Well here it is. I hope you like it. The colour grading is very bad, I know. I'm hoping to do a re-cut using the original soundtrack at some point, but I'll see later on. Anyway, enjoy:
Wednesday, 27 May 2009
Saturday, 2 May 2009
Luke Pietnik - Video Retrospective
Well that's a rather lengthy blog Amy, I'm glad you've been thorough with it. Well while I work my way through that lot, here's a short video celebrating the film's completion, and looking back over the past few weeks. I'd like to thank everyone who made a contribution to the film, no matter how small. Enjoy...
Amy Tuffnell
Sorry it's late guys, I had to do most of it on Word because of my silly internet but it's here now!
Amy Tuffnell - Blog Archive
19th February 2009
Today the group met each other for the first time and was given the brief. Initially we didn’t discuss ideas for our piece, but instead decided which role we each wanted to play in the group. Will straight away said that he’d like to be Picture Editor, followed by Luke who wanted to act as Sound Editor. That left myself, Verity and Max – but none of us fancied working with sound! In the end Max decided to be our Sound Recorder and, as she was Camera Operator on the last project, Verity said she’d like to be Project Manager. I was at first unsure about being Camera Operator as I enjoy the organisation/post-production side and am not really confident enough with using the camera! However, I thought this would give me an opportunity to become more familiar with the technology; and the rest of the group assured me that they would always be around to assist me if I needed it. Although I’m a little apprehensive about my role, I’m confident that the others will work well in their roles. I know Verity well and have heard that Will is really good at his editing; whilst Max is good with the technical side of things, and Luke is just good at a bit of everything! Haha
26th February 2009
We thought it would be a good idea to meet today to discuss any ideas for the project. However, we only had an hour as we had to meet between the sound and picture presentations; plus the sound presentations ran over so Max and Will were a little late.
At this early stage, because of strict deadlines from other modules and work commitments, I haven’t found much time to sit down and think of any strong ideas. Verity is in a similar situation to me, but Will hasn’t let us down! He had an idea with quite a strong narrative (he’s written about it in one of his posts so I’ll not go in to it) which all of us liked the sound of. However, we anticipated various technical problems with the idea such as having to find a young actor and a magician.
Luke also had a few brief ideas; including one great idea about a guy who dies and we follow his journey through the afterlife as he tries to discover why his life was taken.
Max had the idea of a man breaking up with his long time girlfriend and the audience following his journey to get his life back on track. We all liked the idea but thought it had a similar narrative to other student films and we weren’t sure that it could make up five minutes.
2nd March 2009
Today we met in the Hubs to talk through each of our final ideas. Verity has now come up with the idea of following two or three characters’ (all strangers) separate journeys to an event which brings them all together. There is no set narrative to the idea at this point, but because the idea is quite open we all started making suggestions as to what the event could be and how they could get there, etc.
I have also come up with an idea, my treatment is as follows:
A family’s journey to find their missing child Annabel, aged 17. We follow the family though their emotional, distressing and heartbreaking journey to find their daughter, who was abducted on her way home from a friend’s house two months ago.
Narrative Development
My film would begin in the past, on the evening of the abduction. It will open with Annabel leaving her friend’s house, despite her friend trying to persuade her to stay over. Annabel turns down the offer to stay at her friend’s house as she told her mother she would help her set up an ebay account, plus she has work the following morning. I want to include this scene as I want the audience to become familiar with the character before the abduction.
We would then follow Annabel on her way home. She takes a shortcut through the park and we watch as she becomes anxious that she is not alone. During this scene I want there to be a few intercuts to her family at home, watching TV and doing normal things. This will introduce the audience to her family and, after the abduction, will emphasise how their lives have been turned upside down. I then want to show somebody snatching Annabel, or bundling her in to a car and speeding away.
There will then be a dissolve which will take us in to present time. This is when the audience begin to see the journey to find Annabel. There will be scenes including the family talking to the police, the family at home praying for their daughter to come home, neighbours and members of the local community searching for Annabel in local woodlands, etc. I would also like to include her mother speaking to somebody about when they realised their daughter was missing. I want to include flashbacks to when her mother spoke to Annabel’s friend, who said she had left 2 hours ago.
There will be build ups of hope, for example if they think they have clues to where she is, followed by huge disappointments when they realise she’s not there.
Not entirely sure how to end the piece as of yet. Perhaps they find Annabel hidden in some old stables in the countryside. Maybe they don’t find her at all, or maybe they find her body.
Style
On Annabel’s way home I will use long shots to signify how lonely the area is in which she is walking, and that there is nobody around to help her. I will also use reaction shots when she feels that she isn’t alone and lots of medium and extreme close ups to show her fear and unease. During this scene I will pick the pace of both the visuals (e.g. lots of cuts) and the audio (e.g. quick music, louder heavy breathing) as she gets closer to being abducted.
During the journey of finding Annabel I will use lots of dissolves to emphasise how long the hunt has been going on and particularly how much longer it feels for the family of the girl.
