Fiction Adaptation Unit: Critical Reflection

With the essay and the film finished it's time to evaluate myself and my work.


First my film. I am very happy with it; Adam did a great job and fitted the role of the Narrator perfectly. Mark also did a good job and Mike and Ren were great. I like how the film turned out despite not being able to use the studio space and the limiting size of the shed. Out of all of the films I've made on the course this is definitely my best work.

My directing was a little off, I know I'm not a very confident person and I wish I was a little more commanding instead of walking on eggshells in fear of coming across as rude or too demanding. This is something I feel I can get over with more and more experience. On the other hand though I was very surprised with how well I coped working with an actor; it helped that Adam was a nice guy and committed but this has been something I've been dreading since our first unit. I wasn't looking forward to having to contact a complete stranger but I'm glad I did it. The experience will make me more comfortable in doing this the next time round.

My essay went better than expected, my history with written work isn't great but these past few essays (for both first and second year) have been decent. I found it relatively easy to write it and the feedback was easy to understand and follow.

Overall I think this unit has been of a good quality, easily my best work out of everything I've produced but it's not without its flaws:

1. My film has a bit of grain/noise on some of the Subconscious shots: this is something that couldn't really be helped but it's a learning curve. In all of my projects I've ended up with grain so this is something I feel I should read up on a lot more to fully understand how to prevent it.

2. My essay's conclusions feels a little lacklustre. It might just be me though trying to fault it but it seems like it just abruptly ends and doesn't really conclude as much as it could.

3. This has already been mentioned but my directing could have been more like a director. Instead of saying "could you" and "if you don't mind" I could have been more confident sounding in a "this is what we're doing" way. This will hopefully improve with time and experience though.

So with all that said I think I can rest easy knowing I've produced some solid work and not something just put together for the sake of handing something in. I'm pleased with my skills as a writer, director and editor and are things I want to continue to do and improve in whatever way possible.

Fiction Adaptation Unit: Post-Production - Edit part 4: Audio

Once the visual was sorted I focussed on the audio. I overlaid the reading of the script over the visual to get a more consistent sound and discovered that Adam read the script in almost the exact same pace as he did when we filmed the individual so overlaying and aligning the audio so it was in-sync with his lip movements was relatively straightforward.

An issue I encountered was with the gaps in-between these audio overlays: you can hear static during the audio segments and then suddenly the sound is gone as the gap appears. This is quite noticeable and I didn't want it so I got a small clip in-between Adam speaking which contained just static and filled the gaps:

The clips in red are Adam's voice-over the ones in blue are the static clips to fill the gaps. I chose to keep the static going on throughout the whole length of the film to maintain continuity.

I ramped the volume up from 0Db to 6Db to make it easier to hear and then added some foley that I made on the second day of the shoot. The foley consisted of moving my shoes across the floor to simulate footsteps and recording me tapping a button on my Mac for the final scene.

The scene in which Mark lifts his shirt to reveal a bloody bandage also has foley sound, I first searched online to find a sound similar but to no avail so I instead played the clip and recorded myself mimicking Marks' actions to get a very similar sound which I then added into the timeline.

With the audio finished and after a whole week the edit is finished.

Fiction Adaptation Unit: Post-Production - Edit Part 3

There have been several goofs I've noticed in the footage whilst placing them into the timeline:

1. Mark wearing gloves and Mike's shoe in shot.

Before

After

2. When Mark turns around in the camp bed we can see Ren's shoe.

Before

After

3. Adam holding rose: can see boxes and a yellow cup.

Before

After

To solve these problems I enlarged them in Final Cut Pro so the image was bigger than the actual screen. I lowers the quality ever-so-slightly but it removes the otherwise blatant mistakes that might detract from the experience.

Fiction Adaptation Unit: Research - Alex Boorman Workshops

For 4 days we were taught by camera op Alex Boorman; over the 4 days he gave us several workshops.

1. Slow-Motion workshop.


Using a Canon 7D we were tasked with filming something in a higher frame rate. The 7Ds max out at 50fps which isn't particularly high if you wanted to film in slow-motion but for the workshop it was enough. My group consisted of myself, Mike, Sophie and Roxane.

We raised the shutter speed to 1/120 and shot three different scenarios: dropping an I.D badge; blowing a pile of small pieces of paper and a dripping tap.








