Research
Title Sequences
The titles and introductory sequences to films and shows are incredibly important for both hooking the viewer and also explaining the world, characters, plot etc. to the viewer
A good opening sequence I looked at as research was the opening to Ridley Scott's Blade Runner
One key thing I was looking for in the opening was how it conveys it's genre and themes of the film in the way it presents itself
It's immediately clear from the first shots that this film is set in a retro dystopian future.
The first shot is one of a cities skyline showing tall dark shadowy towers with bright blue lights.
.jpeg)
This shot gives you a huge sense of scale and really paints the picture of how the world has had to change due to population and technological growth.
.jpeg)
In this building there's a high class man, this shows the dystopean future trope that the high class are literally higher up and live on the top in the clouds (the top floor is helecopter level)
Other examples of the technology and dark lighting
.jpeg)
.jpeg)
.jpeg)
Blue lights are often seen to represent technology in dystopean futures the same is seen in this movie
On top of this I looked at more movies and what their opening shows about the movie and it's affect on the film
The Batman
When looking at this I was looking at how they depict the character of Batman and show this new Gotham.
This specific version is very to the point, there isn't need for his backstory because everyone already knows it so when creating the film they could jump straight to batman being this big threat. The dark atmosphere paired with the rain gives you a sense of unease, a feeling you can also see in the people doing crimes. The second they see the Bat-Symbol in the sky, their demeanour immediately changes and they become filled with fear. It almost feels like it's a horror film with a flipped perspective, our protagonist and the person we should be rooting for is the person that's hunting down these people, hiding in the shadows and installing fear in everyone.
Almost all of this film is set in the rain as an easy way to set the scene and atmosphere
There will be blood
.jpg)
.jpg)
The film starts off with a 5 minute scene of a miner mining, no dialogue, minimal music. The scene manages to tell a story only using visuals. Straight away the movie appears to be a western due to its clear setting. The journey of the character is expansive enough to be its own short film, there is a complete story being told in this opening five minutes with a start, middle and end. Daniel Day-Lewis was used for this scene which when you take into account that they have no dialouge its' strange that such a huge actor was used. When in the mine the shots are really close up and almost uncomfortable, creating a chlostrophobic feeling.
.jpg)
The royal tenenbaums
The opening of the royal tenenbaums explains all of the characters and a story or two by using a narrator. All of these stories and moments could be their own short films, and explain a lot about the family. It's clear from the way the characters and sets look, paired with the exagerated characteristics of everyone that this is meant to be a comedy.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
Presenting a scene to an Audience
There are a lot of ways to subtly show an audience scenes how they should be feeling/what they should be looking at
Band of Brothers: Bastogne (ep.6)
In the opening to the episode the camera is in the fore-ground looking showing the fog. Our protagonist appears from behind the fog and the camera appears to be looking for something to focus on. The protagonist appears from behind the fog and the camera starts to track parallel to them as they walk through this landscape. With this track shot we are being brought into the protagonists story and starting to follow them.
Introduction to short film
As a homework task I had to make 4 shots setting up a narrative for a possible short film
For my 4 shots I wanted to make something funny as it's own thing, but if made a narrative could become more serious and have more to it.
I really like the humour of one person playing two people and I think that it worked quite well especially when I was chasing myself. People seemed to think it was funny so I'm happy that it landed. The pacing is quite rushed and I think if a few shots where left to sit for a bit longer it would have a lot more impact
I really liked this narrative made by Carlos. The narrative being shown is that Carlos is bored and looking for something to do. I really like the simplicity of the piece.
There is a french narration over the top of it which I think adds to the abnormality of the peice. The ending is oddly calming and sombre. The act of counting stars and the quietness of the night sky could spur a lot of thoughts on a viewer. I think ending on this is quite powerful and helps give a question of something deeper
Mise-en-Scene
Mise-en-scene is the specific way a shot is designed with the all of the directors intentions in mind
When looking at Mise-en-scene there are multiple elements that the director thinks about and writes into their scripts
All scenes have most of these in mind
A good scene for looking at Mise-en-scene is in the build up to room 237 in the shining (Stanley Kubrick)
One of the first thing that comes to mind is the design of the carpet which falls under the Mise-en-scene of Set Design
The design of the carpet aligns with Danny's placement making it look that Danny is trapped in a maze fitting with the theme of the shining.
