Completed Project!

Finally the project is complete!

After a lot of fine tuning and HOURS of rendering we finally finished our reality show 'Halls' on Wednesday 13th April.

DVDs and Dilemmas

On Wednesday I bought a pack of 25 blank DVDs and 5 empty cases for the final project submission, our class group all decided that it would be cheaper and easier to split the pack between everyone and pay the individual cost of each disc. Still feeling pretty confident that we'll get the project finished in time for the deadline, just hoping we don't go through too many DVDs trying to figure out how to finalise the piece!

Slight dilemma discovered today when loading up the premier file to edit with Eden, the sound clips we used were from looped garage band tracks that we exported to iTunes (because garageband tracks aren't copyright). However we had forgotten when we edited in the track last week that the macs would wipe the iTunes file and so our project wouldn't be able to reload it. Hopefully we'll find an easy solution to this, perhaps we'll have to wait until the day when we are actually finishing the project and copying it onto disc to add the music in.

Editing

So far Eden and I have met up for three long editing sessions since we finished all of our filming. We both agree that we should both be present for the whole process (where possible) to ensure our finished project is a piece we are both content with that features clear influence from the both of us.

Monday 4th of February we will continue with another 3 hour editing session in which we hope to complete a basic timeline of our clips in the order of our original script. Once this is complete we will return to the project from the beginning and do the extra editing such as putting backgrounds to the green-screen clips and adding music to the cutaway scenes.

So far I am feeling pretty confident with how much we have left to do despite the deadline looming closer, Eden and I are both able to put in more time to edit if needed and the editing process feels a lot more rewarding than I expected it to. My main concern is keeping our finished piece to the ten minute limit, whereas before I was worried we wouldn't have enough footage to reach the minimum, we now find ourselves with too much!

Main Shoot

Despite all of the worries and issues with finding a time that all of our actors could make for shooting the main drama of 'Halls' we managed to pull it together for today and get all of our shots filmed! :)

Actors were wonderful to work with and gave so much for the project and camera equipment didn't fail us as much as we were afraid. Overall, I think this was a success and I'm VERY excited to start editing this piece on Monday! :)

Revised Shooting Schedule

Outside/Cutaway shots - 1, 2, 8, 14, 19, (COMPLETE) and 33.

Halls Kitchen shots - 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32. (To be completed Saturday 12th March)

Confession Room/Green Screen - 4, 6, 10, 12, 16, 18, 21, 23, 25, 27, 29, 31. (All to be filmed today at 3)

Tuesday Night Footage

Went out to the river for half an hour last night to get some raw footage of the bridge lit up and the bank beside for night-time cutaways, successful trip and beautiful area to film but files too large to upload unfortunately! :)

Script Possibilities

Productive day today! Knocked up a version 2 of the shooting script and replaced a few lines from the 'confession room' with other possibilities to be filmed today with the two actors who can make it, just to make sure we have enough footage for the project if the other two cannot make another date.

Also wrote a very brief idea for the 'next time on halls' segment at the end in anticipation of filming today, will check over all of this with Eden possibly after filming today and revise if necessary. :) 

'Halls' - Prop List

- Bread / Butter for Jade's toast - Eden

- Alcohol bottles - Rosie

- Pepsi

- Glasses. - Eden

- Coffee - Rosie

- Mugs - Eden

- Sponges - Rosie

- Plates/bowls/general washing up - Rosie and Eden

Monday Progress

Monday's lesson time was spent out of the class filming cutaway scenes for 'Halls', we got plenty of footage including extra scenes just in case there were any issues when editing.

Wednesday we have a session booked in the green screen room with two of our actors to get shots of the 'confession room' in true reality show style.

Saturday we intend to have a full day of filming with our whole cast to complete our scheduled filming in total, if all goes to plan and the shots turn out well we'll begin editing our piece next Monday!

