MEDIA 3 FINAL POST

Looking at the final project my main aims were to treat this as a professional job. I have a brief to complete and will work with the director to get their message out. Other aspects are practicing with purple lighting and getting prepared for a future film. I also want a legible piece that I can use for my show reel. Coming to the end now I believe I achieved what I set out to do.

I also just want to create, something about the weekly tasks that bugs me is that they are just small shots that inevitably turn out pretty shitty due to the locations we are restricted to and they don’t tell any greater story. I get that they are experiments that are put together at the end but I think a bigger more meaningful project would be far more interesting and educational. I find myself not caring about these tasks/shots because I’m not excited by the content and the location. But I am excited for the locations Monaliza has sourced.

After the meetings it was interesting to see that most people want to produce an item that is basically a film. I think this is great because in my opinion besides seeing your ideas come to fruition is the feeling and energy of being on a film set. Because a lot of the guys haven’t had much experience this is something I’m looking forward to if a group type of shoot arises. This is also great for learning each role that is involved in film making and taking direction from the director to produce their desired outcome.

The small bits of paper were a great idea too. Being able to write down and visualise like this I found very beneficial. The start to my planning was with these which I think really helped to map out everything and I was easily able to refer back to them whenever I needed too. I started with a basic shot list I feel are the bases for this film which I will add to with more inventive shots on set. It was good to have this list when I shot to remember and cross off shots as I went. This starting point got me very excited to shoot this film after picturing how I hope the shots will turn out. In the future I will defiantly use this method again it really worked for me.

Then it was time to consult with Monaliza about how she feels about what I had and what I need to add. I also needed to visit the locations to work out lighting plans and logistics.

I bought a camera shoulder rig to use in place of a dolly which will be more suited to the style of this film and will be easier to transport. This turned out to be fantastic for the dancing scene. Another task was to research interesting ways in which camera operators have used rigs to achieve unique camera movements. This didn’t end up happening which is a small regret I have maybe there could have been some gold in what I found but oh well.

So shoot day 1 came along. After seeing the locations, I was really excited to get in and make this thing. I got lucky because I had a bunch of work gear and in that is a big motorised tripod called zonecam which I can use to do some Birdseye type shots and after practicing at home I think with the neon lighting from the town behind the house in the scene this shot could be amazing.

This was the most annoying part of the film for me, the amazing Birdseye shot I was picturing just didn’t happen near to as nicely as I had it in my head. The problem was in not being able to see the cameras vision when recording. The camera had a wireless app to do this but I spent ages trying to work it out and it just wouldn’t work. The shot we got is ok hopefully people still say wow how did they do that but it isn’t as impressive as I had intended.

 

The shoot went great both nights were really smooth, with a small crew and everyone wanting a great result the nights went well and you could tell that every aspect was up to the standard we were looking for. You can really tell when you do a new project everything you have learnt from the previous one, mistakes I made with last years’ film I was quick to ensure they didn’t happen again. The only problems we had on the night were the cold and batteries. If that is it for the rest of what I do ill be very happy.

 

Getting into the editing suites now is just as exciting as being on set now we actually get to see what we’ve produced and how it will all come together, and also see all the annoying continuity mistakes we made. The edit is more more smooth in terms of actor continuity than I have done in the past which is making the whole process much easier. We also had the perfect song and somehow got permission to use it which gives the film such a more professional feel. Something that I did that I hadn’t before was get someone else to do sound. This was such a good decision It frees up so much time and the result is far more than what I would have produced.

 

Now that the film is done and I’m writing this and with this being the last piece of work I do at university I’m glad I finally made something I’m proud of and will flog out to everyone even if they don’t want to see it. The next film I work on will be about refining the entire process for me over and over until I have it down to a mechanical process that has everything done flawlessly. Hopefully Monaliza and I can do many more projects together too. It will be interesting to see where I’m at in 5 years’ time.

 

 

Collaboration

 

The collaboration with Monaliza proved to be the best part of this project which I kind of knew it would be. We work so well together that’s why we pushed to work together in the first place. We have this interesting way of working together in that somehow we both know what the other will like in terms of aesthetic so it makes it more time efficient when we know how the both of us will want a scene to go. The other collaborations between my friend who did sound to the main actor was varying. My friend was easy to work with he hadn’t worked on an actual set before so a lot of the stuff was new to him but I think we made it comfortable for him and I’m happy with the result which is the most important part. The actor proved to be the most difficult but in saying that I have experienced much worse so I really can’t complain. The main issue with her was scheduling so looking at that I can only think of how we could have made it easier or more certain so she wouldn’t drop out as easily. We had call sheets and plenty of notice maybe if the future if we followed up with several confirmation messages that could help.