The props in the scene are the toy trucks and cars Danny is playing with. The sound design has ominous music obviously due to the horror genre but there's also the noise of danny playing with his trucks, the contrast
between the sounds play a big part in making the viewer uncomfortable. The scene is really well lit which clearly subverts the usual lighting style that you'd expect out of a horror movie being dark, dreary and obscured. Everything in the shot can be seen nothings being hidden from you giving the viewer a false sense of security and yet an alert and alarmed feeling.
All of those design elements make the scene as nerve racking and tense is it is. The subversion of genre, the juxtaposing sounds and the subtle design of the carpet all add up in a viewers head making them not only uncomfortable but it starts to mess with the viewer on a psychological level.
Mise-en-Scene practice
In order to get our own practise with learning Mise-en-scene we got the script from the very first scene of Punch Love Drunk and, without watching it, had to design the scene how we thought it would look
When designing my take on the scene there were a few things that sparked ideas in my head for its design
INT. WAREHOUSE - EARLY MORNING
CAMERA (STEADICAM) holds on a man in a suit, sitting behind
a desk, on the phone: BARRY EGAN (Adam Sandler)
The first design element I started to think about was the desk that the protagonist is sitting at. I think that the desk would be a cheap desk more table-like. I got this from the fact that it's set in a warehouse which says to me that it's a little scuffed we're told who plays the character, Adam Sandler's past roles also makes me think that things are scuffed. I think the desk is quite messy with stacks of paper and a small landline phone. I think that the protagonist would be sitting on a small black office chair and be playing with the wire whilst talking
He hangs up the phone and walks through his warehouse. It's
fairly non-descript place, boxing materials, etc. Products
seem to be mainly silly novelties (pens that light up, key
chains, novelty toilet plungers, etc)
The warehouse sells goods so I think that some of these should also be on the desk
When Barry gets up and starts walking I pictured him walking away from his desk which is placed in the back corner of his warehouse through boxes of merchandise, past workers all filling cardboard boxes with goods
For the sound design you would only hear Barry and the phone operator talking until the tires screeching and screaming
OC DISTANT SOUND OF A CAR SKIDDING TO A STOP, SOME VAGUE,
DISTANT SCREAMING IS HEARD...THEN SILENCE. Barry hears this,
gets distracted, then back to the phone call;
When Barry puts the phone down you would start to hear noise of workers talking fade in
I think the suit Barry would be wearing would be blue with rolled up sleeves to his elbows. This is to show he's wearing a suit because it looks professional but it's rolled up showing he's not really as professional as you'd think by seeing a suit
Actual Scene
It turns out I was completely wrong and couldn't have been further from the actual scene. I like my one more honestly. Sometimes less is more and the actual scene definitely proves that by having very little actually on screen but manages to tell you the scale and status of Barry's business. The actual scene may be objectively better but I still like mine
Colour theory
Colour plays a big part in Mise-en-Scene and understanding colour theory helps to manipulate the way an audience feels and thinks
Different colours all have different corresponding feelings and emotions that relate to them
Red
Red is one of the most powerful colours. Red is associated with anger, hatred and violence. Red is used in the promotional material for the batman showing this hatred and anger that scars the batman and made him who he is.
Orange
Orange is a warm and energetic colour which can have connotations of both humour and confusion, but also warning and caution. In Mad Max Fury Road orange is used to show the heat of the desert. Due to the movies setting this is the main colour used throughout the entirety of the film.
Yellow
Yellow is a bright colour which is mostly linked towards happiness and relaxation. However it can also be quite an anxious colour. The backrooms is a popular online horror series that uses exclusively yellow for it's surroundings. The yellow is all slightly off and helps to create unease and discomfort
Green
Green has links with disgust and unease but also life, hope and potential. The film gravity is set in a space shuttle so the colour pallet for the most part is a bland, manufactured white. At the end of the film when the protagonist get's back to earth, the screen is filled with the green of the grass finally bringing some real life into the film and this characters life.
Blue
Blue is an incredibly calming and wonderous colour. Blue usually represents pureness and good will. Good characters are usually represented with blue; Children, Heroes etc.
Purple
Purple has always been a rare colour reserved for monarchy and special occasions. It's rarity gives it a sense of mystery when it's used in film. Despite a regal nature purple is also quite a seductive and sultry colour.
Pink
Pink usually shows a more safe sense of love compared to red and purple's passion. Pink is an incredibly safe colour like blue and once again shows more purity and innocence.
