WEEKS 1-3 SKETCH+REFLECTIONS
Week 1:Beyond a Joke, Beyond a Genre-Week 1
Week 2: Beyond a Joke, Beyond a Genre- Week 2
Week 3: Beyond a Joke, Beyond a Genre-Week 3
WEEKS 4-6 SKETCH+REFLECTIONS
Week 4: Beyond a Joke, Beyond a Genre- Week 4
Week 5: Beyond a Joke, Beyond a Genre-Week 5
Week 6: Beyond a Joke, Beyond a Genre- Week 6
WEEK 7
Our group idea, “Operation Superstar” centres around two friends who hit the town one night with the goal of playing their DJ set at a club. Along the journey, a bunch of weird encounters occur, and we think that is where the comedy will be represented. Whilst we are making a comedy film, we aim to draw and highlight social conventions ((Neale, Krunick, 1990), specifically, commenting on Melbourne’s night culture/club scene, through a combination of satire and absurdism. Through this balance of modes, we want to demonstrate the fatuity that comes with going on a night out and discuss the fragility and self-consciousness that comes with attempting to climb the social hierarchy.
In addition, we aim to create a hybridisation film through the combination of comedy and the coming of age genre, as we also look to write about the development of the two main character’s friendship. In terms of style, I think the aim is to edit in a way that is similar to Edgar Wright, that way, it can help create a somewhat speedy pace which will benefit us as we aim to create something that has a crazy and energetic tonality.
Group Agreement:
Our group is aiming for a short film that is technically ambitious, professional looking, visually beautiful and poetic. We all want a HD mark for our work and would love for it to be a standout amongst the class and previous work. We envision our artefact’s ultimate destination to be on YouTube, our portfolios and submitted and hopefully screened at festivals and film competitions; something we’re really proud to show to the world! The level of commitment we want to achieve this will be high; divvying out roles according to our outside commitments and taking time out of uni/off work to shoot, scout locations and write the script.
We will use Slack as the main form of communication in the group, using it to organise in-person meetings, shoot-days, ask questions and spitball ideas. We all expect each other to check messages and respond within a day. If commitments or issues arise, we will try our best to update each other and be as understanding as possible, things happen! If there’s sickness or people are overwhelmingly busy we will try our best to show up for each other and help out where needed.
The assigning of roles are still a work in progress but based on our personal interest/strengths and general availability we’ve so far agreed on:
Pre-Production Roles
Writers: Everyone
Producers: Individual tasks to be divvied up amongst everyone
Production Roles
Director: Alex
Directors Assistant: Claudia
Cinematographer: Jaden
Lighting: Jazz
Sound: Luci
Post Production
Editing: Luci and Alex
Pinterest board: https://pin.it/5zETOAhDg
Reference:
Neale, S. & Krutnik, F. (1990), “Definitions, genres, and forms” in Popular Film and Television Comedy. London: Routledge, pp. 10–25.
WEEK 8:
This week was the second week of the Pre-Production stage for our short film “Operation Superstar”. One of the main tasks we wanted to have completed by the end of the week was the film’s script. To achieve this, we all hopped on a video call outside of class to work on the first draft/vomit draft collaboratively.
This was a somewhat of a new experience for me, as whilst I am used to discussing ideas with a group of friends, we typically then split off and work on individual sections. Though I think for a project of this nature, specifically it’s absurd tonality and content, it was good to develop new ideas and plot points with one another. It was also beneficial to work in this way as it was our vomit draft. Because we did it in this way, I believe we were able to piece together a story that we were all satisfied and on board with and were able to express each others own creativity through dialogue or scene set-ups.
As mentioned prior, our group wanted to include an element of absurdism within our plotline, which can be achieved through incongruity. In his novel “From Dionysia to Hollywood: An Introduction to Comedy’s Long (and Bumpy) Road”, Emilio Audissino suggests (in relation to “Incongruity Theories”) that ” Humour emerges from the introduction in some situation of elements that create a deviation from norms, conventions, anticipations, predictions, common logic….”(Audissinio, Wennekes, 2023). With this in mind, one can assume that we are beginning to represent this ideology through the film’s secondary characters, such as”The Ratman”, and even a moment within the script where the character of Harry is critiquing on a person’s outfit, which is then revealed to audiences to be a homeless man. In writing these kinds of moments, we are able to (hopefully) throw audience expectations off, as sometimes the element of surprise can cause a humorous response.
One of the biggest challenges for this week was finding locations and the legalities that come with it. Our film contains a club scene, meaning we had to come up with a few ways in order to achieve this look. After talking to Bradley, we came up with a couple of options:
- Film in an actual club to film in.
- Set up a fake club at a different venue and film there.
- Use one of the studios located within RMIT.
Obviously each one has its own pros and cons, but I think with more discussion with our team, we will be able to come up with a solution that caters towards budget and authenticity.
