Fiction Adaptation Unit - Chosen Sonnet & Initial Ideas (Treatment)

I have decided to choose the sonnet called Trespass. I looked through the list of the 10 that we could choose from and after reading them through I felt like this sonnet was the one that I could do something with in terms of expressing a deeper meaning to it and adapting it in my own way. The sonnet can be viewed below:

0. 1. Trespass
   By John Clare
   
   
   
   
   I dreaded walking where there was no path
   And pressed with cautious tread the meadow swath And always turned to look with wary eye
   And always feared the owner coming by;
   Yet everything about where I had gone
   Appeared so beautiful I ventured on
   And when I gained the road where all are free
   I fancied every stranger frowned at me
   And every kinder look appeared to say
   "You've been on trespass in your walk today."
   I've often thought, the day appeared so fine,
   How beautiful if such a place were mine;
   But, having naught, I never feel alone
   And cannot use another's as my own.
   
   

When reading through it I immediately felt it was someone who was walking a path in life that people felt they shouldn't be on and I sensed a great judgement towards the person that this sonnet is talking about. I started to go down the line of jobs that people could have that are frowned upon and was first drawn to the character of a drug dealer/addict. After some thought and consideration I decided to steer away from this as I felt it was very cliche and had been done numerous amounts of times. I still wanted to push the boundaries but go in a different direction. I finally settled on sex work but rather than prostitution I will go down the path of an exotic dancer/lap dancer. I feel this conveys the interpretation of the sonnet well and clearly demonstrates a sense of judgement in the way of the job type and the way its perceived.


I want to create an overall sense of power for the protagonist who feels she is on the right path and feels empowered by the job that she does but has society against her portraying an image of being lost and disgraceful in the world of what we live by and what we feel is accepted. I feel I could get some great imagery with this idea as well with lots of neon signs and glowing colours that could symbolise the rays of light in the bleak time she is in. 

In terms of casting I would like to cast a female who is tall and together with the costume of ripped net tights, thigh high boots and a revealing top. I want this character to be recognisable to people that she is part of the sex industry but I want her to show the emotion that she doesn't care. I want someone who looks strong and would be confident with the roll so I will make sure to pay attention to this when casting.

With locations I feel the Soho area of London would be a great place to shoot this. It fits in well with the story as well as imagery that would relate to the sex industry. I am also thinking about shooting in Amsterdam for a day as this would also establish the narrative well. 

0. 
   
   
   

Fiction Adaptation Unit - The Haiku Challenge

After we had our briefing we looked more in depth about what a Haiku is as this would be similar to the type of literary text that I will be adapting from which is a sonnet. A Haiku is a 17 syllables and works as a format in Japanese as 5 on the first line, 7 on the second line and 5 on the last line. An example can be given below:

An old silent pond...

A frog jumps into the pond,

splash! Silence again.

Autumn moonlight—

a worm digs silently

into the chestnut.

In the twilight rain

these brilliant-hued hibiscus -

A lovely sunset.

We were set a challenge to adapt a Haiku from a list using stock footage and cut together our interpretation of how the chosen Haiku interprets to us. I decided to use this one below: 

Netsuke Sōseki (1275 - 1351)

Over the wintry forest,

Winds howl in rage,

With no leaves to blow.

This is the video I came up with:

I decided to use wintry images like the snow falling in the forest and the mountains in order to set up where I felt the Haiku was set. I then felt this was coming from a persons perspective who was alone so I found footage of a boy who was walking on his own through the setting. This set the tone as well as the sad music to show it was quite a melancholy piece. 

Fiction Adaptation Unit - Briefing

Today we had a unit briefing by Mike Rymer who is going to be teaching this unit. We looked in this session at what fiction adaptation is overall and why they are done in the first place.

We first off understood that fiction adaption is the written that is translated to visual language. It can be adapted from any media source like a book and then translated as an interpretation to another like films, video games and television dramas. Some examples can be seen below:

Books to films:

The Shining

Trainspotting

Bridget Jones's Diary

Games To Films:

Tomb Raider

Doom

Resident Evil

There are many reasons why the idea is to adapt sources to screen and I learnt about some of them today. The main reason is that there is already an audience captured. If you take resident evil for an example, the people who have played the original computer game are very likely to go and see the film as it brings nostalgia and curiosity to something they already love. This makes an adaptation proposal very financially stable and a promising start to box office numbers. The same can be said for books and novels with people already being a fan of the work that is being proposed to translate to screen. 

