“In 200 words or less please outline your goals, desires – what you want to get out of this semester. You will review this later in the course. You may rethink this dramatically – this is a good thing.”  You were asked this at the beginning of the semester. Now, could you review constructively what you got from this semester –  has the course lived up to your expectations, delivered what you expected, maybe even surpassed it?

“As with Film-TV 1, I wish to continue to expand my filmmaking knowledge exponentially with its follow up this semester.  I’m looking extremely forward to creating a documentary, and would like to employ much more artistic and creative expressions than that of the narrative film in the previous semester.  Although undetermined as to the subject of documentary I will be involved in creating, it appears that although there will perhaps be much more planning be done before the shoot, the shoot itself should be completed much more efficiently; an area I’d like to improve upon for this second film.  As director in the previous project, I learned much from the experience, and is a role I would be happy to take on once more, however, it could potentially be more beneficial for myself to work more with the technical equipment on camera or audio, to further expand my knowledge with the process.  I’d also like to take a more hands-on role throughout the editing process, having gained some confidence tweaking our last project.”

In many ways, this course exceeded my hopes and expectations for it, however as it comes to a close I do feel I could have achieved greater gains from it.  I found the documentary process highly engaging and enjoyed the opportunity to work independently on it, without the need of a large crew to organise during shooting.  Not having others to assist at these times was difficult in stages, yet at the same time highly beneficial towards my independence working as a filmmaker and using a variety of equipment and overcoming hurdles as they appeared.  I have also had a larger role editing the final piece than in our film of last semester.  I feel much more comfortable navigating and using the editing software of Premiere Pro, and when I don’t know how to do something am able to learn from others or research solutions to any problems with the software I encounter online.

Though our final film is still in its final stages of production, I do feel I would have liked to take a more creative and abstract approach to it, as I had originally envisioned, however being our first attempt at creating a documentary, I think it’s not a bad first effort.  Throughout the semester, I’ve become much more confident in using the SLR cameras more than the EX3 or Z7, and I’m unsure of whether this is an issue or not, as the tutorials were often devoted to explaining how to use the larger video cameras.  In future documentary filmmaking, I would definitely take on board these queries I hold and ensure to use the EX3 or Z7, so I can continue to develop my abilities with these better suited forms of equipment.

As per lecture –  in a sequence you’ve called ‘colour’ you will have clips that are indicative of a particular colour or lighting state. To the right of that clip you will have that same clip repeated 2 or more times with different colour grades on it.  Take screen grabs of each clip then upload to your blog the series of stills that show us ‘before and afters’ of your colour grading. Provide a few different examples of at least two different clips – each with a description of what you did to the clip and why.  This is a learning exercise, not necessarily a qualitative one, don’t stress – it is the act of doing it and the reflection on that, that is important.

I’m not going to lie; I’ve clearly left this question a little late.  With no access to a decent video camera or video editing software at home, instead I’ve found a still taken from Marvel’s Iron Man 2 (Jon Favreau, 2008, United States), depicting Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark about to suit up as Iron Man in a fight at the Monaco Grand Prix, that has been colour graded in multiple ways.  In the attached image, the top left picture shows the film’s final grade.  To its right, is the image before it has been colour graded, while the bottom two stills represent different colour temperatures and emphasise the dramatic changes to an image that can be made simply by altering its colour.

I’ll start with Image 4 (Bottom Right).  It does not match the film at all.  It’s basically a sepia tone.  Downey’s racing suit is washed out, while is face looks deathly pale, and much of the background is overexposed; the whiteness taking away almost all of the detail of the stands and the carnage left behind him of the race track.

Image 3 (Bottom Left) is better, but still no real improvement (for this movie at least) from the original image.  The image is of a warmer tone, with Stark much more vibrant, but the image’s adjustment has made it lose quality and detailing in both the foreground and background.  The image’s contrast however, is better than in Image 4.

The problem with the original footage, Image 2 (Top Right), is the smoke.  While this effect works fine to demonstrate the F1 crash in the background, RDJ is left in a similar tone, also shrouded in the smoke, as though the image’s opacity has been raised.  Being the main character, who at the time has an upper hand in the fight, he needs to be more prominent and colourful, and literally needs to be portrayed in a more positive light.

Image 1 (Top Left), which is the film’s final colour grade demonstrates perfect how crucial a film’s final colour grade actually is, even though there was not much wrong with the original footage (Image 2).  Here, the frame’s blues have been emphasised, to pick up on not only Stark’s racing jumpsuit, but also highlights sections of the bleachers in the background.  The colour curves around Downey’s face and highlights of his hair are also much clearer, due to the yellow in the image also appearing to have been adjusted, with the flames along the track now more prominent for the first time.  Importantly however, while Stark is now crystal clear, the disaster in the background is still very visible, but is obscured enough to give a greater illusion of smouldering wreckage than the original footage.