PMP Production blog

Monday 17th March
I pitched my idea to my tutors. The feedback I got back was good and helpful. An issue I was attempting to solve was the location and the look I had in mind was a narrow hall with multiple doors at either side. Both tutors gave me great ideas of where I can consider and the one that appeals most to me is The Sporting lodge. One issue is the door. I want the doors to have little windows so the main character can look into them and see the glimpses of his past memories. They said that they could visualise my idea more so than the others they had heard that day and could tell that I had rehearsed my pitched.

Wednesday 19th March
I bought a folder for my production file and have already placed in a printout of my pitch, proposal, alternate ideas and the first draft of my script. I also started on my shot list and managed to get them finished by the end of the day.

Thursday 20th March
I began on my Storyboards however I could not get too far with them because I am also working on the working to a brief assignment and needed to help out with that.

Monday 24th March
I continued with my storyboards but a similar problem occurred with me not being able to finish them due to my alternate assignment.

Wednesday 26th March
I finished the storyboards and got to work on my character breakdowns. I was not so sure how to set it out and did some research on the matter. I found a great website with step by step explanations on what to do which has helped out a lot. http://thisisyourpilotspeaking.wordpress.com/2010/06/23/character-breakdown-i/

Monday 31st March
My character breakdowns are complete and I have contacted the two people who I want most to act in my film. They are Natasha Bell and Jack Harrison. I also contacted the Sporting lodge in Middlesbrough requesting if we could meet and discuss the possibility of filming there for my main location. Now I will be beginning my work on my costume and makeup design.

Thursday 3rd April
I now have the actors CV's to place in my production file and have started a facebook page for the film. I am however having trouble finding a location to shoot at. I have asked at Tuned In, The ARC and The Sporting Lodge, unfortunately thy each said to me that their halls are always in use 24/7 and I cannot film there. I have come to two possibilities as to what I can to resolve this. I can either use the college halls or change the script so instead of a hallway we use a house. I will keep searching for locations up until the 10th, and if I don't find one then I will choose one of these two options.

Monday 7th April
Today I spent about 3 or 4 hours in Stockton Middlesbrough and Redcar searching for a location to use for this project. I have been unsuccessful in doing so and am beginning to doubt that I will be able to find an area where I will be granted permission to film. So I have thought up a few alternatives. I said previously that if I do not have a location by the 10th then I will resort to using the college halls or change the script so it takes place in a house. Other possible solutions I have thought up however is to contact the Sporting Lodge again with a similar request. Only it will just be me going with my V-720 camera and I will spend about 10 minutes filming in various areas in a corrydoor and taking photos so I can get my actors in and green screen the whole film in the best location I was able to find. Another possibility I have thought up is to change the script so it takes place in an are surrounded by trees. This idea works because it is vague. With it taking place in a hallway it suggests that there is an area he remembers, if it were a place outside surrounded by trees then it suggests he doesn't even remember civilisation. There is an area by my house that is almost perfect for this kind of setting only problem is every 10-20 minutes a train go past very close to there, but is easy to work around.

Thursday 10th April
It is the 10th of April now and as I said today I will make a decsion as to what I will do about loation. In this last week I have gone out to Stockton, Middlesbrough, and Preston to search for location for my film. I have asked at Tuned in, The Sporting lodge, Various other Hotels whose names I cannot recall at this point in time, office buildings, and other areas I once again cannot recall what they were called. I would estimate that I have called, Emailed and personally visited up to 15 - 20 possible places for location for my film this week and I always seem to get the same response. Either their halls are used all hours of the day or they just don't want us filming there altogether. I gave myself the goal for making a decision for today but unfortunately I still have a decision to make that I cannot make until tomorrow. I can either use the College corridors, a home or an area by my house surounded by trees. I believe it would be best if done in the area with trees as it detaches his mind from memories of society which is known to be a side effect of some types of amnesia. However I wish the film to look dark and whith the time of year it doesn't get dark until around 8:30pm or 9pm. Which would be too late to film for the actors as there would be no trains back to Middlesbrough or Stockton after this time and filming could go on for up to 3 hours which would lead to midnight. So tomorrow I am taking my camera down there and will film a 1 minute long sequesnce, edit the image to see if I can make it look like night, and if the end result is good then I will chose this as my main location for the film.

Friday 11th April
At 7:00pm I left the house with my camera and tripod to the wooded area which I have mentioned would be a good location for the film. I left at this time because ina rough schedule plan I wrote our yesterday I placed the time of filming to be start at this time. I filmed a 45 second sequence and editited it in Adobe After Effects to make it look like night. The result is not what I was hoping however I know it can be improved upon. The computer I use to edit at home is incredibally terrible when running Adobe. For example it took it 30 minutes to play out the whole 45 second sequence. With this issue it was very difficult to change the look of the footage, however I was able to create a rough version of what I want and all it needs is a little clean up my laptop cannot provide. I am fully confident that when I get this footage to a fully working computer at college it will be easy to fix the problems that are seen in the photo below.

