The Production Process:
Upon our introduction to the unit, we were set the task of adapting a haiku into a short sequence using stock footage. The aim of this was to get us used to the idea of adapting a literary source into a visual medium. We could interpret the haiku literally or use it as a sort of metaphor for something else instead - I decided to interpret the haiku literally as I struggled to find a stock footage to form a metaphorical sequence. This task was very useful as it acted as a smaller scale version of what of our sonnet adaptations. From this I learnt skills such as; picking apart literacy to find imagery, looking for deeper meaning (rather than taking everything very on the nose) and seeing how a piece of text could transfer to a visual sequence on screen.
Our next session involved a camera movement workshop where we were able to get our hands on the DSLRs and different bits of kit (track and dolly, jib and fig rig) to experiment with how different camera movements can convey different things. I found this session extremely helpful as it helped me to think about which movements I wanted to use in my adaptation to convey the sombre yet comforting tones portrayed through my chosen sonnet; Do not stand at my grave and weep. Following this session, we then had to come up with a short experimental sequence portraying one of four given emotions, I chose despair. To portray the feeling of despair I decided to use tracking in shots to reveal the character's emotion, tracking out shots to isolate the subject within the frame, close up shots to again reveal emotion and I also coloured the footage in editing to have a blue / purple tone. I used this task to experiment with ideas that I wanted to include in my final adaptation as I wanted to ensure they would work to convey the sombre atmosphere. I also experimented with flickering the image in the editing process as this was to be a big feature of my final adaptation. I discovered that all the techniques I wanted to use (such as blue colour grading and flickering the images) worked exactly how I wanted them to, giving me confidence that they would also work in my final adaptation.
We also had a lecture about 'the illusion of movement' which featured techniques such as stop motion and hyper lapse. I put the contra zoom / stop motion technique to the test and liked the effect, however, I decided it would not be a technique that I would be using in my adaptation (although I am keeping my mind open to using it in future projects). We also had a lecture on montage - something I was keen to use in my adaptation. Out of all the montage techniques, I ended up using some intellectual montage and some metric montage for the scene where my character James is in the house. Overall, these lectures were very helpful in giving ideas of different experimental techniques that could then be used in the final adaptation piece.
Whilst these workshops were taking place, I was working on my project proposal. Looking back at it, my first project proposal was very weak. I think this was mainly due to being unsure what exactly I was meant to be coming up with. I was unsure whether we were just using the sonnet as inspiration or if we had to create something that directly related to / displayed the poem. I had only come up with a few different types of shots I wanted to use and not really put them into any form of narrative structure. Following the feedback with Mike, I was able to form a more solid project proposal that included a proper narrative structure as well as the type of shots I wanted to use to achieve the mood and atmosphere I set out to create (a slightly sombre atmosphere which would be conveyed through blue colour grading but with a comforting tone which would be achieved mainly through the prop the warm orange flowers).
Finding actors has always been something I have struggled with in the past, however, for this project it didn't seem to be an issue. I contacted the actress I used in my directions unit last year and she was more than happy to be involved. That just left me to find the male actor which was also no problem at all. My locations were quite easy to find as they were mainly all out in nature, so all I had to do was find a countryside location. The more complicated piece of my pre production was working out the visual design element. I wanted colour to be a really important aspect of my adaptation so I therefore had to do a lot of research into it in order to work out how to create the specific look I envisioned.
Once all of the pre production elements were out of the way, all I had left to do was to shoot and edit the project. I made sure I had a very detailed shot list in order to make the shoot days as efficient as possible. I also didn't have a lot of time with my actress on the first shoot day as she was only available for a few hours. We stuck closely to the shot list and also had a bit of time to get some extra shots which actually proved to be very handy in the edit. After the first shoot day, I updated my notes / shot list to be more specific so that the second shoot day would go even more smoothly (which it did). I knew exactly which shots I wanted so I was able to focus more on the look of the shot than the content (as I already knew exactly what I wanted the content of each shot to be and where exactly it would take place). I think the raw colouring of the footage I took on the second day was a lot better than the raw colouring of the footage from the first day as I was tight for time. However, this was all smoothed out and matched up in the edit.
The editing was probably my favourite part of the whole process as this really allowed me to be experimental with the work. I am really happy with the colour grading I did on the footage and am also very pleased with how the flickering shots turned out. I was worried that the footage I shot with and without Ellie in in each location wouldn't match up but it turned out fine - in future, to ensure the footage matches up even better I could use a fig rig. The longest part of the editing process was the sound design. I knew I wanted to have a lot of natural sounds when the characters are out in the natural locations so I had to make sure this was on point. I also had to match up footstep sounds with every step each character took (which was a lot of work considering my whole piece is about one character following the other through different locations). I feel that the natural sounds do get a little washed out by the background music but if I increased them any more then the audio became a little distorted. If I had more time I would have worked more on this aspect of the sound design to find a way of increasing the volume of the nature sounds without them becoming distorted.
Overall, I am happy with how my project turned out. I feel that my narrative works well to display the themes of the sonnet as well as having its own original feel.
What worked?
