Other Influences

I have obviously looked at Sin City and Pleasantville for my Creative Piece, but I have also decided to broaden my horizon and look at paintings and graphics. Here is a blog post of all my findings and relevant pictures.

'Peach Rose Flower Painting' (1887). Georgia O' Keefe.

I decided to include a dying rose in my creative piece, so I looked O'Keefe (being famous at painting pictures). The rose can symbolise a lot of different things, such as sexuality and love. With it dying in my piece, it shows lack of these things. 

'Untitled' (1970). José Gómez Fresquet. 

This piece was made as an antiwar statement, but it can also represent violence against women. I have included influences of this with the colour of red standing out, and using it in my lipstick and blood shots.

'Pintura Habitada (Inhabited Painting)'. Helena Almeida (1975).


This one uses the one colour motif similar to my creative piece. This painting can represent oppression (and possible anger) of women, with the subject scribbling herself out, with the depressing blue colour.










'Micro Chat'. Filwa Nazar (2014).

This piece is more focused on Saudi Arabian women but can also be applied to feminism in general. In this particular piece, women can be described as a 'flightless bird'. It also has the one use of colour (red) which is blood, much like my creative piece. More examples can be found here.

First Draft!

Yayyyy! Finally colour corrected everything (some worked better than others again). I left Stitch all in colour as I just couldn't colour splash it. I also filmed a frog swing at Blackhall which also didn't colour splash very well due to it being on green grass.

RIP Green Frog

I also colour splashed a multi coloured bench using that shape tool and literally just realised the grass in the background is also colour splashed. I hope no one will notice.

I installed a 7 day free trial of Premiere Pro to edit with but that still buffered on my laptop and I didn't have time or patience to learn a new software, so I continued to use Movie Maker. I didn't overlap any clips but I did use a lot of fades and blurs in the dream sequence, and it works.

I have a few fine tunes to do (including that bench) and I will ask for feedback to see if people like it, and it will also be interesting to see if they understand my choices in colour/why I colour splashed, the framing, and the narrative.

I am also unsure whether to create another edit with royalty free music and get a charity attatched. I'll ask for feedback to see if it's good enough. I also like how it fits with the current track.

LP2 - The Pitch

I procrastinated today and quickly started the pitch for the next module. A lot still needs to be done which I will update when I have more details and more research.

The Cereal Killer is my own idea, but other people are screenwriting it (as I know I can't write to save a life). The circus idea is being written by Janice and I have little information on it. We have worked together on this idea so we are pitching it together. It's based on the Production Design's set so Norman is going to show us around when we get back so we have more of an idea what we have to work with.

Update 06.01.17: I have finished the pitch today, and we went to Production Design the other day and took pics of the progress so far. The whole set will be finished in a few weeks.

Day 2 and 3 Filming

Today we unexpectedly went filming while I was at home and the weather was nice and was too short notice to get my camera op down (plus it was during Christmas!) They will still be credited as main camera op, and my Mam stepped in as assistant. It went well and we spent the whole day filming. It was a bit stressful trying to make sure I had everything filmed. I also completely forgot about costume change but I was assured that I was sweating over the small things and no one would notice.

It took a few attempts (hence why it took all day) to get everything as my Mam had never operated a camera before (she did well considering though, and did a pull focus shot I wanted). 

I then went back to Hartlepool the next day to get a few pick up shots I forgot. 

Editing Decisions and Quick Draft

I have colour splashed all the clips from the first day of filming that I wanted. Some turned out well;

Needs touching up a bit!

Most... not so well;

Almost there! Just need to touch up that bit of tuft!

What even is thattttttt

Also, Davinci Resolve is VERY slow and constantly buffering on my laptop, so I have decided to only do colour correcting on it, and do the actual edit on a different software (I have used Windows Movie Maker as it's literally the only other think on my laptop that works and it doesn't look too bad.)

I made a quick first draft with all the footage I have at the moment and I need a LOT more shots. Some of the shots are colour splashed, some aren't (I left Stitch alone for now). The blood ones work particularly well. But I want more quick cuts and overlaps for the dream sequence, which I can't do on Movie Maker. Also the cuts of the Jack Skellington lights I might change (mostly because I didn't know which filter I liked better). I will also change the knife and the hand so you can't tell I've put fake blood on the knife haha. I also need a lot more happy shots. Well, looks like the Blackhall filming will be jam packed!