It was interesting as I had never shot in a higher frame rate before and had a few days prior read a few tutorial articles on shutter speed, ISO and other cinematography-related topics.


2. Three Moods


Our second workshop was to make three 30-45 second films about three different moods: happy, sad and angry. They had to contain at least 5 different shots also. My group was myself, Danny, Charlie and Tim.

For this workshop there were fewer Canons available so our group used a Sony EX1-R instead which I wasn't too fussed with as I prefer them over the Canons. So I set the camera up whilst the others were coming up with ideas.

We based our three films around the same focus point: chewing gum. Titled The Wrigley Trilogy four characters are sat in a room: anger (Danny) gets out some gum and is the first film we see. Sadness (Charlie) is a victim to anger and is the second film and happiness (Tim) finishes the trilogy off with a double surprise.




3. Short

Our final workshop was to create a 1-2 minute long film with one of the following themes: despair, loss, confusion and victory. Myself, Andy, Mark, Sophie and Roxanne chose loss and came up with the idea of Mark getting an important text saying "we need to talk" but before he can call back he loses signal: resulting in him walking around the studios looking for some signal. We used a Sony again due to a second Canon being faulty.





Of the three I think my favourite is the Wrigley Trilogy film: it has three interlinking stories and some light comedy mixed in. It also looks and is shot pretty well.

Aside from getting some more time and experience with the Sony I didn't really learn much. It was good to have the hands on time with the Sony though as I was planning to use one for my fiction shoot.

Digital News Unit: Critical Reflection

Broadstairs Food Festival Reflection


Overall I think this piece was decent; it falls a little due to our reporter talking rather quickly and the framing of our interview with Jo being side on as opposed to a more angled one. I made the mistake of, whilst Mike was running about getting cutaways, not recording audio with the shots resulting in me having to find royalty-free sound effects online to overlay said cutaways.

The framing of the rest of the shots were great: Mike was on camera and made sure things looked as good as possible.

I'm pretty impressed with the quality of the piece though as we had to film this on very short notice: the 2nd week into our course in fact.



Folkestone Triennial Reflection


This piece, I feel, is the stronger of the two: with a more cleaner look to it. There wasn't a rush in having to produce it as we had plenty of time to plan ahead. The reporter did a very good job in speaking her lines and we got through the day pretty quickly. I was on camera for this one and I feel I did a good job but there are a couple of over-exposure issues. The sound is better too and the graphics really help bring the piece up to a more professional standard.



Overall Unit Reflection

One thing I've learned is that making news is tough. We've had several weeks to make two pieces whilst in reality the reporters have a few hours. I'm very impressed on how quickly the professionals do it!

Everyone did their parts well and each contributed to the projects: everyone had a creative control which allowed some good ideas to be proposed and eventually carried out.

Digital News Unit: Making the Teaser and other adjustments

Making the teaser was pretty straightforward, my plan was to make the clips move onto the screen and off again in time with the voice-over we recorded.

After the title intro the word 'Kentertainment' shrinks...

...to the bottom left of the screen to make way for...

...video of the food festival as the teaser speaks.

After a few seconds the clip moves to the left out of frame...

...so the next clips about the Triennial can come in.

I think the teaser looks good and adds a bit of production vale to the whole project. The Logo at the bottom keeps the brand established and adds to the whole news aesthetic.

Digital News Unit: Post-Production - Green Screen

Mike put the raw footage we shot on the green screen through After Effects and this was the finished product:

I like it a lot: I think the logo is a nice touch and Jasmin is placed in a good position: instead of being central she is slightly off to the right where a natural focus point is.

There is a slight bit of pixellation on her left shoulder and left side of her head but this doesn't ruin the whole product.

There is an issue with the sound as you can hear a hoover in the background. I attempted to reduce it with the audio equaliser in Final Cut Pro but this distort Jasmin's voice making it sound like she was talking into a cup and making a dullish noise.

When we were recording the presenter pieces we couldn't hear it which might have been because the hoover was on and was drowning out the audio we were listening to resulting in us not picking it up.

Overall I think the green screen was successful; fits in with the brand and isn't too formal.

Digital News Unit: Post-Production - Teaser

The brief states that we need a presenter-led teaser:

We have contacted Jasmin beforehand about this a week ago but have got no response; meaning we need to ask someone to do it for us.