40 Second scene
After making our 20 second scenes we had to make ones double the length
I was struggling to think of an idea for the piece and my FMP as a whole so decided to use that as a basis for my scene
For this piece I payed close attention to my use of colour design for my set
The plushes on the bed change from light colours (blues, whites, greens) to red which paired with the red lighting shows focus
The jumper in the back also changes from blue to red however it's not incredibly easy to see due to the lighting being much darker
The shots where I'm watching the movie could have been more focused and zoomed in however my phone's back camera doesn't work and you can't zoom in with the front camera in videos so I was dealt a bad hand I guess
Aside from that I also think that there should be just a bit more lighting on the right side of the compisition
Another problem with recording with the front camera is that certain shots become awkward to film do to positioning and not being able to actually see what I'm filming.
Certain shot like this on the left where recorded quite unsteady and shaky due to me being positioned under the shot so I'm holding the camera above me whilst I'm on my knees. The shakiness could have been avoided if I used a tripod and then whilst in the same position as I was I'd be able to see the footage with a steady camera
UK film industry
The UK has an incredibly strong film industry with a large variety of pull factors for many film producers
Tax relief
•For british qualifying films the production company can claim a rebate of up to 25% on UK qualifying spending funds
•Despite the relief having a cap of 80% expenditure, there is no limit on the films budget or the amount.
•A film qualifies as a british film if it passes the cultural test with a minimum of 18 out of 35. Content,Contribution,hubs,practitioners.
Locations
•The UK has a large variety of different locations all with fairly easy access to get to and film in.
•The different places can all fit different scenes, moments and genres.
Red Tape
•Red Tape in the film industry is the set of laws in a country or are that prevent certain action in productions.
•In the UK our Red Tape for filming is a lot less strict than in other countries
Studios
•There are a lot of big studios in the country
especially around London
•All of these studios have easy access to with multiple airports/domestic airports and train stations nearby.
•Almost all of the studios have a stages above 15,000 sq. ft
VFX & Post production
•The UK has the largest amount of VFX and Post Production talent in the world – British Film Commission
•There are a lot of different studios all around the UK (again more around the UK)
Ideas
Creating a Character
Genre: Dystopian future
Name: Atlus
Age:19
Siblings: no current family
Occupation: Menial labour
Education: Minimal education (picked up most of their information just by existing)
Despite his hardships and how poor life is Atlus is nothing but happy and sees only good in the world he grew up in, despite his world being ran into the ground and being a complete rundown slum he's one of the only people that like how it is. (Falls into a group of people that want to overthrow the government or something and get the world "back on track")
These photos show what the world could look like. The scrap and mess from the right and the empty desert from the left
FMP ideas
For our FMP our theme is dystopia and utopia. For our Ideas we had to use those themes and come up with our FMP and pitch
I was really struggling to come up with Ideas for my FMP and it took a while for me to have something that I liked
One idea I had was inspired by a quote from Albert Einstein
This quote gave me the idea that the world has developed so much that they have destroyed the world and regressed back to cave man times, the world is completely destroyed and deserted. I had the idea for the world but I didn't know what I could do for characters or a story.
My next Idea went quite far but the more I went through the idea I started to not like it and struggled to find a place to take it any further than what I had.
Another I had was for a world that has one house where someone has to live in isolation until they can have someone replace them. After talking about this idea I decided to change the house to a job and have it so that in order to leave the job you need someone to take your place.
Now that I have a bit of an idea I need to make a character
Genre: Dark Comedy
Name: Brett Peel
Age: 34
Siblings: no siblings
Occupation: Chemical factory
Education: Smart student, top grades across the board ended up in a dead end job
Their persona: Miserable, Passive, Tries to stay out of conflict, keeps to himself doesn't know anyone
Brett started work at a chemical storage, movement and handling factory as a small way to make money but ended up being stuck there for the rest of his life due to their rule of having to find a suitable replacement to take your place to leave. Brett has started to notice that the chemicals are starting to take a toll on him and are making him incredibly sick so he's decided he needs to find a replacement before it's too late. His condition deteriorates during the course of the film as he still has to go to work.
