The Completed Article:
Hope you enjoy!
Pheebs, OUT! ;)
Friday, 22 March 2013
Thursday, 21 March 2013
Editing: Day 7
Hey!
THE FINAL DAY!!!!! We've worked so hard on this film and it feels so good to be almost done with it. Thinking our film was generally done, we called Sir over and asked for his opinion. He advised us that the opening 30 seconds is silent and it doesn't sound quite right, so we should add in some more diegetic sound or another soundtrack just to fill in the space.
We first attempted to restore the diegetic sound in the clips but it was a lengthy process and a lot of the background noise in the clips was white noise or us talking, fairly useless.
We'd toyed around with the idea of having a recording of me humming a song to play over the top of the music. It was a natural and diegetic sound which would seem realistic and we moved into the other Media Studies lab to record it. However, my voice sounded fairly poor over the Apple Mac software and it doesn't flow very well in time with the action on screen. With this in mind, we chose to cut it, brainstorming other options.
Sir suggested that we use the other track of music we'd had as an option for the main background music playing throughout the film. We weren't sure but Sir insisted that we needed sound to film the opening 30 seconds of silence, especially since our film was a peppy romantic-comedy. Silence in the opening sequence is generally a tactic used in thrillers or horror films. "Clear", edited and ready to be used, was inserted and we played it. Initially, I'll be honest, I wasn't keen on it, as I thought two sets of different music in two minutes seemed too crammed and wouldn't flow. However, after playing it over a couple of times, I got used to it and we kept the piece.
Sir was also eager for us to include some human diegetic sound, like a door shutting and squeaky mirrors. We didn't have any of these sounds pre-recorded and there weren't any available clips of Garage Band or YouTube so we had to create our own. Carolina and I took a whiteboard marker pen and wrote on the window, with me drawing swiggles and Carolina recording, Sam taking a couple of photos.
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We also recorded the sound of the door closing. Carolina emailed the clips to our hotmail accounts and edited the sound clips and and inserted them in the different points in the film. This added another dimension to the film and made it that much more realistic.
Pheebs, OUT! ;)
THE FINAL DAY!!!!! We've worked so hard on this film and it feels so good to be almost done with it. Thinking our film was generally done, we called Sir over and asked for his opinion. He advised us that the opening 30 seconds is silent and it doesn't sound quite right, so we should add in some more diegetic sound or another soundtrack just to fill in the space.
We first attempted to restore the diegetic sound in the clips but it was a lengthy process and a lot of the background noise in the clips was white noise or us talking, fairly useless.
We'd toyed around with the idea of having a recording of me humming a song to play over the top of the music. It was a natural and diegetic sound which would seem realistic and we moved into the other Media Studies lab to record it. However, my voice sounded fairly poor over the Apple Mac software and it doesn't flow very well in time with the action on screen. With this in mind, we chose to cut it, brainstorming other options.
Sir suggested that we use the other track of music we'd had as an option for the main background music playing throughout the film. We weren't sure but Sir insisted that we needed sound to film the opening 30 seconds of silence, especially since our film was a peppy romantic-comedy. Silence in the opening sequence is generally a tactic used in thrillers or horror films. "Clear", edited and ready to be used, was inserted and we played it. Initially, I'll be honest, I wasn't keen on it, as I thought two sets of different music in two minutes seemed too crammed and wouldn't flow. However, after playing it over a couple of times, I got used to it and we kept the piece.
Sir was also eager for us to include some human diegetic sound, like a door shutting and squeaky mirrors. We didn't have any of these sounds pre-recorded and there weren't any available clips of Garage Band or YouTube so we had to create our own. Carolina and I took a whiteboard marker pen and wrote on the window, with me drawing swiggles and Carolina recording, Sam taking a couple of photos.
.jpeg)
We also recorded the sound of the door closing. Carolina emailed the clips to our hotmail accounts and edited the sound clips and and inserted them in the different points in the film. This added another dimension to the film and made it that much more realistic.
Pheebs, OUT! ;)
Wednesday, 20 March 2013
Editing: Day 6
Hey!
Today, we got straight down to business with the logos. Having completed the Glasshouse Production logo, we just needed to blackout the background and print-screen the image. After that, we imported and inserted the image into Final Cut Pro.
