Evaluation

Editing 18/12/2012

  On Tuesday 18th December, we met as a group to put together all the scenes we had edited. As well as this, Me and Fraser also edited the sound to fit with the picture. This turned out to be quite time consuming as we had to use sounds from other places in the film that didn't have any background noise. Because we are not getting marked on sound for this project, it is not of the best quality, however, we have done our best with it so it helps tell the story.

  As well as finish the edit, we also exported the film on Tuesday - DONE.

Editing

  To make it fair, we have decided as a group that whoever storyboarded and filmed the scene should edit it. I have therefore edited scene 3. Because we will not be marked on our editing, I have done simple cuts of the shots and used a few cross fades to blend them.

An interesting section of my sequence is the transition of James and his dog walking up to the hill into a tracking shot. I have used a cross fade as the shots are very similar and it demonstrates the passing of time well. Below is a frame of this transition:

We plan to put the sequences together and add the sound tomorrow (Tues 18th). When we put all of the footage together, we realise that continuity will be a bit off due to the change in weather conditions - This is because we filmed the end scene first, where there is no frost in contrast to the rest of the film. However, there is nothing we could have done about this.

Filming 12/12/2012

  On the 12th December we filmed all of the remaining footage needed. This was all of scene 1 and 3.  Myself, Fraser, Clarice and our actor, Jimmy met at half past 9 to collect the equipment from stores before catching the 9:55am bus with Amy to Killamarsh. When we arrived, Me and Fraser filmed an establishing shot of the house while Clarice set up the bedroom to be ready for the bedroom scenes.

  For the indoor lighting change element needed in our film, we chose to create a seamless transition from night to day by using our inspiration from the film 'Matilda'. The rest of the group wanted to simply open the blinds to demonstrate this effect, however, I felt that it was too staggered and didn't look smooth enough. Because of this, I pushed for the use of a kino flow 400. In the end, I managed to convince them and we created the shot by altering both the blinds and the brightness of the kino. Clarice opened the blinds whilst Fraser changed the brightness of the light and I opened the kino's barn doors. Overall, I think that this gave us a great effect and portrayed exactly what we wanted to.

  As Clarice had storyboarded scene 1, she did the camera set ups for this section of the shoot. After looking back at some of the shots, some do appear to be a little under-exposed, however we were rushed for time so this could be a reason. When she was filming her sections, I tried to be as helpful as I could. For example, I helped control the dog for the bed sequence as it was difficult to get him to do exactly what we wished. I stood out of shot next to the bed with a treat for the bed to entice him to come towards Jimmy. However, it was obvious he was eating in the scene. We solved this problem by showing the dog that Jimmy had a treat in his hand before starting filming, this made him run straight towards the actor, which is what we wanted.

  Other sections of the scenes that we filmed was James as he makes a cup of tea and leaves to walk his dog. We gained a nice long take of this sequence that will help go towards this specified element in the brief. I like this take as it has two dimensions - James in the foreground as he makes his tea, juxtaposed with almost a separate set up to the right of the screen where he walks out of the door in the 'background':

The next part of the shoot was scene 3. As I had completed the shot list and storyboard for this scene, I set up the shots and filmed them. Below is a copy of my pre-production documents:

  I used the dolly and track to film a nice shot of James throwing a stick for the dog to chase after. Unintentionally, this gave us a really nice lighting change as the sun came into shot just as I panned towards the dog running away from the camera. I really like this image as the dog becomes silhouetted, presenting an overall nice picture.

Another shot that I really liked was a close-up of the stick that the dog would then pick up. It was hard to set up as we needed to place the stick down for the dog to see and hold him back. However, it came out really nice and I think the frost on the grass gave a nice effect.

  We had problems with the camera for this half of the shoot. I think it was due to the sheer coldness of he weather as the batteries kept continually running out of power. We had to work around this by warming one battery up whilst filming about 30 seconds of footage before that one ran out and swapping them. This was incredibly inconvenient as a planned shot for this scene was a long take to be edited into a time lapse. It ideally needed to be 10 minutes long but we had to settle with 3 minutes due to the problems. Towards the end it got ridiculous as the camera barely gave me time to focus the images before filming. We had to abandon the rest of the shoot, leaving out some of the shots I wanted because there was nothing we could have done. Both batteries said that they had at least an hour and a half of footage remaining . Overall, I wish I had more time to film all of the footage I had planned, however, after looking back at the footage, I am happy with how it turned out.

Filming 10/12/2012

  On the 10th December, Me, Fraser, Clarice and our actress Missy, met at 8:45am to catch the 8:55am bus to Killamarsh. Our aim of the day was to film scene 4 and sections of scene 5 and we completed all that was needed before heading back at around 12pm.

