Q7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the
progression from it to the full
product?
Personally I believe I have developed a full
range of skills as a filmmaker, primarily in the departments of camerawork,
sound and editing. Due to myself already studying a technology course in music
I already have a skill in sound production and editing but this is only
relative to the music industry, so this has helped develop these skills and
apply them to sound production in media and film. This has resulted in me being
recognized in terms of my skills and ear in sound editing, though I am still
not the best in terms of technical talent it has been a big step and assisted
me in my knowledge of sound production relative to media.
I have always been interested in editing and
have edited small clips on minor software, but not until I purchased a Mac with
reasonable editing software like IMovie. Nonetheless I instantly took charge of
editing for our preliminary since editing was the one thing I took immediate
interest in, and showed natural ability in doing so too. I researched editing
techniques and the mechanics of IMovie learning basic, and then more advanced
features of it. Again my editing isn’t the best but it was most certainly good
enough for the preliminary and has since improved after having filmed Vox Pops
and then after observing the editing of our final Thriller piece. I learned how
to review individual clips frame by frame, attach and detach sound, add filters
and themes and even attach and alter the screen dimensions of an image to match
that of the film.
Finally, for our Thriller I was the cameraman so
I had a hand in suggesting shots (most of which were controlled by the
executive producer, Jack) but for the more complex shots such as the out of
focus shot of the victim in the distance was by my hand. Many of the tracking
shots, used or unused were suggested and filmed by myself. I took test shots
and three takes of each shot we did so that we could either collaborate takes
of shots or select the best quality one to unsure we had quality as well as
quantity to our work.
There are many strengths and faults to our
preliminary but nonetheless it turned out as a success. The strengths were that
we held continuity well in our preliminary ensuring we took multiple takes of
each shot and making sure each actor does not move, especially when doing the
shot of Jordan walking through the door to ensure continuity is held. We
ensured the door, Jordan’s position and Jordan’s stature all didn’t change.
Also, we held the 180-degree rule and didn’t
break it once, we noticed we had broken it when filming a shot of Jordan
placing the phone on the floor so we had to of course return and re-film. It
was myself who had spotted this mistake so my constructive critique of our
preliminary and attention to minor detail helped us remove any mistakes in
continuity and breaks in the 180-degree rule.
On top of that the editing was effective, we
managed to use clips and cut out outtakes and still use them successfully. We
managed to watch each clip frame by frame, remove loss of words, laughs at the
end of clips and even remove the sound of one of the filming crew talking
during shooting.
I noticed these strengths and built upon these
during the filming of our thriller to make the quality of it better. I applied
my critical view on shots and even the editing to a degree making sure that the
executive producer agreed with what I pushed forward. I often said after
filming a shot that it wasn’t good enough and that it had to be redone or done
in a different way using a different angle or distance.
I mainly built off my camerawork skills from the
preliminary and decided to look at and play with the Panasonic HD camera we
used to get a grip with its features. After gaining many ideas from the
preliminary and knowledge of camerawork and filming I delved deeper into the
actual settings that can be used for filming, and began to grow picky with how
the camera was calibrated during shots. Though my abilities in using the camera
weren’t the best, I can pick out which shots I was picky with over some of the
others in which I didn’t edit the camera settings with.
On the other hand, there were weaknesses of our
preliminary. One weakness was that we had to resort to using a Ken Baker shot
because of a continuity break. A Ken Baker shot is where part of the image is
cropped and it zooms out over a set period and amount, I used this to remove
continuity. Though technically a strength it is also a weakness for good reason.
This is since we had to reduce the quality of a small part of the film to cover
for a continuity error that was hidden in plain sight. Jack’s stature hadn’t
changed a bit to the previous shot but since he’d lifted his arm using multiple
takes, his shirt had un-tucked and we didn’t notice until after the filming
deadline so I quickly came up with such a solution.
We cut shots off and changed the angle too often
when we didn’t need to. We could have left some shots going and not stopped the
filming, or recorded off two separate devices to capture the moment twice and
evaluate different angles. Or even better collaborate the same shot, from two
different places to capture two angles without having to move or possibly break
continuity.
In our thriller we avoided zooming in too much
but only focused on what we wanted in the framing, and made sure not to crop or
Ken Baker any of the clips we used for our Thriller. On top of that we captured
shots from both our iPhones and the HD camera to get many angles and takes for
each clip. We used the iPhones for POV shots while filming over the shoulder
with the Panasonic to capture a first and third person view of the action. We
also carried shots on and didn’t stop them unnecessarily.
Discuss specific skills that you have
developed filming, editing,
etc
you MUST mention continuity, 180˚ rule, shot reverse-shot, match on action, etc How were they useful when
shooting/ editing your thriller?