Me and Sophie were in so I wrote a quick script for the teaser literally just teasing the story to keep the attention of the audience and we asked Hannah (as she was in) if she would be willing to provide the voice which would fit in with our project as our presenter and reporters are all female.

The Folkestone teaser was a little harder to write: we wanted to put "And the Folkestone art festival receives a surprise contribution" but this was already in the presenter lead-in to the Folkestone piece so we couldn't use it.

Hannah obliged and we used the Sony EX1 with a shotgun mic and dead cat which I had brought back in from filming my fiction adaptation to record the audio which took less than 5 minutes.

We recorded all 4 of the Folkestone lines to allow options when we go to show Mike and Aimee but all that's left to do is make the visuals for the teaser and the project should be finished.

Fiction Adaptation Unit: Post-Production - Edit Part 2

Now it's time for colour correcting.

You can clearly see the wall and furniture behind Mark

I first reduced the exposure of the shot but it wasn't quite working, Mike suggested I use a Vignette mask which acts like an oval of light which can be adjusted in size to only let light into the oval.



I placed it in the clip and moved it to the right side of the frame so that the entire left side was outside of the oval: meaning no light reaches it and removing the background.

I've added a Vignette mask to only keep light on Mark.

The above screenshot is the shot with the Vignette mask and it definitely makes a noticeable difference: it looks as though Mark is actually in a dark expanse.

Below is the same method with a different shot; this one was already quite dark but I tried it anyway as the background was still visible.

Before.

After.

I like how the lighting creates a moody and mysterious feel, the restriction of not being able to see the subject's entire face adds a dark theme to the setting and represents the Narrator's anger at his friend being killed.

Now that I have a method of colouring the Subconscious shots I can continue on with doing the rest of them.

Fiction Adaptation Unit: Post-Production - Edit Part 1

Yesterday I began the rough edit of The Death Bed which consisted of putting the clips into the timeline and trimming the edges to where they would roughly be to see how long the film is going to be.

I made it under the time limit; which was a huge relief as I was estimating around 7 minutes going on what we recorded but this is great. Also, when I come round to doing the finer edits the film can only get shorter as I'll be trimming little bits off the clip.

One thing I noticed when putting the clips into the timeline was that I forgot to film shots 12 and 13 where the Narrator and Soldier sit down on the chairs. This means I have a scene where they walk out of frame and suddenly end up sat on chairs, I'm a little bothered as it's not a complete continuity but the fact they walk out of frame and then the next shot is them sat down sort of retains some continuity: they exit the frame and therefore the 'scene' and then appear elsewhere. It's a little tricky to explain but if the camera panned and followed them then the sudden change wouldn't work as the camera keeps us with them. Them walking out of frame allows the change of setting without necessarily having to establish them taking their seats. They're essentially walking from one scene to the next.

Next up is to now go back through and colour correct the videos, primarily the Subconscious ones as they need to be darkened to hide the wall behind the actors.

Fiction Adaptation Unit: Production - Day 2

We started off the day with heading into the shed to re-attempt the ward scenes.

It was very, very cold and Mark had to perform in a thin t-shirt and trousers. I did bring out a heater which we had on between takes which kept the shed at a tolerable temperature but Mark was shaking quite a lot.

Besides the cold set up was easier and quicker than yesterday and we cracked on. By about 1pm we had already done 20 shots and were breezing through the shots. We finished the ward scenes by 2pm and had break for lunch.

All that was left to do was film the house scenes and the audio tracks. It turns out that whilst we were filming the ward scenes Danny had come over to see Sophie and Roxanne so I decided to alter the two photos that we would see of the Narrator and Soldier at the end of the film. Originally they were of Narrator and Soldier stood with their arms around each other and one of the both of them with a third person sat at a table but with so many people around I thought I would stage a fake party/social gathering and make it look more natural with the Narrator and Soldier with a group of 'friends'.

The 3rd and 4th photos will be shown in the film. I feel these look pretty realistic and natural like it's an actual party.

After this we filmed two Subconscious scenes that I'd forgotten to do. Luckily these were just a couple of short shots that were done in 20 minutes. The last thing to do was record Adam reading out all of the script's dialogue to use as a clean voice-over. Mike suggested I bring down my duvet to hold around the microphone so the audio would be absorbed and not reverberate around the room and create an unwanted echo. We recorded two read throughs and that was a wrap: finished at 4pm.