Please note that the video doesn't start until 30 seconds in (I want to put beach shots at the beginning).

Visual Culture: Day 1 Filming and Editing

Today me and Janice (my camera op) filmed at Hartlepool and my house for half of the shoot (the other half will be at Blackhall one day next week). Janice is my camera op for this project as I can't star, direct and do camera! Also I helped Janice out with her's so it's also a returned favour. The filming went well and we were done quickly and efficiently. 

I've started a bit of editing and found an even better Muse song which fits really well. I also found a better way of doing the lipstick colour splash and found the tracking tool! I make it a bit more red and added the tracking and it turned out really well!

I also looked at the colour splash of Stitch, which was extremely difficult, since the lights (and therefore the whole scene) are also blue, so I had to use that selector tool. However, none of the shapes fit so I had to use loads of circles and squares piled on top of each other. It isn't perfect at the moment, so I will come back to it once I have more motivation and patience. 

Feedback

Just got some feedback from the lecturer today since Friday's session didn't happen. A few points were raised which I will talk about and evaluate below;

• Last minute issues- yeahhh I agree. We remained professional and thought fast. I would have liked to help the crew out more in the studio, but I wanted to make sure the actor was okay.
• Basic set up- it's a tent, we couldn't really add much else. We tried putting up different curtains but it looked odd and couldn't get them to drape nicely or stay up. We added a wooden shelf, two side tables for bags, and an entrance. We added all that we could.
• Ambition- maybe too ambitious! The last minute sabotage of spooky ending votes also wasn't helpful *looks at lecturer* We had loads planned, such as the votes for viewer interaction and the smoke machine! 
• Camera movement- I had a lot planned in terms of camera (see this post for details) I did have a complected track for the Spooky ending and also planned for a track when George was improvising, however, when I told the camera op to do this, I got no response. Most of the stream didn't have much drama to track either as people were sitting or standing not doing much, but I did get the third camera to slowly zoom in on George's face as the drama escalated.  
• 2nd unit tone- this might be because of different directors directing the VT and the overall stream? I tried to match the colour palettes and included similar props/setting. I also added a red gel to the red heads to match the tent's red gel. It might also be a quality issue? I'm not sure as I personally don't see it.
• VT playback issue- luckily this isn't effecting us as the local recording plays fine (I blame YouTube)

Colour Schemes

I used this website to make a colour palette out of screenshots of the stream/2nd Unit. They both have very similar colours as I wanted a familiar vibe in both videos so they flow. I was hoping the red would stand out a little better though, but it still looks good and warm.

The purple works well in both, adding some similarity between the two, and also a fantastical vibe. The warm brown also looks and feels warm and works well in both. The one strong colour works well in film. Here's a few examples as inspiration;

The warm colour palette is also common in films. Another few inspirations:

Film pallets from 

http://digitalsynopsis.com/design/cinema-palettes-famous-movie-colors/

My Creative Choices

Happy 300th blog post!

This post will discuss my creative decisions for the Digital Production module (as director of the 2nd unit material, and the second half of the show).

