Below you can play the final film. Please make sure you view in HD.
Wednesday 13 December 2017
Fiction Adaptation Unit - My Final Film
Below you can play the final film. Please make sure you view in HD.
Tuesday 12 December 2017
Fiction Adaptation Unit - Evaluation
I have learnt a lot over this unit. I have decided to go for something completely different and out of my comfort zone in order to create a finalized film that shows a true reflection of my skills and abilities throughout pre production, production and post production.
I started off with the idea that I wanted to do something that would push my boundaries. After reading through the list of sonnets the one that I really connected with was Trespass. When alining with it at face value I began to delve behind the real and true intent of the meaning and felt that this was actually about judgement and being on a forbidden path in life. I also gained this insight through my research of the author and his backstory which can been seen in my separate post. This inspired me to think of jobs and what people do in society that people frown upon. I first went down the route of a drug dealer but after feedback it wasn't different enough and felt very cliche. I also went on to think about murder but this has also been done countless times. I finally settled on a sex worker. I feel this was a subject that is completely out of my comfort zone but would also give me some great visual imagery. This along with the representation of the poem made me push forward with this idea to present to Mike. After speaking to him I got some great feedback explaining that it was a strong route to go down and is still adapting the poem but in my own way although I would have to make it work well in symbolizing what we are witnessing as an audience and be confident in the subject that I was going to approach. I felt the idea was a risk but with the right casting, locations, planning and vision i would be able to pull it off.
I wanted my video to be completely different to everyone else. Instead of following a regular narrative structure with a clear narrative arc, I felt I would play with the brief and focus more on the experimental side of things. I feel my final film does have a build up and there is a story behind what we are witnessing and I have adapted the sonnet well but I felt I could have explored the narrative a bit better. I have used voice over of the sonnet for impact rather than to contextualize but with out the voice over it would not have been as strong in the way of a story. Although I love the final product I have ended up with and feel it shows strong skills and a great adaptation of the sonnet, I could have gone for a more regular story like others on the course. Saying that my main intention was to focus on the experimental side and create a completely innovative and different final product in a style that no one else would have done.
With locations, I feel I picked these out really well. They reflect the story I am trying to tell and create a real tone to the film however I do feel there could be improvements. Although I am happy with the soho location, I wish I could have secured a gentlemen's club to film the strip club scenes in. Although I could still put across the intent of the scene, It would have given me much better footage if I could have shot inside a real club. The footage came out ok but I would have been able to heighten and elevate the project by getting a real scene with a pole, stage and dance floor. In the pre production stages I only contacted 3 different clubs and was waiting a while for them to reply which led me to running out of time. Next time instead of hoping to be successful with the people I have contacted, I will ensure that I carrying on messaging and liaising in order to secure a location more efficiently. For Soho, I secured the rights well contacting 2 different boroughs and ensuring all the rights to film were in place before the shoot day.
In terms of casting, I felt this to be one of my stronger points. I put an advert out on Casting Call Pro in plenty of time and explained the exact nature of the shoot. After receiving several applications I sat down and looked at each one of them. I whittled it down to 3 and was in contact via email with them trying to see if there availability would match up and why they were applying for the role as well as looking through their show reels. I finally settled on Rebecca as she had the most potential to carry the character off well as well as her look. The only thing I should have done extra was to Skype call her before giving her the role. This would allow me to understand her character as a person and to build a professional relationship prior to meeting her but I understand this and will do this for future projects. I also made sure I planned this project well other than casting. I created schedules, liaised well and had a good solid idea before going into production.
Actually shooting the project was an interesting experience. On the day of Soho, the main hurdle was filming in a very busy public space. I felt us as a team dealt with the situation really well as at some points we had a few crowds watching what we were doing. I could have picked a quieter location but this would not have worked for what I was aiming for in the sense of story and imagery. My main role on both days was a director. I felt I directed the shoot really well and all the team said they knew what they was doing at what points. I was very professional and calm which responded with the team well and in what could potentially be a very stressful situation, I was able to keep everyone focused and on board with what I wanted to achieve out of both days. Technicality was also good as I was able to oversee all shots and make sure they were in focus and in a great quality although there were some issues with the club scene. With it being dark, in a small space and with effects like fog, the footage did come out little grainy and murky. I tried to fix this when editing by color grading but it still remains there. I want to make sure that when Im using different effects that I can test it before hand to see how it will affect the shots.