- Before shooting my project, I did a lot of pre production. This really helped when it came to my shoot days as I knew exactly what shots I wanted to capture and then what order I would piece them together in when it came to editing. This meant that the shoot days and editing process were as efficient as possible. I created a mood board featuring the style and colour of the images I wanted my footage to have and also a shot list detailing every shot I needed.
- I feel like the colour grading of my project was strong. I set out the visual design I wanted to achieve in my project proposals and in my mood board. I wanted to focus on contrasting colours - specifically blue / purple and orange / pink. To achieve this look, I filmed all my raw footage with quite a low contrast flat look. This then meant that colour grading was a lot easier as it gave me a lot more room to play around with and add contrast and colours.
- The flickering shots had the look I wanted to achieve. I feel that they work well to suggest that my character is both present and absent from those settings - present in spirit but absent in body. I did this by filming the footage with Ellie in it and then filming the exact same scenes without her and then layered them in editing, adjusting the opacity for the shots. I feel that the flicker effect is strengthen by the static sound I added.
- The camera movement worked well. I feel like I was able to create the feeling that James is following Ellie through these locations - I do not think that the piece would be as effective if the footage was all static and still. I also really like the slight tracking out at the end of the piece to isolate James in the frame and showing that he is without Ellie in body whilst the music shows that she is there in spirit.
- I think my actors performed well and the locations were great. Both actors were good at following direction and also adding their own input into the project. The locations were exactly how I imagined them, I was able to find natural locations all very close in proximity to each other which made the shoot very smooth.
- I feel that I managed to clearly portray my narrative through the footage and edit. I was afraid that my narrative was too complex and that the audience would get lost, however, it is clear there has been an accident and that she has passed away. The sequences where James is following Ellie allow for questions as to why she's there and then the flickering provides further intrigue and begins to suggest that she isn't really there in body. I feel that I have successfully adapted the sonnet into something of my own whilst retaining many of the themes that run through it.
What didn't work?
- Whilst I do think my scheduling was good, I did feel a bit tight for time with my actress. I only had a few hours to shoot with her which meant we had to stick almost exactly to the shot list. We did have a bit of extra time to get some additional footage but I would have liked to capture more so that I had more to experiment with.
- A couple of the shot with Ellie were slightly over exposed - this wasn't a massive problem as I was able to resolve this in the editing but I feel that this reduced the amount I was able to play around with the image as I had to first match it to the other shots before I could adapt it further. It did, however, work well to remind me to check the exposure of each shot on the shoot day I did with James. I was able to learn from this error.
- I feel that the reflections of the sirens on James' face at the scene of the accident are not completely convincing and therefore remove some of the dramatic impact of the shot. I think if I had more time then I would have been able to play around with the colours, scale, opacity and blending of the sirens a little more to make them more realistic. I did try to overcome this problem with the sound design. I added the sound of sirens which increased in volume as James got closer to the scene of the accident. I also added a high pitch ringing sound to suggest the impact that the accident has had on the character. I feel these aspects of this scene work well, I just think the visual aspect of the sirens could have been improved.
- Due to the lack of verbal narrative / dialogue, my piece lacks peaks and troughs. Although it is possible to form peaks and troughs in a purely visual narrative, it is more difficult than when you have a verbal narrative as well. I could have spent a little more time coming up with my narrative and thought of a couple more events to happen - rather than it being a simple 'event - chase - resolution' sort of structure.
- I feel that my sound design could have been better. Like my narrative, there are not many peaks and troughs in the music. I did attempt to resolve this issue by dipping the music down almost to silence when James loses Ellie in the lane, but I feel there could have been more moments where the sound design differed. I also feel like the natural and atmospheric sounds got a little lost amongst the background music, however, I couldn't increase the volume without distorting the sounds. I feel that if I had more time I could have discovered a way to do this and therefore increased the quality of my sound design.
What did I learn?
- I have learnt how to interpret a sonnet and analyse it for imagery to inspire my own work. I feel that I could have been more abstract in my interpretation but I do like the narrative I ended up forming. I feel that analysing the imagery really helped in choosing where to set my narrative and also what themes there should be in it. Because of all the natural descriptions in the sonnet, I decided to revolve my narrative heavily around nature.
- I have learnt how to experiment with different techniques. I have not really been confident using moving shots in the past but now feel like I have increased my confidence in this area. I also learnt that experiments do not always work out but that it is better to try and fail rather than never trying at all (a small example being: I tried to add titles at the end of my project to reinforce the narrative but it ended up looking odd. Instead I added a credit at the end saying where the film was adapted from. I feel this has the same impact as having the titles would have and fits in better.)
- I have learnt that pre production is key to a smooth shoot. I did a lot of work in the pre production stage to make sure I knew exactly what I wanted to capture. Although I did run into a couple of issues during the shoot, I hate to think how much worse these would have been with less preparation.
- I have also learnt how essential camera movement is - it helps to draw in the audience and add to the narrative. I feel that my piece would have been very stagnant and boring if the camera just stayed still. With the inclusion of the tracking shots I used to follow the characters through different locations, I feel that my piece is a lot more enticing and effective in conveying the mood and emotion within the narrative.
What could I develop?