We moved immediately onto Fast Pace Cinema's logo design. Ideas literally coming to me in a minute, I searched Google Images for a running-man silhouette and copied and pasted it into PowerPoint. After blacking out the background and filling the inside of the man's shape with white, I typed in seperate letters and placed them along the inside of his body. I chose the colour scheme of red, white and blue for each of the words because our film is supposed to be created by a British company. By having Fast Pace Cinema's name sporting the Union Jack colours, it represents Britain and identifies Fast Pace Cinema as a British company, adding that sense of Britain to "The Naked Truth". Printscreening and inserting the image, we moved onto designing Preach IT Distributions.
Before we began designing our final logo, Carolina made an excellent point that the prior to had been rather devoid of colour. As a result, we searched a number of psychedelic patterns and rainbow swirls, however, they all proved very bright and difficult on the eyes, so we thought back to a more subdued design for the background. I came up with the colour bars pattern used in television when the TV lost signal. Not only was the background relevant to the film companies work but also was colourful and playful, which linked back to the fun-loving name of "Preach IT". The peace sign is popular with teenagers and relates to the hippie, quirky name of the company. We copied and pasted a silhouette of a hand making peace fingers onto PowerPoint. However, we could'nt get rid of the outlining background of black. About to search for another shape, our classmate Zak offered to use Photoshop to help clear it up and sent it back to us in a couple of minutes (a great guy Zak, and I've got to learn to use Photoshop! Something about that program strikes fear into my heart and all I want to do is avoid it like the plague!).
After completing the logo and typing in the company's name, we printscreened it and inserted it into our film, completing the logos.
Pheebs, OUT!
Today, we got straight down to business with the logos. Having completed the Glasshouse Production logo, we just needed to blackout the background and print-screen the image. After that, we imported and inserted the image into Final Cut Pro.
We moved immediately onto Fast Pace Cinema's logo design. Ideas literally coming to me in a minute, I searched Google Images for a running-man silhouette and copied and pasted it into PowerPoint. After blacking out the background and filling the inside of the man's shape with white, I typed in seperate letters and placed them along the inside of his body. I chose the colour scheme of red, white and blue for each of the words because our film is supposed to be created by a British company. By having Fast Pace Cinema's name sporting the Union Jack colours, it represents Britain and identifies Fast Pace Cinema as a British company, adding that sense of Britain to "The Naked Truth". Printscreening and inserting the image, we moved onto designing Preach IT Distributions.
Before we began designing our final logo, Carolina made an excellent point that the prior to had been rather devoid of colour. As a result, we searched a number of psychedelic patterns and rainbow swirls, however, they all proved very bright and difficult on the eyes, so we thought back to a more subdued design for the background. I came up with the colour bars pattern used in television when the TV lost signal. Not only was the background relevant to the film companies work but also was colourful and playful, which linked back to the fun-loving name of "Preach IT". The peace sign is popular with teenagers and relates to the hippie, quirky name of the company. We copied and pasted a silhouette of a hand making peace fingers onto PowerPoint. However, we could'nt get rid of the outlining background of black. About to search for another shape, our classmate Zak offered to use Photoshop to help clear it up and sent it back to us in a couple of minutes (a great guy Zak, and I've got to learn to use Photoshop! Something about that program strikes fear into my heart and all I want to do is avoid it like the plague!).
After completing the logo and typing in the company's name, we printscreened it and inserted it into our film, completing the logos.
Pheebs, OUT!
Monday, 18 March 2013
Editing: Day 5
Hey!
So... I'm BACK! I would tell you how my trip was but it may very well tip me over the edge to type about it. Let's just say: snow, rain, outside, surveys and rude-people-from-Swanage.
Anyway, I came back very excited to see where the team had gotten to and ready to complete the logos. When I arrived for period 5, Sam and Carolina gave me a run down of what they'd been up to. Sam had completed the all the titles and edited in the space where the production company logos would go at the beginning of the opening sequence.
They also had a fade out effect at the end of the opening sequence to the music and the footage, so that the film had a natural gradual ending rather than just cutting to end.
Carolina had finished editing the music and so they had inserted that into Final Cut Pro and added to the film, just as Naomi presses play on the iPod speakers, to make the music look as though its diegetic. Although the drum beat playing just as Naomi's top slides down her arms wasn't possible to have with the new music, I was very happy with their progress.
So... I'm BACK! I would tell you how my trip was but it may very well tip me over the edge to type about it. Let's just say: snow, rain, outside, surveys and rude-people-from-Swanage.
Anyway, I came back very excited to see where the team had gotten to and ready to complete the logos. When I arrived for period 5, Sam and Carolina gave me a run down of what they'd been up to. Sam had completed the all the titles and edited in the space where the production company logos would go at the beginning of the opening sequence.
