The ending of my corporate video

The viewing and the feedback
Recently, I have been working on my corporate video, which is my promotional video for my course.

I have still followed the two students, making their film. These are for action sequences to add in the interviews.

My lecturer looked through the footage I had and he rekoned it needed alot of improving. Looking back at the footage, I can see what he meant. The colors weren't right, the sound was uneven and there weren't enough action sequences. He suggested that I would film any filming objects or somebody preparing equipment etc.

To help this, that night, I went to the Staffs TV organisation up at the uni and used a little handycam to film people preparing the sets, behind the scenes, preparing the cameras etc. I filmed these when I had time because I had a role to do for that evening's show, which was auto cue operator. The evening went very well and I collected lots of footage.

The day at the nativity

As soon as I got in college the next day, people had to help Bill film a children's nativity that was happening near Stafford. Bill said to me that if I wanted to capture footage of them filming the event, I had to come now. So I chose to go with them. Wile I was there, I shot lots of footage of everyone preparing the equipment, shots of the equipment itself and also the students actually filming the event. These I thought would really work for the event.

During the same day, I was still editing of what I had. But I realized that at one interview with Bill, he mentioned about the DSLR's. So, with quick thinking, I asked for a handycam and filmed some shots of a DSLAR and even filmed it recording something. I also asked for a help from a student to film me pursuading students to come to the course and saying Bill's mobile number and email address. This was for the end of the video.

Editing

The video had to be in soon, so it was time to get this video up and running. I looked back at the previous footage and the first thing I did was fix the color balance to make it look nicer. Here's an example

Some of the clips unfortunately, were quite glitchy, so I deleted it and had another copy on my timeline (which was a godsend!).

I then put it all together, making the titles were correct, the picture and sound etc.

For the music, I looked on YouTube to find novelty free music to use. I did find a couple of tracks that sounded very good but then I found the one that was just right. For doing this, I have a program on my computer called 'vdownloader', which downloads YouTube videos. Here is what it looks like:

What you do, is that you click on the link of the video on YouTube and copy it. This is immediately sent onto the program. When its there, you click the Download icon. It takes a minute to download. It then goes onto the videos file on my computer.

I then copied into Premier. I locked the sound part and deleted off the image that comes with the song. Then this will have just the song. I then added to the video and it works like a treat. Here's what it looks like now



I then watched the video and they really liked it. My mum gave me some constructive criticism by saying turn the music down slightly and highten up the student's interview's volume slightly. So that I will do. After it's done, off to YouTube it goes :)

Paperwork for my drama done! Including DVD cover!

During today I have finished all the paperwork I've got for my film 'Paralysis Of Fear'.

Also the film is uploaded on Youtube. Feel free to have a watch. Here's the link


During yesterday and today, I have created my DVD cover of the film on Photoshop. It was challenging but fun to make.

How I made it was that I got the measurements of a normal DVD case and then print screened some images of the film and created text for the front. For example the title, who stars in it etc. I used a particular style of the font. Here's how I did it:

I used a particular style and used many blending options to make it look the way I wanted it.


To get the certificate, I wanted to get an existing DVD cover, copy and paste it into photoshop and erase all parts of the cover except the certificate. Here's how I did it.

This I thought was the most challenging to get because I wanted the text to say what the film contains. So I copied an existing cover and did the same as I did last time by erasing everything but the rating. I then erased a word from the rating that I didn't need. Unfortunately this didn't work because it looked to blury. So I then copied another cover and used it's rating where it just sais 'Suitable for 15 years and over'. This worked alot better.

The cover now, I think is successful.



Also here is the link to my film:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7hqdU6SBes

My first eveing with StaffsTV

On Wednesday night, I went to the uni to join the StaffsTV group for their WhatsNext show. I booked to be a camera operator.

I got there with my carer and they told me that they put me in for camera assitant, which I didn't mid at all. We all got the cameras in posistion, in focus and the white balance corrected.

All of a sudden, one of the leaders, Sophie got hold of me and took me to the sound and lighting booth. Because nobody turned up for the lighting, I had to take over the posisiton. I felt very nervous to begin with because lighting is my weakness through filming and I not familiar with the lighting deck. She tought me what I had to do at certain time with the lights. We had a rehersal of the show before going live so we know what were doing. This went pretty well but I got the lighting part wrong. So Sophie had another talk with me about it and then one of the other member's called Hammish, had another talk with me and taught me what time to change the lights at a certain time. After this, I did feel more confident.

