Post Production

Thank You

It's a Wrap

https://www.dropbox.com/s/iryzpz0kp6gdikw/Moving%20image2.flv

I want to thank all of my team mates!!

It's strange to think that at the start of this module Harry was the only one I really knew and now I am very good friends with all of you. 

They are the reason I think we will do well. everyone contributed in their own way, using their skills and strengths to the benefit of the team. 

I noticed as we progressed through the module our communication improved significantly, we were on each others 'wavelength', we would notice each others subtle emotion changes when  talking about or viewing something for the film. I remember looking at Moritz knowing he didn't like something, I also remember during the editing process when we were watching something we had just changed I hadn't even said anything and Moritz knew I didn't like it. There has been countless times when I've said something, during filming and editing, and Moritz has replied with something like stop reading my mind.

Obviously during filming there are communications you have to make to your team members that are silent, these also got better as we progressed.

When everyone gets back after the spring break I'll buy you all a drink.

Overall this has to be one of my favorite projects I have been a part of so far at university, I have learnt a lot and have had so much fun with my friends using both my creativity and technical knowledge.

I want to thank the Course Convener Steve Kelly and Lecturer Mike Green. 

Most importantly I want to thank Guest Lecturer Helen Curston for being an endless source of knowledge, advice and inspiration.

Post Production

Intriguing Possibilities

Here are some of the things I've learnt  and gained from this experience:

• About the mise-en-scene and how everything within determines the literal and subtle meanings the audience receives.

• Different compositions and shot types. How a variety helps to tell the story and keeps the audience interested.

• About rules in filming like the 180 degree rule and how when they are broken it can distort the perception of the viewer and the affect the overall film in a negative way

• Directing - involving proactiv listening, a technical mind and taking initiative with a pre-determined goal (not sure how understandable the phrase above is, it made sense in my head)

• How important organising is but also how no matter how much you try to organise there will always be something you miss. I tried to keep the team on track but it was hard battling with the issues outside the module/university.

• Teamwork - helping everyone achieve their potential in the parts they play; giving advice, encouragement and inspiration but also receiving these things from my team mates.

• Making decisions can be hard; we cut out a lot and had to be harsh but even without the unwanted blank screens taking up unwanted seconds the film was still too long and as a team we couldn't decide what to take out so after much debate on Facebook we decided to keep it that little bit longer hoping it wouldn't hurt us too much.

Post Production

Editing

We had most of the editing done but unfortunately it was done in Final Cut, which we found out shouldn't be used so all of the team went to Jennison to decide our options. We talked to Moritz through Skype because he was in Luxembourg at the time. 

We talked to Steve Kelly and he said that he was going to allow us to use Final Cut since we had already done most of the editing.

So all we needed to do was finishing up and add the final touches to the overlays and edit scene 3. We used my shooting script as a guideline and helped Moritz by giving him advice on each sequence.

Once we had put all the scenes together it was too long!!! It came to about 3:38 seconds so we re-watched it and all discussed what scenes we didn't need. I noticed something the others didn't...it was a massive continuity error...Tom didn't have his pack pack in any of the scenes apart from the one where he takes the money from the cash machine so we could take it out. It's quite amusing but it seems that most of our film/editing problems can be solved with overlays, which will just add nicely to the over all 'game' style.

Together we lengthened parts that needed to be longer and shortened shots that weren't helping with the storytelling.

Once we had finished the editing it came to around 3:08 and we just didn't know what else to cut out so we just left it at that.

Harry put in the overlays he had created in After Effects and used my speech overlays as guidelines for the 'speaking' selection parts.


We were pleased with the film after Harry had put in the overlays but when the video came out it was even further over the time limit, the annoying was that it had a black screen at the end for a good few seconds.

We added the music in afterwards, Harry found a free song called Airbrushed By anamanaguchi, released in 2010 for public use.

Production

Some of my thoughts...

On the role of Director

Throughout the project when I was director I often worried that I was being 'bossy' and ordering people around, I voiced this to my team mates and Moritz told me that I say what I want in such a way that it doesn't sound rude, I listen to everyone's opinions and take them into account if I didn't agree with something someone said I would give them valid reasons why it wouldn't work like:

• Continuity between shots
• The 180 degree rule 
• Varied shots (not using mid shot too often) keeps the film interesting 
• Having too much headroom (because sometimes it's better to cut off some of the head than have too much room above it) 
• Unnecessary objects in the background that can draw the viewers eye away from the main focal point

At first I didn't think I would like being the director, especially because I can be shy around people I don't know but because I had written out the shooting script and I was gradually getting to know my team I began to feel comfortable and confident in the role, by the second day of filming I was actually enjoying it, I felt I was making a good impact on the filming and keeping the guys in check.

Post Production

The Overlays

While the shooting of scene 3 was taking place and Harry was waiting for his Asda delivery he was doing some incredible animated overlays in After Effects for the final addition to our film.

The Character Selection

This game style character selection will be shown at the start of the film and will stay there while Tom turns round.

The Loading Screen

This is the style of loading screen we will be using between scenes, the images and title text will be different. The image of the library was found on the internet so we will be taking our own on either my SLR or Harry's'.

The Phone to Map Selection

This animation will be used when the character uses his phone to show the audience a map of the area, this is a very 'game' inspired piece of animation. On the finished product there will be icons that represent places like restaurant, cash machine and the lecture theatre.

Incoming Call Selection

This will be shown on the screen near the end of the second scene when the character answers his phone. This parody ringtone will  play for a few seconds.  

Achievements

There will be two of these that appear at the end to show some achievements the player has been awarded. This is the sound that will be used to. All of this is in an 'Xbox' style, which will be very familiar to many people in that watch the film. 

