Level 4 Links

Production: http://sarahmaherfilmblog.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/level%204+production

Professional Studies: http://sarahmaherfilmblog.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/level%204+professional%204studies

Live Project 1: http://sarahmaherfilmblog.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/level%204+live%20project%201

Visual Culture: http://sarahmaherfilmblog.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/level%204+visual%20culture

Digital Production: http://sarahmaherfilmblog.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/level%204+digital%20production

Allurement - Final Version

Me and Jamie fine tuned the past few weeks due to us spotting a few blips watching it back on the big screen (mostly colour correction being too dark but looking fine on the screen???) and also looking at Mike's notes and what we could possibly change. We couldn't change a lot of it as we only had a few shots of each scene and continuity wad a huge issue as the actors walk in and out at different cues, making it impossible to edit around.

I wanted to change a few things, the filters being one, and I also noticed that Jo 'um''s twice when Gartha appears at her house and says "why must we fight?". Jamie has a few more sound fine tunes he wanted to do, such as changing the levels when we felt like we had to turn they sound up when watching it on our phones to hear it.

I have updated the group crit notes with how we changed it in our latest edit or whether we couldn't and the reasons why behind everything. The post can be found here.


Allurement from Sarah Maher on Vimeo.


Allurement - Bloopers from Sarah Maher on Vimeo.

Joe MacDonald - Workshop

Today Joe gave a workshop on some lighting techniques, which was quite useful having advice from an industry gaffer and I learnt quite a bit. It was also nice reassurance when Joe said going to Uni was the right choice as if you did get work experience you could enjoy it more and know what you are looking for, rather than just having it as a job straight away. I was told by multiple people to just go straight into the industry but I'm glad an industry professional told me otherwise.

Lighting has two uses; to see the actor and to communicate creative decisions/tell a story. 3 point lighting is the basic set up, but is hardly used because of this reason. It's too cinematic. Joe kept saying to "know the basics and then forget it"- bit of a oxymoron.

https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/life-is-an-oxymoron

A gaffer communicates with the director and DOP to see what intensity they want the lights and what genre- a comedy film varies a lot in lighting compared to a noir. 

There are hard and soft lights in the industry. Hard lights are used for models and are very unforgiving, they are harsh and exaggerate each feature. Soft lights usually involve scrim and are more forgiving and natural. Lights can also be reflective (used with a reflector) to make it even more natural.

Make sure windows on location are north facing as the sun never reaches it! Also having the sun as a back light always makes things look better. Even if you have to cheat shots to make it look nice, do it. No one will notice.

http://popkey.co/m/AoYjv-just+do+it-do+it-shia+labeouf-shia

Shoot "day for night". It is very hard to shoot a woodland at night due to generators. Film it during the day and colour it blue and darken it in post (fix it in post huhuhu) But keep off the sky as you'll know that it's during the day then.

Colour Temperatures

• Candle- 1800
• Light Bulb- 2900
• Film Bulb- 3200
• Sun- 5600

The lower on this scale, the warmer the light. The higher, the bluer the light. The tungsten in the film bulbs make it look orange and blue. If you set the camera to tungsten, it will also make it look blue and depressing. 

Advice 

• Always shoot wides first! Then you've got the scene in the can, worst case scenario. 
• Always bring a reflector if you aren't using any lights and are outside. 

Joe then did a small Q and A (I ended up asking the most questions, mostly daft stuff like "the weirdest thing [he] has filmed". He went into the industry after Uni from Screen Yorkshire (the equivalent for us is Northern Film). He wanted to be a DOP but ended up being a gaffer. Showreels are VERY important, just as important as grades. He then said not to do a sci-fi on a space station on Mars at Uni which I laughed at. I did a film with exactly this plot before I went into Uni. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Joe MacDonald - Talk

Today Joe MacDonald, a professional lighting gaffer and film maker came in for a talk about the industry. He has worked on many feature films including Dad's Army, 45 Years and Kick Ass 2. And also many TV shows such as Utopia and Shameless.

http://defilmblog.be/archive/2013/08/01/kick-ass-2-2013-review.html

He studied at Northen Film School in Leeds and later went on to do some work for WARP films, such as the film '71. '71 required loads of night shoots which was really expensive to do with all the different lights and also required 6 "tech recces" to see how they would film things.