We then went live and the show was a success. Everybody did thier jobs brilliantly. There were a couple of hiccups but we quicly past them and it went very smoothly. I also got the lighting correct and changed them at the right time.

I really enjoyed this experince because it gave me a good sense of achievement at the end. It also gave me the experince of what its like to work in the studio. The group were brilliant. I really like the way we all comunicate with eachother and I got on really well with them. This will definitely work for my studio module next year. I really want to go back next week.

So overall, a very successful evening. Here is a group photo that was taken at the end of the evening.

Shooting my corporate video

I am still making my corporate video for promoting my course. I have to say its going well so far so good.

Production
Last week, I asked two group members if I can film them making their drama for my corporate. They agreed and I filmed them making their drama in the black room. This I thought went very well, even though I captured their outtakes! Here are some images of the shoot:

I then asked after their shoot, If I can interview them about their project, how its going and about promoting the course. This took a while to do because we kept laughing or forgetting what we were going to say. But I did capture some good takes.

I also did another interview with a lecturer I interviewed before. I wanted to do this because the setting didn't look right. The background looked very plain with only one single camera, the angle looked too high and there wasn't a shot of me, nodding and agreeing to what the lecturers saying. I chose the new library for the setting because it looks new a fresh. The interview itself went very well. There were times where I needed to retake because the lecturer joked around a couple of times.


Post Production

I have been editing straight after shooing. I have now decided that I will capture all the footage and then gather it all together and choose the best bits out of all the clips. I know this will take a while to do but I think it will work. I then decided to cut one of the group members from the video because I didn't follow him much through out his work. At the moment, the video is not in order but it will be
soon.

Through out this, I have learned that I have to make sure the shots look right and use shots of over the interviewee's shoulder, to show me, nodding and agreeing to what they're saying.

The last day of shooting 'Paralysis OF Fear'

Production
On the 13th of November, I completed shooting my drama 'Paralysis of Fear'. I got there at about 1:20 that afternoon and started setting up as soon as I got there. This time, I used a different camera, which is a XM2. I really enjoyed using it because there were parts that were more simple than the A1E's.

During that time, the actress told me that she's changing her hair style, so I felt this had to be the last shoot. Also, she was up to her neck on her own uni assignments.

The first part of filming went brilliantly well. The angles looked really good, the actress did a fantastic job and the lighting was exactly how I wanted it to look like. It was sunny and the light shon through her closed curtains. This gave the very dim effect. Here's what it looked like:

But as the day drew on, it started to get darker. So I used a portable lighting device that I borrowed from my drama lecturer. To use this, I asked for assistance from the actress's younger sister (who also had a tiny part in the film). To give the same effect from earlier, I asked for her to put the lighting behind the curtain to make this happen. This did work beforehand, but then it got dark quicker. This was very challenging. I knew this had to be the last shoot, so I chose as a last resort to make the lighting very obvious and I thouht that I can fix it on Post Production. The rest of the shoot went really well. Here's is the example of what I meant on how the light is obvious: The first picture is the lighting gear and the second is how obvious I wanted it to be for a last resort decision.

After the shoot, I had to get some quick shots of interior of the hallway inside the house. This was for an establishing shot for the second scene of the film. I also had to get an exterior of outside the house for the same scene. This I couldn't get because the lighteing wasn't good enough. I then wanted an extra shot of the main character by a lightpost for the beginning scene. This was also unsuccessful because the light was broken. So, I decided to leave that shot out.

When I got home, I decided to walk around my street like I did before for establishing shots for the beginning of the film. This time, I wanted to take a shot of someone's house from the outside on the front for the establishing shot of the main character's house. I walked around and took a few shots of different houses. I thouhght then, through out post production, I could choose the best looking house for the film. This went very successfully. But, I didn't ask permission to do this. I just quickly took the shots and left. In the future, I will ask for permission to this.

