Showing posts with label third year. Show all posts
Showing posts with label third year. Show all posts

Monday, 2 May 2016

Untill next time :


Debbie: Behind the scenes - Evaluation

Over all the films are short and sweet, i wanted to do lots of short little ones as i thought this would be most engaging for the the viewer. If done for a real life film, the audience could pick and choose who the listen too and learn more about there character and job role. As alot of the answers to the questions were very similar having lots of shot interviews meant they didnt feel repetitive.

There is really and in the back of the interviews how ever if this was my only film/ role i would have focused more on where i filmed them how ever as i had 700 other things doing on i feel like a bit of noise is not that bad


I feel it over all is a bit vauge and could be made better but as it is just a small side project and mainly a momento for us it dose its job.

Debbie: Behind the scenes- Filming and editing

Filming was pretty easy the main thing i had to do was manage the whole process making sure anyone who filmed something knew what was going on and they we had enough coverage for what we needed. As we used several cameras and people filming  and lauren was DIT on set for debbie i also let her look after the files for the BTS too. This meant the files were well labeled and organised with who filmed what on what camera and when making it easier to edit. The filming of debbie BTS was done by anyone with a spare pair of hands as we were stretched pretty thin on jobs roles for the film any way. Initially i hired just marco to do the filming for me so he could focus on getting nice shot however as we needed 2 operators for the sound team he got moved over there instead.


Editing the film again was pretty straight forawrd, once i had done all the transcribing and paperwork it was easy to create a narrative to the film and emphasised this with an up beat sound track. The main issue with the edit is the noise in the back ground of the interviews how ever despite trying to noise reduce it we couldnt get rid of it fully.

Debbie: Behind the scenes- planning

Paper work 

I want sure what to do for the paperwork as i didnt know what would be happening to know what shots to plan and scedual things so i made a rough set of guidelines and plans thes discribed and showed examples of types of shots i would like. 

Therefor who ever was in charge of bts that day could pick up a camera and be like ok im gunna do it like this and see what happens. 

The main bit of paperwork was planning the questions and interviews to make sure the answers covered gave a good enough story to edit too. 

After filming i also had to transcribe all the answers given and timings and stuff so i could re arange the answers into some form of script to edit the other footage too. 

Reserch on paper work 






Debbie: Behind the scenes - Research


Like everything ive done this year ive gone a bit OTT with analysing and planing things and even tho my plan for the BTS is pretty simple and laid back i wanted to make sure i was doing it correctly so i have reaserched several different aspects of BTS film and just general documentary making. 

Styles of BTS 

interviews -  asking the crew question on who the made the process 
vlog - just filming where ever to document the process cut to music 
documentary - Filming the whole process from start to finish asking question along the way 

"documentaries on the making of other films has become a film genre in its own right. The making-of film may ultimately be more important than the film itself. " 

https://filmschoolrejects.com/8-honest-behind-the-scenes-documentaries-that-show-both-sides-of-movie-making-3766e6816349#.1gzu1zs0i

How to make BTS 






How to do interviews 





Editing 








Debbie: Behind the scenes - Concept, importance and influences

The idea

The idea is pretty self explanatory, i am to create a behind the scenes video that captures all the important moments from creating Debbie, along side interviews with the cast and crew.  


why i am doing it 

There are 3 main reasons why i wanted to make these films. 1 becuase we promised them to people who contributed to our indegogo as a thankyou , 2 as a reminder to ourselves once the project was over that it wasn't actually as bad as we thought at the time, 3 to gain skills in creating interviews and paper work in planning these films. 


why i think behind the scenes are important

im a big fan of behind the scenes videos, some time even more than the film itself, and TBH there one of the main reasons i got into film making. 

I enjoy watching them as they not only show you more about a film you love but show off all the unseen tallents and work that go into  making a film as well as all the fun they have on them. 