Audience
The audience of my piece will be quite wide, starting from older teenagers (around 16 years +) to adults of all ages. Because of the disturbing content of the film, I wouldn’t normally like people as young as 16 to view it. However, I feel that it could act as a demonstration of the dangers of walking in such places alone for people of this younger age group. Perhaps this could lead to the film been seen in the final years of secondary school. I also feel that the film has a documentary style to it, and so it could be shown on television to raise awareness to parents and carers.
5th March 2009
This morning we had to decide on two ideas to pitch to our tutors later in the afternoon. Firstly we all looked at each other’s treatments, before writing down our two personal favourites. We then put all of the votes in the middle and calculated the two winning treatments; Verity’s and Luke’s. I wasn’t too disappointed that my idea wasn’t going to be pitched, I’d not had chance to put as much thought in to it as I’d liked. However, I did find it difficult to understand and know enough about the others’ ideas to pitch them, but we left the pitching to Max and Luke so that was ok!
The pitching process itself was quite intimidating, particularly as the whole class was there too! I think we expected it to be like this though. Fortunately the tutors weren’t too harsh with us, and just pointed out some important practical problems with our ideas. In the end the tutors decided on Verity’s idea, but again advised us on what to/what not to do. I’m happy with this idea as, like I said before, we are all able to have an input into the narrative and I feel that together we can come up with a good script!
10th March 2009
Max was ill today and so couldn’t make the meeting, but the four of us met anyway and began discussing the scripting and storyboarding. As I was Camera Operator, I said that I would like to produce the storyboards for the film as I draw/write things on storyboards which help me understand the shot length, angle, etc. Being a scriptwriter, Will was keen to take part in the scriptwriting, as was Luke and Max (he’d mentioned earlier). Despite us all agreeing on Luke, Max and Will writing the script, I felt that it was of great importance that me and Verity also read through (and discussed/edited if necessary) the scripts.
17th March 2009
Today we met in the library to discuss the scripts and storyboards further. The rest of the group met at 1pm, but I wasn’t able to get there until 2pm as I was at work. By the time I got there the rest of the group had near enough finished up, but they explained that there would be two main characters (Pamela and Marcus – I’ve no idea who chose these names but how random)! In the last meeting I assumed that we would all be there throughout the scriptwriting process, but later today I discovered that the three scriptwriters had taken on board three separate parts of the script. I don’t mind this at all as long as me and Verity also get to have a good read through the script, and discuss anything we may have different ideas about.
Max also confirmed that he knew three actors who were willing to act in our film. This will benefit the group as, rather than if some of us were acting in it, we can now all be able to keep an eye on the filming process from behind the camera - I’ve experienced being in front of the camera as well as directing in all of my previous projects, and it’s not easy!
24th March 2009
We met our female actor today at the meeting and introduced her to the script. This was also the first time that I’d had a proper look at the script (my internet wasn’t working at home so I couldn’t get my emails), but as the meeting wasn’t for too long I thought I’d look in more detail at home.
26th March 2009
Today we had a meeting at 3.30pm, where we were going to introduce Malcolm to the script and two of our actors. We all sat in the media base for half an hour, but there was no sign of Malcolm. Some of us went to the office to check that we were in the right place at the right time – we were. We waited a further half an hour before deciding that he probably wouldn’t be coming. On our way out we saw the group who had the slot before us (we’d tried to ring them earlier to see whether they knew where Malcolm was but had no luck). They said that Malcolm told them we’d cancelled our meeting because we were out filming, but we’d never had a meeting to tell him that and nobody had emailed. There must have just been some confusion with another group or something.
On a more positive note, I had chance to read the script properly before today. I discussed with the group that I felt there were too many voiceovers in the script – for me every time the speech ended, there would be a voiceover of what the character was thinking. I feel that the actors can act this rather than having all the voiceovers, which I feel will turn in to a narration. Verity agreed, and so we decided to record the voiceovers anyway and see what we all think in post production.
30th March 2009
Today we began filming Simon’s scene. We arranged to use a room in the Stoddart building as the place in which Simon has just completed his presentation. Although the room didn’t fit my storyboard (as we didn’t book a room until on the day of filming), it was almost ideal for this scene. It had a projector which we put an image of a pie chart on, and I arranged the tables and chairs so it looked as though the room had been recently vacated. I set up the camera and labelled the tape whilst Luke and Max set up the sound equipment. I was a little apprehensive about using the camera at this stage, but after a couple of practice takes I became confident in my role. I followed my storyboard to an extent, but also came up with new shot ideas on set and took on board suggestions from the rest of the group. The only problem was the projector – It was hugely over-exposed, but changing the exposure so we could see the image on the screen meant the rest of the shot was too dark. We all worked together to try to solve this issue and in the end decided that what was on screen wasn’t of huge importance, the projector was really just part of the mise en scene to show what environment the actor is in.
