Production notes and evalutation.

Notes on my production

During the planning stage of my production, I researched and got inspiration from different places. I ended up having a clear idea of what I wanted my screenplay to be about and how I wanted it to look in the video.

Actors and booking equipment.

One of the actors that I originally had in mind to play my male character had agreed to play the part, however on the day before, he had to drop out because of personal reasons. Luckily 2 of my classmates where able to step in for me last minute. As I booked the equipment for 3 days, I basically only had one full day of filming because of the timings that I had to collect and return the equipment so it was really important that I filmed that day, especially how all the cameras had become booked up by that time. I would say that I booked out my equipment quite late, although it was still earlier than some, I think I should've planned my shooting dates a little bit better and sooner. However I still think I did a great job considering the last minute changes that I had to make. I am also really happy that I chose to film in the first week of shooting weeks because it felt like I got a head start on the editing and other blog work. 

Filming

I was unable to get a crew together because some of the classmates that I asked where not available and had already been asked to help out with other productions. That's why I think I should've planned that part a bit better since it would've been helpful to have an extra pair of hands for sound.Overall I was really happy with my filming day. I got all the shots that I wanted and the actors did really well. They made filming really fun and I also got a little assistance with the sound from one of my actors. Even though that isn't really ideal, it was still better than nothing. 

Because of the simplicity of my idea, I was able to conduct all of my filming locally. The two main scenes where shot in my uni accommodation building and a housemate let me use their room as it was better suited for the set design. Overall I was happy but I also felt like I got a bit lucky in terms of preparation because of how local things were. However I understand that this will not always be the case and I am prepared to go to those extra lengths to create a great production. 

The shooting went smoothly, only a few hiccups with the sound but one feature of the camera that really helped me through out was the "peaking" and "zebra" option. It really helped me focus my shots and I wouldn't have been able to get as clean shots as I did if I hadn't used that. I will make sure to continue using this feature for future productions.

Editing

After uploading all my footage to the mac in preparation for editing, I was looking through all the footage I took and immediately noticed a few mistakes. The dead cat from the microphone could be seen at the top right hand of the shots.

However, I didn't fuss too much because I knew I would've been able to cut it out so it would become unnoticeable. I also realised a lot more mistakes with my footage. It is clear that I need more practice with the external microphones and it's settings on the camera because I think at one point I did not change the setting on the camera to the external mic so it was still using the mic from the camera and that wasn't loud enough, either that or the levelling for the external microphone was messed up. When filming I tend to get a little nervous and I do tend to forget little details but it can be so costly in the long run if I do not get it right. I had to do really intensive sound levelling in post production to heighten the levels of the sound. All of this could've been avoided if I had payed a little more attention to it during filming. One thing that didn't help was only having one clip mic. I wanted two because I knew that I would've been filming pretty far away from my subjects but I was given 1 clip mic and a boom pole/mic. The boom pole would've worked really well but since I didn't have and extra pair of hands I was unable to use it for the scenes that I needed it the most. I got away with the sound for the indoor scenes as the housing is pretty soundproof for outside noises but I still had to bring that sound up in the post production. So next time, I will ensure that I have crew members because it will make things a lot easier. 

Feedback from Simon 

After putting together my first draft edit for Simon, I was really pleased with his feedback as he pointed out a few things to me that I wouldn't have noticed on my own. For me the big thing was the music that I had chosen. He told me that I needed to find a way of breaking it up a bit because it was almost drowning out some of the important details in the video. I totally agreed with this because I knew something was a little off with the music butt I couldn't quite put my finger on it. I really wanted music to be a part of my video because I  felt like it could really enhance the mood I was going for. So instead of just having it playing in the background, I had my actor press play on a little speaker so I was able to edit the sound and make it sound as if it was diegetic sound from a radio, when in reality that was just a bluetooth speaker and no sound was actually coming from it when we were filming. I was really happy that I could pull this off and I was really happy that Simon thought it could work within my video. I just had to find a way of coming out of it and not drown out my video. I am confident that I did this in the end. 

One other point that Simon made was that my shot (below) wasn't quite right. I wanted to hide the identity of my character for a while but he said that the focus point that I chose wasn't quite right. I agree with this as I should've found another way of doing it. That shot came across quite messy because you're not sure where to look and it doesn't look as if I knew what I wanted the viewer to look at. So it seems a little sloppy but now I know for future references I must make sure I get my framing right. I don't want to confuse the audience.  

For the first draft review I was also told that ;

• I needed to add titles and end credits
• Add some extra foley sounds to the park scene

I successfully made all the changes simon asked and was ready to present my Fine cut.

Fine cut review
Simon was happy with my titles and the way I managed to weave the backing track in and out of the video. It was less drowned out now and he seemed much more happy with it. I was told that I still needed to tweak the sound for my dramatic mirror scene as I could've added some sort of eerie sound in the middle to change up the pace a little bit. And to also cut down one of the scenes with josh because it was on for a little too long. I feel like I successfully did all the changes and I am now happy with the finished product. 

During my fine cut edit, I then went onto doing my colour corrections.

As you can see here, I wanted to enhance the darkness of these shots and also make the tone a lot colder. I felt that It was better suited this way because this scene was meant to be a slightly dramatic one. Subtle changes like this really helped enhance the look of my video.  Here is another example; 

I really wanted to enhance the colours of the scenery so I upped the vibrance and saturation to create a more scenic look. It is not perfect but I think I did a pretty good job at enhancing my shots. 

Below is another example of my colour corrections. Since Ray's room is meant to be quite grimy and gritty, I opted for a more colder, less exposed palette and I was really happy with the outcome.

Overall
I must admit, the more time I spent on this edit, the more I begun to dislike it. I just found my idea incredibly boring after a while. Especially after seeing some of my classmate's videos, I slowly started to lose interest in mine. I think one of the reasons this happened was because I chose to do the first 2 minutes instead of a trailer. I think my trailer would've been much more visually pleasing than the first 2 minutes. I also feel like I chose the most boring part of my story to shoot and I think it really shows. I was just really intimidated by the idea of a trailer but now I know that I should've pushed myself and not played it safe. However I still feel Iike I did my edit justice. I still got great feedback from Simon and from my peers but I still couldn't help but feel as though I could've done better. I don't think this piece really represents what I can do but I think its a good start. Overall I am really happy with this edit and I have learnt a lot on the way. I hope to improve my skills overall for the next production that I do.