Joe then went through the structure of the industry;

• Producer➡ Line Producer (money, crew...)➡Co-Ordinators➡Accountants
• Director and Assisstant
• DOP➡Camera Team, Focus Puller, etc.
• Gaffer➡Best Boy➡Sparks
• Art Department
• AD's➡1st AD (shot on time, schedules)➡2nd AD (stays in office, actor availability)➡3rd AD (1st AD's assisstant. Tea and coffee)
• Floor Runners
• Location Department
• Sound

Everyone is a creator but also a facilitator for the director. 

The schedule before filming is usually blocking, a rehearsal, make up, and then an on camera rehearsal which consists of one morning. 'coverage' is how the camera shows the action/how it moves. The lower the budget, the lower the coverage which puts more stress on the actors to get it right. 

http://cinemaisalanguage.tumblr.com/post/123202830498/histocomplex-day-for-night-fran%C3%A7ois-truffaut

45 Years was filmed in 35mm which was cheap but creative. Working on film, according to Joe is easier and more reliant on the eye.

Sunny days are usually the worst for lighting and continuity. Get a compass so you can judge where the sun is and arrange around it. Any lights, such as lamps, that are in shot are called 'practical lights' and can be cheated with off camera lights to give the illusion that practical light is emitting it. Rigs may have to be put up. When I heard Joe say this, I had war like flash backs to when I was on set for Together where I was sat on this vent near the window where the sun and also the hugeeee rigs with lights on were. Pretty sure I got a sun tan that day.

Route

Joe did a Post Grad after his main years at Uni (and suggested we look at them too) and then did some free work for Creative England. Networking is key; word of mouth can get you a job. Joe said to us that he never had to make a CV because of this (but advised us to make one just in case).

Become a self run business! All experience is priceless. He invested in a camera (Sony A7) and moved to Manchester (he was told to move there or London for more opportunities). He then worked on commercials and soaps (Hollyoaks). 

Advice

http://giphy.com/gifs/doctorwho-doctor-who-coffee-tea-WE5hRLWRWalwY

• If you're on time, you're late. Punctuality is also major so you can get to shoot on time.
• Driving licence is tHE MOST IMPORTANT! (but you don't need a car. You just need to be able to say you can drive).
• If you can, use family to get you into the industry (I have been trying this as my brother knows someone who works in Media City and is trying to arrange work experience for me). 
• Don't be too precious about things; be open minded.
• Not really advice but a piece of funny info- his friend made tea swatches saying "how do you like your tea?" which made him get a job.
• A good script and good actors/crew are vital, equipment is not. 

Joe is also in on Wednesday for a lighting workshop with our equipment which might be useful and fun! 

Production: Group Crit

Today we watched back all of our films and talked about end of year arrangements. Level 5 and 6's get priority but the lecturers try and get a level 4 production in. It looks like they are judging on length due to time restrictions which isn't very fair. It feels like the Hunger Games. 

http://glee.wikia.com/wiki/File:May-the-odds-be-ever-in-your-favor.gif

So ours was mostly criticism (makes sense as it's a group CRIT) but not so much positive which is a shame and demoralising. Anyways here's a few notes Mike made and pointed out to us (transcribed from his notes), my comments in pink and also how we changed it in our fine tune edit and our reasons behind it in green;

• No titles, abrupt start. This was intentional. There was no titles scripted and I think it works well how we have it at the moment. It's cinematic. We decided to leave this alone.
• Something about setting and lead actors. ???
• Something about the wig on Jo. I believe this worked well and shows her as the light witch. The wig suits her!
• Binocular shot. Cut to the inside shot. Not quite sure what this means! We did have a shot of Gartha looking through a window but didn't use it at the end. We could have got a shot of Lerysa through a window but we didn't think of this and just didn't have time. We literally couldn't do this unless we reshot it.
• Traffic in the field scene. I know the setting isn't ideal and we used it as it was close to the house. We could have done some ADR. We didn't have enough time so Jamie put some music in to distract us from this.
• Music choice. Not sure if this is good or a bad point. Good music? Nathan's song was made especially for us, even though it doesn't quite fit, we used it. Jamie put some more music in the field scene to distract us from the traffic noises but left the others alone as we liked them and Nathan's was made especially for us.
• Some nice imagery. Match cut of picnic. AYE SOMETHING GOOD!
• No tea in cup. It's obvious! Is it?? To be honest I didn't notice it until Mike said today. We had bigger issues than not having tea in a cup. We can't change this (and didn't notice!) unless we reshot it.
• Lighting on Jo/lower shot to her eye level. We had a lot of issues cinematography wise. Jamie changed a few wonky ones in post and if there was a boom in shot by cropping it out. We seem to have got away with the out of focus shots. But I think we worked well with what we had. We can't change this unless we reshot it.
• To long on potion mistake. Too wordy. I think this scene is just the right length. We cut a few lines out on the day to make it flow more. We needed to establish that the potion was also a love potion and not that they has just messed up. We couldn't have just had June saying "too much water dilutes it", he needs to realise this later. Plus we couldn't have cut it due to continuity errors. Jamie cut it down a little bit (after carefully talking it through) we decided to remove the "go through the ingredients with me" bit.
• Sound when Gartha runs away. Sound op issue! Should have said that we can hear her stop. Again, not a major issue compared to what we had. Jamie fixed this by cutting the sound off sooner.
• Convenient bunch of flowers in garden. Yeah I was worried this would come up. I was disappointed in the garden not having any flowers and we couldn't dig it up to plant the flowers we brought. So we will have to combat this by saying it's compost. We can't change this unless we reshot.
• Sound on Jo. What about it?
• Sound on phone. What about it?
• Why is June still in field. He isn't. It's a different field. All fields look the same. Plus we wanted to film something on the other end as a backup/more to edit with. We decided to leave this alone.
• Blip on going in Jo's house. Include atmos. To be honest I don't know why we didn't include atmos here. Jamie has fixed this.
• Too long. Cut the montage down. It's supposed to be a short film. I wasn't very happy with this comment. Short films are usually 10-15 mins long. I like to think the pace works well and we had already cut quite a bit out. The montage is my favourite bit and if we cut that down it wouldn't flow as well. I like to think it works well the way it is. We decided to leave the montage alone as it fits well and we like it.