They also had a fade out effect at the end of the opening sequence to the music and the footage, so that the film had a natural gradual ending rather than just cutting to end.
Carolina had finished editing the music and so they had inserted that into Final Cut Pro and added to the film, just as Naomi presses play on the iPod speakers, to make the music look as though its diegetic. Although the drum beat playing just as Naomi's top slides down her arms wasn't possible to have with the new music, I was very happy with their progress.
Pheebs, OUT! ;)
Monday, 11 March 2013
Editing: Day 4
Hey Examiners!
I don't think I've mentioned this before, probably because I'm too disgusted to make the words type on the keyboard, but I am, in fact, being dragged off to Dorset for the rest of the week, Tuesday-Friday, by my geography teacher. Unfortunately, this means that I can't help the rest of the team edit in the titles on the video!
We decided to make best use of this lesson though, seeing as we were altogether. We began working on the titles which would appear on screen throughout the opening sequence. We had already initially decided on replicating something similar to the Legally Blonde titles in the film and started our search for something like that available on Final Cut Pro. We were looking for a swirly, girly, pink affair and trailed through excessive numbers of fonts to try and find one.
Our situation wasn't helped by the fact that we'd never used the title-section on Final Cut Pro and so were pretty nervous, not to mention, clueless on how to go about finding what we wanted. After scrolling through millions of fonts, and trialing a number of them, we finally happened upon what we were looking for and applied it.
However, two problems arose. We wanted to the title to appear on screen over the ongoing action rather than in a blackout seperately. We were unsure of how to do this and after fiddling about with the program excessively, we asked Sir for a hand, and he opened Options and adjusted the settings so that the title appeared next to Naomi's feet as she stepped out of the tub. We divided the title of "Phoebe Bower" into "Phoebe" and "Bower" so that they appeared one after the other, in time with my feet landing on the floor. Problem two arose when we tried to get the titles to fade out as well as in. However, the titles needed a certain length of time to fade in and out and we only wanted them there for roughly 3-4 seconds, to short to have the titles fade out again. As a result, we had the titles fade in and then disappear, which worked just as well.
While Sam continued with the titles and Carolina focused on finishing the music, I hopped onto another computer and started working on the production titles for our 3 company names: Glasshouse Productions, Fast Pace Cinema, and Preach IT Distribution.
I'd had a passion for design eversince Year 11, last year, when I'd used my free period to sign-up for yearbook committee. I designed the logo on PowerPoint, building the foundation drawing of a glasshouse from the line-tool on PowerPoint. I had a couple of mishaps and had to restart a number of times because I'd drawn the shape the wrong way etc, but after a various attempts, I finally completed it. After that, I just used the textbox-tool to type in a a simple bold, black font: "Glasshouse Productions".
I don't think I've mentioned this before, probably because I'm too disgusted to make the words type on the keyboard, but I am, in fact, being dragged off to Dorset for the rest of the week, Tuesday-Friday, by my geography teacher. Unfortunately, this means that I can't help the rest of the team edit in the titles on the video!
We decided to make best use of this lesson though, seeing as we were altogether. We began working on the titles which would appear on screen throughout the opening sequence. We had already initially decided on replicating something similar to the Legally Blonde titles in the film and started our search for something like that available on Final Cut Pro. We were looking for a swirly, girly, pink affair and trailed through excessive numbers of fonts to try and find one.
Our situation wasn't helped by the fact that we'd never used the title-section on Final Cut Pro and so were pretty nervous, not to mention, clueless on how to go about finding what we wanted. After scrolling through millions of fonts, and trialing a number of them, we finally happened upon what we were looking for and applied it.
However, two problems arose. We wanted to the title to appear on screen over the ongoing action rather than in a blackout seperately. We were unsure of how to do this and after fiddling about with the program excessively, we asked Sir for a hand, and he opened Options and adjusted the settings so that the title appeared next to Naomi's feet as she stepped out of the tub. We divided the title of "Phoebe Bower" into "Phoebe" and "Bower" so that they appeared one after the other, in time with my feet landing on the floor. Problem two arose when we tried to get the titles to fade out as well as in. However, the titles needed a certain length of time to fade in and out and we only wanted them there for roughly 3-4 seconds, to short to have the titles fade out again. As a result, we had the titles fade in and then disappear, which worked just as well.
