Filming Evaluation - Maidstone

Filming Evaluation

Filming in Maidstone was the first time our group had come together in out of school hours and film for our film. While due to some complications at first (we didn't follow the shooting scirpt as some members were late), we still managed to pull ahead of the script as we managed to navigate through Maidstone (since we know it well) effeciently.

The first spot that we decided to film at was near a road, outside of the mall next to a gambling building. This place was an excellent find as the lighting at the part of the day, it wasn't too bright so the mood looked dark and sad but still added detail to the shot without it looking grainy. There was also an addition of graffiti and a flickering light which really made the shot look, however we something we thought was better and so decided to not use that footage as of now.The first few shots went in order of our storyboard, we shot multiple of some shots to decide which we thought looked best in the post production stage. To finialise the use of location for these series of shots, we decided to try and make use of the road and the busy cars by recording some raw footage.

 We found a nice area near KFC where we decided to film shots of her begging and people walking past her as usual. We shot some footage at a park near the Maidstone East of the homeless person on a bench, but this was the shot where we didn't want to have an error of cast, the person on the bench is the same person who bumps into her later on. We decided against using these clips.

Right after these shots we made our way toward s the graveyard where we filmed the scene to give out character depth and insight, since a socio realism film is heavily dependent on its characters. We took a really good pan shot where we wanted the start of thr scene to be black, so we had it against a gravestone and slowly panned it to the right to reveal our character in front of a gravestone. We had multiple shots of the character pulling her pendant and buckling to the floor, all for continuity's sake. The final place that we filmed was in the Maidstone Mote Park toilets, obviously I wasn't able to enter the girls bathroom and so had to sit this one out, however from the groups comments and reviewing the footage you can see that the lighting wasn;t good and lacked what we wanted (a mirror).

Evaluation: Overall as a first shooting experience with the group, I felt it was successful as we filmed some beautiful footage that will only be amplified in post production. Since we knew Maidstone we knew all the good spots to film, this was helpful in ensuring that we could save time from wandering trying to find a good place like we did in London.

Editing sound practical

Manipulating sound

I am going to look at the effect of changing the effects on a short piece of piano music. By changing the effect it may change the entire feel of the piece so we may be able to apply it to our piece.

Original

For this experiment, I used a one minute section of ‘More beautiful/sad piano songs by Brian Craine’ which I found on YouTube. I converted it to an mp3 file and used audacity to cut it down. I then saved this as an audacity file called original so that I could change it and save it as something else and I do not have to keep cutting it. This is what the cut version of the original was like:

Change speed

By changing the speed it also changes the pitch so when I is slowed down the pitch is lower and when it is sped up the pitch is higher. This means that when the sound is slowed down it has a sad and lonely feel to it which is ideal for our film opening. However, if it is sped up then the music sounds happy which is the opposite of what we want our storyline to convey emotionally.

Change tempo

Similar to changing the speed except the tempo doesn’t affect the pitch of the piano so if still has the same effect where the slower is sadder and the fast is happier but the faster one is easier to listen to as the pitch is lower so it still has a sad note behind it. In addition they sound like they have been edited rather than composed that way as changing the speed does.

Change pitch

The high pitch of the two conveyed a more joyful, playful atmosphere that would not lend itself to supporting our character whereas the lower tempo did suggest the idea of loneliness but it is not as long and slow moving as the slower speed and slower tempo which is better as it will not bore people as easily.

Reverse

Finally, I tried reversing the sound which gave a slightly creepy sound as the fade that normally comes after a note has been played on a piano came before the strong sound of the note being played. This means it stops very abruptly at the end which could build suspense if you match it correctly with the right video.

Conclusion

In conclusion I think a slower song would be better for the mood of our coursework and if we used a faster song then it would look strange and not go with what we are going to film for our film opening. Here are all the edited sounds:

Sound research

Sound quality research

We have decided that at the beginning we would used the sound of traffic so I am going to research whether it would be better to use sound from YouTube or to film our own.

For this investigation I have found some sound from YouTube that would be ideal for what we want to use. This is the first 30 seconds from that sound.

I then went out to film the sound of a busy road. I filmed 30 seconds to see how the sound would be. I found that the sound was very quiet and it would not be very effective as you would only just hear the sound of a few cars passing and it is over powered by the sound of the wind.