After having filmed our preliminary we kept the
180-degree rule in mind more than most things, since we filmed in two separate
locations and not only that but we had a lot of character movement so we had to
keep a track of which direction they were moving and which side we did and
didn’t want to show. We didn’t want to show the houses but we wanted to show
the fields, but the difficulty stood that facing away from the house would
result in not showing any fields. We decided to zoom a little and wait for the
people’s noise to subside before filming and it completely removed the house
from the framing. This allowed us to show the fields without confusing the
viewer about which direction the victim was travelling in.
When filming in the garage we didn’t wish to
show the door or the boxes of trampolines and pink bicycles at the end of the
garage, so we didn’t show many shots from behind Ronan and no shots of the wall
to his right. We primarily focused on capturing the torture table and victim
reactions.
Keeping the 180-degree rule in mind was very
useful; this allowed us to hold continuity all the way through filming since we
had no worry of character and prop placement since we told them to stay still,
or not look or face a different direction. All we had to do was move the
camera, set the settings and zoom and then continue the filming. Thanks to the
180-degree rule we struggled less for positioning for both camera and actors
than we did during our preliminary.
As I stated my camerawork and editing skills
have increased massively since filming and editing the preliminary. I have done
further research and playing around with software to hone my abilities in the
meantime, since after filming I want to better my knowledge of filming and
editing and make it a skill that I can confidently hold. I can split clips
frame by frame much more accurately and I can edit confidently and quickly
within minutes rather than hours now, simple Vox Pops, music and titles aren’t
an issue nor do they take up much time. I assisted with a small part of the
editing for our Thriller since it is only fair that someone else got a shot but
I had a part in bending, altering and cropping the sound to match the action of
the film. However I had the lead part in filming, I had never used a proper HD
video camera before filming our Thriller, so I sat while we were taking a break
from filming looking at all of the settings and seeing the impact they had on
the image. That is the most effective and rapid way for me to learn since I
will know what each setting does. The setting I favored most was the manual
focus and the manual lighting adjustment. I turned off the autofocus on everything
including the lighting adjustment and came to terms with the manual adjustments
and captured a very effective shot of Ronan out of focus with a very
traditional, cliché yet conventional shot of the antagonist watching the victim
from a darker and more concealed area.
We planned all of the work on our
blogs, through heavy research of other thrillers primarily. We read through and
worked through our research and planning and centered focus on a small
collection of movies. We believed the movies Casino Royale (torture scene),
Hostel and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. However we also approached the public
by creating a couple of Vox Pops and common answers that sprang up were Casino
Royale, the opening of Se7en and Fast and Furious 7. According to the audiences,
conventional movies that open up with the creation of enigmas, intense
atmosphere and action all make the viewer want more. We captured those ideas
using our own plans and ideas.
Furthermore, gaining the opinions
of other people we created and filmed a production pitch specifically for
audience response and opinions. We
believed if we offered and pitched our ideas we could gain an idea of what our
peers wanted from that and if they saw potential in our ideas, the audience we
intended, and the way we wished to promote it.
In the regard of editing we
understood that it was conventional for it to be very fast paced during scenes
of action. We watched numerous films and reviewed films with synchronous and
asynchronous sound and found that our film fit in better with the style of
having dramatic, fast paced music to match the severity of the action. Though
the most popular choice of editing and sound medium paced cuts with diegetic
sound or a low hum edited in. Django: Unchained is an excellent example of
this. The editing isn’t fast paced at all and there is nothing but diegetic
sound, the same goes for Casino Royale’s torture scene. The slow editing infers
a prolonged pain or torture leading to the audience empathizing for the victim
and wanting it over and done with. We nearly captured this idea and adopted it
but we wanted to steer clear since it was risky and may not have worked.
Instead we took inspiration from films like Hostel that had fast-paced torture
scenes that have the audience squirming in their seats.
In my opinion our thriller opening was very
successful and I believe, personally, that it had many strengths behind it. We
used a massive range of shots though the majority were close-ups to highlight
props and the victim’s reactions to particular actions for example having a gun
put to his head. We believed it was a strong use of thriller conventions and it
formed a tense account that made the viewer empathize for the victim.
Also, our quick cuts for editing that match the
pace and sound of our music creates further effect, more so towards the end of
our thriller. Screeches that ring out as the antagonist grabs the chain, out of
tune piano chords play as he slides the bat through his grip as the film cuts
off. The sound and editing of clips were indefinitely the biggest strength of
our Thriller in my opinion.
For sound I simply used the song Days of Chaos
by Kevin Mcleod and converted it into an mp3 file, doing that I took it across
to Logic X and used a pitch bend on it, and changed the cents a little so that
the song sounded more ominous and sinister.