While Sam continued with the titles and Carolina focused on finishing the music, I hopped onto another computer and started working on the production titles for our 3 company names: Glasshouse Productions, Fast Pace Cinema, and Preach IT Distribution.
I'd had a passion for design eversince Year 11, last year, when I'd used my free period to sign-up for yearbook committee. I designed the logo on PowerPoint, building the foundation drawing of a glasshouse from the line-tool on PowerPoint. I had a couple of mishaps and had to restart a number of times because I'd drawn the shape the wrong way etc, but after a various attempts, I finally completed it. After that, I just used the textbox-tool to type in a a simple bold, black font: "Glasshouse Productions".
Pheebs, OUT! ;)
Friday, 8 March 2013
Editing: Day 3
HEY!
Today was fairly quiet. We attempted to add the music to the film however it wasn't quite as ready as we would've liked, with a couple of jumps and glitches where the music repeated but not as neatly as it should've. But there was one moment where the music made me feel something akin to chills. The track "Yearbook Long" has a heavy drum beat playing throughout and just as Naomi is putting on her shirt in the film, the drum beats at the exact same time, as though orchestrated. It was a beautiful feeling and we got tremedously over-excited over that one coinsidence. The track still needed to be fiddled with though and so Carolina hopped back onto the computer and began adjusting the music again on garage band.
Today was fairly quiet. We attempted to add the music to the film however it wasn't quite as ready as we would've liked, with a couple of jumps and glitches where the music repeated but not as neatly as it should've. But there was one moment where the music made me feel something akin to chills. The track "Yearbook Long" has a heavy drum beat playing throughout and just as Naomi is putting on her shirt in the film, the drum beats at the exact same time, as though orchestrated. It was a beautiful feeling and we got tremedously over-excited over that one coinsidence. The track still needed to be fiddled with though and so Carolina hopped back onto the computer and began adjusting the music again on garage band.
Meanwhile, Sam and I went back to our computers and watched the footage again, making little adjustments to shots, shaving off a second or two on a couple of shots and rearranging the order of some of the panning shots. We then logged onto our blogs and did some admin catch-up with a couple of entries.
Pheebs, OUT! ;)
Thursday, 7 March 2013
Editing: Day 2
Heya!
We'd spent the past couple of lessons cutting down the individual clips and putting our film together, setting it to roughly 2:13.
We'd previously deleted all the background noise from our footage as we'd spoken in quite a dew of them, or picked up items falling over etc, which we didn't want heard in our final piece. We'd also planned to have music running over the top of the film throughout the majority of it, and it was easier to concentrate without the diegetic sound interferring. We'd kept the sound of the shower however, as Sam had thought to have it running throughout the titles. We agreed that this technique made the music seem more natural, and lead the audience from the titles instantly through to the opening scene of our film.
Carolina was working on the music on another computer and was finishing it towards the end of the lesson. We'll be adding the soundtrack to the film next lesson.
We'd spent the past couple of lessons cutting down the individual clips and putting our film together, setting it to roughly 2:13.
We'd previously deleted all the background noise from our footage as we'd spoken in quite a dew of them, or picked up items falling over etc, which we didn't want heard in our final piece. We'd also planned to have music running over the top of the film throughout the majority of it, and it was easier to concentrate without the diegetic sound interferring. We'd kept the sound of the shower however, as Sam had thought to have it running throughout the titles. We agreed that this technique made the music seem more natural, and lead the audience from the titles instantly through to the opening scene of our film.
Carolina was working on the music on another computer and was finishing it towards the end of the lesson. We'll be adding the soundtrack to the film next lesson.
*Our film without the background music*
Pheebs OUT! ;)
Monday, 4 March 2013
Editing: Day 1
Heygo!
Were back at school, and after downloading the footage of the SD card and onto the Apple Mac, we're relieved to see our film is all there and in good condition.
Circled round my computer, we opened up Final Cut Pro and imported in all our footage. We watched it all first, deleting mistake clips as well as repeats and blurred images.
Looking at our bathroom footage, the footage of me turning around from the mirror and walking through the doorway to the hallway was very messy and jerky from unsteady camera filming, and we realised we hadn't filmed me turning around, which made the sequence look unrealistic and jumpy. We cut the all body shots in the bathroom, only keeping the one of my feet climbing out of the bath and a over-the-shoulder shot of my drawing in the mirror.
We then ordered the footage in chronological order, and cut it down to roughly 5-6 minutes, an improvement from the 15 minutes we'd initially started out with. We spent the lesson doing this and only just began trimming down the first clip when the alarm went, signalling the end of the lesson.