Before

After

I have come to the conclusion of using this as my main location for my film and as part of that will need to edit the script, shot list, and storyboards.

Monday 21st April
My actor Jack Harrison got into contact with me tell me the cannot come in on the 22nd at the time we agreed on. Something important had come up so I was forced to change the schedule for the 22nd and he now be coming in at 2:30pm instead of 11am as we had first agreed.

Tuesday 22nd April
Voiceovers are now recorded and edited. All that is left production wise is to film.

Wednesday 23rd April
We were lucky today in finding out that the actors finished several hours early so we were able to go and film at 3:30 which meant we arrived at location at 4:30. Filming itself did not go smoothly. The backstage camera ran out of battery and the footage we got with it was little to none. There were some communication issues with everyone so setting up different shots proved to be a battle the later it got. We ran over filmtime by a few hours because of this. I aimed to be finished within 2 hours by the end of it all we came out with a 5 hour shoot and still did not have everything we needed.

Thursday 24th April
I have captured and edited the footage we had. Overall we need to reshoot 5 shots and film the 8 shots we could not get yesterday.

Sunday 27th April
I got Jack to come down to Redcar and we were able to film all of the shots we needed including reshoots.

Wednesday 30th April
The rough edit is now complete and I am starting work on the behind the scenes videos.

Wednesday 4th June
Everything regarding the film is now complete. The edits are finished and the menu is almost complete. All that is left is to add in the Directors commentary and I will be able to burn it into the disk.

Social action production blog

Monday 27th January 2014
Today we received our Social action assignment, our task is to produce an anti-smoking video along with full pre-production paper work and an active production blog. I also produced some research that will assist In the production of my idea which is in development.

Thursday 30th January 2014

Today we pitched our anti-smoking video ideas, two of these ideas will go on to be made into a short film. Once everyone had pitched their idea Neil and Kelly decided that three films would be made instead of two. The three ideas to be chose were Ryans, Isaaks and Jordans. I paired up with Jordan as we had similar ideas so we could provide a more thought out way of looking at how to film it.
Monday 3rd February 2014

Today we had a short production meeting, we made the decision to have attempted some form of filming by Friday the 7th of February and that if not filming would commence Monday the 10th of February. We also chose our cast, this was based upon whether people smoked, their appearance and whther they fit the character profile. We decided on 2 actors, Sam Hitchcliff and Jacob Hanson.

Tuesday 4th February 2014

Today we produced a shot list for my short film which is set to be filmed on the 7th of February. As well as the shot list i also produced a make-up ideas page for my make-up artist(s)

Wednesday 5th February 2014

Today we performed a location recce and risk assessment as well as gaining permission to film at our chosen location, the Dubliners pub, after this we had a short informal meeting with the actors, discuccing our plans for filming.

Thursday 6th February 2014

Today was our planned filming day, we went to the dubliners and began filming, we had planned to film from half nine to twelve which turned out to be too long as all the necessary footage had been filmed by twenty past 11. After filming I captured the footage and began putting the footage together, after assesment of the footage I decided a reshoot was in order for 3 of the shots as there was some poor framing and acting that I feel could be improved.

Tuesday 11th February 2014

Today was our planned reshoot day, we arrived at our location, the dubliners, at half nine and began filming at twenty to ten, we filmed all the shots we needed and were done just after ten o clock. We returned to college and captured the footage.

Thursday 13th february 2014

Today the edit was finished. We replaced poor shots with the re-shoot shots and tidying up clips that were on screen for too long and replacing poor audio.

Unit 31: Social Action & Community Media Production Task 1

First thoughts
In this post I will be looking at the purpose and impact of Social Action & Community Media Production. Now before any research my initial view of it is that the impact is small and virtually none-existent in driving the public view away from things like smoking. The purpose of the anti-smoking ads is a good one and it does convince some people to stop smoking. But as a whole they prove unsuccessful. I am willing to guess that maybe 1% of the population that see these ads actually pay attention to what is shown which makes them either stop smoking or never start.

Research 

Purpose

The purpose of an anti-smoking campaign is the bring about local, national or global change to people attitudes to smoking and attempt to get people to quit. They do this through advertisements persuading people to stop, teaching the dangers of smoking in school either by having teachers talk to the students about the dangers of smoking or going themselves to give big talks in assemblies. They also have websites dedicated to anti-smoking and it has even gone as far as to put what can happen to you on cigarette packs.