The sound from YouTube is better as there is more variety of sound and the sound is clearer so we can hear every car and horn whereas the recorded sound has lots of background noise which would be difficult to remove.

Filming Evaluation - London

Filming Evaluation

Filming in London overall was an enjoyable experience, this is due to the fact that becuase we were in a group we were anle to get a good price on the tickets allowing us to get on and off the tube aswell as getting to London. We filmed most of out shots in Lodon, Hyde Park (Winter Wonderland), St. James Park and some shots in the tube. We also decided that we wanted to get a more rougher but urban area of London so we decided to hop on the trube and g to Brixton. There we filmed 2 important shots in which the main character is begging and is the point of time in which the only single dialogue we wanted was done. One thing we made  a mistake in was that we had an actor in a previous scene when we filmed in Maidstone, and wanted to use him again for the end scene, however noticed that it would be weird for the main character to come into contact with him 2 times and so decided that we were against using the footage in Maidstone.

Our train was around 10 minutes late and so we were a bit behind our shooting script however with a fast pace walk to St. James Park we managed to get to our first location for filming. The weather wasn't the best for going out , however there were quite a bit of kids there that were plauing in the park so it made it diffucult to film there without getting them in the shot. This scene just served as a way to show the isloation of the main character as the people around her were having fun while she was sitting on some benches. Moving from St. James James Park to Hyde Park proved a bit diffcult as there were loads of people gathered infront of the Buckingham Palace as well as media outlets due to the changing of the guards. 

At Hyde Park we decided to go to Winter Wonderlamd (it's free to enter so its feasible that a homeless person could find themselves there) and film a longshot of her walking on a busy pavement (the shot was too far away and you could barely make out the main character). In Winter Wonderland, there was a huge abundence of families having fun together and so we decided to film over the shoulder shots of her walking through these crowds alone to further the theme of isolation. The bright and vivid colours from the rides really intensifies the contrast between the character and the situation of others around her.

The final stop was Brixton, while on the tube we decided to film some shots in there (altought homeless people may not be able to afford a tocket) it is hotter in there, a perfect place for homeless people to sleep during thr winter. After getting of the tube and into Brixton, we filmed a quick scene in which she was begging. We also filmed some timelapses of the cars and people from different angles. We found a place with good graffiti making it look really urban and rough. This was where we filmed our last scene where the main character bumps into someone else and is called scum. 

Since this was the secound time that we had come together, we were alot more effeicent with our trime and how shots worked as well where to place the camera to get the best angle or shot. I think the filming that we done in London and Brixton was successful and we have plenty of shots to work with. 

Filming evaluation - London 21/12/16

Filming evaluation - London

I am going to be evaluating our filming day in London. Including the successes and weaknesses of the day we spent filming in London.

The day started as planned and we all met at Maidstone East at 9:00 ready to get the 9:03 to Victoria unfortunately the train was almost 10 minutes late so our filming was set back a little. We managed to get to the station at 10:15 we managed to walk fast to St. James’ park and we managed to get some filming done quickly so we caught up time.

The shots in the park were difficult because there were young children and to film them we would need permission from their parents/carers so we avoided filming anyone else other than me and if we did get someone in the shot then they would be out of focus so you can’t see them properly.

After this we walked to Winter Wonderland in Hyde park. We chose this location as we thought it would be a popular location for people on their Christmas holidays with their children so we see happy families, unfortunately due to the time we arrived at the park there were not as many people there as we had hoped so the shots do not have as many people as we had hoped but you still get the idea of the homeless girl being alone in a place where everyone is with friends or family.

The next location we decided to use was Brixton as it would be less ‘nice’ than central London so it would be more the sort of place that this girl who has nothing would be from.

We also used shots in the tube station, these were affective as the tube stations were run down and in poor condition. However, it does not make sense because she would not be able to afford the ticket to get down to the station as she would need one to pass the barriers.

Another problem we had was I had not planned for us to have to find a public bathroom as we were going to do this in the mote park toilets in Maidstone. Unfortunately, the shots we have need a mirror which we did not realise until we were already there. Having not planned for these to have to be done in London we forgot about them so we are going have to go out filming again to film these shots in Maidstone. Probably in the Fremlin walk toilets.

Costume Creation- Practical

Costume Creation- Practical

To do this I used an old t-shirt that was slightly stretched and faded.