Pheebs, OUT! ;)
Were back at school, and after downloading the footage of the SD card and onto the Apple Mac, we're relieved to see our film is all there and in good condition.
Circled round my computer, we opened up Final Cut Pro and imported in all our footage. We watched it all first, deleting mistake clips as well as repeats and blurred images.
Looking at our bathroom footage, the footage of me turning around from the mirror and walking through the doorway to the hallway was very messy and jerky from unsteady camera filming, and we realised we hadn't filmed me turning around, which made the sequence look unrealistic and jumpy. We cut the all body shots in the bathroom, only keeping the one of my feet climbing out of the bath and a over-the-shoulder shot of my drawing in the mirror.
We then ordered the footage in chronological order, and cut it down to roughly 5-6 minutes, an improvement from the 15 minutes we'd initially started out with. We spent the lesson doing this and only just began trimming down the first clip when the alarm went, signalling the end of the lesson.
Pheebs, OUT! ;)
Sunday, 3 March 2013
ReFilm! Day 2
Hey!
So, were back on Sunday to complete our filming. After Sam and mine's superb effort yesterday, we've only got a small amount to do and with Carolina here to help, I'm confident that we'll blast through this in an hour or two. We'd left most things in place and kept all the equipment at my house so there was only a matter of setting up the lights before we began filming.
We immediately set about filming the shots of Ollie. With our 'experience' in animal filming intact from last week, we settled him on the bed and spent about half an hour having him roll over, shimmie and wriggle about to his heart's content, while we captured it all on film. He was fairly well behaved and we fed him an abundance of doggie treats which more than satisfied him.
We also chose to refilm a couple of the panning shots around the mirror. We realised that we had a lot of pictures of 'Naomi' with her female friends, but if she was supposed to be a bit flirty and friendly with the guys, surely she should have a few more pictures of her with her male friends? With this in mind, I logged onto my facebook account and printed out a couple of photos of me and guy-friends, just to highlight that flirty, popular, 'party-girl' character of Naomi to the audience.
Filming was as quick and as smooth as it was on Saturday, and we finished everything, including getting my bedroom back to normal in 3 hours. Finished by 1:00pm, we packed away the equipment by my front door for school and tomorrow and watched the footage on my laptop, just to make sure!
Pheebs, OUT! ;)
So, were back on Sunday to complete our filming. After Sam and mine's superb effort yesterday, we've only got a small amount to do and with Carolina here to help, I'm confident that we'll blast through this in an hour or two. We'd left most things in place and kept all the equipment at my house so there was only a matter of setting up the lights before we began filming.
We immediately set about filming the shots of Ollie. With our 'experience' in animal filming intact from last week, we settled him on the bed and spent about half an hour having him roll over, shimmie and wriggle about to his heart's content, while we captured it all on film. He was fairly well behaved and we fed him an abundance of doggie treats which more than satisfied him.
We also chose to refilm a couple of the panning shots around the mirror. We realised that we had a lot of pictures of 'Naomi' with her female friends, but if she was supposed to be a bit flirty and friendly with the guys, surely she should have a few more pictures of her with her male friends? With this in mind, I logged onto my facebook account and printed out a couple of photos of me and guy-friends, just to highlight that flirty, popular, 'party-girl' character of Naomi to the audience.
Filming was as quick and as smooth as it was on Saturday, and we finished everything, including getting my bedroom back to normal in 3 hours. Finished by 1:00pm, we packed away the equipment by my front door for school and tomorrow and watched the footage on my laptop, just to make sure!
Pheebs, OUT! ;)
Saturday, 2 March 2013
ReFilm! Day 1
Hey!
So, after the disappointing knockback we'd taken at our footage being corrupted, Sam and I arrived on Saturday with a new lease of determination pushing at us to get started. Carolina unfortunately couldn't make it to the Saturday filming as she was busy recording at a studio. Once Sam had arrived, there was little setting-up to do due to me keeping my room generally in the same state that it had been once remodelled the week before. We only had to move a couple of items about but were ready to get going half an hour in.
The camera was of much better quality this week, and we'd managed to snag the last light and unbroken tripod for our opening sequence and so our picture quality was a lot better than before. We got busy, me changing into my outfit and Sam setting up the equipment.
We moved to the bathroom for the the first opening shots. Unfortunately, right when we were about to film, the shower stopped working! A key shot in our film was unable to be filmed due to something wrong with the water pressure (I don't know) and so we adjusted, shooting the scenes without the shower or the dog, as Carolina wasn't present, and planned to save those for Sunday.
