Film Opening - Final Product

Film Opening - Final Product

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Film Opening Evaluation 6 - Use of Technology

Film Opening Evaluation 6 - 

Use of Technology

Task: How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project? 

Let me start this blog off with some lists.

Hardware:

- MacBook Pro 13", Mid 2012

- MacBook Pro with 13" Retina Display, Early 2013
- MSI Laptop (model unknown)

- Canon 650D (Rebel T4i / Kiss X6i... depending on where you live)

- Canon 5D Mark II 

- Canon 50mm fixed-lenses (HOORAY FOR BOKEH)

- Canon 18-55mm lenses

- 2 more lenses (model unknown)

- GoPro Hero4 Silver (for the VLOG!)

- Free tripod (I broke this... oops).

- Cheap tripod

- Microphone

- Some lamps

- Various props

Software:

- Adobe Premier Pro CS6

- Adobe Premier Pro CC 2015

- Adobe After Effects CC 2015

- Pre-installed OS X Software (stuff that came with the computer)

- GoPro App (Mobile)

Online:

- ThingLink

- YouTube

- Dashboard (school network)

- Facebook and Line

- Blogger

- freesound.org

- SoundCloud

- casey.nyc

- Google services (Drive, Mail, etc.)

- Leagueoflegends.com (trust me it was for research)

- Various tutorial-based websites/forums

Okay, let's get to the actual stuff.

Research
We got our research from many many sources. Some primary, some secondary.

An example of some primary research would be our location scouting. Ten and Pooh went to the Bangna location, and all 3 of us did the HydePark survey (location we used). An example of the use of tech would be a GoPro to vlog this process, as well as Premier to edit the vlog. Another example is our own knowledge, for example Pooh and I's knowledge on how to operate the camera in a more advanced manner (e.g. exposure settings, rules, etc.); you may have noticed the lighting for scenes like the public scene was consistent even though the sun was setting quickly, and had very little noise.

Examples of secondary research would asking some of our parents; Pooh's parents work in the design and film industry, and Ten's grandmother knew a lot of good locations. Dashboard also helped us a lot. This is the school's website/network page, where our teacher(s) can post information and useful links in order to assist us with our work. Other examples include YouTube and other tutorial-based websites. I found them very helpful in assisting us making the opening, such as for the use of particles (title scene).

Technology also help us record our progress. As mentioned above, the use of a GoPro allowed us to record high quality video without the need to carry around a big camera. Something else that really helped us is this very website; blogger. It's simple to use and enables us to record our progress in our own style (e.g. customising the fonts, inserting a background, etc).

Planning

Unlike a lot of the other groups, we did quite a lot of our planning electronically rather than on paper. Partially because saving paper (#SaveThePolarBears), but mostly because we found it easier and faster to do it this way; I'm able to edit quickly as well as somewhat confidently talk to a camera (yes, it feels awkward walking around in public talking to a GoPro). However, other procedures such as health and safety, and some timelines we did on paper as it's easier to draw on paper than with a graphics tablet (we were initially gonna do this as most of us own graphics tablets, but decided against it). It was also convenient that two of us were/are art students (Pooh and Ten). A lot of the planning was done online. We recorded our process on Blogger and shared ideas and communicated through Facebook and Line, as well as by school email and Google Drive.

Filming

Filming was probably the most hardware-intensive task of all. This went very well for us. We had good cameras, good equipment (with the exception of the tripods), and other props readily available (a lot of the things we needed, such as the game controller and the lamps were things we already had). We even used some of our DIY skills for some of the props (the cigarette was simply some rolled up paper, obviously). 

With regards to editing, because the tripod was so bad, I had to warp stabilise most of the scenes shot on a tripod (don't judge). Also, the public area scene had to shot hand-held; we got told off for using a tripod... they were fine with me having my laptop setup, and some other people having a picnic and using selfie sticks though. I also had to use audio gain and other audio effects because the microphone that came with the camera was bad and had crackling noises caused by the wind.

