Problems uploading 'The Prisoner'

Unfortunately myself and Ben have encountered a problem whilst trying to upload our project on to vimeo. As we ran out of time to upload the film during Friday's lesson I tried to email the attached video to both of us via the school emailing system. For some reason the school email has decided to block the attached file meaning that we cannot upload the video until we get back to school.
I apologize for the delay this is causing and will ensure to upload the file on the first Monday back.

Zombie editing

Today since we were dressed as zombies for Halloween, we decided that it would only be appropriate to have a zombie editing session of our film 'the prisoner'. In our editing today we added music soundtracks to the first scene of our sequence. The track we decided to use was called Hallucinogenic by Ross Kmet. We decided to use this track as it gives an ominious mood to the piece which is what we were aiming to achieve. The final part now is to fade the music and mess with volume settings to create more tension within the scene.

Please enjoy our zombie selfie!

More Editing

We completed some more editing for our 'Prisoner' project during todays lesson,  during this we decided to focus on the brightness, contrast and part of the audio. We realised that after we had imported our footage onto the editing software that the lighting within scene two was a lot darker than we have first thought. To fix this issue we played about with the brightness and contrast settings on the software and found a balance that was more appropriate and visible for the viewer. Also within this editing session we focused on audio and specifically the jumps between cuts and dialouge that needed to be smoothed out. A break in cuts has left a gap in the audio which we have'nt resolved yet, it is making the sound seem seperated and less professional. We are going to attempted to resolve the issue through the use of soft background music in an attempt to mask the jump.

Second continuity error

Whilst focusing on the editing of scene one on Friday, we noticed that there had been a second continuity mistake within the sequence. When placing his hand on a door handle, Josh mistakenly grabs the right handle in the first shot whilst in the second he grabs the left handle. Since they folow eachother it is a notable error, however it is going to have to stay the way it is as we can't re-film or risk any further continuity errors in weather, clothing etc.

The editing of scene one with scene two

Today we began to merge together scenes one and two of our short film onto the editing software. We began by looking at scene one and making editorial decisions on which clips to use and which to leave out. We decided that it would be effective and appropriate to add a scenery shot into scene one to make the transition between shots appear smoother. As we had already edited most of the first scene together it was more a case going over little details within the scene and deciding what needed to be improved and further checking for continuity issues. After these choices were made and problems were fixed, we looked at scene two and how we could fit this to scene one effectively, as they were set in different locations. The most we were able to get done in this session was selecting the best shots of scene two and placing them onto the timeline. This was the start of our editing process of the two scenes below.

Filming scene 2

On Tuesday night we filmed the second half of our project. We decided to use the sciecne learning centre as the location for our filming of the second scene. We felt that this would be an appropriate location as it had big meeting rooms that could be used as part of a police investigation- which was the look we were going for. When it came to setting up the shots for this location it was a rather simple proccess. The shots we used consisted main of medium close ups and over the shoulder shots that didnt require movement and therefore didnt require much space in order to set them up. One problem that we had with this location was that there was no ambient lighting within the room. This caused a problem as it meant we could create as much of an eery effect with the lighting as we had hoped to. However we tried to compensate for this by using natural daylight and the blinds that were in the room. As a result we did have to edit the brightness and contrast on the footage but it wasn't significant enough for us to have to re-film. The overall scene took just over an hour to film and we ensured that we captured more footage than we needed in order to make the editing process more efficent. To get access to this location we had to email one of the school teachers to be able to film on the site. This was not an issue. The next step for us now is to start to edit together scene one and two and put together the final sequence for our film.

Continuity Error

Whist editing today we discovered a continuity error in our first scene, in the shot walking towards our building, Josh isn't wearing glasses, however in the shot as he is walking up to the building door, he is. This is not too much of a problem as in the second shot he has his back to the camera and the glasses are barely visible. However the problem is still there and we are hoping to try and edit it so that if the glasses become too visible we can hide it. Unfortunately we would have liked to have re-filmed the shot all together, taking into account this error and aiming to fix it. However due to issues with timescale and actor availability, as well as possible threat further continuity mistakes we have taken the editorial decision to leave the shot in place. We hope that this issue will not be too much of a problem in the final cut of the film.   

