Production: The Best Day

For my final major project,  I created a music video to a song by Taylor Swift. The Best Day is a song based on a child singing to their mother, and it was written and released by Taylor herself in winter 2008. Although it was said at the beginning of the final major project pitches that we weren't allowed to use copyrighted music, here is my explanation: http://firefliesandcitylights.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/fmp-revamped.html

For my video, I wanted to have some shots of me lip syncing the song in a studio, and the rest would be archive footage of me when I was younger. To make this work, I would gather the archive footage and sort through it, trying to intertwine it all with the lyrics. I decided to book out The Cove, which is a rounded studio with a white background, that gives a light feel to a video. I took out some LED Panel lights to ensure my face was well lit so I could finish the video to a professional standard. It took around 5 takes to ensure all of the shots were worth using. My colleague Matthew Jury filmed them for me. 

This was the first edit I did. When I imported all of the hand held shots into Adobe Premiere Pro, I realised they were quite shaky, even though Matthew used a fig-rig to ensure steadiness. I did the best I could to get rid of the shakiness by warp stabilising the shots, but that just made them look blurry. I stuck with it, and exported like normal, however the more I watched it, the more it bothered me and I just had to reshoot some how.

For a previous project, myself and my colleague Naomi Doddridge created a music video, which again, included shots of myself lip syncing to a Taylor Swift song in the film studio, This is similar to The Cove, except it's all black. With it being so dark, it makes it easier to be more creative with the lighting methods. For this, I hired out a DaDo kit, which consists of three stand alone lights. For the lighting, myself and Matthew decided to position one behind me so I would be lit from the back, creating a -sometimes- silouhette shot depending on where I was standing in coherence to the light, one would be in front of me on the left, and the other on the right. This way, my face would be lit well.

We shot the video a total of six times, with all six times from a different angle. Some close up, some mid shots and some profile shots. With this, there would be a diverse range of shots to choose from when it came to editing, and I would have a good mix of camera angles to work with, and cutting between them would look really effective.

My favourite shots actually ended up being the close ups. I felt they really fit with the theme of the video, innocence and happiness. I was slightly worried that the black room would suck the happiness out of the video in conjunction with The Cove, but I really like how it came out in the end.

The second video came out a lot better. The shots worked really well and I didn't have to warp stabilise any of them, which was handy, as I always thinks it takes the professional look away from it when shots are super smooth. The second time in the studio shooting the lighting shots were a lot easier to have in mind, as I would just swap the shots over in Adobe Premiere Pro, so in my mind I knew which shots had to be absolutely spot on.

In terms of editing techniques, I didn't really stress over which clips I used where. I didn't want it to look mega scripted. I wanted it to be a happy video that portrayed the message of the song, which is about me growing up and saying thank you to my family; especially my mum. 

I really enjoyed making this my final major project as I felt like it was also an indirect thank you to my family, especially my mum, dad, nan and grandad for being so amazing to me throughout my whole life. Yay.

- Olivia

FMP: VHS-C & Cannon 600D's

VHS-C

VHS-C is the compact VHS videocassette format introduced in 1982 and used primarily for consumer-grade compact analog recording camcorders. The format is based on the same video tape as is used in VHS, and be played back in a standard VHS VCR with an adapter.

Throughout my music video, there are a number of archive video clips of my family and I from when I was around 3-5 years of age. My Grandad, being the technological genius that he is, was able to convert the VHS-C videos into MP4s using a simple USB adapter and a lot of patience. There were around 40 videos he had to convert, so props to him for doing that.

Importing these clips into Adobe Premiere Pro was just the same as importing any video, by selecting File > Import. The only real difference is the sizing and quality of the clips compared to others that I had gathered from the likes of an iPhone and a Canon 600D camera. The video clips from the VHS-C are around 352x480 pixels, so when I blew them up to fill the screen of 1080x720 pixels, they slightly lost their quality. Don't get me wrong, they weren't AMAZING in the first place, but the did become a little blurry.