  When we arrived, we initially filmed the elements of Lucy walking away from the bus stop. We gained mid and long shots of her doing this, as well as a tracking shot using a dolly and track. As part of this shoot, we also included a subtle lighting change (one of the 4 elements) by using a 50cm reflector. To make it look as though clouds were passing , causing a shadow that passes over her face, I slowly moved the reflector, pointing it towards Missy and the light.

  As well as this, we also filmed around Clarice's house, getting shots of Lucy as she looks through James' window and knocks on his door. We got some nice Point of View images looking at James' phone, as well as some interesting shots taken from indoors as Lucy looks through the window. 

  We each took it in turn to use the camera and set up shots, however, Fraser did do a little more as he had storyboarded the scene and therefore had a better image in his head of what it needed to look like. I will have more of a go doing this on wednesday as I have storyboarded the scene we will be filming then, and I am looking forward to creating an interesting tracking shot of James as he walks with his dog.

  Overall, it was a very successful day of filming and we managed to gain all the shots needed. I enjoyed using the Dolly and Track as part of the shoot as it creates a smooth and 'proffesional' look to the footage. I also admire the way that Missy listened to our instructions and acted well, without moaning about the cold weather.

  Aspects that I found difficult was pulling the focus whilst panning - especially seeing as there was not much difference between the focus needed for each shot. I will have to see how this looks when we come to edit.

Filming 07/12/2012

On the 7th December, Me and Fraser filmed most of scene 2 with our actress Missy. We met in uni at around 1 to go through the storyboard and shot lists as well as collecting the equipment before filming at 2. We filmed in the city centre and thankfully, the weather was nice enough to give us some nice shots. A particular shot from the day that I liked was an establishing shot of the scene. The camera stood behind a set of fountains and panned through to an image of Lucy sat on the steps in front of the town hall. The suns reflection bounced off the windows of the building and I think this worked really well.

 Other shots that we gained included close-ups and mid shots of Lucy as she gets her phone out of her bag and leaves an answer phone message. We also filmed action of her walking towards the bus stop which will then lead into the next scene.

  Clarice could not be at the shoot on this day as she was filming for another project. I am unsure as to why Amy was not there.

Reading Material

Film Art: An Introduction by David Bordwell / Kristin Thompson

1.

Throughout the project, I have been using this book by David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson as a reference. Particular sections that have helped when thinking about the four elements needed for our film would be:

Page 213+
  Describing the functions of the long take, this chapter has been incredibly helpful. It defines what a 'Long Take' is as well as giving valuable research material for different films that include this element. For example, Hitchcock's 'Rope' is mentioned, due to it being famous for only having as little as 11 shots "most running between 4 and 10 minutes" (Bordwell and Thompson, 2010, p.214).
  A great aspect of this chapter, is a shot-by-shot series of frames and descriptions of Welles's 'Touch of Evil'. "It offers an alternative to building the sequence out of many shots, and it stresses the cut the finally comes (occurring at the sound of the explosion of the car)" (Bordwell and Thompson, 2010, p.216). By having this, I have been able to build up a clearer vision of what I would like the long take in my film to be like.

Page 136+
  This section of chapter four gives information of low-key illumination lighting. This will help me when creating the indoor lighting change. Bordwell and Thompson have used references from films such as 'Mauvais Sang' and 'El Sur', in order to demonstrate the way that lighting can suggest different emotions and even the view from the character. For example, "Low-key lighting in El Sur suggests a child's view of the adult world as full of mystery and danger." (Bordwell and Thompson, 2010, p.136)

Page 167+
  Chapter 5 is all about Cinematography. Obviously, this helps dramatically towards my own piece as much of it's content is relevant. Subheadings include: 'The Photographic Image', 'The Range of Tonalities' and 'Perspective'.
  The chapter speaks a lot on depth of field, something that I like to use in my own films. I think it helps an audience distinguish the shots main focus, as well as providing an overall nice image to look at. I like the stylistic quality of deep-focus cinematography and I think that pull focus can add a lot to a shot. This is all discussed in this chapter and I found it enjoyable and informative to read.


References:

1. http://www.google.com/imgres?q=film+art+an+introduction+9th+edition+pdf&um=1&hl=en&client=safari&sa=N&tbo=d&rls=en&authuser=0&biw=1280&bih=664&tbm=isch&tbnid=iArgDamRHE7c2M:&imgrefurl=http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/2009/09/22/is-there-a-blog-in-this-class-2009/&docid=7GaYfqrcSZWWUM&imgurl=http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/cover-9ed-5001.jpg&w=500&h=640&ei=FGTSUPbRHbKX0QXIlYCICQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=4&vpy=100&dur=676&hovh=254&hovw=198&tx=75&ty=147&sig=117828630293561111691&page=1&tbnh=145&tbnw=110&start=0&ndsp=37&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0,i:90
2. Bordwell, D / Thompson K (2010) Film Art an Introduction (Ninth Edition)         New York: McGraw-Hill