Construction Post 9: My technical learning curve (production and post-production)

Production
I learnt a lot during the production and post-production stages of the Life of Guy that I didn't since my GCSE project.

Strengths:

• Handling filming equipment: I 've learnt that you can use a bubble tripod leveler for aligned shooting.
• Operating the camera - I feel I can shoot comfortably and navigate the camera with no problems now. I am more skilled at framing shots that are tighter and more cinematic than before.
• Planning the production stages was very helpful and efficient and kept us all organised an ready.

Weaknesses

• I feel like I need to improve on shooting master shots and just shooting in general so that I don't break continuity rules and I can make the visuals engaging so that the audience can follow easily. An example of bad shooting is the shot of Mario opening his curtains. This resulted in too much light entering the camera and Guy becoming a silhouette.
• I feel like the bedroom shots could have been better lit as the shots are grainy but this may just be the fact that the camera's picture quality is low in environments with low-key lighting

Post-production
I also learnt quite a lot from editing.

Strengths

• Trimming down shots to follow continuity rules - I can achieve a perfect match and create a smooth pace of action
• Colour grading using the Three Way Colour Corrector - I can change the hues of shots to make them look livelier and also achieve matches
• Adjusting volume levels - I am confident with this
• Exporting videos (that was new to me)

Weaknesses

• Apart from maybe learning how to grade more nothing really.

Construction Post 8: My personal contribution to the edit sessions

Editing was intensive and everyone was involved though Thakshana and I really had to be editing everyday of the second week as Mario was not available to help.

Personal contributions

• I chose the font we used which was Kristen ITC, this was important as it affected the whole look and feel of the opening sequence. It used to be a drab standard font which did not stand out and added nothing to the sequence.

• I helped to place the titles in the best places as on some shots there was limited space in the frame; we also had to space the titles out equally so that long periods of time without titles didn't exist as that was unconventional. I also helped Thakshana choose the transitions of the titles so they did not affect the pace of the opening awkwardly.

• I edited a lot of the sound levels making sure the music didn't overpower the voice-over and the dialogue was loud enough. This was crucial as on the day of the shoot sessions, the weather was always windy, affecting our outdoor scenes. When Bella and Mario are talking the background noise is especially prominent - this was very noticeable pre-edited as the opening cut from nice music to a loud whoooshh of wind constantly blowing. I couldn't cut this out by unlinking the audio from the clip as there was dialogue in the same shot so I used the pen tool to change the volume level rubber band from a low level to a high enough level that you could hear the actors' dialogue. This ensured that the background noise gradually faded in.

• Grading was new to me which meant I need help with it. There was one scene where the hue changed significantly from the shot to the next which was a continuity error as we shot both on different days thus the lighting ended up being different. 

Here is the video I watched to help me with the colour grading using the Three Way Colour Corrector.

After watching this I managed to solve the issue and now the colour change is barely noticeable.

Construction Post 7: My personal contribution to the shoot sessions

 My personal contributions to the shoot sessions included:

1. Helping to bring filming kit to Mario's house and back to the school. 
We took it in turns to bring kit to Mario's house from school and from Mario's back to school. Whenever I got a lift I would take the it as it wasn't a problem for me.

2. Being behind the camera
I did shoot quite a few scenes (shown below) in which I needed to decide how things would best be framed. I focused on changing shots up from the usual mid shots to close-ups and high angles to make the visuals more engaging.

3. Helping Thakshana frame some shots
Thakshana did shoot quite a lot of shots and I helped with keeping the shots and us organised using the clapperboard and shoot-board for every shot. I also helped her to frame shots and told her if we needed to zoom up closer or if shooting from a different angle would be better. This was important especially in Mario's bedroom as room for the tripod was limited and quite a few scenes took place between his bedroom and bathroom so we had to switch up the shot frames and angles to keep things looking different and fresh

4. Directing Mario to portray Guy's personality better
Sometimes the scenes we planned would turn out to look unexpected when acted and portrayed on camera. It wouldn't look like what I had first pictured that scene to look in my mind. So I did direct Mario for instance in the screenshot of me below I remember I had told Mario to come out of the bathroom in a happy-go-lucky way which resulted in him trying to shake his wet hair and even skipping back to his bedroom to show some character. When he just walked normally back to his room I felt like it became a filler shot. We then watched it back on the camera.

5. Reviewing every shot after we took them

This is a shot I filmed.

This is also a shot I filmed.

Me behind the camera trying to frame a shot.

Construction Post 6: Reflections on edit week 2

Me at the edit suite.

Above is our edit schedule for week 2. The reason why Mario's name is not on there is because he was on an AS Geography coursework trip so he made up for it by editing really hard in week 1 and on the Monday of week 2.

During the rest of week 2 me and Thakshana edited according to our schedule. We used various tools but mainly the the razor tool, the pen tool, ProCamp and the Three-way colour corrector.

What needed to be done and was completed

• We added in all the new shots from the back up shoot
• We rewrote the voiceover with Chris's (our media technician's) help and Mario rerecorded it on Monday after which me and Thakshana edited it in.
• We had to grade a few shots using the Three Way Colour Corrector
• We added transitions to the titles to make the opening more visually exciting
• We also perfected the sound, music and voiceover volume levels

Here is the final result.

Construction Post 5: The Back-up Shoot

The back-up shoot went very well. We did not need to shoot our whole opening, only a few select scenes such as the boxers scene, gaming scene and Bella scene. We decided to change Mario's previous Calvin Klein underwear to normal boxers as Calvins were too cool for Guy. We also added the Xbox scene to show Guy's love of gaming during which he receives a text from Bella and rushes off to meet her. Finally we filmed a few establishing shots and master shots when Guy runs up and meets his date Bella.
Here is some footage and bloopers from the back-up shoot.

