Outline/introduction
For this project, A short film of 5 to 10 minutes was required, to show the development of a narrative. For this project, I will be working in a crew to develop and produce a short thriller/experimental film. From this project, I want to gain camera work to show in the future to an employer as well as show further development of communication, teamwork, organisation and creativity. Throughout this project as my role of DOP/Camera Operator, I will be creating the necessary production documents as well as doing research into various products and techniques.
The research that I have done such as shot ideas, colour and lighting(Mise en scene)ect: will assist my piece in by giving the inspiration to generate sequences of shots, lighting and colour in production. The research I have done into various projects such as this will help me to create my fictional short film to more of a professional standard and I will be utilising some of the visual and audio techniques used in the pieces. The research I have done in this research portfolio has been vital in creating a proposal for my piece as it was important first to find the appropriate genre before a concrete specific idea could be fully formed. I researched various techniques(Framing, Colour, Lighting, ect.) and products for this project, to further develop the idea of the project to a more professional standard. However, the research done in the portfolio could have been improved further by creating more structured documents and the following research producers in referencing using an APA system. The research could also be more in-depth and specific in how it can be used in the fictional piece.
The proposal I’ve done for this fictional project is effective at getting across the idea as well as some of the possible issues involved and how they will be overcome although to a professional standard the next time I do a proposal it needs to be officially referenced in the bibliography section and be more in-depth. It is important to create a proposal for professional standards as they are used all over the media industry and are used to portray a developed idea. In my proposal, I discuss effectively how I will go about creating a mood. after researching into various products and techniques I used the proposal to help finalise the main idea.
Pre-production
I met up with the crew to finish talking about the Memento Morr – Script and finish it and start to create formal shot lists and create a vision for how the narrative will look visually.
After the script was completed an audition script was created to be used at the auditions. After this meeting the next week as a crew we arranged to meet up with the actors after they had read the Audition Script.
This went reasonably well, however not all actors turned up to the first audition so another audition was arranged and the two actors that turned up are in the video above.
After the second audition as a crew we arranged for another final audition and it was the same two actors who turned up. This went well as we agreed to have Jacob Jones as the main actor this allowed me to experiment with some cinematography in the studio for the auditions as well as getting the actor used to what some of the conditions would be like when filming. This went well and helped me to practise lighting and camera shots ahead of time for the Whitby trip.
I then created a Call Sheet to be used on location with a basic schedule, this document will be useful on location for getting in contact with the actors and for being organised on the shoot. It is important to use a call sheet on a professional production to manage time correctly, this helped with some basic timings and then the actors were shown the main schedule as shown below.
I then created an Equipment list to be used to book out equipment, as well as to ensure that equipment isn’t lost or misplaced on the shoot. This is important on a professional production to ensure the correct equipment is booked out to film and it could ruin a filming day if the wrong equipment is taken out.
I created some of the pre-production documents necessary for the creation of the fictional as part of a crew. I created H&S first, I created it first in case of any potential hazards that may have occurred which is important when a whole crew would be filming on a bigger project as they need to know what precautions to take before going on a recce. After setting up the risk assessment to be filled in further by the level of the risks, I then gave the risk assessment to another crew member to be filled out on location. Completed with levels of risks is shown in the picture below.
I used a storyboard to help me visualise and gain an order of how the narrative would go to come up with ideas for shots and colour in the ideas generation section. I took the Storyboard Beach Scene created and then created annotations to develop a further structure of how the shots would go. The Screenshot Annotations were useful to make a reference to when editing to make the process more effective and quick. As well as giving a baseline. I can improve further upon my storyboarding in the future by adding more visual and written detail. It needs to be more in-depth and correctly formatted. I didn’t create the storyboard although it was useful for ideas generation however in the future on a fiction project I will create a more in-depth and useful storyboard to make the edit go faster and have a natural visual narrative on paper to follow rather than just the script. Shot list 1, Shot list 2, Shotlist 3 I created a shot list/order to be used in Whitby and for visualisation of how the piece would look. I did this because it will make the post-production stage go faster as well as making sure that on location shots aren’t missed and un-filmed it was also useful for helping to come up with ideas as to how the piece will look and give an outline as to how the edit will go. I created a shot list/order together because it will be more effective to film and be more time efficient. I also added in some ideas for framing/ unconventional framing suggestions, which I did to help with framing on location, however, these could have been more in-depth and put towards specific framing such as bottom right corner framed.