We continued with the getting dressed scenes, with me in a slightly more tasteful and less-revealing dressing gown. I'd begun to feel uncomfortable in the towel and was much more happy in something with a little more coverage. Also, with a better camera and lighting, we were able to shoot the reverse wardrobe shot, with Naomi opening the wardrobe (which I had to crouch to do, much to Sam's humour) and then filming the doors opening from the inside. The shot wasn't working the last time we attempted it, but it was an idea we really pushed for to be included, and by balancing the camera on a couple of coat hangers hung up, and rehearsing a couple of times, we got a really nice shot, if not slightly blurry.
By pure chance, after leaving the shower for an hour or two, my mum came home and tried it, the shower miraculously working! We quickly filmed the shower head turning off and then I took over the filming of the panning shots, the ones I wasn't in.
Round about 2:00pm we were finished, a much better time than before, and we managed to have a relax, lunch and watch an episode or two of Quintuplets.
The filming was much better today than it was last week and in a way, I'm pleased our other footage got corrupted. Sam and I worked much quicker and smoother since we already had an idea of what we were doing, had little preparation to do and were even more determined to get this done, as well as prepared for the worst. With any luck, tomorrow will go just as quickly and we'll be done by 1:00, if not 12:00!
Pheebs, OUT! ;)
So, after the disappointing knockback we'd taken at our footage being corrupted, Sam and I arrived on Saturday with a new lease of determination pushing at us to get started. Carolina unfortunately couldn't make it to the Saturday filming as she was busy recording at a studio. Once Sam had arrived, there was little setting-up to do due to me keeping my room generally in the same state that it had been once remodelled the week before. We only had to move a couple of items about but were ready to get going half an hour in.
The camera was of much better quality this week, and we'd managed to snag the last light and unbroken tripod for our opening sequence and so our picture quality was a lot better than before. We got busy, me changing into my outfit and Sam setting up the equipment.
We moved to the bathroom for the the first opening shots. Unfortunately, right when we were about to film, the shower stopped working! A key shot in our film was unable to be filmed due to something wrong with the water pressure (I don't know) and so we adjusted, shooting the scenes without the shower or the dog, as Carolina wasn't present, and planned to save those for Sunday.
We continued with the getting dressed scenes, with me in a slightly more tasteful and less-revealing dressing gown. I'd begun to feel uncomfortable in the towel and was much more happy in something with a little more coverage. Also, with a better camera and lighting, we were able to shoot the reverse wardrobe shot, with Naomi opening the wardrobe (which I had to crouch to do, much to Sam's humour) and then filming the doors opening from the inside. The shot wasn't working the last time we attempted it, but it was an idea we really pushed for to be included, and by balancing the camera on a couple of coat hangers hung up, and rehearsing a couple of times, we got a really nice shot, if not slightly blurry.
Round about 2:00pm we were finished, a much better time than before, and we managed to have a relax, lunch and watch an episode or two of Quintuplets.
The filming was much better today than it was last week and in a way, I'm pleased our other footage got corrupted. Sam and I worked much quicker and smoother since we already had an idea of what we were doing, had little preparation to do and were even more determined to get this done, as well as prepared for the worst. With any luck, tomorrow will go just as quickly and we'll be done by 1:00, if not 12:00!
Pheebs, OUT! ;)
Monday, 25 February 2013
Bad News!
Hey Guys,
Unfortunately, after spending the ENTIRE Friday of the half term filming our project, being extraordinarily tired, re-arranging a HUGE amount of furniture, and completing the filming, our SD card was corrupted and so all our filming, as well as the other media studies group's footage filmed using the same camera and SD. It was a real bummer and I was disappointed because we'd spent lots of time on it and the whole day just seemed like a waste.
However, we can't do much about it and so I chose to look at the benefits of the situation.
Carolina had a doctors appointment on Friday that started at 1:00pm (BANG in the middle of our filming) and, as we'd spent the first two hours setting the scene and moving furniture, she'd only been there for the small dog scenes and didn't get a chance to film. Now that we are re-filming, she can film parts of the opening sequence herself.
The towel scenes shot in our initial filming made me feel a little uncomfortable so we decided, before we even found out that we couldn't use the previous footage, that we would be refilming the bathroom scene with me in a patterned dressing gown instead. Now it is less of an inconvenience to re-film those parts.