There could be some downfalls to adaptation which are mainly getting the translation right. You want to make sure you are not alienating the audience that is already there and you want to make sure you do the original work justice. 

After we learnt about what adaptation was we then looked at what we was going to be doing individually for this uni. We are going to be researching, planning and producing a short video for transmission that is a work of adaptation from a literary source. This literary source will be a Haiku from the list of 10 we can choose from which will be explained more in a future post. 

News Production Unit - Evaluation

Over the course of this project, I have learnt so much and have built up a lot of knowledge from what I previously knew in many different ways. Throughout the entire unit, I have gained skills in many areas from technical to productivity that has been enhanced through the process.

Researching was my first point of call. Learning how news was actually constructed through lectures, the studio testing workshop and my own research allowed me to have a strong foundation for the base of the project. I was able to look at a variety of different news and the multiple ways it can be done, from hard news to the more light-hearted Youtube style News. I felt I would be able to bring a lot more to the project if we picked a Youtube styled one as when researching Hard News I found this a lot more difficult to engage with. A negative I feel I could have done better was to research in more depth allowing me to expand my knowledge even further.

I was the main producer for this project and I found this very a great learning curve in many different ways. I was very happy with the way I managed to organise myself. I was making sure the risk assessments and all paperwork were signed off way ahead of time. All the schedules were complete at least48 hours before a shoot so all crew and cast knew what was happening, where and when all ahead of time so when it came to shooting it was very clear. I was also very happy with how I handled myself when organising the events that the group wanted to go to. I was professional and confident when speaking on the phone and contacting through email to press agencies that resulted in us getting press access and interviews for our film. I feel I could have been a bit better when It came to organising the Diwali event as It was very last minute and the communication lacked more than the Shocktoberfest event. Another thing that could have been better was trying to get the interview for Shocktoberfest. I felt it went well and we got there in the end but the interview kept being postponed which led to myself getting stressed.

When it came to production I had 2 roles to focus on. I was the location presenter but I was also overseeing the direction as well. This I found brought down the presenting side a bit as I was not able to focus fully on the role. Although It turned out ok, It took several takes to get a final result which ended up getting harder as I was getting more frustrated with myself. On the directing side of things, I felt I handled this very well envisioning what type of shots we would need and persisting until we got the right footage. we also brought an LED light with us which helped us illuminate the me when doing my pieces to camera and worked well when reviewing the footage. I also ensured we got plenty of cut-aways as I wanted to make sure when it came to editing their was more choice than not enough.

When it came to post production my main role was editor. I found this was my strongest skill that I brought to the project as I was able to edit efficiently and transform all the footage into a workable news item that had a good pace and looked professional. One downside to it was the visable noise on the greenscreen background. I tried hard getting the team on board to try and minimise the noise but unfortunatly it was proving to difficult and very time consuming to get rid of. This is the thing I am most annoyed at as I am a perfectionist and when I see something is wrong I instantly want to correct it and so I became frustrated when I couldn't fix the problem.

Overall I am very pleased with how the project went. I feel I organised the team well and contributed greatly towards a great end goal that I am very proud of. I learnt a lot from the project Including using a green screen and an auto-cue as well as over coming difficulties like when taking on multiple roles and dealing with schedule changes. I learnt that in order for a project to pull off well, a lot of preparation and organisation is key to the whole process right through to the final product and this is something I will remember. I really enjoyed this unit more than any other unit and I hope to continue my energy throughout other projects.

News Production Unit - Editing

Once Drey had finished all the graphic work I was able to start editing all the footage together. I started off with planning a structure of how we wanted our film to show.

When we all agreed that this was the order we wanted it to be in I began with the Diwali package. I started with a montage so we can establish the event before cutting to my piece to camera. I did several takes of this clip so it was nice to be able to choose the best one to go in the film.

 I followed this with some GV's whilst I added a voice over that we recorded. In order for this to flow well I made sure that what I was talking about in the voice over matched up with what was being shown on screen. This then flowed nicely into my second of four pieces to camera. It was getting dark so we used an LED which worked well when it came to editing as I was able to refrain from color correction and lightening which I would have done. 

The edit continues to follow a nice and simple structure of Voice over leading in to piece to camera before rounding it off at the end. Over all I felt the package runs very smoothly and fits a nice pace explaining a clear narrative that explains the event well. 