I was really impressed with Chris acting as Simon – he read through the script and took time to put himself in to the character’s situation and state of mind. I thought he acted the part brilliantly and was willing to try whatever we asked him to.
31st March 2009
We met our female actor, Jessica (who plays the role of Pamela), today to begin filming her scene. I’d previously volunteered my house to film this scene, and so we all met in town and caught a bus to Handsworth. When we arrived I set up the camera and tripod whilst Max and Luke set up the sound equipment and Verity made us all a cup of tea :D. We then discussed what shots we aimed to film whilst Jessica got changed in to her costume and went over her lines. I feel that today went well...apart from my uncontrollable laughing during one scene – I was dismissed to my room for five minutes to take a breather! Haha. After filming most of the shots we’d discussed (e.g. of Pamela cleaning, relaxing, answering the phone, etc) I filmed a few extra shots which I thought would be quite effective, such as a high angle shot of Pamela rushing down stairs. Luke was in charge of the sound recording at this stage as Max had to go home earlier today (hope you found your way ok Max!) Will also helped out with the sound recording, in addition to playing the role of cable basher throughout the filming process so far. Well done everybody!
1st April 2009
Verity had to go back to London early (come home!) so me, Max, Luke and Will met our third actor (another Will) to film Marcus’s scene. I’d arranged for us to use Chelsea’s accommodation for this scene – it wasn’t ideal using a female’s room but we had very limited options...in fact that was our only option, but it went quite well! Thanks Chel! Although we got most of the shots we needed, we had a fair few technical difficulties today. The camera batteries were both low and the charger wasn’t working – and when we did get it working it caused a loud buzzing sound when recording with the boom. We overcame this by using the Marantz to record the audio.
Unfortunately we can’t use the editing suites over Easter, so we’re planning to edit the first week back.
20th April 2009
Well today was the first day back after Easter and we met at the stores at 11am to prepare for and film the rest of Pamela’s scene. Will really didn’t feel well today so I gave him the tape as we all agreed for him to stay at Uni and make a start on the editing. The rest of us met Jessica and discussed where we would film the scene of her walking towards where the ‘collision’ occurs. We ended up getting a bus up Eccleshall Road and filming on a road just behind Endcliffe Park. I think we all did really well today – the weather was boiling (I got burnt shoulders!) and poor Jessica had to wear a big winter coat as she’d worn it on the last shoot! The only problem was that it was much brighter than when we filmed her previous scene, but I altered the exposure slightly and Luke mentioned playing around with the filters when editing to make the weather appear continuous. We experienced various other difficulties, such as cars coming during the middle of shots and burglar alarms going off, but overall I was pleased with the majority of the shots I got here.
After lunch Chris (Simon) came to film the rest of his scene and the beginning of the final scene. The script directed that there would be a shot of an unknown character walking into Simon about to commit suicide and he kills her. I suggested that I didn’t think this should be included – who is this woman and why has she suddenly been introduced to the film? This opened up a huge debate – Verity and Max agreed with this point but Luke felt that the film needed the shot to progress to the final scene. Unfortunately by the time we’d discussed this issue and set up the equipment, it was 4pm and I had to leave to pick up my car. Verity pointed out that she wanted to call it a day as, if we began filming the final scene today and didn’t continue filming it until the following week, the weather was likely to change – After all, how often is it boiling in Sheffield?! Ha. Despite this, the rest of the crew wanted to continue filming and, from what I’ve gathered, Luke acted as Camera Operator to film the scene where Simon shoots this character.
22nd April 2009
Yesterday Will and Luke began editing together. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to be there due to work commitments, so I went in for a couple of hours today to see how they were getting on. So far Marcus’s office scene and Pamela’s opening scene has been put together and I think it’s looking pretty good. There is still room for improvement, as I discussed with Luke, but as it’s just a rough cut there’s no need to worry at this stage.
I also spoke to Luke about the voiceovers used in the film. I didn’t agree that, when Pamela speaks to her husband as she rushes to work, there should be a voiceover of her husband replying to what she says to him. I feel that the audience will definitely be able to understand what is going on from what Pamela says, without the use of a voiceover. Luke said he would leave them there for now for timing purposes when editing, but will make a decision later. I’m happy with that so we’ll see what everybody thinks later.
23rd April 2009
Today we had a meeting with Malcolm where we discussed positives and negatives about the project so far. Malcolm came to the edit suite and looked at what we had so far. This was really helpful as he gave us lots of tips on how to improve what we haveS – little things which we probably wouldn’t pick up on, but what make a huge difference. Chris also came over and gave us some tips for improving the ‘flow’ of the edits. Thanks to Malcolm and Chris for this.
After the meeting Max had to leave, but Will continued to edit the film whilst me, Luke and Verity went in to the sound studio to record a few different sounds for our piece. We used foley to create certain sounds, such as a bottle opener clinking to make the sound of the gun being touched. We all had a turn at been in charge of making the sounds, directing, and using the Marantz.