The location vlog we did was shot solely using the GoPro, which was convenient because we did a lot of running around, and having our big Canons out would've been a huge inconvenience (and not to mention risky, as we may damage them when exploring some of the unoccupied houses).

Post Production

With regards to the post-production process, we kept everything simple and clean. This is because we decided that our camerawork was already good, and the shots were beautiful and so we decided to be minimalistic with the editing; only use small adjustments to give a better viewing experience, such as transitions, brightness adjustments, and making all the audio the same volume (similar to audio check).

Here are the settings we used for the final video file:

Format: Quicktime (.mov)

Quality: 90%

Size: 1920 X 1080

Frame Rate (FPS): 30

Field Order: Progressive

Aspect: Square Pixels (1.0)

Rendered with "Use Previews" and "Maximum Render Quality" checked.

A major post-production process we did was audio. 90% of all the audio did not come from the original footage. The only scene with original audio was the first public scene; we had to use this as there was the faint "sorry" that had to be included. The other bits of audio, for example the creepy looking back at Pooh scene had someone swearing in the background, so we couldn't use it and had to use some audio from another file where I was recording fountains in the background for fun (lucky!). Another big audio-overhaul was when we found that Ching's voice was too emotionless and lacklustre. We fixed this by asking Tanya, a drama student to do the voice over. We made sure she spoke at the same pace as Ching, so that the audio and video went together seamlessly.

Film Opening Evaluation 5 - Skills Development

Film Opening Evaluation 5 -

Skills Development

Task: Create TWO Top Trumps, each rating your production skills at:
1. Start of the project (October 2015)
2. End of the project (Feb 2016)

Just a note :)

Before I talk about the scores I've given myself, I just wanted to  make a quick note.

The thing is, I don't think these ratings are very accurate. The reason for this, is because I believe in the saying "the more you know, the less you know". The more you learn about something, the more you realise theres so much more to learn, and that you only know such a small fraction of what there is to learn. So, these ratings are going to be based on what I feel is sufficient for doing well in the course, not what there is to learn from the field as a whole :)

Codes and Conventions (4 -> 6):

Before I started the course, I only had a general idea of what codes and conventions were; I had a rough idea of codes and conventions from watching movies in my free time, as well as my love for film making. From the course, I learnt the conventions of many genres of films (mostly thrillers), and used them to help create my film opening. An example of this is the element of slowly building up tension; we opened the film with a boy and a girl having a brief exchange and continuing on. Details/the background of the girl is slowly revealed throughout the opening.

Planning and Organisation (4 -> 6):

Although Ten and Pooh did most of the organising, they briefed me on the process, as well as let me observe them working. I was also involved with the selection of the location and bits of the directing. A few of the ideas (such as the credit sequence) were also mine. Therefore I learnt and developed many new skills regarding planning and organisation (mainly the process). An example of this is the location organisation; we needed permission from each location's owner/carer. Pooh did the HydePark stuff and Ten dealt with the other location (in which we did not use). They both explained what they did during team meetings as well as showed me images and what they found.

Camera Work (6.5 -> 8.5):

I'm someone who does a lot of filming and photographing, and research on the field in my free time. Therefore, I already had an idea of what I had to do in order to produce a good film opening, hence the reason I rated myself a 6.5 in the beginning. What I learnt most from the course would be camera angles, specifically thriller camera angles (e.g. how to make something appear big, or mysterious). An example of this is the shot with the guy lying down on the girl's lap; we are unable to see his face until later on in the opening, revealing that he is dead. Again, with regards to the high rating, I'm rating myself in terms of what I need to know for the course, not camerawork as a whole.

Visual FX (4 -> 7):

Initially, I had little to no idea what visual effects were. However, throughout the course I learnt that visual effects ("effects created beyond the live action shot") were a lot simpler than I imagined. An example of this is the brightness of some shots, such as the credits scene. The drinking scene was a little towards over exposed, therefore I lowered the brightness using visual effects.

