Production Progress - 12th December

Today was our final lesson of being able to work on our production before we reached the deadline. Before we began the work, Jon and I evaluated each one of our shots drawing up ideas for better shots we could include, all in the hope of boosting our grade. Here is the list of ideas;

• Stabilising the first bed shot, removing the jerk on the zooming out phase.
  


• Walking down the stair scene - re shoot scene getting in three different shots including close ups of the framed pictures.
  


• Include lip syncing or show someone playing the guitar. We came up with the idea if a busker playing the guitar in the street, but without any strings on his instrument.
  


• The freeze frame of the character being run over could replace the looking through the window scene, working well with the sound of the car crash.
  


• Instead of using the car crash incident from the television programmes "Skins", we could film our own and have it being played on the television.
  


• We found a potential of applying the heartbeat monitor lines onto the blank piece of paper, making the scene more interesting and weird.
  


• Shorten screaming, chiaroscuro scenes as they lose their effect as we've played them too long.
  


• Needing to change the car park setting as it means there are people around, getting the total opposite effect and meaning we are going for.
  


• Add a scene of the driver getting out of the car earlier in the production, building a story for the viewer.
  


• Applying a red sky effect to the walking across the Mead's scene. The red sky will darken as he gets closer to the building, walking towards death or danger?
  


• Remove the laying on the ground scene inside the house from the rewind sequence as it doesn't relate to the story what so ever.

Production Progress - 8th December

Today was our penultimate lesson before the deadline day of December the 12th. We had to use this time wisely to have our production up to a substantial enough level, prefferably higher than our predicted grades. As Jon had finished his special effects scenes at home, we were now able to add them into our production. These special effects scenes included the removal of a mysterious characters face and a scene where two moons can be seen. Both scenes were a generated idea from the groups feedback session, coming from the aim of making the production ore "weird".

Production Progress - 17th November

Today, Chauncy School had an inset day so we saw this as an opportunity to get some filming done, as we had whole day to work on the project without the hassle and crowds of the school.

Sticking to our new revised production schedule, we set out to film the "leaves falling upwards" scene. On our walk to school we noticed an old oak tree which had leaves already falling off. The idea of throwing a large bundle of leaves into the air would b better than just falling random leaves falling.

The image above shows Ashley and Jon position both camera and character in the perfect place to capture the leaves as the fall, whilst I climbed on top of a small bricked building with a bundle of leaves beside me, seen in the picture. As we filmed, out of the way, I threw the leaves in to the air in short bursts making it look as if the leaves were really falling from the tree. The whole idea of this shot is again, to bring in the surrealness of our characters life, when will you ever see leaves falling upwards and why?

As we were walking back to the media room, the group had an instantaneous idea of using the dark, dim looking area behind the stage along with the lighting equipment, newly bought in for the media department to film images of our character in "pain", linking in the car crash part to the story. By using the light it brought a "chiaroscuro" effect to our characters face. As Jon filmed Ashley pulling different faces, I switched the light on and off, giving the whole sequence a flickering light effect.

This is the final result of our chiaroscuro effect on Jon...

Revised Production Schedule

Production Progress - 7th November

Today's lesson was the first back after receiving our first cut feedback. After receiving this information we decided to achieve a higher grade we were going to have to go back and re-film specific parts, relating to the feedback. We decided to sit around as a group and choosing certain times on when working on these parts would be suitable for all of us. By looking over the feedback as a group and discussing ideas we thought up better ideas to replace original thoughts. One new idea we're going to use is, instead of our character being in hospital, he;s actually going to be in a funeral eulogy, linking into our final shot more than the whole hospital idea. The cutting of the walking towards Ashley's house scene will be done as it took up to much space and could be filled with a much more interesting piece of footage. Two new ideas were also discussed. Our teacher suggested using our character walking backwards but other people around him walking forwards. Along with a leaves falling up sequence. These two new ideas were ideal as they both related to our aim of "things not being right/weird".

After the productive discussion we needed to have a way of knowing when to be working on our production in the allocated time we had left before deadline day, 12th December. I volunteered on doing the job of creating a revised production schedule. This new schedule would show us the time where we are either filming, editing or not working on the production due to other school commitments. By sticking to this production schedule our new we will have our improvements done with time left over for a redo, if needed

Our group discussion of our first cut feedback.

Me, working on the revised production schedule on Microsoft Excel.

Our first draft of the original revised production schedule.

First Cut Feedback

Today was the first cut deadline, 31st October. Our feedback would be recorded by our teacher and another group providing us constructive criticism on our positive and negative sides to our work so far.


The feedback is broken into different sections, targeting the main areas of camera work, mise en scene and editing. Here is the feedback we received;


Holding Shot Steady

• First zoom out shot on Ashley - re do without the camera jerk, or use montage to cover the unsteady look.

