Storyboard-
Durham County Re-make Evaluation
Working and organising film crew and directing cast (even if you didn’t do too much of this you will have still learnt from watching or being on the receiving end of the process)
When producing a film or a short piece of film involves a lot of work in order to make it successful. From this task I have learnt a lot about organising and the effects from organising. A lot of time and effort had to be put into organising and preparing for the filming process to ensure that when it came to filming that the process will hopefully run smoothly. When organising I had to look at factors such as location of the filming (in which I spent some of my free time going out and around my home area and school grounds looking for locations that looked most like the scenes from the original opening) and timings (the best suitable dates and times that the actors would be available on). I had to make sure that these fit around the actors as well as me as of the deadline/time limit we had to film and edit the title sequence. Directing the cast was both fun and difficult at times as it requires having a lot of patience as some directions may not be clear to the actor/actors or simply they cannot perform certain directions because of different reasons. In the opening titles we re-made no speaking parts were required which meant I could focus on the actual movements of the acting and the image of the frame. However I do feel that using a voice over does tend to be very effective and I may consider this for the future if I were to reproduce my own title sequence.
Organising costumes, getting changed, prop availability and being in the public eye in costume.
For the title sequence I re-made the costumes and props were a crucial factor as they were used to portray emotions, feelings and atmospheres especially as no verbal speaking parts were present at all throughout the sequence. I first when I watched the original opening sequence that it would be easy to find props and costumes to closely match those in the sequence but when it came to actually finding them it was really difficult. Reason being was one of the actors required a special Manga art mask. Because of the time restricted for the opening sequence it would have been difficult and very time consuming to try and find a Manga art mask that matched the original. Luckily a friend of a friend does Manga art and was able to draw out the face on the mask for me. This saved me a lot of time. I had to find a red jumper which was slightly hard to find as I needed to have a plain red jumper or fleece with a hood. When considering the costumes, props and getting changed I realised that it not only would affect the actors but also the public. The locations I chose to film were quiet but still passersby were interested in what was happening and were often distracting. Getting changed was not a problem as both actors could simply wear their normal clothes but the actor wearing the mask and wig had to put these on.
Putting camera skills into practice and knowing what camera angles you needed to include and when and being clear about what you trying to achieve.
Before actual filming I made a story board (using print screens from the original title sequence) with the timings of each scene and the type of camera angles and shots to use. This helped me a lot when it came to filming as I was able to revise the shots and prepare for each scene. However, I needed to have the knowledge of using different movements and compositions for each shot. When filming every shot and angle I took a few takes until I got the most effective. This was also so that when it came to the editing process that I was able to look and find the best shot to use. From the shots used I wanted to create a thrilling effect that is similar to the original.
Realising the importance of making a shot list and storyboard
Also before actual filming I produced both a shot list and a storyboard (with small sketches of each scene). Underneath each scene on the story board I wrote up small pointers of the shots, angles, props, settings and actors required. This helped me to understand and become more aware of what will be needed for every scene.
Appreciating the importance of time management – everything took longer than you thought. Understanding the importance of planning
Time management is an important factor when filming and planning the process. I learnt this because when filming I realised that I had to make sure that I had a rough guideline on approximately the timings of each scene and having enough to thoroughly edit the title sequence at the end of the filming. Planning time management was useful also as it helped me make sure that I film every part within a certain time with extra time if needed but also having plenty of time to edit the sequence without being rushed.
The importance of acting skills to carry a convincing project and being professional
In the sequence I remade the acting performed was incredibly important and had to be professional and convincing- because of there were no speaking parts in it. The actors had to make sure that they were following and understanding what they were being told to do so that it would be effective and thrilling even though there was no sound other than the soundtrack.
Every actor had to make sure that they were feeling okay and comfortable with what directions they were given so that they would be happy and not feeling obliged to do something that they would not be comfortable with. However as no speaking parts were required it meant that it was easier for the actors to just follow the directions of what I was given them rather than them having to do that and follow a script. They did have to work and focus on their facial expressions though.
