Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Before AS media I had had very little experience in terms of filming and editing. The prelim task was my first activity using the camera (
DSLR) and software (
finalcut). I had previously used cameras but not for the use of filming so I was unaware of how to use one for the use of film. I was unfamiliar with certain terminology such as the
180 degree rule and
shot reverse shot. However, I did already understand certain shot types such as
low angles, high angles, mid-shots and close ups. Prior to the task, we were introduced to the equipment and were navigated around the different features.
The
preliminary task is a continuity task by which we had to make a character move through different shots to create a short, fluent piece of film. The types of things done by the character was walk through a door, sit down and have a conversation. This task enabled us to put the
180 degree rule and
shot reverse shot to the test to develop a better understanding of these terms. It also helped with our understanding of
continuity editing. By actually physically doing this task we were able to learn through experience. For example, I was not fully aware of the term '180 degree rule' until I broke it whilst filming, I then learnt from this mistake and also learnt how to avoid this problem in future. We filmed a large majority of our prelim
hand-held which gave it a very unprofessional finish and also limited our shot types.
Planning
The
prelim involved minimal planning. We briefly designed a
storyboard to use as a
template for our
shots, this gave us a brief look into what the final cut would look like. The location of where we filmed was where we were based so not planning was need there. For a larger project a
call sheet and screenplay would usually be required. There was also little
casting involved as the person playing the role would just be the one's in the group who weren't filming (and everyone swapped roles) - This helped us learn how to work as a team as that would be vital whilst making our actual product.
Swede
Our next task involving equipment was the '
Swede' task. This swede involved making the film 'Tyrnnosaur' which is a rather dark, social realist film into a comedy and giving it a slightly humorous affect. We changed a
Warp film (low budget, indie film) into a
Working Title film. We did this by flipping it from a n
iche audience to a
mainstream audience. More planning was used for this task as we involved different props, locations, costumes etc... This task was a step up from our last one as it helped us progress with our shot types and actually put them into use, helping us learn them. Again we didn't have any casting (insufficient time). We involved
cutaway shots (used to break up the action) in our swede which gave it a much more professional look. During this process we were introduced with more equipment such as the
boom mic which helps to improve
sound quality. We also looked into the editing process in more depth e.g we used sound affects and different visual affects. I learnt many things from this swede such as the use of
framing, manipulating the mise en scene to a certain audience. For example, the use of the suit may address a certain audience. I learnt more about
binary opposites through the use of different film companies and the two different central protagonist e.g Hugh Grant contrasts the cast of Tyrannosaur.
From the swede the key aspects I learned was that planning a major step in order for the production to he successful. Independence when it came to filming and editing- the filming showed that it was better to hold the camera using a tripod as it made it more sturdy and had a more professional look, and for the editing I learned how to use the tools more effectively in order the give the swede a better look overall.
After the swede, we went in to research more into Warp and Working Title to see how their companies develop so we did film opening analysis to help get a better fame for how we want out AS film openings to look. From this we pitched our film opening ideas to the class. Milo, Tom and me all chose the social realism genre to research further and pitch. We found that it was generally warp films that provided social realism films e.g This is England so this influenced our ideas. As we all pitched the same genre ideas, it was down to us as a group to decide on which was most likely to work best, eventually we came to a conclusion that we were going to work with Tom's idea. Each of us looked into 3 other social realism films: I had 'The Guvnors', Milo had 'Harry Brown' and Tom had 'Ill Mannors'. These analysis's helped influence Toms idea further which helped us get the idea setting stone. The two main protagonists would be opposites and the locations would include council estates etc in order to follow the conventions of these other social realism films.
Once we had our idea set we each had a role in terms of the planning. Tom completed the storyboard, Milo completed the screenplay and I completed the the shot list. Whilst doing this we has already thought about cast and location and what would work best for our film opening. For the cast we used Milo to represent the teenage protagonist and Tom's dad to represent the older protagonist. so we didn't have any complications in finding the characters, For the locations we were able to include council estates as we knew of some due to us living in close proximity to them. We were also able to use Tom's dads bedroom and Milo's bedroom to shoot the bedroom scenes, so there was no accessibility problems in terms of locations. We had already thought about the type of shots we were going to use as we created the story board trying use a widest range and variety we possible could. This included:
Sliding Scale
- Close Up Shot
- Medium Close Up Shot
- Medium Shot
- Medium Long Shot
- Long Shot
- Extreme Long Shot
- Establishing Shot
Movement
Angles
Common Framing
- Over the Shoulder Shot
- Two Shot
As I had already used the majority or these shots it was easier to incorporate them into our film opening. In terms of movement- the panning shot worked well as it enabled the audience to see what Michael was looking and gave them a better sense of what he could see. The low angles also helped in the bedroom scene to show the characters sat on the side of their bed, we could fully see their faces even though they were looking down so the audience could see their expressions and emotions. And the two shot of the characters coming together at the end helped us include common framing.
By the time we got to the editing stage everyone seemed very comfortable with the process and using Final Cut Pro X due to the fact we had had experience during the prelim and the swede. After using the basic and more simple tools through out the prelim and swede we were then able to advance these in the process of editing our own film opening. An example of a more complexed tool we used is when we created a time lapse by speeding up the clip. We did this by choosing "Show Redtime editor" from the Retime pop up menu (or Command-R). Then we chose a speed and applied a fast preset speed setting. By learning this it helped us incorporate another technique into our opening and also helped represent the passing of time at the end our our film opening.
This is the software we used to create our soundtrack for our film. Previously I had only played around with garageband but had never created a final product. Generally garageband is very complex and takes time to adjust to this complexity. At first I found garageband very difficult and couldn't quite get to grips with it. I began by using basic tools such as the trim tool, position tool, blade tool etc.. Our film required a rather complex soundtrack due to the situation. We thought that the music is a major aspect to our particular film as it creates certain types of emotion to the viewer. Our soundtrack involved remixing the song 'to build a home'. In order to do this more complex tool had to be applied. We had to change the bpm (beats per minute) in order for the two different beats to mix and run smoothly. The beats per minute could be changed on the top bar. Another complex but conveniant tool that I learnt to apply was the flex tool. This allowed me to change the bpm without changing the pitch.
This was vital when mixing the two beats into each other. The beat that was mixed into the song was a loop. Loops are short looping sequences of beats/sounds. These were very simple to use. The whole point in mixing these two contrasting beats is that in our film opening there is a jump between two characters and their situation/environment. We wanted a slow, slightly depressing sound overplaying Michaels situation as we wanted to create a upsetting mood. We then tried to replicate a more grime sound whilst overplaying Kieran. This software has been extremely useful in the making of our film opening as it provided us with a large variety of pre-recorded music, meaning we didn't have to record our own music. This saved us a huge amount of time.
