Construction Post 10: Looking back - reflections on our final outcome

After having completed the production and post-production stages, I am pleased with how our project has progressed significantly throughout. We managed to successfully solve any lighting issues (by filming earlier in the day in a particular corridor) and connote the genre and narrative of the film through dialogue, music, iconography and setting. The development of the project has been the most time-consuming during editing as we had to be aware of continuity principles and make sure our representations of character were evident. The editing process also involved a lot of group discussions to confirm that each of us approved the changes we made to the edit.

We hope our audience will recognise and appreciate the niche social groups that the film aims to represent, and reflect on their own experience in high school. Hopefully, the audience will infer the genre of the film from the opening sequence and be drawn to watch as the narrative of Arthur's experience in a new school unfolds.

Although, difficult aspects of production were managing a large group of actors while setting up camera equipment and adapting our skills all aspects of editing (so we would each have an equal input into the project). I am pleased with how we worked as a team in making decisions and agreeing on ideas for the benefit of the project as a whole. In hindsight I would have planned more time for us to experiment with shots and camerawork, as this would have allowed us to produce better framing for the shots. We could have also paid more attention to actor continuity between shots, however this was difficult due to the large cast and a lot of movement in the background. If it had been possible, we would have shot the corridor scene early at the weekend to take advantage of the lighting, but the location was unavailable at that time. We got on well as a group and made compromises to make the final outcome better overall.

We decided to change the name of our film to "New Guy" during Edit Week 2.

Construction Post 9: My technical learning curve (production and post-production)

Each of us contributed to every aspect of production and post-production. For the test shoots and main shoots, I was mostly responsible for camera work and organising set design, props and costume. In order to complete our edit efficiently and to the best of our abilities, we worked both individually and as a group to come up with more creative ideas.

Setting up camera equipment after having designed the set:

After the Prelim, I knew how to use Premiere Pro in order to cut down shots and show continuity. However, the project has largely improved my skills in grading and adding other effects (audio, music, voiceover). I learnt much more from editing in particular, as we had a very limited time to complete our final edit, therefore we had to work quickly and adapt our ideas throughout. Watching YouTube tutorials on how to edit the footage made it much easier to use Premiere Pro despite having little confidence at the beginning of Edit Week 1. I learnt how to record and add soundtrack to the sequence during Edit Week 2, which I had no prior experience of from the Prelim. However, I would have liked to have been more involved in sorting out audio effects more.

Colour correcting and grading tutorial:

To alter colour tints, drag the mouse from the centre of the wheel away from the unwanted colour of the shot:

Gift and I creating titles to add to our sequence

Recording voiceovers for the opening shot

Furthermore, the filming process taught me a lot about managing a shoot involving several actors and working together as a team to show leadership. It has been useful to recognise the importance of planning shoots well in advance, and sticking to a shoot/edit schedule and group meetings in order to complete work in time. Some of the shots we had planned were much more difficult to film in practice, therefore prior test shoots and rehearsals were crucial.

Construction Post 8: My personal contribution to the Edit Sessions

In terms of editing, I enjoyed working individually and as a team in choosing the best footage, cutting the shots down, and adding sound effects and titles.

During Edit Week 2, I chose the font for our titles which connote the genre well in my opinion. I made a list of several options for fonts that were appropriate, which we narrowed down once we had discussed as a group which font was the most suitable for our target audience.

I also graded some shots including the corridor tracking shot (by lowering the brightness, and increasing the contrast and saturation) to make the shots more compelling and eye-catching. As a group we completed grading the first scenes and checking that the colour tints were similar throughout. I also organised the shots into folders to make it quicker and easier to locate the best footage. Amber and I created the logo for our production company (EGA) using Photoshop.

EGA Production Company logo

Gift and I choosing fonts for our titles

 Creating the titles (including changing the style/effects/timing of titles)

I enjoyed learning to grade individual shots and cutting down footage to produce a finished sequence. The post-production stage has significantly improved my editing skills, however I would have liked to have done more in editing the voiceovers and sound effects. I am much more confident in getting on with the project as I have learnt many more technical skills in Premiere Pro (such as using the three-way colour corrector and producing the split-screen effect). Although, some areas to improve would be checking shots to make sure of continuity issues and cutting down the shots to better timings.