I also picked up that the colour correction turned out darker (does the Avid's do this??) But overall the students enjoyed the film (especially the fight scene) and was well received.

Production - Conclusion

This module was definitely a learning experience. And was great to have a module to be enthusiastic about and get to choose our favourite pitch and job role. We had a few technical issues in the first week of production, but we pulled through and handled it well.

The actors were a pleasure to work with, patient and understood what I was after and my vision. Despite Jo not being an actress, she did really well and was open to criticism. All the actors were very enthusiastic about the project (Nathan, our June, even made a track for it!)

I did quite a bit of research for this film, as it's something I find interesting and know about. I wanted to fully develop each character and add a few Easter Eggs, such as the tarot card readings meaning something to each character, and also Gartha's Wicked shirt. 

We all stuck to our job roles! Our producer was always on time with paperwork and understood what I wanted. Our sound op only turned up to one of our shoots (this is what happens when you're in multiple groups!). However, most of the shots on the first day of filming were extremely out of focus or just unusuable. We were hoping this was just happen once, but it happened multiple times, so I had to keep reminding them to focus. They need to speak up if something is wrong and if we need to do it again! I would not like to work with them as they made me very stressed and worried, complaining, closed-minded about shots I had ideas for, and just being plain rude.

Getting equipment was a huge issue for us. We were given the scraps for every day of our shooting which I thought was unfair. We were put off from using the tracking dolly again due to it's weight and awkwardness. We wanted the slider as we were on the move a lot. The group that wanted it said it was ok for us to have it and changed their mind last minute, which was also unfair. Despite a few cuts and bruises from this, we handled it well and got everything filmed. 

I was a bit tough at times, especially asking the producer to arrange something with the other group for getting the slider, but only because I knew we were going to be walking a lot and I wanted to make it look as good as I could and how I visualised it. In the future, I should be less demanding and more accepting.

Me and the editor worked really well together. We both have similar ideas with me being the director and him also being the writer. Even though we only had 3 and a half days to edit at first, (it was a bit unfair how other groups had more time than us) we did really well. 

Continuity was a huge issue for us, such as actors walking at different points, changing lines, wearing hats when they shouldn't be and was very time consuming to edit. In the future, someone should be on the lookout for these issues.

I have learnt a lot from this module, such as no matter how good your directing is, it doesn't matter if the camera looks bad. So I would definitely like to be camera op next year and have a good go at producing (I feel I did a bad job last time as I wasn't enthusiastic about the project I was producing). 

Allurement: FINALE!

ALLUREMENT IS OFFICIALLY A WRAP!! EDITED AND EXPORTED!

http://interretialia.tumblr.com/post/50561753853/reblog-if-you-are-a-wizard-or-a-witch

We were in early and managed to nab a Avid for us to put the magic scene on, the foley and also fine tune a few things. Two of our actors also came to see the finished product and they loved it. 