Framing a Shot

• Good shot to open with (close up of Ash)

Appropriate Material

• Use beat at start of the video to link to suitable visual.


• Corridor shot - emphasise that it is strange - use empty corridor twice


• Improve sots by hedge.


• Approaching pump house, interesting - develop this further.


• Ashley's house boring - change.


• Add shot (school) to blank sheet of paper (dinner table shot) - reference to the "streets" video.

Selecting Mise en Scene

• Good noir shadow as Ashley leaves bed.


• Pictures are good ideas, but don't come across them.


• Last shot - good however, perhaps cover Ash with the sheet.

Editing for Meaning

• Start the music after captions.


• Stress the drama of the eyes opening - sound effect beep.


• Sitting down at the table scene - cut out the empty chair part.


• Good transition to school corridor.


• Good effect - paring action with beat in music.

Varied Shot Transitions, Caption and Other FX

• Use reverse effect - Ash moving in one direction, other people moving backwards?


• Leaves falling upwards?

Use of Sound with Images/Editing

• Some good ideas

Overall Comment

"Good overall idea, but some shots lack impact - go for more strangeness/ weirdness, build up uncertainty in viewers - can they trust what they are feeling? Colour in last shot is good, use spot colour at other points".

First Cut Production

This is our first cut of music video which will receive feedback which will determine if our presentation so far is heading towards a high grade or we need to go back and re-film certain scenes or add some new scenes in.

This presentation is missing several special effect scenes as they haven't been fully completed yet.

Production Progress - 31st October

Today was the showing of our first cut of our production. Just before we showed the work so far Ashley just tidied up a few of the shots and added the sepia effect on the shots which needed it. As a group we we're all pleased with the work so far.

As Jon had trouble with the footage given to him before, the special effects had not been added to the scenes which needed it, meaning the video does not match our storyboard just yet. Other than that fault we we're ready to present our first cut.

Production Progress - 27th October

Being the half term holiday, the whole school had a week off. Our first cut deadline was for the first Monday lesson back into school, Monday 31st October. As we had only just started the editing process we realised we wouldn't have a first cut by the deadline, so we decided to meet up and come into school to finish it off. We managed to get the production finished in about an hour as we had no distraction to put us off our work.

Production Progress - 17th October

After finishing off the out of school filming last Friday we decided to get the final school shots that we had lost the previous time we attempted to do so. Only a few shots were needed to complete all of the productions filming for the first cut which is to be shown on the 31st October

The image below shows the location just out the front our school where the "handing over the keys" scene was filmed.



These images are Jon filming the drive scene on his first lesson back from his trip to America.

After the final filming session we imported all the footage and as a group decided to do an overview of all the footage we had collected from the last week, looking for positives and negatives.

Negatives:

• The "x-ray" pictures aren't as clear as we wanted them to be when filming.
  


• The first shot when the camera is zooming out on Ashley's face as we could only get a suitable shot from balancing on a bed.

Positives:

• The sepia effect which we have added to the scenes we've begun editing look very good.
  


• The large range of different shots we've used.

Production Progress - 14th October

Due to camera battery failure on the first filming at the Hertford Meads we returned to capture the shots we hadn't got on our previous outing to the location. Only a few shots were needed, therefore it was a short trip. As we had enough time Ashley and I (as Jon was still away) went back to the School's media department and uploaded all the footage which was taken during the day. Ashley then began the editing process and I uploaded pictures as evidence for the blogs.

Ashley succeeding with getting the "sepia" look for the shots which needed it.

Ashley uploading the footage...

Location of the filming of the bridge scene (The River Lee, Ware)

For this scene we needed to get the right shot as in the editing process Jon will be using special effects to remove the legs of the bench seen in the picture below.

Our second outing to the Hertford Meads.

Production Progress - 12th October

Today we began the filming of our out of school shots. Only Ashley and I were working on the production today as Jon had gone on a short holiday to Florida. For the filming we had to travel to Hertford Meads where we found to our annoyance that the camera battery was low. We decided to go back to Ashley's house and do the filming we needed to do there, where we could charge up the camera whilst filming.

The images below are evidence of our production progress on the 12th October 2011.

Picture 1 shows a deliberately framed two roomed shot as when our character walks past into to the door on the left, a clip of a car crash incident will be visible on the television, linking back to the character's injury.


Picture 2 shows setting up for the dinner table shot.


The photographs both relate back to our character again, giving hints to the viewer on what has or is going to happen.


Both pictures below show us setting up, preparing to film our "dusty track" shot in Hertford Meads, before the camera battery died.

Production Progress - 10th October

As a group we were ready to start editing the shots we filmed in the school, but we had a big problem. Our uploaded footage from the last filming session couldn't be found on the computer and it had been wiped from the memory card used to capture it.

