Before we began blogging we had
Year 13’s who had already done the project we are starting come into our lesson
to give us advice. They told us what to do as well as what not to do and below
is what they said.
DOs
DON’Ts
Really
research and know your location, use a smartphone/camera etc. to see if it
will be an effective place to film
“Location!
Location! Location!”
Don’t just turn up to your location and start
filimg without asking
ALWAYS HAVE
FULL BATTERY BEFORE FILMING
DON’T leave it to the LAST MINUTE
Triple check
EVERYTHING before going to your location to film
DON’T copy another thriller
Be wary of
what you bring
Don’t work with something you are not passionate
about
Work with
people you trust
Don’t stick with something you don’t like
Be wary of
weather
Don’t stick to the storyboard exactly
Always check
continuity
Don’t forget the tripod
Record the
film as soon as you can
Be aware of what other groups are doing but don’t
fixate on what they’re doing
Take
inspiration from other films but BE ORIGINAL
DON’T do essay after essay after essay
Use an out
of the ordinary location
Be prepared
to take a risk
Improvise
Get more
footage than you need rather than less
Be aware of
reflections
Be creative,
random and spontaneous
Play around
with your editing software
Do a risk
assessment
Be aware of
health & safety
Vary your
presentation on your blog (use other software etc.)
This image shows of company logo. The purpose of it is to give a visual representation of our company brand. As a group we decided to call it JRS Media, the letters symbolises the first letter of our names.
Pre-Production:
I was unable to join in on our whole groups preliminary project,so I had to do mine by myself, in which I enlisted the help of my friends whilst I focused on the filming and production aspect.
I started with an idea,in this case I chose to do something original and humorous for example, the props were used to mimic other objects to make the situation funny, as he is playing Russian Roulette with a banana, whilst she continues to eat the pear another piece of fruit, not used for anything but eating, unlike the banana; making sure I included all the necessary camera movements I needed, shot reverse shot, 180 degree rule and a match cut.
I then created a story board which mapped out the time on each shot and the style of each shot, e.g close up, mid shot etc. With the story board I then planned out how to keep the continuity of each shot, by keeping the lights on and having certain objects in the same place throughout shooting.
I then instructed the "actors", on where they would seat and act for the filming process and using the Year 13's advice I made sure the camera was fully charged, kept as steady as possible via the use of a tripod, and I made sure it was filmed in one day to keep continuity.
Before filming I also looked at previous preliminary projects, and noticed most of them were rather repetitive, but shot well, so I tried to use a different idea/storyline but imitate the level of some of the productions. Production:
Despite planning the production there were still some issues with filming, firstly the "actors" weren't to enthusiastic to participate in it at first, so I had to motivate them to start the filming.
I then briefed the "actor"s on what they would be doing and started production, however due to filming at home, it was difficult to keep all the noises in the background the same, so this may be evident in the final film, however it was a variable I could not control.
It took slightly longer to film than I expected, I allotted 20 minutes for the whole process, but took half an hour but this was due to the uncooperative nature of the "actors" at first.
From completing this preliminary task I now know that when it comes to making the thriller, I will make sure any variables are easier to control, and that I include "actors" who are more willing to participate and more serious about the projects as a whole.
If I were to do this preliminary task again I would make sure that I allowed myself more time to complete it, and that I would use the tripod for more scenes as the handheld, although convenient, doesn't have the smooth transactions/motions that I wanted. Post-Production:
During the editing of the video I had some issues trying to organize the many clips I had, so I could choose the best ones to include in my film, this also included making sure all the shots had good continuity in them, or as much as I could solve, I then had to become familiar with the editing software (Pinnacle), but after that it was easy enough to edit and navigate the program.
Through the editing process I learnt the basics; how to cut the clips at the right place, keep the pace up, and how to get rid of unnecessary pauses. I also, although I didn't include it in my preliminary, how to add titles, use different transitions, add sound and add pictures to the footage. All of these techniques could be useful in the thriller we will be making.
The audience feedback for my project was varied, some people liking it and finding it funny, and others not understanding what it was or just simply not liking it at all. However I was lucky in the sense that most people thought it was well edited as it included all the necessary shots, and had a good pace, but the only technical aspects that needed working on was the camera, as pole said the quality wasn't very good, which I can rectify with using a better camera for my thriller.
Overall I am pleased with my preliminary it isn't as sharp as I would have liked it, but it has the originality and humour which I like, and hopefully is at a high enough standard for the marking criteria .
