Production Diary
Filming - Day 1 - Goldstone Crescent, Dunstable
On the 19th November, Connor and I went to my house, located at Goldstone Crescent in Dunstable. We had the plan to film all of the indoor scenes, which included locations in the kitchen, the hallway, the living room and the bedroom. I played the role of the main character throughout this session, whilst Connor was in charge of the camera and he also doubled up as the director.
We did not get every shot finished that day, because so much preparation was needed to set up correct camera angles and lighting. This means we will have to carry on filming in this location during the weekend (22-23rd November) to complete the shots. We did not shoot in chronological order to improve efficiency, instead filming all necessary shots in the same scene all at once before moving to another.
 |
| Our camera set-up consisted of a Miranda tripod, tripod dolly, external microphone, pop filter, a Canon SX270 HS and a laptop to accompany the microphone |
 |
| Our set-up in the kitchen alongside two of the four softboxes we had to provide sufficient lighting. The back softbox was on a chair to act as the overhead lighting. |
Filming - Day 2 - Goldstone Crescent, Dunstable
On the 22nd November, Connor and I continued to film our production. After finishing the hallway and the kitchen scenes, we planned to complete all filming in the household by this day. To complete everything we had to film all scenes in the hosue. Once again, Connor acted as the cameraman. However, we both played equal roles in the deciding of camera placement, the lighting, the duration and the overall mise en scene to make sure we both had equal amounts of work to do.
Everything in the house was completed by mid-afternoon; however not all of the filming was completed. We still need to do the opening montage, and a scene outdoors in the public park. This does mean that we will still need some time to continue filming, but these shots aren't as extensive as the indoor shots.
 |
| Example image of us filming in the upstairs hallway. At this point, Connor was instructing me on what shot was next. |
Filming - Day 3 - Manshead School
On the 26th November, we decided to re-film our green screen scene again as the previous attempt at Goldstone Crescent resulted in an iffy edit. The problem we had was the camera was not picking up enough of the green, and so the editing suite had a hard time calculating what to remove and what to keep. For this particular scene, I was the camera person and the controller of the lighting.
We had a small initial issue of getting the lighting in the correct place at first, as we wanted to eliminate shadows as much as possible. Once we did get the lighting to an agreeable standard, the scene itself only took a short while to film, as it was relatively easy to perform..
Putting aside the time it took to correct the lighting, this was a simple shot to perform, so we had little to no problems. The main challenge will arise when it comes to editing and adding on the special effects this green screen section is intended to provide.
Production Log
As mentioned in the production diary, some of the shots we filmed did not quite go to plan. The biggest problem we faced was that some of our shots were too dark. This is an issue to us as the shots were meant to be set in daylight. To get around this issue, I went on Premiere Pro CS6 and applied colour correction.
The clip I decided to experiment on was MVI_0273.MP4 - or the scene where Andrew makes himself a cup of tea. The biggest problem we had with it was the lighting was too dark and the colours were subsequently washed out. Here is what the original footage looked like:
As you can see, the white mug is clear enough to the audience, but its surroundings are too dark to look like natural daylight. For example, the cherry pattern to the right hand side of the mug is almost indistinguishable to the audience due to darkness.
To fix this, I had to drag the offending video onto the timeline, and then open up the 'effects' tab. From there, I dropped down 'Video Effects', then 'Color Correction' and finally 'Fast Color Correction'. This brings me up a control panel once I click 'Effect Controls'.
Firstly, I wanted to sort the brightness video out. To do this, I had to point out the darkest point of the video and the whitest part with a paint dropper. After the darkest and brightest points had been selected, 'Input Levels' became usable with an easy-to-use slider. To brighten the video up, I had to slide the dot to the right. This brightened the video as planned, but left the colours even more washed out.
The next thing to do was to use Fast Color Corrector again and adjust the colouring of the scene itself. The main plan was to remove the washed out effect that the artificial brightness has given. I managed to adjust the colouring of the scene by increasing the saturation of the scene and slightly increasing the colour wheel to make it biased to the reds. This brought out the cherry pattern on the table-top and the reds on the mug; the item the audience is meant to be concentrating on. It doesn't look any more vivid than the original clip, but I didn't want to overdo the saturation to the point where the video may end up looking unnatural.
Here was the end result:
Making Special Effects
For the special effects, Connor was predominately in charge. While he was making the special effects, I took over the editing to make sure we were as efficient as possible. Special effects are important in our opening sequence for a maximum professional look.
Special Effects – Post Production from Connor Michie
To sort this issue out, we have settled with the plan to change the plot slightly in a way that it still works without changing a vast majority of the production. This action was taken because of the limited time we have left. If we had more time on our hands, we would seriously consider finding a brand new location and starting from scratch again. The decision was tough, but we felt it would be more effective to improve and slightly alter something we already have rather than rush a new production in the space of 5 days from filming to the final edit.