Post Production

Through out editing, I tried to fix the obvious lighting. This I really struggled with. I even tried to use it in AfterEffects. I'm not really familiar with AfterEffects, so I tried to use Lynda.com but I forgot my password for the programme. I then used the method of resetting my password, so this was going to take time. I thought then, I was completely stuck. So, I left it that evening and tried to think of alternative solution.

The next day, I had a brainwave. I thouhght that I could change the ending. I asked my family of what they thought of the idea I had and they agreed. So I then edited the footage that I had and changed it to match the idea I had. One challenging moment was with one of the clips, the timing was a off with my voice over. So I then went back to the previous takes and chose one that I thought worked well. I then added my voice over for it and it worked really well. But then I realized that I needed to add one more line. So I used the camera and boom mic and spoke into the mik. Here's what it looked like:

 

To make the voice effective, I used a different tone for myself. On Premier, I added an effect on the voice called Reverb. This gives out an echoe effect. This is what it looks like:

 

This looks really good and its a great success. The only I've got to add now is the second half of the music that one of my group memebers are going to create for the film.

Here are some more images of the shoot: The first image is of me preparing for the shot of the dark silouhette that I play.
The second is of me preparing the shot.

 

What I've learned

 

Through out making this film, I have learned that never have in mind that I'm going to finish the project done in one day, no matter how much I've got to do. I have also learned that I should plan ahead of there are any issues. I should come up with a backup plan. 

Filming yesterday

Filming

Yesterday, I went out shooting my film. I had the intention of finishing the film.

I encounted a problem with transport at first because I forgot to ask my friend, who's acting to give me lift to her house where I'm filming. So we started filming later than I expected.

Filming went very well and my friend acted brilliantly, even when she was tired from her own uni work. I got as much footage as I can but we had to stop because of lighting issues and the house was getting louder because my friend's younger sister came home from school. So at the end I didn't finish the film.

Post Production

When was about to start editing, I looked at the footage that I shot and I found a major continuity mistake. I found that the actress was sitting in a particular position and then the cuts afterwords, she sat differently. Also, the lighting didn't right because it was shaded in a different color and it was too dark. Here is an example of these mistakes:

I am hoping to film next week on Tuesday. So before then, I will ask if I can borrow some lighting equipment and test it in the college before using it. I would to use a particular colored gel because the previous lighting gave out a certain color and I would like that to match with the previous colors. So I would like to also test this before using it properly.

Here's what I want the image to look like:

My biggest thing I have learned through out yesterday was not to have the expectation to finish the film in the day, no matter how much I have filmed. Always think I'll shoot as much as I can.

Hopefully the next shoot will be better.

Filming 'Paralysis Of Fear'

Through out my half term, I have been concentrating on making my short horror film 'Paralysis Of Fear'.

Filming

On the 30th of October, I shot the third scene and some of the final scene with a Z1 HDV camera. This I thought went very well but there were a few issues. I had trouble using the tripod because it was a different type that I've never used. So to avoid anymore troubles, I remember a particular method from the director, Stanley Kubrick, making the film 'The Shining', where one of the cameramen didn't use a tripod through out filming a scene. He had to hold the camera very still wile filming. So I tried this method and it worked successfully, although it was challenging.


This was for the POV shot

The other issue was lighting. I wanted to use a dim effect by closing the actress's curtains. This went very well to start off but then as the day went on, the sun was setting. So I continued filming and I thouhgt I could fix this issue on post production.


Actress reading the script, preparing for the scene


Except these issues, the day went very successfully. The actress did a great job and I thought the camera angles look really good. I asked the actress if she can create her own makeup by putting on smudged lipstick to make herself look really ill. This unfortunately didn't show on film, but it was there just incase.

Post Production

Straight after filming, I went onto editing. I had truobles beforehand because I couldn't find the port for the firewire. I did find it at the end which was good. The footage I shot came out really well. In the scene with the main character and her sister, I shot the younger sister's parts first and then on the 30th, I shot all the main actresses parts. I realised that some of the colours looked slightly different, so I used the colour correction method to fix this. The colours then came out very similar to eachother which I wanted. The footage of the last scene came out very dark so I decided to increase the brightness and contrast. This didn't come out as well as I hoped. I have now made the decision to reshoot this scene.