 

Different social action groups have different effects on communities, this is due to their proir knowledge, poplarity and purpose. Take Pancrack Tv and Greenpeace for example. Greenpeace aim to and achieve a global change. Pancrack are more local to Teesside and therefore bring about a local change. This is evident through their documentaries and how this is seen by others. For example, with this documentary is beneficial in stopping a hellbent local authority from selling off public common and seafront for a housing development.

People's attitudes have changed dramatically to smoking.

Fifty years ago, a key report was published that marked the beginning of a change in our relationship with smoking. Although there had been previous warnings linking smoking and lung cancer, it was the 1962 study by the Royal College of Physicians, Smoking and Health, that really broke through to the public and politicians. Attitudes in the intervening 50 years have changed enormously. But in 1962, very few people took the dangers posed by smoking cigarettes seriously. That view is captured perfectly by some footage from the BBC archive, a report on the Tonight programme into the RCP study. One man who says he smokes between 20 and 25 cigarettes a day is - by today's standards - amazingly fatalistic. "Quite honestly, I think that the end of ones life is probably more in the hands of almighty God you know, than in my own hands or the hands of the tobacco manufacturers." (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17264442)

 

Raising awareness

      
"Figure out your cause. What are you passionate about that you want to bring attention to?

Create your pledge. Be specific and concrete. Are you pledging to do something or to abstain from something? He

Pledge to recycle.

• Pledge to lower your carbon footprint.
• Pledge to lower your energy consumption.
• Pledge to lower your water consumption.
• Pledge not to pollute.
• Pledge not to drink.
• Pledge not to do drugs.
• Pledge to stay tobacco-free.
• Pledge not to discriminate.
• Pledge to vote.
• Pledge to care for your pet.
• Pledge to practice safe sex.

Plot your spot. Figure out where you want to have people signing your pledge. Go for a high traffic area like the lunchroom, school or parking lot entrance, or even the entrance to the gym before a big game or rally. Creating a Wall of Pledges is also a great way to display all you have collected.

Ask for the go ahead. Now that you have found your ideal spot, make sure you have permission to be there. The last thing you want is to take the time to create this only to have it torn down.

Write it out. What will the pledge say? Be specific in what they're pledging to do.

Print ‘em out. You probably won’t need a whole sheet of paper for just one pledge. Maybe you can cut one sheet into two (or even four!) smaller pledges. It will save paper! If you can, try and make them look nice with color or pictures (or even color paper). That way, they will look awesome when they are all hung up.

Tell them to get their pens out. Now’s the time to get the signatures. As you receive them, hang them up. The more pledges that go up, the more amazing it will look. People will see how many other people have pledged their involvement, and they will be inspired to sign one too! Plus, in some cases, this can serve as GOOD peer pressure. Like if it’s a no alcohol pledge, knowing how many people don’t drink is a great way to keep someone from starting.

Be realistic. Timing is important when it comes to anything, even pledges. For example, if it’s around prom or spring break, you can modify the no alcohol pledge to be a little less restrictive. Ask them to pledge to assign a designated driver, to not drink and drive. Though it would be great to get people who are underage to promise not to drink, the main concern is their safety, so if they are going to drink, then we just want to make sure that they will NOT get behind the wheel. People may be more willing to sign something like that if they know they are more likely to stick to their promise!"

This list came from a web site that gives step by step instructions for things such as stopping smoking, banning drugs, helping alcoholics and other issues that are seen in our media often. I found it interesting how much work actually went into raising awareness for smoking. I was unable to copy in the full list due to it's size so here is the link to the web page. (http://www.dosomething.org/actnow/actionguide/wall-pledges)

To campaign
Campaigning is the blood of Anti-smoking. If people didn't campaign about it then public knowledge about the dangers of smoking would be low and that may in face lead to more people starting smoking. The whole reason for any of this, the websites, the promotional ads for stopping smoking, this blog would probably not exist if people did not campaign against smoking.

Social action groups are inportant to campaigns. It is difficult for some campaigns to find one though that would work for/with them and be able to grab public attention. Using the examples I gave earlier would both be ineffective. Greenpeace are to known and would be difficult to get a hold of and hire for the campaign. Where as Pancrack aren't known enough. They are easier to hire but with them not being as big as others it would be more difficult for their work to reach an audience outside of their local area. There are surprisingly few social action groups in the UK that fall into the category of being known well enough to make an impact and being available for hire. This is one of the many reasons why some social action campaigns never make it very far and their voice on the subject is not heard.