Disclaimer: not every single archive bit of footage were recorded on a VHS-C, just most. The others were recorded on an older Canon E300 camcorder. I'm not 100% sure which one's are which. (nobody is)


CANON 600D

The Canon EOS 600D is an 18.0 megapixel digital single-lens reflex camera, released by Canon on 7 February 2011. The 600D is the second Canon EOS camera with an articulating LCD screen and supersedes the 550D, although the earlier model was no discontinued until June 2012, when the successor of the 600D, the 650D was announced. Its features include HD 1080p video recording at 24/25/30 frames/s, 3-10x digital zoom in video recording only, and built in flash with Speedlite wireless multi-flash support.

The only footage recorded on a Canon 600D in my production are the shots taken in the film studio of me. My colleague, Matthew Jury, filmed these shots in 25fps in 1080p video recording. We set it to auto focus to make the moving shots easier to film, and Matt placed the camera on a fig-rig to ensure a steady and smooth operating technique was used, so the shots were clean cut for when I edited it all together.

The contrast between the Canon 600D and VHS-C are extraordinary, but I'm really pleased with how they all came out. I like the fact that the older shots are slightly blurry and pixelated as it shows they're authentic and captivates the audience, actually almost proving what era they're from.


- Olivia


Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VHS-C - accessed on 20th May 2015
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_EOS_600D - accessed on 20th May 2015

FMP: Revamped

From short rom-coms to horror films, you name it, I thought about doing it for my final major project. From the beginning of Year 1 I always had my heart set on creating a super cool music video to one of my favourite artists, until the dreams were shattered in around January when we were told we couldn't use copy-righted music without permission from the song writer. This totally threw me into a dead end because I hadn't even begun to think about any alternatives to a music video.

Disclaimer: the reason we weren't allowed to use copy-righted music was because if we were using the FMP to 'sell' ourselves to future employers or universities, then we would technically, in one way or another, be using the song to possibly make money.

When I began creating my final major project the first time, I came up with a plot for a short horror film. which would include myself and colleague Charlie Theron as the two characters. I created a few blog posts on this, and got right up to the point of filming; that's when it all fell apart. I planned it up until the script and shot list. 6 weeks prior to when I was scheduled to film, I fell ill with glandular fever/tonsillitis and was unable to attend college and had absolutely no brain power to do anything. Hence why, when I filmed, I was anxious and didn't really know what I was doing. When it came to editing, I was really disappointed with the quality and felt it looked quite amateur compared to what I should be capable of.

Scrapping the short horror film, I was left with just under a month to come up with a brand new idea that I could plan, film and edit within a short time frame. The only thing possible was a music video. I told myself that it was the easiest way out, it was the only thing remotely possible for me to do given how much time I did/didn't have left. I had a number of ideas running through my head, but credit goes to my Mum for the idea I finally ended up using. Just before Christmas, we had a music video assignment. We had to come up with an idea and create our own individual video, but I decided to collaborate with my colleague Naomi and create Out of the Woods as a duo, this was we would be able to finish it to the highest quality possible.

Blog posts previously created for short horror film:
BTS of The Press Kit for 10.39pm
FMP: 6 Week Preparation (unfinished)

Before this idea, my Mum stumbled across some old footage of me when I was younger and said I should find a song about a young girl growing up and use the archive footage intertwined with a number of studio shots of me singing/miming to the song and create almost a flashback video. I REALLY liked this idea, I mean seriously, it's genius. The only reason I didn't go through with it is because myself and Naomi decided to do a joint video.

Although I said before that we weren't really allowed to create a music video unless we had permission from the singer/song writer, I had no other choice. If it means that I'm no longer available to use my final major project as a platform of my skills to show off to employers, then so be it. It's better than nothing.

SO, in the end, I have decided to recreate Taylor Swift's The Best Day music video, with myself lip syncing to the track in a number of studio shots, and using archive footage, I would intertwine the two together and create a light-hearted music video. You know the sort, easy on the eye and happy to watch. I thought it'd also be a great way to thank my Mum, Dad, Nan and Grandad for all they've done for me over the years.

Stay tuned.