• The lighting - as lighting designer, I also had creative choice over lighting. I decided to use 5 lights (3 point lighting set up, and two to eliminate shadows), with a red gel on the key light. This illuminated the tent to make it look red with a "spooky kind of vibe" (as scripted). I also planned for another light to be used at the back of the tent, with 2 blue gels on, to act as a police siren for the happy ending (which wasn't picked in the end).
• The vision mixing - I wanted fast cuts when Benny found George's bloody hammer in the bag to create tension. I also wanted to cut to a wide when there was long pauses to add comedic awkwardness (especially when George said "where you trying to kill me?" *pause* "why? Why would you do that?"). The violent ending was the hardest to choreograph, having to time a cut to black just right, before George killed Benny (otherwise the magic would be lost). We did it! My friend also messaged me saying she liked the cut to black as it make it feel "chilling". We faded back in to some improv. to fill the time (which showed the deaths gradually). I also planned to fade to black on the happy ending while they were exiting to make it look like they turned the lights off and look satisfying. For the spooky ending, I planned to do a straight cut to black for George to exit and fade back in to May and Benny (the straight cut to show that it's sudden and chilling, a fade to show that the lights are fixed and to make it look more appealing, and slowly reveal to the viewer what has happened).
• The cameras - I wanted camera 2 to stay on a wide as a safety camera. Camera 1 was mostly a close up of May and camera 3 was mostly a close up of George (or Benny if George was not in the scene). The spooky ending involved some complex tracking for camera 3 as George fell to the floor, which didn't happen in the end. We did a quick rehearsal on the day of the improv. at the end, where camera 1 tracked George, camera 2 was a wide, camera 3 was focused on the exit. I told camera 1 to get a close up and track George but didn't happen for some reason.
• The make up - Another aspect I had control over was make up. I did plan with the original May her make up: purple eye shadow, lipstick, etc. But that all fell through, so our other May did her own make up with anything we could find in the make up bag in Uni. May's dishevelled hair also looks cool as it shows she has had a long day and has been through a lot.
• The set - Even though I am not set designer, I used a lot of my own belongings as props, since I'm into this kind of stuff. I used different crystals, runes, books, even included some handmade lights I make myself. In the end, the set looked great, filling it up each day, and adding more production value to it (such as getting a wooden shelf).

"And We're LIVE"

Today is the day of the live stream!! We eventually got all the actors and crew in at 1:30pm (when I did say Unit Call was 12, and Actors to be in at 1). We still had time to go through a few rehearsals before we went live at 3. 

Then... disaster.

In our first rehearsal, the same actor yesterday had another breakdown. This time, it was much worse, and took me about an hour to get her back. I assured her to use the tarot cards if it was about her forgetting the lines, and just focus on her. Even then, she didn't want to go back into the studio. I remained calm, and made sure she was okay. Luckily, our spooky voice actor was there, and volunteered to be May for us. Also luckily, I made the tarot cards too so she could read off them. I gave the actor my phone number if she ever wants to talk and to let me know she got home safe. I also appealed to the lecturer's to see if we could get an extra hour (as this was extreme circumstances). Luckily, it was accepted, and the lecturer changed the email sent to everyone to say 4pm instead of 3. We also changed the Facebook event and put a status out.

Meanwhile, our new May actor was speeding through the script (luckily she read it all beforehand so knew the jist) and used the tarot cards subtly, and to be honest, she stole the show. We should have cast her in the first place. You could never have known she stepped in two hours before we went live.

We did two streams. This one failed at the end as I told everyone to clear the set to use a shot of just the setting until it was time for the credits, but actors still came in thinking it was over. I decided not to do this, as it was also boring to look at it for so long, and viewers would tune out. So we went with improvisation. Everyone had loads of different ideas, so we merged them all together, showing the deaths of the characters and George cleaning the crime scene. We also planned to have the light and the police officer finding the crime scene, however, we didn't have time in the end to show this.

We did another quick rehearsal with the improv. at the end, and it worked well. This is our back up stream in case the live show went terribly.

The actual live show went really well! A tiny blip in the vision mixer early on, and where May forgot her lines, but apart from that, it could not have gone better (considering where we were 2 hours before we went live).

We said goodbye to the actors and gave them Christmas cards. Soon after, we cleared the studio. We put the curtain back, brought the props home (apart from the shelf, which will be gone by Friday). We also wrapped up the fake grass (we might see if we can keep it in the prop cupboard as it was free and will work well with other productions). I hoovered up all the tiny bits of fake grass.

Thanks Andrew for the pic of me hoovering!

Tech and Actor Rehearsal #3

Today, we had another crew and actor rehearsal. However, we were missing a few crew and also Benny, so Shaun stepped in to read lines (thanks again Shaun!) This rehearsal was mostly to get May to learn her lines and see how it would go, but was also to test out the stream and the equipment a day before we go live. 

Well...

It could have gone better.

Before our first run through today, our actor had a breakdown. I comforted her and she was fine in about 10 minutes. I asked if she would do this tomorrow but she said she will be fine, so I trusted her judgement, and we continued the rehearsals. I gave her the tarot cards to use as she kept going blank, adding to the pressure. We did a few more read-through's, I even Skyped the actor at midnight to go through her lines, which she learnt. I was feeling pretty confident for tomorrow...