Build relationships on the subject
People who have gone through quitting smoking or lost someone to smoking are more effected by this. Because they remember the pain of loss or the struggle of quitting they know how bad things can get with smoking and because of that will agree with what they see and would possibly join a campaign against smoking. They do this through their ads against smoking which show similar scenarios which happened to these people to establish a mutual understanding of the subject which then begins the relationship between campaign and supporters.

Providing information
The main purpose of an anti-smoking campaign is to provide information to the dangers of smoking and keep the public knowledgeable to this information. To do this they state facts on their websites which give brief summaries in the home page and then provide a link for further information. There are also numbers you can call where staff can answer any questions you have about stopping smoking, what to do if your child smokes and if you yourself are having urges to smoke but haven't yet. If you follow a certain campaign then you can subscribe to a newsletter so every week you are sent one which have different peoples experiences where they have given up smoking and give advise on how to quit the habit.

Information is highly important to target public opinion in things such as voting. Getting public to support laws about smoking is difficult. Most people have fixed opinions on smoking which they have been taught about their whole lives. If you live with a family member who smokes as a child it sends a message to you that smoking is okay and you should do it. This is why anti-smoking campaigns need to be effective and stay with you. If you can make a smoker see the damage they are actually doing to themselves through smokeing then it can have a hugh change in the campaign.

Impact

In the last 60 years there has been a noticeable different in smokers. In the 1950's it was recorded that over 50% of the population smoked, today as of June 2012 it has been recorded that just over 20% of the population in the UK smoke. This is an excellent example as to how effective the Anti-smoking campaigns are. In a poll 13% of people today say they have never smoked, 38% say they have stopped and 49% say they currently do smoke.

It is becoming a common thing in society today to see the effects of smoking. It is seen daily by those who buy cigarettes when they simply look at the packet. So with this it is getting harder to make a shocking impact to make people stop smoking. This makes the social action groups have to think up new ideas to get people to stop smoking and therefore will save their lives.

Videos
Here I will be posting videos I have found about anti-smoking and analysing them to inspire my ideas for the ad I will be making.

This is a unique take on an anti-smoking advert. It is a mockery of smoking, saying that it "Stinks." In this world when the people are smoking there is no smoking involved, instead they fart. I personally believe that this was made to make smoking more unappealing to smokers by making it into something that is not usually excepted in social environments. But however it makes smoking into a joke that younger viewers will see as funny and would not take seriously and as such would not make them think to stop smoking or start all together.

Going in the opposite direction to the other video, this is a more shocking and personal ad for stopping smoking from a woman who has been highly effected by it where it has destroyed her body and voice. With a little further research I can tell you that what has happened to her in one aspect of it all is she has had a tracheo-oesophageal puncture. "It is found in people who have had a total laryngectomy, which is a surgery where the larynx is removed. A voice prosthesis that keeps food out of the trachea but lets air into the esophagus is inserted into this puncture."At first glance it delivers a shock onto the audience and I believe the shock value is much more effective the previous video and is maybe the best way to deliver an ad in this area of health.

In this video children ask adults to light a cigarette for them and when they say no the children ask why they can't smoke when the adults can. This makes them think and when the child walks away they hand them a leaflet saying "You worry about me but not about yourself" the video then goes to show them throwing away their cigarette and keeping the leaflet. This is the type of shocking evidence needed to get people to stop smoking. It is a casual thing for an adult to smoke because they know the risks, but when a child smokes it is a completely different issue. It makes you think and if this video is real not staged then it has had an effect the adults who spoke with the children.

Final thoughts
After looking into social action and how it is seen by the public I can say that I take back. Social action campaigns do have an effect on the public. I have seen this through the 0.5% of the smoking population that has been recorded to stop smoking each year. This is evedent through the +30% that quit in the last 60 years. It has given me insight into making my own anti-smoking film and I am confident I caan make some kind of impact.

Sources

http://news.sky.com/story/1187952/anti-smoking-campaign-new-ad-targets-addicts

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/07/070719170315.htm

Unit 38: Soundtrack Production for moving image

Soundtrack is highly important to any moving image. It makes a huge difference to a scene when it is shown without one. This is due to the fact that soundtracks help to set the scene for a film, television programme, even a play and will change your whole viewing experience. There are different types of sounds seen in these productions. There are Diegetic, External diegetic, Internal diegetic and Non-diegetic sounds.