- Olivia

FMP: {Light Hearted} Critique - Boyhood

Boyhood is a 2014 American independent coming-of-age drama film, written and directed by Richard Linklater. Shot intermittently from 2002 to 2013, Boyhood depicts the adolescence of Mason Evans Jr. from ages 6 to 18 as he grows up in Texas with divorced parents.

Production began in 2002 and finished in 2013, with Linklater's goal to make a film about growing up. The project began without a completed script, with only basic plot points and the ending written initially. Linklater developed the script throughout production, writing the next year's portion of the film after re-watching the previous year's footage. He incorporated changed he saw in each actor into the script, while also allowing all major actors to participate in the writing process by incorporating their life experiences into their characters' stories.

Boyhood premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival and was released theatrically (U.S.) on July 11, 2014. The film also competed in the major competition section of the 64th Berlin International Film Festival, where Linklater won the Silver Bear for Best Director. It was declare a landmark film by many notable critics, who praised its direction, acting, originality and scope. The film was nominated for 5 Golden Globe Awards, winning Best Motion Picture - Drama, Best Director and Best Supporting Actress (Patricia Arquette). It also received 6 Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Supporting Actress for Arquette, which she won.

Right from when I saw the trailer for this movie, I was desperate to see it. I love the whole concept, and to have that sort of time, dedication and patience as not only a director, but as a writer as well, is truly incredible. Following the same 'family' for 12 years takes bravery and it's such a clever idea. It also plays with your mind when you're watching the film, because you just cannot get your head around the fact that it's the same people, not just dodgy lookalikes from the next state along or whatever.

The story of the movie is a pretty normal one in some respects. Somebody out there is going through the things this boy and his family are going through. Parents divorcing, vicious stepparents, domestic abuse, isolation and growing up to be a high school graduate. I'm so glad it became a 'normal' film, and it wasn't one of those far fetched sci-fi dramas with aliens coming out of nowhere and their being a murderer wherever you turn. That would've seriously ruined it.

I saw this movie over a year ago, so it's pretty hard for me to remember what exactly happened, but I do remember a specific scene which just made me fall absolutely head over heels in love with the whole film. When [Mason] is all grown up and off to college, a scene takes place for around 2 minutes where there is absolutely no dialogue. It's just surrounding sounds of the environment and it makes the picturesque side so endearing.

 

 

The song in the background of this clip just gives it a peaceful feel, and it's the sort of thing that would happen in real life. You'd turn on the radio, listen to a song and just drive for miles and miles listening to it, wondering where the road is going to take you. Two lanes of freedom. With this scene being at the very near end of the film, it sums up the whole experience throughout. A pretty hectic life, but it turns out okay in the end. He's off to college. He's happy. Marvellous!

 

In an interview with thedissolve.com, Richard Linklater discussed the differences between the real life and character version of lead actor, Ellar Coltrane.

Q: Was the character of Mason a fusion of sorts between yourself and Ellar?
A: Yeah, I think so. It's very personal, but it's filtered through all of us if you think about it. The adults, too: Patricia, Ethan, and myself, we're collaborating with our parents and who they were, and ourselves as kids, ourselves as parents at this moment, and kind of figuring that out so there's this kind of triangulation at all times. We're filtering our ideas through these kids who are in the moment as kids growing up. There's hardly anything in this movie that wasn't real to some degree, that didn't happen to myself, or one of my collaborators. Pretty close to everything is based in somebody's reality or memory or something, pretty much across the board. That's a good place to start.

This. THIS ANSWER. Oh my gosh. Amazing. I love it when we find out little things like this. When there's hidden facts that make the film better. It's so good to see a director channelling himself and his colleagues when it comes to the storyline/plot/script of a film. How he or one of his colleagues has experienced the events in the film just makes it so much more humbling. Very good job, sir.

Overall. Good film. Awesome film. Highly recommend checking it out if you haven't already.


- Olivia.

{Sources:}
https://thedissolve.com/features/interview/666-interview-richard-linklater/ - accessed on 18th May 2015
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boyhood_(film) - accessed on 18th May 2015

FMP: 6 Week Preparation (unfinished)

(The only reason this blog post still half exists is because I didn't want it to look like I did nothing for the time I was supposed to be preparing for the final major project - click here for the explanation) 


Ideas for my final major project have been running through my mind ever since it was first mentioned at the beginning of the course, in Year 1. From movie trailers to music videos, then back to documentaries; you name it, I've thought about doing it. In terms of enjoyment within the course and what I had the most fun making, it would have to be the music video. Music is literally my life, and to put my creativeness into something I love so much was amazing to do.