- In future I could develop my narrative further so that there are more peaks and troughs in the structure. There should be more obstacles for the characters to face. My project was very linear and only seemed to follow one sort of story. More peaks and troughs in the sound design could also help this aspect of the production.
- In future I should ensure my characters' eye lines match up. This was quite an annoying and easily avoidable mistake which I didn't account for in pre production. In future, if I have a lot of shots where characters are looking at one another (but the other is out of shot) I should always consider where exactly there eye line should be.
- In future I need to leave enough time for the sound design as I didn't realise how time consuming this would be. My scheduling for the pre production and the majority of the production was good but was a little weaker in post production. In future, I will not leave the sound design to last and priorities this in the edit.
- I would now like to try using similar techniques with one of the panasonic cameras so that I can improve the visual quality of my work. Whilst using the DSLR worked well for this and we had been using them in the workshops leading up to production, I feel like a panasonic camera would give the film a more cinematic quality with a higher quality picture. Now that I have experimented with the specific techniques (i.e. layering opacity, colour grading etc.) I would like to implement them whilst using a higher quality camera like the panasonics.
Conclusion:
I have really enjoyed this unit. At first it seemed daunting as I do often struggle to come up with an idea, but after analysing my sonnet and doing some research into it I was able to form a good narrative. I feel that my narrative could have been stronger and should have had more peaks and dips with different events occurring, but I still feel it worked well to convey the feeling of the sonnet. I am pleased with my pre production skills, I feel that I managed to prepare everything very precisely which enabled the shoot days to be very smooth and efficient. I am pleased with the colour grading I performed on the footage and the rest of the edit in general. I feel that I have really developed my editing skills which will come in handy for future projects. I also feel that this project has increased my confidence and encouraged me to try different techniques that I wouldn't normally consider. It has made me realise that there are plenty of opportunities to be creative if you step outside of your comfort zone.
Wednesday 13 December 2017
Tuesday 12 December 2017
FICTION ADAPTATION: The Edit
A lot of my idea was dependent on the editing (such as the flickering to show Ellie being present and absent from the shot, the colours to portray mood and the sound design).
The first thing I did was assemble all of the footage together on the timeline to form a rough cut. This was very rough as I hadn't captured all of the footage (such as the changing times on the clock). Once I had placed all my footage on the timeline, I decided to do a little bit of colour work and also flicker the images of Ellie in and out of the frame. This was so that I could present the rough idea of my visual design to Mike in the rough cut.
The colour work I did was just to match up the colour of all the footage so that they all looked the same and all looked like the took place on the same day. Unfortunately I couldn't get my actors together on the same day so the colours were slightly different in the footage as the weather on each day was slightly different. I think I managed to get the footage looking the same - this wasn't going to be the final colour look but at least I have managed to get the colouring to looking like the characters are there together in the same environment. This skill has proved to be valuable as now I know that in future, if I can't get my actors together and the weather is similar enough, I can film on separate days and correct the colour to make the footage match up. Obviously it is far more ideal to get the actors together on the same day, but at least I have this skill as a back up option if the same problem arises in the future.
I made sure that my raw footage was quite flat to make the colour grading process easier and more effective. I feel that my final colour grading gives a good result as the orange flowers now stand out from the blue / purple tones of the rest of the footage. I achieved this by firstly changing the colours of the images. I gave the shadows quite a strong purple / blue tone, changed the highlights to a faint light blue tone and then changed the mid tones to be an orange tone. I then increased the saturation of the mid tones to make the orange flowers stand out and also increased the saturation of the shadows to make the contrast between purple and orange greater. I then decreased the saturation of the highlights ever so slightly. I then faded the images to an opacity of 98% and layered this over a cream background. I then added a hard light effect and changed this to 40. This allowed me to get a nice contrast between the purples and oranges whilst remaining a soft look. This is something I set out to achieve in my visual design and mood board and I feel that I have achieved it.
I have never done a great deal of colour grading before - I usually just colour correct the images so that they all match up in colour. This project gave me a good opportunity to play around with colour grading and advance on this skill. I will definitely be paying more attention to colour grading in the future as I feel that it has the opportunity to change the whole look and feel of a film. I do not feel that the look of my project and the emotion I wanted to portray (sombre but comforting) would have been anywhere near as effective without the colour grading.
One part of the edit that I was particularly nervous about was flickering the footage of Ellie being present then absent from the shot. I had experimented with this in my short experimental piece 'Despair' but not in such a complex way. I had to ensure my footage with Ellie in it and without her in it perfectly match up. I did this by first capturing the shot with Ellie and marking where we started and finished each shot. I then reviewed the shot to check the focus, colour and content to make sure it was the shot I would be using. I then went back to the start point of the shot and filmed it again without Ellie in the frame keeping all settings on the camera the same. After this I took closer up footage of Ellie to incorporate into the flickering shots.
I think this was actually very successful and I am pleased with the outcome. If I were to do this again, I would have used a fig rig with the camera so that the footage was more stable and therefore would match up even better in the edit. That being said, I still feel like my handheld method worked well to achieve what I set out to.
