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.

Pre-Production

Shooting Script (Kitchen Scene)

We needed to change our last scene so this is what I came up with at short notice to replace the last scene.

The Back-Up Scene

Tom knocks on the door                                                                              Long shot

Friend opens the door to the house party                                              Long Mid shot

Friend greets Tom                                                                                                          

Tom sits with girl                                                                                     Long Mid shot

'Speech' face (like in a game)                                                                 Close-up shot

(Note: The actor won’t actually say this, the scene will continue as though he has)

Pouring the drink                                                                                  Close-up shots          

Tom drinking the drink (Drunk meter)

Girl drinking the drink

'Speech' face (like in a game)                                                                Close-up shot

        

Pouring each shot          (like it has a rhythm)                      Quick sharp close-up shots

3 tequila shots each (Tom and girl)

• One extreme close shot of glass when shot is being taken, without face, glass leaves shot and comes back empty
• One close-mid shot of shot being taken, without face, shot glass comes out of shot and comes back empty
• One close-up shot of the reaction of taking the strong spirit, Tequila

'Speech' face (like in a game)                                                                Close-up shot

Pour drink                                                                                             Close-up shots         

Tom drinking the drink (Drunk meter)

Girl drinking the drink

'Speech' face (like in a game)                                                                Close-up shot

Girl slaps him round the face                                                                   Close-up shot

Guy leaves                                                                                                       Mid shot

Guy stumbles around                                                                                       Long shot

Guy collapses on bench                                                                       High-angled shot

‘Wasted’ is stamped over his body.

Post Production

Editing

The team decided it would be efficient to do some editing and other post production elements while still in production stage of the overall film. As the first and second scene had already been filmed and Moritz and I had time to spare we decided to do the editing for these scenes.

Moritz had already edited scene one, which even though was done very well I pointed out a few things that could be changed and he agreed with me. The edit for scene 1 was still too long even after my input but it had gave us a few more seconds to play around with, which doesn't sound like much but I've realised in film every second is important.

We edited scene 2 as well, there were a few problems like reflections but we managed to edit the sequences in a way that the problem was reduced significantly and I think it looks good. We watched it all the way through and showed it to Stephen who liked it.

Once both scenes had been edited we had a rough idea of how much time we had to spare baring in mind that we are allowed 3 minutes of film time. The two scenes came to approximately 2:30 seconds. So we took this into account when organising and shooting the third scene.

Pre-Production

Moving Image and Chicago Town

Knowing that it would soon be our last day of filming I knew it was imperative we were prepared therefore I asked the guys to meet up to go through some of my ideas and incorporate everyone else’s so we were all clear on the plan of action.

Moritz and I met up in the afternoon to go over our third scene, whilst enjoying a nice Chicago Town pizza. We discussed scripting, location and shots. I wrote down some rough notes and later on typed them up. 

The main aim of today was to secure the location for the third scene. K-bar is ideal; I talked to the supervisor and am waiting on an email from the manager to give us the go ahead.

I have also come up with a back-up scene if K-bar doesn't go as planned, which I ran past Moritz and Stephen who liked it.

After K-Bar Moritz and I looked at the edit Moritz did of the first scene, which was really good. We edited the second scene and changed a few things on the first. At the moment it looks good but is a bit long and hasn't got any overlays.

We met up with Stephen, showed him the edit and discussed the third scene and the back-up scene. He came with me when I followed up the K-bar supervisor a few hours later with no new news and when I talked to a few friends about being extras in the back-up scene. 

For the back-up scene we will probably use my kitchen, which is easily accessible. Thankfully my kitchen isn't in the first scene because we want it to look as if he is going into a friends’ house and so continuity may have been a problem.

It will be a bit tidier when we shoot of course, although it will add to the 'studenty' vibe.

Pre-Production

Shooting Script

The Third Scene in Detail

Below are the ideas and a more in-depth shooting script for the K-Bar scene (Scene 3)

I have also added some rough examples of overlays I have created in Flash to give everyone an idea of the finished product. The text will stay roughly the same in the final edit but the layout style may change.