Anyways, back to today. The first rehearsal was terrible. The mic was left on during the VT, the actors didn't read their lines on time with the floor manager when I was saying "we're live!" and the siren/VT is too loud. The white balance on the cameras also look a bit off.

The second rehearsal was a bit better. The mic was left on during the timer. The actors forgot some of their lines (mostly Shaun which is totally understandable). The time was also a bit short on this one. It's looking like we might need to improvise after the cut to black. I have asked the actors and they are fine with it.

The third rehearsal was a lot better, despite May looking towards camera for cues. We also didn't have our spooky voice actor, to the actors had to improvise without. This was hard for me to cue the lights to cut, but it worked well, especially with the thunder effect. The cut back was a bit too long, so it should last about 3 seconds. 

The fourth rehearsal was just the spooky ending, which was a bit wobbly due to Shaun having the wrong script, and May LOOKING AT CAMERA FOR CUES AGAIN. 

The last rehearsal of the day was just the violent ending, and guess what May does again? The scream at the end also doesn't work, so I have cut it. We then faded back to the room to fill out the time, but it is a bit prolonged and viewers will tune out, so improvisation will have to happen if this ending is chosen. I have put on the VLE and the group chat my ideas for improvisation for each ending if we are running under. 

Smoke Machine Tests

Early on in the project, we were discussing using the smoke machine as it has never been used on a live show before and that it will add to the atmosphere. We did a few tests today with it to see if we could hide the sound.

            

In the first test, we hooked the smoke machine from the gallery, into the studio. I gaffa-taped it up so no smoke will leak, and it didn't (in theory). But the heat of the ring of the smoke machine the pipe was attatched to, melted. It didn't come out a lot in the studio either, and you could still hear it. Here's the video off the software (XSplit) but it's literally just black.

I then had an idea to hold it a bit away, not gaffa-taped on the ring. Which failed even more, and make the gallery very smokey. Test two can be found here and the software footage here. The effect didn't work on the computer for some reason.

Test three and four was to put the smoke machine in the studio, and play a sound effect on it. Test three failed as the microphones in the studio weren't turned on, and there was too much smoke. Test four was more of a success, but the sound effect didn't work, but had just the right amount of smoke. The software footage can be found here, but looks like the sound effect still didn't work. We might need to hook it to the software rather than use a phone in the sound mixer.

I then had an idea to cue the smoke when we cut to VT. The mics would be off, so you can't hear it. It works in theory. We are going to rehearse it on Monday with the actors, but we have also told estates to book it on Tuesday for the live show. However, we might need another person to operate it, or the floor manager or cable basher could.

I also made May's tarot card cue cards today, and they work pretty well.

Body Positivity Photoshoot

This evening I went to record some behind the scenes footage of a photoshoot about body positivity and also feminism (to go with the documentary Verity wants). I got a few great shots I am really proud of! However, the sound didn't work in some of the clips. There is quite a lot of female nudity involved too (the below pictures are some of the more acceptable footage) hence why she wanted a female camera op and editor.

(Tech) and (Actor) Rehearsal #2

The reason why tech and actor is in brackets is because we were significantly low on bodies. May, our vision mixer and our sound mixer(part 1)/floor manager(part 2) were missing. The camera ops at one point has to double up as floor manager and also on camera. As directors, we had to vision mix, as well as direct the cameras, I almost ended up doing lights at one point, but I couldn't cut between the cameras and do it. Shaun stepped in as May, which was fab. However, the show is very short, average length being 12 minutes 30 seconds. I was telling the floor manager to stretch it out, so I'm not sure if the gestures failed, the actors saw the floor manager, or the actors didn't know what the gestures meant. I recommend going through them on the day.

The first stream has a much quieter VT. Not quite sure what I did differently. The stream, however, looks much darker than the other ones that we have streamed. Not quite sure why. The lights were the same. We did the violent ending, and I managed to cut it just in time on the vision mixer, much better than the one yesterday.

The sound in the second half of the second stream was much quieter for some reason and completely cuts out at one point. I also think we have cast the wrong person as May. Shaun nailed it. The actors also looked up as soon as we went live, not sure if it was a floor manager fault as they didn't count them in. The VT at the end is also back to being weird and echo-y. One of the cameras also seem to be on the wrong white balance maybe? The close up of May is a completely different colour to the others.