Pitch
In order to make my pitch I split it into smaller sections and then put them together afterwards
The individual segments are fairly vague as I knew how I wanted to expand on them in my Final Pitch
Treatment
Click to view
Sample Materials
Click to view
Budget
Click to view
Practice Pitch/Feedback
Before the final pitch we had to give a practise pitch and receive feedback on our work. I had not yet made my final pitch at this point so I quickly threw together my draft ones from above
Click to view
Feedback
I was really excited to get my feedback because it wasn't just feedback on my pitch it was also well needed feedback on my idea. As much as I had my idea I still had a lot of problems with it and thought that it was missing a few interesting points. One big piece of feedback I got was that I could lean away from too much realism in my world and plot. I was recommended a few directors like Tim Burton and Jean-Pierre Jeunet and was told to look at their design and over the top nature. During my pitch there were points where I wasn't sure how to describe the life and living conditions of the main character, I was told that a good architecture type to look at is brutalist architecture which after looking at is the perfect for my main characters apartment. As for working on my actual pitch i was told to put a lot more visuals which makes a lot sense especially for storyboarding my last scene so when making my finished pitch I put a lot of images and gave good visual examples. I did miss most of the specifics as I hadn't made them yet.
Even though my pitch wasn't finished I was really happy that I got this feedback session because it helped me with my final pitch as well as just my idea as a whole
Final Pitch
I decided that, to save time, I would start putting the drafts into my final pitch then add my new information
In order to make the pitch look more professional I used Canva instead of PowerPoint and actually designed everything
Above is the link to view my final pitch
Below is a deeper look at some of the slides
When I first listened to Harley Quinn and the joker: sound mind I heard Harley's father and in my mind made him look like Danny Devito which is one of the reasons behind my casting.
I wanted to focus on the colour yellow as it can be seen as quite uneasy but it could also be seen as happy which completely juxtaposes the main character, I had also heard a long time ago that cancer patients are sometimes kept in yellow rooms, I don't know how true this is or remember the reason I heard for it
Production
As a part of production one idea was picked per group. The group I was in used my idea so that was the film we where tasked with making
Pre - Production
When starting pre-production one of the first things we decided to do was make a group onedrive folder for all of our work to be kept on
Idea Development
In order to make the short film we needed to develop and add to the idea slightly further than it
I sent everbody my pitch so that we could all sit down in a room and go through it so that we all understood the initial idea after these everybody started to pitch in different ways we could develop the characters and how it could be shot
The character of Brett stayed mostly the same but we gave him slightly more reason to stay at the job. The reason he got the job in the first place was to provide for a child he had on the way however before birth his wife left him. Brett still wanted to provide for this child even though he never got to see her which is his motivation behind working
In order to further explore Brett and his daughter I wrote a note that Brett would write for his daughter before he dies. The note has lines that could be used for the voice over and helps to deepen the bond between Brett and his daughter who doesn't even know he exists.
The final line "Don't cry for me, I'm already dead" was suggested by Luke, the line was super powerful and well recieved by the whole group. The line also inspired the title which is "Don't cry for me" in latin - "Noli Mi Flare"
Whilst writing the note I figured out a good new structure for the film and a few new scenes we could have to develop the film, characters, idea and runtime
Job Roles
Another important discusion we had in our fits meeting was a discussion on job roles and who would be doing each one
In order to decide our roles we just nominated ourselfs for the thing we felt we where best at and wanted to do
Locations
An incredibly important first step in pre-production was to find locations to film at.
Looking at the scenes we had we only needed about 7 locations ---->
By the end of the first week we had an idea for most of our locations.
A primary school for young Brett
A factory for Brett to work at
A house for Brett to live
A doctors for Brett to get "diagnosed"
An office or room for Brett's boss
A bench for Brett and Felix to talk
A restaurant for Brett to leave Felix outside of
Primary school
For the primary school I contacted my old primary school and asked whether we could film in a classroom which we where able to do.
Factory
Our original idea for the factory was going to be here at the millennium mills factory which seemed to be abandoned, but after inspection the place was closed off and we were unable to film there, outside or inside.
Restaurant
This scene doesn't require us to go inside the restaurant as Brett leaves immediately so just outside is fine
Some other locations we wanted to film in was Carlos's house for the house scenes, A booth at college for the doctors surgeon, as the rooms pale white look which could work well, and an office for Brett's boss which also could be done in the college.