Editing (6 -> 8.5):

Likewise with camerawork, I do a lot of editing and research on the topic in my free time (such as watching some of YouTuber Casey Neistat's work). However, I used a different editing software to what was taught during the course; we learnt how to use Premier by Adobe during the course, as well as After Effects. The reason I rated myself a 6 to begin with was because I had an idea of when/what transitions to use, when to cut, and techniques in which give a better viewing experience. What I learnt most throughout the course was how to use the skills with the appropriate genre; thrillers. An example of this is the transition from the ordinary house to the messed up and ruined house; the white noise (birds and stuff) faded quickly, and the shot was adjusted so that the characters were roughly in the same position. Other examples include the use of small touches, such as audio gain and warp stabiliser, and unlinking the clip and the video, enabling me to replace the original audio with other audio files.

Creative confidence (4 -> 7):

Throughout the course, my creative confidence increased significantly. I think I was able to apply my knowledge, as well as what I learnt in class to create a decent opening. Our plot was interesting, the camera work was beautiful, and the editing was simple and clean. Overall, I think we did fairly well in creating a film opening as A-Level students.

Film Opening Evaluation 4 - Distribution

Film Opening Evaluation 4 - Distribution

Task: Decide how you are going to reach your target audience.

We're a new, therefore as startup company I think it may be difficult for us to distribute our film at first. However, we may be able to solve this problem easily, as our film is targeted at teenagers, and middle aged women with media intensive professions (see previous blog).

Having this target audience means that we're able to distribute it online, such as via Netflix or iTunes, as our target audience will most likely use these websites. This is also a good channel of distribution, as our target audience is a working class and may not have time to go to the cinemas, therefore purchasing a movie/streaming it online may be a better option for them, as they can save it to watch in their free time with their partner, friends, and family. Online distribution is also much cheaper than screening the movie on cinema. This could save costs for us and increase our profitability as we're a startup company.

In terms of when to release our movie, I think a good time would be sometime early or mid year. This is because all of the big films tend to be released towards the end of the year, therefore sometime in late Winter or Spring would be a ideal time. Early year is also FilmFestival season. This means that we can submit our film towards this event and have a chance at earning some prestigious awards, which would help promote our film on it's own, as well as draw attention to the film (increases audiences trust) and make them want to watch the film more.

Another possible option would be to make a deal/sign a contract with a big film distributor pre-production (after the planning is done and we present them with our concept), and then make a deal by either selling them our film or asking for a percentage of every copy sold. This is another viable option as they have much more resources than we do in order to promote and distribute the film. It also increases trust in the product, as it gives guarantee to the audience to a certain extent that this is a good film being distributed by a large, well know company.

If we had to choose a company (or rather what distribution company we'd prefer to choose us), it would be 20th Century Fox. This is because they've distributed another film similar to ours; Jennifer's Body. This means they know who to distribute the film to, and how to distribute it in such a way that our target audience can easily reach our product.

Film Opening Evaluation 3 - Audience

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Film Opening Evaluation 3 - Audience (GROUP TASK)

Task: How does your product engage with audiences?

- Use YouGov Profiler

- Create illustrated profile
- Annotate 

Firstly, we used YouGov Profiler (UK) to determine the target audience of a films similar to ours. One of the best matches we found was "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle". The film has a similar concept to ours and therefore should have similar audiences.

We found that our target audience is 40-54 (middle aged) women with media-intensive professions and a chilled/social lifestyle. 

YouGov states that the target audience is 40-54 (middle aged) women with media-intensive professions and a chilled/social lifestyle, but to me I think I'd personally target my film at younger audiences who enjoy Thrillers and film, most likely pre-teens and  teenagers aged between 14-30 years of age. This is because the main character(s) are a teenage couple, and is the plot is based on relationship type things, of course with the involvement of cheating and murder. This may also be suitable for a family movie, as it involves no blood and gore, and no swearing. Obsession is not only a thriller, but also a crime/mystery movie.