I then took the top outside to rub it in dirt to make it seem dirty, this gave the impression that the garment had been in contact with dirt before.

After brushing off any excess dirt I used some leftover red wine to make it seem as though someone had thrown a drink over the character. This gave the top red stains all down the front.

After I spilt wine onto the top I used coffee to stain one of the shoulders, this was intended to also give the impression that the coffee had been purposely spilt over the character. This was intentionally done so that the character seemed of a lower status, trying to gain sympathy from the audience as we are trying to create a social realism genre that will be realistic.

After I had stained the top I used cold water to get rid of any excess coffee grains or dirt that was sticking to the top, the water also washed off the worst of the marking on the shirt making them seem older and less prominent on the material.

Evaluation and Final Product

Looking at an image of the final product I can see that the coffee and red wine stains are very obvious on the top, this is a bad thing as they look too artificial. The practical was useful as it gave me the general scope of how far you can go before something looks fake and overly obvious. We will not be using this top in the filming.

Inspiration Blog

Inspiration Blog 

A source of inspiration for me recently has been a channel called Formula Arts, this YouTube channel was created by a person called Tommy Trinh and he is a film maker. His work on the channel consists of making powerful pieces of art using great video footage and powerful songs in the background.  His work is exceptional as the production quality is high and produced in after effects with extreme professionalism. Currently my favourite video from him was one titled Dear Thomas, in which reads a letter that he wrote in high school for his future self. This was also around the time that he left a company called JKNEWS in which he felt he could no longer progress as a film maker and decided to pursue his own career.

Audience Feedback

Audience Feedback

When we were coming near the end of finalising our storyboard and making it official, we were asked to present our idea to the whole class to see how they feel towards it.

Positives (+)

We were told that the uniqueness of our film and the genre it is, is defiantly an advantage as it wasn't done much and allows us to set the standard for what it should be like, however this does come with drawbacks as we cant compare or take inspiration from previous AS Media students. The wide choice of locations we had was also a good thing, overall we had around three major locations in mind, London, Greenich and Maidstone. They liked the idea of how we were going to show the isolation of our main character (not named as of this time) and the use of families and friends being together to garner more sympathy from the audience.

Negatives (-)

With the amount of locations we have it also comes with a drawback, the cost and how much filming are we going to need. What if we need more footage, then it would be problematic to go to London and Greenich again for multiple reasons of time and cost. We also had no idea on a title, originally we wanted to go for synommns of words on lonely but we were told that most films like ours had metaphorical titles such as "The Friendly Giant" or "Fishbowl". As of right now we have just one metaphorical title that we could possibly use and this is the lonely kitten, which could represent the main character describing her a kitten to further her vulnerability.

Editing Practical

Editing Practical

For my editing practical, I tried to manipulate stock footage to give it more of a cinematic look and feel. The "cinematic" look is often made up of the brightness and contrast, the manipulation of RGB and the fps that the footage is shot in. American cinemas play their movies at 24fps while British ones go to 25fps. While going at a higher fps and shutter speed adds more of a realism effect, it is not what is the movie standard. Shutter speed is what effects how much motion blur can be seen within the footage, it should always be half of what fps you're filming at. After around 20minutes in after effects with just some light changes. This was my end result. It's sad to say that the amount of workload my computer can handle is very limited and so it's hard to use effects which require a lot of CPU power and so some things I wanted to do isn't possible because of how much stress After Effects puts on the computer. There was also the problem with the white lines being present on top of the black bars which randomly happened and so I didn't know how to fix it, it may have just been the footage I used. 

 

 Originally, I was going for a look shown in the below picture where I could show the direct changes side by side, but the workload on my computer was too high and so made it really laggy and hard to work with. The render times would've also been really high. I also added black bars to my altered footage and so it would've looked like cropped footage if I continued with it. However I do think that this was a more effective way of showing the comparison, it's just a shame I couldn't do it.

 

I went for an RGB (red, green and blue) to play around with the colour to correct it. This is something which takes time and patience, also it needs a lot of experience to know what colour levels work best with your footage. I did not have any experience with colour correction prior to this and so it came out looking more blue than I wanted it to. 