The value of patience and working with reliable people
During the filming process I found that having patience was an important key when filming as I had to consider both the public being distracting and the actors not fully understanding their directions. Also working/using reliable actors was important as I had to make sure that the actors I used were going to be helpful and available throughout the process and not rejecting film dates and not turning up to them. Also when filming sometimes the shots angles were hard to perform or it was difficult to perform them for various reasons so I spent time on repeating shots/movements because of this.
Using sensitivity when selecting the locations to get the best out of your actors. Being aware of weather conditions and the personal comfort/discomfort of your actors/crew.
When filming I had in advance check the weather conditions and make sure that it was going to be appropriate and suitable for the filming. For example in all of the outdoor scenes the weather is dull and gloomy. Because of the time of year in which this was filmed it was easier to forecast whether it would be sunny or dull and cloudy. However I did have to consider being out and about and it raining, fortunately it didn’t rain which meant the equipment was not at risk of being damaged or the filming process to be stopped.
Not only did I need to consider the weather for filming purposes for the scenes I also had to make sure that the actors and film crew were comfortable with weather conditions i.e. temperature, and personal discomforts and being in the public view or surroundings. I did not happen to come across any of these factors but I did still need to make sure that the film crew and cast were happy, comfortable and safe. On the lines of safety I did have to make sure that there were no hazards or risks that could potentially affect any crew members.
Main description of project:
For this project I had to re-make a chosen film opening. From this I would achieve a better understanding on the factors I need to consider when filming. From this experience I realised that even short pieces of film making can be hard and very time consuming. However I did enjoy the experience and I cannot wait to do more filming work in the future.
The opening sequence I chose was from a Canadian thriller series called ‘Durham County’. This sequence contained a mixture of a lot of settings, actors, props that I would need to use which would be interesting to make the re-make.
Because of the lack of film equipment available in the school as of other classes needing to use the equipment I was unable to take the equipment outside of school to film, which meant I had to use my own camera that did not have the same definitions as the school camera, also I found when it came to editing the film that the sizes of the frames differed which affected the video but luckily it wasn’t noticeable.
1) The opening of the title sequence starts off with a slow zoom into a dark and shadowy tree. I spent time looking for trees that closely matched those found in the original scene. When I found the best tree, I began to film from eye-level view using a ‘long shot’ to ‘medium shot’ by using the ‘zoom’ function to slowly zoom into the trees which is the same in the original.
2) For the second scene I spent also spent time on the location for the setting of the scene. I found a grassy bank and a tree/shrub that looked similar to the setting in the frame in the original sequence. I used a ‘medium long shot’ to film the actor as I needed to be able to get a full view of the character and surroundings but at the same time being close enough to see the movements being made. I also had to consider the idea of the actor to look thrilling so I shot the movements from a slight ‘low angle shot’. Similarly to the original the actor wore very close matching costume to the original actor in the sequence. This helped me to achieve the scene to be very convincing and create a chilling atmosphere.
3) The third scene setting was a view of an industrial/river landscape. There was not acting or props involved for this shot, all I needed was simply having the right camera angles and suitable weather that matched the scene. The weather setting for this scene was grey and gloomy. On the day I was originally going to film this the camera I used the ‘zoom’ function would not work, and the weather was perfect but I was not able to film to the best standard so I had to wait until I could get another camera. When I did get another camera the weather wasn’t as perfect as it had been, so I shot the scene anyway and just had to try and change to the colour of the scene when it came to editing. For this shot I used a tripod and shot it from eye level using a ‘extreme long shot’ with a slight zoom in order to get the best view of the factory present. This came into framing. The top part of the frame contained the sky the middle part containing the industrial section/factory and the bottom containing the river.
4) The next three scenes are interesting as it starts off with the male actor being shown, then quickly changes to a different scene of a basket surrounded with blood splats back to the male actor again in a similar frame shot to the starting shot of the male actor. This is known as a ‘cutaway’ as each scene has been cut and separated to be placed in different parts of the sequence. It is a good effect as it breaks up the revealing of the male actor.