I narrowed my ideas down to having just 3, which were completely different from each other. The first was a music video, the second was a short film about a good turn, and the third was a short horror film. I began planning the music video around two of my favourite artists long before we'd even started the Final Major Project talk, because although I wanted and needed the FMP to be my best work, I'd have to have fun doing it otherwise it just wouldn't work.

Here were my 3 inspirations for my FMP plots. An odd mixture, I know, but that's me all over.

Tim McGraw & Faith Hill:
2 country music singers that began blessing my ears late 2012, loved them ever since. I've always wanted to create a music video to one of their songs. Any excuse to listen to them on repeat for 6 weeks, I guess.

Horror movies:
I love the adrenaline. Weird? Little bit. An original short horror film has always been on the cards because I have nightmares a lot, so why not make one a reality...

The Blind Side:
This inspired a short film that would consist of the slogan "one good turn deserves another". The Blind Side is one of my favourite movies of all time. God bless Sandra Bullock, and of course the Touhy family for sharing their story.

Originally, I thought all of these ideas were absolutely 100% possible. Then my world literally shattered when we were told we could only use a song if we had permission directly from the artist or their record label, as this would ensure that when we published the FMP, we'd be legal to use the song for a possibility of making money, as it may lead to securing a job in the future. So there's that, bye-bye music video......

..... Hello short film with the slogan "one good turn deserves another." This would be a 10-ish minute film, filmed predominantly in a pub. It would include one female lead, and one male lead. Sounds pretty simple, but locations caught up on me one day and I wasn't able to score a pub anywhere, so that fell through. Bye-bye short film......

.....Hello short horror. This is 100% possible and I'm SO happy that I'm finally getting on with this properly. Locations for this are sorted, as it's in my friends' house who lives up the road from me. Actors? Easy. 2 of my colleagues in my college class offered their wonderful acting skills. Although the horror was my third choice, I'm happy that I'm doing this, as it gives me a chance to experiment with technology and filming/recording methods that I haven't yet come across. It's a gamble, but I'm going to make it work. Seriously.

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Paranormal Activity (inspiration, kind of)

Paranormal Activity is a 2007 American found footage supernatural horror film written, co-produced, photographed, edited and directed by Oren Peli. The film centres on a young couple, Katie and Micah, who are haunted by a supernatural presence in their home. It is presented in the style of "found footage", from cameras set up by the couple in an attempt to document what is haunting them.

As a whole, the film itself isn't the best horror film I've seen. Neither is it the scariest, but the concept of most of the activity happening within the house BECAUSE of a character, not the surrounding environment, is kind of like my short horror. Throughout the film, we see a number of days which are documented by the couple, and the nights are all based around the bedroom. This is how mine will be played out, except for the fact mine will not be in first person. 

Paranormal Activity - Official Trailer (2007)

Throughout the film, we see and hear a number of features that have inspired me to recreate within my short film. The director of the film, Oren Peli, stated in an interview with moviefone.com that "the sound effects used throughout the entire film were shot in his dining room with a standard mic and household objects." Reading this made me realise that if he can do it, then I can too. Household objects can be great for foley work, which I have researched into before, and taken part in recreating a scene with my own sound effects.

The shots within the film are pretty basic as they're all filmed either by a 'hand held' camera, or placed on a mechanism in the bedroom as they sleep. This is not how I want my camera film to be, as it's not the right effect that I'm looking for. I want it to be finished to a professional standard, with the camera work being quirky and focused on sections that I choose.

 

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FMP: BTS of The Press Kit for 10.39pm

15 second teaser trailer (original and improved):

For my 15 second teaser trailer, I wanted to keep things quite straight forward yet mysterious for the audience. With the title of my film being 10.39pm, I wanted the key focus to be on the time itself, and nothing else.