I next moved onto editing the Studio footage which proved a bit more tricky. After the graphics were added to the background of the green screen I was able to piece together where all the segments worked. I felt that a multi-cam aspect would be a great way to edit this together to stop it becoming boring so I made sure we filmed a variety of shots on the shoot day. When it came to editing it allowed me to split the clips up but make it feel like it was all being filmed at the same time by creating seamless transitions. 

Because they reappear on a regular basis it was nice to keep a short and snappy pace that felt very studio like when watching it through. When the studio items went into a different item I was able to add an effect on the sound called exponential fade which allowed the sound to fade nicely rather then cut off suddenly. 

Shocktober was the last thing that I edited together as it was the last thing we were able to film. It was also the most complicated in terms of structure as it appeared in different parts of the timeline. I referred to my structure chart so I knew where the different pieces were going and added them in accordingly. I made sure the live elements had the title LIVE at the top so you could differentiate as we also had a mini package for the event as well. I also created a split screen element to make it flow nicely from studio to the live as mentioned in the rough cut. I also cut down the live interview which was also mentioned in the rough cut viewing and this flows much better than it did before stopping the lag compared to the rest of the project.

We had some sound issues with some of the pieces to camera but I was able to balance them out by using the audio mixer to make sure the volume was in line with the rest of the film. When it came to scoring the edit I wanted to make sure each Item fitted perfectly with what the audience would be looking at. I added Indian style music so it mixed well with the event, with shocktober, I added spooky music and with the studio a light hearted piece. This all fits really well with the project. 

Overall I feel I have edited a strong piece together that flows well and keeps its narrative communicating a professional edit of work. 

News Production Unit - Rough Cut Viewing

We showed Helen a rough cut of the clips I had edited together so far. She said the project was coming along very nicely and felt the piece was looking very professional. There were a few things to  work on to make it better.

The Live interview was the only piece in the film where it dragged and felt very long winded. We all agreed that cuts would have to be made in order to make sure that this flowed with the rest of the project.

The structure and the items in the show were all marked off as good so I just need to make sure the interview is not dragging and to fine tune all the items to make sure the audio is all at the same level and in sync to round off the edit. I also need to add split screens when we go from the studio to the live elements as this will help the project flow better.

News Production Unit - Channel Branding

As our news was going to be in the style of a youtube new video we decided that we wanted to create an actual Youtube channel creating a banner, logo and welcome trailer as well as the main actual video. As Drey was in charge of the graphics she was able to create the banner and logo that represented our brand using the same fonts and colour schemes. We all felt this was necessary approach allowing our brand to flow through the work as a whole. The font was slightly modified to a 3D approach allowing It to pop more to attract people to the channel.

I edited the channel welcome trailer together and I wanted to make sure It was light hearted and fun showing the happy playful side to all our characters on screen reflecting the brand and what we are all about.

This can be viewed below as well as a screenshot of the whole channel page:

News Production Unit - Shoot Day (Shocktoberfest)

On the 18th October we were originally going to be filming the live interview and all of the cut aways for shocktoberfest but unfortunately on the way to the event I received an email from the press representative saying the interview was going to be postposed to a future date. Rather than forgetting the shoot we decided to treat this as a prime time to do a Recce. When arriving at the event we signed in at the guest visitors office and made our way in to scope the site and find important places to film and to do the interview. Once I got home I looked at the map and circled the places that would be great to do the interview.

We all decided that the best place would be in front of the press wall as it looked professional and very red carpet like. 

When we looked around the site we were able to get some cut aways as we still had the camera and try out some of the Haunt attractions so we knew what we were talking about when it came to the package and the live. 

We arrived at the location again yesterday after I rearranged the interview twice after visiting on the 18th. Once we got there we signed in again and then managed to meet with our press representative. We quickly set up as the person we were interviewing did not have a lot of time and we went straight into filming the live with no cuts. Once this was complete we needed to film my pieces to camera. Having been to the site before we all picked the locations that we knew were going to be ideal that had a good background and depth of field which were the cage and the ghost town. 

After several takes of this we moved onto filming more cut aways to make sure we had good coverage and then we called the shoot a wrap and headed home. Im very pleased with how the shoot went and feel my presenting and the camera work puts us in a good position for when I edit it together. 

News Production Unit - Risk Assessments

 Over the course of the project our group sat down together and compiled risk assessments before each shoot. We made sure that they were checked and signed off by a member of staff at least 48 hours before we wanted to collect filming equipment. Evidence of them are below.