Jamie was talking about finishing the film on June's voice mail (scene 20) with the two witches having a picnic due to the bad continuity error of the shawl in the next scene (we have only used close ups and looks a bit weird. We can get away with it and say it's an intimate scene). But I felt like that would have not tied up loose ends, the dialogue in the end is nice and the close ups do look good! I like the pace and the film how it is, and really we shouldn't be taking stuff out now as it's too late and really, we should be putting stuff in like the foley, not taking it out.

Jamie also wanted to put more effects in and make it look nicer, but I like what we have and we just didn't have time. If we had more time, we could have also did re shoots for the blurry shots and also to fix the continuity issues. 

We exported it and it came up with a "serious error" message but we checked the hand in space (there was two which also confused us!!) and it had recorded the audio as L and R, but when I played one back, it came out of both ears on the headphones and worked fine????? I asked Lee to have a look at it, he said it was fine, so I deleted the R one which made the error message pop up.

But I think we did really well and we have a good quality product! It looks great, and the actors love it. I am proud of us.

Allurement: Magic Extras

Today we were back in the base room as we couldn't get an Avid to finish our SFX of the magic scene. Jamie put a few lens flares in the ones already there to make them look brighter and more solid. 

I wanted them to do a Harry Potter like spell where lightning clashes from their magic. But Jamie said to me that we should not include it due to time limitations, Jamie saying it looked "terrible" and how it doesn't look right as it's not straight on, and he would have to put something in the middle to make it look like they were clashing. I reluctantly agreed to have it cut, which is a shame. If the module was longer, we could have put it in.

However, I came up with an idea that we can still keep the shot but instead of lightning, make the lens flares clash and make a bright light explosion. Jamie tried it out and it looks awesome!

We were done quicker than what we thought we would be! So we quickly exported it on the only machine that would let us (someone else was using it so we nabbed it for literally one minute to do this (we obviously asked permission)). We then helped Jodie out being an extra in a crowd scene for Slaps (I brought a flag in especially for this occasion).

That's a wrap on #Slaps 🎬 thank you to all the cast and crew who were involved😊 #film #filmmaking #student #final #major #blackmagiccamera #crowd #cheering #sport #event #bmcc @highwaymanproductions @ccad_cfmip

A photo posted by Jodie:) (@missjgreenxx) on May 5, 2016 at 7:17am PDT

We were hoping someone would be done using their Avid so we could put the magic effects on it, the last remaining foley, fine tune the credits and export it but they were all full up so we called it a day early. We will be in bright and early tomorrow to see if there's any free Avid's in the morning, and we are booked in on the afternoon. Note to self, we also need to extend the forum picture!

Allurement: Working with Actors

This module gave me a chance to work with actual actors rather than just people in Uni like the live project module. This was a learning experience and was also a little bit less stressful as they had worked on things before and knew how to act, basically!

Jo however was new to acting. Even though she was nervous during auditions, we cast her as she was great for the role and also has cool costumes that would suit the character. I took it slow with her and went through scene by scene and different emotions and how I wanted the scene to look. She learnt her script (the only actor to do this!) and was much more confident while shooting. When she fluffed up her lines, she would say and speak up if she wasn't happy (the other's did not. I like how Jo is a perfectionist.) On Facebook after auditions and casting, she asked me thorough questions about the character and was just really enthusiastic for the project. 

Samantha had worked on a few films before but mostly a radio show (which was a very similar character to Gartha!) so we had to work on toning down her voice and over-exaggeration. She knew of the script, but deviated a lot and walked in at different cues (not sure if this is the actor's job to watch, but also whoever is in charge of continuity). She also had a few props we could use and costume and was just overall patient and lovely to work with.

Nathan is a more qualified actor, working in multiple films and also studying performing arts at Uni. He is a good actor and he knows it. However, he wasn't very professional on set (leaving hats on when he knew he should have taken it off, sighing when we had to do a retake, reading through the script literally as we were filming the scene (which made him deviate a lot and was a nightmare to edit) etc.) But he did turn up on time and acted well. I gave him background and goals, etc. but he did not ask me if it was what I wanted, how he was doing, and just seemed to dismiss my comments. But he's a good actor and is reliable, and was fun to have on set.

Mia was great to work with. Occasionally she was a bit rowdy and complained about some of my direction, but she calmed down after a treat or two (or when given a lunch break). Bit of a diva but very huggable and interested in what was going on. She wanted more screen time but was terrible at continuity. I would like to work with her again. 

Allurement: Locations

We were a bit pushed for time and locations so we had to think of what we already had at our disposal and use it. Here I will analyse the pros and cons of each setting. We have some amazing settings, some not so much.

