Production Monitoring Blog - 04/04/11

Progress
Last week, I had achieved most of the targets that I set myself. On Tuesday, I had captured the footage very quickly and had most of the lesson to start getting a rough cut in place, nearly finishing that in one lesson alone. On Wednesday, I completed the rough cut pretty early in the lesson and had asked a peer to comment on the editing of the rough cut and edited my work accordingly. With still some time left of the lesson, I started editing the soundtrack so that it fit the footage. I found this was rather difficult to do and struggled with it for the rest of the lesson. I took an extra hour during my lunch time to try and edit the soundtrack so that it worked correctly with the footage but didn't make it work as well as I had hoped but was satisfied that it would still work. With the last lesson, I simply put in the inter-titles at the end of the advert and added effects to the correct shots and finished my advert.

Target
For this week, I plan to start the evaluation of my product. I will complete two different documents detailing what I have done for my production and why I have done them to create a desired effect. I will do this all week.

Contingencies
I will prevent losing any of my evaluation work by saving regularly on putting the work in two different locations, e.g. the college system and on a computer at my home.

Production Monitoring Blog - 28/03/11

Progress
The progress I have made this week hasn't been much as I had previously completed the pre production work and couldn't start the post production as the camera is booked out for today. The progress I had made was that on Monday, I had noted down various points in the soundtrack that may be useful in post production, making it easier for me when that time comes. I also improved on many aspects of my pre production in the other three lessons of the week as there wasn't much else to work on. Nothing went wrong with any of my pre production things this week.
.
Targets
This week is a big week as I will shoot my film tonight at the locations needed as well as the post production for the rest of the week.On the lesson on Tuesday, I aim to simply capture my footage, as well as start to sequence each shot into a rough cut of the advert. I will continue this process through to Wednesday as well and will finish this in the middle of that lesson. With the rough cut in place, I will ask the opinion of someone else in the room to see if all of the shots work well next to each other and see if there are any minor changes are needed with the rough cut. These changes will be completed in the end of the Wednesday lesson. The Thursday lesson, I will edit the soundtrack using the same software that I am using to edit the footage, and I will put that over the top of the footage, silencing the noises in the shots. After that I will put effects on the shots needed and I will finally put the inter-titles at the end of the advert, hopefully overlapping with the soundtrack.

Contingencies
There are many things that may go wrong this week, including the footage not capturing correctly on the Mac that I am working on, I could get around this by moving to a Mac that it does capture correctly on. Another thing that might go wrong is the software might crash and I might lose all of my data. I could get around this by saving at regular intervals so that I don't lose a lot of data.

Production Monitoring Blog - 21/03/11

Progress
Last week, I had achieved a lot of what I wanted to achieve from the blog last week. I was able to complete my storyboard and my script on Monday and Tuesday so that I am ready to start filming apart from booking the camera and deciding the actors and mise en scene. This was done on Wednesday and Thursday. I have got the camera booked out for Monday next week. I have decided on the actors that I am using and have contacted them and they are willing to do it. The costume was decided on Thursday. I had no real problems on anything that happened last week apart from that I didn't have the phone number of one of the potential actors which was easily fixed by asking someone else who knew him for the number.

Targets
This week, as I have completed most things for the pre production stage, I will look at my soundtrack again and note down vital points in the soundtrack so when I start editing it together, I can refer to those notes, making it easier for me. I will also improve as many aspects of my pre production as I can seeing as there isn't an post production work that can be done as yet.

Contingency
The only thing that could go wrong this week is a technical error which can be avoided by saving data regularly.

Production Monitoring Blog - 14/03/11

Progress
On Monday of last week, I started looking at mistakes that I had made in my storyboard and correcting them accordingly as well as reflecting what I had done the previous week.On Tuesday, while I was working on finding different parts of the song I am using on my soundtrack and writing down the timings on the song, there was a power cut and I lost all of the work that I was doing. To make up for this, I did the work that I had lost at home that night. On Wednesday, I had continued editing my storyboard so that it will be a good example of how my final product will turn out. The last lesson of the week, Thursday, I finished off the treatment that I had started the week before. Also, I thought of different ways I can make my idea work. Seeing as there was a power cut, everything did not go to plan. I had no real contingency in place for this unexpected occurrence

Targets
This week, I plan to finish all of my pre production work as well as getting a camera booked so that I can start editing. I will start this week by finishing off my script on Tuesday and if I finish that in time, which I predict I will,  I will get a list of characters that are needed for my production, and then I will list people that may be able to act in it and contact them and see if they are available for any time in the week and I will book my camera after I have done all of this. Wednesday, I will continue to edit my storyboard, giving me a good outline to what I need to achieve the day that I book my camera. Also, if I get my actors sorted and have all of them on board I will try and hold a meeting with them all on this day. On Thursday, my final lesson of the week, I will ultimately decide the costume that I want each of the actors to wear on the day.

