too great. Although I wanted a dirty, dingy looking environment, (which is a perfect description of the kitchen I used) for technical purposes, the lighting wasn't too great.
Andy appears flat against the background of the kitchen, and in some shots (in particular one from a POV inside a bin as Andy drops a letter into it), you can hardly see Andy's face.
This to me suggests that taking the extra care and effort to take out a lighting kit next time might make my film a whole lot better. I chose not to this time for transport reasons, as I didn't really like the idea of carrying a heavy lighting kit on my back home from the studios in the dark for over an hour. if I had some form of transport, I would have had no problem doing this though.
I am looking forward to the editing process, which I will be beginning this coming week. I am hoping that my story-telling style and the editing I do in conjunction with the shots used will be enough make people appreciate the work I put into this film.
Friday, 5 December 2014
Fiction Adaptation Unit- Editing photographs for film.
Today I have completed the basic edits for the photograph sound piece that will be appearing within my film. This sound piece will be the flash-forward scene of the main character imagining what the experiences of war will be like in Russia.
The photographs that were taken original consisted of my main character (played by Andy) finding himself in the middle of a battlefield. He would climb a small hill before surveying the destroyed remnants of a city. He would then be made aware of a plane flying overhead which drops a nuclear bomb on the city. The blast from the bomb would engulf him which would knock him back into reality and out of the flash-forward. The original photos can be found here:
These photographs were taken by my cameraman Tim. It was a very dull day, and as such the sky appears a grey-ish white colour. This wasn't something I'd counted on when I drew up my original storyboard, but I actually really liked the way it looked. As it turned out, the simple sky as a backdrop made it easier to manipulate the photographs later too.
My favorites of the edited photographs can be found here:
I edited the photos by simply adding a black and white filter and changing the settings until it created a style I liked. I also made sure to use the same settings throughout the editing process so that the correct shades of black and white were consistent throughout.
I then proceeded to crop Andy out of the original photographs and placed him into a background I had photoshopped.
I really like the way this editing process has gone, so much so that I kind of wish I had used this stop-motion photographic style of film making throughout my entire film, as opposed to just the flash-forward sequence. My next step will be to edit the video part of my film, which I plan to do this monday.
The photographs that were taken original consisted of my main character (played by Andy) finding himself in the middle of a battlefield. He would climb a small hill before surveying the destroyed remnants of a city. He would then be made aware of a plane flying overhead which drops a nuclear bomb on the city. The blast from the bomb would engulf him which would knock him back into reality and out of the flash-forward. The original photos can be found here:
My favorites of the edited photographs can be found here:
 |
| Andy's character is startled by the sound of an explosion from over the hill. |
 |
| Andy sees the destroyed city for the first time. |
 |
| Andy hears the sounds of approaching planes |
 |
| As the nuclear bomb is dropped, Andy prepares himself. |
I then proceeded to crop Andy out of the original photographs and placed him into a background I had photoshopped.
I really like the way this editing process has gone, so much so that I kind of wish I had used this stop-motion photographic style of film making throughout my entire film, as opposed to just the flash-forward sequence. My next step will be to edit the video part of my film, which I plan to do this monday.
Thursday, 4 December 2014
Digital News Unit- Investigating sources for essay
Today I went to the library to take a look at some books for my digital news essay, so that I could insert some quotes and further information which I hoped would add some legitimacy to my writing. Unfortunately, the library was closed. Instead I decided to use some e-books and well established websites I found online and use them.
One website in particular that I found useful was; http://www.bbc.co.uk/editorialguidelines/guidelines/
This site makes careful notes on subjects within news that I am interested in, such as editorial values, integrity in news reporting and accountability when acknowledging journalistic errors. Some interesting points I noted was that on that website the BBC makes sure to outline the fact that they aim to be fair in their reporting, and this is something that I may possibly touch on
in my essay. The subject of "how" the two news broadcast networks are fair in their reporting is something that could make for an interesting discussion.
One particular e-book I found very useful was "Television Journalism" by Stephen Cushion. This book was on the essential reading list for this unit, and so I thought it was definitely worth checking out. One chapter of the book I made sure to carefully read was one entitled "The role of news in television culture". I thought this would provide me with the information I needed for my essay, as in one part fairly early in my essay, I want to outline exactly what news is and how it was established, before introducing my two comparative news broadcast networks.
Another course I came across that I think would be very useful for my case study was the Channel 4s statement of promises, which I found on their website here: http://www.channel4.com/about_c4/promises_2001/promises_intro2.html
In particular the part that I am most interested in using is the quote that Channel 4 aims to: “foster the new and experimental in television. It will encourage pluralism, provide a favoured place for the untried and encourage innovation in style content perspective and talent on and off screen”.
I believe this quotes defines Channel 4s identity very well, and I plan to use it to show how their identity differs from the BBC, who seems to very much stick with what is already established in their programming. I plan to highlight how Channel 4s own personal identity may have influenced certain procedures they took in reporting their news.