Problems with locations
There was no shortage of problems with finding locations which will be explained and listed below
The biggest problem we ran into was the problems with the factory mentioned earlier. The original factory we wanted to film in wasn't available so we had to rush as a group to find somewhere to film in that would fit the factory aesthetic
As a group we started contacting different factories nearby to see if they would have space and allow us to record
Whilst looking around we found a place that was exactly what we wanted for the factory
We talked to this factory in multiple ways by email, phone call and an enquirer on their website but we didn't get any reply
Luckily, Ardleigh house next to the college looks quite good as the exterior factory due to the shutters, danger of death signs, vents and the type of ground
Another problem we had with location was filming at Carlos' house namely that we couldn't in fact we weren't able to film at anyone's house so we had to completely overhaul the scenes that required it
The house scenes originally had all of the scenes where Brett was getting sick so we changed them to happen in the factory and out of other scenes which in my opinion actually keeps the pace of the film quite well
Casting
The good thing with our idea is that we only need one character for and in turn one actor. However this one character does come with one problem being their age
The character of Brett is a 34 year old man and a lot of the plot relies on that. The amount of time Brett has worked at the factory, His divorce, Daughter all key plot points that rely on Brett's age and without a good actor that fits the part we were incredibly worried that this was where our production would stop
In order to solve this problem we started to think of a complete re-haul of our story in order for it to make more sense for Brett to be younger so that I could play him. We where doing this alongside looking for an actor who could play the part so we had a back up option.
We reached out to the Havering arts council for an actor but didn't get a reply from them. We also talked to Ben who works at the college who suggested Nick Field who has been in actual productions before. We emailed him and where told that he would be able to help us and would play Brett, so we sent him all of the production files and information and managed to keep the plot as it was
For the side characters we decided that as they aren't an integral part to the story, we could just play them as a group. The boss' age isn't a problem as whoever plays them will just be a shadowy figure anyway
Script
Whilst finding our location I started to work on a script we would follow and use during production
We decided that our film would use a voice over to help tell the story, I used Brett's note for the v.o. as it would flow with the film and fit in with many scenes
We originally planned for most of the spoken lines to just be voice over but as I went on I decided that it would be best if there was more dialogue as it felt more natural.
A big part of writing the script was trying to make Brett feel alone successfully and convey that even with other characters being involved with him and the story
When writing for characters other than Brett or Felix I had them appear offscreen so that there was a disjoint between them and Brett. This changed during production however the idea was kept specifically for the boss which I think fit really well
The finished script was sent to Nick and used as a basis during production and filming. For the most part during filming, the script was partially improvised to make the conversations feel more real and for the most part this worked however when Damani was playing the role of the doctor he went too far off script and ended up just waffling and drawing the scenes out.
Props
The main prop we needed for the production was barrel for the chemicals to be stored in
Originally I wanted the barrels to be steel drums as they look like the typical barrels you see in films and TV however I was unable to find some in time for filming so had to improvise and find something else
As filming was getting closer I was still struggling to find a barrel, however I realised that just regular bins would work quite well not only in looks but also in theming. I felt that having just normal bins might help to show the poor working conditions of the job
We also needed a trolley which I got a folding shopping trolley and removed the bag so it looked like a good moving trolley
Permissions
In order to film in certain locations and get certain things we needed permission
Both me and Harvey where on permissions and both called multiple places for both filming and for actors below are some E-mails we made for locations
We also called a dentist near by the college in order to get a scene in a doctors room
Another thing we needed permissions for was the song we wanted for the final scene. The first day we filmed Harvey played the song Riot! by Earl Sweatshirt and from the first time I heard it I knew it was the song I wanted for when Brett dies.
I found the record label that's signed with Earl Sweatshirt, Columbia Records and sent them an E-mail explaining what we where doing and what we wanted
Due to the size of the company I was emailing, being owned by Sony, I wasn't expecting to get any response however to my surprise not only did I get a reply but I was directed to a higher up at Sony music
After more talking with Ofulue I was told that I would need to pay from £250 to £1,000 for the songs use so I politely declined
Production
We started production by filming the first scene in the primary school on the 17th April.
Filming Day 1
We had the primary school from 9 till 1 so our plan was to go to college at 9 and get the equipment then be at the school for 10.
Sadly half of the group came really late so we didn't get to leave the college till around 10
Filming Day 2
The next day I drove the bins to the college and set them up at Ardleigh house to film. We got the second scene and a few other shots in the factory here however half way through filming all of the batteries died, we wrapped for lunch so that we could charge the batteries and then came back to finish off some more scenes
Filming Day 3
The next day we filmed we went to the dentist. When we hired out the equipment we weren't given a boom pole so we had to improvise when it came to recording the audio. We put the mic in the dentist chair and pointed it towards both actors so it was out of shot and got what we needed.