What went well:

• The weather was sunny which cast a nice warm glow to our shots.
• We only needed to shoot a few shots so did not need to rush thus the session was relaxed and fun.
• We filmed all our new and improved shots successfully.

What didn't go well:

• Although the weather was sunny, it was still quite windy so there was still some background noise in the outdoor scenes where Guy meets Bella.

Construction Post 4: Reflections on our Edit Week 1

Edit week one went smoothly. Our team edited efficiently, harmoniously and intensively by sticking to the edit schedule we made.

We edited during our lessons which would range from either be 40 mins or 1 hour 20 mins in length. However this was not sufficient so we all decided to edit during our free periods, at lunch and after school if we were free. Most of the time we would edit together so that important decisions were agreed on by everyone in the group. We all tried our hands at everything such as the audio editing, the video editing and also titling. This ensured that we would all be prepared for edit week 2.

Me doing the titling.

What we changed and improved on

• The new shots we added portrayed our narrative much better.
• The continuity and pace of our opening has improved as we have tightened long shots up.
• We added our new music track called 'Life of Riley' from Incompetech, a royalty free music website.
• We added new SFX such as the alarm clock sound and text message sound.
• Our fellow classmates have watched our edited cut and we have received positive feedback from them

What still needs to be altered

• We decided to have a back-up shoot as we need to re-film Guy putting on his shorts. He previously wore Calvin Klein boxers which you can see on screen; they are too cool for Guy. We wanted to replace them with superhero boxers but we would have to order them online and did not have enough time. So we will dress Guy is a brightly coloured plain version.
• We need to re-film our outdoor scenes as our previous shots had a lot of background noise from the windy weather. The forecast for this weekend is sunnier so we hope the conditions are advantageous.
• We have to rewrite and re-record our voiceover as our current one does not sound good and doesn't fit right with the events in the opening. There are also a few awkward silences.

Construction Post 3: Reflections on our Main Shoot Session

Our priorities for this shoot are to shoot efficiently like we had done during our tests shoot (using a shootboard) and shooting our new shots till we're satisfied with them.
Here are some rushes and bloopers of the shoot.

What went well:

1. We knew exactly what we were going to shoot and shot many shots from various angles so that when it came to editing we had a range to choose from.
2. Our teamwork was great as always and we had many laughs trying to shoot and direct Mario's actions to make Guy's personality shine through as much as possible.
3. We dressed up the set better by putting up more posters and laying all his games out rather than placing them somewhere obscure.

What was bad:

1. It wasn't sunny which affected the mood of our scenes and worse it was windy and rainy so our sound got affected and shooting in the cold meant we focused less on the quality of our shots.
2. There was a period of time when people kept walking through our film set so we had to wait a while before we could resume shooting. That wasted some time but it was not a major problem.

Overall, I think we progressed but we need a back up shoot because I'm not fully satisfied with what we achieved for our main shoot.

This is a list detailing the improvements we came up with for our back-up shoot.

Construction Post 2: Our Post production kit

Our post production kit included:

1. Adobe Audition CS5.5 : to record Guy's voiceover
2. Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5: to edit the film opening sequence
3. Microphone - Blue Yeti USB microphone: to record Guy's voiceover

We also used a computer with 2 screens which allowed us to edit efficiently on one screen while watching the sequence on the other to check our progress. Adobe Audition is a program which allows the user to record sound and then export it in a format usable in Adobe Premiere for example .MP3.

Construction Post 1: Our production Kit

Our production kit included:

1. A camera: Canon Legria HF G30 Camcorder
2. A tripod: which is multi-functional in that we can change it onto three levels of height to suit our choice of angle we want to shoot at.
3. A clapper-board: to record our shots and their details
4. Clip-board and shootboard: so we can adhere to our timetable and be organised
5. Microphone: a furry shotgun microphone
6. Headphones: to listen to our sound after each shot
7. Two camera batteries and a charger: to ensure we finish filming in any case
8. A whiteboard marker and cloth: to edit the information on the clapperboard

Our production kit was very easy to use and easily brought to our filming location (Mario's house) as most of the kit was packed into a lightweight but sturdy backpack and the tripod into a zip bag. 

R+P Post 20: Reflections so far/looking ahead

Reflections so far
I think we have made a lot of progress so far as a group. Everyone turned up to the test shoot on time and ready to film/act. The test shoot was very enjoyable and fairly easy to shoot. We finished earlier than we had expected which was a pleasant surprise. Mario tried hard with his acting and Thakshana with the filming. I helped with the framing and directing. Editing the rough cut was also a team effort and really helped to show us how much we still need to improve on and what we need to change for our main shoot. Overall I feel we created a strong basis for our main shoot especially as it was our first time filming the Life of Guy.

Looking ahead
We definitely need to make improvements on our film opening sequence. The crucial ones are as follows.

• We need to dress our set more as one poster and games that were hidden under the Tv were too subtle to show Mario's inner gamer geek. We really need to emphasise Guy's character and this includes making his bedroom all tidy and clean.
• We also need to improve the timing and framing of our shots so that the events flow smoothly and no continuity rules are broken.
• We also need to make a more exciting and unique voice over script that doesn't just repeat and confirm the visual action that is already going on.

Despite all these targets I'm sure we can all work towards our goals to make The Life of Guy come to life with no trouble.