At the end of the piece, I decided to add an effect to look as if the camera is tracking out. This originally was a static shot, however, I feel that it lacked emotion this way. The tracking out shot helps to isolate the subject in the frame, making him smaller which adds to the sombre atmosphere. Although he is comforted by her presence in the thing around him, I still wanted to reinforce the fact that he is now without her and I feel this slight movement does that. I have really learnt how camera movement can affect the emotion within a frame.
Possibly the most time consuming part of the edit was the sound design. I started off by finding a sombre but cinematic track to use as background music. I wanted music that sounded hopeful in some places and sad in others. I looked through the royalty free music in the youtube audio library and found a piece called 'Boat Floating' which had the exact feel I was looking for. I did edit the music slightly when I matched it up with my rough cut. For some sections I slowed the music down (i.e. in the sequence where James is looking at picture of Ellie on his phone) - this was to resemble the more sombre / mournful aspect of the sonnet.
I then returned the pace to its original speed during the sequence where Ellie is following James through the locations to give more of an impression of a chase (even though it is not a fast chase, he is still following her to find out where she is leading him).
In certain places I reduced the volume of the music to give more emphasis to the other sounds occurring. During the sequence of James following Ellie, I reduced the volume to -6dB to allow for the sounds of nature and their footsteps to be heard. When James loses Ellie in the lane, I dropped the sound down to almost silence to show that this music is part of her character. When she is present, the music is present. When she is absent, the music is absent. This then works effectively at the end when the music is brought back in and she fades away to suggest that she is still present in all the things around James. During the silence, I increased the volume of and added more nature noises in. This was to help exaggerate the silence and also add to the confusion that the character James feels. In the circling shot I wanted the sound to be really intense as I wanted him to feel surrounded by the confusion - I feel the sound is effective here.
The longest part of the sound design was adding in the individual footsteps for each step the characters took. Although this was time consuming, I feel like it is very effective in displaying the chase between the characters. In the rough cut where I had no footsteps for the characters, there was something ominous and unsettling about it which was not the feel I was going for. I want it to feel strange but not unsettling - I feel that the strangeness comes out in the visuals and the sound of the flickers rather than in the sound design as a whole.
I feel that my edit has definitely developed a lot through the different stages, incorporating a lot of the feedback that was giving during the viewing sessions.
Changes I made following feedback:
- In the rough cut I didn't overlap the audio of the voicemail and the visuals of the clock and James waiting. It was suggested that I overlap them so that the audios and visuals don't seem so separate. I have no overlapped this footage and feel that this works a lot better.
- In the rough cut I had no footage of the flower being posted through the door - leaving the audience confused as to why there was suddenly a flower on the doormat. I have now added this clip in so that the audience know someone has posted the flower through the door - therefore prompting James to find and follow the trail.
- In the rough cut, when James loses Ellie in the lane, the audience's vision was obscured by James standing in the way of the view of the empty lane. I then found the footage I had captured of a slightly different angle of this shot where the audience can see that the lane in front of James is empty.
- In the rough cut it was suggested I incorporate a line from the end of the sonnet at the end of my piece to reinforce the narrative. I did this and then decided against it as both myself and Mike didn't like the look of it. This goes to show how all experiments are not necessarily successful. I decided to replace this with a credit showing where the film had been adapted from.
- In the fine cut it was suggested I either include a clip of James buying the flowers or show them sitting on the side before showing James waiting and looking at the clock. This sets up the narrative and shows the audience that he is waiting for her to get home so he can take her for a date - not that its just any normal day. I added this in and definitely prefer it to how it was before.
- In the fine cut I kept the non diegetic background music running all the way through the piece without any peaks or troughs. Following feedback, I decided to reduce the music almost to silence when James loses Ellie to show that the music comes with her, it represents her presence.
- In the fine cut the circling shot around James was still a little murky in comparison to the other shots. I increased the exposure and contrast on this shot so that it matched.
- The only piece of advice that I was unable to implement was changing the eye lines of the characters as this would involve re shooting which there is no time for. This just means I need to keep this in mind in future and ensure the eye lines of the characters match.
What went well with the edit:
- The colour grading. I am really happy with the colouring of the project - it is similar to the colours I wanted to experiment with from my mood board. This is a skill that I have been able to enhance in this project and am now able to use confidently in the future.
- Displaying my narrative. When filming the footage I was unsure whether the shots would piece together nicely in order to display my narrative. I was worried that the shots wouldn't match up and that the audience would be confused by the narrative. However, I feel that the edit works well and the narrative is clear to follow.
- The flickering shots. I am really happy with the effect of the flickering shots. It helps to hint to the audience that Ellie is not really present in body but in all the things around. I feel that my footage all matched up well, enabling this flicker to be as convincing as possible. I also like the sound of the flicker, as it helps to suggest that something isn't quite right about following her. In the rough cut, not all the flickers had sound and the ones that did were quite soft. The final sound for the flickers works well to jolt the audience into questioning whether she is really present.