Will left whilst we were recording so we couldn’t take a look at what he’d done until after he had gone. Me and Verity took notes of what we thought were positives and negatives of the edit so far and discussed them with Luke, who worked alongside Will. There were few negatives, such as a couple of shots being a little to lengthy, but Luke made a few minor adjustments to improve them. Will has done a great job of editing the piece so far and it’s great to see the shots coming together to form a story.
27th April 2009
Today has been the last day of filming and I think it’s been quite a stressful day for all of us. Luckily both the crew and cast were available for filming at the same time today, which seemed unlikely before the weekend – I had a hospital appointment this morning, Chris had work until half 3 and Will (Marcus) was ill all last week! The bad thing was that it was raining heavily all day – not good as the rest of our film was shot in sunny weather! To save the equipment getting damaged I went home and got the car, then picked Verity, Will, Jessica and the equipment up from Uni and drove us back up Ecclesall Road to film the final scene. Luke, Max, Will and Chris got the bus and met us up there. I think we were all hoping that it would stop raining by the time we all got there, and it did for about 10 minutes...then poured down again! It was 4pm so we all decided that we’d just have to get on with it. I set up my camera and tripod and held an umbrella over it for protection (very high tech!) and Max did the same with the sound equipment. The mood today was up and down – one minute we’d all be laughing, the next we’d be stressing and getting agitated with each other! Max had to leave at 5pm but Luke took the role of Sound Recorder so things continued as normal. We had a few interferences, again such as cars and passers by, which made the process a whole lot longer, but we were finished just after 7pm. After an exhausting day today, I’d like to say we’ll be having a day off...buttt we’ll be back in tomorrow to get started on the editing! Work work work!
28th April 2009
Seriously, who said student life is easy?! Pffttt. Today I had work at 9am so wasn’t going to be able to make it in to see the editing process until tomorrow – but we made the mistake of leaving the tape in the camera...I had the camera! So I left work and headed down to Uni, but couldn’t get there until lunch time. This meant that Will only had time to capture the footage as we hadn’t booked the room all day. Sorry guys. On a more positive note Luke’s made a great start on editing the sound and synchronising it with the moving image. The film’s more or less complete now, just the final scene to go!
30th April 2009
Today was our DVD workshop where we put our completed film on to a DVD ready for the presentation next week (I hope!...I had to leave early!) Verity was ill today but the rest of our group sat together and discussed what different features, styles and images would be used on the DVD. I’m not sure how the finished product looks as I had to leave at 2pm for a hospital appointment, I’ll have to speak to one of the others tomorrow!
I watched the finished film for the first time today (Luke and Will completed the editing yesterday) and I have to say I am impressed. Although I still feel that the script is perhaps slightly confusing and might have room for improvement, I feel that the quality of the shots, sound and editing is very high. I’m a bit unsure about the blue filters on the shots, but Luke explained that the shots looked too warm before. I’m proud of our piece and I look forward to presenting it and getting feedback from everybody this time next week.
We will be arranging a meeting to discuss the presentation at the beginning of next week and we are also getting together all of our crew and cast for a drink to celebrate the completion of ‘Collide’. I think we should use this opportunity to thank our actors and hopefully will be able to provide them all with a copy of the DVD.
WELL DONE EVERYBODY!
Today the group met each other for the first time and was given the brief. Initially we didn’t discuss ideas for our piece, but instead decided which role we each wanted to play in the group. Will straight away said that he’d like to be Picture Editor, followed by Luke who wanted to act as Sound Editor. That left myself, Verity and Max – but none of us fancied working with sound! In the end Max decided to be our Sound Recorder and, as she was Camera Operator on the last project, Verity said she’d like to be Project Manager. I was at first unsure about being Camera Operator as I enjoy the organisation/post-production side and am not really confident enough with using the camera! However, I thought this would give me an opportunity to become more familiar with the technology; and the rest of the group assured me that they would always be around to assist me if I needed it. Although I’m a little apprehensive about my role, I’m confident that the others will work well in their roles. I know Verity well and have heard that Will is really good at his editing; whilst Max is good with the technical side of things, and Luke is just good at a bit of everything! Haha
26th February 2009
We thought it would be a good idea to meet today to discuss any ideas for the project. However, we only had an hour as we had to meet between the sound and picture presentations; plus the sound presentations ran over so Max and Will were a little late.
At this early stage, because of strict deadlines from other modules and work commitments, I haven’t found much time to sit down and think of any strong ideas. Verity is in a similar situation to me, but Will hasn’t let us down! He had an idea with quite a strong narrative (he’s written about it in one of his posts so I’ll not go in to it) which all of us liked the sound of. However, we anticipated various technical problems with the idea such as having to find a young actor and a magician.
Luke also had a few brief ideas; including one great idea about a guy who dies and we follow his journey through the afterlife as he tries to discover why his life was taken.
