Construction Post 10: Looking Back - Reflections on our Final Outcome

Overall, I am extremely happy with the opening sequence that Shayam, Amy and I have created. It has been a long and sometimes hard journey but it has been made easier with these two by my side.

Our completed film opening - Unlawful 

Highlights

• Working so well as a team throughout. We had good levels of communication and everyone was there for each other. Also as we are good friends, it was a fun experience to share together.
• Organisation. Being organised with the filming equipment and having ideas in advance about how a shot should look helped with the success of the shots.
• Being creative. I want to be in the film industry when I am older and with this project, I feel as if I have been given more of a taster of what the future could hold for me. I found coming up with story ideas and filming really fun as I like to think creatively. 
• Gaining confidence in editing. I have now done editing to a higher level and so I have improved my knowledge on how things work. I enjoyed grading and seeing the effect of the changes made.

Low Points

• In terms of production, it was sometimes frustrating to have to re-do the same shot again and again. For example, we had about 20 takes for the lipstick shot on one of the shoot sessions.
• It was a shame to see that the shots were not always as good as we thought they would be when we reviewed them at the edit suite. 
• It took us a long time to find music, as we were constantly not happy as a group with the track that one of us selected.  Sometimes, it did not suit the character or the atmosphere.

I hope that the audience will recognise the mysteriousness of our protagonist; that she has something to hide. It would be even better if they think she is a femme fatale type character. We have tried to connote this through her putting away her detective badge and by revealing that she has several identities and a gun. Finally, I would be pleased if the audience are drawn into the story; enough to want to know more about what Stacey is up to.

Overall, I believe the project has been a great success and I can see that individually we have all improved and gained experience. The main thing I would change in hindsight would be the time spent on music. If we had found a song earlier, we could have spent more time on other aspects of editing. Lastly, I would have made changes to the speed of some of the shots downstairs, for example, when Shayam is putting on her gloves, the pace is a bit slow. 

Construction Post 9: My Technical Learning Curve (Production and Post-Production)

Me with the clapperboard

I feel as though I have gained a lot from this experience, as I have both developed skills and learnt new ones. I learnt more about teamwork on set; how to set up shots together as a group and solve any issues together too. I think my strengths during the production were filming and directing, which I really enjoyed, and trying out new, spontaneous ideas. Even if the new ideas did not work, it was still fun to experiment with them. Collectively as a team, we could have been stricter with our takes, as we spent perhaps too much time on the make up shots during each shoot.

Me filming our first shot

All of us at the edit suite. I am creating titles

In terms of editing, I gained a lot of confidence and experience. During the first week, I mainly did research such as looking for music and developing ideas for titles, which allowed me to use my creative skills, as I had to think about what would suit our film best. During the second week I feel like I picked up things very quickly which was essential as we had a lot to do. I instantly understood the basics of Livetype and grading and so this allowed me to contribute to these tasks. I found grading and creating titles fun. My weakness during the editing stage was making the cuts on Adobe Premiere Pro as I found it sometimes challenging to perfect the cut. 

Overall, I learnt a lot during the construction process. I had never used lights before and so it has been eye-opening to see how much the lighting improved between the first attempt (in the test shoot) and our last attempt (in the back up shoot). Furthermore, although I have edited before on Adobe Premiere Pro, I had not colour corrected to this much detail and so I now know the basics. 

Construction Post 8: My Personal Contributions to the Edit Sessions

The editing process is very long but working as a team has made it an easier experience. Although I did some cutting, I was not as instrumental in this process as Shayam and Amy as they really enjoyed this part of the editing process and could cut very quickly. Therefore, it made sense to take advantage of their skills.  Whoever made a cut always asked the rest of the group if it looked okay and so it required input from everyone. The practical editing I did included:

• Organising the footage 
• adding footage, titles and music to the timeline 
• Cutting the above to the right time 
• Creating the titles
• Doing some grading

I believe that one of my main strengths lied within the research side of the editing, such as looking for music and choosing the style for our titles. Furthermore, the logo we created was based around my vision. I also think I was good at grading and I really enjoyed this.

                  

                        Here I am working on the  Mac for titles but looking at the sequence on the computer for reference

A photo of me creating the title effects on the Mac

                      

Shayam and I discussing grading 

How I graded a shot

Overall, I was really pleased with how we worked as a team. In order to finish our film, a group effort was required and so we all did a bit of everything and helped each other, which was important. I have gained confidence in editing as I am now faster in what I do and I am more familiar with the different stages. In future, If there was something I would improve in future, it would be to develop my skills in knowing whether a cut is breaking continuity because I realised that sometimes I could not tell if the cutting was accurate enough, when the others asked me.