My set-up for the trailer was pretty simple. One camera, one tripod, a few candles, a clock and a steady hand was all that was needed. I wanted the main focus to be, of course, on the time, and I figured by keeping the camera still for the full 15 seconds, I would then zoom in using Adobe Premier Pro. This way, it would ensure a still frame with a slight incline in terms of closeness and proximity to be clear when viewing.

I had a few doubts about the clock that I was using, as I really wanted to use a vintage clock with all the fancy writing, but the time frame we had to complete this trailer was short, so I had to use the facilities I already possessed. The candles were a last minute substitute for natural lighting as they gave a more spooky and atmospheric feel and look to the film.

In terms of sound for this video, I downloaded all of them from SoundBible.com. All of them are copyright free and I am allowed to use them. I experimented with a few, but ended up with 2 in total, which is the "Demon Girl song" and "Static" sounds.

Overall, I'm really happy with how this snippet turned out. I think it gives a full insight on what the film will be like, without giving too much away.

- - -

After completing the 15 second teaser trailer, I realised I hadn't included the tagline for my short film: 'the clock is ticking'. This is a key element within the production as it highlights the plot in less than 5 words, and is a good strap line to have on posters, social media and website advertisements if needed.

After watching my original trailer a few times, I took into consideration the 'horror' side of it more, and realised I needed to have something a bit more thrilling towards the end, as it just seemed to die down straight away, when the end should be the climax and keep people on the edge of their seats. As I hadn't filmed a great deal of my production because it's early days, I had to somehow capture something from the internet and use that instead. I took a snippet of the Sinister trailer, and added this to create more layers and depth to the trailer.

A few minor improvements were made throughout this edit, also. I turned the saturation down to 23 on the clips of the clocks, as it then all seemed to match colours throughout, including the text background at the end, and the snippet I took from Sinister. To add more depth to the text at the end, I took an image I found on Google that was a 'gritty' effect, and took the opacity down on that to make the text stand out, and to have the gritty effect faded in the background.

Trailer sources:
Font - Bank Gothic Lt BT (Windows Premier Pro only)
Static effect video - http://www.videezy.com/elements-and-effects/242-tv-static-hd-stock-video
Static effect sound - http://soundbible.com/1611-TV-Static.html
Demon Girl song - http://soundbible.com/1738-Little-Demon-Girl-Song.html
Gritty texture - http://www.student.nvcc.edu/home/komar/WEB%20SITES/MUSIC/background.jpg
Sinister snippet (incl. sound)- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgYxydrVlDk

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Teaser poster:

A teaser poster is a perfect way of advertising a film and enhancing the genre and target audience of it. In my eyes, posters are all about layering text, images and textures to coincide with the selected genre and atmosphere of the movie. It's important to give enough information away about the film, but not too much, so it leaves people intrigued about the plot.

My poster included the title of my film, the 4 word tagline and an image of a small girl at the top. I wanted to keep it simple yet effective as when I imagine a horror movie poster, I in-vision something quite dark and mysterious.

In terms of selecting fonts, I wanted to make a clear yet indirect statement about my film. In the short trailer, I used an analogue clock, whereas in the poster, I have used a digital clock-looking font. This way, it suggests that the film will include a number of clocks, that all have an obvious link to the time of 10.39pm.

How I edited it:
1) I created an A4 sized canvas and filled the whole thing in black.
2) I added the same 'gritty texture' as used in my 15 second trailer. (opacity down to 22)
3) I added the 'the clock is ticking' tagline, and put an outer glow on it.
4) I added the 10.39pm text throughout 3 different layers, as the font was quite tricky to size. I added the same outer glow effect to all 3 layers.
5) I placed the young girl in at the top, and took the opacity down so she wasn't as vibrant and noticeable.
6) I added the text at the bottom, which explains the details of the film; like directors and characters.

Poster sources:
Font - http://www.dafont.com/alarm-clock.font
Horror girl - http://imageserver.moviepilot.com/scary-girl-this-abandoned-child-prank
Gritty texture - http://www.student.nvcc.edu/home/komar/WEB%20SITES/MUSIC/background.jpg

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Olivia

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