Evaluation

Since the semester started, two films have been done. The first was a 2 minute piece that had to be focused on a emotion, and the second task had to be a 5-10 minute which was supposed to include elements of the chosen emotion . In this post I will go through the process, pros and cons of the final two pieces of work as well as evaluate my own personal input, areas of improvement and other people contributions.

To begin with, the group consisted of myself, Bryony Rogers, Kieran Woodhall, Laurence Mcwhinnie and Marcus Owramenko. Some of us had fixed roles in both pieces while others had a mixture. I myself was cinematographer for the two minute piece and mixed the role of producer and Director of Photography for the 5-10 minute, so that other's could get in on the camera work. This meant that only Kieran never touched a camera during the process.

As with any project the first step is the idea. During our first meeting we discussed an emotion to portray which spanned from depression to isolation etc. We eventually got stuck on the idea of fear. I formulated a two minute where a woman is being called by an anonymous person, and gets steadily more fearful as the calls continue. The ten minute idea spanned from this at the hands of Laurence, who came up with the idea of two forensics cleaners that clean up the mess left but one unknowingly by the other. We established that the two minute would be simple and straight to the point, whereas the other would be more complex and harder to tell.

First I shall go through the pre production stage. For the two minute piece the plan was straightforward. We were using Laurence's house and Bryony was being our actress, so the only real decision was on what equipment to use. Organising the date for the shoot was simple enough as we only had to rely on each other for this shoot.

Rather than go through the process of both projects at the same time I will go through the  process of the two minute piece first, and then go into the process of the 5-10 minute assignment.

The filming of the two minute piece was done in merely a day. Me, Kieran, Bryony and Marcus all collectively grabbed the equipment and proceeded to walk up to Laurence's house on Ecclesall road. From their we went and set up. Bryony was exceptional as the actress, she really enjoyed getting into this character, and though we had the odd banter moments, she remained professional. Kieran was a great help with the lights. I was left in charge of the lights mainly but we used a tip from our tutor Chris to put tinfoil on the window to block out light. That combined with the moonlight effect I created with the black and blue dedo filters, I believe we achieved an excellent representation of night, considering we filmed in the early afternoon, and it was for most of us our first attempt at using artificial lighting.

 My contribution, as well as the lighting side, was also to frame the shots. I set up three key points in which to set up my camera so the angles were covered. I had chosen to use the XF305, as I wanted to grab more experience with that camera and experiment with it. While most people favour the DSLR, I feel that all the DSLR offers is default better image quality, that becomes by default an issue to colour correct as the image is so crisp already. The camera was large so it was difficult to move it round a small space like the one we filmed it, however I managed it. I principally recorded the scene over and over at different frames, then moved on to big close ups such as lighting the candle and Bryony's face being illuminated by the candle on the spur of the moment. We wrapped after about 4-5 hours with a great amount of footage.

The post production for the two minute, was mostly handled by Kieran, who spent hours upon hours editing several versions, uploading them upon completion to our Facebook group. From their we would all give feedback on certain shots, and sounds and suggest what could be changed. Other than that Kieran handled the post production fully by himself, and I must say he did a great job.

Looking at the final 2 minute piece, I honestly can say its been the best finished product I have been involved in since 'The Grass Isn't Always Greener' which was the first university project I ever completed. The fact that I was cinematographer for it, and handled the lighting aspect as well, makes this the most prideful piece of work. It evoked the emotion of fear very well, as we made the audience feel the fear as well as the character on screen which is not an easy thing to accomplish. Its unfortunate that this only counts as 30% of the overall mark, as we feel it was a well done piece of work, and the team worked together very well. The only negatives I can point out really is that some of the shots were a little to dark, and though no issues were raised over it, my perfectionism says I could have done more. The quality of the finished piece also added extra pressure on us to deliver for the 5-10 minute piece.

As I stated earlier, I was primarily  the producer for the 5-10 minute piece. This meant that a lot of the pre production was weighed on me. To begin with, I had to find two actors, one being a young male and the other being a middle aged man with the potential of being older. Finding the younger actor was simple enough as I had the contacts of all the actors I worked with for year one. Once a treatment was written by our director Laurence, I sent it to these actors first. I then took to the website Star Now, and posted an add for both roles on their as well as advertising on three Facebook groups, dedicated to film making and acting. I received five responses for the role of Duncan, two being actors I worked with previously, and two being new guys. I arranged auditions for them accordingly on a Monday, with the filming intended to be on a Wednesday.

Unfortunately only one person responded to the role of Abe so it was essential that he was available. I maintained a highly communicated relationship to this man through email, with 12 emails exchange in the space of a week. Unfortunately on the day of auditions he had to pull out. He was coming down the motorway when he realised their were major roadwork's being placed at the time, meaning with his tight schedule, we agreed it was in the best interests for both party's.Regardless we cast the role of Duncan and pushed shooting back a week to allow a new Abe.