We'd also tried to film the entire opening sequence in one day. As it was our first run-through, it took a lot longer than expected, and I think, in hindsight, we'd underestimated how much time it would take us. We began to lose the light (I never understood when film crews used that phrase, but when your working with one light at 4:00pm in the winter, I now get what they meant), so a lot of our scenes were darker than we wanted, particularly the final scene when she leaves the house.
This didn't work as we were trying to create a peppy, positive atmosphere in our film and the opening sequence is set during in the morning. It would't exactly add up if half of the scene was shot in the dark and she left the house in light looking similar to the evening.
By 4:00 we were rushing to get everything done as well, and so we forgot elements we wanted to add in e.g. Naomi's hair is straight, she checks www.Facebook.com and she piles a load of comdoms into her bag before she leaves. By filming later on, we wouldn't have to rush and we'd have more time to check our schedule and make sure we'd included all we wanted, as well as review the footage.
Now that we are re-filming, which although is a pain, we can reshoot and include all these things we forgot and film our footage at the standard we wanted, rather than one we had to settle for. I'm grateful in some ways, and although I am seriously dreading re-filming, I'm pleased that we have the chance to tweak everything into perfection and I'm optimistic that now we've done it once before, filming will be a lot quicker this time *fingers crossed*
Pheebs, OUT!!! ;)
Unfortunately, after spending the ENTIRE Friday of the half term filming our project, being extraordinarily tired, re-arranging a HUGE amount of furniture, and completing the filming, our SD card was corrupted and so all our filming, as well as the other media studies group's footage filmed using the same camera and SD. It was a real bummer and I was disappointed because we'd spent lots of time on it and the whole day just seemed like a waste.
However, we can't do much about it and so I chose to look at the benefits of the situation.
Carolina had a doctors appointment on Friday that started at 1:00pm (BANG in the middle of our filming) and, as we'd spent the first two hours setting the scene and moving furniture, she'd only been there for the small dog scenes and didn't get a chance to film. Now that we are re-filming, she can film parts of the opening sequence herself.
The towel scenes shot in our initial filming made me feel a little uncomfortable so we decided, before we even found out that we couldn't use the previous footage, that we would be refilming the bathroom scene with me in a patterned dressing gown instead. Now it is less of an inconvenience to re-film those parts.
We'd also tried to film the entire opening sequence in one day. As it was our first run-through, it took a lot longer than expected, and I think, in hindsight, we'd underestimated how much time it would take us. We began to lose the light (I never understood when film crews used that phrase, but when your working with one light at 4:00pm in the winter, I now get what they meant), so a lot of our scenes were darker than we wanted, particularly the final scene when she leaves the house.
This didn't work as we were trying to create a peppy, positive atmosphere in our film and the opening sequence is set during in the morning. It would't exactly add up if half of the scene was shot in the dark and she left the house in light looking similar to the evening.
By 4:00 we were rushing to get everything done as well, and so we forgot elements we wanted to add in e.g. Naomi's hair is straight, she checks www.Facebook.com and she piles a load of comdoms into her bag before she leaves. By filming later on, we wouldn't have to rush and we'd have more time to check our schedule and make sure we'd included all we wanted, as well as review the footage.
Now that we are re-filming, which although is a pain, we can reshoot and include all these things we forgot and film our footage at the standard we wanted, rather than one we had to settle for. I'm grateful in some ways, and although I am seriously dreading re-filming, I'm pleased that we have the chance to tweak everything into perfection and I'm optimistic that now we've done it once before, filming will be a lot quicker this time *fingers crossed*
Pheebs, OUT!!! ;)
Saturday, 23 February 2013
Friday Filming!
Hey All!
Having decided Friday 22nd February was the day to complete all our filming, we arranged for Carolina, and her dog Ollie, Sam and myself to meet at my house at 10:00am sharp! We wanted to get an early start to make as much use of the time as possible, and as our film had a bright and chirpy mood, the atmosphere and lighting in the opening two minutes had to reflect that, hence, we need sunshine. Unfortunately, we do live in England and suffer from poor weather so our lighting wasn't as bright as we'd have liked. However, we had a back-up screen and lights from the Media Studies department so I was fairly confident we would be able to generate the image and tone we desired for our genre.
Armed with our props, we bundled into our room with a friend of ours, Melisa, who'd offer to come and give us a hand moving stuff around and holding the odd screen here or there. We began with clearing out my room, removing pillows and draws to make the room more spacious. I'm a neat freak and it was akin to torture for me. We then rearranged specific areas of the room we were shooting in.