The camerawork and some of the shot techniques
we used, for example POV shots, changing the focus, using camera sway where
appropriate and a few tilted, high angle and distorted shots. These were all
conventional shot techniques in Thrillers that we had researched to capture a
better atmosphere. The shot that stood out to us most was the shot from behind
the antagonist as he watches an out-of-focus victim walking in the distance. In
one shot we captured the tense and unsettling feel that we wanted and it was
our strongest shot, as we mutually agreed as a group.
The weaknesses of the film are most probably the
mise-en-scene. The chair we used wasn’t as make-do-and-mend as intended. A
wicker chair like that of the one from Casino Royale was more fitting in my
opinion; it looks more amateur, sinister in a sense. I wanted to capture the
amateur farmer style torturer in the shots to make it seem more resourceful.
The fake blood we used on top of white clothing
stained and turned pink, so it looked very cheap and fake. On skin it lasted
around half an hour before flaking and peeling off, so we had to top it up
every now and then. This risked breaks in continuity and resulted in us not
showing clothing for too long in shots, so we were forced to use quick cuts and
couldn’t leave shots running for too long.
I also felt the lighting could be better to fit
the genre, or we could have at least edited the clip to dampen and darken the
light with a small filter and vignette. In my opinion the fact the room is so
bright and doesn’t have a grizzly, dark atmosphere with a light centered on the
character doesn’t capture the full feel of the Thriller. We couldn’t do much
about the lighting since they were bright LED bulbs, so of course the room was
going to be bright and defined. We wanted to capture the Texas Chainsaw
Massacre feel through the use of lighting but couldn’t quite get there since it
was so bright.
I’d have improved these weaknesses and to do
that I could have pre-planned and organized for the use of good make-up, I even
own a wicker chair but was unable to get a hold of it in time for the filming.
In future I would map out what props and resources would be needed and costs if
necessary. I feel we could have done better with the use of make-up, and we
have numerous friends who could easily create bruises and fake blood using a
make-up kit.
In terms of improving lighting I could use one
of our test shots, and review all the filters and screen effects I own to see
what we could have done. I could see if darkening the picture is an available
effect on IMovie, or incorporating a yellow tint to the picture and adding
vignettes. Adding these are what I believe could improve the filming since
visual and edited effects are a fundamental part of modern film.
These images represent the improvement in our camera work
since filming our preliminary. Here it is a screenshot of the preliminary
highlighting one of the shots that we should have continued, but stopped
unnecessarily. Here we filmed Ronan moving until he left the shot, left it
three seconds and made him stand completely still just to be sure we captured
what we needed in the shot. This meant there were no repeats of unnecessary
cuts, or hesitation before movement and we were able to film in one take.
In regard to the editing, in the preliminary there is a
moment where Jordan evidently hesitates before moving, so as editor of the
preliminary I should have noticed this sooner and shortened the clip so the
movement flowed naturally and not mechanically as if Jordan were under
instruction. We kept this in mind during the filming of our Thriller, and as
seen the victim’s movement and stature look completely natural and that is
because we gave a count in after we started recording instead of before. We
were able to edit out the countdown and therefore make the movement look
natural.
In these images it makes clear the improvement in props and
mise-en-scene. In the preliminary we showed the phone and almost threw it into
the face of the viewer, which is a very big cliché. It shouldn’t be used really
since it makes the film look rather cheesy and tacky. Instead of this we took
heed and showed the props at a tense, quick-paced moment and ensured they were
directly below the light and clear to the viewer. On the other hand in the
preliminary both the camera quality and the lighting are poor since there is a
slight glare on the camera at the top of the image. There is slight blur of the
focus in the actual Thriller which is a very good touch to a degree since it is
distortion of the shot, assisted by a small tilt to the right. However, to
improve the shot we could have changed the focus to be completely focused on
the tools. Nonetheless the introduction of props and the shots used are much
better than that of the preliminary.
Finally, we improved the costume, use of camera zoom and
editing more above anything. In the preliminary we used a standard shirt and
tie, with formal wear as a costume for our preliminary, which was rather
unreliable. Jack’s shirt kept un-tucking and it resulted in breaks in
continuity since it was noticeable in the next shot. We decided to incorporate
the use of dark clothing for our antagonist and use lighting to our advantage.
A dark set of overalls means you can’t see creases in their clothing and this
was crucial since we wanted to show off a lot of the antagonist’s costume.
In terms of editing and zoom, we avoided using a Ken Baker
shot again because it reduces the quality of the film by a rather significant
amount. We built on this in our Thriller and set the focus, zoom and lighting
adjustment settings before we took any shots. This would therefore result in no
need for cropping some of the shots and reducing their quality. We reviewed our
film thoroughly and decided most shots were too quick paced to notice
continuity breaks, we couldn’t spot any in the longer shots so it gave us the
confidence we took the correct precautions before each shot.