Max had the idea of a man breaking up with his long time girlfriend and the audience following his journey to get his life back on track. We all liked the idea but thought it had a similar narrative to other student films and we weren’t sure that it could make up five minutes.
2nd March 2009
Today we met in the Hubs to talk through each of our final ideas. Verity has now come up with the idea of following two or three characters’ (all strangers) separate journeys to an event which brings them all together. There is no set narrative to the idea at this point, but because the idea is quite open we all started making suggestions as to what the event could be and how they could get there, etc.
I have also come up with an idea, my treatment is as follows:
A family’s journey to find their missing child Annabel, aged 17. We follow the family though their emotional, distressing and heartbreaking journey to find their daughter, who was abducted on her way home from a friend’s house two months ago.
Narrative Development
My film would begin in the past, on the evening of the abduction. It will open with Annabel leaving her friend’s house, despite her friend trying to persuade her to stay over. Annabel turns down the offer to stay at her friend’s house as she told her mother she would help her set up an ebay account, plus she has work the following morning. I want to include this scene as I want the audience to become familiar with the character before the abduction.
We would then follow Annabel on her way home. She takes a shortcut through the park and we watch as she becomes anxious that she is not alone. During this scene I want there to be a few intercuts to her family at home, watching TV and doing normal things. This will introduce the audience to her family and, after the abduction, will emphasise how their lives have been turned upside down. I then want to show somebody snatching Annabel, or bundling her in to a car and speeding away.
There will then be a dissolve which will take us in to present time. This is when the audience begin to see the journey to find Annabel. There will be scenes including the family talking to the police, the family at home praying for their daughter to come home, neighbours and members of the local community searching for Annabel in local woodlands, etc. I would also like to include her mother speaking to somebody about when they realised their daughter was missing. I want to include flashbacks to when her mother spoke to Annabel’s friend, who said she had left 2 hours ago.
There will be build ups of hope, for example if they think they have clues to where she is, followed by huge disappointments when they realise she’s not there.
Not entirely sure how to end the piece as of yet. Perhaps they find Annabel hidden in some old stables in the countryside. Maybe they don’t find her at all, or maybe they find her body.
Style
On Annabel’s way home I will use long shots to signify how lonely the area is in which she is walking, and that there is nobody around to help her. I will also use reaction shots when she feels that she isn’t alone and lots of medium and extreme close ups to show her fear and unease. During this scene I will pick the pace of both the visuals (e.g. lots of cuts) and the audio (e.g. quick music, louder heavy breathing) as she gets closer to being abducted.
During the journey of finding Annabel I will use lots of dissolves to emphasise how long the hunt has been going on and particularly how much longer it feels for the family of the girl.
Audience
The audience of my piece will be quite wide, starting from older teenagers (around 16 years +) to adults of all ages. Because of the disturbing content of the film, I wouldn’t normally like people as young as 16 to view it. However, I feel that it could act as a demonstration of the dangers of walking in such places alone for people of this younger age group. Perhaps this could lead to the film been seen in the final years of secondary school. I also feel that the film has a documentary style to it, and so it could be shown on television to raise awareness to parents and carers.
5th March 2009
This morning we had to decide on two ideas to pitch to our tutors later in the afternoon. Firstly we all looked at each other’s treatments, before writing down our two personal favourites. We then put all of the votes in the middle and calculated the two winning treatments; Verity’s and Luke’s. I wasn’t too disappointed that my idea wasn’t going to be pitched, I’d not had chance to put as much thought in to it as I’d liked. However, I did find it difficult to understand and know enough about the others’ ideas to pitch them, but we left the pitching to Max and Luke so that was ok!
The pitching process itself was quite intimidating, particularly as the whole class was there too! I think we expected it to be like this though. Fortunately the tutors weren’t too harsh with us, and just pointed out some important practical problems with our ideas. In the end the tutors decided on Verity’s idea, but again advised us on what to/what not to do. I’m happy with this idea as, like I said before, we are all able to have an input into the narrative and I feel that together we can come up with a good script!
10th March 2009
Max was ill today and so couldn’t make the meeting, but the four of us met anyway and began discussing the scripting and storyboarding. As I was Camera Operator, I said that I would like to produce the storyboards for the film as I draw/write things on storyboards which help me understand the shot length, angle, etc. Being a scriptwriter, Will was keen to take part in the scriptwriting, as was Luke and Max (he’d mentioned earlier). Despite us all agreeing on Luke, Max and Will writing the script, I felt that it was of great importance that me and Verity also read through (and discussed/edited if necessary) the scripts.
17th March 2009
Today we met in the library to discuss the scripts and storyboards further. The rest of the group met at 1pm, but I wasn’t able to get there until 2pm as I was at work. By the time I got there the rest of the group had near enough finished up, but they explained that there would be two main characters (Pamela and Marcus – I’ve no idea who chose these names but how random)! In the last meeting I assumed that we would all be there throughout the scriptwriting process, but later today I discovered that the three scriptwriters had taken on board three separate parts of the script. I don’t mind this at all as long as me and Verity also get to have a good read through the script, and discuss anything we may have different ideas about.
