Editing Update

So as of the 30th of March the filming for "ink" is officially finished, we had to do multiple re shoots for the kitchen scene as we rally struggled to get the scene to a satisfactory level with regards to run time and the scene feeling natural.  One of the main problems we had was correctly directing the accesses in order to get a believable scene, the shot where Penelope sees the pen's power for the first time was a nightmare to film, we really struggled to get a take where the accesses performance was good and getting the zoom right with the total shot being under 4/5 secs.  But eventually we reached a point where we felt that we had a good take for every shot.


Editing

The last thing to be completed before we could submit the film was the editing. We already learned some of the basics of film editing in the editing workshop we did earlier in the term.  one thing we really focussed on in the editing of "ink" was continuity between shots, that is making sure that there are no jumps between actions or movements between the shots.  The reason we thought this was especially important for "ink" was that we have a lot of very fast cuts, and overall have a large number of shots for a 3 minute film.

Another problem we had while editing was sourcing good quality sound effects and music, we really struggled to find good quality free sound effects, it didnt help that we seemed to have different idea about what sort of sound should be used for when objects appeared, however after a huge amount of times searching through hundreds of sounds, we finally settled on an effect that we all felt fitted the tone of the film correctly

Lastly we had to select 2 pieces of music to go over the montage of jenny in her bedroom, and the fight scene.  As with the sound effects for the other parts of the film, sourcing good quality music for free was very difficult, but we eventually found 2 pieces of music that complimented the visuals there were accompanying.

With the sound and music in place, and the finer parts of the editing painstakingly completed by us as a group, the film was ready to be submitted.

Filming update

So with the creative part of the film completed, everything was in place for us to begin filming, filming took place over 3/4 weeks, with us doing around 7/8 shoots in total including re shoots.  Although most of the work on set was a group effort, my main role was to take charge of the sound,  I had 3 pieces of equipment at my disposal:

• The default mic on the camera

• A wireless mic and receiver

• The boom mic

each of these pieces of equipment have different  pros and cons, the mic on the camera is easy to use and provides audio from the point of view of the camera, the wireless mic is very good for picking up dialogue or for use in tight sets where the boom is hard to operate, and the boom mic provides the best audio quality overall, but can be hard to operate and use.

For most of the shoots I chose to predominantly use the camera mic for ambient noise and actions, and the wireless mic for the dialogue during the kitchen scenes, the boom was used in one of the shoots, but we had difficulty getting it to function properly so it was not utilised as much as I would have liked to.

I looked into action comedy to assist with directing the fight scene as we as a group felt that this might be difficult, I came across this video analysing some of Jackie Chan's films and the style he uses for making funny fight scenes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1PCtIaM_GQ

Although there is a huge amount of really good information in this video, I found the comments about editing and flow to be very interesting, talking about how static camera positions and longer shots can completely change the flow and feel of a fight scene.  I think some of these techniques could be useful for the fight scene in our film, as we plan for it to be the main funny part of the film.

18/3/15 update

Ok so it's been a while since I've updated this blog.

So at the time of my last post we had decided on an idea for the film, and a rough plot to follow,  that was around 5 weeks ago and obviously the project has moved on a great deal from there.

Firstly we fully fleshed out the story of the film, we decided on the 2 characters that will feature: Jenny and her house mate Penelope.  The story will feature jenny receiving the magic pen in the post, both characters will go to the library to do some uni work, here jenny will first discover the power of the pen while the seeds of Penelope's suspicion will be set.  From there the next scene will be Jenny in her room experimenting with the pen, we're going to do some Edgar Wright style montages here which I will talk a bit about later on in this post. The next scene will be the following morning where Penelope will find out about the power of the pen, and will be denied use of the pen, she then proceeds to steal the pen while jenny leaves the house for the day, jenny will then return to the house later that evening to find Penelope surrounded by items that she has drawn with the pen, the two characters will then have a comical fight over who will control the pen.

Shortly after this we started work on the Treatment, to be assessed as part of the project, this is a roughly 5 page document that details anything important about the film, and is the sort of thing that would be used as part of a pitch to a producer if you were trying to gain funding for the creation of the film.  Mike was given the responsibility of producing a short bio for the 2 actresses (since he wanted the responsibility of sorting the casting), Jemima produced a health and safety risk assessment, and the rest of the treatment was produced as a group element, a small extract is included below:

The next thing we did was to flesh out the script of the film, as a group we met on 3 occasions to produce a rough shot list detailing all of the scenes.  The shot list is not final, but gives us a really good guide to go by when producing the storyboard to make sure that we don't miss any important shots, a picture of part of it is included below:

We included some of the shots that we planned to take for the montages, but these were very much included as ideas for when were actually on set, for further research I spent some time going through this video that we originally watched as a group: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FOzD4Sfgag

The video talks a lot about how Edgar Wright uses visual comedy in his films, one of the things I found very interesting was how he used things popping into and out of frame to create a very specific effect, giving scenes a somewhat slapstick feel without seeming cheesy or overly cliche, this is something I think could be utilised well in our film.