• The Diegetic sound is anything that is part of the story that you can see is being made on screen. So for example a tiger thumping its paws on the ground would be diegetic. Also people speaking would be diegetic, and even someone playing an instrument would be diegetic. In short it is anything that is part of the story.
• External Diegetic sound is a sound that comes from a physical source within the story that we assume the other characters can hear. For example there could be a generator humming that has little to do with the scene but the characters can hear it. 
• Internal Diegetic sound is a sound that comes from the mind of the character that only that one character can hear. Take the original Carrie film for example, towards the end of the film the main character "Carrie" has pig blood dumped on her as a prank. And in her rage she can only hear the dripping of said blood on the floor and hears none of the others laughter, or screams as they are killed.
• Non-Diegetic sound Sound whose source is neither visible on the screen nor has been implied to be present in the action. For example narrator's commentary, sound effects which is added for the dramatic effect and mood sound. 

Jaws

Take the film Jaws for example. We all know the soundtrack for this film, we all know the "Budum, budum," it makes and adds the tension to the scene with the shark, you could watch the first few scenes in the film where it does not show the shark but know it is near just because of this soundtrack, and you keep watching, letting your tension build until the scene arrives where you finally see that blood thirsty shark and it delivers an impact on you that wouldn't be nearly as effective without the soundtrack. Just imagine watching the film where the only sounds are that which are caught on camera, this being dialogue, waves and some background noise. Imagine just seeing the underwater shots where there is barely anything to hear. It would build little to no tension and would be pretty boring to watch.

Sounds used in Jaws are the waves and open sea sounds of the ocean. The underwater sounds of the shark swimming. Screams of its victims (Especially in the beach scene). And a lot more. This all sets the scene of the film perfectly. The open sea sounds work as a big tension builder, this is due to the fact that when you are so far out to sea where all you can hear is ocean sounds then there will be no one around to hear you scream. There is a big use of Foley sounds in this film with the shark scenes. The sound footage caught was of little to no use in the film as when editing the sound jumped. This lead to a Foley sound team to record ocean sounds. Bring in people to scream in terror to a microphone for the beach scene and record underwater sounds.

The sounds used provide a large atmosphere of fear and suspense to the viewers. The classic soundtrack of the film that almost everyone knows is the "Budum Budum" sound which was a huge tension builder as the tempo increased with it as the shark got closer and closer. This left the viewers of the edge of their seats while watching. When you think about it like this the actual shark had very little to do with creating a terrifying atmosphere with the film, as these scenes with this classic soundtrack had not even shown the shark at first and it terrifies audiences.

In this sample from the film we can see that the scene starts out nice and calm, the music is a happy melody to lure the audience into a false sense of security. But that quickly changes after they get into the water. Soon after everyone is pretty far away from the shallow water the happy melody stops and the iconic soundtrack seen above this video starts. Now just note that a scene where the movie monster attacks and kills during the day had not been seen previous to this much, if at all, so that added with the tension building soundtrack created a truly terrifying scene for the time. Finally in the last few seconds there is a high pitched sound as it zooms on the mans face showing his sudden alert to the situation. These sounds although are not noticed much at first watch provide a larger range of emotion for the viewers in this scene. They start all calm thinking that they know the shark will not attack during the day, but then the music stops which gets them thinking whats happening, then there is the single "Budum" which then get them on the edge of their seats thinking "Oh no" very surprised at the sudden change of the scene. Also note again that they had not seen a movie death in day time before this film.

Catfish
A very successful documentary where a small group of guy start off making it about a talented little girl only to discover that she doesn't exist and it is a fake persona put on by a lonely couple in another part of the country. Watching the documentary you do not notice the soundtrack much until the end. And the soundtrack changes your whole opinion of the couple who lied about who they were. When they are talking about why they did it the soundtrack adds to it by making you feel sorry for them and understand why they did it to a certain extent.

This is very cleverly done as it not only sums up what the production is about but it also plays with your emotions. If you haven't seen the documentary then by watching this you have a sympathy for this man and hope things work out for him. If you watch the whole thing then by the time you get to this scene you have a pretty good opinion of these people, but the soundtrack of the piece works with that but changes it. You will most likely have sympathy for these people. Not for this scene alone but also for others that came before this at the end of the documentary.

To summarise, in visual media the soundtrack is highly important in creating a mood. It works the viewers emotions and can make or break the finished production in terms of viewer-ship and discussion of the project. Without soundtrack there is a whole new mood and it isn't nearly as effective on the audience as it is with the soundtrack.