Max also confirmed that he knew three actors who were willing to act in our film. This will benefit the group as, rather than if some of us were acting in it, we can now all be able to keep an eye on the filming process from behind the camera - I’ve experienced being in front of the camera as well as directing in all of my previous projects, and it’s not easy!
24th March 2009
We met our female actor today at the meeting and introduced her to the script. This was also the first time that I’d had a proper look at the script (my internet wasn’t working at home so I couldn’t get my emails), but as the meeting wasn’t for too long I thought I’d look in more detail at home.
26th March 2009
Today we had a meeting at 3.30pm, where we were going to introduce Malcolm to the script and two of our actors. We all sat in the media base for half an hour, but there was no sign of Malcolm. Some of us went to the office to check that we were in the right place at the right time – we were. We waited a further half an hour before deciding that he probably wouldn’t be coming. On our way out we saw the group who had the slot before us (we’d tried to ring them earlier to see whether they knew where Malcolm was but had no luck). They said that Malcolm told them we’d cancelled our meeting because we were out filming, but we’d never had a meeting to tell him that and nobody had emailed. There must have just been some confusion with another group or something.
On a more positive note, I had chance to read the script properly before today. I discussed with the group that I felt there were too many voiceovers in the script – for me every time the speech ended, there would be a voiceover of what the character was thinking. I feel that the actors can act this rather than having all the voiceovers, which I feel will turn in to a narration. Verity agreed, and so we decided to record the voiceovers anyway and see what we all think in post production.
30th March 2009
Today we began filming Simon’s scene. We arranged to use a room in the Stoddart building as the place in which Simon has just completed his presentation. Although the room didn’t fit my storyboard (as we didn’t book a room until on the day of filming), it was almost ideal for this scene. It had a projector which we put an image of a pie chart on, and I arranged the tables and chairs so it looked as though the room had been recently vacated. I set up the camera and labelled the tape whilst Luke and Max set up the sound equipment. I was a little apprehensive about using the camera at this stage, but after a couple of practice takes I became confident in my role. I followed my storyboard to an extent, but also came up with new shot ideas on set and took on board suggestions from the rest of the group. The only problem was the projector – It was hugely over-exposed, but changing the exposure so we could see the image on the screen meant the rest of the shot was too dark. We all worked together to try to solve this issue and in the end decided that what was on screen wasn’t of huge importance, the projector was really just part of the mise en scene to show what environment the actor is in.
I was really impressed with Chris acting as Simon – he read through the script and took time to put himself in to the character’s situation and state of mind. I thought he acted the part brilliantly and was willing to try whatever we asked him to.
31st March 2009
We met our female actor, Jessica (who plays the role of Pamela), today to begin filming her scene. I’d previously volunteered my house to film this scene, and so we all met in town and caught a bus to Handsworth. When we arrived I set up the camera and tripod whilst Max and Luke set up the sound equipment and Verity made us all a cup of tea :D. We then discussed what shots we aimed to film whilst Jessica got changed in to her costume and went over her lines. I feel that today went well...apart from my uncontrollable laughing during one scene – I was dismissed to my room for five minutes to take a breather! Haha. After filming most of the shots we’d discussed (e.g. of Pamela cleaning, relaxing, answering the phone, etc) I filmed a few extra shots which I thought would be quite effective, such as a high angle shot of Pamela rushing down stairs. Luke was in charge of the sound recording at this stage as Max had to go home earlier today (hope you found your way ok Max!) Will also helped out with the sound recording, in addition to playing the role of cable basher throughout the filming process so far. Well done everybody!
1st April 2009
Verity had to go back to London early (come home!) so me, Max, Luke and Will met our third actor (another Will) to film Marcus’s scene. I’d arranged for us to use Chelsea’s accommodation for this scene – it wasn’t ideal using a female’s room but we had very limited options...in fact that was our only option, but it went quite well! Thanks Chel! Although we got most of the shots we needed, we had a fair few technical difficulties today. The camera batteries were both low and the charger wasn’t working – and when we did get it working it caused a loud buzzing sound when recording with the boom. We overcame this by using the Marantz to record the audio.
Unfortunately we can’t use the editing suites over Easter, so we’re planning to edit the first week back.
20th April 2009
Well today was the first day back after Easter and we met at the stores at 11am to prepare for and film the rest of Pamela’s scene. Will really didn’t feel well today so I gave him the tape as we all agreed for him to stay at Uni and make a start on the editing. The rest of us met Jessica and discussed where we would film the scene of her walking towards where the ‘collision’ occurs. We ended up getting a bus up Eccleshall Road and filming on a road just behind Endcliffe Park. I think we all did really well today – the weather was boiling (I got burnt shoulders!) and poor Jessica had to wear a big winter coat as she’d worn it on the last shoot! The only problem was that it was much brighter than when we filmed her previous scene, but I altered the exposure slightly and Luke mentioned playing around with the filters when editing to make the weather appear continuous. We experienced various other difficulties, such as cars coming during the middle of shots and burglar alarms going off, but overall I was pleased with the majority of the shots I got here.