Walks up to the bar

Bartender asks ‘What can I get you?’

There will be a ‘Fallout’ style selection system, all the actions are predetermined but the ‘viewer’ will see, which option is being clicked as though they are watching someone control the characters interactions.

(Note: The actor won’t actually say this, the scene will continue as though he has)

Handing the money over                                                            a selection of close-up shots

Receiving the drink

Drinking the drink (Maybe fast forwarded)

He will walk over to the girl                                                                              Two Shot MS

Girl ‘Yea that would be nice’

To the Bartender:

Handing the money over                                                             Quick sharp close-up shots

Both of them drinking the drink simultaneously (Drunk meter)

Girl ‘I like vodka’

Handing the money over                                                               Quick sharp close-up shots

3 Vodka shots each

The actor smiles, slightly drunk                                                          Extreme Close-up shot

Handing the money over                                                              Quick sharp close-up shots

Drinks

The actor smiles, drunkenly                                                                Extreme Close-up shot

Girl grabs drink and throws it at him or slaps him round the face – depending on which we can get away with in K-bar                                                               Mid Shot of the guy OTS

Goes outside the bar                                                           Tilted frame? To show he is drunk

Collapses either outside or in the red room                          High angled medium long shot

‘Wasted’ is stamped on the screen over his body

Post Production

The Seminar

Unfortunately due to the sheer size of all our film clips it meant they took ages to download from 'Dropbox' so the two hour session wasn't dedicated to editing. Instead Moritz, Stephen, Luke and I went through the shots we did have and decided, which ones were good enough for the film and which were not.

Some Overlays

During the seminar Harry felt that all five of us sitting front of one computer wasn't a very efficient use of our time so he decided to create some 'game' inspired overlays for the film using Photoshop and Flash, which he would then import into After Effects later.

The Money

This really cool 'GTA' inspired animation will be shown on the screen during the cash machine sequence to show the money going into his inventory.

The Hygiene Meter

The animation above shows the layout of all the 'meters' we will use  i.e. the drunkenness meter. It is rather similar to 'The Sims' style needs bar shown below. The hygiene meter will be used in the first scene shower sequence.

 

Production

Day two of shooting

Today we filmed scene 2 of our film. It is split into three parts; the walk to the gym, the cash machine and the lecture theatre.

Moritz – Cameraman

Luke – Sound guy

Me – Director

Stephen and Harry – Runners and After Effects guys

The walk to the Gym

We wanted to get a few different close-up shots for cutaways but camera shake was a bit of an issue so we had to keep trying till we managed to get smooth enough shots. The noise of passers-by affected the sound dramatically especially if they wore heels or walked on the pebbles. I kept an eye on filming devices we had to consider like continuity and the 180 degree rule. We had to time each sequence very well as students were walking to and from lectures. We acquired some decent close-up, mid shots and a nice pan. At one point while we were filming this section Harry and Stephen booked the green screen studio for next Friday because the actor plays on his phone in one of the walking sequences and we had an idea to have an overlay of someone texting on the screen so it looks like he is texting someone.

The cash machine

We decided that filming the walk to the cash machine would be tedious even using a range of shot types, also it wouldn't really help with conveying the story so we shot a few sequences of the actor at the cash machine, taking money out and leaving. Our plan is to have a map, created in after effects, which is enlarged on the screen and make it seem the cash machine is closer than it really is; this style is very similar to a video game. We used mainly close-up shots of inserting the card and mid shots for the rest.

The Lecture Theatre

We tried a variety of shot types; long shot, mid shot, close-up and even a low angled shot which was rather dangerous in the cameras’ perspective and didn't turn out like we’d hoped. We had a bit of refection problems in the window but I think with some crafty editing we can make sure it doesn't affect the final piece or worst comes to worse have a re-shoot.