Film Opening Evaluation 2 - Representation

Film Opening Evaluation 2 - Representation

Task: Who is/are your main character(s)?

Describe in terms of class, gender, ethinicity and age. What sort of person are they? Is it a typical portrayal? Are they a trope? Mention at least one point for each micro-element (Mise-en-scene, camerawork, editing, sound). What qualities have you foregrounded. Use Padlet to answer question 1. 

Created with Padlet

2) Dreamcasting: Who would play this character in a Hollywood remake if money was no object. What qualities does this actor have or similar roles have they played.

If I had to choose one person to play [girl] then I'd choose an actress called Emmy Rossum. She once played a the role of an evil sister, who acts relatively normal (though very lustrous and flirtatious) towards boys in order to get their attention, then does horrible things to them in the movie "Beautiful Creatures".

I think Emmy best fits this role because she's played a 
role very similar to Ching's. She's also very good at acting in a lustrous/flirtatious manner, which is exactly what we need. She also looks very innocent and honest; like ChingChing.

3) Issues: What issues (friendship, mental health, crime, guns, chaos, apocalypse etc) have you included in your opening how are they represented.

Firstly, she's a psychopath. She finds it easy to kill people, and thinks that it's a perfectly normal thing, as we can see in the scenes such as the relaxing by the pool scene. She's also very insensitive to other people's pain, as we can see left her boyfriend's dead body as easily as one would simply leave a house.

Another issue we presented in the movie would be crime. She killed a man. Although we did not directly show the scene in which she killed the man, we tried to make it as obvious as possible; we did this through the dialogue (which states that she wants to leave him), use makeup to make the boy deadly white, as well as show her physically leaving his dead, helpless body.

A new issue is obviously coming the protagonist's way; he's now on the girl's victim list. This may mean him ending up like her previous victim; dead. We chose to only subtly hint on this in the opening to leave a mystery in order to keep the viewers interested and want to keep watching on.

In terms of friendship, we did not introduce any friends to her because we wanted to focus mainly on her love life and not distract the audience from this, and also hint the fact that she is not like any normal person and that she does not have a lifestyle in which fits in with the norm.

Film Opening Evaluation 1 - Conventions

Film Opening Evaluation 1 - Conventions

Task: Take 6 or more screenshots, upload them to ThingLink. 
"How does your product use or challenge conventions? Use examples from other films to support your answer".

Leaving Video for Friend (Tanya)

Leaving Video for Tanya

At 12:30AM on Friday 14th of March 2016, I finished uploading this video to YouTube. I was off on a school trip (Sailing FOBISIA Championships 2016), but had to stay up to get this video finished as the surprise/assembly was at 7:45AM the same morning. I started at around 8:00PM that night. 

I chose the song "Family" by Boyce Avenue as it was an emotional song and went well with the video (high fitness for purpose).

I also included a photo compilation/montage thing. I simply used iPhoto to make this, as I thought it looked nice and was the fastest way to get it done.

Here is the video:

Equipment Appreciation - Canon 700D Unboxing

Equipment Appreciation - 

Canon 700D Unboxing

Today I unboxed one of our school's new cameras; a Canon 700D.

Specs:

- 18 Megapixel sensor

- Touch screen LCD

- Canon EF lens mount

- Shoots movies in 1080p @ 30FPS

- Continuous shooting at 5FPS

I mostly compared the 700D with my personal 650D, as the 700D had lots of improvement from it's predecessor.

Camera body: Aesthetics more or less the same (with the exception of the 700D badge, of course).

Camera setup: Because I bought my camera second handed (it was for a really low price, don't judge :p), I didn't have the opportunity to unbox or setup the camera. Here, I learnt the setup process as well as got to set up the video and image formatting, quality, and encoding.

