Archive for October 2016

Home Archive for October 2016

In the second prelim task, we were told to edit what we filmed in the first prelim task. We got onto adobe premier, went into the rushes folder and started straight away. We decided to start with a long shot to establish the setting and get a feel for what the whole character looks like as we decided for her to be the character that the audience would side with, this was character A. We then went onto a mid shot of character B who walks through the door and goes up to character A and tells her to 'do it' the scene mainly consists of that, however, we kept shot duration longer on character A, her having more screen time shows the audience that that is who they should have sympathy for as more time on screen means that they are more important.

While editing we were told that we weren't cutting with meaning, we were cutting into clips that looked 'cool' this means that the clips we were cutting to didn't have reason or meaning behind them. To insure this doesn't happen, I will watch all the clips over and decide based on movement and on how powerful the character is which scene will go where, so if it was a scene where a character is feeling weak, instead of using a mid shot, I will use a high-angle mid shot to show this weakness through camera positioning as well as dialogue. During editing we didn't follow the golden rule of always save and the computer crashed, this caused our nearly finished edit to be lost forever. The computer crash however was a wake up call for our group and having to start again so we all learnt that saving was a very important rule and we will all remember to save in the future.

When looking through the footage, I realise that we should have got the actors to learn the script beforehand as when editing, they would always look at the script and we didn't want it to be shown in the edit so we cut it in a way that it looks like they're not looking at the script, however, this led to the problem that when we were cutting, it didn't have meaning, this was because we were trying so hard to get it to look like they weren't looking at the script pinned up on the wall. When looking through the footage, I wish we did more shots and didn't have to rush the filming as in some of the shots the actors would start laughing so sometimes in the footage we would have to cut the scenes too quickly so that the audience wouldn't see them laughing.

Our group did two different edits, in one we wanted the audience to sympathise with character A and in the other we wanted them to sympathise with character B. We used the same shots for each and wanted to see how editing affected the audience so by using the same clips but different lengths we were able to create a second scene where character B was the one that the audience sympathised with, we did this through different shot durations, so if a scene holds a character on screen longer than the other, the one that has the most screen time feels more important to the audience.

In the thriller, It will most likely follow the genre conventions of being fast paced, this means that I will have to make short and fast cuts, whereas in the prelim task, it is a scene of dialogue this means that it is slow paced even though the scene is about something bad, it isn't intense enough to be fast paced as nothing happening within the frame is intense enough.

I will approach my thriller differently due to the prelim tasks, the camera work is what I learnt most about through the prelim tasks as usually I would follow the shot list shown on the storyboard where as now, I will shoot the full scene in one camera angle and film the scene again with another camera angle, this means if you want to use the angle at a different point in the scene you are able to as the entire scene has been filmed from the angle. The thriller in terms of editing however will be a lot more difficult, will be longer than the prelim and also harder to edit as we need to incorporate music into the scene which will make the complications even worse but after the prelim tasks I think us as a group are prepared to do it.

In our group, we were given a camera and a storyboard and told to film a short scene. The scene is about a person (A) that wants the other person (B) to do something as they are in trouble, B refuses to do it, and A leaves. The first thing we did was go to the studio which is where we were told to film and decided where about in the room we would film. After we decided we would film in a pre-setup set of a living room, we set up the tripod, we extended the legs until the camera was about five feet tall so it could be close to the hight of the actors but not too tall, then we put the camera on the tripod and inserted the battery and made sure the spirit level was steady, then we were ready to film. We focused the camera by zooming as far as possible and then getting the lens to as crisp an image as possible on the actors so in some shots for example we could have the actors walk to their markers where we focused them and then we could have them walk into focus. We filmed for a an hour and tried different shots such as a high angle, close up, long shot, over the shoulder shot, etc. doing as many shots as possible was good to help make the editing easier.

The "standby", "rolling", "action" and "cut" rules were utilised a lot while on set. The rule is that when the director shouts "standby" is that the set has to go silent and the actors position themselves so that the scene is ready to start filming straight away. After "standby" is said, "rolling" is said to get the camera man to start recording, they say this and not action straight away so that no dialogue is cut from the scene due to the camera operator pressing record too late or the actors saying their lines too early, this allows all the dialogue to be heard and caught on camera. When "action is said, this tells the actors to start acting, this means that if the camera operator starts recording late, the actors won't already be acting, so they have a buffer zone for any mistakes and gives final moments for preparation. After "action", cut is said to end the scene. If "cut" is used, this means that either the scene is over or it is being ended prematurely due to a mistake in the scene, so "cut" signifies the end of the scene.