5) For the first shot of the male actor, I used a ‘tilt’ movement whilst the camera was stationary this was so that I could reveal the male actor a little bit at a time. It was difficult to set the scene for this as I tried my hardest to work out the best lightning situations. Especially as in the original they have used a silhouette effect where the natural lightning is shining through a window. As I couldn’t get the best lighting I had to go with what I could do with and later on edit the ‘brightness and contrast’ levels to match the original. Although this was hard trying the find the setting, I did have a good idea of using the blind divider to create the same idea and effect that is used in the original. For the male section in this particular scene the actor turns his head to the side, I had to make sure that the actor turned his head at a certain pace in order to meet the same pace as the original. In the basket section instead of filming the basket I took a still frame image of the basket and used that. This was because there was no movement or sound used for this scene and as well as the idea of it being easier to edit and add effects. Similarly to the issue in the third scene with the camera issue I wasn’t able to make the picture as convincing as of the dimensions of the frame. Unlike the original sequence for this the only colour showing was red as the idea of the black and white theme with only the colour red showing, I was not able to comply that with my sequence as for example with this scene the original use black and white with the blood being red, but I was not able to do this because I was not sure how to keep a two toned colour set. In the future if I have more time when editing I would learn how to do this and use it again as I think its effective.
6) This scene was simply as it only required a lock of hair and a block of wood or a wooden door that a nail could be simply placed into it. The block of wood had to be old and worn and this was hard to find, however the actual shot looked fine as the shot was steady and fit the frame perfectly.
7) For this scene in the original looked a lot like a police interview room, because of the design of our school I found that I would be able to make it look similar as of the music room having a similar layout look because of the window frames. But unfortunately the music room was out of bounds and I was unable to use that desired room so I had to use a corridor that had a similar look but was not as ideal because of disruptions and space layout. It was very hard and time consuming trying to set the layout and table for the actor to use. Even though this was a small issue it soon was resolved and the shot was still successful. Communication was a big factor for this scene as we were using two rooms and was difficult to keep translating the actions through the window without hearing one and other. For this shot I used a ‘medium long shot’ and a ‘close up’ shot as I had to make sure that I got the facial and body expressions and actions.
8) Once the props were prepared for this figurine scene, I had to closely compare the positions of the figures to match the original. This shot was a simple ‘pan’ across the figures this was to show each figure and the positioning so that the viewers would be able to see what they were. When filming and preparing the figures I did have to focus on the lighting and the length of the scene. Also the problem with this was also using the two toned colour effect which I was not able to perform.
9) The housing scene was simple as I simply used my own camera again to take a picture of my neighbourhood from a ‘high long shot’ and then edited this by making it black and white to match the original sequence.
10) For the river scene with the roses I realised after that time and preparation should have been done before this particular scene. Reason being was because I was not aware of the timing of the tied coming in and how strong the current was (meaning the water was rushing very fast) so unlike the original were the water was calm I had to make sure that I done the shot perfect the first time as I only had one chance. I did come across a few problems when filming; one was trying to position the camera in the right angle. When editing the shot I was able to reduce the speed of the roses so that you could see more of what they were. Also if I were to re-do this I would tie the roses to string so that I could easily pull the roses back in and re try the shot rather than wasting the roses and just having to use the first shot as the first and only shot I got was poor.
11) I enjoyed filming the dancing scene as I was using the lights which I was able to make the illusion that they were the car headlights. For this shot I used a ‘medium long shot’ as I had to capture two actors dancing. I did find it difficult to match the original with the movements and positioning of the dancing in the way that it wasn’t covering the car headlight idea. When I edited this scene I increased the brightness and the contrast to increase the appearance of the car headlights and to make the actors look scarier. Pace had to be closely monitored as it had to fit in with the music and the paces on the actual sequence.
