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I had not done Media studies
as a GCSE however all my class mates except one had, this includes Christian
and Oliver who I worked with to produce the opening for Christmas Sleigher.
This meant they all had hands on experience with working on cameras and the
other hardware but also Final Cut Pro.
My experience with
cameras was fairly limited, I had done some amateur photography and had a week
of work experience in which I filmed a few short interviews and compiled the
clips in premiere pro, I had also had a bit of experience with Photoshop and Lightroom
through my photography but had never used Final Cut Pro and many of the other
tech we have used.
PRELIM
Before we started filming our openings we had a preliminary stage in which we filmed a short film with only a day to plan, storyboard and prepare to film, this stage gave us a chance to learn many of the basics we would need.
We used:
- Sony A58
- Tripod
- Basic dolly
- GoPro's
- Chest and head mounts for GoPro
- Monopod
We learnt about narrative enigma, the 180 degree rule and continuity editing, also about basic framing and shot types. We were able to apply these in filming and then we learnt about Final Cut Pro X and how to edit these clips. This was my first time editing video alone and whilst I found it tricky at first I felt as if I developed my skills quickly and have become fairly proficient at it.
Film Opening
Once we started filming our film opening we were able to continue applying the skills learnt from the PRELIM, however we would obviously still make mistakes but were able to learn from them and move forward.
Early on we made mistakes about how much to rely on actors in bringing there own props, costumes and at one point even had the problem of actors not showing up. This became a huge learning point for us as we needed to be clearer with our communication, less dependant and have a backup plan in place if needed. This is a link to a podcast in which we discuss the problem from when a actor didn't show up.
We were able to apply this later on down the line and saved us a lot of time. We were due to use a drone owned by a friend for our establishing shots however whilst filming for the other group the drone crashed and broke, this meant we couldn't film the establishing shots we had planned, however, because of the problem we had previously we had planned some establishing shots that did not require the drone and could be shot without it.
Other then this we made minor mistakes that are to be expected from a amateur production crew like ourselves.
Comparisons of cuts
PRELIM exercise
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This is our Prelim exercise, its a very short cut which was used to teach us about camera angles, match on action, the 180 degree rule and continuity editing before we moved onto the first practice exercise. This was one of my first media lessons so I had almost no experience with filming and this small exercise taught me a alot.
Practice shoot
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Moving onto the practice exercise, this taught us much more. We had just under a day to plan the small shoot so we made bad call sheets, storyboards and a script and mostly improvised the shoot, we didn't really know what angles we wanted and this really taught us the importance of planning before a shoot. Filming also took a lot longer then necessary due to being so unprepared which made most of our sequences rushed and low quality. This again taught us a lot about being prepared for a shoot. After we started editing, as I had never used Final Cut Pro X editing was slow for me and lot of the cuts are not cut in a good place where it can be seen where the camera is being lowered to pause video or when characters leave role, such as at 028, 034, 044 etc.
First sample scene of original idea
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First Rough cut of Christmas Sleigher
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This is the first rough cut of Christmas sleigher, compared to the first sample scene and rough cut the camera is a lot less shaky, many more conventions are used such as the implication of sex between the couple, we also had some preferred reading and showed Black Christmas on the TV a movie which heavily influenced our opening. I think it is much more obvious the level of planning and research that went on before filming for these scenes took place as the scenes are much better constructed then previously. Some drawbacks however are the shot of the spider which seems out of place and unnecessary, the take for getting dressed is much too long and doesn't imply sex well enough and some of the match on-action editing isn't polished or done smoothly causing jump cuts.
Final Rough Cut
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This Final Rough cut has many more improvements made too it and is much more polished and is almost to the point of a final cut, the spider scene has been removed, clothing is on the floor and Micheal sitting on the bed getting dressed whilst Tiffany stays under the covers implies sex much better and fits with common conventions a lot better. A lot more of the editing is much more polished again and works so much better. Having extra camera angles and reflecting much more of the 180 degree rule aswell as match on action gives a more continuous feel to this cut then to previous and has come from constantly going over the cuts and working on them as-well as much more familiarity with final cut pro. Filming for the added scenes also took a lot less time then in previous shoots as we were much more experienced, knew exactly what we wanted and had it all planned which was a major improvement to previous shoots.
Final Cut
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This is our Prelim exercise, its a very short cut which was used to teach us about camera angles, match on action, the 180 degree rule and continuity editing before we moved onto the first practice exercise. This was one of my first media lessons so I had almost no experience with filming and this small exercise taught me a alot.
Practice shoot
...
...
Moving onto the practice exercise, this taught us much more. We had just under a day to plan the small shoot so we made bad call sheets, storyboards and a script and mostly improvised the shoot, we didn't really know what angles we wanted and this really taught us the importance of planning before a shoot. Filming also took a lot longer then necessary due to being so unprepared which made most of our sequences rushed and low quality. This again taught us a lot about being prepared for a shoot. After we started editing, as I had never used Final Cut Pro X editing was slow for me and lot of the cuts are not cut in a good place where it can be seen where the camera is being lowered to pause video or when characters leave role, such as at 028, 034, 044 etc.
First sample scene of original idea
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This first attempt of a sample scene had many improvements over the first practice scene but had many issues. We had a lot of takes that were way too long or short, the shot variety is very limited and there are moments of camera shake, however, the improvements made since the practice shoots are obvious and alot of this comes down to more planning going into it.
This first attempt of a sample scene had many improvements over the first practice scene but had many issues. We had a lot of takes that were way too long or short, the shot variety is very limited and there are moments of camera shake, however, the improvements made since the practice shoots are obvious and alot of this comes down to more planning going into it.
First Rough cut of Christmas Sleigher
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...
This is the first rough cut of Christmas sleigher, compared to the first sample scene and rough cut the camera is a lot less shaky, many more conventions are used such as the implication of sex between the couple, we also had some preferred reading and showed Black Christmas on the TV a movie which heavily influenced our opening. I think it is much more obvious the level of planning and research that went on before filming for these scenes took place as the scenes are much better constructed then previously. Some drawbacks however are the shot of the spider which seems out of place and unnecessary, the take for getting dressed is much too long and doesn't imply sex well enough and some of the match on-action editing isn't polished or done smoothly causing jump cuts.
Final Rough Cut
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This Final Rough cut has many more improvements made too it and is much more polished and is almost to the point of a final cut, the spider scene has been removed, clothing is on the floor and Micheal sitting on the bed getting dressed whilst Tiffany stays under the covers implies sex much better and fits with common conventions a lot better. A lot more of the editing is much more polished again and works so much better. Having extra camera angles and reflecting much more of the 180 degree rule aswell as match on action gives a more continuous feel to this cut then to previous and has come from constantly going over the cuts and working on them as-well as much more familiarity with final cut pro. Filming for the added scenes also took a lot less time then in previous shoots as we were much more experienced, knew exactly what we wanted and had it all planned which was a major improvement to previous shoots.
Final Cut
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This is our final cut, it is without a doubt our best cut, the editing is as good as we can get it, all the colour correction and special FX is cleaner and looks better, we also have our own music over it which works great. Overall this is a huge leap from where our cuts and scenes were previously and a major improvement.
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