Contingencies
Problems that I might encounter this week include that people I know may not be able to get enough actors for my production and I would have to ask people that I don't know to do important roles in the production which would raise a trust issue with people I don't know. I would get around this by re-scheduling my camera booking so that I can get actors that I know and trust to fill the role.

Production Monitoring Blog - 07/03/11

Progress
Last week, I started the pre production stage of my Unit 3 moving image social advert/documentary.I started with thinking up ideas of what I could do for my advert, thinking up as many possibilities as possible and listing them on a piece of scrap paper. I took the best three of these (two social adverts and one documentary) ideas and wrote about them in a document. This is a quote from one part of the document:

"The aim of my advert is to outline how plastic bags damage the Earth’s atmosphere and show how using canvas bags would be a better way to carry home the shopping. I want them to change how they take home their shopping by taking canvas bags to the shops with them."

The next day, I started thinking of my storyboard after choosing which of the three ideas I would use for the final production. In the same lesson, I started the treatment which was to be finished the next lesson. I couldn't do this as I wasn't in for that lesson, so I finished it in my own time.The final lesson of the week was for doing the location recce. This is a document that details various places that can be used in the production of my idea. Throughout the week I suffered one problem and that was that I missed the lesson where I was able to finish off the treatment. This meant I had to do it at home which was a bit inconvenient but it wasn't a major problem. 


Targets

Editing, Capturing and Sequencing Blog

Final Cut Express is used to edit, capture and sequence the footage I had filmed. The footage was viewed in the browser after I had captured this. This shows all of the footage I have filmed in the section that I have chose to capture from the camera. I chose the section I wanted to capture being using the Mark in and out buttons. This tells the application where to start the capture from and where it should finish. After I did this, I moved and selected different shots from the footage I had filmed. I did this by using the razor blade tool and cutting the sequence apart according to the shots. I moved the shots around on the timeline and edited it accordingly. I used snapping in my editing as it made it easier for me to create an effective flow through the sequence.

In the sequence I have tested how different effects work.  I used a fade to black in the sequence. This is to create and enigmatic ellipsis in the sequence. A fade to black is at the end of a shot to create a certain effect.

I only suffered one problem in the editing, capturing and sequencing of this sequence. This problem was that Final Cut Express could not find my scratch disk. I fixed this problem by using the manual settings and locating it that way.

Skills Development Blog - Capturing Digital Footage

I set up the scratch disk on the Final Cut Express software for the Apple Mac. I did this by locating the “AS Media Prod 2010” folder and created my own section within there. I then clicked on the scratch disk section and set it to my folder. After I plugged my camera into the computer, I had to format the settings so it was set to PAL. After I did this, I simply clicked File and then capture to get the footage on to Final Cut Express so I could edit it.

After I did this, I needed to mark points in my recording where I want to capture from using the colour bars as a reference. I did this successfully as I captured the footage I wanted with unwanted footage there.

I only encountered one problem when I was doing this project. This problem was that in my group, there was an extra person and didn’t have time to do the full 10 seconds of colour bars and ten seconds of each effect. If I did this again I would have set up the camera quicker so that it was possible for everyone in the group to be able to do the sequence correctly.

Skills Development Blog – Continuity Filming

Using some of the basic skills I need to use a camera, I filmed a short sequence.

At the start of this project, I created a storyboard of my ideas for this short sequence. I did this by sketching where I would like the actors to be in each of the shots identifying the cinematography techniques I wanted to use in each shot. I used these ideas to create a sense of continuity through the sequence and to improve on the narrative.

On the shoot, I used a camera on a tripod for all of the shots. I did this to make my first real sequence easier to do without the need of using the camera as a hand camera. The only other equipment I used on the shoot was the chair in used in the shot. 

While shooting the sequence, I suffered many problems and a variety of different areas. One of these problems was that I had not thought of a suitable place for it to be shot and had to settle for a location that did not suit the background in which I was hoping for in the storyboard. Another problem I encountered was that I ran out of time and had to rush through the whole sequence taking only the shots that I would use and not repeating them if any mistakes were made. I also had problems with the tripod as it was slightly broken and wasn’t level. This meant that I had to try and hold it level while I shot the sequence which wasn’t done successfully and shows a shaking throughout. I also had to shorten the length of the shots in the rush to finish in time so I could not film 3 seconds before and after which means I did not have much room to edit properly.

If I were to redo this project, I would give myself more time to complete it as through the rush I had to skip important parts of the filmmaking process. This would mean I would be able to find a suitable setting, taking more shots and ensure that I filmed 3 second either side of the shot.