12) This scene uses a ‘jump cut’ which means that part of the film or a section of the film is cut out so that it jumps rapidly, not including the cut out piece. A male actor had to run at the same pace and actions as the original. Although it was difficult to determine the pace of the actor from the original but using the timings and short run helped. I found it hard to find a similar location for this shot so I had to just use a simple location that had similar features present such as the tree made it work fine. Once I had cut the scene and got the shots I wanted to use, I was able to add in the appropriate timings and reduce and or increase the speed of the scene.
13) This scene involved an ‘extreme close up’ of the actor waking up. This was so that the emphasis and focus would be on the actors’ facial expressions. This clip only lasts a second or so as it’s rapidly cut from the previous scene as if it was like a flashback.
14) The last scene needed more focus on the editing rather than the actual filming. Reason being was because the actor only had to walk towards the camera then away from the camera. Whereas the editing I had to fade the ending white, speed up and cut out parts of his walking so it looked like time had passed a few minutes and the title at the ending containing a special style. I filmed on the school field as it best suited the original setting in the sequence. Using the framing technique I made sure that the top part of the frame included the sky, the middle and bottom contain the actor and plenty of the landscape and the grass. Importantly the actor did have to focus on the body language and pace that they walked (even though parts were cut), and facial expression. As I did not have an equipment to show where the actor had to walk off the screen it was difficult for him to know the exact point where to exit from. When editing I had to change the brightness and contrast and make it look black and white. Similarly to the title in the original sequence I too created a title by using a simple text and using a triangle shape for the letter ‘A’ this was then the only colour used which was red whilst the rest of the title was black. This resembled the colour scheme throughout the sequence.
Editing
What I have learnt from the Editing process:
From this project I have increased my knowledge and understanding on the rough idea of film making as I only created a title sequence but this still required me to learning lots about camera angles/shots and rules etc.
Setting up a project
Once we had finished filming we had to capture all the video clips taken on a software known as ‘Adobe Premiere Pro CS3’ which is a real-time, timeline based video editing software application. It is a part of the Adobe Creative Suite, a suit of graphic design, video editing, and web development. This is the program I used to edit and complete my re-made version of ‘Durham County’. But in order to capture the video clips on the program I must create a new folder on the desktop and then on the actual program select ‘New Project’.
Once the box opens up you are given the choice of ‘Available Presets’, I clicked on Widescreen 48kHz because of the camera type (1080i). This camera type also required a ‘wide screen aspect ratio’ of 16:9/ which is a frame size of 1920x1080 pixels. In the same section I had to make sure that when creating the new project that I do not overwrite on another person’s project so I selected ‘Browse’ on the opposite side to the location label and I selected the location in which I want my files to be stored. Before I clicked ‘Ok’ I named the project so that I could easily remember what the name of the project is for the next time I work on it.
I could also ‘custom my own settings’ by simply clicking on ‘Custom Settings’ which is found next the ‘Load Preset’. On these settings I could be more specific with settings for my project. The settings included Time base, Frame size (horizontal and vertical), Pixel Aspect Ratio, Fields, Display Format. These changes alter the general, video and audio settings. When the settings were right for me, I clicked ‘OK’ and was able to start to capture the video clips.
When you capture the clips it is pretty simple you have to just click the ‘red button’ which plays the clips and you capture then save each clip that you want. Every time you save a clip you can name them, this makes it easier when importing the footage from your files.
Importing and exporting footage
Importing files- To import a piece of footage or a file onto my project I clicked on ‘File’ and selected ‘Import’. From here I searched for the folder where I stored all the clips from when I captured them and select each file that I want to use and click import. These must be linked to your project if the files ever change folders.
When all my files were imported on the left of the program there was a grey box that contained all the video, audio and picture files. From each of the files found in this box to put them into the timeline to edit I simply just had to drag them into the timeline being careful not to move them over clips that are already present on it otherwise it will cut off parts of the previous clips.