Instead of Andrew moving into his new apartment for a fresh start, the plot will change so that Andrew still lives with his parents in his parents' home, but his father had passed away a few years ago (creating the source of anxiety) and his mother has travelled to another country to look after a dying relative; she believes he is old enough to overcome his anxiety and look after himself for a few days. This subtle plot change means his character development will not have to change at all, and the idea of being nervous on his own in the house still makes complete sense.
However, this doesn't mean the whole production can go unchanged. In order to gain the most marks, we will change even the most minor details such as deleting the part where Andrew picks up the 'good luck' cards. The opening sequence voice over will also be changed to fit the new plot. The new voice over can be seen in the 'Planning' tab of this blog.
First Draft
Responding to Feedback (Mise En Scene)
Shortly after exporting our first draft, we received feedback. This feedback has highlighted some issues that our first draft had, but one particular issue caught our eye, and it was from the mise en scene. Here is what the feedback said:
"The house used does not match the character you have described in your planning or hinted at through the dialogue included in the scene. Better to film in drearier/more sparse surroundings which better reflect the character's Bachelor status and low mental state"If we are to completely overcome this problem, we would have to refilm the whole footage again in a completely new location. It would after all be extremely inefficient and rather unrealistic to start with a fresh canvas all over again.
To sort this issue out, we have settled with the plan to change the plot slightly in a way that it still works without changing a vast majority of the production. This action was taken because of the limited time we have left. If we had more time on our hands, we would seriously consider finding a brand new location and starting from scratch again. The decision was tough, but we felt it would be more effective to improve and slightly alter something we already have rather than rush a new production in the space of 5 days from filming to the final edit.
Instead of Andrew moving into his new apartment for a fresh start, the plot will change so that Andrew still lives with his parents in his parents' home, but his father had passed away a few years ago (creating the source of anxiety) and his mother has travelled to another country to look after a dying relative; she believes he is old enough to overcome his anxiety and look after himself for a few days. This subtle plot change means his character development will not have to change at all, and the idea of being nervous on his own in the house still makes complete sense.
However, this doesn't mean the whole production can go unchanged. In order to gain the most marks, we will change even the most minor details such as deleting the part where Andrew picks up the 'good luck' cards. The opening sequence voice over will also be changed to fit the new plot. The new voice over can be seen in the 'Planning' tab of this blog.
Title Development
Our production features two graphical titles; one for the name of the movie, and one for the production studio. Connor and I decided to split the work between us, and so Connor worked on the titles, whereas I focused on the graphic for the production company. We decided to base our production company logo around a popular Hollywood production company in order for it to look conventional for a film of a major genre. The title was created on a application called 'Cinema 4D', since Adobe After Effects did not have the necessary tools to create what we desired.
Our production title for Paranormal Mind was created on After Effects. We chose murky colours and a suitable font in order for it to be conventional to the thriller genre. We added dispersing animation to the text in order for it to reflect the supernatural theme of our production, and conventional music to support the tense scene that the audience had just encountered before the titles appeared. When put together, we believe that our titles have been a success in terms of fitting in with the rest of the opening sequence and fitting to the thriller movie genre.
Post Production Diary Log
On the 10th December, we had already exported our first draft of our video. It was met with an equal amount of praise and constructive criticism. Since receiving feedback about a week ago, Connor and I have been working to fine-tune the video in order to get the best grade possible.
Following criticism that some of the colour correction was inconsistent and inaccurate, we made the decision to remove some of the offending clips and replace them with new clips that are aimed to be recorded at Saturday 13th or Sunday 14th December. Before the clips have been filmed, we have taken the liberty to remove the clips and replace them with a blank screen to easily mark what sections need to be re-filmed.
We had to get this video from 10 minutes of raw footage down to about 3 minutes, in order for it to be recognisable as an opening sequence and subsequently conventional to the target audience. This was achieved by cutting out all of the outtakes in our shots. Connor and I had a filming style where we would keep the camera rolling even after a mistake until we got it correct. This meant that some clips that we only needed 10 seconds of were pushing to be several minutes in length. We used the red trim tool in order for us to get the part we desired.
28th November 2014, Friday
Today, the titles were completed on After Effects. The aim was to try and resemble a 'twisted mind' as much as possible. Therefore, we used a clouded effect to possibly convey the concept of confusion. To get the colours we wanted, the hue and saturation were played around with a lot, a deep lens flare was added and we also used turbulant displace.
Music used to accompany this was Bent and Broken by Kevin MacLeod. This is a dark and mysterious music piece and fits well with the gloomy, dark titles and the thriller genre of our opening sequence overall.
12th December 2014, Friday
This is the day before we plan to film clips that do need to be re-filmed. We have tweaked with the footage we currently have with us today, including changing the background music for the title graphics from Bent and Broken to The Complex, both by Kevin MacLeod from incompetech.com.
Furthermore, the graphic for our production opening is currently rendering on my home computer, using an application called Cinema 4D. This is a very detailed file and takes 12 hours to render a 15 second clip using the .avi format.
13th December 2014, Saturday
The render of the production opening was completed after leaving it overnight at about 11am. From about midday, Connor and I got busy with filming scenes we didn't have time to film before, and then re-filming the rougher parts where there may be autofocus issues and so on.