Before/after examples of grading:

We had to make sure we changed the colour of each shot equally so that they matched throughout the sequence.

Construction Post 7: My personal contributions to the Shoot Sessions

For the school corridor shoot, I was in charge of managing the large group of actors and making sure they were in costume in time for filming. I was also acting in the corridor tracking shot, and organised the order of shots with the shoot-board. To make sure that our iconography and representations were clear, I set up the props in the classroom prior to the shoot.

Reflections: our group worked well as a team, as we were each delegated different responsibilities according to if we were acting in it or not, so that filming would be more efficient. Amber, Gift and I were able to view the footage after each take to make sure we all approved of the shot. We were able to discuss our thoughts on each take and agree on whether the framing or camera movements were effective. (The camera was too close-up in some of the earlier shots). Working as a team was difficult at times as both Gift and I were acting in the sequence, but the process was much easier when we each had to be responsible for different aspects of filming. Each of us had an equal input on aspects of the shooting that we wanted to change, and we communicated well throughout the shoot session. However, we had to remind our actors to be conscious of other events in school at the same time, and appreciate their patience during the shoot.

For the shoot inside the house, I was responsible for setting up the filming location to include representations of our genre, and I also filmed some of the final shots (Arthur getting out of bed, picking up keys, walking through hallway).

Amber and I directing the first scene:

Reflections: This shoot was much more time-consuming because we had to film several shots, but we were more prepared as we only had one actor to manage. Each of us took turns at filming and reviewed the takes to find any errors in framing/lighting/continuity. I noticed that some of the shots for the split-screen were too close-up, which we corrected in the next shots. As none of our group were acting for this shoot, we were able to assess whether the shots were match on action or not, while they were being filmed. This made filming much quicker, as we did not need to repeat takes several times. As a group, we supported each other in delegating responsibilities and making decisions that would give us better footage.

Our group setting up camera equipment

Behind the scenes footage of setting up equipment and dressing the set (I included clothes, a backpack and a basketball to the set design to show representations of character)

Construction Post 6: Reflections on Edit Week 2

Schedule for Edit Week 2:

EGA - group meeting

E - Ela

G - Gift

A - Amber

Our second week of editing has been more useful in developing our project as we have added titles, and made sure that the soundtrack and sound effects are at the correct timings. We also created a voiceover of one of our actors as the role of Arthur's mother (in opening shot). Using the microphone and headphones, we recorded this dialogue from behind a closed door to give the effect of his mother shouting to him from downstairs. This is much more successful than the voiceover that we recorded for the rough cut, as it is much more realistic and appears to come from further away.

After completing the cut, we altered the music and sound effects so that they would match the action in each shot. We also included transitions to make the sequence more effective and realistic.

As we had completed our cut, the next stage was grading, in which we altered the brightness, contrast and saturation of the footage to give the intended effect of the genre. Below shows the grading process, including the three-way colour corrector which allowed us to fix any issues with colour (for example, we removed yellow and blue tints from the corridor shots, and we made the shots in the house more saturated). This tutorial assisted us in navigating the colour corrector on Premiere Pro and how to use it. The lower image below demonstrates how we were able to shift the colour away from other colour tints which were not effective for the particular shot.

For titles, we chose the font 'Brain Flower' as it matched our style of film and was effective in connoting the teen comedy genre. (It is similar to the informal font used in "Juno")

Reflections: Overall this week was more productive than last week, as we knew the changes we planned to make once we had completed cutting the shots. The grading process was the most challenging because our shots varied in terms of the lighting and contrast, however our project has developed significantly as the changes we made to the grading clearly connote the teen film genre. We managed to find extra time before and after school in order to complete the editing process which was useful in evaluating our decisions about titles and grading. However, to improve our final outcome we could have added the voiceovers before Edit Week 2, which would have saved time for other priorities such as grading.

Amber, Gift and I grading the final scenes

Construction Post 5: The Back-Up Shoot

As most of the shots from our main shoot in the house have errors/could be improved, we will have a back-up shoot the following weekend.