A problem we had as a group was focusing, this is because we did not use markers to start with, we realised that when character A walked into the scene, she would walk in different lengths into the room to start with as she had no guide lines on where to stand. To solve the problem of focusing we ran the scene without filming, and put markers on the floor where she would have to walk to in the scene, this allowed her to walk into focus accurately so that the footage didn't seem out of focus. Another thing that helped get a clean focus is that when parts of the frame are lit up and in focus, the bright areas are covered by green lines, however, if it is lit up but not in focus, the green lines won't appear

If I was able to do the shoot again, I would rather have spent less time on the shots that we had to do for the story board and spent more time on using other shots such as the high angle shot that I wanted to do for character B as she is represented as a weak character throughout the entire scene so I would have also like to represent her as a weak character through camera work and not just dialogue. On the whole however, I think the shoot went well as the camera work went well, we used the right settings on the camera so the brightness didn't have to be changed in post-production and we didn't have to do any colour grading either as the white balance was good.

None of the actors had the chance to learn the script before filming, this ended up meaning that we had to have the scripts on set all the time, so we had to tape them onto walls that couldn't be seen by the camera but the actors could see them, this grew into a problem as sometimes in the footage, it was noticeable that the actors weren't looking at each other as they were looking at the script, so for the thriller, I will give the actors the script to learn before the shooting schedule so that they can know their lines before they come on set and their won't be need for a script.

For editing our clips, we used the software adobe premier. Adobe premier is used in a lot of productions that range from low budget youtube videos to big budget blockbusters such as ‘Deadpool’ (2015). The editing software is intuitive and everything that is needed is always on screen due to the four segments on the screen. No matter how good any software is, it still has the potential to crash and in turn delete any unsaved work. The reason the golden rule of editing is to constantly save is so that if the software does crash, all the work isn’t lost, as it has been saved. The way that they cater for the time consuming task of finding the save button is by adding short cuts, so to save your work quicker, you have to press ‘cmd + S’ this saves your work with minimal effort, which means you won’t need to re-edit lost scenes.

Footage/rushes/daily’s are the unedited footage that has been filmed. After the footage is uploaded to the editing software it is put in the rushes folder, if you enter the rushes folder, you will find the footage. The reason that the footage is called rushes is because when they used to film everything on rolls of film, after the day of shooting, they would be ‘rushed’ to be developed for the next day, this is why the footage is called rushes in England. In America however, rushes are called daily’s as the film would be developed in a day, so a daily would just mean that the film was developed in a day.

A cutting tool cuts a piece of footage at a chosen point, if the editor wants the scene to be broken up, he will use the cutting tool to cut the footage into different pieces this allows an editor to shorten certain points of the footage or if they want modified speed in a part of the scene and on either side of the modified speed they want normal speed, they can separate the part they want to modify with the cutting tool and edit the speed. The short cut for the cut tool, is ‘cmd + X’

In and out points mark the beginning and ending of footage. Once reviewing the rushes, if you want to start the scene at a specific moment of the footage you press the ‘I’ button on the keyboard which marks an in point. If you want the footage to end at a certain place, you press the ‘O’ on the keyboard, this marks an out point which means the footage will end there. If you combine the two you can finish and begin the scene in the perfect place to get the best timing for the scene.

+ and - in premier means zoom in and zoom out, this allows you to get a better view of the selected section of the software, so if you want a zoomed in view of the time line, you’d press the ‘+’ button on the keyboard. The timeline is a part of the software which allows you to see the order of rushes in the scene that you are editing, the timeline also is where you put the sound that you want to use in the scene, it also is where you place the media, they are put in the same place so that you are able to edit the footage to the sound easier.