Exporting the completed project- Once I had completed the editing of the opening sequence I had to ‘export’ the footage which would then change the project into a ‘Movie’ format which can be played on programs such as ‘Real time Player’. Exporting is easy and can be quick to do. To do this I had to click on ‘file’ then to ‘Export’ then ‘Movie’. Once I had clicked on that I was given the option to rename and save my movie into a specific folder. After I clicked ‘save’ the file/project will go through a Rendering process which is where the file is compressed into smaller file sizes. I had to make sure that I chose the right format from the drop-menu so that I could export as: Flash, Windows Media, Real Media, Quicktime and in my case Quicktime.
Cutting footage
When I had imported all the files that I wanted to use, to make it easy for me to cut and edit my sequence I chose to drag all the files down in order and in sections. This is so that when it came to cutting the clips I would find it easy as I would be able to cut out all the unnecessary clips that I did not want. To do this I selected the ‘Cut’ tool. To make it easier to cut there was a function to use which would ‘zoom’ the timeline to ‘bigger’ and ‘smaller’ so I could cut the clips in the exact correct section without being off (this is easier when the timeline is bigger). This is very useful for when you have a very short clip.
With the unwanted clips I just had to simply ‘Delete’ or ’Clear’ the clips.
Unlinking sound
With the clips that I had filmed some would contain sound that I would need, and some contained sound that I did not need. For the sound that I did not need I could easily get rid of the sound and replace it with either music or a voice over. This is done by simply ‘right clicking’ on the chosen clip and selecting ‘Unlink’. Once this was clipped I was able to either delete it or move it.
Scaling and resizing clips (window; effects controls; motion control) in points and out points
I was able to ‘Scale’ and ‘Resize’ the clips that I had by clicking on ‘Window’ and ticking the ‘Effect Controls’. From this I had to select ‘motion control’. From selecting this function it allowed to me adjust and change certain things that would affect my film. These were things like changing the ‘Position’, ‘Scale’, ‘Rotation’, ‘Anchor Point’.
Also I was able to access a list full of different video and audio effects and transitions. For each of these I was able to control the in and out points, the duration and opacity.
Adjusting framing and realising the importance of good camera work
As I had realised from the difference in quality for the two types of camera I used this effected when it came to adjusting and resizing the frame as the two types of clips i.e. the digital camera (my own) wouldn’t adjust and resize as easy as the clips recorded from the camera equipment provided by the school. But this function would allow me to change the position of the film so that it could moved to a more central view. This was done by simply clicking on the screen where the clip is shown, small points/arrows were shown where it allows the frame to be resized.
The importance of lip syncing
Lip syncing is interesting; from the sequence that I chose lip syncing was not needed at all. But even though that was the case it is still important to know how it works and why it is important. Lip syncing is found mainly in music videos. It works by the actor mimicking in pace with the sound playing. Also commonly used technique for when animated characters speak.
Understanding the value of Pace
I found this one of the most trickiest parts in editing the remake as it was very important that all the clips were in pace with the music. I had to make sure that I cut each clip at the right time. It helped that I used the originial version to keep them in sync with eachother.
Flipping film where necessary
This function was useful as it enabled me to either 'crop', 'Edge Feather', 'Horrizontal Flip' or 'Verticle Flip' my sequence. However I did not use this tool but in the future it may come in handy.
Speeding up or slowing down (right click speed/duration)
When editing my film footage I realised that a lot of the footage needed the speed reduced and increased; especially as it helped to speed the scene up where necessary. At first I found it confusing when it came to doing this because you want the speed to increase then you need to raise the ‘speed percentage’ and it you want the speed to reduce you would have to lower the ‘speed percentage’. This took me a bit of time to remember that.
Titles and font styles used how difficult was this to match the original font
When it came to creating the titles, I spent some time trying to find the most similar fonts. As the fonts originally used looked simple they were hard to try and find one that could closely match. Although this was hard, it was simple to create a title as all I had to do was click on the icon beneath the box listing all the video clips. From there I clicked on ‘New Item’ and then the ‘Title’ option then a box appeared where I was able to write the name of the title I wanted. Once I did this and clicked ‘OK’ a new window opened up and it was another editing window that contained shapes, letter options i.e. font sizes, colours etc.