 

I wanted to add a vignette effect (where you reduce the brightness or saturation around the edges to amplify the effectiveness of what's in the middle) however it didn't look right. To do a vignette effect you got up the oval shape tool and put it over your work whilst holding shift (this allows it to be formed in a consistent way) and then change the mask layer to subtract. Film making also consists of making the lights, lighter and the dark darker. To do this I used to the pen tool to map out some areas where light was shining and then putting the masking layer on subtract, overall making it lighter while keeping the rest of the areas dark. 

 Adding the black bars was simple enough, simply getting the rectangle shape tool and pressing shift, then duplicating that layer and move it down. I however, do not remember how the white lines came to be and will certainly look into it when doing this with other practical tasks. I decided that I wanted to add a blur tool at the start whilst it is panning up to give it the effect of not being in focus, this was created by adding an effect called "blur". I set it to about 21 at the start and gradually as the scene progresses the blurriness effect is less prominent making it seem as if it's going into focus.

 To render it out, the settings I used was a video format of H.24. I decided against adding music as the footage was too short anyway and the render time would've been longer. Overall, the time spent using the tools that professionals will also use is valuable in allowing our final product to look as crisp and as close to film like as it is on the big screens.

Shooting script - Day 2

Shooting script 21/12/16

I am going to be planning our filming day on the 21st December.

Travel

It is cheaper to get a train after 9:00 as it is at off peak travel times so we are going to get the 9:03 train from Maidstone East to Victoria. We chose this station because it is a central station so we can go to many locations that are well known to give a sense of relatability to or film opening we can also use the tube to get to other parts of London.

Day plan

9:00 - Meet at Maidstone East

9:03 - Train to Victoria

10:07 - Arrive at Victoria and walk to St. James' park

10:15- 10:30 - Film par shots in St. James' park

10:30 - 11:30 - Walk to and through Winter wonderland for walking shots

11:30 - 12:00 - Find somewhere for lunch

12:00 - 1:00 - Lunch and watch footage to ensure it does not need to be redone.

1:00 - 1:20 - Tube to Oxford Circus

1:20 - 1:30 - Tube to Brixton and shots in underground

1:30 - 2:00 - Filming in Brixton

2:52 - Train from Victoria

3:55 - Back at Maidstone East

Who and What?

Emma Fuller - Acting - Bring tripod and locket

Natasha Russell - Directing/Filming - Bring Costume

Angel Limbu - Filming - Bring camera

Caitlin Willis - Directing/filming - Sign prop

AS Media Day One Shooting Script Practical

AS Media Day One Shooting Script Practical

Brief

Our first day of filming will take place on Monday the 19th of December. We aim to all be in Maidstone ready for filming by 10:00 am. The following people are coming and will bring the assigned equipment and props prepared and ready for filming:

• Angel Limbu - Go Pro camera.

• Emma Fuller - Laptop, locket and tripod.

• Caitlin Willis - Sign prop and handkerchief.

• Natasha Russell - Costume, sleeping bag and cameras (one for filming other for evidence).

We should all bring a storyboard and some form of lighting too i.e. flash on phone.

On the day these people will have the following roles/responsibilities:

• Angel Limbu - Camera.

• Emma Fuller - Acting as the main protagonist, which will be the homeless girl.

• Caitlin Willis - Camera.

• Natasha Russell - Camera, timekeeper and collecting shots for evidence.

Between Angel, Caitlin and myself roles can vary.

The following timings of the production will help us record shots for the opening without being unprepared and waste time:

09:00 to 09:20 - Meet at the bottom floor of the Mall in Maidstone and walk to the back of the Mall.

09:20 to 10:45 - Should be set up and ready to film the waking up scenes at the door front at the back of the Mall.

10:45 to 11:00 - Watch the shots and decide if need to redo.

11:00 to 11:30 - Film extreme close up shots of sign and money falling into cup. Can vary location from starting location. During this time someone needs to purchase a coffee to give to them to complete the coffee shots in our montage.

11:30 to 12:00 - Finish filming scenes for the montage and have spare time for any walking shots with the Go Pro.

12:00 to 13:30 - Lunch and watching over the shots. Should aim to leave Maidstone at around this time as it will get busy.

13:30 to 14:00 - Walk to graveyard and get set up.

14:00 to 15:30 - Film graveyard scenes. The light is supposed to go at around 16:00 as the sunsets t 15:51 supposedly.