When editing I wanted to make sure that there was a structure and the piece flowed into different sections. I first of all wanted the first scene to be in black and white to show the bleak and dark world that the character lives in. When it goes to the neon and club scenes, bright colors are added in to show the colorful, sexual world of soho and exotic dancing before going back to black and white again. This was also to show that her life goes round in circles and its the same on the daily routine, we end where we started off. I feel the sound design worked well with all of the sound effects and the score allowing me to build and heighten the film making it powerful, emotional and strong. When editing I wanted it to reflect what I had done in a previous work shop. We had to shoot images and place them together to make it experimental and in the form of montages. I feel I adapted from this very well and have a good selection of montages throughout including rhythmic, intellectual and metric that all helped this film to have an experimental look that I was going for. Shooting in 50fps was also a great choice as the smooth slow motion really helped with the impact I was going for.
Overall I feel this was a really great piece that i'm very proud of. Reflecting back on it, I realize that although the majority of it hits the brief, I wish I could have adapted more of a narrative into it. But, having said that, I don't think it would have worked for what I was trying to achieve. I wanted this film to be very experimental and have a sense of power and impact and, writing a more in-depth narrative would have taken away from that. My adaptation was to take the poem and find my inspiration from it creating a tone and theme that would still stay true to the original text, but becoming more experimental, and I feel I have achieved this. There are a lot of things I have learnt from this project and I feel I have gained a lot of pre, production and post skills that I will take forward in future projects.
I started off with the idea that I wanted to do something that would push my boundaries. After reading through the list of sonnets the one that I really connected with was Trespass. When alining with it at face value I began to delve behind the real and true intent of the meaning and felt that this was actually about judgement and being on a forbidden path in life. I also gained this insight through my research of the author and his backstory which can been seen in my separate post. This inspired me to think of jobs and what people do in society that people frown upon. I first went down the route of a drug dealer but after feedback it wasn't different enough and felt very cliche. I also went on to think about murder but this has also been done countless times. I finally settled on a sex worker. I feel this was a subject that is completely out of my comfort zone but would also give me some great visual imagery. This along with the representation of the poem made me push forward with this idea to present to Mike. After speaking to him I got some great feedback explaining that it was a strong route to go down and is still adapting the poem but in my own way although I would have to make it work well in symbolizing what we are witnessing as an audience and be confident in the subject that I was going to approach. I felt the idea was a risk but with the right casting, locations, planning and vision i would be able to pull it off.
I wanted my video to be completely different to everyone else. Instead of following a regular narrative structure with a clear narrative arc, I felt I would play with the brief and focus more on the experimental side of things. I feel my final film does have a build up and there is a story behind what we are witnessing and I have adapted the sonnet well but I felt I could have explored the narrative a bit better. I have used voice over of the sonnet for impact rather than to contextualize but with out the voice over it would not have been as strong in the way of a story. Although I love the final product I have ended up with and feel it shows strong skills and a great adaptation of the sonnet, I could have gone for a more regular story like others on the course. Saying that my main intention was to focus on the experimental side and create a completely innovative and different final product in a style that no one else would have done.
With locations, I feel I picked these out really well. They reflect the story I am trying to tell and create a real tone to the film however I do feel there could be improvements. Although I am happy with the soho location, I wish I could have secured a gentlemen's club to film the strip club scenes in. Although I could still put across the intent of the scene, It would have given me much better footage if I could have shot inside a real club. The footage came out ok but I would have been able to heighten and elevate the project by getting a real scene with a pole, stage and dance floor. In the pre production stages I only contacted 3 different clubs and was waiting a while for them to reply which led me to running out of time. Next time instead of hoping to be successful with the people I have contacted, I will ensure that I carrying on messaging and liaising in order to secure a location more efficiently. For Soho, I secured the rights well contacting 2 different boroughs and ensuring all the rights to film were in place before the shoot day.
In terms of casting, I felt this to be one of my stronger points. I put an advert out on Casting Call Pro in plenty of time and explained the exact nature of the shoot. After receiving several applications I sat down and looked at each one of them. I whittled it down to 3 and was in contact via email with them trying to see if there availability would match up and why they were applying for the role as well as looking through their show reels. I finally settled on Rebecca as she had the most potential to carry the character off well as well as her look. The only thing I should have done extra was to Skype call her before giving her the role. This would allow me to understand her character as a person and to build a professional relationship prior to meeting her but I understand this and will do this for future projects. I also made sure I planned this project well other than casting. I created schedules, liaised well and had a good solid idea before going into production.
