Thursday, 20 May 2010
Editing
The editing was a time we were all slightly concerned about. Liz, Patrick, Adam and myself had only had primitive experience with Final Cut Pro and we thought this would make things tricky. Fortunately for us Luke came out with 'I've used it loads at college yeah!' when we discussed it, saving us just slightly :) Throughout the process Liz, Luke and myself were the main editors and the roles of music were given to Adam and Patrick. When we handed in our rough cut, the general consensus is that we weren't satisfied with how it had exactly turned out, however, the comments and criticisms from Mike did point us in the right direction. Also the music that arrived after the initial rough cut was very much necessary and helped the mood of our film a great deal.
The major transformation we made with regard to The Cure was the (previously mentioned) extra voice over narration. I feel that this helped identify the film significantly and we all felt a great deal more satisified with our final production.
The course of this module had provided me with new skills and abilities. With no real prior experience to film making I feel significantly more confident in myself. I have enjoyed the year and the two short films I have made I feel have been very successful and I hope that the rest of the year enjoy each others films at The Little Theatre showcase tonight! :-)
The Filming Weekend
The run up to the filming weekend I was nervous but excited. With the experience I had gained from the previous film weekend I felt that not a great deal could go wrong. The cast was set with my cousin filling in as the businessman role and a few extras agreeing to sit in and watch as the audience for The Cure showcase, we had the necessary equipment, props and locations for a successful weekend.
The first day went swimmingly. The majority of the shots were at the Michael Tippett centre or around the university grounds and despite there being a few extra's dropping out, we worked with the amount of people we had, all of us constantly laughing throughout the day. There were scenes that our main actor took a different approach to the character than we would have liked, but as he joined us at short notice we were thankful to have someone dedicated to a whole weekends filming at all. We were all surprised at how early we finished on the first day, it just went to show how well we were working. Finishing early also gave us an oppotunity to play around with some extra shots which may later prove useful within the editing.
The second day of filming we were a little more pushed for time. Although we had finished all the filming at the university, we needed to continue at Liz and Patrick's houses with the much more complex, dialogue based scenes. The main scene where 'Konrad' mixes his potion was also key on our second day of filming and we (as an after thought) probably should have completed one of these scenes the previous day when we finished early, however our time schedule did hold true in the end.
When we finished filming, we immediately went through the footage we'd obtained over the weekend, attempting to sort out where we would begin with regard to the editing. Looking at a lot of the footage there were some scenes the majority of us weren't happy with, mainly due to some of the acting. We decided that in an attempt to make the viewing more enjoyable for our audiences, that if we added a voice over narration that we would record whilst editing, it would therefore enhance the comedic elements that we initially set out to involve. The weekend as a whole went really well, apart from some of the acting we worked really well as a team, this was probably due to the fact that we were allowed to choose who we worked with on this film as opposed to our groups being chosen for us. This allowed us to get on well as friends and play to each others strengths.
The first day went swimmingly. The majority of the shots were at the Michael Tippett centre or around the university grounds and despite there being a few extra's dropping out, we worked with the amount of people we had, all of us constantly laughing throughout the day. There were scenes that our main actor took a different approach to the character than we would have liked, but as he joined us at short notice we were thankful to have someone dedicated to a whole weekends filming at all. We were all surprised at how early we finished on the first day, it just went to show how well we were working. Finishing early also gave us an oppotunity to play around with some extra shots which may later prove useful within the editing.
The second day of filming we were a little more pushed for time. Although we had finished all the filming at the university, we needed to continue at Liz and Patrick's houses with the much more complex, dialogue based scenes. The main scene where 'Konrad' mixes his potion was also key on our second day of filming and we (as an after thought) probably should have completed one of these scenes the previous day when we finished early, however our time schedule did hold true in the end.
When we finished filming, we immediately went through the footage we'd obtained over the weekend, attempting to sort out where we would begin with regard to the editing. Looking at a lot of the footage there were some scenes the majority of us weren't happy with, mainly due to some of the acting. We decided that in an attempt to make the viewing more enjoyable for our audiences, that if we added a voice over narration that we would record whilst editing, it would therefore enhance the comedic elements that we initially set out to involve. The weekend as a whole went really well, apart from some of the acting we worked really well as a team, this was probably due to the fact that we were allowed to choose who we worked with on this film as opposed to our groups being chosen for us. This allowed us to get on well as friends and play to each others strengths.
Monday, 12 April 2010
Locations and Research
Again as I said before, due to the difficulties when creating the original script, we decided to change it to an idea we preferred as it aimed at the student market and also benefitted us hugely with regard to our financial status. (We are very poor). :-(
During our film there would be scenes of experimentation that would show our main character mixing up his potion or 'hangover cure'. This is a scene that we really want to emphasise so we will use a bright coloured blue substance to add more effect.
We wanted to give the scene where our main character 'Konrad' demonstrates his hangover showcase an authentic feel for our audience. The 'Michael Tippett Centre' is a building where many lectures take place at the University. Inside, it also has a lobby area which we thought could look hugely realistic with a few extra props. This was one of our main locations.
The other locations that we were to use throughout the filming weekend were at Liz's house where we used her vastly filled cupboards and their contents for the scenes where Konrad first develops the hangover cure and the final location was at Patrick's house where we shot the scenes of Konrad waking up in the morning and answering the door to the Bible salesman.
When researching the theme and look for our film, we decided that at certain points there may be some sort of comedic elements. 'The man with two brains' a 1983 film starring 'Steve Martin' was a film that I have always personally enjoyed and uses very over the top props among other elements to influence its look and comedy. The film itself is the story of a top brain surgeon who discovers the fastest method of brain transplants using 'cranium screwtop surgery'. Similarly to 'The Cure' the height of the surgeon's success comes crashing down around him.