After lunch Chris (Simon) came to film the rest of his scene and the beginning of the final scene. The script directed that there would be a shot of an unknown character walking into Simon about to commit suicide and he kills her. I suggested that I didn’t think this should be included – who is this woman and why has she suddenly been introduced to the film? This opened up a huge debate – Verity and Max agreed with this point but Luke felt that the film needed the shot to progress to the final scene. Unfortunately by the time we’d discussed this issue and set up the equipment, it was 4pm and I had to leave to pick up my car. Verity pointed out that she wanted to call it a day as, if we began filming the final scene today and didn’t continue filming it until the following week, the weather was likely to change – After all, how often is it boiling in Sheffield?! Ha. Despite this, the rest of the crew wanted to continue filming and, from what I’ve gathered, Luke acted as Camera Operator to film the scene where Simon shoots this character.
22nd April 2009
Yesterday Will and Luke began editing together. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to be there due to work commitments, so I went in for a couple of hours today to see how they were getting on. So far Marcus’s office scene and Pamela’s opening scene has been put together and I think it’s looking pretty good. There is still room for improvement, as I discussed with Luke, but as it’s just a rough cut there’s no need to worry at this stage.
I also spoke to Luke about the voiceovers used in the film. I didn’t agree that, when Pamela speaks to her husband as she rushes to work, there should be a voiceover of her husband replying to what she says to him. I feel that the audience will definitely be able to understand what is going on from what Pamela says, without the use of a voiceover. Luke said he would leave them there for now for timing purposes when editing, but will make a decision later. I’m happy with that so we’ll see what everybody thinks later.
23rd April 2009
Today we had a meeting with Malcolm where we discussed positives and negatives about the project so far. Malcolm came to the edit suite and looked at what we had so far. This was really helpful as he gave us lots of tips on how to improve what we haveS – little things which we probably wouldn’t pick up on, but what make a huge difference. Chris also came over and gave us some tips for improving the ‘flow’ of the edits. Thanks to Malcolm and Chris for this.
After the meeting Max had to leave, but Will continued to edit the film whilst me, Luke and Verity went in to the sound studio to record a few different sounds for our piece. We used foley to create certain sounds, such as a bottle opener clinking to make the sound of the gun being touched. We all had a turn at been in charge of making the sounds, directing, and using the Marantz.
Will left whilst we were recording so we couldn’t take a look at what he’d done until after he had gone. Me and Verity took notes of what we thought were positives and negatives of the edit so far and discussed them with Luke, who worked alongside Will. There were few negatives, such as a couple of shots being a little to lengthy, but Luke made a few minor adjustments to improve them. Will has done a great job of editing the piece so far and it’s great to see the shots coming together to form a story.
27th April 2009
Today has been the last day of filming and I think it’s been quite a stressful day for all of us. Luckily both the crew and cast were available for filming at the same time today, which seemed unlikely before the weekend – I had a hospital appointment this morning, Chris had work until half 3 and Will (Marcus) was ill all last week! The bad thing was that it was raining heavily all day – not good as the rest of our film was shot in sunny weather! To save the equipment getting damaged I went home and got the car, then picked Verity, Will, Jessica and the equipment up from Uni and drove us back up Ecclesall Road to film the final scene. Luke, Max, Will and Chris got the bus and met us up there. I think we were all hoping that it would stop raining by the time we all got there, and it did for about 10 minutes...then poured down again! It was 4pm so we all decided that we’d just have to get on with it. I set up my camera and tripod and held an umbrella over it for protection (very high tech!) and Max did the same with the sound equipment. The mood today was up and down – one minute we’d all be laughing, the next we’d be stressing and getting agitated with each other! Max had to leave at 5pm but Luke took the role of Sound Recorder so things continued as normal. We had a few interferences, again such as cars and passers by, which made the process a whole lot longer, but we were finished just after 7pm. After an exhausting day today, I’d like to say we’ll be having a day off...buttt we’ll be back in tomorrow to get started on the editing! Work work work!
28th April 2009
Seriously, who said student life is easy?! Pffttt. Today I had work at 9am so wasn’t going to be able to make it in to see the editing process until tomorrow – but we made the mistake of leaving the tape in the camera...I had the camera! So I left work and headed down to Uni, but couldn’t get there until lunch time. This meant that Will only had time to capture the footage as we hadn’t booked the room all day. Sorry guys. On a more positive note Luke’s made a great start on editing the sound and synchronising it with the moving image. The film’s more or less complete now, just the final scene to go!