I think behind the scenes videos are important to creating films for several reasons 

- can be used as a publicity tool 
- inspire people to get into film making 
- rewarding to watch if fan of the film 
- a nice memory for thoose who made the film 
- reveal interesting tips and techniques for other film makers 

so all though just short little random films i think BTS is an important part of film making. 

Debbie - summary of the project

I cant believe this is the end. Is it really the end? Will this project ever end ? no is the answer to that.

Along side having to create an opening title sequence for the film as we tried to film one but it just wasnt quite right, i now have to do MORE BLOODY WORK FOR THIS FILM. WHY WONT IT LEAVE ME ALONE. After hand in i have to start sorting out the indegogo bundles for the film and send them off to the people who funded our film.

Summary of  the debbie blog 

I feel like i havent blogged as much as i should have for this film it and if i have not gone into that much detail compared to the amount of work i have done, however as i have spent so much time actually doing the work i have not been able to keep on track of this too.  I have done 100s of reaserch and plans which hopefully you can see through the quality of work produced from all of us, but i was not able to document the whole process here. 

As producer it is also really hard to document the process as after all the inital reaserch done for BTB most of it was me filling out paper work and generally managing the group, and i feel like i dont really need to write a blog post on why i did the sooting scedual/ call sheets or other bits of paper work becuase it should be self explanatory from the pre production folder. 

I have tried to go into much detail of the additional roles i covered and demonstarate the work i have put in but we started this project LAST APRIL and its really hard to go back and remember 12 months worth of work and reaserch when you just did it naturally with out thought. 


I have  also gone into alot of detail of my thoughts of the process and the film on my evaluation of the film submited with the project. 


Summary of the whole process. 

This project was challenging!  I think it is more interesting to take on a challenging project than a simple one as you can learn more from it. Our group set out to not only demonstrate the skills we have through this film but take on something we have never done before. All though for the most part and actual nightmare to create  with the complexity, restriction, problems and negitivity this film faced actually seeing it through to completion egnoring what it looks like take a lot off skill, patience and will power from the whole  team.  Along side that, the film is in my opinion pretty good for a student project of 5 people who had never done something like this. We all used the skills we had to the best we could for this project, ok the story isnt that great and it still needs a bit of tweaking but the over all out come is more than any of us could have imagined. The film shows how we have all used the skills given to us on this course as well as demonstrates who experimental techniques taught on DFSA can be used alongside traditional cinema to create something unique, unusual and well executed.  The whole process has probably been the biggest yet best learning curve for us all in the whole time at university, teaching us not only new skills but showing to ourselve that we do have it in ours to do something to this scale. I think despite what the film looks like, what grade it gets and what anyone thinks of it every one who took part in this project from lucy the director to kat on clapper should be proud of the efforts they put in to achieve something well all enjoy. I think despite the negativity and struggles we have had to make this rather than being glad its over we should be glad its happened, and continue on with the will power and determinism we have gained from this project  to make even bigger and even crazier things in the future.

And ... Im glad this is the evaluation i am writing for my final proejct as when i started this course i had no idea what i was doing, got pushed into a load of rubish groups and generally for the most part wanted to give up, how ever i have put 1000% of my energy into everything i do and  i feel like now it was all worth doing. 



This post was originally meant to evaluate the film but i went on a bit of a soppy tangent so i think im going to leave it at that.

Debbie - Production design and prop management

Influences 

Lucy wanted to create a timeless kind of feel to the film, a space that you couldn't place the location or time setting. This was to demonstrate how addiction is  something that happens to any one at any time. To do this i decided to mix match items for serval different time periods so it wasn't distinctive where it was set. 

my main influences for the cafe itself was the 1970s, i choose the 1970s as there cafes look quite grungy and run down and minimal which would heighten the feeling meant to be created in the film. I wanted it to be grungy as it brings out more of jarvis character as he wouldnt choose somewhere nice to eat 

The bold patterns and run down furniture seen in 1970s cafes/ homes fit the mood of the film well.