What could be improved in the edit:
- The flashing of the sirens when James arrives at the accident. I feel that they work well as sirens and work well to suggest that there has been an accident, however, there is something unrealistic about them which makes them a bit less convincing. I created the overlay by inserting slightly different blue coloured ovals over one another and faded them in and out so that they resembled the blue flashing lights of sirens. I then layered them over the image of James using both a hard light and hard mix blend mode. I feel that if I had a bit more time I would be able to make them more convincing (i.e. by playing around with the size, opacity, colours and blend mode a little more)
- The sound design. Although I feel that the sound design works well, it was the more rushed aspect of my project as it was a lot more time consuming than I anticipated. Whilst I like the effect of dropping the music and bringing up the nature noises when James loses Ellie in the lane, it feels a bit amateur and not as smooth as I hoped. With a bit more time I feel that I could have made it work better.
- Not necessarily the edit but the shoot in general - making the eyelines match. Since this has been pointed out, it has really been bothering me. In future, I will make sure the characters eyelines match.
The Final Cut:
The first thing I did was assemble all of the footage together on the timeline to form a rough cut. This was very rough as I hadn't captured all of the footage (such as the changing times on the clock). Once I had placed all my footage on the timeline, I decided to do a little bit of colour work and also flicker the images of Ellie in and out of the frame. This was so that I could present the rough idea of my visual design to Mike in the rough cut.
The colour work I did was just to match up the colour of all the footage so that they all looked the same and all looked like the took place on the same day. Unfortunately I couldn't get my actors together on the same day so the colours were slightly different in the footage as the weather on each day was slightly different. I think I managed to get the footage looking the same - this wasn't going to be the final colour look but at least I have managed to get the colouring to looking like the characters are there together in the same environment. This skill has proved to be valuable as now I know that in future, if I can't get my actors together and the weather is similar enough, I can film on separate days and correct the colour to make the footage match up. Obviously it is far more ideal to get the actors together on the same day, but at least I have this skill as a back up option if the same problem arises in the future.
I made sure that my raw footage was quite flat to make the colour grading process easier and more effective. I feel that my final colour grading gives a good result as the orange flowers now stand out from the blue / purple tones of the rest of the footage. I achieved this by firstly changing the colours of the images. I gave the shadows quite a strong purple / blue tone, changed the highlights to a faint light blue tone and then changed the mid tones to be an orange tone. I then increased the saturation of the mid tones to make the orange flowers stand out and also increased the saturation of the shadows to make the contrast between purple and orange greater. I then decreased the saturation of the highlights ever so slightly. I then faded the images to an opacity of 98% and layered this over a cream background. I then added a hard light effect and changed this to 40. This allowed me to get a nice contrast between the purples and oranges whilst remaining a soft look. This is something I set out to achieve in my visual design and mood board and I feel that I have achieved it.
I have never done a great deal of colour grading before - I usually just colour correct the images so that they all match up in colour. This project gave me a good opportunity to play around with colour grading and advance on this skill. I will definitely be paying more attention to colour grading in the future as I feel that it has the opportunity to change the whole look and feel of a film. I do not feel that the look of my project and the emotion I wanted to portray (sombre but comforting) would have been anywhere near as effective without the colour grading.
One part of the edit that I was particularly nervous about was flickering the footage of Ellie being present then absent from the shot. I had experimented with this in my short experimental piece 'Despair' but not in such a complex way. I had to ensure my footage with Ellie in it and without her in it perfectly match up. I did this by first capturing the shot with Ellie and marking where we started and finished each shot. I then reviewed the shot to check the focus, colour and content to make sure it was the shot I would be using. I then went back to the start point of the shot and filmed it again without Ellie in the frame keeping all settings on the camera the same. After this I took closer up footage of Ellie to incorporate into the flickering shots.
I think this was actually very successful and I am pleased with the outcome. If I were to do this again, I would have used a fig rig with the camera so that the footage was more stable and therefore would match up even better in the edit. That being said, I still feel like my handheld method worked well to achieve what I set out to.
At the end of the piece, I decided to add an effect to look as if the camera is tracking out. This originally was a static shot, however, I feel that it lacked emotion this way. The tracking out shot helps to isolate the subject in the frame, making him smaller which adds to the sombre atmosphere. Although he is comforted by her presence in the thing around him, I still wanted to reinforce the fact that he is now without her and I feel this slight movement does that. I have really learnt how camera movement can affect the emotion within a frame.
Possibly the most time consuming part of the edit was the sound design. I started off by finding a sombre but cinematic track to use as background music. I wanted music that sounded hopeful in some places and sad in others. I looked through the royalty free music in the youtube audio library and found a piece called 'Boat Floating' which had the exact feel I was looking for. I did edit the music slightly when I matched it up with my rough cut. For some sections I slowed the music down (i.e. in the sequence where James is looking at picture of Ellie on his phone) - this was to resemble the more sombre / mournful aspect of the sonnet.
I then returned the pace to its original speed during the sequence where Ellie is following James through the locations to give more of an impression of a chase (even though it is not a fast chase, he is still following her to find out where she is leading him).
The longest part of the sound design was adding in the individual footsteps for each step the characters took. Although this was time consuming, I feel like it is very effective in displaying the chase between the characters. In the rough cut where I had no footsteps for the characters, there was something ominous and unsettling about it which was not the feel I was going for. I want it to feel strange but not unsettling - I feel that the strangeness comes out in the visuals and the sound of the flickers rather than in the sound design as a whole.