I also realised that through out the converstaion scene with the main actress and her sister, there is no diagetic sound at parts. I thouhgt of a plan to download a particular part of the film that was playing in the background. But I looked back and thought it would sound different, so I decided to record just the sound of the film and put it in the background. This came out successfully.

The next filming date will be next week Tuesday.

What's been happening recently

Recently I've been sorting things out on making my drama and corporate video.

Corporate Video

For this module, I first made a choice on promoting the Waterstones store in Stafford. But then I was asked how this is going ahead. I then thought that it wasn't going to work.

I was then suggested on making a promotional video on the course I'm doing and I thought it will work. I then planned out most of the paperwork ( still got some to do) and planned out how its going to look. I asked two of my lecturers for an interview on how they guide the students and I've also asked two students to be interviewed about their recent projects, what they think about the course and would they recommend them to existing students.

I have recently shot the two interviews from the students. This went very well and they were very honest on their opinions. Still got to interview the lecturers though.

I want to, at one point, to email an old student that was on the course previously and ask him or her for an interview about the course.

Drama

This module is going well sofar. I recently wrote the rest of the script and made some changes to make it more realistic. I asked the people I want to use as actors and they agreed. I have had many discussions with the main actress on when to film, about her character, asking if her sister would have a small part and about the script changes.

I have recently made a Powerpoint pitch of my film for the group with many inspirations and my ideas etc. I felt that I did well but it would have been better without the youtube adverts before my clips I chose the show. I hope I get good marks for it.

We've been set an isighnment on watching two tv shows or films and writing about the pre production, production and post production and then relate to our own pieces. We also have to write what we think of the methods that the filmmakers used. This was very challenging at first because alot of films have inspired me thorough out my own pieces. I had permission to watch The Shining with audio commentary (yippee, my all time favourite film). I had help on choosing three other films, which were Gothica and Shutter Island and The Others, which are other films I love. I watched Gothica with audio commentary, which was really good. I then watched behind the scenes of Shutter Island and The Others, which again were really good. Unfortunately, The Others and Shutter Island didn't have audio commentary. Through out watching these, I kept on pausing or rewinding to take notes. This was alot of work but very enjoyable (especially on the Shining). I now at the stage where I'm writing the report with my collected notes and having the use of my Stephen King movie guide for The Shining.

Last night, I shot the first scene with the main actress and a friend of mine that's playing the part as the main character's friend. I also made a start on the second scene with the main character and her sister. Last night was a success but I had issues with the lighting on the first scene because it went very dark. We worked around this and I thought I could keep it that way to make a spooky atmosphere. I used the street lamps as the lighting.

The second scene also went very well. But the actress's sister was very nervous infront of camera, so the actress and I tried to help her become more relaxed. We did this by saying that it's only us that's watching her and filming her, not a large film crew. I also helped her get into character by making her imagine that her sister is actually being horrible. This really helped and when she shouted her lines like she was supposed to, I was even taken aback! haha. I want to improve on the log sheets on catching up what I just filmed. I'm, sure I've got time to do this through out filming my drama. And even my corporate video.

I have still got more to film and edit for these modules but I'm sure they'll come up well.

What I've done recently

Through out the second year of my course, I have recently been learning about Documentary because we will be doing the module next year. Our lecturer said that we should do a head start.

By doing this, we've learned the history of documentary, of when it started etc. We've also been watching many documentaries, to see the different styles and how it's done. This has been really interesting to see the different formats and the subjects that were chosen.

We've also been going back to the Corporate Video module. This time, we had to choose a company to make a video for, ourselves. This I thought was very difficult because I didn't know what company to choose. I had help by suggesting to do a corporate video for the course. I agreed and chosen a video to promote the course.

For this, I have been going through paper work and preparing to film for it. I should be filming very soon.

I've also been going back to the Drama module. We have to make a short drama of our choice. So I've written the script on a drama idea. This time, I've written another horror (yippee!!!). I've asked a friend of mine if she wanted to have the part as the main character and asked her sister if she wanted to take the part as the character's sister. They both agreed and I have sent the script to her. I've given her a week to learn it and will be starting shooting next week.