For jarvis costume as his character is a little bit scetchy, run down and worn out  but he was still a nice guy at heart i wanted to base him on 1980s /90s  skin heads.  as jarvis needed to look smart like he had been at work but also as he was un reliable the fred pery shirt with braces and a bomber jaket seemed to fit well. The shows he put a shirt on to try look smart but didnt really follow through with the rest. The skin heads attitude and characteristics also suit his character. 



How ever due to budget and clashing of pattens with the cafe i dedided to mornernism him a little bit, this also meant people could still relate to him and not jsut see him as a scruffy person. 

There for jarvis is still wearing a bomber jacket but with chinos and a white shirt instead. 



Pete had to contrast jarvis, he needed to be serious, smart and traditional therefor when coming up with plans i wanted him to be in a 1950s tweed suit. This would show he had all the serious traditional mannerisms that were around in the 1950s but lost in current culture.

I wanted pete to wear navy as navy is a darker cooler colour and shows him as strict person




How ever again due to buget and time frame to buy a suit i was left to just get one deviverd from asda, it still shows that pete is contrasting to jarvis.... but not as much as if it was 50s. 


  • Carrying the blue symbolism associated with the darker shades of blue, navy conveys importance, confidence, power, and authority as well as intelligence, stability, unity, and conservatism. Like black, it carries a sense of elegance, sophistication. It's associated with police and military.
http://desktoppub.about.com/od/choosingcolors/f/What-Color-Is-Navy.htm 

like pete debbie is meant to be a strong convident character contrasting jarvis there for i also placed her in navy.  i wanted debbie to be in a 1950s lace tea dress. All thought once these dresses symbolised dainty women they have now been taken on my the rock and roll subculture and wore be rebellious characters. Teamed with a leather jaket this would sympolis debbies power and rebelious nature.... how ever like the running theme of this project we didnt have the money or time for that so i got one as similar as ai could from asos.



for debbies make up i wanted to keep it quite natural, she is meant to be wild and in your face but going ott with make up with the way she acts the character would be too over dramatic and powerfull. 




Ideas 

after  talking through the colour scheme with shaid and sending ideas and concepts over to him and lucy i mostly just got on with creating the idea myself.

( images of planning ideas with group )







I tried to go into as much detail as i could for the production design  as that is allways the thing that grabs my attention the most when wtaching film as i just find the who concept of who little things like the colour of the clothes can influence and change a characters meaning. I have always been really interested in production design but never had the opportunity to do it. 


For the lay out of the room itself i drew up several detailed floor plans, for every kind of budget we might have, i then created mood boards and description and measurement plans  which were given to shahid to draw into nicer concept art. 



details i went into

I went into LOTS of detail when it came to planning the props, which most of it in the end went un notice of not filmed.

As the cafe was themed in a train station as an inside joke from our class i made the waitress out fits/ menues/ photoframes everything all center around this.


Even little things like the rubber band ball on petes desk matched the theme as all the elastic bands were blue and yellow . 

I HAND MADE ALL THE CHAIRS!! I litterally spent days re covering and painting the colours of the chairs so they fit with the theme!!! 

I think the most detail and attention i paid was to the drugs themself which we do not have a shot of in the end. 

As jarvis is an abused of drugs not jsut recrational i gave him a tin of a veriety of drugs.  In there i made a little bag of fake cocaine, had a few random pills and some fake MDMA bombs. 

The main detail to the drugs though was the DEBBIE drug. I decided that this drugs should be a hilusicinigenic based drug to get the effect we wanted on the wall. So i made the drugs myself out of sugar paper so the looked like a tab of lsd. On them i got printed the words d-eb31e... this was choosen as the name, as  reaserch chemicals are normally printed on to the pills them so we made our own fake drug that vaugly looked like the name debbie. I printed it on to the drug themselfs so a shot could be seen against the other recognisable drugs and people would go OH LOOK HES TAKE A DRUG, ITS NAMED DEBBIE SHE IS THE DRUG NO WAY. Rathen than have to be told in the diolouge. 



