Thursday, 18 December 2008
Evaluation begins
We have started making our DVD extra for our evaluation to the project and as it stands, we only just have enough footage to cover the entire voiceover. The voiceover is about eight minutes long meaning that we now how to find just over eight minutes of footage for it to work to. We also need to put parts of the footage in the right place so that it coincides with the part of the voiceover that has the description of the effects used and also explaining what we really did. This is difficult because more than one piece of footage can relate to the content of the voiceover at some points so we have to decide which part is most suited to the voiceover.
Wednesday, 3 December 2008
Evaluation of the Rough cut
Last Friday we ensured that we had a rough cut so that we were able to find out what the other people in the class thought of what we had accomplished so far. This allowed us to make an evaluation of how much we still had left to do. We found out that at some points it was difficult to follow what was going on on our opening sequence because there were parts that did not link together very well and they jumped a little bit. We realised that we still had to add a title and also add the soundtrack to the opening sequence in order to make it flow better and to make it easier to understand what is going on in the storyline.
Some members of the class said that it was difficult to tell whether or not the character was in the dreamworld so we added blurring and ghosting onto the points of view shots to make it appear as if the character is disorientated and also to add the effect that he was confused and had no idea where he was. This helped us to portray our idea of confusion and also worked quite well because it kept people guessing at where he was going. We have also added the soundtrack which contains exerpts from several films, with piano and drums which allows us to use the idea of eerieness and also to build tension.
Some members of the class said that it was difficult to tell whether or not the character was in the dreamworld so we added blurring and ghosting onto the points of view shots to make it appear as if the character is disorientated and also to add the effect that he was confused and had no idea where he was. This helped us to portray our idea of confusion and also worked quite well because it kept people guessing at where he was going. We have also added the soundtrack which contains exerpts from several films, with piano and drums which allows us to use the idea of eerieness and also to build tension.
Tuesday, 2 December 2008
Preliminary task
This is the preliminary task that we made in order to get used to continuity editing and using the cameras properly. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=5p8j2Hu6tKQ
who did what during the shoots
During the shoots we decided that it was best for us to stick to the roles that we were better suited to in order to minimize the possibility of somebody ruining the shot. For this we decided that it was best for me to do most of the camera work because of two reasons. Firstly, I do not like being on camera and secondly, I have a habit of looking into the camera. This meant that the camera work was the best thing for me to do as I was unable to look into the camera and get camera shy.
This left Jamie to do the acting because as we saw in our preliminary task, Jamie was better at acting and he really knew how to act. This made it easier for us to shoot because we had a capable actor on set. During the final shots, we realised that there was a difficulty in us both being in the shots because I was a dead body and Jamie was supposed to find me laying between some rocks. This meant that we used our make-up artist to shoot the final parts because neither of us could operate the camera from the angle that we were shooting from. This worked out quite well because we decided that a hand grabbing Jamie's shoulder would work really well because it adds eerieness to the shot because nobody knows were the hand is coming from. This meant we could overcome these problems by using the extra person we had with us.
This left Jamie to do the acting because as we saw in our preliminary task, Jamie was better at acting and he really knew how to act. This made it easier for us to shoot because we had a capable actor on set. During the final shots, we realised that there was a difficulty in us both being in the shots because I was a dead body and Jamie was supposed to find me laying between some rocks. This meant that we used our make-up artist to shoot the final parts because neither of us could operate the camera from the angle that we were shooting from. This worked out quite well because we decided that a hand grabbing Jamie's shoulder would work really well because it adds eerieness to the shot because nobody knows were the hand is coming from. This meant we could overcome these problems by using the extra person we had with us.
Problems during the shoots and who did what
During the shoots, we had minor issues like people walking through our shots in the woods, vehicles in the background and people laughing in class.
Such issues were overcome by taking multiple shots of each frame, giving us three or four copies effectively of our storyboard. This was incredibly helpful, as not only did it avoid problems, it gave us options to choose from when putting our sequence together, which meant we could choose which piece of action we prefered, the shot with the better framing and gave us the opportunity to remove anomolies without having to reshoot or cut ourselves short.
Rain was a problem on one of our shoots, but we made sure we protected ourselves and the equipment by using its bag and covering it with jumpers etc where appropriate, we made sure we had protective clothing on whilst traveling through the woods, to keep us warm, dry and safe from extending branches.
During the woods scene, I directed the shoot and was the main character, Scott did almost all of the filming as he was usually off camera. I did some shots for example the POV shot walking towards the fist shaped rock. Most of the shots I did were taken out, as we prefered the shots of my character in the sequence, rather than when i was not, so we only kept my shots where appropriate. The shots where I find Scott dead in the rocks, were shot by our makeup artist, whom made scott look dead and me gradually more worn and scared.
(Scott did most of the blood on me, and when attempting to do my neck, he applied to much pressure and it shot down my shirt, I was not impressed as I thought it had ruined my shirt (which it didnt) but when it came to it, it actually looked really good.
In the school scene, again I directed it, I set the room up how I wanted it, put all the props in correct places and directed the extras where they had to be and what they should be doing. Scott filmed this section as he did not want to be on film and decided he would like to use the more advanced equipment we were given to work with.
We had a couple of problems with this scene which was overcome by the fact that we took multiple shots, one problem was unsteady panning shots, and another was too much light coming through the windows, which we overcome by pulling down the cream coloured blinds, which look good becuase the give a silloutte of the surrounding building.