With everyone gone I went outside and recorded a buzz track of silence for the ward and then the same thing but inside for the Subconscious audio. I then recorded some foley of footsteps, swallowing water and tapping the key on a keyboard.

Overall I feel the shoot went very well, despite losing my desired filming location for the subconscious I think it was fine for what I did have available to me. Everyone was fantastic and did their jobs well. I struggled a little when describing specific actions and emotions to Mark and Adam: perhaps I need to improve my vocabulary. The shoot did feel pretty professional also: with someone else working on the camera my thoughts were solely on the script, actors and framing. I felt like a proper director. I definitely need to do this more though to improve my communication further; it helped that my crew consisted of mates making it easier to talk to them but I was too passive and diffident. I need to be more assertive and just make a decision regardless of what others say instead of um-ing and ah-ing.

The next step is to edit the footage: 95 clips from today totals to 176 clips shot over the two days. My fears that I may exceed the time limit has increased but I won't know until I put the clips together.

Fiction Adaptation Unit: Production - Day 1

On wednesday I went with Mike to collect my actor and Mark and to get the equipment whilst Ren made her own way to my house.

We got back and set up the equipment. I chose to start with the ward scenes so we prepared the shed that would be the location.

It was kind of daunting to direct as I hadn't done it since our directions unit back in February/March and I felt this pressure as I explained the shot we were going to do.

We managed to get two shots done before it began to rain which was a problem as we had one of the tungsten lights outside whinging into the shed so we moved inside to instead film the Subconscious scenes.

Sophie had a big black blanket which we taped to the outside of the large window in the living room that made the room pitch black. We switched on a tungsten light and it lit up the room very brightly which wasn't what I wanted: I needed a small light shining on the subject as you could see the wall behind them. The location is supposed to be a dark expanse and be seemingly endless.

Instead we grabbed a desk lamp and shone that which made a much better lighting effect, Mike would hold it during takes and Ren would be on sound whilst I directed and pressed record. Mike got a piece of card and rolled it into a cone-like shape and taped it to the lamp head to focus the light and lessen the spill onto the wall behind the subject. Mike's arm started to get tired after a few takes and the stepladder he was stood on would sometimes creak and consequently get picked up on the microphone. So Mike taped the lamp to one of the tungsten light stands which solved both of the problems.

We filmed all of the Subconscious scenes by 5pm and I called it a day on that: my goal was to get all of those done as they cumulated to almost half of the total shots. We finished the day with 36 of 70 shots completed: which I was very pleased with.

I feel the day went well, I was rocky to begin with in terms of directing but I got used to it. Adam did a great job performing his lines and Mark was good also as the Soldier.

My biggest concern is that I will exceed the time limit the film has to be: 3-5 minutes. It seemed like I filmed a lot today and that was proved true when I exported the shot footage and found there were 81 clips! Thankfully the majority were retakes. We pretty much filmed each shot three times.

Thursday would consist of the ward and house shots along with getting a buzz track and a recording of Adam reading the entire script for the voice-over parts of the film.

Fiction Adaptation Unit: Pre-Production - Expenses Tally

Below is a list of all expenses for my fiction adaptation unit.

Black Cloak with Hood --------------------------------------------------------- £10.00

Army Trousers ------------------------------------------------------------------- £12.98

3 Red Roses ---------------------------------------------------------------------- £4.10

Camp Bed ------------------------------------------------------------------------ £0

Actor's Travel Expenses -------------------------------------------------------- £20

Total -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- £47.08

I compiled this list so as to show what I've bought for the film and as a tidy way of summarising the costs of the production, like a budget but after I've bought the items instead of setting a target price to keep the production under.

Just under £50, I'm pretty happy with that. Although I'd much prefer to make a zero-budget film: it's the first time I've actually spent money to make a film and I feel the quality shows. 

Fiction Adaptation Unit: Pre-Production - Mental Preparation

Tomorrow I shall be filming and, to be honest, I'm kind of worried.

This will be the first time I've worked with an actor and I'm not too great with new people. I usually hold back on being myself incase they don't like who I am and I don't want to unintentionally patronise them either when directing.

I know I'll feel bad if they don't quite nail the scene and I have to ask them to do it again or if critique their performance but this is the purpose of director though; I need to try and get over this if I can. Hopefully doing those things will actually make me get used to it and not worry so much the next time round.