Filming scene one of 'The Prisoner'

Here we have started to shoot the footage for our short film 'The Prisoner'. We have used two locations for this scene, an desolate field and an office building. We found that problems occurred when trying to shoot at both locations. For example, when shooting in the field we found that because it was a public foot path there was quite a few members of the public walking through the shots at different moments, as a result this caused a delay in our shooting schedule and made it longer to capture the shot we required. When shooting at the office block building we had the issue of being unsure as to whether we were allowed to shoot in the location. Prior to filming we had sent an email to the company/ manager that was in charge of the building, giving them a date a rough time of when we were wanting to shoot and asked politely whether this would be possible. Unfortunately they didn't reply to the email and when we arrived at the location no one was there for us to speak to. As we had no intent to break into the building or cause damage we decided to film anyway as we only needed the outside door. Here is evidence for asking permission to film on the site.

After around 2 hours of filming we had completed scene 1 and were ready to import it onto the editing software. We then took the scene and imported it into the editing software making sure to carefully select the correct clips that we wanted to use (as we had filmed extra shots and safety shots to make sure we got the scene right). We will make more progress with filming scene later in the week. For now we will focus on our editing of scene one- as seen below.

Creating a Storyboard

Before shooting the action of our script we had to create a storyboard that included shots and information on the editing choices, movement and dialogue that we were going to use within our short film. Here are the images of the storyboard that we created.

Enjoy!

 

Task 3 - Shooting a Script

We have now been given our third task- shooting a script! 

This task requires us to combine together all of our camera and editing skills into a shorted scripted film. The script we have been given is called 'Prisoner' and I am very excited to start planning and filming this task as if it were a real short film. 

Evaluation of 'camera movement' Task

Evaluation

Outline of Task

We were shown a number of different types of shots that we were asked to replicate into a sequence of camera movement shots. With this task we had the option of also creating a narrative within our sequence as movement was involved. We were also asked to edit our shots into a sequence including titles. The shots we were asked to make sure that we had included were:

• Slow pan through 180
• Whip pan through 180
• Slow upward tilt
• Fast downward tilt 
• Zoom 
• Reverse zoom
• Point-of-view (slow)
• Point-of-view (fast) 
• Follow
• Overhead pan 

Progress made since 'Introduction to shots' task 
Since completing the 'Introduction to shots' task I feel that I have made a lot of progress and grown in confidence with using the technical equipment. This time round we experimented a lot more with using the different features on the tripod and were confident enough to try new movements that would have been to challenging to do in the first task. Our camera work is also much more interesting from last time. With the introduction of movement in our sequence, the shots that we created on the camera were a lot more interesting to watch and we were confident using the camera to capture these. Whilst we are still very much experimenting with using the editing software, I found I was able to complete the editing of my sequence in a much quicker time frame second time round, which in itself must be a sign of improvement. 

Difficulties we faced
The hardest part of this project was trying to make each frame of footage flow together into a clean sequence that looked pleasing to watch. Because of this, the editing also became a difficulty. It was very hard to get the right transitions to work with shots and titles, however in the end I overcame this issue. The location of the video was in a corridor, we expected to have problems with people walking through the corridor and interrupting our filming, however we were lucky as there were only a couple of people who walked through. We also expected to have issues with sound and background noises from classrooms, however the corridor we chose to film in seemed to have small, quiet classes in at the time of our filming. Overall there weren't many problems with the location as it was not busy and there was plenty of room to film what we wanted.

Health and Safety

Using the tripod meant that we had to be careful of trapped fingers and for some shots arms and shoulders, especially during the overhead pan shot as Ben had to hold the camera and tripod very high to get the desired shot. As Elleah was the actor within our sequence, we needed to ensure that she was safe throughout every shot. To do this we made sure our location was clear of obstacles and posed as little threat to both the actor and us the directors as possible. As well as Elleah's safety, we had to consider our own as camera operators. For example in shots such as Follow, and Point of View (fast) we were moving rather quickly whilst holding the camera, and needed to watch each other so that we avoided falling and hurting ourselves or breaking the camera. Effectively we had to work as a team to ensure that everyone involved was kept safe whilst filming.

Conclusion

Overall I felt that the final outcome of my 'camera movement' task was a success. I included every shot within my sequence and produced a clip that fitted the task brief. If I were to complete this task again I would like to make the editing of the sequence appear more professional so that the final outcome looked and felt as if it was high quality work. For example when I put backing music into my film I wasn't able to listen to the music, so I didn't know what it was going to sound like in the final product. Whilst the music wasn't awful, it didn't really have the effect that I wanted it to have. As a result in my next project if I choose to use backing music I will make sure that it is appropriate for the task before using it. However, overall I am happy with the progress I have made since my last task.

Camera Movement- Final Video

This is the final video of my work on camera movement. 

 I hope that you enjoy! 

Camera Movement from Laura Greenley on Vimeo.