Actually shooting the project was an interesting experience. On the day of Soho, the main hurdle was filming in a very busy public space. I felt us as a team dealt with the situation really well as at some points we had a few crowds watching what we were doing. I could have picked a quieter location but this would not have worked for what I was aiming for in the sense of story and imagery. My main role on both days was a director. I felt I directed the shoot really well and all the team said they knew what they was doing at what points. I was very professional and calm which responded with the team well and in what could potentially be a very stressful situation, I was able to keep everyone focused and on board with what I wanted to achieve out of both days. Technicality was also good as I was able to oversee all shots and make sure they were in focus and in a great quality although there were some issues with the club scene. With it being dark, in a small space and with effects like fog, the footage did come out little grainy and murky. I tried to fix this when editing by color grading but it still remains there. I want to make sure that when Im using different effects that I can test it before hand to see how it will affect the shots.
When editing I wanted to make sure that there was a structure and the piece flowed into different sections. I first of all wanted the first scene to be in black and white to show the bleak and dark world that the character lives in. When it goes to the neon and club scenes, bright colors are added in to show the colorful, sexual world of soho and exotic dancing before going back to black and white again. This was also to show that her life goes round in circles and its the same on the daily routine, we end where we started off. I feel the sound design worked well with all of the sound effects and the score allowing me to build and heighten the film making it powerful, emotional and strong. When editing I wanted it to reflect what I had done in a previous work shop. We had to shoot images and place them together to make it experimental and in the form of montages. I feel I adapted from this very well and have a good selection of montages throughout including rhythmic, intellectual and metric that all helped this film to have an experimental look that I was going for. Shooting in 50fps was also a great choice as the smooth slow motion really helped with the impact I was going for.
Overall I feel this was a really great piece that i'm very proud of. Reflecting back on it, I realize that although the majority of it hits the brief, I wish I could have adapted more of a narrative into it. But, having said that, I don't think it would have worked for what I was trying to achieve. I wanted this film to be very experimental and have a sense of power and impact and, writing a more in-depth narrative would have taken away from that. My adaptation was to take the poem and find my inspiration from it creating a tone and theme that would still stay true to the original text, but becoming more experimental, and I feel I have achieved this. There are a lot of things I have learnt from this project and I feel I have gained a lot of pre, production and post skills that I will take forward in future projects.
Fiction Adaptation Unit - Editing
Structure
I knew by the structure of how I wanted to edit this film it was going to be a very complex edit. I first of all decided to gain structure and break it down into 5 different sections. These were the intro, the glitching dark, the streets, beautiful dancer and the ending. I first of all worked on the intro. I wanted to start with a close up of the characters face then transitioning into a wider shot so that the audience can now see that she is dressed different to how they would have first imagined. I then followed this with some walking shots from behind and in front to give the impression that she walks the streets. After this we move swiftly onto the glitching dark section.
This starts of with the 50fps scene of the actress walking down a more busy street slowed down to half speed at 25fps. This worked nicely giving a smooth flow to the slow motion. Over the top of this shot I layered neon signs that glitch in and out over the top. This works nicely to transition into the darker world that this character lives in. I followed this with strobing clips and a few shots from the club scene to hint at the role of her exotic dancing profession but I don't give too much away as I want to let it slowly build. This dramatically cuts to black and moves onto the streets section.
I wanted to elaborate the streets of Soho for this section. I started by using a building lit up in neon with more glitching neon signs over the top. I felt this was really effective. I then followed by shots of her down colorful lit up alley ways with neon signs still glitching over the top to build tension. After this it cuts to a fast rhythmic montage of the different neon signs of soho cutting faster and faster to then break into the next section.
In beautiful dancer it contains very fast paced cuts of the character dancing in a seductive way mixing slow motion with normal speed to create a good effect. I used lots of different colored shots including strobes to make the scene very disorientating and rapid. I feel this edited together works well and shows what I am trying to portray. Some of the footage was a bit merky so I tried my best to enhance it with colour grading.
The final scene is the ending which rounds off with a different version of the clip of the actress walking down the street. I then follow this with different shots all in 50fps slowed down that are done in a similar way to the first scene. I did this on purpose to create a circular narrative that this is what she does on a day to day basis and her life goes round in circles.
Sound Design
Sound was very important to me in order to give the powerfulness that I wanted the piece to be. In terms of the score I started off by choosing a slow and melancholy sounding song in order for the audience to align with the character and in a way feel sorry for her. This quickly changes in the second scene with a slightly more ominous and eery sounding track that portrays all is not what it seems. The next track is split into two parts. One is the build up that transitions into the electro club scene and the second is the more slower and moodier part that follows to the ending. I feel they both work well and give a real sense of power to what is being shown.