Overall, we were filming for eight hours until 8pm. In that time, we managed to film all of the outdoor scenes, re-filmed the most disappointing parts of the first draft, and started to film the opening montage, but then the batteries failed. By the time the batteries were re-charged, it was too dark outside to film.
This means that overall we didn't quite film everything we wanted to. However, this was simply because we ran out of time. Should we have another opportunity, we will get more filmed.
15th December 2014, Monday
Today, we are putting together the new footage along with the original clips we had. The new footage will be added, along with the footage we didn't quite have the time to re-film. If we have the opportunity, we will probably re-film as much of the house scenes as possible. We chose to focus on the footage that wasn't even filmed yet, though. This new footage was crucial to give the story of Paranormal Mind some sense; it is desperately needed as many complained that the plot was a bit confusing.
17th December 2014, Wednesday
Today, we filmed one final part for the production. This is footage of Andrew walking to his parent's house looking thoughtful (the voice over will be dubbed over to connote deep thinking to himself), to be placed at the very start of the opening sequence. This was originally intended to be filmed on the 13th December, but the camera's battery went flat and wouldn't charge in time before it got dark outside. Conditions were overcast today, but the camera still picked up a good picture and no obvious noise that you may find in darker scenes.
Following criticism that some of the colour correction was inconsistent and inaccurate, we made the decision to remove some of the offending clips and replace them with new clips that are aimed to be recorded at Saturday 13th or Sunday 14th December. Before the clips have been filmed, we have taken the liberty to remove the clips and replace them with a blank screen to easily mark what sections need to be re-filmed.
28th November 2014, Friday
Today, the titles were completed on After Effects. The aim was to try and resemble a 'twisted mind' as much as possible. Therefore, we used a clouded effect to possibly convey the concept of confusion. To get the colours we wanted, the hue and saturation were played around with a lot, a deep lens flare was added and we also used turbulant displace.
Music used to accompany this was Bent and Broken by Kevin MacLeod. This is a dark and mysterious music piece and fits well with the gloomy, dark titles and the thriller genre of our opening sequence overall.
This is the day before we plan to film clips that do need to be re-filmed. We have tweaked with the footage we currently have with us today, including changing the background music for the title graphics from Bent and Broken to The Complex, both by Kevin MacLeod from incompetech.com.
Furthermore, the graphic for our production opening is currently rendering on my home computer, using an application called Cinema 4D. This is a very detailed file and takes 12 hours to render a 15 second clip using the .avi format.
13th December 2014, Saturday
The render of the production opening was completed after leaving it overnight at about 11am. From about midday, Connor and I got busy with filming scenes we didn't have time to film before, and then re-filming the rougher parts where there may be autofocus issues and so on.
Overall, we were filming for eight hours until 8pm. In that time, we managed to film all of the outdoor scenes, re-filmed the most disappointing parts of the first draft, and started to film the opening montage, but then the batteries failed. By the time the batteries were re-charged, it was too dark outside to film.
 |
| Softbox lights were more strategically placed this time to make sure they weren't in the frame. |
This means that overall we didn't quite film everything we wanted to. However, this was simply because we ran out of time. Should we have another opportunity, we will get more filmed.
15th December 2014, Monday
Today, we are putting together the new footage along with the original clips we had. The new footage will be added, along with the footage we didn't quite have the time to re-film. If we have the opportunity, we will probably re-film as much of the house scenes as possible. We chose to focus on the footage that wasn't even filmed yet, though. This new footage was crucial to give the story of Paranormal Mind some sense; it is desperately needed as many complained that the plot was a bit confusing.
17th December 2014, Wednesday
Today, we filmed one final part for the production. This is footage of Andrew walking to his parent's house looking thoughtful (the voice over will be dubbed over to connote deep thinking to himself), to be placed at the very start of the opening sequence. This was originally intended to be filmed on the 13th December, but the camera's battery went flat and wouldn't charge in time before it got dark outside. Conditions were overcast today, but the camera still picked up a good picture and no obvious noise that you may find in darker scenes.
Second Draft
This draft contained parts of the opening sequence that we simply didn't have time for to complete in the first draft. The outdoor scenes were considered by Connor and I to be particularly successful, but it came at a cost. Unfortunately, the new scenes added vast amounts of time to our productions, which was a worry. Also, there was some focus and mise en scene issues that would still have to be addressed in the next draft.
Third Draft
Our third draft was by far the most drastic change to our production. Length was shortened, mise en scene was improved and the colours were more consistent. A few simple things needed tweaking, and they were completed for our fourth draft.
This draft is a very subtle change from the third draft. Improvements include:
- White noise removal
- Added a new scene at the end of the video to remove the trailer looking effect
- Reduced volume of some sounds to make the audio more linear
Fourth Draft
- White noise removal
- Added a new scene at the end of the video to remove the trailer looking effect
- Reduced volume of some sounds to make the audio more linear
Fifth Draft
Our intended final draft has had some final tweaks included in order to remove a trailer style from it. We made some changes so that the film looks like it could naturally carry on without coming to a close.
No comments:
Post a Comment