Preliminary Task Post-Production Blog

Before we could start editing our footage, we needed to 'check-out' our footage from the final cut server. This is done by choosing check-out and then change the setting to Edit Proxy after which it will take some time to upload the information. When you are done with editing, you need to remember to check the footage back into the Final Cut Server.

While Editing it is very important to concentrate on continuity editing, otherwise your
Film will look unrealistic and will throw the audience off. In our situation our continuity wasn’t very well, as neither us nor our actors remembered to think about hands and hair being the same in every shot, so for example in one shot wells, our actor, had his hands in his pockets in the other he didn’t, so to hide this fact, we didn’t use the over-the-shoulder shot and instead moved to the close up, as this then cut out the hands, so you couldn’t see the continuity error. Another way we used continuity was on a match on action when character A is walking out of the door in a wide shot and then we cut to a close up of his hand grabbing the door handle. We cut it so that you can see his hand moving towards the door handle in the wide shot and then cut to his hand about the same distance away grabbing it.  In the film language we chose to concentrate on a Rubik’s cube as the important thing character A was trying to get character B to finish. To show the importance we had a walk in on to character B fiddling with it. In other ways that we used continuity was the 180 degree rule and eye line match on the Rubik’s cube.


As soon as the raw footage is uploaded it is placed in the Rushes, which you then have to cut into the separate scenes and after you have distinguished which scenes you think can be useful in the actual short film you then place these into the Log-Bin which is on the left hand side of the screen. The rest of the screen is covered by two video windows in which you can see the raw shot (the middle) and the edited version (the left)and underneath all of this is a time line onto which you must drag your videos, cut them, etc.

It is very important to choose the correct shots for you Log bin. Make sure that the actors lines are all there and well brought over- also make sure the continuity is correct and the actions aren’t different to the other shots. As we didn’t have a lot of shots from the same set up, we sometimes didn’t have a choice of the shot we wanted and so we had to completely get rid of it, as the continuity didn’t match. When you place the shots into the Log bin make sure to label it a name you can quickly recognize which shot it is, so that you do not have to recheck every video before you find it.

In organizing your shots you need to refer back to your storyboard, but as we didn’t have all the shots working for us, we needed to improvise with the shots, which worked out very well. Screen time was mostly taken up by Character A who was the dominant character and the Rubik’s cube also had a lot of screen time, as it was the important factor the story played around.
Our shots were set up with a long lead in of wells walking in, then the characters had a very fast conversation, with quick short cuts, giving it a very action sequence like feel. After that there was a long lead with the door shutting was the main focus point. During the conversation we switch from close up to close up most of the time to signify that everything at this point in time doesn’t matter except for the need of the Rubik’s cube being finished.

Prelim task evaluation

Location we filmed our prelim task in the editing suite, which was assigned to us. We filmed against the white wall and the location was very useful as it had all the necessary props needed for the task e.g. door. Also another pro for the location was that there weren’t any people walking through the room. During the filming, I acted as one of 2 directors, it was my job to shout ‘action’, ‘turn over’ and ‘stand by’, making sure to leave a lead in and enough of a lead out until ‘cut’. Another way I helped out the filming, I helped thing about how to set up the shots and camera angles.

Lighting in our prelim task, we used the lights in the room, as we didn’t have any spare lights, but luckily the lighting was quite good, so we didn’t have any annoying shadows in the faces, the lighting was quite soft; the usual classroom lighting, which did help the scene as it gave it a more of an ‘inside’ feel, which is were it was set. The lighting was effective, but it did not have a great impact on the scene as it was quite soft.

Filming we set up the camera correctly and correctly focused and white balanced it, but there was one short scene of, Jo, our actress’ eyes where we forgot to focus. This meant we couldn’t use the shot for the editing of the task. Luckily we bubbled the tripod, which means adjusted the tripod so it’s level, correctly every time, so the angle isn’t off. Framing the shot gave us a bit of a problem in the close up, as our actress kept moving her head during the scene, which meant that at some points in the close up her head was halfway out of the frame, but as we redid the scene several times and adjusted the frame we finally got a good shot. In the over the shoulder shots we adjusted the angel sever times, so that the back of the room wasn’t in the room, as it wasn’t in any other shot which would have confused the audience. As we got a storyboard from our teachers before we started filming, we know just how to film the sequence as it was clearly laid out for us which hugely speeded up the filming process. During the filming we got our actress to lean against the wall, which helped us to stay on the 180 degree line. The line was kept throughout the filming of the task. In order to make sure all of our cast and crew knew what was going on we used the appropriate terminology; for example before we did anything the director shouted ‘stand by’ which told everyone to get ready, as soon as everyone is where they should be, one would then say ‘turn over’, to which the camera man would reply ‘turning over’ which means the camera is rolling, after a short  lead in the director shouted ‘action’ letting the actors know it is their time to shine. We did several shots during the task; all the necessary ones on the story board and after we were done with these, we played around with focusing from and to things, to give nice effects and we did a traveling shot of the shoes of the actor walking into the room. Another shot we tried out was the extreme close up and cut shot on the actresses face and the cubix cube.   