Over all i spent ALOT of time paying stupid attention to detail of the props most of which didnt end up being filmed :(


Managing lots of props 

As we had alot of props and costumes, everything was stored at my house. I labed and took photographs of what all the props looked like so they could be easily found by other people and loged them into a inventory, on set i kept everything in its on section so it could be easily found.






Debbie - Fundraising and Marketing

To raise funds for our film me and Lucy looked for any way possible to get people to donate, although our group could cover most of the budget we still needed some money to get us the final things.

Bake sale 

Bake sales have become quite a common thing at UCA for people to do. All though we used online donations as well people either did not click on the link or forgot to donate in time. How ever sitting out side in the cold for a while  meant people walking passed us couldn't really forget to donate and got food too, so win win.  As i was doing the paper work and casting at the time lucy didnt the risk assments and orginising the bake sale, but kept me in the loop with times and plans ETC 



Su night 

Along side the bake sale me and lucy also hosted our own event at the su. For this i spent days making the perfect play list and writing a pub quiz based on music i loved. Apart from raising money this was just a laugh to do really. We both jsut wanted a night to enjoy music we liked and hang out with friend whilst doing work at the same time.  




Indegogo 

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/d-eb31e/x/12492561#/

This was my main focus for fundrasing. For this i had to right an in detail pitch about the film, create perks as rewards  and make a trailer so people knew what they were getting them self in for. All of this took weeks of planning an orginising. We tired to keep it professional by creating pre production work for the trailer, it also doubled up as a pre vis as we got time in G12 were i messured the flats and space we needed. We also went in the photography studio and took proffesional photos of ourself so people thought we were legit.


trailer 




Besides writing the indgogo page i did alot of reaserch into what makes crowd funding sucessful.

http://www.indiewire.com/article/indiewires-ultimate-guide-to-crowdfunding-for-filmmakers
http://www.raindance.org/fund-your-film-with-raindance-and-indiegogo/
https://support.indiegogo.com/hc/en-us

i choose indegogo over any other website as if we didnt reach our goal we still got some of the funds we raised. 


Facebook 

Along side this to get more people interested in the film i ran a face book and youtube page, here i would post updates, news , behind the scenes all that jazz to get people interested in the project. I still after fundraising keep posting on the page as i feel it is a good way to document the work i have been doing and share it with everyone.

we also created concept art and posters for the film on here

then if we wanted to share the film publically could use this to launch our film on.

https://www.facebook.com/debbieFilm/





Trailers

i then also, becuase if that isnt enough marketing allready created short little clips of the trailer and publised them on the films youtube  to get people interested in the project



Over all marketing was never something i planned to do as a producer... how ever it has been fun to learn and reaserch. I feel its a great way to document and share the process with a wider audience. 

Debbie - Organization

A project this scale needs a lot of organisation to keep it all on track, to help with this i set up different ways of storing files, dividing up task  and communicating with each other.


Trello 

i used trello to set everyone tasks and keep on track of what needed doing


Google drive 

i used a shared google drive to store all paper work onto  so could be accessed by any one at any time 


Hard drives

The team  had allocated and labeled hard drives to store all footage on

banking 

we had a group bank account so payments count be monitored and used by any one of the team

messaging 

and we also had a group chat to comunicate between each other. if done in the real world would be done via email or slack.



over all there was lost of ways to keep everything together and easily assessed by the team 

debbie - Description of final concept

How we got to this point

So after  months of going back and forth between me and lucy wth ideas all rather different and changing dramatically each time we decided to sit down and talk about what the actual out come and aim of the film needed to be .  All though we wanted to make a scripted drama we still wanted to keep it quite experimental and unique. We decided to do this we should not only focus on the dialogue but how making the film itself could tell a story.   Besides the scripted we wanted to showcase how everyone can be addicted to something and how this impacts on there life. Through both sound a visuals we could demonstrate the effects this has on a person. 