Production

Shooting Day 3

I will divide the scene into four short sequences; the entrance, the drinks, the slap and ‘Wasted’. Before shooting we arranged the kitchen how we wanted it; i.e. put alcohol bottles around the room, crisps and glasses. While doing this shoot I remembered we have to keep our eye on the 180 degree rule because the camera will be going from Tom to me and back throughout the scene.

Today's shooting Team

Moritz - Camera Guy/ Co-director

Stephen - Sound Guy

Me - Director/ Actor

Tom - Actor

The entrance

The scene starts of outside, a long mid shot of Tom walking up to the door, knocking, Stephen opening it and greeting him. It took us two goes but thankfully we managed to get all of that in one take. We then filmed the same thing from inside the kitchen, it was tricky due to the extras in there as well be we got the shots we wanted.

The Drinks

This was so fun to shot from drinking alcohol while shooting and Tom’s ‘speech’ face made this sequence one of the most entertaining to do. We didn’t want this sequence to last for too long due to the short filming space we have to fill after the first and second scenes. We chose to do short close-up shots of pouring each drink then drinking each one. This will be editing to show a fast-paced sequence. There will be a shot of Tom’s ‘speech’ face between each pouring of a different drink. We chose rum and coke first then, 3 shots of tequila each then Jack and coke. Hopefully it’ll give it a nice effect; I tried to keep in mind camera shot rules like you can do a sequence of different close-up shots but not long shots. There were a few focussing problems but we either re-shot certain scenes or will use them to our advantage. For example in the last drink shot with Jack Daniel’s and coke the two shot MS was a bit blurry but because the ‘drunkenness’ meter on the side of the screen would be full we can use it to our advantage and incorporate into the video game style.

The Slap

We did the slap scene straight after the entrance scene as we knew we wouldn't need the extras in the drinking and wasted scenes and it wouldn't be fair on them to have to wait around. This was very amusing to film and took a good few takes. 
The slap shots didn't look right and because I didn't think it would be fair on Tom to actually slap him across the face we tried to think of an alternative, one of the extras said why you don’t have Tom dodge the slap, which was a good idea. 
We shot him in his ‘speech’ face for a few seconds (for the speech overlay), my hand swinging past his face as he leans back, gets up in a drunken way, opens the door, and looks back at me with a drunken expression before slamming the door behind him. The camera holds a close-up shot of his face then after I ‘slap’ him the camera moves up and zooms out so we can see a mid-shot of him look round at me, stumble out the door and slam it.

‘Wasted’

We went outside on Park Wood path, we filmed Tom stumbling around until he gets to the bench where he collapses and passes out. We filmed the stumbling in a long shot to mid shot with a slightly tilted frame to mimic his drunken state, then a high-angled shot of his body lying on the bench. It was really cold and around 11:30 at night so we tried to get this done quickly, we shot three sequences that can be edited together to get the desired finish.

I felt having been in both director and actor roles in other parts of the module I found it easier to do both in one shoot. Me, Stephen and Moritz collated and discussed ideas throughout the shoot, expressing what we liked and what we didn't, what we thought we needed to re-shoot and didn't.

All in all we had a good day; we went from feeling like we weren't going to make it, to actually filming the shots we wanted. We were filming for around 3 hours and then at 11:30 we decided we were done, all the filming was finished and all we needed to do was finish editing and the overlays. 
We've tried to include as many shot compositions as possible to keep the film varied and interesting, but obviously within reason and as long as they helped with story telling.

Production

Shooting Day 3 

Trials and Tribulations

I’ll separate the review of this day into two posts because we spent most of the day handling problems then the evening actually filming.

Here are all the problems we faced during shooting day 3 and how we dealt with them.

K-bar didn’t get back to me and because time was getting on I knew we would’ve had to film in the late afternoon and that the music would be too loud for filming in the bar.

We found out Tom, the actor, wasn't free until after 6 so that cut off a big chunk of our possible shooting time.

Rutherford closes at 6, which was our back-up venue, so we couldn't use that venue either.

Earlier on in the week I had thought up a back-up plan in my head. Once I had found out that our other venues weren't going to work out I started to develop the back-up idea and created a screenshot script and some extra potential overlays. This back-up idea involved a house party.

As the kitchen has windows we needed to shoot at night because you wouldn't really have a realistic house party during the day, so we had to wait till after 7:30 to film.

Harry and I realised how hard it was to actually film without a budget, we went to essentials and I bought two litres of coke in case we couldn't do one take wonders in the drinking shots and to use as background props, we didn't need to buy alcohol as I had enough at home already. Harry bought some Doritos also for background prop purposes.

We needed some extras so I asked a few groups of people I knew and managed to get two girls and two guys for the first and second to last scenes.

I was starting to get worried about the shoot because Moritz was leaving for Germany soon and needed to get ready, his parents were in England waiting for him. I explained to him on Facebook that we needed him because he was the best at using the camera; I think I got through to him as he replied that he was going to come to the shoot so we arranged to do it at 7:30 when he and Tom were free. Harry had an Asda shopping delivery scheduled between 8 and 10, so he couldn't be at the shoot. We tried to get in contact with Luke and found out later that he was ill so also couldn't make it. Olivia, another actor, also couldn't make it so I filled in as the girl in the shoot.

Thankfully at around 8 Moritz, Stephen, Tom and I were all at the meeting place and we could get started.

When Tom arrived, at around 8, I realised a massive continuity problem…he had had a haircut. In other films this could have been a massive problem but I thought and explained to the others that because our film is in a video game style we could just include an overlay in between scene 2 and 3 saying something like ‘Night-time haircut chosen’ or ‘new hair cut selected’ and they liked the idea.

The previous post shows the back-up idea I came up with that follows a similar story to the original just with a few changes; the next post will be what we did during the evening of this hectic but eventually successful day.