Week 1 FMP
In this lesson we continued to finish off our Unit 12 work and i was putting the finishing touches to my power-point that pairs up with my essay “the evolution of shot composition and camera movement” i also got some images of the internet and put them in my essay to give it a bit more depth and visual stimulation.
Week 1 FMP
Today we started formulating ideas and made brainstorms on details in our productions. This included things like
- Cast
- Script
- Channel it would be featured on
- Lighting
- Budget
- Synopsis
- Reason for making production (why you chose the subject matter)
We then started writing our Project proposal form. This is a list of all the details for the production including details about the bullet points.
I said that I wanted to create my short film around the idea of crime and how it affects people in different ways. But the main idea that I want to portray is that turning to crime is never a good idea as the repercussions always out way the reward.
My idea for the story so far is about a man who is virtually unemployable as he has no qualifications and lives at home with his parents. He has no real way of making money so decides to rent a gun off someone he found online.
The next day he decides to use it on an innocent person this mugging attempted turns into a botched one as his plan quickly goes wrong.
Week 2 FMP
Today I created my storyboard for my recreation piece. This meant writing how I would create the shot and the location I would use. I then accompanied this with pictures such as screen shots from the scene and pictures o the locations I would use.
I then helped my peers create their recreation project. They were re-creating a scene from the same film as my project. This scene was directed around the height of a conflict between two characters as they both pull a gun on each other, and the camera dolly’s towards the face of another frightened actor who gives his reaction shot. This shot is also in black and white, which can be done in post production.
The production went quite well as the first couple takes were interrupted by a shaky camera and members of the public walking past but the shoot was successful in the end.
Week 3 FMP
In this lesson we showed our recreation films. All of the class was quite good at re-creating films shot for shot and good at syncing up footage. I showed mine and I was given the feedback below.
- A steadier zoom
- The actors needed to mimics the original performance’s in a more accurate way
- The colour grading was really accurate.
- The location was well matched and looked very similar to original footage bearing in mind they are both in two different city’s.
Other people’s films were really good but seemed to suffer from the same problem of shaky shots. This was interesting as a dolly was needed in a lot of them but people seemed to compensate by working on their camera technique.
All in all I think the feedback really helped, as now I know what I would of done differently and also did a good job of isolating the problem so I know in future projects what to work on and prepare for.
Week 4 FMP
In this week we presented our powerpoint presentations to the class and received feedback on them.
I thought my presentation went quite well and my presentation skills were good enough to get my point and idea across with a significant level of detail. The question and answer section of the presentation is arguably the most important part in my eyes and the audience have the chance to challenge your ideas and gain an insight into smaller details in your production that they are curious about.
The students are open to making notes during the question and answer section as they can write down things that they would like to address in there presentations and minor details they would like to give more contextual structure on.
Week 5 FMP
In this day we sat down and started to write our brainstorm and mind map for our final project idea. This included details about
- Casting
- Lighting
- Story
- locations
- Costumes
- Narrative Structure
- Inspiration
- Editing Style
We then created a mood board of all of your different inspirations for the project and things we have taken styles from.
Week 6
In this lesson we were still formulating ideas and constructing a major PowerPoint that we would pitch to the class, this would include all of the minor details of our production such as script, cast, production length, budget, and locations. Locations were really important for me as I wanted somewhere that look gritty also with enough lighting to film. I chose a couple locations such as the Barbican, trellick Tower, and London Bridge. I chose these because they look quite pretty but also appear very striking on screen, because of the brutalist architecture. I chose pretty standard Street wear for the characters to have on, to push the point that most crimes are committed by people you would least expect therefore I have to dress them in quite plain clothing.
Week 7
In this lesson I started doing basic storyboarding for different shots of my production, I also formed a very basic screenplay for me to change with much ease as I formulate new ideas. There are definitely some seems I know I’m going to make the Final Cut, one of these is the opening scene where the main protagonist turns off his alarm clock in the morning, I want the striking sound of the alarm clock to be the first thing that the audience hear, as it’s quite an uncomfortable and stressing noise, also these emotions match the final project very well which is why I’m using them. I also created a mood board with different codes and conventions that featured heavily in the drama thriller genre. I will be learning from as all the best movies in the genre have these in them. I’m not looking to copy this Productions but only make them to a standard that I see fit, in order to pay homage to the genre.
Week 8
In this week I just finished filming, it took me around a day and a half and I followed my original screenplay very heavily, I noticed that the more planning you do in advance the far easier the production goes, in terms of creativity and time management. I created the shots perfectly in a way that I imagined them, and left minor little details that I wasn’t happy with but I couldn’t fix down to editing. I also made sure that after eye colour black and white the lighting would look good as this is a very easy mistake to make.
Week 9
In this lesson I just finished editing. Of the trimmings down of a footage to the exactly millimetre that I was happy with I then create an adjustment layer of the black bars at the top and bottom of the screen, this was to give it the Cinematic feel now was hoping for when I first started the brief, I also then colour graded everything into black and white, as this was one of my original ideas that I wanted from the start. All in all I am very happy with the general look at the production. There are minor details here and there but I am not happy with such as minor storytelling problems, but I think all of these can be ignored.
Week 10 FMP
Today we made audience reaction sheets so we can present them at a later date when we show our final major project. We labeled different categories such as camera work, directing and acting skills. We then labelled options such as great to poor, so when we show our productions we know what to improve on.
We then moved on to pre production work where we created production call sheets and production schedules. Using these when we film really help us create a better quality of work and generally make the production go far smoother.
A created a detailed shot plan/screenplay which helped a lot during the production as i already had a clear vision of all the shots and sequences i was going to produce. This makes you film in a more controlled manor and makes you choose your locations more efficiently when planning your route.
Week 11
Today was a lesson to finish anything that is outstanding. I started continuing to edit my FMP “Risk and Reward”. I was trimming bits and pieces and generally making the editing pace go a bit smoother. I originally had about 5 minutes of film and i managed to edit that down in to about 2 minutes and 50 seconds, i am happy with this length as it just is in the perfect size that was in the brief.
Week 12
In today’s lesson we printed off our audience reaction sheets in the style of a survey. We printed off 20 copys and made sure everyone had one in the class. We then put our FMP projects on the main computer and took turns presenting ours and giving everyone the chance to give feedback. I was unsure of how mine would look when it was played on the big screen. But when i saw it on the projected on the board i thought the video quality looked really good and the shots were really crisp.
Milo Cunningham 