We cleared my desk and turned it into a make-up table, adding a mirror, beauty products and a bunch of photos with blue-tack to the scene. We also created the stacks of Vogue magazines and books on the bookshelf for the panning shots, as well as adjusted and added little details to the bedroom e.g. iPod speakers and 'Glow job' cream. By the time we'd completed the 'look' of the set, we'd realised how much we'd severly underestimated timings. We'd had to enroll the help of Vimmi, Sam's mum who generously went back and forth from Sam's house to mine, collecting anything we'd forgotten on the way over. All in all, we were finished by 12:00, two hours in!
Having decided Friday 22nd February was the day to complete all our filming, we arranged for Carolina, and her dog Ollie, Sam and myself to meet at my house at 10:00am sharp! We wanted to get an early start to make as much use of the time as possible, and as our film had a bright and chirpy mood, the atmosphere and lighting in the opening two minutes had to reflect that, hence, we need sunshine. Unfortunately, we do live in England and suffer from poor weather so our lighting wasn't as bright as we'd have liked. However, we had a back-up screen and lights from the Media Studies department so I was fairly confident we would be able to generate the image and tone we desired for our genre.
Armed with our props, we bundled into our room with a friend of ours, Melisa, who'd offer to come and give us a hand moving stuff around and holding the odd screen here or there. We began with clearing out my room, removing pillows and draws to make the room more spacious. I'm a neat freak and it was akin to torture for me. We then rearranged specific areas of the room we were shooting in.
Once we'd finished cleaning the room, and had a spot of lunch, it was time to get filming. I'd changed into my outfit and staggering about in platform stilettos to the best of my ability, trying not to die. Carolina had a doctors appointment at 1:00pm, and so we prioritised the dog scenes with Ollie first, as he would have to leave with Carolina. Working with animals is flaming hard-work, which we soon realised as we spent the following hour arranging Ollie and trying to encourage him with a range of treats to roll-over, and shimmy as much as possible. After completing filming, Carolina had to leave and Sam, Melisa and I spent the next 5 hours filming.
Having written a thorough script and storyboard, we found filming was a lot easier as we had a step-be-step guide of how and what to film, particularly as the storyboard included camera angles and shots. Time taken was cut down and our organisation was better as a result.
We also had trouble with the HUGE lights and tripod we had to manouver in and out of small spaces. I've apparently got the biggest room in my house but you wouldn't believe it if you'd seen as struggling that day. The bathroom was a particular problem however, with a lot of sucking-in, slipping in and out of crevices and crouching to hold the lights steady, we managed to get some reasonable shots. The light, in some cases, was very bright and white, almost clinical and we had to use the gold, reflective screen a number of times in order to dull in down and give the image a more natural, morning-glow look.
By the end of the day we were all knackered, and after returning the room to its former state, we sat down and plugged the SD card into my laptop. We tried to access the footage however, only a couple of clips were available to watch, and we got slightly panicked, assuming the problem was our computer and that as soon as we downloaded the footage onto the Apple Macs at school, it'd all be fine. Bidding Sam and Mel goodbye, I packed the rest of the film equipment away and anticipated Monday, when we'd get to start editing!
Pheebs OUT! ;)
Monday, 11 February 2013
Admin
'Sup!
The first task we had to take care of was deciding when and where we were going to film our opening sequence. With my bedroom chosen as the location, and tester shots completed, Sir was encouraging us to film during February half term, due to needing roughly a day or two to complete filming. The half term, however, is a very busy week for me: I'm already in the school play, Annie Get Your Gun, which is holding rehearsals in the half term and am going away for the weekend to see my grandparents. If we take into account time needed to complete homework as well, the only date left free was Friday, 22nd February. We were however confident we could complete filming in one day and as a result, booked the camera, screens, tripod and lights for that day.
The first task we had to take care of was deciding when and where we were going to film our opening sequence. With my bedroom chosen as the location, and tester shots completed, Sir was encouraging us to film during February half term, due to needing roughly a day or two to complete filming. The half term, however, is a very busy week for me: I'm already in the school play, Annie Get Your Gun, which is holding rehearsals in the half term and am going away for the weekend to see my grandparents. If we take into account time needed to complete homework as well, the only date left free was Friday, 22nd February. We were however confident we could complete filming in one day and as a result, booked the camera, screens, tripod and lights for that day.
Pheebs, OUT! ;)
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