One of the four sections of adobe premier is the preview. The preview allows you to view what you have edited, this is important as if one of the scenes are out of place you are able to view this through an audiences point of view so that you can see if anything is wrong with the footage or editing. Another section is the bins. The bins is where all the rushes are stored, the reason that they are called bins is that when all filming was filmed with film instead of digitally, after the footage was developed, they were put in large cylinders that looked like bins for storage, so all the rushes are stored in bins. Another section of the software is the timeline. The timeline allows you to put the rushes into an order, it is also where you add in any transitions. The last section of the software is the rush viewer, this allows you to see a singular rush, it also is where you do any in and out points. The undo short cut exists so that if you have made a mistake, it is easily corrected, the short cut for it is ‘cmd + Z’, for example if you are editing and by accident delete a piece of footage, if you press undo, the piece of footage will be back to where it originally started.

The scene has parallel sound due to the score, so when the score becomes faster and more intense so does the scene. The scene starts off with long single pitched notes to convey confusion of the characters as they are stuck in a situation that they don’t know how to fix. When the solution to the problem is realised, the pace picks up and has a contrast in intensity to the previous confusion. The use of harsh percussion instruments like the drums and organ, this shows intensity and mimics the fast paced action on screen. The use of string in the score also creates a sense of intensity, however they foreshadow the outcome of the scene as they play in major and create an uplifting, hopeful feeling to the audience, which shows that the docking sequence that they see on screen will work.

The volume of the diegetic sound in the scene is louder than the score, this shows the sheer immensity of what they are trying to do. Doing points of dialogue in the scene, the score is usually louder than what the characters are saying to each other, however, when the audience are shown what the characters are trying to dock onto, the diegetic sound becomes much lower and overshadows the non-diegetic sound, this is called pleonastic sound. Pleonastic sound is when sound is exaggerated for dramatic effect, this usually has the effect on the audience that what is happening in the scene is important, and puts an emphasis on this.

Dialogue in the scene is shouted loudly. The importance of the dialogue being shouted instead of spoken is that it shows that the characters are under stress and makes the scene more intense. The characters speaking loudly makes the scene more intense as you can see that the characters are in a loud environment and have to shout over it to make what they are saying heard. The high amplitude off dialogue is also a genre convention for thrillers, as if the scene is louder, it makes the audience feel more uncomfortable, this is why shouting is a lot less frequent in genres such as romance.

When Cooper in the scene says ‘Initiating spin!’ the organs in the score come in and makes the scene feel more unnerving, the reason that the organs make the scene feel unnerving is that, the organs are usually a genre convention for horror movies, this makes the audience think that something could potentially go wrong. The feeling that something could go wrong makes the scene feel a lot more intense as it leaves the audience with the though that the scene could go one of two ways which is, it could go well or wrong.

At the end of the scene, the score crescendos and signifies the end of the action. The score crescendoing, signifies the end of the action and runs parallel to the scene, the effect of this is that the audience knows that the characters are out of danger. The scene however, end on a minor note, this shows that even though the action is over, they are not yet out of danger, the final note leaves the audience wondering what the next task is, as in the scene, they have a broken space shuttle and little fuel, this means that the suspense isn’t broken, but the end of the sounds from the soundtrack, relieves a bit of the suspense that the scene has created.

The soundtrack gives the scene a good pacing, as it starts with what sounds like a clock. The sound of a clock often means in him that time is limited, the importance of this is that it shows the audience that what he is doing, has to be done quickly, and this means that it is most likely unsafe, the feeling of unsafeness in the scene makes that audience feel uneasy and keeps the audience on the edge of their seat. Even after the clock ticking noise can’t be heard, the general score follows the same pace as it, this still shows the audience that time is a key factor within the scene.

When the shuttle docks onto the Endurance, the tone of the music changes, and even though the same instruments are used, they have a higher pitch, this effects the audience as they sound more hopeful and is the first hint that they may pull off what was told to be impossible. The importance in the change of tone for the music, is it still follows the parallel sound which has been used throughout the scene.

The use of synthetic piano is used a lot throughout the scene, this creates a space age effect and matches what the film is about. The importance of using synth piano is that it fits in better with the scene than a normal piano would, it also shows that the film is set in the future as everything has high technology, such as the robots and the space shuttle, so having the soundtrack match the mise-en-scene makes the film feel more natural

Subscribe to: Posts ( Atom )

Prelim Task 2

Prelim Task 1

Genre and sub-genre

Editing Workshop (1)

'Interstellar' (2014) Sound Analysis