30th April 2009
Today was our DVD workshop where we put our completed film on to a DVD ready for the presentation next week (I hope!...I had to leave early!) Verity was ill today but the rest of our group sat together and discussed what different features, styles and images would be used on the DVD. I’m not sure how the finished product looks as I had to leave at 2pm for a hospital appointment, I’ll have to speak to one of the others tomorrow!
I watched the finished film for the first time today (Luke and Will completed the editing yesterday) and I have to say I am impressed. Although I still feel that the script is perhaps slightly confusing and might have room for improvement, I feel that the quality of the shots, sound and editing is very high. I’m a bit unsure about the blue filters on the shots, but Luke explained that the shots looked too warm before. I’m proud of our piece and I look forward to presenting it and getting feedback from everybody this time next week.
We will be arranging a meeting to discuss the presentation at the beginning of next week and we are also getting together all of our crew and cast for a drink to celebrate the completion of ‘Collide’. I think we should use this opportunity to thank our actors and hopefully will be able to provide them all with a copy of the DVD.
WELL DONE EVERYBODY!
Luke Pietnik - Collide is Finished... Ish
I should probably say that the final edit is done. Collide is finished. So let me fill you in on what's been happening this week.
We got off to a flying start on Monday, when Will and I went into the editing suite and I began the soundtracking and dubbing, scene by scene. The plan was to continue through the day while the others went off and recorded our first, or final, confrontation scene. However, by the time everyone was leaving for the location, I'd finished mixing all the finished scenes. I therefore went along with Max. The day went well, and we were a lot quicker at setting up and getting the shots done.
Tuesday saw Will and I editing again. Amy had the tape, so we had to wait for a while for her to get it to us. In the meantime though, I made some tweaks to the sound levels, which were neccesary anyway. When the tape finally arrived, Will rough cut the final scene and we brought it into Soundtrack Pro.
Wednesday was the final fling, so to speak. Having finished all the sound editing and colour grading, we began bringing the scenes together into one sequence. We touched up a few of the shots where we thought they needed less or more light.
We had all our material ready for the DVD Studio Pro session on Thursday, and learned a great deal from James about how to put one together. However, after we'd actually burned them, we got a message from max. He said that we needed to change the credits to include Jessica's stage name. There were other issues too. We hadn't put any writers' credits on, and according to Will, the DVD menu colour highlights were too pale to see on a TV set.
Yesterday (Friday), I re-exported the film in apple edit 1 with the corrections, and was going to edit the DVD project slightly. However, the project must have been on Will's log-in, and he was at a meeting at the time. I did tell him what had happened, and I also got copies of the final film, burned onto 2 DVDs as just files. So now the plan is to make the changes to the Studio project on Tuesday, when we'll be having a meeting anyway.
I'm writing this on Saturday, knowing that I need to start getting everything organised for the hand-in on Thursday. As goes the film, I'm fairly proud of what we've achieved. I think this is the first instance this semester where I have completed a project and looked forward to screening it. I'm quite eager to see what everyone thinks of what we've done, and see what all the other groups have come up with, too.
Well, that's it until Thursday, I guess. Bye for now.
We got off to a flying start on Monday, when Will and I went into the editing suite and I began the soundtracking and dubbing, scene by scene. The plan was to continue through the day while the others went off and recorded our first, or final, confrontation scene. However, by the time everyone was leaving for the location, I'd finished mixing all the finished scenes. I therefore went along with Max. The day went well, and we were a lot quicker at setting up and getting the shots done.
Tuesday saw Will and I editing again. Amy had the tape, so we had to wait for a while for her to get it to us. In the meantime though, I made some tweaks to the sound levels, which were neccesary anyway. When the tape finally arrived, Will rough cut the final scene and we brought it into Soundtrack Pro.
Wednesday was the final fling, so to speak. Having finished all the sound editing and colour grading, we began bringing the scenes together into one sequence. We touched up a few of the shots where we thought they needed less or more light.
We had all our material ready for the DVD Studio Pro session on Thursday, and learned a great deal from James about how to put one together. However, after we'd actually burned them, we got a message from max. He said that we needed to change the credits to include Jessica's stage name. There were other issues too. We hadn't put any writers' credits on, and according to Will, the DVD menu colour highlights were too pale to see on a TV set.
Yesterday (Friday), I re-exported the film in apple edit 1 with the corrections, and was going to edit the DVD project slightly. However, the project must have been on Will's log-in, and he was at a meeting at the time. I did tell him what had happened, and I also got copies of the final film, burned onto 2 DVDs as just files. So now the plan is to make the changes to the Studio project on Tuesday, when we'll be having a meeting anyway.
I'm writing this on Saturday, knowing that I need to start getting everything organised for the hand-in on Thursday. As goes the film, I'm fairly proud of what we've achieved. I think this is the first instance this semester where I have completed a project and looked forward to screening it. I'm quite eager to see what everyone thinks of what we've done, and see what all the other groups have come up with, too.
Well, that's it until Thursday, I guess. Bye for now.
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