15:30 to 16:15 - Walk to Mote Park Café and set up for filming

16:15 to 17:30 - Finish filming public bathroom scene. Need to bring lights for the effect of a blinding light when opening the door.

AS Media Decided Maidstone Locations Practical

Decided Maidstone Locations Practical

Brief

From audience feedback to our storyboard, we agreed that the graveyard at Archbishop's Palace was unsuitable. Yet, my group wanted to still carry on filming in case no other suitable graveyard is found. We are undecided about this, that is why it is not included below. Nevertheless, we may film it in case no other suitable graveyard location is found for the match on action scene represented by one of the shots below.

On the other hand, the following locations were praised. As a group this allowed us to plan which shots and being filmed where. Below are the current decided locations of Maidstone and their corresponding shots. Due to the vastness of urban locations in Maidstone, some of the shots' locations will be found on the shooting day.

Outcome

For the opening match on action scene, we felt that the previous scouted locations were remote but included to much foliage that made it appear rural. The locations I am discussing are below.

Therefore, I scouted later this remote location behind the Gala Bingo in Maidstone. The lighting here is also better at around 08:30, compare to the 07:00 lighting in the above shots. This location will be good for the waking up scene because it is a sheltered, remote location which portrays a sense of isolation and a stereotypical porch where homeless people are seen sleeping in short films and documentaries previously analysed. Unlike the above locations, it is also identifiably urban and near a busy one way system, allowing us to capture urban traffic sounds.

As discussed, some of our locations will be found on the day, however, we have some ideas of filming the bench scenes in Brenchley Gardens, although this doesn't include a playground, it provides benches where we can film the below scene. This location is near Maidstone East Station and an modern building called Brenchley House. This is shown on Google Maps.

This location would be used by the long shot of Emma on a bench.

This would be a better location than the park in Tovil which is more like a remote woodland. Hence, this new location would conform to conventions of social realism films by including urban locations.

Emma scouted the location of Mote Park's public toilets which is said to be grotty and contain a needle bin for the bathroom shots like the below side on long shot.. We trust Emma's decision of this location as the needle bin and griminess will emphasise crime in the urban area and the homeless protagonist's lack of hygiene because of their situation.

Predominately, we will use locations in London, as they will be more identifiable and so conforming to common conventions of social realism films, as the locations allow the niche local audience to connect to the setting and add realism. Therefore, some shots, like the below close up shot, may be filmed in Maidstone streets, where less planning is needed as you will most likely only see the pavement etc. 

AS Media Waking Up Scene Experimentation Practical

AS Media Waking Up Scene Experimentation Practical

Brief

For our film opening we are planning to include a close up focus pull and a time lapse. I wanted to test these so we are prepared for filming a successful piece.

Production

For the change in focus scene I was unable to change the focus with the camera as it was filmed on my less advanced portable Nikon camera. On the real filming day we will use a more advanced Canon camera.

With this camera, the scene I filmed in the above video should look similar to the one below that I filmed with said Canon camera. This was done with the manual focus setting and twisting the lens. There wasn't a clear change in focus and you had to get extremely close to the hand, but I thought it was useful and if we were on a stable tripod hopefully it would look more professional. Below is the product:

Another way to create this change in focus is by using editing software like "Adobe After Effects".

Post-production

With the above video, I use an editing software to speed up the video like below:

Then I cut up the video into small sections and deleting a few between each one to create an irregular video similar to a time lapse. This is seen below:

Personal Comments

I felt overall the sped up version was the best as it still had the effect we wanted without the confusing irregularities of the time lapse. And although the focus pull was a little shaky I think as a group and 'Warp Stabilizer' we will be able to create a successful opening match on action scene.

Homeless props- Practical

Homeless props- Practical

One of the props we wanted to include was an old silk like handkerchief that will cover the locket. I ordered a cheap scrap of hemmed silk like fabric and used it to make the prop

I first ironed it out so that it didn’t have the neat fold line and so anything I put on it would not be effected by the folds.

I then unpicked the rolled edges that made the fabric neat so that it was fraying along the edges, I found that they may be fraying a bit too much but after the next step then settled to the fabric a bit better.