Re-takes:

• First shot waking up in the morning: Arthur should appear more tired, rubs eyes before getting out of bed
• Picking up clothes from the floor: it should be clearer that he is trying to find his clean clothes, and the camera angle should be higher up
• Brushing teeth: mid-shot rather than a close-up (to fit in the split screen) 
• Addition of extra shot of Arthur putting on jacket (for right hand side of split screen)
• Walking along hallway to front door: Arthur should shout "bye Mum" before opening door, then exit house

Even though these are minor mistakes, it is worth re-shooting the first half of the sequence as these errors could impact the project as a whole and make the sequence less representative of a teen comedy film.

Reflections: Prior to the back-up shoot we noted down the changes we planned to make, which meant that we spent significantly less time re-filming the shots. The new footage is much more effective and the sequence appears more professional and well-thought. We were more organised for shooting, and the issues with framing have been reduced as much as possible. Our shots in the school corridor were acceptable, and no back-up shoot was needed due to the difficulty using the set between 4 and 6pm and unavailability of actors. Overall the back-up shoot gave us significantly improved shots in terms of actor continuity and framing.

1. 

2. 

We replaced our take from the main shoot (1) with the shot 2, as Arthur's dialogue is more effective before opening the door. We also panned the camera further left so that the hallway would be in the centre of the shot. 

Arthur now appears more tired when waking up:

The split screen shots are now more suitably framed (mid-shots) as they did not show much background and were too close-up in the first shoot:

Construction Post 4: Reflections on Edit Week 1

First we created an edit schedule to make sure that we were organised and efficient in producing an edited sequence. We aimed to meet at least once a day as a group (excluding individual work) to finalize our ideas and check that each of us agreed with the decisions made and progress to the project.

Having completed both main shoots, we uploaded our footage to Adobe Premiere Pro and watched it to select the best shots and find any possible errors. So far, as a group we have placed the most effective shots in order on the timeline and cut them to the appropriate timings. We have also created a logo for our production company (EGA), added it to the start of the sequence and re-organised our music and sound effects to fit the new footage.

Our footage has been added in to the timings of our template from our animatic:

It is beginning to look more organised as we have placed the footage we will not use in separate folders and organised our sound effects/soundtracks.

Despite minor errors in actors' movements, we have not come across any continuity errors while editing. After viewing the shots inside the house on the split-screen, we have decided a back up shoot is necessary as the framing is too close on certain shots (brushing teeth/putting on jacket). The split screen allowed us to distinguish between useful shots and ones that did not match each other.

We noticed that the titles must be re-positioned in order to appear in sync with the music and shots creatively. In addition, we will include a voiceover of the headteacher speaking to Arthur, as the room in which the final shot was filmed does not deliver audio or dialogue clearly.

Above: sound effects for a school corridor to add to our sequence

During our scheduled editing sessions, we have already uploaded the correct footage into the timeline and cut most of it down to the set timings. Voiceovers, transitions and other audio effects must be added, but this will be done once all of our shots have been cut and demonstrate continuity.

We encountered a few difficulties with the split-screen, as it cut-off some of Arthur's movements (as the framing was too close). By altering the angle shown in each screen, we managed to make the shot turn to follow Arthur's movements completely. As demonstrated by the image below ("127 Hours"), we aimed to have Arthur in the centre of each split-screen as the camera moves to follow his actions. The YouTube tutorial below assisted us in creating the split screen image in our sequence.

We have been efficient in arriving on time to our meetings and edit sessions in order for the project to develop. Our priorities from this point are to begin grading and creating a font for our titles. 

Construction Post 3: Reflections on our Main Shoot Session

Shoot 1: corridor scene

Overall, our main shoot in the school corridor went well as we produced at least 4 effective versions of the corridor tracking shot and managed to finish at the scheduled time. Although it was difficult to manage all of the actors, we had a better understanding of how we would film each shot, making the process much easier and more efficient. 

We were organised in making sure the actors were appropriately dressed and bringing props to the set, which we had not planned for the test shoot. We required many more takes during the main shoot than the test shoot however, as there were more actors to manage and we had to be certain that our shots matched each other. Fortunately, there were no major issues with lighting as we were organised and made sure our tracking shot was complete by 5:30pm. We filmed additional versions of the tracking shot so that we would have a variation of different camera techniques that we had not considered for the test shoot. It was particularly challenging to make sure that the continuity of the actor's movements was correct, and to finish the shoot before it went dark.