Sources
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20101022132839AAxll4z
Accessed on 30/10/2013

http://filmsound.org/terminology/diegetic.htm
Accessed on 30/10/2013

http://english2.mnsu.edu/sewelm/glossary/glossary_sound_internal.htm
Accessed  on 04/11/2013

Unit 23: Multi-cam production blog

27th November 2013

Today our groups were formed for the multi-cam production of "Cinderella." The first group consists of Isaak Hest, Rose Ashworth and Ryan Bartle. The second group (Our group) has Shemar Chawla, Leah Sharp, Jordan Dent and Dale Whyte (Me). The first group has fewer people due to our class being uneven with 7 students, as a result of this one member from our group will be helping them in their production by operating one of their cameras (Still to be decided). Out job roles in the group have been decided. Shemar will be our Director, Jordan our Vision mixer, Leah the Sound Recordist and I will be the Lighting Director. As the lighting director in this production I will have very little say as to what the lighting will be as it is mainly up to the acting Director Sonya. So I will have to speak with Sonya to sort out the lighting in preparation for filming. 

11th December 2013

We went to the theatre to map out the camera shots and draw out a risk assessment, recce checklist and floor plan. We now have a better idea on how we are going to film the Cinderella project.

Risk assessment
Risks that we found were, trailing wires, staircase (In the dark it is impossible to see where you are going up the stairs), small possibility of falling lights. To overcome these risks we need to, tape the wires down, have some form of light source when moving around behind the seats and going up the stairs, making sure the lights are secure.

Location recce
In the location recce we wrote for things to take, camera, risk assessment form. "Talking to people;" confirm ownership, exchange details, explain intensions, passes are required, local events. No tansport is required. "Camera and lighting;" Secure place for kit, cables. "Sound;" Electrical hazard, background music. "Things for director;" photos.

17th December 2013

Rehersal
At 2:00 today we went to the rehersal for the Cinderella production and now have a better idea on how to set up the shoot. We now know who to focus on in the scene depending on where you are on camera. As the rehersal was going on I took a few photos so we could refer back to them if needed.

 

18th December 2013

We filmed the production. There were no problems with eny equipment apart from a tripod that wouldn't allow us to remove a plate. We are now ready for the capture and editing process.

 

9th January 2013

We began the capture process with the first four tapes which were both of the right and left side cameras for acts 1 and 2. I also capture a 5th tape accidentally one of the other groups tapes which unfortunately took an extra hour out of out edit time.

 

13th January 2013

We thought we had the final four tapes and in capturing we discovered that one of the tapes was one used in a different production. This tape was damaged and was unable to record on so we were panicing a little about if we might have used that tape or not.

 

14th January 2013

We found the actual final tape and captured it. This allowed us to set up the multi-cam edit and in a few hours it was complete. We would have captured but we had to leave for the day and didn't have the time.

 

15th January 2013

Now that it was all exported we were ready to burn it. I burned two copies one for he acting students tutor and one for ours. Now we are ready for the hand in.

 

Here is our title background picture;

 

3 minute wonder production blog

November 1st 2013
The idea
My idea for my 3 minute wonder is to address Asperger syndrome, or "Asperger's." It will be a simple shoot of having someone with Asperger's say what it is like to have it, have an expert give a brief description on what it is, and have someone who has lived with someone who suffers from Asperger syndrome. It will require a lot of editing to cut it down to 3 minutes, but as long as all the interview subject give workable answers then it should be fine. The target audience are those who discover that someone they know (Family, friends) has Asperger's or they have it themselves and just to help them know what that means for whoever has it.

November 10th 2013
A small change
It has been made clear to me that I cannot use the expert in Asperger's and the person who has lived with someone with it as they will likely give too long answers and will not be able to use them at all. What I need to remember is that it is only 3 minutes and I cannot fit 3 interviews into that short a time. The interview with the person who has it will be more than enough.

November 11th 2013
Preparation
Filming will need to take place soon and I still need to make my proposal and pitch for the documentary. The proposal is close to completion and hopefully will be finished by tomorrow.

November 12th 2013
Ready to film
With the pitch/proposal now complete and knowing what I want to do for the documentary I feel that I can now go out and film. For the interview subject I will be giving a statement myself on my views on having Asperer syndrome. This does make it easier for me to film my 3 minute wonder as I know what I am looking for and can answer the main question. I won't be preparing any answers before I film the interview and will improvise an answer when it comes to filming.

November 21st 2013
Getting the equipment
To be perfectly honest, I was procrastinating getting the equipment and filming the documentary. But an opportunity arrised that has allowed me to finally film it. We went out to film another documentary about Paul Burgam, I was trusted with the equipment to take home so I can now film my 3 minute wonder. I will have that finished tomorrow.