Overall, I am really happy with the progress we are making and cannot wait to start filming.
Reference:
Audissino, E. (2023), “From Dionysia to Hollywood: An Introduction to Comedy’s Long (and Bumpy) Road” in Audissino, E. & Wennekes, E. (eds), The Palgrave Handbook of Music in Comedy Cinema, London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 3–23.
WEEK 9:
This week we continued to finalise our pre-production tasks, specifically finding actors, props, and starting to create a production schedule. Personally, completing these kinds of documents like a production schedule and shot list isn’t my favourite task, but it is such a great way to breakdown what we are envisioning, and it will further shape the visual aspects of our story. Additionally, utilising a schedule will (hopefully) help us stay on track, and having it mapped out will help us work out when/if we need to shoot other scenes on different days. Along with the production schedule, I have also made mock-up call sheet for the shoot, in which I need to finalise before Wednesday.
Having planned that we will be filming the bulk of our film next Wednesday on the 15th of May, I am a little bit nervous as it is so soon, however, because my group and I work so well together, I know that we will get the shots needed , and be able to act accordingly and efficiently as we are shooting in public areas at night-time. Additionally, since we are filming so early, it will give us more time to look through the footage during Post-Production, which I am grateful for, as Alex and I want to spend a significant amount of time on the edit as the story contains a few pivotal visual elements.
I am really happy with the progress that my group and I are making, and I am excited to see how the footage will turn out next week.
Draft Production Schedule (15th of May):
WEEK 10:
This week we had day one of shooting for Operation Superstar. During this stage, my main role was sound operator. I have had experience in working with the Zoom F4 Audio Kit prior, but I wanted to reinforce this kind of practical skill and thought that this shoot would be an interesting opportunity to so. For Wednesday, our production schedule was delegated around filming most of the scenes that were set outside, with that, a few challenges arose with audio. For example, for the first shot of the night, we were filming at peak time in Fitzroy, meaning that the microphone could pick up other external sounds such as cars driving by, people walking, and general background noise. I attempted to overcome this by positioning the shotgun microphone as close as I could to the actors, ensuring that the direction of the mic was pointed towards them. In doing so, I attempted to have their audio be the loudest noise on the track that can be heard.
Furthermore, we repeated this scene multiple times from different angles, fortunately having some of the shots to not be disrupted by background noise, meaning that there is a chance that the audio mix can be fixed up in editing by cutting between the various shots.
Additionally, I made the time to record extra atmosphere noise, so that it can also be blended into the final audio mix.
Interestingly enough, filming audio for scene 4 (the Ratman scene) was somewhat also difficult, but i’m not sure why I thought I was going to be able to pick up clear audio from Alex who was wearing the mask (this is what happens when you’re too confident). However, after following the same protocols as I did for the previous scene, I think I was able to record some clear audio, which I can also alter in editing if for whatever reason we decide to modulate Alex’s voice in post.
Shout out to Bradley for picking and dropping off the equipment! It was much appreciated 🙏🏻.
WEEK 11:
This week we had officially wrapped up our shoot by completing days 2,3, and 4 of filming. For day 2, our group spent a lot of our time shooting scene 9 (the club scene), as it had a few moving parts within the narrative, such as the character of Harry becoming humbled, and his best friend Fergie, having an odd awakening. This day was so exciting as we created a makeshift club in Alex’s house (shout out to the goat) and invited our friends to be a part of it. Recording audio within this environment was slightly interesting to me as whilst we were filming inside a building, there were some factors I had to be aware of when recording sound. For example, the room in which we were recording in was echoey, meaning that the dialogue sounded hollow at times when we were filming shots with just the leads/supporting characters. However, when padded out with the extras, the sound managed to be clearer. Whilst this sound concept is very basic to grasp, I honestly forgot to record an atmos take to test out the room’s quality, and if I did, I feel like I wouldn’t have run into this issue. Even though it’s not exactly the worst thing that could’ve happened when recording sound, it is a good tip to look out for if I record sound in future works.
In preparation for this week’s days of filming, I decided to embark on some brief research on tips for better audio. One tip that stood out to me was how to avoid “plosives” which are essentially blasts of air that come from when a talent forms the letter “p”, “b”, “t” and “k”. In the article, Rob Byers suggests to keep the mic “to the side of the mouth” (Byers,2017) to avoid said plosives. The article also provided some great tips on how to fix audio in post in which I will be taking account for when editing.
We also took the time to record the dialogue of the Neon Demon, as his lines would not have been heard through his costume. But I liked the idea of recording it separately as we can then overlay the actors voice with voice modulations and possibly reverbs, to make the characters voice sound distorted. I will say, this was probably the most cursed thing I have ever had to record.
Reference:
Byers R (2017) The ear training guide for audio producers, npr training/sources website, accessed 17th of May 2024 , https://training.npr.org/2017/01/31/the-ear-training-guide-for-audio-producers/