The third stream went well. We did the spooky ending (we had no voice though, so the actors had to leave a space where it would be). I tried out the cut on the vision mixer and it works, however, watching it back, the sound also needs to cut out as you can hear George's footsteps!!! I also told the camera ops their shots before this and they nailed it.

The final stream was just of the happy ending. I can't quite remember who did the lights, but they need to last so much longer, and what happened to the sound effect. The floor manager's headset during this stream (I believe, or maybe earlier on) so there's a gap of the actors live not knowing what's going on. The camera ops once again nailed the shots I wanted. I also tried out the fade on the vision mixer and timed it well (I did a three second fade as soon as May said "I got to make a living somehow).

Tech and Actor Rehearsal

Today we had our first tech and actor rehearsals together, with all the crew that would be there on the day too (the sound mixer (pt1)/floor manager(pt2) made a brief appearance though). We focused on getting the spooky ending blocked and confident with as the actor supplying the voice had to be gone at a certain time. We also lost one of our camera ops at that point too. I have went through my different shots with them for each ending, and gave them my notes (this will also go up on Moodle). Also, special credit to the lecturer for taking stills today.

I told the actors to learn their lines for today, but May was really struggling. Our director came up with an idea to have tarot card cue cards (worst case scenario), so I have made them. Another thing that was apparent was May's hair. I have brought bobby pins to tie it back, and hopefully, when she learns her lines, she will look up.

We did quite a few streams, some of them are just the endings as we were running out of time, rehearsed the beginning quite a lot and needed to go through each ending. 

The first stream has really out of sync audio for some reason. The microphone for the voice also didn't work. Otherwise, it went well.

The second stream has better audio. However I have noticed a few times, the VT is very loud and echo-y. Not quite sure why, I will have to ask the lecturer. The actor for the voice needs to be more familiar with their lines so they know when to come in. I also faded out the actual lights for George to exit. A better idea would be to cut the actual vision mixer. The lecturer also presumed we were off air at that moment, so the actors were stood waiting to act like "um what".

A side note for the different vision mix transitions:

• Violent ending needs a straight cut when the hammer goes to hit Benny
• Spooky ending needs a straight cut when Voice says "that is not possible" for George to exit. Floor manager needs to signal the actors when to start acting again/when the feed is back. to normal.
• Happy ending needs a fade when they leave the tent. Floor manager also needs to signal them to stop moving when the fade has stopped.

The third stream was with the happy ending. I am pretty sure I told May to speak to the entrance while delivering her lines at the beginning, but looks like it didn't happen. The actors were also supposed to leave via the entrance to the tent, but that also didn't happen.

The fourth stream was with the violent ending. We needed to time it just right to cut, and this was just a little out. I think we have the beginning bits nailed though!

We then did a few streams with just the endings. This one, was the happy ending, however the sound effect didn't work and the light is not blue enough. We have fixed this by making the sound effect work on the computer so we don't have to use a phone through the sound mixer, and put another gel on the light. This one was also the happy ending, but we got the sound working on the vision mixer, however it went on for far too long. I did script it so the light and the noise ended at Benny saying "you? I mean yeah" but the main director wanted to see what it would be like throughout (the answer is "very annoying"). We also did another one but only streamed the end.

Fortune Tellers - Research

Human beings have always searched for a glimpse of the future. Any good country fair has its fortune-teller, modelled on the image of a mysterious gypsy woman swathed in colourful scarves and dripping with earrings.

There are hundreds of techniques for divination (fortune telling), many dating back to before recorded history. Evidence indicates that forms of fortune-telling were practiced in ancient China, Egypt, Chaldea, and Babylonia as long ago as 4000 BC.