This disater had to be out behind us so we had to produce a smaller production plan to get in the filming which we had lost, as well as the footage we still needed. For the rest of the lesson we added to our blogs.

Production Progress - 6th October

We began filming our music video around various parts of Chauncy School, checking back on our shot plan, despite them not being in order of how our music video will be seen as they'll be edited into the production.

Whilst filming we had trouble filming a specific shot; the empty corridor scene. For this shot we wanted a completely empty corridor, but every time we were about to record, a student or teacher would accidentally get in the way. After a few minutes of waiting we finally got a free space and managed to get the shot done.

Prop list

Set of keys - This prop will be used in the blurred scene where he is shown to be dropping them.

Drink bottle - The drinks bottle will have all labeling and advertsinging removed from the package and will be used for the reversed flowing water shot.

Basket ball - Will be seen in the gym shot where the ball will seem to be rolling, but nobody is in the room...

Picture frame - including 2 picutres of the car crash related to the story.

TV - showing a repeated car crash, intwing itself with the story.

Lab coat - This prop can be borrowed from the science department of the school and will be used in the hospital scene along with the other medical related props; X-ray photos and a monitor/ laptop.

Production Progress - Thursday 29th September

Today's lesson was our last before filming, we only had to finish of our storyboard and then film the animatic which was going to be uploaded on to each group members blog. Throughout each lesson, all of us, as a group were making final checks of the locations, props and when we will be filming, sticking to our Production Schedule.

We filmed our animatic of our music video in Chauncy's new art gallery. We chose this location as it was the least populated part of our school meaning next to no noise.

Location Spotting

On the 26th September, Jon and I ventured around ware to find the perfect locations to film our music video. We tried to locate spots which related to the lyrics within the song to help create that visual image. The weather was very sunny which helped created a shadowed effect in shady areas of the town and brightened up the open areas.

26th September 2011 - Monday's lesson

In today's lesson, we broke down the group to work on several parts of the project. Ash and Jon began work on the story board, drawing up different shots on sticky notes and then sticking them to an A3 sized piece of paper creating a storyboard for our music video. Whilst they were doing that, I was uploading the PowerPoint Pitch and finished off designing and uploading the Production Schedule to everyone's blog.

The Pitch

Stranger things have happened

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Production Schedule

Production schedule

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Feedback on blog from Mrs A 26.09.11

Your production analysis has soem good visuals - I like the thumbnails of different shots. it could be improved by:

• showing more institutional knwoledge of WarnerBros (size of co, what else they do)


• more detailed refs to music video conventions (lip synch, star image, intertextuality, link between lyrics and visuals?)


• conclusion : why is it a successful video and can youtake any ideas from it?

Missing blog entries:

1. PP pitch


2. production schedule


3. summary of progress week beginning 19th Sept - key decisions

Analysis of a Professional Product

The professional products I will be analysing is the music video to the American rock band "Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Snow" - filmed live at the New Jersey Continental Arena.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuFI5KSPAt4 - You Tube link to the video

The production was directed by Nick Wickham in 2006, who in the same year was the winner of the best director for TV/DVD award at the music week CAD awards. Wickham, directs live concert footage and produces a music video. Warner Br

os. Records Inc. was the production company and was released on 12th December 2006.

The Warner Brothers Record company was founded in March 19, 1958. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Brother Pictures, despite the two companies being independently owned. The company currently has over 30 affiliated labels such as "A&E Records", "Asylum Records" and "BME Recordings".

Here is a list of just a few Artists names Warner Brothers Records works with:

• Foals
• Green Day
• Jason Durelo
• Linkin Park
• Klyie Minouge
• Metallica
• Muse
• New Order
• The White Stripes

As you can see from the list, Warner Brother Records works with only big, well known artists who come under all different genres including rock, alternative, indie, pop and dance

This music video shows its based on a rock genre through many ways. One of the many ways this is shown are the shots of the guitarists playing at a very fast t

empo and they way there shown to act on stage; jumping around and shouting. But another side of the band are shown through the use of black and white shots of the band together acting calm.

The music starts off with a very slow and calm feel to it. Shots of the band are shown in black and white as they prepare for their live show on stage. Every now and then more black and white shots show fans getting ready to watch the band. These shots are seen in a handheld view, giving it that rocky feeling. As the song reaches its climax and gets lou

der and faster, colour shots are now being shown of the crowd and the band. Then a snow look alike material begins raining from the sky, linking to the name of the song "Snow, making the whole rock image calm again. The image below is a small breakdown of the whole music video.

Knebworth Music Video

We spent the day at Knebworth Park in Stevenage filming a music video to "The Drums - Surfin"

When filming our music video we included practised skills such as lip syncing and other techniques. For example, the stop motion technique on the maze and mushroom house section of the music video. This type of technique provides the "indie" feel which helps suit the song to the video.