In general i learnt a lot about what goes on behind the camera with setting up every scene and the way you need to take several takes for one scene to work and continuity is something I had never thought about before the evaluation. fromt his task i have learnt how to use a camera, work from a story board and edit things together to give it a sense of continuity. 

Introduction to Video Camera

There are many operations and functions that are avaliable to you with a camera. Things you need to check before you start shooting a scene is the timecode, which tells the camera man how much time is already used up in hr, min, sec, frames per second. Something very important to make your scene look realistic is the white balance, this you create by holding a piece of white paper in front of the lens and press the button saying 'white balance' after which you again press down the button next to either A or B. If you look into the camera and see zebra stripes that is a sign that your camera is over exposed; you can fix that by turning the third wheel on the lens ferthest from the object you're filming. The second wheel on the lense is there to focus on the object! You need to zoom in on the subject and then focus with the wheel, after which you can zoom out. Before you focus you should place you rcamera onto the tripod, aafter setting it at whatever height you want it to be at you need to bubble the platform, which is done by leveling the platform closely watchign the yellow bubble on the right, waiting for it to stay int he middle of the circle.

After you have set up your camera, white balance, focus etc, you need to start getting your shot set up. At this point you need to thing about your shot, and camera movement. There is a variety of different shots you can use for example the extreme wide shot, the very wide shot, the wide shot, mid shot, medium close up, close up and extreme close up. With movement you can think either of panning, tilting and tracking, all of these allow you to follow or move along with a person. Try to keep in mind the rule of thirds, and head space, looking space, and movement. The 180 degree rule is a very important rule to keep the audience inside the film, as confusing them, by jumping over the 180 degree rule would ruin the effect you are trying to achieve.
One good thing to keep in the back of your mind is to rehearse the scene before you shoot, as this way you will save battery and film.

There is a lot of terminology used in films, e.g before you shoot the director needs to shout 'stand by' which is then replied by 'standing by' to show that everyone on set is ready. After this the director sais 'trun over' to get the camera man to start the camera- to let the director know the camera is rolling he will say 'turning over' after a short wait, known as the lead in, the director will then shout 'action' at the beginning of the sceen and 'cut' by the end of the sceen after a short lead out.

I really enjoy the use of film camera and once you know how to use it, it's very simple to use. I enjoy using it as you can capture so much more than with a simple still camera.                                          

introduction to photoshop

Adobe Photoshop is a graphic and picture editing tool. It enables the user to alter, manipulate and create images either from existing photos or found images.

in the previous lessons we have used several tools. The one i found the easiest was the stamp tool, it is a simple function of copying a part of the image and then pasting it into another are of the image, this could be used to copy and paste a eye in order to then 'stamp' it onto the forehead so it looks like the man has three eyes instead of two, if you want you could then copy and paste a part of the cheeks and copy it onto the real eyes, to create a image of a cyclopse.
Another way of copying and pasting a image is using the marquee tool or the laso tool you basically draw a line around th eobject you want to copy and then paste it onto whatever you please. So for instance you could copy and paste a head onto someone elses body.
Two other options avaliable to you in photoshop is the burn and and dodge tool. These help you pronounce th eshadows in the photos. The brun tool creates a darker shadow, while the dodge tool creates a highlight, you must be careful not to use it to a great extent otherwise it will look too unrealistic, unless you are going for that look.
A problem a lot of people come across are the dreaded layers. A lot of the time you will try and create a copy and paste, etc and it wont work- most of the time this is because of a layers issue. Yu need to make sure to be on the correct layers, which you can choose using a sidebaar on the right.
Photoshop is a pretty simple programm if you know how to use it, you need to figure what each tool does before you try and create a image. Photoshop is mostly used to create a image that makes the objects in it (i.e. models) to look better, or to create a image that could not be created in real life scenarios.

BAsic Skills Camera Work and Composition

Composition:

Photography brings a visual language that is universal in understanding. We must then understand its vocabulary which consists of shapes, textures, patterns, lines, colours, shade of light to dark and sharp to blurry images. Just as we must learn to arrange words in a coherent order in order to make sense when we write or speak, so too must we put visual elements together in an organized manner if our photographs are to convey their meaning clearly and vividly.

Composition means arrangement: the orderly putting together of parts to make a unified whole; composition through a personal, intuitive act. However, there are basic principles that govern the way visual elements behave and interact when you combine them inside the four borders of a photograph. Once we have sharpened our vision and grasped these basic ideas of principles, then we will have the potential for making our photographs more exciting and effective than ever before.


Rule of thirds is basically when one imagines there four lines running through ones frame; two horizontally and two veretical so that there are 9 little frames. Where the lines intersect are the important ares as these are the places your eyes look at first. This means you should place important elements in these areas.
Using rule of thirds gives you nicely balanced images.

my trailer

doctor who trailer -watch it ^^