Editing wise, I have done most of it, Scott captured the footage and it was my role to cut and edit what we had. We removed the entire sound section from our woods shot and decided to add sound in ourself. This was neccasery because we had a railway crane and a car in the background that sounded really stupid within our footage. It was a shame becuase it is difficult to make sounds follow the footage we have, as movement changes pace often and rapidly.
Scott and I have found soundtracks that we like, and have sought advice and criticism from Jason the technician which has helped greatly.
These sound track will be downloaded and captured by Scott and then we will work together to insert them with the work we have so far.
Our deadline is friday so we are both putting in whatever time we have to ensure that we have made our opening sequence the best we can. I am editing furiously, chopping up film and trying to conform to the conventions of our hybridised genre.
Scott is working hard as the producer, ensuring that all our paperwork is in order and advising me on what he thinks would look better and how to improve certain things.
Such issues were overcome by taking multiple shots of each frame, giving us three or four copies effectively of our storyboard. This was incredibly helpful, as not only did it avoid problems, it gave us options to choose from when putting our sequence together, which meant we could choose which piece of action we prefered, the shot with the better framing and gave us the opportunity to remove anomolies without having to reshoot or cut ourselves short.
Rain was a problem on one of our shoots, but we made sure we protected ourselves and the equipment by using its bag and covering it with jumpers etc where appropriate, we made sure we had protective clothing on whilst traveling through the woods, to keep us warm, dry and safe from extending branches.
During the woods scene, I directed the shoot and was the main character, Scott did almost all of the filming as he was usually off camera. I did some shots for example the POV shot walking towards the fist shaped rock. Most of the shots I did were taken out, as we prefered the shots of my character in the sequence, rather than when i was not, so we only kept my shots where appropriate. The shots where I find Scott dead in the rocks, were shot by our makeup artist, whom made scott look dead and me gradually more worn and scared.
(Scott did most of the blood on me, and when attempting to do my neck, he applied to much pressure and it shot down my shirt, I was not impressed as I thought it had ruined my shirt (which it didnt) but when it came to it, it actually looked really good.
In the school scene, again I directed it, I set the room up how I wanted it, put all the props in correct places and directed the extras where they had to be and what they should be doing. Scott filmed this section as he did not want to be on film and decided he would like to use the more advanced equipment we were given to work with.
We had a couple of problems with this scene which was overcome by the fact that we took multiple shots, one problem was unsteady panning shots, and another was too much light coming through the windows, which we overcome by pulling down the cream coloured blinds, which look good becuase the give a silloutte of the surrounding building.
Editing wise, I have done most of it, Scott captured the footage and it was my role to cut and edit what we had. We removed the entire sound section from our woods shot and decided to add sound in ourself. This was neccasery because we had a railway crane and a car in the background that sounded really stupid within our footage. It was a shame becuase it is difficult to make sounds follow the footage we have, as movement changes pace often and rapidly.
Scott and I have found soundtracks that we like, and have sought advice and criticism from Jason the technician which has helped greatly.
These sound track will be downloaded and captured by Scott and then we will work together to insert them with the work we have so far.
Our deadline is friday so we are both putting in whatever time we have to ensure that we have made our opening sequence the best we can. I am editing furiously, chopping up film and trying to conform to the conventions of our hybridised genre.
Scott is working hard as the producer, ensuring that all our paperwork is in order and advising me on what he thinks would look better and how to improve certain things.
Music
We have decided to use multiple sounds tracks in our piece. We already have continuous downpour where apropriate, footsteps for the appropriate surfaces during walking, and wildlife sounds where acceptable. We have a couple of sound effects to go in, that we will make ourselves such as gasps etc.
Music wise, we have an idea that we are looking at for the teen sections, and as we go into the horror "dream sequence" we are going to use the "halloween" or maybe "hellraiser" theme. We also have a track from the matrix soundtrack that we intend to chop up and use, as this will be ideal for certain sections within the piece, such as building tension and working towards the enigma.
Our sounds will blend in together to sound diagetic where needed.
Music will be in appropriate places to the action and some tracks will need to overlay eachother.
Music wise, we have an idea that we are looking at for the teen sections, and as we go into the horror "dream sequence" we are going to use the "halloween" or maybe "hellraiser" theme. We also have a track from the matrix soundtrack that we intend to chop up and use, as this will be ideal for certain sections within the piece, such as building tension and working towards the enigma.
Our sounds will blend in together to sound diagetic where needed.
Music will be in appropriate places to the action and some tracks will need to overlay eachother.
"Dare to Dream"
We are now in the process of making our title graphic to go on the end of the opening sequence. It needs to be catchy and look appropriate as it is at the vital point of our explosive enigma. This screen needs to flow well and be easily accepted by the audience.
Monday, 1 December 2008
Title of the opening sequence
Our original title did not work very well because it was more like a sentence so we were unable to use it. We each decided to put new titles forward and eventually we have now decided that the new title will be Dare to Dream. We have also split up which sections of the evaluation we are doing because there are some sections that one person in the the group did that the other didnt so we assigned the parts to the people in our group who had done the relative parts. This means that the person who did camerawork and selected the location will evaluate the mise-en-scene aspects as well as the parts that bear reference to semiotics and aural and visual effects.
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