I feel that my edit has definitely developed a lot through the different stages, incorporating a lot of the feedback that was giving during the viewing sessions.
Changes I made following feedback:
- In the rough cut I didn't overlap the audio of the voicemail and the visuals of the clock and James waiting. It was suggested that I overlap them so that the audios and visuals don't seem so separate. I have no overlapped this footage and feel that this works a lot better.
- In the rough cut I had no footage of the flower being posted through the door - leaving the audience confused as to why there was suddenly a flower on the doormat. I have now added this clip in so that the audience know someone has posted the flower through the door - therefore prompting James to find and follow the trail.
- In the rough cut, when James loses Ellie in the lane, the audience's vision was obscured by James standing in the way of the view of the empty lane. I then found the footage I had captured of a slightly different angle of this shot where the audience can see that the lane in front of James is empty.
- In the rough cut it was suggested I incorporate a line from the end of the sonnet at the end of my piece to reinforce the narrative. I did this and then decided against it as both myself and Mike didn't like the look of it. This goes to show how all experiments are not necessarily successful. I decided to replace this with a credit showing where the film had been adapted from.
- In the fine cut it was suggested I either include a clip of James buying the flowers or show them sitting on the side before showing James waiting and looking at the clock. This sets up the narrative and shows the audience that he is waiting for her to get home so he can take her for a date - not that its just any normal day. I added this in and definitely prefer it to how it was before.
- In the fine cut I kept the non diegetic background music running all the way through the piece without any peaks or troughs. Following feedback, I decided to reduce the music almost to silence when James loses Ellie to show that the music comes with her, it represents her presence.
- In the fine cut the circling shot around James was still a little murky in comparison to the other shots. I increased the exposure and contrast on this shot so that it matched.
- The only piece of advice that I was unable to implement was changing the eye lines of the characters as this would involve re shooting which there is no time for. This just means I need to keep this in mind in future and ensure the eye lines of the characters match.
What went well with the edit:
- The colour grading. I am really happy with the colouring of the project - it is similar to the colours I wanted to experiment with from my mood board. This is a skill that I have been able to enhance in this project and am now able to use confidently in the future.
- Displaying my narrative. When filming the footage I was unsure whether the shots would piece together nicely in order to display my narrative. I was worried that the shots wouldn't match up and that the audience would be confused by the narrative. However, I feel that the edit works well and the narrative is clear to follow.
- The flickering shots. I am really happy with the effect of the flickering shots. It helps to hint to the audience that Ellie is not really present in body but in all the things around. I feel that my footage all matched up well, enabling this flicker to be as convincing as possible. I also like the sound of the flicker, as it helps to suggest that something isn't quite right about following her. In the rough cut, not all the flickers had sound and the ones that did were quite soft. The final sound for the flickers works well to jolt the audience into questioning whether she is really present.
What could be improved in the edit:
- The flashing of the sirens when James arrives at the accident. I feel that they work well as sirens and work well to suggest that there has been an accident, however, there is something unrealistic about them which makes them a bit less convincing. I created the overlay by inserting slightly different blue coloured ovals over one another and faded them in and out so that they resembled the blue flashing lights of sirens. I then layered them over the image of James using both a hard light and hard mix blend mode. I feel that if I had a bit more time I would be able to make them more convincing (i.e. by playing around with the size, opacity, colours and blend mode a little more)
- The sound design. Although I feel that the sound design works well, it was the more rushed aspect of my project as it was a lot more time consuming than I anticipated. Whilst I like the effect of dropping the music and bringing up the nature noises when James loses Ellie in the lane, it feels a bit amateur and not as smooth as I hoped. With a bit more time I feel that I could have made it work better.
- Not necessarily the edit but the shoot in general - making the eyelines match. Since this has been pointed out, it has really been bothering me. In future, I will make sure the characters eyelines match.
The Final Cut:
FICTION ADAPTATION: Fine Cut Viewing and Feedback
Today I had another feedback session with Mike, this time receiving feedback on my fine cut.
I feel like I had got to the point where I was unsure what else I could do with the edit, so the feedback I received was very useful.
Feedback:
- Maybe use clip of the flowers to set up the fact he is waiting to take Ellie for a date. Whilst it may be too late to shoot more footage, a clip of the flowers on the side (such as the clip where he grabs the flowers) would help to set up the scene and give context as to why he is waiting.
- Some further sound design could be done when James loses Ellie in the lane. All of the sound is very much the same, there are not a lot of peaks and troughs. When James can no longer see Ellie in front of him, maybe fade out the music. Then once she is back with him, re introduce the music. This helps to add this as part of her character - the music is present whenever she is present. This could also work very effectively to display how she is still present in all the world around him when she fades away at the end by keeping the music here. When the music fades away, increase the sounds of the nature around him, this will help to emphasise the silence.
- The circling shot around James is a little murky compared to the rest of the footage. The exposure on this just needs to be increased as well as the contrast. The rest of the visuals work well to display what I set out to achieve.