Review of Skills Development June - July 2011

Documentary Analysis


During this of analysis period we studied different documentaires. We watched Michael Moore's "Bowling for Columbine" and for a set homework we had to study another documentary. I chose Asif Kapadia's "Senna" as I love the sport Formula 1.

Filming Interviews

Through this stage we learnt the rules of "vox pops";

• Never look directly towards the camera.


• Alternate camera from left to right


• Always ask the same question


• Frame the person correctly using the rule of thirds

We also filmed and edited our own "vox pops" where we went round our school with a camera asking the question "do you think the price of the cinema is to high?" We got varied responses which helped us in editing as it gave us more to work on providing a arguement for both sides.

Music Video Analysis

For the music video analysis we studied different types of music video directors and how the produce their end products. These directors included Chris Cunningham's "Come to daddy" and Bjork's "All this full of love". After studying these directors we produced a power point on a song. I chose Coldplays "the scientists".

Music Video Skills

After analysing music videos we began work on our own skills to helps us produce our own video. To help improve our skills we practiced using the schools green screen. We found a few problems whilst editing our work on the green screen as it was our first time using the software. Another skill we practiced was lip syncing. This was practiced by filming small sections of songs and then editing it on the computer.

Film opening evaluation

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Analysis of film opening

Analysis of film opening

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Props and Location

Props

• 1 cup
• Home phone
• Tie
• Large wooden stick (weapon)

Locations

• The chauncy School
• Ashley Morris's house

Influences for the creation

Before thinking of an idea for our film opening, as a group we decided to brainstorm films which would have an effect on our own production. After the planning, we came to the conclusion of the films "se7en" and "Let the right one in". The group decided on David Fincher's "se7en" as we wanted to build tension with the use of music and lighting, which is noticeable throughout the film. The inspiration for our titles came from "Let the right one in", the group decided on this as we all liked the use of blood to represent death. A quick use of the company "Twisted Pictures" can be seen as we wanted to show the audience a vivid image of death.

Feedback from first cut

Strong aspects

• Lots of camera angles
• Mise en scene (contrast)
• Editing for meaning
• Lighting
• Sound

Weak aspects

• 1 out of frame shot
• Unfinished titles
• limited sound elements
• Too dark

After receiving our strong and weak aspects we were told we were working at a low level 3 out of 4, which pleased the group. We wanted to gain a higher level so we were set to go back to working on our production looking at our feedback notes.

Music

Being able to find the right sound for our production ended up being one of the trickier tasks as none of the groups were unable to use copyrighted music. Fortunately one of our group members, Jon knew of un- copyrighted soundtrack which was accessible via the bands homepage. The name of the album is "The Slip" by the Nine Inch Nails. As a group we came to the decision of using the song on their called "corona radiata". This song was perfect for the full length of our opening as it began with a slow bass sound, slowly building up into a dimming ring, fitting the mood of the clip and the genre.

Production Schedule

Monday 15th November - Planning (summary)
Tuesday 16th November - Storyboard 
Wednesday 17th November - Animatic
Thursday 18th November - Shot list
Friday 19th November -  Filming
WEEKEND
Monday 22nd November - Capturing and editing
Tuesday 23rd November
Wednesday 24th November - Capturing and editing
Thursday 25th November
Friday 26th November
WEEKEND
Monday 29th November - Editing
Tuesday 30th November
Wednesday 1st December - Editing
Thursday 2nd December
Friday 3rd December
WEEKEND
Monday 6th December - Present rough cut
Tuesday 7th December
Wednesday 8th December - Re-edit and fine tone
Thursday 9th December
Friday 10th December
WEEKEND
Monday 13th December - DEADLINE

Recording Sounds

Whilst editing we realised to give our video that little bit extra technique we decided to go off and record our own sounds for specific scenes, over the sounds provided to us. The first sound we decided record was of someone being stabbed. Due to the recent snowy weather we discovered recording someone stamping the ice gave us a very realistic sound.

The second sound we needed to record was of running water for the opening of our scene, the original sound quality wasn't good enough so we used the sinks in the school toilet.

For the death scenes we really wanted our audience to feel the them so we thought by adding really intense sounds would really get them. By finding a few large sticks in nature reserve at our school and breaking them at different speeds gave us an excellent mimic of a neck breaking.

Our group needed one final sound for one of the death scenes, an echoed, but concealed yelp. For this we decided to go right to the back of the stage where we kept recording until we got the perfect sound. It worked well as we used the small staircase which gave us that slight echoing sound.

The final sound my group and I needed to recorded was the sound of footsteps to put over the low quality sound footsteps in the original footage. To get this sound we remained at the stage and used its wooden floors to pitch our sounds. Ashley, one of the group members walked up and down on various areas of the stage whilst Jon and I recorded it until we found the right sound for the job.