the aim

- short scripted drama the focus on 2 brothers 
- the 2 brothers each have addictions and cant see how they are both int he wrong 
- compare the addictions through the use of visual effects and sound 
- one addicted to drugs, one work, both addictions affect them in some way 
-  show jarvis narrative and thought through a personification of the drug 
- you can see how they are both being effected 


why we want to do i

- intersting 
- unique 
- simple  but complex 
- show case our tallents 
- incoporates different media




Debbie - Casting

Casting


For the casting lucy took the character bios she wrote when generating the script and shortened them to a brief description to put on several casting websites. 


I then sent these to various websites , emailed drama school etc and got several responses back. 


i then emailed back the applicants with a copy of the script and dates the auditions would be held on, i then organised the applicants into different time slots and dates. 



we decided to host the auditions on skype and via video application as most applicants did not live near by so it made it both easier for us and them. 

When casting we asked them to read 2 sections of the script they liked the best and explain why they chose those sections, this showed they understood the story and characters. 

here is our cast 


Since then i have been in constant contact with them asking them question, arranging rehearsals sorting out costume. 


Our main problem when casting was trying to find a waitress as no one wanted to play a small role. 

We had one girl who was up for the part, how ever the day before filming dropped out for a paid role. There for we had to use molly my housemate as a last minitue resort. This is not a problem though as the waitress is mainly a small background character. 


Debbie - Pre production research

Paper work for scripts 

Alongside all the basic pre production work i already know i have been looking on line at tips on how to produce a scripted drama.

I have been reaserching all the paperwork needed to create the film from production to edit aswell as how to manage the project.


Here are some examples of the  documents i have been looking at

Production scheduling checklist - tips - http://people.ucsc.edu/~ilusztig/172/handouts/preproduction.pdf

scheduling for dummies - http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/the-art-of-scheduling-a-film.html

how to breakdown a script - http://howtofilmschool.com/script-breakdown/

Tips for hiring actors - https://www.theproducersperspective.com/my_weblog/2008/12/10-audition-tips-for-actors.html 

everything to know about film prodution - http://www.filmmaking.net/blog/show_article.asp?id=76

65 tips for producing - http://www.filmmakingstuff.com/the-official-65-step-film-production-checklist/

what exactly a producer dose - http://creativeskillset.org/job_roles/757_producer


From this my pre production work should be detailed and planned out enough to see the idea be created and run smoothly to the edit, if all followed by the team to plan. 

Anxiety- The End result and evaluation



We are yet to post the full version on line how ever here is a rough cut to demonstrate what the final version will look like. 



Summary

Anxiety was developed as an idea by me and Lauren as we both enjoyed working together last year on our dance project and thought it would be a nice little side project to end the time at university on. The aim of the project was not to learn new skill but to further refine the skills that our team had  to create a well rounded  polished project. This project will both show case our skills but push them a little but further to create a mixed media film that works with both planning and incorporating animation alongside the dance.  I feel how well the process was from start to finish and how the final film looks shows how defined and dedicated we all our to our role and film making to create a piece that is as good as it is in such a small space of time.  I feel the video all thought simple is very well constructed and put together  in all aspect  with only small room for improvement.

Short evaluation of my role

From an editors point of view this project was very enjoyable to work on as I was given a lot of footage and freedom to develop the film with my own style. The film not only let me get to show case my avid skills by over coming edit continuity problems by flipping or cropping the clips, but it also showed how organisation and planning benefits and editor.  Knowing the project would be passed around from person to person I made sure the files were well organised and labelled to make it easier for other people to work on later on in the edit.  I also, all thought it was not my intention too, got to develop my skills in after effects too. As the project was a solid white background I was tasked with keying and masking the film in after effects. In doing this all thought a simple- ish task, I learnt another skill that may be called up when looking for employment.