When pre-planning our prelim task
we first looked at a short basic storyline that could be adapted to any chosen
location throughout the school. We came up with the idea of a heroin dealer
trying to push a fellow student to buy his drugs. We first planned to do it
within our Media classroom (H9) during a free period but discovered that the
room was rarely free and that finding a time when it would be free at the same
time me and my teammates Sam and Rosie had free periods would be difficult. So
we decided to move out to the corridor outside instead.
In the corridor we planned to do
the match cut with me in the hoodie opening the blue double doors and entering
the corridor. We had accounted for the 180 degree rule and had planned the shot
reverse shot. Also, once it had been planned out on our storyboard, we had the
idea of using high angle and low angle shots to reflect power in our chosen
storyline. So using our storyboard we learnt what was missing from our clip and
could fill in those gaps.
However after finishing our
planning we discovered we had left out a vital part of the prelim, we were
missing having someone sit down opposite another. So we had to change our
location because the school corridor didn’t have any chairs. We did consider
changing the storyline to sitting outside the head teacher’s office due to us
being in trouble but instead decided to relocate to the school refectory and
use the same storyline.
It was at that point where we
looked on developing the storyline with props and stereotypes. We included the
prop of Sam’s work books because we needed a reason for Sam to be in the
refectory alone so that the story had believability. A recent business exam had
passed and so Sam still had his textbooks and it made sense for him to be in
the refectory where it was quiet so he could study. Furthermore, we played on
the stereotypical drug dealer. The stereotype being someone who is threatening
and wears a hoodie to create that fearful vibe you’d associate with a drug
dealer. We thought it was a great idea because it would give us experience on
creating character and we’d be able to see how successful we were at presenting
the character to the audience. This would be useful because when we look back
we’ll be able to see what was effective and what was ineffective. We can then
take that knowledge with us when developing the characters for our thriller.
We followed our storyboard like a
script; it was really useful when it came to the production stage because prior
to filming we had already planned our cinematography and where the person
behind the camera would stand to film. So it made production a lot easier because
it meant we just followed what we planned and it helped us keep with
continuity.
Year 13s spoke to our class
regarding advice on how best to make our videos, for both the prelim task and
main task. They made clear how important it was to make sure your camera had
full battery, which we took into account before filming with Sam’s iPhone. They
also suggested tripods, which we will strongly consider when it comes to the
main task. Furthermore, they spoke on continuity and mentioned factors such as
weather that could have an impact on the continuity of filming. Also one of our
teachers pointed out that costumes must always be the same. With this knowledge
we decided that we would get all the filming done within one day to eliminate the
potential problems we could run into.
Prior to planning we had also
looked at other Prelim videos and got to see what worked well and what didn’t.
We picked out bad points such as the camera being shaky but we also got some
good ideas of how to make a storyline around the essential requirements. One of
the prelim videos we saw showed an interrogation and that influenced us to
include high angle and low angle shots like they did to symbolise power.
John Stammers
Production
When it came to producing we
were quite well prepared. However when we came to film there were people in
there cleaning up rubbish because we came in just after break. So we had to
wait until they had finished and we also helped clear the rubbish from the
areas we’d be filming, just in case it would interfere with continuity.
We made sure we did each scene
at least 3 times so we would have more than one clip to choose from when it
came to editing. Once we had recorded all our footage we checked every clip to
ensure we had continuity and hadn’t missed any of the essential requirements
(e.g. 180 degree rule).
Once the refectory workers had
finished clearing up we began filming from outside the door. During this time
we had people pass by us from time to time meaning we had to stop filming and
go back a few times.
The following scene was
originally going to be me coming through the door for the match cut and then
stop at the bin in preparation for the following scene. However after doing
this we found that the movement from the bin to the table did not flow very
well so decided to do the scene with me coming through the door and the scene
with me sitting opposite Sam in one. We also chose to have me doing the whole
walk from outside the door through the door because we could edit it later to
make the opening of the door more natural. If we had done it where I was
immediately opening the door then the speed and motion of the door could have
differed from the first scene and ruin continuity. One issue I noticed when we
looked backed at the footage after we’d finished was that one time I opened the
door with the other hand meaning we couldn’t use that clip for the final
product.