The next thing to do was to produce a storyboard that would be used on set, again, produced as a group, we met on 2 occasions to produce it, picture below:

It's worth noting that Mike did not attend the majority of  these group meetings, and thus had 0 impact on the creation of the storyboard

With the storyboard finished, we felt confident that everything was in place to start filming. 

Seminar Two

4/2/16 - Seminar Two

So today we met again to continue discussions about the film, we're now starting to flesh out some of the elements of the film, first of which: the title.

Title

So we wanted our title to be memorable, normally the title is the first thing people will see when they come across the film so we wanted something that has some impact and gets a potential viewer interested in what the film might be about. We looked into some other short films and what sort of titles they used, we decided after watching a short film named "Pockets" that we wanted our film to have a short, single word name.  This lead us after brainstorming to settle on the name: "Ink"

Logline

The second thing we discussed was the logline, we came up with several ideas that could be used to describe the film.

Logline ideas:

- One day, Jenny received an unknown package in the mail, this mysterious gift granted her a great power which would change her life forever.

- A teenage girl receives a mysterious parcel which changes her life forever. She must then choose whether to use it for the better or indeed for the worse.

- On a wet dull day, Jenny received a uniquely odd looking pen from her heritage but could never accumulate for what would happen next.

- When Jenny receives a mysterious package in the post she discovers a power which allows her to create anything she can imagine, however she isn't the only one that wants this power.

More plot ideas

So we decided that the genre of our film would be a lighthearted comedy, we brainstormed some ideas of how the film could end, along with some of the shots and scenes that could be in the film.  I think the film could benefit from some Edgar Wright style short cuts and close ups in a montage showing the main character exploring the pen's power and also showing the passing of time. The off-screen fight that was discussed before has been changed to a struggle over then pen itself, we talked about them accidentally drawing a funny object to end the film on but we still haven't decided how the film is going to end.  I plan to research some comedic short films over the next few days to get some ideas for how to end the film and what the overall plotline could be.

Early schedule

Filming start date: 7th March

Filming end date: 23rd March

Film hand in deadline: 7th April

This schedule is a very rough outline for when we plan to begin filming, and giving us two weeks to complete the editing, although the actual filming should only take place on 2/3 days, we have given ourselves a big window to make sure that there are plenty of opportunities to film so that conflicting schedules shouldn't be too much of an issue. 

Seminar one

So this is the first post on my blog, the purpose of the blog is to document everything we do and work on in preparation for a short 2.5 min  film we will be making as part of my degree.

So today we had our first seminar and decided starting roles for everyone in the group:

Director: Claire
Camera: Will
Sound: Me (Forrest)
Researcher: Mike
Editor: Jemima

We also thought of some ideas for the film:

Date: The film follows the main character throughout their day as she prepares for a date, their day goes wrong with some comedic elements but the date goes well and the film ends on a happy note.

Split screen/personality: The screen is split down the middle and shows the same person going through different days, one being good and one being bad, the person has a mental disorder and the film ends showing the two screens merge to show that the two screens were showing the same person.

Split screen/anxiety:  Again a film with the screen split down the middle, a person is going through a bad day with one screen showing the real life and their normal reactions, and the other showing her inner thoughts and how she is reacting inside, showing their anxiety.

Magic pen/paper: The main character receives a magic pen/paper, anything they draw comes to reality, the film starts small with the main character exploring their new powers, the film takes a dark turn with them abusing the power, possibly the main character has a fight with their friend over the pen/paper with the film ending on a cliffhanger.

Our chosen idea will be the Magic pen

Further plot:

The film starts with the main character receiving the pen in a mysterious package, they quickly discover anything they draw with the pen comes to reality/is delivered to them, the film follows them exploring the pens powers, a friend of the main character notices and asks to use the pen, they end up fighting over the pen which gets thrown during the fight that takes place off screen, the film ends with a hand picking up the pen but not showing who gets the pen or the outcome of the fight.

Possible locations:
Parkwood house/bedroom
Gulbenkian Café

Possible scene/shot order:
At a uni house
- Main character receives package in post
- They take package to their room, opens to find pen and note
- Ignores note, puts pen in bag and goes to meet a friend for coffee
At coffee shop
-Doodles something with pen
-Said object appears
-Shot Showing friend noticing
-Main character goes home and experiments with pen
-Friend confronts main character about pen
-They fight off camera and the outcome of the fight as well as who ends up with the pen not shown