I did an updated post on two of the Facebook groups, and extended the application deadline on star now. It was with great relief that I received two responses, which allowed us to audition the role and get a feel for the character. That Monday, all of us attended the auditions, apart from Laurence, which again meant that a flip camera was needed. We cast our Abe and obviously as producer it fell to me to inform both the successful and unsuccessful candidates, and I made sure all the contact details of the party's were save both for this project and future opportunity's. From then on it came to securing a diner location, as the car Laurence intended to use no longer became available. So me and Kieran went out and checked out two places. I did the talking whilst Kieran was there purely for moral support. I insisted someone would accompany me on the location scouting, as I feel it is more professional to show that you are part of a team when trying to use someone's establishment. We managed to secure a Diner on Ecclesall road for the following week.

Before I go into the production stage, I just want to talk about my disappointment at Laurence's lack of attendance to key pre production events, and also the lack of effort by the others to acquire information. I would always post new developments on the group like dates and times, yet I would ring people up on the day and they would be surprised that their was auditions or meetings. As a producer I felt this left all my effort to keep both cast and crew in a constant loop of things, and organising schedules was unappreciated. The day before shooting I had the group sit with me and I showed them the full schedule breaking down the days up until the presentation, on where I would like the production to be at. I also typed out an equipment list and booked it all out, as well as finalising availability and confirming the plan. In amongst all this I was also the director of photography, so I was pre visualising the storyboards for both scenes, as well as thinking about what kind of lighting we would use. Needless to say, I hardly had a moments rest for the pre production.

The production was a generally confused affair, their were several hiccup's including one situation where Me and Kieran had to renegotiate with the Diner as one of the actors had to back out due to personal commitments. Filming was a fun process, but on the final day we were rushed, and I felt like Laurence was just wanting it to be over, which is the worst thing theoretically a director could do. His constant appeals of are we done yet did not help to boost moral and with that final shot being difficult to set up, it became frustrating at times. The post production became a rushed affair due to two incidences with mac books either crashing or going faulty, which meant thee full edit did not commence until the Saturday before the hand in. Me and Kieran had to salvage the sound editing on the final day which left us in the suite until 12:20AM on that Wednesday, and I myself had to export it on the morning.

Looking at the final 10 minute piece, I think we did a good job of salvaging a project that was plagued with setbacks. Me and Kieran both agree, had we had just one or two more days to polish the edit, we could have pushed it to a first class standard. Metaphorically speaking this project finished as a fine shoe, needing a good hard polish. Contribution wise, I put myself forward as much as humanly possible, With Kieran and Bryony both doing a great part. Laurence's contribution could have been better as he didn't even come in during the editing process. As for Marcus, he only did one full film day and never came in for the post production.

Area's for improvement would be to definitely secure the locations sooner, even before the actors just to have that breathing room, as waiting almost a week to use the diner was a set back that could have been avoided. Also people making sure they check the schedules, and a more hands on director would have helped the project a long way, as I feel we wasn't all going in the same direction. I believe if their was as much communication on set ad their was on the group, this could have gone a lot smoother. Also, having reliable macs to work on would have made all the set backs we faced time wise redundant, as we would have had the extra time if the technical difficulty's didn't arise.

On my own personal reflection, I believe that my camera skills have finally had a chance to bloom and blossom for this project which showed on the final film and well as the 5-10 minute. I also seem to have a good knack for producing, as I like things to be organised and in place, so the role came naturally to me, though its not something I want as a career. However, if I feel their is not enough effort being put in to organising, I will naturally try to organise things and make sure everybody is in the know. So as a final summary, my cinematography and camera skills have enhanced to a degree, my producer and lighting skills have increased drastically from what they were previously. As for the projects, I take great pride in the two minute, whereas the second, though pleasing, it is regrettable that we wasn't able to make it the best it could be.

Editing and Foley

With the filming, though rushed towards the end, complete, it was time to get down to the visual edit. Due to our technical problems me and Bryony went into the edit suite Friday, and imported all but one set of visuals and the separate audio. Saturday was spend cutting up the sequence.  Without a rough storyboard to go with it was down to Bryony to get a sequence going.

Sadly, due to Bryony's lack of experience with the software, and editing a piece as long as this, she wanted guidance so she knows what we are looking for. As Laurence wasn't here, it came down to me on assisting her getting a sequence. This scene was fought as we had to they and get this conversation between the two characters to flow. This was difficult as we were limited to two angles. I tried to get a two shot in their, but by the time I filmed that the audio equipment was packed, so any hope of getting a good synchronisation was diminished.

The challenge was also to get some sounds foleyed for the final edit. After me and bryony finished locking the sequence on Monday evening I looked through and made a note of every key Foley that was key to the film. As you can see in the various images below I made two lists. The first list being the Foley's I needed to get and the second list being labels of the sound files of the zoom.