Additionally, halfway through
production the workers in the kitchen began to play music that was playing
through the hatch. We thought it might ruin our continuity so we closed the
hatch. However, after doing so, I thought: “Did we get footage of the hatch
being open in any of the other clips?” It turns out we had so we had to reopen
the hatch and then see if the music would affect continuity. Unfortunately, we
wasted a good five minutes just trying to get the hatch back open and thinking
back now we could have just kindly asked the kitchen employees to turn the
music off. Although it turned out we didn’t pick up the music anyway so it was
fine.
From filming we learnt about the
importance of location. We discovered that the location we chose was an area
that had people regularly passing by and a lot of unwanted sounds (e.g. the
music from the kitchen). So when it comes to choosing the location of our
thriller, it is important we consider the location so that we don’t encounter
external variables that might ruin continuity. We also learnt about the
positioning of the camera such as when we did a low angle shot of the drug
dealer. The cameraman balanced the camera on Sam’s shoulder and helped keep the
camera in the same position in the following reverse shot of the dealer. Now
that we have seen the importance of keeping the camera steady and in the same
place we will consider using a tripod for our thriller.
Shooting took a while due to
laughing and tweaks to the original idea but we had a feeling it would take a
good 45 minutes to an hour and it did. I knew it would take this long because I
had made a 2 minute video a while ago to demonstrate camera shots and movements
as part of a homework earlier in the course and it had taken me a whole
afternoon. So I took what I had learnt from that and applied it to the prelim
task and so I knew we should expect to take a good hour to film.
If we were to do the prelim task
again then we’d write a script for the conversation between the dealer and the
student. This is because we spent time thinking about what to say and because
we had no lines to follow we found ourselves improvising and this lead to minor
mistakes. So if we could do it again then we’d have a script to save time and
reduce the number of potential mistake we’d make.
John Stammers
Post-Production
An
issue that I discovered when editing the video was that the sound on particular
recordings wasn’t brilliant and it was hard to hear the speech in clips, and
when we compared it to other recordings we saw a massive difference so we had to
use the software to improve the sound. Another problem that occurred was when
recording for our prelim someone was having drumming lessons so we picked up
all the sound from that, so we had to get rid of some of our footage. This
meant that there was noise in the background of the video that was captured but
wasn’t meant to be included. When editing the video I managed to pick up on
other people talking and moving around in the background and someone who was
having drumming lessons when we were recording video and by realising this I
think it’s important to be aware of another people when doing the main task as
it could potentially ruin the video. I also believe that location is important
because when editing for the prelim task I could see a lot of reflections off
of the glass door which could potential ruin the video and embarrass you.
We
also found that some of our recordings seemed to show a lot of movement with
the camera, so I had to choose different clips that we recorded instead of that
particular clip and replace it, but overall as a group we didn’t seem to get
that many problems when editing and found it quite straightforward which was
positive for the group.
I
learnt that when editing for the Prelim task it involved doing quite a bit a
trimming to the recordings we captured to make a decent final video which did
acquire quite a lot of time, and I believe that it’s important for when it
comes to the main task because it allows us to ensure that we have enough time
because we need to capture lots of video (given that you are most likely going
to trim parts of your footage).
When
we watched the prelim task the finished product didn’t match our first
visualisation because we decided to create another storyboard when planning our
ideas. Our first idea involved it being set in the H-Block but instead we
switched to the refectory, and this was purely because our first idea we forgot
about using table and chairs in the video and then thought the refectory was
the perfect place to get tables and chairs for our prelim task.
After
we planned our finished storyboard which was set in the refectory we all has a
good understanding of how the final piece would look like and were happy with
the finished product. We took a lot of time concentrating on the storyboard to
be as realistic as we could and include as much detail that was required to
produce the video.
Positive
feedback was that the costumes and props were good; for example John was
wearing a hoody, acting as the antagonist, and the clip at the table, you can
spot books and paper, portraying the character as someone that’s revising or
working. Other positive feedback was that the storyline was creative and
original and took into consideration mise-en-scene. You could also see a
variety of shots such as shot reverse shot, 180 degree rule and match on
action, with high angle and low angled shots included in the video. The Year
13’s also mentioned that there were good clean cut good panning in our video.
When I showed this video to some Year 13’s they compared it to other Prelim’s
and said it was the best out of them all.
However
the negatives from the audience were that it needed more action to make it more
exciting. They also thought that we needed to see the shoulder of the other
character in the shot reverse shot to show more presence and to maybe create
more suspense in the shot, and also possibly change the positioning of the bin
where John kicks it as it seems to get in the way when he tries to leave the
room.