Production
Before going on the Whitby residential to location as a crew we experimented with different lighting techniques using led lights.
We experimented first by going to the peak district at night with some led lights to get a feel for what it would be like in Whitby. This went okay but not great it wasn’t planned very well and it was a very cold night and so was a bit of rushed test shoot, some of the footage was also a bit grainy as the ISO was too high.
This went well and helped to prepare for the ongoing Whitby trib as to what lighting from pitch black would be like as well as for getting a look at how the led lights would look. I then took the footage and colour graded using curve graphs and some colour correction/grading this also went well and will help in advance for the post-production grading. During this shoot, it went a lot better as there was time to make sure all the settings and lighting was correct compared to the first shoot. This meant that the exposure settings could be set at the base ISO and then lighting could be used to light up the subject rather than using ISO at above its base 800 which creates grain.
I also experimented with the mechanical stabiliser as it was the only stabiliser of which the a7iii would be able to be mounted on. This went well and not so well as it ensured that planning could be changed before going to Whitby to take out the stabiliser following shots as it would have required a lot more crew members and time to set up a shot that would need to be practised by me the operator and the actor repeatedly to get the move down like a dance. Had it been a Ronan this wouldn’t have been an issue because its in some ways more of a pickup and go stabiliser vs the mechanical one which requires practice and the Ronan couldn’t be used because of the a7iii wouldn’t fit on. This affected the project because as a crew we wanted the same overall quality throughout.
I also filmed some test shots of the shadowy figure to test the lighting as well as to be able to use the keying out of the blue screen mask to see if it got the desired effect. This went well and created the look necessary however a little more side light could have been used to light up the figures black robe.
Whitby – On Location
Whilst on location there was a problem with getting the correct equipment together which affected certain aspects of the production. This happened due to other crews taking the equipment that I had booked out, this meant that colour gels couldn’t be used on most locations, this problem was solved on some of the inside locations by using some non-permanent fake blood on a film of plastic temporarily to create a red lighting effect which worked good. However, in the future, this issue could be avoided by managing the equipment better by ensuring all equipment that is the crews are kept in one area and not mixed with others as well as potentially using another form of storage space whilst travelling as to not get equipment mixed up.
As a crew once on location we arranged to meet with the actors and made sure they knew where and when to meet to start filming, after doing this as a crew we did several recces of the locations to a better idea of where the actors would specifically be on location and camera positions. However, no physical recce was created and in a professional production, it would be necessary to ahead of time do a recce sheet to show to the director and DOP in a larger production. Doing the recce went well and I gained some more in-depth knowledge of where I would be needed to film specifically as well as potential issues with lighting and noise(Audio).
Whilst on location, following the schedule I and the crew/cast, went to the different locations recording scenes most scenes went well although one of the locations that were troublesome was the beach. This happened due to the ninja blade not working correctly when getting to location which meant that I would have to just use the camera screen which has a lot of glare and can’t be trusted. this caused some of the beach footage to be underexposed in post and somewhat grainy. For the experimental nature of the film, it should be sufficient however in the future to avoid this from happening by ensuring ahead of filming that the ninja blade is functioning and can be used correctly as well as keeping track of exposure settings and not just going off of sight as for how the shots look. Part of this was due to the directors direction to tun the exposure two stops down which at the time I said it will end up being overexposed as I was looking at the exposure settings at the time, in the future as my role as camera operator/DOP I will follow my instinct and communicate it better to the director that turning the exposure down on location will make it noisy and that its better to do that in post with the colour information still intact. Whilst on location after the first night the shot list was rearranged to be less as due to underestimating how much time was allocated to film as a crew we overestimated how much we could film, we then rewrote the shot list and took a lot of shots out, in the future this could be avoided by only getting the shots necessary and if there’s enough time have a section for just getting extra shots if there’s time left over to better manage time.
During the filming, I got some good and well framed conventional and unconventional shots used to create a mood and show how along the character is whilst at the same time retaining the viewer’s attention by keeping conventional shots in. This went well as shown above in the shots I’m most proud of my framing and exposure settings as good and experimental. However as also shown above some of the framing is off for example one of the beach scenes(medium shot) as there was a constant blinking which meant the camera had to keep being repositioned to avoid the moving light, this made the shot of the rule of thirds and although it still does the job it could have been better. This could have been improved by doing a more intensive recce at night of the location to plan for such issues. I followed some rule of thirds conventional, quadrant framing experimental framing and some symmetrical shots of streets that are slightly off with rule of thirds on the character this much like what was used in the shinning takes what looks symmetrical but is in fact not creating a tension an air of something bad is going to happen, inferring earlier on that something may be watching him. In the future, I will ensure I frame shots correctly to conventional standards and they aren’t off composition/conventional unless it is necessary to create a mood and there is a good reason for it.