Construction Post 7: My Personal Contribution to the Shoot Sessions

As Shayam was our actress, Amy and I were left to occupy the technical roles on set which included:

• Camera and sound
• Director and First A.D.
• Lighting 

Ultimately, these roles were shared but Amy recognised how comfortable and well I worked on the camera and so was happy for me to do a large amount of the filming. We had a number of hand-held shots that required a steady hand and I believe this was one of my strengths. Amy filmed too but was more involved with testing the lighting and organising the shots we had to do.Amy would often adjust the lighting while I looked on the camera to see the effect.While one of us was on camera, the other controlled the clapperboard. For example, when I was operating the camera, I also had to check the sound and Amy would say "Camera?" to which I would reply "Rolling" and the same applied for sound. When I wasn't filming, I effectively took on the role of First Assistant Director, as I would use the clapperboard where I wrote the shot and take number and say "Silence on set!" before Amy started filming. We both directed Shayam and told her how she could improve an action. It was very much a team effort as all three of us would review the shots together afterwards. Below is a video of me filming Shayam pulling up her stockings on the back up shoot:

A photo of me directing Shayam, our actress

                 

                        A photo of me reviewing a shot on the camera

A photo of me using the clapperboard

Overall, I am really happy with how everyone worked in the shoot sessions and I especially liked the fact that we all had creative visions which helped improve the shots. Shayam was a very patient actress who improved as the shoot sessions went on and she was also very helpful in dressing the rooms up. Amy was very organised and excellent at preparing the shots. I think my strengths were in filming the shots and directing.I believe we all had a strong working relationship on set which was essential as there was so much to do to ensure the shots went smoothly. 

Constriction Post 6: Reflections on Edit Week 2

Our edit schedule

I think this week has been more successful than last week as we knew more about what we wanted to achieve and as we have all had chances to edit individually, we were all confident enough to do things more independently. This is what we have done this week:

• We asked Chris, the technician to give us a demonstration on grading and titles
• We used Livetype to create our titles. We added a flickering effect but kept our original idea of plain font. The flickering created the dark and mysterious atmosphere we wanted.
• We chose our music. We decided to explore different genres and eventually we found the perfect song.
• We changed our original order for the titles by adding in the 'producer' and 'director' credits later, in the hallway scene. 



Our music research on 'Incompetech'

• We used Procamp and Three Way Colour Corrector to grade our shots. They were easy to use and very useful.

Three way colour corrector 

Shayam and I doing some grading 

Warm effect created using Procamp

Cold effect created using Procamp

Music was the main issue, as the original song we picked for the animatic did not end up suiting the actual footage. We have tried various songs throughout this process but discarded them for various reasons, ranging from not being feminine enough to being too boring. Perhaps if we had a clearer idea of what music suited the atmosphere we were trying to create, it would not have taken so long to find a song.

Construction Post 5: The Back-Up Shoot

We will need a back up shoot because we are not satisfied with some of the shots from the main shoot. There were several shots from the main shoot that we need to re-take, which include:

• The stockings shot, as the motion was too quick
• The lipstick shot, as Stacey's technique was still not quite right
• The shoe shot, as we were not confident they suited the look for our protagonist 
• The master shot of Shayam walking out of the room as the lighting did not match the other shots
• The shots on the stairs as they were not the angles we wanted. We want a close up of her arm on the banister and the stairs so that we see her feet walking into the frame
• We realised that Stacey will need to put on her coat downstairs, as it looked strange that she was carrying it for so long without wearing it
• The shot on the iPad showing the pictures needs to be redone as the actor in it looks too school-boyish. Therefore, we will either need to take new pictures of the same person wearing a suit so they match the character description, or we will find a new person
• The shot from outside as we felt the zoom in on Shayam's face did not work and the lighting was too dark

The pictures on the left column are from the main shoot and those on the right are from the back up

Amy setting up a shot outside. 

Amy and I lining up a shot at the back up shoot

Shayam getting ready before filming

Above is a video of Amy and I testing the lighting. 

Reflections

Noting down in advance the changes we needed to make really helped with our organisation of the back up shoot, as we knew what we had to film. Furthermore, the shoot session was quicker in some ways, as it was our third time and so we knew how to set up each room and the equipment. However, it still took a while to do some of the re-takes as we wanted them to be perfect. Despite this, I think all the time that we spent was necessary as we are now certain that we have the all the shots we need and so we can continue with our final edit. There will be a lot of shots to look over but it is better to have too many than too little. Overall, I am really pleased with how professional some of the shots taken on the back up shoot look.

Construction Post 4: Reflections on Edit Week 1

                   Our edit schedule 

What we have done:

Our timeline

• We watched over the footage and selected our best shots
• We created a new sequence labelled 'Final cut' for the footage to go onto
• We ordered and cut the shots on the timeline 
• We added more titles including the 'written by' credit 
• We re-positioned the placement of titles by putting them in between the shots to improve the pace of Stacey's getting ready routine and build tension
• We replaced the picture of the 'Lionsgate Films' logo with the video version
• We have continued to look for music

Our titles are now placed in between shots, like in 'Black Widow'

Issues we should resolve:

Strange lipstick technique

• With some of the make-up shots, the angles looked strange or the technique looked unrealistic
• We thought the music we chose for our rough edit did not create the ominous atmosphere we want our opening to have 
• Some of the decisions we made did not work, such as Stacey picking up her coat whilst upstairs and zooming in on her face outside 
• In some of the shots downstairs when Stacey is on the phone, there was background noise
• As the opening sequence progresses, the pace is meant to increase but we did not feel as if it does so we may need to speed up shots or cut some out

We realised we will need a back-up shoot to fix the issues mentioned above but also for continuity reasons and so that our film looks more professional as we think certain shots can be filmed in a better way. Once we have done this, we can add in the better footage and then finish editing. We will also be able to add and fit in the music which we are all still researching and add effects to the titles. We will try and have flickering titles, similar to those in the film opening of 'Seven' (below).