November 22nd 2013
Finally filming
The previous night me and 3 others from my class filmed a section for another documentary as a group project separate from the 3 minute wonder. After that was filmed I was trusted with the equipment to take home until Monday. I took the opportunity of having the equipment to film my 3 minute wonder and also made a little short film (Just because I could). In filming the 3 minute wonder I had my the camera set up on the tripod and the clip mic attached to my shirt and answered common questions asked about having Asperger syndrome. This included "What triggers your abnormal behaviour?" "How friends/ family treated you any different since finding out about your Asperger's?" Etc. It took a few takes, I never realised how much I could talk to answer just one question. And after I was happy with what was filmed I watched it back a few seconds. As it turned out I forgot to turn on the microphone. I already had 9 minutes of footage (Which was now worthless) so I thought to myself to either re-record the interview with the microphone on this time, or add some non-diegetic dialogue in to try to sync up what I was saying. I came to the conclusion of just filming again as it was the easier choice. When the interview was finally over I was leaving the house with my equipment to get some cutaways of Redcar. I had planned to get a long panning shot from New Marske woods, shots of a moving train (Internal and external) A shot from the top of the beacon and the rest of the cutaways were filmed inside the house. When getting the external shot of the train I was surprised to see the station was filled with police men. I thought that with the amount of dogs and them looking through the bushes that they were searching for a large stash of drugs or something else illegal. As it turned out the royal train was pulling into Redcar and they were looking for anything that might cause harm to the royals. After getting 5-15 seconds of footage of the train one of the policemen came to me and asked me to leave. I explained what I was doing and he let me off but asked to not film any more on the platform. I knew something like this would happen so that was why I was stood in an area far away enough from them that it took them some time to get to me, and I could still get a good shot of the train. That night I was happy with what I got and received a message from another member of my class Isaak Hest. He needed the equipment so he could film the next day and asked if I could meet him tomorrow to give him it. I agreed and also took the opportunity of having the equipment that one night to make my short horror film.

November 25th 2013
Capturing
Came in ready to capture the footage. The 3 minute wonder footage was fine. The short horror was fine. The longer group documentary tape however was corrupted and all footage was lost. 2 out of 3 ain't bad, but it is still very annoying.

December 10th 2013

Beginning the edit
Admittedly it did take me a while to get around to the edit but that was only due to other assignments deadlines approaching. I knew the first 9 minutes of footage were useless due to the lack of sound, the rest was completely usable. It took a total of around 1 hour and a half to get it cut down and edited to completion of the offline edit. All that was needed then was to add in the cutaways and soundtrack. Unfortunately the day was at an end so I would have to come back the next day to finish it off.

December 16th 2013

Almost finished edit
I know I said I'd do it on the 11th but again other work took priority. Either way by the end of thew day I had the whole thing almost completed. All the cut aways and the voice over were shot and added to the video. All that was required was the soundtrack, which is my weakest point. It may take a while.

January 6th 2014

Finally finished
It took a while but after failing at creating my own soundtrack I decided to hunt for some royalty free music and after several searches and attempts at finding the perfect music I found one that worked very well with what was being said at what time. Here is the link; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pSAzEN07Xk. I now feel confident burning it onto a disk.

January 9th 2014

Burned
The video is now burned and handed in.

Motion graphics Production blog

OCT 1st 2013
Initial idea: A crowd of people outside watching a large screen showing clips from different events and music videos from the 1970's. The shot zooms through the crowd to get a better view of the screen which shows more clips from that era. Finally the title of the programme shows on the screen. (No title so far)

Storyboard for 1st title sequence idea.

In this storyboard we can see that it will begin with a moving shot of an animated crowd watching a large screen as a type of concert. The screen features many different clips from the 70's showing things such as news stories, big TV/ film events, 70's music videos and bands, along with anything else that would concern that era. It will move through the crowd of people, going to the right until it is in the centre of the crowd facing the screen head on. It will finally zoom though the crowd and onto the screen alone so it is all that is in shot. The screen will then show the title of the programme "Hits of the 70's (Working title) and from there it will fade out and onto the presenter or presenters depending on how the script turns out.

70's font styles

As this will be centred around the 1970's it will have to feature as much content from the 70's as possible. This could be something as simple as font styles that were highly used and known throughout the era. Here are some examples;

From these images we can see that there is a large variety of different font styles that we do not use much today if at all. Any of these wold be service to use as a title and possible logo in the background.

13th Nov 2013

As for the actual presenting of the programme the room will be green screened as a 1970's style room as used by TV presenters in the 70's. The presented him or herself I am planning on being on being dressed in a 1970's style and open with something like "Hello and welcome to "Events of the era" (Working title) Today we will be looking at the 1970's which explains why I am dressed like this and why the room does also." In the 2-4 minutes of presenting various facts about the 70's will be either mentioned or shown in clips. This could be things like the death of Elvis. The birth of Disco. The premier of the show M*A*S*H*. Or any other event that was known in the 1970's. It will then end with either a highly known and popular music video from the 1970's (possibly "God save the queen" by the sex pistols as it is the number one on the 1970's music charts), or a montage of different clips from the 70's much like at the start when it is coming into the programme.