Post Production
In the postproduction stage, first I ordered the footage, I did this to make the editing process more efficient according to professional standards. I then created a rough edit from the main script to keep to the original narrative of the piece, I then rewatched the video through and changed some of the sequences that didn’t quite match the narrative such as the mirror scene with the candle in the room which I had reversed and it didn’t make sense I then rearranged the footage to make more sense. I edited throughout the piece using different cuts a montage of shots such as rhythmic edits at points giving each shot a few seconds each although depending on the visuals I gave certain shots more time, I did this because holding off on cutting can at times be a useful asset, and cutting too soon can be jarring and take the audience out of the narrative.
I used Juxtapositions of shots match on actions and some graphics matches throughout to join together visuals, tell a story and create a mood in the audience, an example of this is a shot of the character walking through the town cuts on movement and in some of the same thirds which makes it flow better. In the sense where the person finds the house with a candle in it, I decided to use a close-up a shot alongside the shot of the other candle, before showing the character walking into the frame to infer to the audience that the character is drawn to the candle for heat and perhaps as some beacon of hope.
Although the majority of the edit went well the shots of the shadowy figure at the end were underexposed to the point of being overly noisy, I fixed this issue however by implementing shots taken previously in the studio which were lit better. however, in the future, I would be better to get the shot on location to have some foreground of the ground the shot rather than just the character in darkness however for this piece it, I think it is suitable but has room for improvement in the future. Another thing that went wrong was in the post-production stage a shot of the town and abbey was missing that was meant to have been gotten although I wasn’t told this by the producer at the time on location, it meant there wouldn’t be an establishing shot although because this piece is experimental it works but in the future I will ensure to check the shot lists my self on location as my role of camera operator/DOP to ensure this kind of thing doesn’t happen in the future.
In the film, I have used various colour grades specifically in the car scene the colours are cold but a little warm, however when the character loses hope it gets more desaturated. I did this because it adds to the mood of the scene. I also used some darker scenes of the sea just before the montage to build up the suspicion of time running out as the darkness encroaches on the character going with the theme of the film death. I think this works and is effective at creating a mood in the audience as well as assisting with the narrative of the piece. Throughout the post-production – sound section I used on location sound in conjunction with some royalty free soundtracks to further the narrative and the mood of the piece as well as to make the scenes of the character losing hope more intense.
Final evaluation
This video after several processes throughout the initial ideas section has turned out as expected mostly although, it has changed at points to be made more coherent and in-depth as well as more simple as the very first original idea had too many shots with not enough time to get them. It is effective at being a thriller/experimental short film there are many different ways it could go to be improved as it is open to interpretation. It effectively creates a mood/narrative in the audience through the use of strong visuals and audio. The audio is effective at creating a mood although it could have been more effective by recreating foley for the scene and editing the sound in a program such as Logic Pro X/Audition to be more specific and in-depth, this would have added more depth to the piece and brought it to a more professional standard. Even though it could have been to a better level of audio designing I think for the experimental nature of the piece it is appropriate to it and not having Foley adds to the idea of it being out of this world as he is in between life and death(in limbo). Overall the video is effective at being an experimental/thriller with some good shots and audio although it is a bit jumpy at times and the sound may go a little quite near the beginning. Throughout this project in my role as a camera operator/DOP I was effective at filming visuals with an effective framing, composition and lighting, however at points I underexposed some shots which caused noise, this broke some of the necessary requirements of a camera operator as an operator should know how to correctly frame and expose a shot. Although at the same time it is also the camera operators job to follow the director’s direction. ” Part of the role involves interacting and maintaining good working relationships with other members of the crew and cast, including the:
- actors
- director
- interviewees
- lighting technicians
- presenters
- producer
- sound recordists.” – Prospects
I can improve upon my role as camera operator most by further developing my communication in order to be able to persuade the director the shot shouldn’t be darker in order to correctly frame and expose a shot.
Dale 