During our film there would be scenes of experimentation that would show our main character mixing up his potion or 'hangover cure'. This is a scene that we really want to emphasise so we will use a bright coloured blue substance to add more effect.
We wanted to give the scene where our main character 'Konrad' demonstrates his hangover showcase an authentic feel for our audience. The 'Michael Tippett Centre' is a building where many lectures take place at the University. Inside, it also has a lobby area which we thought could look hugely realistic with a few extra props. This was one of our main locations.
The other locations that we were to use throughout the filming weekend were at Liz's house where we used her vastly filled cupboards and their contents for the scenes where Konrad first develops the hangover cure and the final location was at Patrick's house where we shot the scenes of Konrad waking up in the morning and answering the door to the Bible salesman.
The Hippopant to The Cure
After much deliberation on The Hippophant, we came to a decision to change a major aspect of the script. We had looked into the relative texidermy companies and websites that could create and rent us an elephant cross bred with a hippo. This would have been hugely expensive and considering we were shooting on no funding whatsoever, we thought it would be better to continue with an idea we thought would work just as well.
The Cure was the new name of our script. We kept the original format that the main character 'Konrad' was a poor, out of luck guy who was depending on an invention that would gain him fame and fortune, but the invention, instead of a hippophant, was a hangover cure. We thought that this could be hugely sucessfull as it gave us a specific target audience to work with and we could add some comimcal aspects
The Cure was the new name of our script. We kept the original format that the main character 'Konrad' was a poor, out of luck guy who was depending on an invention that would gain him fame and fortune, but the invention, instead of a hippophant, was a hangover cure. We thought that this could be hugely sucessfull as it gave us a specific target audience to work with and we could add some comimcal aspects
Choosing a Screenplay + Feedback
I was suprisingly nervous during the initial feedback session with the rest of the group. Although I knew everyone in the group and had brief discussions with some before the class, I was still apprehensive as to what would come from the overall discussion. I was pleased to find that my script was well recieved and despite not being chosen by any groups, it was certainly a consideration for a few.
For our first film we were placed into random groups, so this time I was looking forward to choosing who I could work with. Luke Phillips, Elizabeth Scott, Patrick Wilson and Adam Barrett were the other members of my group that I was to work with for the remainder of the year. After the feedback session we narrowed down the choice of scripts to The Hippophant and R.S.V.P. by Miles Mcauliffe and Katie Greenstone. Our choice to shoot The Hippophant was based on the fact we thought that it would be more productive to shoot a film based on a specific topic/idea and it would be hugely difficult to arrange the amount of people needed to shoot the house party scene in R.S.V.P.
For our first film we were placed into random groups, so this time I was looking forward to choosing who I could work with. Luke Phillips, Elizabeth Scott, Patrick Wilson and Adam Barrett were the other members of my group that I was to work with for the remainder of the year. After the feedback session we narrowed down the choice of scripts to The Hippophant and R.S.V.P. by Miles Mcauliffe and Katie Greenstone. Our choice to shoot The Hippophant was based on the fact we thought that it would be more productive to shoot a film based on a specific topic/idea and it would be hugely difficult to arrange the amount of people needed to shoot the house party scene in R.S.V.P.
Monday, 5 April 2010
Script Writing!
This is the part I think most people in the group had been waiting for. As many of us didn't particularly enjoy the first 'Shoes' script, we had finally reached a point to where we can (within reason) let our own creative imaginations run wild.
When first writing the script I automatically assumed I would have hoards and hoards of ideas. To a certain degree I did, however, many of them when I started to write them down looked completely ridiculous. I battled with a select few ideas before resorting to asking some of my family which one they preferred. 'A Justified Presumption' was an idea that I thought provided an ambiguous yet intriguing story that would have been perfect for a short film time frame. The idea itself was based around an elderly man and a young boy who establish a seemingly harmless friendship that is continually attacked at by the young boys parents and roaming bullies in the area. I was initially quite satisfied with my script although I knew that there were some technical issues with the script that needed to be dealt with. After I had sat down with Mike and he pointed me in the right direction I felt a great deal more positive.
Although I enjoyed the script writing, detaching myself from the script was a problem I have to deal with. I had a very clear idea of what my film should look like so having to place my script into a group of others I felt that the general consensus was that people didn't like the idea that others could potentially butcher an idea that someone had spent a lot of time writing. I look forward to hearing the comments and feedback from the other group members as to how I can improve my script further.
Wednesday, 6 January 2010
Editing
The editing was a fun experience that was fairly new to me. After doing the Final Cut Pro (which is the editorial software, see below)
we arranged as a group to upload the footage onto the Mac's and begin the editing process. We discussed in which order the shots should go and the potential transitions. Having a Mac herself, and being the most comfortable with Final Cut Pro, Kathryn Greenstone kept the files on her laptop and took on the majority of the editing roles such as putting the shots together. We met up on numerous occasions to choose music for the short film which we put into the film as a group. The website we used for the music was, and allowed us to obtain short music clips without copyright restrictions.
we arranged as a group to upload the footage onto the Mac's and begin the editing process. We discussed in which order the shots should go and the potential transitions. Having a Mac herself, and being the most comfortable with Final Cut Pro, Kathryn Greenstone kept the files on her laptop and took on the majority of the editing roles such as putting the shots together. We met up on numerous occasions to choose music for the short film which we put into the film as a group. The website we used for the music was, and allowed us to obtain short music clips without copyright restrictions.
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