On top of this I also have to think about the framing, lighting, sound and the continuity along with any sudden decisions I may have to make. When filming my instinct is to go straight to the camera to see how the shot looks: I like being on camera and to have to try and put trust in someone else is tough.

Luckily I have Mike on camera duties so I can relax a bit more knowing he can handle it but I can imagine I'll be taking quick walks back and forth between the actor and camera.

Also: priorities. I feel I tend to mix my priorities up. I like to set the camera and lighting up and then direct the actor but it would be smarter time-saving wise to talk to my actor whilst everyone else sets up.

I do have my storyboard which is half the battle won already; plus I have the shot category list and tick list ready.

There's also the worry of weather: I'm filming the ward inside a shed and if it rains (before it's supposed to in the poem) then the audio may be affected. I have checked the forecasts and between 12am and 3pm it goes from 70% chance of rain to 40%. If it does rain then I'll film the subconscious scenes instead. I do have the camera and crew for 2 days so I shouldn't worry too much: there's less than 10% chance of rain on Thursday.

Fiction Adaptation Unit: Pre-Production - Storyboard and Lists

I have drawn a full storyboard for every shot in the film:

There are 70 shots in total which sounds a lot, considering the brief states the film must be between 3 and 5 minutes, but the shots don't waste time: there's dialogue in the majority of them and some shots are less than 3 seconds.

Along with this I have also created two lists to help with filming as I will be shooting out of sequence: a tick list for each shot so I know when I have filmed them and a category list so I can film all of the same-styled shots together. For example one category groups all of the mid-shots in the Subconscious setting so I can shoot all of those in one go and not have to re-setup the location every time if I were to shoot in sequence.

Shot Categories

Shot Tick List

I like shooting in sequence: it helps to keep a track of where you are; helps to prevent continuity errors and helps the actors keep their character's mindset in the right order. However I feel this shoot requires an out-of-sequence method otherwise it would take days or even weeks to film it all.

Fiction Adaptation Unit: Pre-Production - Cinematography

When filming Mike’s project we used a 2.35:1 cinemascope aspect ratio, giving a lot of space on either side but sacrificing the height of the shot.

I’ve been thinking about what aspect ratio I want to use and was leaning towards the same as Mike’s but realised some of my shots would end up with unwanted negative space.

1.6:1 is widescreen computer displays, 1.77:1 is HD and 1.85:1 is the standard theatrical AR.

So what do I go for?

A little more research led me to this video that explains how the 19 film On The Waterfront was supposedly shot in such a way that if you watched it in the three mentioned ratios it wouldn’t ruin the viewing. Each shot was framed to accommodate each ratio.

I wish I had come across this video earlier as I would have definitely tried this out but with my shoot being tomorrow I feel it’s a little too late.

The film itself will be uploaded to Youtube which adopts the 16:9 (or 1.77:1) AR but I would like a more filmic look to my project so I may go with 1.85:1.

The Sony EX1-R allows you to set an aspect marker to several ratios including 1.85:1 so I can frame my images to these markers. The Sony films in 16:9 so as long as I keep within the markers I can add a letterbox effect in Final Cut Pro to remove the image outside of the area.

Below is a image I found showing the sizes of the different aspect ratios:

The difference in ratio only applies to what you're viewing it on, so watching an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 on a computer or widescreen TV will give the letterbox effect but you can adjust most modern TV's now to different ratios to get the best look. 

All in all I am either going to shoot in 1.66:1 or 1.85:1 but the Sony doesn't have a marker for 1.77:1.

Fiction Adaptation Unit: Research - Mike's Shoot

On Saturday I helped Mike out with his fiction shoot by being cameraman.

It was a good day and we managed to film his whole project in about 5/6 hours. It was a good experience using the Canon too; although I'm not using one for my shoot it was good practise for framing and handling it.

I think I enjoyed it because I was being directed so my role was straight-forward; Mike did have a clear vision and provided a storyboard which made things easier. Setting up the shot was easier too as I have since learned about aperture, shutter speed, ISO etc after Mike lent me his Canon for a couple days so I could learn it in preparation for his shoot. I felt smarter and more comfortable in using a camera than I did last year and I believe that's due to researching these parts of the camera.

Cinematography is something I want to learn about to help me with all future projects and this shoot helped with that.

Overall it was a learning experience and got me back into a production mood ready for my own shoot in a few days time.