With sound effects, the first thing I added was the low pitch rumbling sound that features throughout the film. I felt this created a sense of unease and was quite unsettling which heightened the dramatic feel to the piece. When neon signs would glitch on the screen I added some royalty free glitching sound effects so that it brought out the flashing, pulsating signs when they appeared. Another sound effect I added was in the glitching dark scene where it shows a few slow motion clips from the club. I added a breath noise when the character flicks back her hair creating a sense of lust.
Although the piece works without voice over, I made sure I recorded some of the sonnet just to see what it was like overlaid on the piece. I found it really brought a sense of impact when I added it on and although I am not putting it on there to contextualist, I feel it adds real depth to the way the narrative is delivered creating effectiveness and power. Also when researching for this film a lot of short films that I was interested in used voice over in this way to dramatize a piece so that is where I am getting my inspiration from.
Vision
I wanted this piece to look as good as I could make it and so I decided to color grade some clips. The first and last scenes I decided to put into black and white to dramatize what we were being but also to give a sense of dull and bleak. I also added brightness and contrast to these scenes to really make everything pop. When it transitions over into the sexualized world the piece transforms into color to make it stand out and to really focus on the neon and bright lights. This I feel works really well and they compliment each other as they are intended to. There is clear contrast between them but this is what I was aiming for so that you can really notice the sexual world of color.
Overall I feel very happy with the way I have edited the piece together creating a real sense of power and dominance in the way of the tone. I set out everything that I wanted to achieve applying complex skills that I feel worked well together when viewing the final piece.
Thursday 7 December 2017
Fiction Adaptation Unit - Shoot Day Two (Home)
This was another evening shoot like the day before so we once again all had to wait till it was dark. I picked the actress up a little bit earlier around 2:30pm and took her into the studios as I wanted to do some voice over with her. I may use some voice over in the final edit if it gives impact rather than contextualizing the story through it. Once we had finished that we then headed to may house and set up the living room making it believable that we would be in a club. We moved all the furniture around and made a clear space against a white wall. We then set up the tripod and the track and dolly as I wanted these bits to be more static than the previous days shoot but with some smooth movement as well. The actress went upstairs to get changed and we set up a lighting system that I own that can change color of the lights. I also wanted to add a cloudy smoke effect so I used a fog machine as well.
Once we had set up everything we all got into position and began with a few static shots with the lights changing. We had bass music on in the background as well so that the actress could really get into character. I got a variety of wides, close ups and mid shots so that when it came to editing I would have a real choice that I could work with. We then slid the camera along the track side to side with the actress focusing on the camera. Since I'm shooting in 50fps this could look really good when its slowed down to half speed at 25fps creating smooth fluid slow motion.
When we had finished all so these I then decided to try a strobe effect with the smoke and the actress dancing in the middle. This I feel worked really well and will give a dramatic effect when it comes to the edit. I also followed with more colorful shots of the actress dancing so that I could really portray that she was a dancer. I then called a wrap of the shoot and we all packed up the equipment before taking the actress back home.
Overall I feel the shoot went really well and although looking at the footage, some of it turned out grainy, this actually works quite well in contrast to the high quality shots in Soho as it conveys the gritty and seediness of the gentlemen's club.
Once we had set up everything we all got into position and began with a few static shots with the lights changing. We had bass music on in the background as well so that the actress could really get into character. I got a variety of wides, close ups and mid shots so that when it came to editing I would have a real choice that I could work with. We then slid the camera along the track side to side with the actress focusing on the camera. Since I'm shooting in 50fps this could look really good when its slowed down to half speed at 25fps creating smooth fluid slow motion.
When we had finished all so these I then decided to try a strobe effect with the smoke and the actress dancing in the middle. This I feel worked really well and will give a dramatic effect when it comes to the edit. I also followed with more colorful shots of the actress dancing so that I could really portray that she was a dancer. I then called a wrap of the shoot and we all packed up the equipment before taking the actress back home.
Overall I feel the shoot went really well and although looking at the footage, some of it turned out grainy, this actually works quite well in contrast to the high quality shots in Soho as it conveys the gritty and seediness of the gentlemen's club.
Wednesday 6 December 2017
Fiction Adaptation Unit - Shoot Day One (Soho, London)
A couple of days ago we shot in Soho in London. I had already organized about travel and times with the actress and crew also sending out a call sheet a few days before hand. Since this was going to be a night shoot I decided that we would meet late morning and then drive into London to get there just after lunch. This was a good move as we were not rushing around but we had a good amount of time to scope around the area reaffirming the shots I wanted to get as well as checking out for any other health and safety hazards. After an hour of this I then called the crew for a coffee and we had a meeting about exactly what I wanted from everyone out of this shoot. The actress was already changed into her outfit that I had brought for her to wear and had a warm coat on over the top so when it came to filming we would be ready to go. All the equipment was also checked before we left in terms of battery and frame rate so we were ready when we got there.