Filming Day 5
Day 4 we went back to get some more factory scenes. Day 5 we went to film the scenes with Felix and Brett in the park and the restaurant.
Filming went quite smoothly although we had a late start due to some crew showing up late. We got a lot of coverage for this shoot however the audio had to be recorded on a phone because we didn't have the connector from the boom mic to the camera. It started to rain whilst we were filming so our Runner went to get an umbrella and held it above the camera so it was safe
Filming Day 6
The next significant day of filming we filmed the scenes in the boss' room and in the bathroom, we filmed this on a wednesday and everyone except from our boom operator so I had to take the role again. In order to get good lighting and a nice creepy effect our best boy flashed a light through the door lighting our actors face
Filming Day 7
The last day of filming we did back at the factory to record the death scene and then we went to some stairs to record the hallucination. Whilst filming our runner/lighting pitched an idea which gave me a lot of ideas for the editing process so we let him film his ideas and that was essentially his scene for directing
Overall filming went really well despite some people not showing up all the time everyone did their jobs and did them well. A lot of people pitched their ideas and as a result I had a lot to work with in the edit
Production Extended
In order to get some nice looking shots we had to do some special techniques behind the scene to get the best possible shots
As mentioned before in the dentist we had to improvise by setting up the microphone in the chair
When filming the opening scene in the primary school we had to zoom out and bring the camera away from Luke's face. In order to get close to Luke we needed to move a table in front of him, however if we moved the table it would be extremely obvious how we did the shot.
In order to get close to Luke and then pull away whilst zooming, our cinematographer sat on a chair with the camera whilst our director pulled him back on a rolling chair, creating a dolly like effect. Whilst they where being pulled back I pushed the table from being open, so they could get a close up, to being Infront of them so it's in the shot
When filming the factory we wanted the camera to pan around Nick as he went to go pick up the barrels instead of stay behind him. When the camera moves from behind him to the front of him it goes over a barrier which was done by having our cinematographer pass the camera to our director over the barrier, which wasn't incredibly smooth but we made it look better in the edit
Production Sound
When filming there was a constant onslaught of problems with sound recording throughout
For many scenes we didn't need to much audio so we didn't record it however for the scenes we did record audio it didn't always go how we wanted it.
There was one scene we recorded that we didn't end up using and this was the first time we recorded something that needed audio.
When recording this scene our boom mic operator struggled to keep the boom out of shot multiple times due to the camera going from both close up and zoomed out footage. There was also a barrier they had to lean over. Luckily we wanted this in 4:3 so we could easily just zoom into a lot of the footage. In the end we didn't use this footage anyway
When filming scenes with Felix and Brett, as stated prior, we didn't have a boom mic so we used my phone to try and record the audio. The phone can't be seen in the footage as it's in between my legs however this did lead to a problem when I had to get up and leave the shot as I had to pick up my phone. Another problem came from the line that Brett had to deliver after I left as we couldn't hear him in the recording.
​
We recorded the scene at the restaurant the same day using the same method to record the audio and it came out borderline unusable.
Post- Production
Editing
We decided to edit our footage as soon as we could, more often than not the same day we filmed it which gave us a huge leg up in the long run
One key thing we did in all our scenes was colour grading. We filmed in RAW so that when we colour graded it, it would look better which I really think worked for a lot of the scenes
When editing both me and the other editor sat in a room together and both edited the same scene both pitching ideas as to what we where editing.
Solving Problems with Editing
Many problems that may have occurred we tried to solve in post production and editing.
As mentioned in production some of our footage came out quite shaky but we were able to fix it in the edit. In order to do this we applied an effect called the warp stabiliser
The stabiliser does have some side effects like making the footage look strange and warped however sometimes this fits the scenes quite well with how sick Brett is getting
No Stabilizer
Stabilizer
We ended up using this effect throughout the rest of the film which helped us when we went to film the rest of the film as we didn't have to do reshoot after reshoot to get the shot perfect
Another aforementioned problem we tried to fix in post was the audio problems in the scenes with Felix and Brett. Both actors sat in a booth and recorded the lines which we had to map correctly to when we spoke
In order to make the scene outside the restaurant sound better I got sound of the environment with cars passing and people talking quietly however it's still painfully obvious that the audio has been dubbed in post which makes the scene hard to watch in my opinion
This is the only scene where the audio was so bad that it needed to be redubbed so this is the only scene that is this poor quality
In one of the scenes we recorded, the boom mic fell into the shot and because we wanted the scene to be in 16:9 this was a problem
Because this scene was supposed to be quite strange i made the scene zoom in and out both hiding the boom mic and creating an effect like the environment is shifting around Brett.