First draft for the presenters script.

19th Nov 2013

Mapping out all ideas for the production.



 Presenters look: The person who will be presenting this programme will be wearing 1 of 2 possible outfits. My first though is that he or she wear a 1970's style of clothing much like as seen in the pictures below;

This is to help them fit into the category of the 1970's and to possibly provide a little humour to the audience. Failing to obtain clothing like this then they will be wearing a more modern and simple style. This will most likely include a plain shirt, jeans or smart trousers, and sensible shoes, by this I mean no trainers.

1970's montage

In the title sequence and playing in the background there will be a montage of the 1970's. In this montage there will be randomised footage from music videos, news footage, old shows/Films and other content from the 70's. Music video clips that will be seen will be from popular artists who lived or died in the 70's such as Elvis or Michael Jackson. News related can show the 1972 Olympics terrorist attack along with the news article of Elvis passing.

20th November 2013

Set design sketch

As the deadline date is getting closer and closer I have began to think about what the set of the programme will look like. The presenter(s) will be stood in front of the middle wall where 2 other walls will be on either side, both with TV screen on showing footage of the topic which the presenter(s) is currently addressing. There will be a large flower on the ground to have a brief representation of the 70's. The walls will all be covered in a 1970's style wallpaper with "Events of an era the 1970's" written multiple times on it.

Working on the backdrop I have found the issue of setting the triple walls so they look accurate, and have yet to start on the floor. I have the design for the walls finished and only have to add all 3 into the same image. I looked up on Google how to set it out and came across this image that is a great example of what I am trying to do.

21st November 2013

Coming to improve my script and draw out my storyboard for filming I had the idea of working with the 2 minute time limit as a way on making my production longer. This consists of the intro having the presenter saying "Now I only have 2 minutes" and soon after when he or she is listing off the facts a 2 minute timer is counting down in the corner. There will also be someone off camera with a timer waiting to press the button so it is more accurate. Then I will include an outro which when but together with the intro makes it roughly 20-30 seconds longer which will give me a full 2 minutes of the information with a little bit of speaking with the audience added on.

Storyboard

Script second draft

With my new idea of being able to lengthen the production I had to rewrite the script to accommodate that. To do this I added more to the intro and outro, in the informative section when facts about the 70's is being listed then I have shortened some of the longer subjects to ensure that I won't go over the 2 minute limit for that section. As a result the script is not much different but it is an improvement.



2nd December 2013

My presenting actor is now decided as Rosa Graham. She is a first year acting student at Stockton Riverside and is more then egar to help out with this production. She will be supplying the 70's costume as she has assured me that she has 70's style clothes at home, so it saves me some money on purchasing some for her. She has received the script and will know it for the planned filming this Friday on the 6th.

(Rosa Graham)

6th December 2013

Today I filmed my presentation for the motion graphics and overall it went well. I was delayed with the fact that the room was opened 1 hour and a half later than first promised. It took 30-50 minutes to set up, film and clean away the equipment. Set up took about 10 minutes, clean up about 5 and the remainder was filming. It took so long due to my actress constantly making the same mistake of saying "1997" instead of "1977" but it wasn't too much of a problem. Footage captured was 11 minutes 21 seconds long, after the first few takes we decided to turn the camera off and run through it until we got it right. Rosa did really well and never complained on my points for improvement, and we ended up breaking into laughter whenever she said "1997" so it was a lot of fun to film. It was a bit more of a challenge to film the whole thing than I first thought. Another member of the class, Shemar Chawla, was supposed to meet me there at 10 to help film. We finished around 11-11:30 and he never came. This led me to operate the camera, set up the lights, run the teleprompter, direct Rosa, and I'm sure I'm forgetting something. This did provide me with more experience in all of these areas but I am concerned about the footage as I had to stay at the computer to run the Teleprompter and as a result could not see what the camera was capturing.

11th December 2013

Edit almost finished, just requiring to finish the set, balance out the screens, and add in a little soundtrack. While I was importing Rosa from the green scree onto the backdrop I accidental used the "Glass" tool in after effects and ended up spending the next half hour trying to work out what I did until I got help from an after effects expert in my class Jordan Dent. 

17th December 2013

Edit is now complete all I need is to burn it onto disk.

7th January 2014

Back in collge and able to burn onto disk. Checked through the finished project again to look for any problems I hadn't noticed and found several jump cuts that were seen in the monitors on the wall. Now that is fixed I am fully confident I can burn it onto my disk.


Now is burned and handed in.