Although, we had to consider other factors which could have affected the shots such as: 

1. The sound of the dolly moving across the floor

2. Camera angles (sticking to the 180 degree and 30 degree continuity rules)

3. Background noise on set

4. Disruptions in filming (other students walking along the corridor)

5. Changes in lighting outdoors (between 4 and 6pm)

6. Continuity of actors' movements between shots

The camera angles, pans and tracking shots were far easier during the main shoot as the tripod and dolly allowed us to control camera movement easily. After having watched the shots prior to editing, we have decided on several takes that will be useful for our project, as there were no continuity errors and the effect of the iconography in the shots conveys our genre well. The background noise of the dolly was not noticeable and the conversation/ambience of the corridor made the scene appear more realistic. We decided a re-shoot was not necessary for this scene.

Behind the scenes 

Stills from the corridor scene

During our main shoot, none of the actors were looking directly at the camera (which occurred in our rough cut, making it less realistic):

Responses to our shoot:

Shoot 2: house scene

The second shoot inside the house took much longer than expected, as there were several shots to film and we had to consider framing (the set was smaller and it was difficult to film mid-shots/long-shots). However, the takes that we produced were effective, and we managed to shoot at difficult angles.

We started filming earlier this time (9am) to take advantage of the light and added extra shots to the shoot-board to give us a variety of angles to edit. There were a few minor errors with most of the shots (particularly with framing and choreography), therefore we decided that a re-shoot would be necessary the following week-end. However, we did manage to alter some previous issues that we encountered in the test shoot, such as Arthur picking up his bag in the hallway, and taking the juice bottle from the fridge. These were our main priorities after having reviewed and discussed the footage from the test shoot. Some shots were removed from the shoot-board as they were irrelevant and not useful for the split screen. Overall, we were pleased with the lighting that morning and there was no background noise in the house, so dialogue could be heard clearly.

The changes we have decided to make for the re-shoot are:

1. Arthur taking a juice carton from the fridge rather than an apple
2. Camera will be further from Arthur when filming the bathroom scenes (wider framing)
3. Include picking up his bag from the hallway on the way out
4. Appear more tired when waking up
5. Consider the lighting of shots
6. Arthur turns around to say "Bye mum" before leaving the house

Stills from our best footage

In terms of framing and action, this was our most effective shot as it connoted Arthur's exhaustion while showing the key iconography in his room:

Construction Post 2: Our Post-Production Kit

For post-production, we will use a software called Adobe Premiere Pro to edit the footage from our main shoot. We also used this software when editing our rough cut and producing our animatic. It is relatively easy to use and will allow us to add shots, music and titles to our sequence.

Format of Premiere Pro:

• The timeline at the bottom of the screen is where we will drag the footage and cut it down (if necessary). We will also add music, titles, sound effects and voiceovers here so that they can be in the sequence at the same time. 
• Included on the timeline is the soundscape, in which we will place our music, sound effects and voiceovers (both diegetic and non-diegetic sound).
• The top left hand corner shows where we will create our folders to distinguish between the good and bad footage. It also will help us to organise the shots according to when they will occur in the sequence. Our music and audio effects will be in separate folders.
• The screen above the folders allows us to preview each shot without having to watch them all to decide which one to use for our sequence. The larger screen on the right shows the progress of the project so far, so that we can check that our editing techniques and continuity principles are correct.

Our edit suite:

 The timeline on Premiere Pro (top half consists of video tracks including titles, bottom half includes soundtrack and audio effects):

 Microphone and speakers used to record voiceovers:

Construction Post 1: Our Production Kit

Equipment we will use in the production/filming of our sequence:

• Canon Legria HFD30 (microphone attached) 

The microphone produces better quality dialogue and diegetic sound. We are able to test the sound during filming using the headphones attached.

• Tripod (to adjust the height/framing of our shots)

• Headphones (to hear camera sound while filming)

• Dolly (to move tripod around for corridor tracking shot)

  

• Microphone (produces clearer sound than on camera)
• Camera battery and charger
• Memory card
• Shoot-board (includes order of shots, to make filming quicker and easier)
• Clapper board (will make it easier to organise our scenes and takes during the editing process)

The clapperboard makes it easier to identify shots after having uploaded the footage onto the computer.