Another problem I think we fixed quite well was the reflection in the tap in the doctor scene
When filming the tap in the foreground we didn't realise that we would be seen in a reflection so we didn't move out of the way. Using the pen tool and a blur effect we managed to hide the reflection and it's not too noticeable
Advanced Editing
There were some points in editing when we wanted to do some more techniques in editing to show Brett's illness
When filming the scene on the stairs our cinematographer took the camera behind a tree with all the leaves in view. I decided to cut out the leaves frame by frame in photoshop as it's surprisingly the easiest way to cut out the leaves.
Simply by using the selection tools I was able to easily select the leaves and cut out everything else.
In order to have the scene transition into the next shot I made everything but the leaves red so that I could key it out using the ultra key. In order to make the transition look more natural I applied a motion blur.
When editing the hallucinations I just applied different effects in order to see what looked okay and I think for the most part they look good however I think the second hallucination with the diamonds looks way to silly and if I had more time I would have absolutely changed it
I made the effect by keyframing the diamonds from large to small and then copy pasting the animation
Sound Mixing
After editing all of the footage we gave it all to our director who also worked on sound
Our director made the soundtrack for the film so it only made sense for him to decide where to place it and how he wanted it to appear in the film
Below is the OST for the film and images of the mixing process
Communication
I made multiple attempts to remind everyone to upload the final film to their websites.
I messaged them in our production group chat 3 times reminding them and even went to the contact them on their websites reminding them
Final Film
Contribution Assessment
What tasks did you complete for pre-production
For pre-production my main job was script. I also worked on permission and research. The only research we got was of different effects of chemicals which gave me some ideas when I was working on the script.
What tasks did you contribute towards the production
In production I was usually working as sound technician however the boom operator didn't show up to some filming days so I held the boom multiple times too. We didn't use lighting too often however when we did I was in charge of the lighting placement and and directing the best boy for the scene.
What tasks did you contribute towards the post-production
My main job in post was editing I worked alongside the other editor to work on the same scenes and scenes on my own.
Did your final outcome achieve it's original aim
I think the film whilst not perfectly absolutely captured what I wanted not only from pre-production but also what I wanted from my pitch. Although we changed slightly dialogue from the script that was the initial intention while writing the script
Comment on the aesthetic quality of the final product
I think overall the sound quality of the film was fine but it had way more problems than anything else.
However I'm very happy with how a lot of the film looks, the boss scene specifically stands out as one of the best looking scenes in the film.
Does the short film appeal to its intended target audience
When making the pitch originally, I struggled with target audience and wrote down that it would be a 15 which I think the film did end up meeting although it's possible it could pass as a 12 due to it's lack of too extreme imagery
Identify areas for improvement for your production
I think we should have went out to rerecord more scenes with bad audio because looking back at certain scenes becomes almost painful due to the audio.
Overall, what do you think were your main strengths throughout the project?
I think my personal strengths came from editing writing and getting the props that we needed during production
Overall, what do you think were your main weaknesses throughout the project?
The biggest problem I had was keeping on top of my website but apart from that I did have problems with finding a job for certain people to do as we got closer to the end of our production
Discuss the challenges you have faced while working within a small production team
As mentioned before I struggled to find things for people to do, however I also had a problem relying on certain people for bigger task, due to their weaker work ethic.
Are there aspects of the project that were out of your control and impacted the success of the project?
I definitely think the short time frame and tight schedule impacted the end product for both production and website.
What could you personally do (aspects within your skill set & capabilities to further develop) to ensure the successful delivery of a media product in future projects working with others?
In the future I would start to look into everyone else's skills and abilities so that I could take what others may be weaker in and give them things that I have confidence they would be able to do well. I also wish I could have explored the creative side of edits more and pushed my abilities to their limits as it stands I feel that I didn't showcase my ability as well as I could have in the editing process.