- Although this is an issue I cannot solve at this point in the production, it is something to consider in future projects: Their eyelines do not match. Ellie looks back directly at the camera and James is looking into the distance. This suggests that they are not looking at each other. I did suggest to Mike that this could help add to the strangeness but we both agreed that it looked like too much of a mistake to be intentional. Ellie's eyeline is enticing, making you want to follow her which was my intention. James' eyeline looks as if he is following someone in the distance. It's hard to decided which character's eyeline I would have changed if I was to re shoot. Something which could have helped this issue is being placed further away from the characters - they are right on top of us, making these mistakes more obvious.
- I was also advised to removed the text at the end - something which I wanted to do anyway. In the rough cut feedback, Mike suggested I may want to use a line from the sonnet at the end to reinforce the narrative. I added in the final lines from the sonnet but wasn't particularly happy with how they looked. I decided to keep it in the fine cut anyway to get Mike's feedback and we both decided it looked odd. Instead, I will put an "Adapted From: Do Not Stand At My Grave And Weep" credit when the screen fades to black - this will help to reinforce the narrative instead.
I am happy with the feedback I received and feel like I can implement it in time. I will work around the things which I cannot change (such as the eyelines not matching) but will keep them in mind for future projects. I still want to do a lot of work to the sound design, I feel like some of the sounds (such as the nature sounds, footsteps and heartbeat) are too subtle and need their volume to be increased slightly.
Heres' the fine cut:
I feel like I had got to the point where I was unsure what else I could do with the edit, so the feedback I received was very useful.
Feedback:
- Maybe use clip of the flowers to set up the fact he is waiting to take Ellie for a date. Whilst it may be too late to shoot more footage, a clip of the flowers on the side (such as the clip where he grabs the flowers) would help to set up the scene and give context as to why he is waiting.
- Some further sound design could be done when James loses Ellie in the lane. All of the sound is very much the same, there are not a lot of peaks and troughs. When James can no longer see Ellie in front of him, maybe fade out the music. Then once she is back with him, re introduce the music. This helps to add this as part of her character - the music is present whenever she is present. This could also work very effectively to display how she is still present in all the world around him when she fades away at the end by keeping the music here. When the music fades away, increase the sounds of the nature around him, this will help to emphasise the silence.
- The circling shot around James is a little murky compared to the rest of the footage. The exposure on this just needs to be increased as well as the contrast. The rest of the visuals work well to display what I set out to achieve.
- Although this is an issue I cannot solve at this point in the production, it is something to consider in future projects: Their eyelines do not match. Ellie looks back directly at the camera and James is looking into the distance. This suggests that they are not looking at each other. I did suggest to Mike that this could help add to the strangeness but we both agreed that it looked like too much of a mistake to be intentional. Ellie's eyeline is enticing, making you want to follow her which was my intention. James' eyeline looks as if he is following someone in the distance. It's hard to decided which character's eyeline I would have changed if I was to re shoot. Something which could have helped this issue is being placed further away from the characters - they are right on top of us, making these mistakes more obvious.
- I was also advised to removed the text at the end - something which I wanted to do anyway. In the rough cut feedback, Mike suggested I may want to use a line from the sonnet at the end to reinforce the narrative. I added in the final lines from the sonnet but wasn't particularly happy with how they looked. I decided to keep it in the fine cut anyway to get Mike's feedback and we both decided it looked odd. Instead, I will put an "Adapted From: Do Not Stand At My Grave And Weep" credit when the screen fades to black - this will help to reinforce the narrative instead.
I am happy with the feedback I received and feel like I can implement it in time. I will work around the things which I cannot change (such as the eyelines not matching) but will keep them in mind for future projects. I still want to do a lot of work to the sound design, I feel like some of the sounds (such as the nature sounds, footsteps and heartbeat) are too subtle and need their volume to be increased slightly.
Heres' the fine cut:
Tuesday 5 December 2017
FICTION ADAPTATION: Rough Cut Viewing and Feedback
Today I Mike viewed the rough cut of my shoot. This rough cut was only an assembly of the shots I got with a little bit of colour work done, a few of the more technical pieces experimented with and very minimal sound design. I wanted to show a rough idea of what I meant by Ellie (the girlfriend) flickering in and out of shot - so I did this slightly more technical bit of editing ready for the rough cut - however, I plan to improve the quality of these pieces for my fine cut. Again, I did do some colouring on my rough cut to ensure all the shots matched to give my piece a sense of continuity, but this will be improved for my fine cut.
Mike's feedback was generally very positive. His points included:
- the adaptation follows my proposal and achieves what I set out to do
- it may be a better idea to overlap the audio (voicemail recording from the girlfriend at the beginning) with the visual shots of the boyfriend looking at the clock. At the moment it feels a bit separated into audio then visual. This could be because I haven't done the work on the sound design for the rest of the piece but I am more than happy to take this piece of advise on board and implement it in my work.
- 'call to action' - when the boyfriend finds the flower on the doormat it needs to be made more clear that it has been posted through the letter box or placed there. The audience need to know why he's on the journey.
- clarify what the boyfriend is seeing or not seeing. When he loses sight of her at the end of the piece, show the empty lane instead of him obscuring the vision.