One website in particular that I found useful was; http://www.bbc.co.uk/editorialguidelines/guidelines/
This site makes careful notes on subjects within news that I am interested in, such as editorial values, integrity in news reporting and accountability when acknowledging journalistic errors. Some interesting points I noted was that on that website the BBC makes sure to outline the fact that they aim to be fair in their reporting, and this is something that I may possibly touch on
in my essay. The subject of "how" the two news broadcast networks are fair in their reporting is something that could make for an interesting discussion.
One particular e-book I found very useful was "Television Journalism" by Stephen Cushion. This book was on the essential reading list for this unit, and so I thought it was definitely worth checking out. One chapter of the book I made sure to carefully read was one entitled "The role of news in television culture". I thought this would provide me with the information I needed for my essay, as in one part fairly early in my essay, I want to outline exactly what news is and how it was established, before introducing my two comparative news broadcast networks.
Another course I came across that I think would be very useful for my case study was the Channel 4s statement of promises, which I found on their website here: http://www.channel4.com/about_c4/promises_2001/promises_intro2.html
In particular the part that I am most interested in using is the quote that Channel 4 aims to: “foster the new and experimental in television. It will encourage pluralism, provide a favoured place for the untried and encourage innovation in style content perspective and talent on and off screen”.
I believe this quotes defines Channel 4s identity very well, and I plan to use it to show how their identity differs from the BBC, who seems to very much stick with what is already established in their programming. I plan to highlight how Channel 4s own personal identity may have influenced certain procedures they took in reporting their news.
Tuesday, 2 December 2014
Fiction Adaptation Unit- Alex Boorman Workshop
Recently I have attended a workshop with a visitor to Maidstone Studios called Alex Boorman. Boorman is a freelance camera operator with a lot of experience in the industry, having been a part of production teams that have worked on many mainstream projects. Therefore his knowledge and experience was something that I thought would be very useful for us to tap into and be around.
In a group of 5, we created a short film based on the emotions of loss and confusion. The story being that the main character (me) had lost signal on my mobile phone, and was confused about why.
I found this experience to be a very valuable one, and I learnt a lot from being able to question Alex Boorman. In class, I made sure to ask him about the more technical side of filming, such as copyright on music used in showreels, and also the law when it comes to filming in public. I am sure this learning experience will be valuable in the future.
In a group of 5, we created a short film based on the emotions of loss and confusion. The story being that the main character (me) had lost signal on my mobile phone, and was confused about why.
I found this experience to be a very valuable one, and I learnt a lot from being able to question Alex Boorman. In class, I made sure to ask him about the more technical side of filming, such as copyright on music used in showreels, and also the law when it comes to filming in public. I am sure this learning experience will be valuable in the future.
Monday, 1 December 2014
Fiction Adaptation Unit- Filming and critique of footage.
Today I collected the footage for my Fiction Adaptation Film. Unfortunately I came across several problems on shooting day, but managed to salvage my project. Although it is nowhere near as good-looking as I originally intended, due to my preparation and ability to think on the spot, I managed to at least collect the footage I wanted which would tell a cohesive story that could hopefully be understood by those watching.
Here is a collection of stills from the footage I took. This footage would be used in the film to symbolize the present day, in which the character suffers with his thoughts of the Army.
 |
| A shot of Andy's character which changes focus from him to the kettle in the background. |
 |
| Andy's character about to dispose of the letter from the Russian Army. |
 |
| Andy snapping into a flash-forward. (Pulling shot.) |
 |
| Macro shot of the kettle switch turned on. |
 |
| Andy moving from one side of the kitchen to the other. |
There are some positives and negatives about the footage I have collected- both personal and technical. The more technical problems I encountered was that the room we were filming in was very dark. At the time I chose my set, I believed the lighting that was already in the room would be sufficient enough- and to the naked eye it is.
However, when it came to actually uploading the footage onto my computer, I noticed severe noise increase due to the darkness. A way in which this could have been combated and avoided would have been if I have acquired a lighting kit.
Having a lighting kit would have allowed me to also separate Andy from the background and make him stand out as a character. In the past when the idea of making a character "stand out" was explained, I didn't really understand what people were talking about. For some reason, whilst reviewing this footage however, something clicked and my first reaction was that a certain kind of lighting set-up could have been used in order to make certain parts of Andy stand out against his dark backgrounds.
However, there is the logistical problems of transporting a lighting kit from the studios to the set, and since this is over an hours journey by bus, with a 20 minute walk, I was quite hesitant about carrying a heavy lighting kit on my back.
Something else I also noticed was that the shot of Andy going into a flash-foward which was a pulling shot- didn't look too great. The reason for this was because it took two pairs of hands to pull the shot off- my own, and my cameraman Tim's. With two sets of hands on the camera, it became quite unsteady, and as a result, the footage looks a little strange.
I will attempt pulling shots such as this one with an actual plate and pulling device in the future to ensure a much safer, consistent movement.
Something I am very pleased with is the way in which the set looks. The run-down look of the kitchen along with the monotone colours and lack of light in certain areas was something I was definitely thinking about when I chose to film there. In editing, I hope to add a colour filter that was make the area look even colder and more uncomfortable, which is the general feeling I am after.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)