Summerhill: The Battle and Picnic Scene

GREAT SETTING! Shame we couldn't use the 'events arena' due to the amount of equipment we had, how little time and how far away it was. But what we did use looks great and each corner is different: great for the montage. A few noisy kids too but could not be helped. 

Sarah's Living Room: Gartha's Study

Great props. A bit small for a crew to fit in. Was better than our other option (Crown Halls and then dress up a room with props). Shame it was far away and taxis, but it was worth it in the end.

Dianne's Spare Bedroom: Lerysa's Bedroom

Not ideal- very small. But was more for convenience as we were filming her study there too. Well lit. We did have a gold quilt cover but couldn't find it so we had to make do. 

Field near Chris': Spell Casting Field

Not ideal but hey it's a field. It's as field-y as we would get! People walking past, didn't look amazing. It was more for convenience since we were filming Lerysa's exterior the same day (also Chris' house)

Chris' House: Lerysa's Exterior

DEFINITELY NOT IDEAL! Not what I was after. I asked the producer for a house with a nice garden and flowers, but there was a small patch of grass with no flowers. So it looked a bit weird Gartha picking up dead flowers on a patch of grass that had no other flowers growing in it (we couldn't dig it up). But the family were very nice and catered for us. I also don't like the bins in shot as it doesn't look pretty. Also noisy neighbours :-(

Sarah's Bedroom: Gartha's Bedroom

Ignore the feather duster

A bit small but well decorated. Lighting wasn't great but still looked good. Very Gartha. Couldn't have got any better.

Dianne's Living Room: Lerysa's Study

Well lit. Spacious. Plus there's a cat! Glitter lamp- already decorated. Pastel colours to match Lerysa's personality. Could not have got any better.

Allurement: Sound and more Continuity

Me and Jamie stayed until very late (9pm) to 'finish' editing. We still need to fine tune a few things, add some foley and do the magic effects tomorrow (hopefully there will be an edit suite free to we can export our magic and can put it on the avid on friday).

We had to change scene 9 due to continuity issues; we only have two shots and Gartha walks in at different times in each one. So we decided to keep the wide. Continuity is still a huge issue for us and has made our film not as perfect as we wanted it to be, and we are also rushed for time. I am worried the continuity is going to come back to me and effect my grade. I had too much to focus on already on shoot, never mind continuity on top of it: it was the least of my priorities.

I asked Connor during pre-production to make a foley list and also find some spell noises we could use. We have received neither. So I had to find some today for us to edit with. 

Jamie tried looking for a telephone effect for when June is on the phone but Avid didn't seem to have any obvious ones. So I tried Audacity on my laptop and the effect sounds much better.

Connor, our sound op, came at 7pm to give us foley. Very last minute and were only screen grabs. Some were usable but when I went to download them, they required an expensive membership (Connor should have come with backups and looked into this further). We managed to find a few but could not find a crackle build up one when Gartha charges a spell.

I had an idea on the night to do some foley to fill in this missing sound effect. I know we should stick to our job roles, but I had to step in this close to the deadline as we have no sound effect for it and it is major. I probably won't be graded on all this sound work as it is not my job role but it adds to the production value of the film.

Allurement: Poster

I asked Shaun to make us some posters for the film as it's a nice job and he was running out of things to do. I believe Liam also helped with them so thank you both! 

I like this one but not the fact the actors aren't credited! 

Also the fact Twilight is mentioned *shiver*

Colour version of the one above! Much better!

But Nathan isn't credited.

Much better! Looks fab!

Only small thing is that I don't want to be bigger than the actual title.

But too late now!

They used production stills from different shoots. I asked for a few versions and maybe some portrait (but I don't think we took any in portrait so it would look weird if we stretched it). 

They all look awesome and I'm very happy with them!

Allurement: MAGIC!

Today we didn't have a edit space booked out (even though there was one hardy being used by a level 5 which really annoyed us) so we went downstairs to do the SFX on after effects. We have just learnt that the downstairs version is an older one than the one upstairs so we couldn't edit with it today. 

Even though Jamie had to install all of his effects again due to a dodgy hard drive, he was off like a shot and got a lot done. We have a few new effects and they look pretty awesome! I helped out where I could and learnt how to cut footage on After Effects ("press the d!") I had to leave early, but I trusted Jamie. He worked until late and exported what he had. 

However, the export went weird and came up with bars and was buffering a lot. We will have to try and export again and maybe get Lee to help us out.

Chaser Productions

I've helped my friend out by making and managing a blog for his production company, and also adding visual ideas of scripts he has sent me. He writes scripts, I visualise them.

http://chaserproductions.blogspot.co.uk/