After I unpicked the edges I ironed them out so the fabric was flat

Next I poured coffee over the fabric to discolour it and age it slightly, the effect was instant but a bit patchy as the coffee had granules in it that made darker patches

To make it seem more worn I then took it outside and rubbed it in dirt, as it was still damp the effect was not as instant but it gave another layer of discolouring that makes it look a bit more authentic.

Lastly I ran a pin along the surface of the fabric to make it seem as though it had caught several times.

Final Product

Sound Deconstruction

Sound Deconstruction

The Soloist

The scene from ‘The Soloist’ is set on the side of a busy road. There is no score in the scene, this may be to make it seem more realistic and authentic or to prevent any distraction to the fact that they are on the side of the road. The road, although evidently busy, is quiet, the scene is obviously in a city but there is a calm quietness that makes the scene more intimate. I find the use of a quiet but obviously busy road effective as the use of sound is limited but effective as the setting and feel is very clear but it doesn’t derive the audience’s attention from the scene that is playing out.

Fish Tank

The opening scene from ‘Fish Tank’ starts focusing on specific sounds as the setting needs to be established. There is faint bust noticeable noises of a busy road nearby, this give the idea that the scene is set in a town or city, as we get a closer image as to where the scene is, we can hear shouting through the open window. All sound is diegetic and purposefully edited in so that the audience can understand that the location is not upper class or entirely safe. The dialogue chosen is also specific to creating an image as the words chosen are conventional to an urban drama as they are usually set in violent or unsafe locations. The use of sound in the clip is effective as it has subtle but important hints concerning the tone of the film and how they can use the diegetic sound to create the emotional response as there is not score.

Skyfall (tube and city)

As this is a more generic action film ‘Skyfall’ has a more effective score, the sound of the underground is not as effectively used as it could be. The sound is muted and only diegetic footsteps and the character’s dialogue can be heard. The sound of that train is prominent but is one again slightly muted by the score that is powering the scene. Although the use of the tube is something we were hoping to include, the use of sound in this clip does not hold the realism that we want it to.

Homeless (short film)

In a scene from the short film ‘Homeless’ there is no diegetic sound used, only a score that catches the ambience of the film. The piano used is slow and emotive and has a more emotional outcome compared to what we hope to create in our coursework but it is still effective. As we hope to create the more real, in the moment, effect the short film had a distant but more intimate feel.

Evaluation
Although the use of no dialogue or diegetic sound is effective in the short film that I deconstructed I feel that we should take inspiration from 'The Soloist' and 'Fish tank' as I believe that they are closer in genre and would be more effective then a score. Although 'Skyfall' is not an urban drama I felt as though the scene held a location that we could interpret and that their use of sound could be interesting but the use of a score seemingly ruined the ambience of the scene so it was not as effective as it could have been.

Locket research

Locket research

We have decided that our homeless character should have one valuable item that looks well loved to show she did have a life once with a family and we leave the opening scene open as to whether she was abandoned or if her parents died. I am going to be looking at which locket to use.

The first locket I found had a nice pattern that was feminine which is appropriate for what we want. It was more of a rose gold which makes it look more expensive which would work because we want this item to be different to show it means something to her as no matter how desperate she is she will not sell this item that would go for a lot of money. The reason this locket would not be appropriate is that it is very shiny and new so instead of this girl having had the locket in her life for a long enough time for her to have an emotional connection it is as if she had money and ended up with nothing because she brought a shiny new locket.

This was the next locket that I saw. If the character was more modern then this less intricate design would be ideal as it looks far more up to date than the ornate floral design. Additionally it is still too shiny like the last locket therefore would not fit with the story we are trying to portray.

This locket is a different shape which would be fine but the heart shape adds to the idea that whoever the photo in the locket is of means a lot to her as the heart implies love. The design on the locket is perfect for the idea that the locket is something the character has had since she was very long so it is slightly older, the colour adds to this as it is more worn down and not obviously new.

This locket is also a different shape, similar to the previous locket it loses the idea that the person is close to the character. The colour is more appropriate than the first two lockets but would still look very new as the simpler pattern makes the piece look less authentic.

I then found these three lockets. The sliver and gold ones have exactly the same pattern and the rose gold one is very similar. The pattern is perfect as it is detailed and it is very busy so it looks older as modern things tend to follow the idea that less is more. I think of the three the gold one (middle) is the best to go with our storyline as it does not look as brand new as the other two due the the fact the colour is darker and not as shiny.