All in all a successful day of filming, it’s surprising that it only took around three hours to get the scene done. Harry and Stephen also created some nice graphics in after effects for the overlays in that time when we didn't require their assistance in filming. 

The medical, restaurant and cash machine symbols will be used on the map to show where the character 'is' and other possible places to explore.

Production

Day one of shooting

Today we filmed scene 1 of our film. I've split it into three parts; Game style selection shots, having a shower and playing on the Xbox.

Unfortunately it was just me and Moritz so I handled the director and runner roles and Moritz was the camera and sound man.

The day didn't get off to a good start but we didn't want to lose time so we continued with our planned filming sequences. I tried to think about continuity because we were in a bedroom, with many objects that could be moved without us thinking about it so I tried to keep tabs on everything. Me and Moritz would talk frequently about different shots and how we were going to shot them. I mentioned a few times about headroom, which worked at some points but he really likes his headroom and the shots didn't look to bad at all and we can use the extra space.

Game Style Selection

This was difficult because the actor couldn't move to much and we didn't want anything distracting in the background. We went for a traditional middle shot whilst following the rule of thirds by placing the actor on the 'invisible' right vertical line. This gives us room to put in the game style overlays later on, which will show the 'Day in the life of a student' as being selected. Unfortunately we had a lot of head room in some of these shots but we will use them to our advantage by using the space for different overlays.

Having a Shower

This sequence was rather fun to film as we had to film him leave the room and walk up the stairs. We used a variety of long, mid, low angle and close-up shots so we could get some cutaways to make it look interesting and continuous. We also got some high angle shots from the top of the stairs that worked well, although we did contemplate that it was rather risky to hold the camera over the banister of the stairs, we did however take precautions. We took a close-up of the door when the actor walks in and out, we made sure to include the shower sounds and actually put the shower on to create steam when the actor walked out.

Playing the Xbox

The actor had fun doing this sequence as he was required to play Halo 4 for at least 15 minutes whilst we shot him and when were getting ready. We had some interesting debates about filming on the bed as it made the camera very unstable and therefore wasn't producing decent shots. In the end we did majority of this sequence using the tripod. We attempted some over-the-shoulder shots, some close-ups of his hands tapping impatiently, playing the controller, some mid shots and a few shots of the screen as he plays, which turned out really well. The last shots were really effective. We wanted them to look fast to show the actor is rushing so we had him throw the clock down, grab his back and run through the door, using a mixture of long, mid and close-up shots to give a nice fast-paced affect. Then the very last shot is a long shot of him rushing through the kitchen door, which we took from the right and back angles to ensure we had enough footage.


Overall we had a good days filming and even though there were some head room issues we can use them to our advantage and add more game like features in the areas like a map or point system.
It took us around 3 hours, we were so happy to have shot the 1st scene and called it a day.
We came across a few problems but I think we dealt with them well.

Pre-Production

A Recce

Luke and I went around campus and took some location shots for our second and third scenes.

 Scene 2

The images above show the journey along Park Wood path. When we film it we will try to get a variety of angles so that the journey doesn't seem so long. We may use overlays in after effects while he is walking to add to the game style and keep the audience intrigued.

The above image shows the gym, which the character will look up at and our idea is to have an objective come up on screen saying that he needs to go to the gm later.

We are thinking of including a scene taking money out as we could include a really cool game style overlay and 'ka-ching' sound.

The images above show the walk to the lecture theatre Grimond and inside the building. We're thinking of doing a scene where the character sits in a lecture but we do need to find a free lecture room and a lecturer or someone a bit older than us who could pretend to be a lecturer.

Scene 3

We are debating a library scene, although it wouldn't be very practical filming in there because we would have to be very careful not to disturb students working.

We are also contemplating  a shot where the character meets his friends outside, we think this would be a nice open area, with some good opportunities for subtly emphasizing the main character with 'leading line' affects.

For a night-life scene we could use The Venue (on the left) or K-bar (below)

The image on the left is of the Red Room in Keynes, it a nice room near K-bar, which could come in handy.