Shooting Schedule for 'Halls' - Draft 1

Shooting Schedule

Locations:

Seething Wells Kitchen –   3,5,7,9,11,13,15,17,20,22,24,26,28,                                                       30,32

Green Screen/Confession room – 4,6,10,12,16,18,21,23,25,27,29,                                                          31

Cutaway Shots (Various Locations) – 1,2,8,14,19,33

Green Screen - Editing

The editing of green screen footage to contain an image of a studio background actually turned to be easier to adjust to than I expected! A quick reminder of how to very basically edit green screen footage on Adobe Premier:

Main Footage

- Insert main footage on track V3, choose your image to replace the green screen and insert it on track V2, make sure to lengthen it to match the video track for time.

- To remove the green of the background:

- Double click on the video of choice - effects - video effects - keying - ultra key - key colour - take dropper tool - click on green.

- The green should disappear leaving the background image filling the screen.

- Click on 'Matt Cleanup' and use the effects 'Choker' and 'Soften' to make the edges of the remaining video track fit more naturally into the background.

Close-Ups

- To add a close up shot into the mix insert the clip you want onto track V5, (make sure the continuity of the video remains.)

- Repeat the same steps to insert the same background, putting the picture onto track V4.

- Click on effects controls again - motion - change the scale and position to match the position of where the close up lies in the original background. (You can adjust this for the background image to zoom it in and also for the video for ease of moving the shot.)

Logos/Screens

- Choose the image you want on your screen/overlaying your background, insert it on a track that is above your main background but below your main video (the highest track number will always be layered on top and be the first one seen.)

- Use the same effects from the motion tab to adjust the basic size and placement of your logo, if you want to place this straight then this should be enough to place it into the scene.

- If the screen/space is slightly angled then click effects - distort - corner pin - and edit the image corner by corner to fit the space.
(Used http://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/corner-pin-effect-premiere-pro/ to learn this.)

- Again just edit as needed to keep the continuity through close-ups etc.

Script - First Draft

Today Eden and I finally managed to set aside some time where we could both get an initial script for our Halls project. We skype called for about 2 hours and both wrote our initial draft on a live online document, since we felt this was such a huge part of the project that would require confirmation from both of us.

We're quite happy with our 5 page first draft, we are confident the action will stretch the film out to the required eight minutes. Monday we will show the script to Mata during our lesson and work on any feedback she wants to give us for a second draft.

First Draft - 'Wake Up' Script

BLACK SHOT - mixture of voices whispering ‘wake up’ ‘we miss you’ and ‘come back to us’. Whispers are abruptly cut off by a loud car horn.

CUT IN

EXT. RESIDENTIAL STREET – DAY

HOLLY jumps back and gasps, she hurriedly mouths an apology to the driver and runs onto the pavement next to her, the car drives off.

A neighbour, JAN, in her 40s runs over to Holly with keys still in hand.

JAN

Holly are you alright?!

HOLLY

Y-yeah I’m okay I think.

JAN

That was so close are you sure you’re not hurt?

HOLLY

No no I’m fine really, thanks Jan.

Monday Lesson - 25/01/16

Pitches were presented today, going into more depth with everyone's story lines. My original drama idea of 'Wake Up' seems a little too difficult to produce as a student at the moment, but will still hopefully make an interesting script.

The short film we watched, 'Joyride', was interesting. It said a lot without resting on dialogue to carry across the action, I didn't get a great sense of character from the featured person, but given how short the film was there wasn't much opportunity to explore the character in a normal environment.

Cause and effect in television - when one event of the show/film occurs because of something else that happened, (e.g. The man in Joyride was kidnapped because he decided to leave instead of staying to fix the pylon).

I worked with the Adobe editing software we'll be using for the year a little, it's still not making a whole lot of sense to me but I have the basics and am ever hopeful! :)

One Minute Film

For our first assignment of the new term in our course we were all asked to make a simple one minute film just to make sure we could all use a camera and edit vaguely! So here's a dramatic retelling of the making of my usual evening hot chocolate! ;)