What I achieved from it

All though on paper it may seem like we have not learnt many skills, as I am already skilled in avid editing I feel the execution and precision of the project  demonstrates the ability I didn’t think I was capable of before filming the project.

Shi eld - Finished film and evaluation

The end result 

Directors cut - 






My cut- 





Shield  - Fashion film evaluation

Video evaluation

I feel like this video is more simplistic than we first planned it to be, how ever  due to the fact I was the only person filming and we only had a few hours to film it in with a lot of changes happening on set it am ok with that. It is a fashion film so the main focus was to be on the clothes and if it was more complicated and quirky then the clothes might have gotten lost in the style of the film or trying to focus on the clothes with something more complex would have lost the directors intentions to promote self defence. I feel like my cut of the film flowed a lot nicer than then directors cut as the music was a lot faster and the cuts a lot sharper making it seem more powerful. I feel like the director got to invested in having the soundtrack they wanted and wasn’t focusing on how the over appearance of the film looked, for example as her version was cut to the song the text had to move with it which was too fast for people to read. How ever as this was her film and project I had to do that version for her other wise it would compromise her university work.  I feel like some of the over all framing of the film was bad, the models facial expression were not that good  and the movements did not look the powerful. However there was a lot of things to try on concentrate on like the what the director wanted, the self defence teachers constantly getting in the way, sorting the lighting, making sure the model didn’t fall out of frame so I could mask it. So trying to keep on track of all these things whilst trying to listen to a director who doesn’t understand filming was a very challenging thing to keep on track of. I think the over all look of the film is not that bad tho, its out put is for a student blog so there for dose not matter that much about the low quality and occasional bad framing as it still gets the message of fashion and self defence across. 

Working for a client

Im not sure if I call Christina a client as she is because she contacted me for help, but isn’t because she directed it.  However in each scenario I learnt new skills in how to work to somebody else’s brief.  Over all the experience was fun, I was exciting to work with someone else other than dfsa friend. It gave me knew skills in preparing documents and pitches of ideas to share with someone through the process of what I was planning to do. It taught me how to manage and communicate with a team member who I can not be in close contact with all the time and how to develop some body else idea into a film. The film was a fun concept as I haven’t worked with either fashion or self defence so it was interesting trying to work out what skills we had learnt that were similar to approach the filming style. The main difficulty I had working with Christina as I was not just making her film but she wanted to direct it meant it was hard to convay what would and wouldn’t work for film, there for id have to film one thing one time to keep her happy and then do it again a way that I knew I could edit it together.  It was also hard to get everything she wanted to incorporate into  on film one film as she didn’t understand the filming process. If I was to do this project again I would take full control and direct the film too as it would have been easier to be like this is my plan this is how im doing it are you happy ok now let me get on with it, than have to keep explain to her no we cant do this for XYZ.

Self shooting evaluation

This was the first time I had shoot a formal project on my own so for it I had to learn a lot of new skills or at least develop ones that I hadn’t done before. I think the main thing I had learnt from this project is I actually have all the skills to film on my own all ready so I should stop being so scare/ reliant on other people to help me film.  I was given a cannon 5D on the day which I had never used before and along side this being the first project I had done camera work on I managed to set up all the setting and sort out the lighting with out even questioning what I am doing. If I was to do the project again I would stop being so worried and questioning if what I was doing was correct or worked for the director and spend more time focusing making sure the framing and shutter speeds  or elements I thought let the film down this time were correct. All thought we had a limited time in the studio it is better to spend a little extra time setting up to get it right in one time but I kind of panicked because I was doing it on my own and for a client  that I forgot to do that.


Over all I think my version of the film is simple, short but effective. For her version I had to cut it and edit it her way as she was the director so there wasn’t much le way for me to make improvements to that how ever she did give me permission to submit my version of the film as part of my portfolio as I felt it was the stronger one.  It was interesting to work with someone to create something and would be fun to do again and this project has given me new skill or at least developed ones I thought I didn’t have.