- after clarifying what the camera is seeing - then go for the strangeness / wobbliness. At the moment the audience is unclear as to why the character feels a bit wobbly, however, if they see the empty lane in front of the character they will know it is because he has lost sight of her.
- it may be a nice idea to clarify the theme of the piece at the end with either a piece of text from the sonnet or a piece of spoken word from the sonnet. This follow what Lajos Egri, the author of The Art of Dramatic Writing, said; show then tell. Show the audience the story and then tell them at the end to clarify the narrative.
I will use Mike's feedback and advice to improve my work.
Here's the rough cut:
Mike's feedback was generally very positive. His points included:
- the adaptation follows my proposal and achieves what I set out to do
- it may be a better idea to overlap the audio (voicemail recording from the girlfriend at the beginning) with the visual shots of the boyfriend looking at the clock. At the moment it feels a bit separated into audio then visual. This could be because I haven't done the work on the sound design for the rest of the piece but I am more than happy to take this piece of advise on board and implement it in my work.
- 'call to action' - when the boyfriend finds the flower on the doormat it needs to be made more clear that it has been posted through the letter box or placed there. The audience need to know why he's on the journey.
- clarify what the boyfriend is seeing or not seeing. When he loses sight of her at the end of the piece, show the empty lane instead of him obscuring the vision.
- after clarifying what the camera is seeing - then go for the strangeness / wobbliness. At the moment the audience is unclear as to why the character feels a bit wobbly, however, if they see the empty lane in front of the character they will know it is because he has lost sight of her.
- it may be a nice idea to clarify the theme of the piece at the end with either a piece of text from the sonnet or a piece of spoken word from the sonnet. This follow what Lajos Egri, the author of The Art of Dramatic Writing, said; show then tell. Show the audience the story and then tell them at the end to clarify the narrative.
I will use Mike's feedback and advice to improve my work.
Here's the rough cut:
Sunday 3 December 2017
FICTION ADAPTATION: Shoot Day Two
Shoot Day Two
Today was the second day of my shoot. This was focused around filming the scenes featuring James.
Call sheet:
I again was the only crew for my shoot as I only needed to film the visuals. Filming with Ellie gave me a clearer idea of which exact shots I needed to film of James which made the shoot day very smooth. Having filmed with Ellie I also knew how best to plan which location we went to first so that we could visit them in a logical order to make the most of the time we had.
The first location we went to was the entrance of the country lane to film the scenes where James discovers the car accident. This was very straight forward as a lot of the impact of this shot will be added in post production.
The second location was the wooded area. This was very quick to film as all I needed was a medium shot tracking James walking towards the camera through the wood.
We then went back to the country lane to film various different scenes at different points of the lane. Near the middle of the lane we filmed the end of the film where James is following Ellie and then loses her before they reunite and walk down the lane together. Further down the lane we filmed the beginning of the sequence where James follows Ellie. This involved tracking James from behind and then getting some medium / close up shots of his face as he realises Ellie is the one dropping flowers.
After the country lane, we filmed in the open field. Like the wooded area, this was very straight forward as all I needed was the medium tracking shot following James walking towards the camera through this location.
Once all of the outside scenes were filmed, we filmed in the house. This involved filming James looking at the clock and also the montage sequences. I also filmed James looking at pictures of Ellie and also opening the door to find the trail of flowers.
Overall the shoot was very successful - I stuck very closely to my shot list and only gained a couple of extra shots such as James’ feet walking (however, I am unsure whether these will be used). I still need to film the audio aspects for James’ scenes but this should be very straight forward and will be done when I have the rough cut together.
What went well:
- The scheduling for this day worked well. Due to the sun setting earlier, we had less light to film in and therefore less time. As my pre production preparation was good, I managed to film everything in the short amount of time I had.
- James was very easy to direct - he followed instructions well and was inquisitive about the shots which made me put deeper thought into them e.g. I hadn’t expressed how I wanted James to look in the shots - together we decided that he would have a dazed look - confused but curious. We kept asking ourselves “how would you react if you thought you were following your dead girlfriend?” Although we did think you would be quite horrified by seeing your dead partner, we decided he would curious / dazed instead.
- The exposure on the footage was exactly how I wanted it. In a couple of the shots I filmed with Ellie, I realised some of them were slightly overexposed. Because of this I wanted to ensure James’ shots were all exposed correctly to create the dark / overcast atmosphere.
- All of the shots are in focus (with the exception of the shot circling around James as I wanted this shot to look as if James is very dazed / confused / overwhelmed / may even pass out).
What could be improved:
- The handheld nature of the shots did mean that some appeared quite shaky / unstable. I did want to have a slightly handheld look about it to convey the unsteadiness of the character as he is dazed / confused, however, I feel some shots just look shaky instead of having the intended look. I will attempt to stabilise this in post production, however, in future I will consider taking out equipment like the fig rig or the steadicam.
- I was not able to get my actors together on the same day so I had to step in at the end for the long shot where they link arms whilst I left the camera on the tripod. Although it is barely noticeable that it isn’t the same actress, it would have been better to have the actors together so I could be behind the camera ensuring the exposure remained correct and the shot was in focus.
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