Predictive methods of fortune-telling include astrology, numerology, and the utilization of objects such as playing cards, tea leaves, crystal balls, dice, fire, water, and scattered salt.[1]

https://66.media.tumblr.com/cccdcef3a96b23c70774baf0e30e417c/tumblr_o31zlrl0VT1rlii8to1_500.gif

But forecasting also had deeper roots the inherent of human beings to find certainty in life by knowing the future: What will I be when I grow up? Where will I live? What kind of work will I do? Will I be fulfilling? Will I marry? What will happen to my parents and other family members? To my country, to my job? To the economy in which I live? Forecasting addresses not just business issues but the deep-seated human wish to divine the future. It is the story of the near universal compulsion to avoid ambiguity and doubt and the refusal of the realities of life to satisfy that impulse. [2]

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/29/4a/60/294a6044fd611f62d993a71ee5f96a36.gif

Traditionally, throughout history the Gypsy people have been associated with fortune telling. The Gypsies, who call themselves Roma or Romany, are a nomadic culture which throughout history been mistreated and discriminated against. The Gypsy people have been associated with fortune telling, magic and shamanism. Gypsy fortune telling traditions are much the same everywhere, gypsy women used normal playing cards to predict the fortune of the person they were telling the fortune to. [3]

How this links to us

We haven't gone for the full on stereotypical gypsy fortune teller with the earrings, but we have included a few scarfs and materials around the set, as an influence. We have also just decided to focus on the crystal ball method of fortune telling, again not conforming to the gypsy stereotype of cards. We wanted ours to stand out, but still have a few influences of the roots of fortune telling. 

https://67.media.tumblr.com/29b140ff467a1dd04b8cb878317a2ecd/tumblr_nx3ox7MajB1qbvkmso1_500.gif

Fortune telling is also still popular according to Friedman, so we still have an audience for our live stream. Wanting and craving to know the future is a human instinct.

--------------------------------------------------------------
[1]‘History of Fortune Telling’ http://istina.rin.ru/eng/para/text/614.html (27.11.2016)
[2] FRIEDMAN, W. (2013) ‘Fortune Tellers: The Story of America's First Economic Forecasters Princeton University Press. New Jersey
[3]AMBER. ‘Gypsy Fortune Telling Traditions’ https://tarotamber75.wordpress.com/2013/05/10/gypsy-fortune-telling-traditions/ (27.11.2016)

Mood Board

I started a mood board for the live show and the 2nd unit a while ago. I keep reminding the main director to add stuff to it, as I love pinterest, it's addictive and also looks great. I have just gave it a kick start.

Tech Rehearsal

Today we set up everything; headsets, cameras, sound mixer, everything, to rehearse with it and get to grips with our job roles exactly. 

Thanks Andrew for the pic

The first stream we did was a bit of a disaster, I keep saying "live in 10" on the headsets, when it actually starts with a VT. I need to make sure I say "VT in 10" on the live show. This resulted in the actors acting over the VT and you can hear them in the background. The VT itself was buffering a lot because it was going off the avid drive, I needed to copy them over to the computer itself. We also didn't have anyone to read George and the police officer at the end so it looks like May has multiple personalities. We also need some sort of countdown timer, our graphics designer will hopefully make one, as well as our credits, next week. The floor manager in the first 3 streams also talked throughout it rather than using hand gestures.

The second stream was a bit better, until I have just watched it back and realised there's no sound. Possibly my fault as I may have left the mic on mute on the computer, possibly the sound mixer (we didn't have a sound mixer, so we had to cue sound in ourselves), not quite sure who. It went much better as we had a George, but a reoccurring theme throughout is that the stand ins didn't know our blocking, and we had arranged our cameras/shot list around it.

The third stream did have sound, however, we lost camera 3 during the first part of the show, and couldn't get it back until afterwards. We directed around it, and did well considering. The vision mixer now knows how to do this, in case it happens during the stream. We also gained more confidence to talk to the camera ops and say what each camera should be doing, and telling them when to stop moving and to frame up. 

The fourth stream was a lot better and our best. We got camera 3 back and it went much more smoothly. The floor manager also did their hand gestures. However, acting and blocking was a huge issue, as one point, I cut to a close up of George for him to drink the potion and fall over (note that they never fell over in each stream so we didn't know when to cue VT), but it's a prolonged shot of George for no reason, and not drinking the potion.

I have asked two of the camera ops from today if they wanted to do it for the live, and they seemed available and wanting to do it.

Thanks Andrew for the pics

Just a few notes for me;

• CUT to 2 (cut to camera 2, don't say "camera")
• "VT in 30 seconds"
• Send vision mixer my shot list
• Camera 3 in my first half and the violent ending is a close up of George. In the happy ending, it's a close up of May (camera one will be a close up of Benny). In the spooky ending, it's a close up of George then a close up of Benny as soon as George is off screen.