The report for drama we have to do is to choose two films or TV shows to watch and write about what happened in pre production, production and post production. We also had to connect them through out our movie making experiences   I have been allowed to choose the film, The Shining (gives me an excuse to watch it again, cheers Dave!! :D) and I have watched with the audio commentary to help. I have also watched some of the special features on it aswell. No these I thought really helped because they were very informative and interesting. I have got a Stephen King movie guide to help me write about the pre production of the film.

I have to choose another film to watch. This I struggled with because when I have made films, more than one film has inspired me. To I was suggested to watch three films with audio commentary and choose the best one. I have picked the films, Shutter Island, Gothika and The Others. I love all three of these.

I found then that Gothika has audio commentary but the other two haven't. But the other two have the making of features. So what I'm going to do, is that I'm going to watch Gothika with the commentary and Shutter Island and The Others making of's. I'm going to see which one of them is the best to write about.

I will be catching up more with blogger, so excuse me for the delay.

Condensing my film

I've recently decided that, for my film I recently made, I'm condensing a version to 10 minutes for the uni and keeping the original for everyone else because its 21 minutes, which is too long for the uni.

This was quite challenging to condense because I had to choose the right parts for the film, so it can make sense. The outcome of it, I thought, came out really well.

Here is the link. Enjoy :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tvqk-Gd7OI

Coming Up- New Cross review

During today, on Channel4.com, I watched an episode from the TV series, Coming Up. It was called New Cross.

To begin with, the acting was great and made the characters very convincing and made us care for them. But I wish I got to know them a little bit more.

The filming was brilliant. Some really excellent shots with very good editing.

Now the story, yes it was good, but I felt I've seen something like this before, for example, the films Notes On A Scandal and An Education. But other than that, it was good. But the ending was, I thought a bit rushed because at the end, the main character gets beaten up by a couple of thugs, wakes up the next morning and sits down next to a travel agency like poster, showing paradise. Maybe that was a sign that he was going away, I don't know. I reckon they should have made that clearer. Also, I wish there was more explanation for the thugs. Were they robbing him? Again, I don't know, I wish that was explained.

Overall, it was pretty good. I hope David Stoddart makes more films because he's got a great vision. :D

First day back to uni

The first day back to uni. Went through what's going to happen through out the semester. We're going back to the modules of Corporate Video Production and Drama Film Production until September until January. Also, we're going to make a start in Documentary Production. We discussed on what the learning outcomes were for these.

I found out that the Corporate Video is more independent this time because we have to think about what company we want to use ourselves. This will take some thinking to do.

For drama, we had to write down what ideas we could do for our drama to make. I came up with two. My lecturer, Dave, really liked them and could see potential in both of them. I think I may do the first idea. So that evening, I got in contact with a friend of mine to ask her if she wanted to act for the first idea if it goes ahead. She agreed to it. So that's a great start.

'It Takes Time' Completed!

I have recently finished making my short drama film, 'It Takes Time'. Filming went very successfully. The last scene I had to shoot was the rest of the walk scene. I didn't finish it earlier because of weather conditions. This time the weather held up.

I changed a few parts of the scene to make it slightly shorter by changing a few angles and cutting out other ones. I also filmed a clip and asked the actors to be recorded for dialogue to put over the clip.

The last part I shot was the beginning of the walk, witch was inside the house. I suggested to film all the parts outside first because the weather was unpredictable. Through out filming, I changed an angle or two in this because the original angle didn't work. So I chose tow others. Overall, a successful last shoot.

I edited the film all together, which again was challenging at times. This was because there was different sounds through out the outside scenes. I tried editing a clip with a bit of sound at the end of it and made re repeat itself. This didn't work at all, so I tried many other attempts, for example, using the same clip but cutting it into all different sizes which was very tedious. I then had an idea by downloading a video from youtube of wind and nature sounds. So I then downloaded it and put it into Premier, cut out the image and kept the sounds. This went very well with the scenes because it sounds the same.

After editing, I then converted the film and watched it with my family. They really liked it and they made a few suggestions by cutting some angles off the kitchen scene because they thought it went too slow. They also suggested by cutting out some of the credits because my name kept  re appearing. Afterwords, I then went and changed these parts. After watching it, it looked much better.