Shocktoberfest (Live) :

Diwali (Package):

News Production Unit - Liaising With Companies and External People

As the sole producer I was responsible for contacting and liaising with the places and people we wanted to film. I first started off with Shocktoberfest as they had a contact number for their press office on their website. I had a phone conversation with the press manager Ed as I talked about who we were and what our objectives were for the shoot. He agreed press access for me and the crew as well as an interview with a senior member of the events team. I followed this up with an email just to confirm.

Once this was established I then moved onto the next Item we wanted to shoot which was Ocktoberfest. Since there was no number for press I sent them an email to the press department but I received no reply. 

I decided to send a very similar email to the Diwali events team to see if I had any luck with them and they were more responsive. They agreed for us to have press access to the event and to film on the location on the condition we had approval from the Uni so we sent them over the risk assessment that had been signed by a member of Uni staff.

When emailing and speaking on the phone I made sure I was professional and very clear about the project we were doing as well as leaving important contact details so they could get in contact with me if they needed to. I kept up communication throughout and made sure we secured our locations. 

I was also In charge of securing the presenters once we had picked them. I made sure to email them under dreys account expressing interest in them being part of the film. After individual Skype interviews they were happy to proceed and turned up to the studios on time due to the call sheets I had produced. 

News Production Unit - Researching Editing

This unit requires a lot of editing to make sure that I get it exactly how I want it to flow. I decided to go on Linda.com which showed me some useful information. I always struggle with audio the most so I thought this would be a great area to brush up on. I found some videos that were very useful on using sound dissolves and how to sync up my audio easier. 

I also found a really interesting video that explored more of how the channels work and how i can manipulate the sound to come out of each one. This will help when coming to editing as we have 2 presenters on each side of the screen so I will try to have one more heavily focused through one channel and the other through another to pair better with what the audience are seeing.

Another area I lack in is titles. I found a video on youtube that allowed me to refresh and expand on the basics of doing a title in premiere which will help me when I come to do the edit. 

I next wanted to learn more about keyboard shortcuts that would allow me to edit more quickly and efficiently. There was a great section that I found on adobes official website instructing where the shortcuts are on the keyboard and what each one did. I have also ordered keyboard stickers so I can lay them over my own keyboard to make editing easier. 

All this will help greatly when it comes to editing the project together. 

News Production Unit - Shoot Day (Diwali)

Yesterday we shot for the Diwali Festival which was held at Trafalgar Square in London. Since we were all in different places that day we decided to meet at charing cross station for 2:30pm. We felt this gave us plenty of time to film as we wanted to get shots in the light and the dark to show the events differences as the time went on.

We arrived at Trafalgar Square and found it was exceptionally busy. This made things a little bit difficult with the equipment but we were aware of the people and planned our routes around the location. We met with Varsha who I had emailed previously and she gave us wristbands that allowed us press access to the front of stage. This was vital to our project as it allowed us to get clear footage of the performers on stage without the busy crowd in front of us.

Once we got all the footage we needed of the stage we then moved around the site to get different shots that showed the entirety of the event. We managed to get crowd shots from all different angles and an overview of the stalls and stage. Coverage was our main focus here as I wanted to have many choices when it came to editing cut aways and GV's. We wanted to establish location so we felt that would be great for my pieces to camera. We made sure we set up with the main National Gallery in the background so people could tell it was Trafalgar Square.

When doing my pieces to camera It was hard at first with a lot of people looking at me and the light beaming on my face but I very quickly got used to it and made sure I was project focused.

I felt we had a great day filming and got some great coverage of the event.

News Production Unit - Shoot Day (Studio)

For this shoot we needed a lot of preparation in order for this to go well. I booked the room with Laura a week prior and had the risk assessment signed so the location and equipment were ready for when we needed to film. I sent out a call sheet to the presenters via their emails and sent out schedules for the crew so everyone knew what was happening on the day.

On the morning of the shoot, our crew met up at the studios and collected the equipment from the store. We then spent an hour and a half together string up in the lecture room making sure the green screen was ok and the lighting looked good as well as the framing of the camera and a sound test. We were also going to be using an auto cue for this shoot so we set this up and done a quick rehearsal to make sure it all was working smoothly.

Our presenters turned up at reception and we welcomed them up to the base room. After a short reading of the script we welcomed them into the room where we was shooting and began filming. I decided to go for the multi-cam approach so we did a run through as a mid shot with both of them and them and then did individual shots of each of them so we had something to cut with.

Overall the shoot went very well and after reviewing the footage we are very happy with their chemistry on screen as well as the footage we ended up with. They both said it was a pleasure working with our team and would be happy to work with us again in the future.