We started filming as soon as the sun set and the first location was down a back road that was closed off for moving vehicles. This was good as we were all safe to really concentrate on the filming and it gave us good scenery in terms of graffiti and shutters along the walls. We spent half an hour here doing walking shots as this is going to be the introduction to my film.
We next went to film some neon signs that were around where we were. I told Gavin what I wanted and he focused the camera and shot it. Some of the footage came out quite bright around the sign so I reshot making it darker in the background and the neon signs brighter making it really pop.
Next we did some more walking shots with the actress but they were a lot more public. We filmed on some really busy streets and alley ways as I wanted to get a sense that she had no fear when it came to walking around with her outfit on amongst crowds. We were very sensible with this as I didn't want to get in the way of anyone so we waited for a quite gap and then quickly shot what we needed to. although these took several takes to do I am very happy with the final result. We were getting a lot of attention due to having a bright light on the actress and with what she was wearing but it enabled me to get some anonymous shots of people staring and judging which will work well with how I wanted to adapt the sonnet.
PIC
We finally ended doing a few last minute shots near Carnaby street as there was some good visual imagery I could get. We found a nice quite square with metal grating on the sides which added to the tone of my film. When we finished I wrapped up the shoot and we headed home. I feel this day went very successfully applying to all the regulations and getting some great visual shots that I look forward to editing together.
We started filming as soon as the sun set and the first location was down a back road that was closed off for moving vehicles. This was good as we were all safe to really concentrate on the filming and it gave us good scenery in terms of graffiti and shutters along the walls. We spent half an hour here doing walking shots as this is going to be the introduction to my film.
We next went to film some neon signs that were around where we were. I told Gavin what I wanted and he focused the camera and shot it. Some of the footage came out quite bright around the sign so I reshot making it darker in the background and the neon signs brighter making it really pop.
Next we did some more walking shots with the actress but they were a lot more public. We filmed on some really busy streets and alley ways as I wanted to get a sense that she had no fear when it came to walking around with her outfit on amongst crowds. We were very sensible with this as I didn't want to get in the way of anyone so we waited for a quite gap and then quickly shot what we needed to. although these took several takes to do I am very happy with the final result. We were getting a lot of attention due to having a bright light on the actress and with what she was wearing but it enabled me to get some anonymous shots of people staring and judging which will work well with how I wanted to adapt the sonnet.
PIC
We finally ended doing a few last minute shots near Carnaby street as there was some good visual imagery I could get. We found a nice quite square with metal grating on the sides which added to the tone of my film. When we finished I wrapped up the shoot and we headed home. I feel this day went very successfully applying to all the regulations and getting some great visual shots that I look forward to editing together.
Sunday 3 December 2017
Fiction Adaptation Unit - Call Sheets / Schedules
For my shoot I created a schedule for my shoot day in Soho just to make sure the cast and crew knew what we was doing, at what time and where. I included a weather section so everyone knew what to wear in terms of rain, sun and temperature and I also included all our names and contact details so if there was any problems or we got lost then we all had eachothers numbers.
You can view these schedules below:
I have sent them out to all the cast and crew so they are aware of what is happening when we shoot prior to the day.
Saturday 2 December 2017
Fiction Adaptation Unit - Final Locations
After researching more and visualizing what would be Ideal for my shoot, I have decided that the final locations would be Soho in London and my house. I ruled out the beach scenery idea as I feel I wanted to take the film to a more urban style and give the streets of London its primary location. I feel this would work well with an exotic dancer and fits more with the story I am trying to portray.
Soho was the immediate choice as there are lots of adult neon signs there that I could capture and work with when it comes to editing. There are also lots of urban streets and alley ways that the character can walk down to further establish herself.
Unfortunately I could not secure a gentleman's club to further establish the role of what my characters profession is so Im going to have to reinforce this in a different way. I decided that my living room against a white wall would work well if I could get the actress to dance as well as lots of colorful flashing lights. When she is in her costume I feel the audience will be able to make the link of what she is doing.
Unfortunately I could not secure a gentleman's club to further establish the role of what my characters profession is so Im going to have to reinforce this in a different way. I decided that my living room against a white wall would work well if I could get the actress to dance as well as lots of colorful flashing lights. When she is in her costume I feel the audience will be able to make the link of what she is doing.
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