Rehearsal #3/Prop Hunting

Before our rehearsal, I went to the weekly market in Hartlepool to see if I could find a wooden shelf (since our plastic one isn't great for production values). I found a tattered one (which really needed a wet wipe) for £10, a bargain if you ask me. So we carried it through town.

https://media.giphy.com/media/3o6gEfJP9GvTt8mb9S/giphy.gif

Today was our big rehearsal with all the cast at once. I was hoping some would learn their scripts, but only George at the end was off script. May I can forgive with casting her short notice. I have told them to learn it by the rehearsal next week. It went really well, we went through it quite a few times, with all the different endings. I timed it when people were more confident later on, to be 13 minutes and 33 seconds (median) which is perfect as that isn't including the narrator parts (which is about 2 minutes).

I also took a few production stills which can be used for marketing. I've also told our graphics designer to make a poster of the live stream with them, and also to make some credits (which is hard until we know who we have on crew).

Overall this was a very good rehearsal. We made a lot of progress. Our actors know their blocking and are gaining confidence with the script. 

Lipstick Test #3

Another software I could use for my Sin City effect is Davinci. Jamie quickly showed me some of it, but he was still trying to get his head around it. So I installed it and looked at this tutorial to do the effect.



It went well with the flowers, creating a serial mode, boosting the saturation, then adding a parallel mode, picking a colour using the qualifier tool. Then going back to the serial mode and decreasing the saturation and boosting the saturation on the parallel mode.

However, the red of the lipstick blended with my hair so I did the same with the nodes, but had to use the 'window' tool to select the colour of just the lipstick on the parallel node.

Finished test is below. The flower at the start isn't perfect, so I will have to touch up on that small black gap in the middle of the flower. The lipstick colour still isn't perfect. This is the less time consuming of the other tests. So this looks like my best bet.

The Music

Music is quite an important piece for my film. I've been told that I can use any song I want to for my creative piece so the first song that came into my head is Muse - Exogenesis (Part 3). There's one lyric repeated ("let's start over again") which is really relevant. It's very emotional. Starts off sad, ends happy! Exactly what the film I'm making is like. Muse also means a lot to me and so does this film.



However, I really want to be attatched to a charity too, so I would need to use a song I have permission for if I do this. I have found one song that could do, but doesn't have the same emotional impact (I have a feeling nothing I will find will have the same impact as Exogenesis).



I like this one a little better, but I still don't feel it has the impact of Exogenesis. I might wait to see how my footage turns out before asking a charity to be attatched to it. If it turns out well, I will use this one.

It's A Man's World - Interviews

Today, I went to Verity's house to interview some of her friends about feminism. I only had one camera so I set it up on the interviewees and said to film Verity saying the questions and 'noddy shots' later on. However, I realised half way through that Verity talked more than the interviewees and they started asking her questions so I had to move the camera back and forth. I'm not sure how much of the first half is usable because the interviewees didn't say a lot, but luckily they talked more after the first half and repeated a lot of the things they said. 

I have 2 hours of footage. Some of it needs to be cut due to being too personal. I also strongly disagreed with some points raised but I couldn't say anything as I'm just a humble camera op. I also need to email someone who filmed for them last week for their footage (which made me feel great *sarcasm*) 

Dog was cute though.

Update, I've just looked at the footage/interview the other person did and looks completely different to how I set mine up. Verity should have sent me it before the interviews so I could have set mine up similarly and have the same eye-line.

Headsets and Props

Today me and the sound designer were in so we set up the headsets and made sure they were all working. Janice was also loading her camera in the studio at the same time, so we had to stop in complete darkness. It was very nerve racking.

Very noisy pic because of the dark!

We had an issue with one of the headsets in the studio where they could hear the gallery but they couldn't hear them. I found out it was because of a dodgy headphone, so I swapped it. They all work fine now, including signal lamps. 

Thanks Ethan for the pics

We then quickly went prop hunting but only bought potion bottles. We did find some bow ties but they were expensive. Our set designer is buying some in Primark when they are at work. We also tried to find a wooden shelf but the cheapest one we could find was £70. I will look in some more charity shops when I can.