Lenses: The lens that came with the 700D is a newer version of the one that I have. This one has improved autofocusing, as well as a new focus mechanism in which makes video recording much quieter (as in... you can't hear the loud annoying focus motor when using auto focus and recording movies)! The focus ring is mechanism is also new. It allows you to make smaller, more precise adjustments. It's now all electronic and relies on a motor rather than the old mechanical focus. This means that it allows for smoother video recording and sharper images.

Me comparing the two camera's aesthetics.

Trying out the new lenses. Focus mechanism very smooth.

One issue I found was that the card the store gave us for free was a class 4 SD card. This means that the camera will often fail to record video, and the user will receive an error message something along the lines of "Video recording has been stopped automatically". This usually means the onboard memory has filled up and the recording cannot be transferred onto the SD card in time. To solve this, the user should get an SD card rated at LEAST class 10, and preferably higher. Below is a chart I got off the internet explaining the SD card ranking system, ranked from fastest to slowest.

Film Opening Day 17: Final Piece - Editing Process

Film Opening Day 17: Final Piece - Editing Process

So now that the rough cut is done, we can now need to work towards completing the final piece, to which we have to submit exactly one week after the rough cut.

Below are some screenshots from the editing process.

Final project timeline:

Credits order/transition:

Logos order/transition... very quick, I know:

Sound/background noise order/transition:

Warp stabiliser:

A lot of shots were quite shaky, such as the shot showing the two pairs of shoes. Pooh took that shot very quickly and it turned out to be quite shaky, so I warp stabilised it in order to get a smooth, stable shot. I made sure not to over-stabilise it as the shots would be "wavy" and weird. I figured that for most shots, 10-25% seemed to be the right number.

Audio gain:

For a lot of the audio files, such as Tanya's voiceover, I had to use audio gain, as it was much quieter than files such as the background noise and the music.

I chose to use audio gain over adjusting the levels as this adjusts the volume for the whole clip and not just certain points. There could also be a lot of issues with using levels, for example forgetting to add points at the start and end of a clip and having unequal volume levels throughout the clip.

Some clips however, were too loud.

Brightness:

Some shots we took were a little too bright (such as the credit scenes) so I adjusted the brightness so they they all looked similar, and also to make them dark and underexposed

More transitions:

More audio sequence/placement:

Film Opening Day 16: Final Piece - Rough Cut

Film Opening Day 16: Final Piece - Rough Cut

Okay, before we go anywhere further with this blog, I just wanted to let you know that I did this and the rough cut on a school laptop because mine broke. It's got issues with the mainboard and basically it's decided it no longer wants to be a laptop and stopped charging completely. Buying a Macbook Pro Retina 13"... smart move. Buying the first generation? Not so smart.

Right, back to the rough cut.

Now that we have this nice footage and all good, it's time to do the final bit of the project; the editing. From this point on, I'll probably be using "I" more than "we" because I did most of the editing; Ten did the planning and the music, and Pooh did a lot of the camera work and some of the planning, and we all the did location and the organising.

Well, when I say all is as planned I mean most things are going well. So far we're missing:
- A scene for the credits scene
- My laptop *cry*
- ALL THE AUDIO
At this point we still don't have any audio, as Ten is finishing the music, and the audio from the footage had issues (I'll explain this later) so our rough cut will most likely be a silent film.

Summary of rough cut.
What went well:
- The footage was good. Most of the shots were as we wanted, and some even better (what didn't look as good in real life, we decided not to use and found/experimented with shots that worked better).
- We finished on time!

What didn't go well:
- Some of the audio had people talking in it and there were words in there which probably shouldn't be in a film opening. This is most likely because there were a group of teenagers hanging out near our filming area... understandable as this was a public area. This was just the background/white noise though... and I remembered filming the area without the actors before we began filming the actual thing, so I could probably use the audio from that.
- I wasn't allowed to have a tripod out so some of the shots weren't as stable as I hoped.

Summary:
- Silent film done
- Good shots
- Generally pleased
- Here it is.