I realised that the film was too long for uni, so I had an idea by keeping the whole film and convert a version to a trailer. This was very hard to begin with by coming up with an idea of what it can look like. For help, I went on youtube to look at existing trailers. I looked up on the film 'Lorenzo's Oil'. This I thought didn't help. I then finally came up with an idea of what it can look like and then created it. Here is the link to the trailer I created. The whole will be up soon but this is mainly for the uni. Enjoy :D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e66dBcIDfLc

28th August Filming with my two borthers

On this date, I shot the scene with my two brothers down in my local brook.

This I thought went very well. There were a couple of times where there was wind interference and background noise but other than that it went very well. During that time we decided to film actual practise shots, with the two actors holding the scripts and saying their lines. Also, when there was a shot of just one of the actors, we decided it would help them by the other actor walk beside them, holding the script infront of them, out of angle. This helps because the actor actually has to look at the other actor because its conversational scene.

For editing, this also went very well. There were times where I had to increase the volume so I can hear their lines. For the music, I chose a particular track and cut some of it out because I thought it sounded a bit too dramatic for the scene, so I chose the best part of the track.

My next day of filming will be tomorrow afternoon. This will be the last scene I shoot

Editing

While shooting the film. I am also editing what I shot

Editing is going very well sofar. I have learned more skills on changing the colour on the clip of the film because I looked back on the previous clips and the colours were different. So for continuity reasons, I changed these colours to make them similar to the previous ones. I did this by using Colour Change on the Video Effects icon. How to make this work was that I clicked on the Video Effects icon and found Colour Change and dragged this icon onto the clip. There are many different dials you can use to change colour. I chose the dial to add orange tinge. This came out successfully after using this.

 I also added the music to the film. Its working well sofar, but there may be changes to the music at one point but its working sofar

Filming the short drama. Now titled 'It Takes Time'

Recently I have been very busy filming the short drama I was intending on doing.

2nd of August

This is the date I started filming. The day went very well. But the thing I needed to improve was to keep focused. I filmed the first scene and the beginning of another. I found that I'm not going to shoot this film in order because scenes change from the bedroom, down the road near my house and the brook et. So we all figured that I shoot all the bedroom scenes together. Here are some photos of the shoot:

5th August

This is the second day of shooting. This I thought went much better because we all kept focused more. I needed to re shoot some angles because my younger brother had a hair cut, which means bad continuity. So the re filming went well and we finished another scene.

8th August

This day, I filmed a scene with my younger brother, cooking food in the kitchen for his mother. This went very well. A lot of the scene I did in one take. I filmed this with may different angles. I'm afraid I forgot to take photos of this shoot.


9th August

Third day of shooting. This is when I shot the last scene. Went very successfully. The last angle, I had to track very smoothly. Since I didn't have a dolly, we thought of an alternative. We tipped a shelving unit to its side, near the actor I wanted to film, so I can smoothly move the camera. To help this, we put a tea towel underneath for the smooth track.

Sorry for the late update

The equipment for my films are now collected and ready for use. Had connection problems to the computer but now it is sorted.

Recently, I have used the camera to shoot my younger brother's sports day event at his school, which was a success. Nearly finished the editing.

I have also filmed My younger brother's play and slide shows of the student's works. This was challenging because I constantly help the camera. This has got a few shakes, but hey that's the beauty of editing.

I have now finished the script of my drama and now doing amendments and preparing for filming.

For my horror, ideas are coming into place but concentration is needed on my drama first.

My new fun video and other plans for projets

Recently, I have made another video for fun. This time, it's a small tribute to the horror movie icons I love. The link to the video is down below

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezDjMZM6vrE

I am also writing a script on Drama film I'm planning on making. The story is about a young boy taking care of his mother, who suffers agoraphobia and paranoia. Treatment and theropy have not worked, so the young boy tries to help her himself.

I haven't come up with an idea for my Horror film yet. I'm concentrating on my Drama. Then I'll move to the next one. 

My Location Scout for my summer project

One day, my older brother came home from walking our dog and said to me, he went to a large, abandoned quarry with many run down where houses. He said it would be perfect for a film location and wanted to take me there at one point.

I recently went down there and I have to say that there are possibilities that I can film down there. I have to go with my brother's opinion, it's fantastic. I now have to start thinking of what to film there.

Here are some images of the location I took with my camera: