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The Last Stand 2

Evaluation - Continuity and Final Product

Doing the continuity task helped me greatly in cutting footage to make it look right and believeable.
It also taught me to do shots more than once, this gives you more footage to be able to play around with and get the result you are looking for. With the continuity task we didn't do repeat shots we just hoped it looked good and left it as that, this gave me some problems when it came to editing because we didn't have more fottage to play around with we ended up having to cut it as best as we could but it still turned out ok.

With my project I had take 3 -4 takes of each shot so when it came to final cut I could do what I want, and having all this extra footage is really handy and useful just incase you decide you don't like the idea you just tried.

Evaluation - Action Plan

This plan is to help me understand what to improve for my next prject, a set of targets if you like.

These were the questions we were given for the action plan:

1. Indentify three practical/technical skills you feel you would like to work on developing. How could you organise this for your next project?

2. Choose three people in the class that you did not assist or receive assistance from in this project. How could you go about identifying ways in which you could be of assistance to them on their next project?

This task links with the invoice audit which I have posted further down.

My Answers:

Question 1:

One of the skills I would like to improve on is my camerwork I would like to use some more shot types and pans, instead of normal shots. This would add some more variation to my work.

I would also like to improve my lighting work and how to get the right lighting for what I need, this will make post production easier.

The third skill I would like to improve is my ability to keep within time constraints, I've been putting myself under a lot of pressure because I kept falling behind with some tasks causing unneccessary stress making things harder for me.

To be able to organise this for my next project I could maybe go out with a camera and practice some techniques to get the right lighting and good camera shots. I should also draw up a plan for when and how I am going to do stuff instead of doing it on the spot this will greatly improve my time keeping.

Question 2:

Kirk
Mike
Alex

I could give assistance to these thre people by either helping them with camera work or sound or even be an actor in their next project. I could also be a great help with after effects and helping them with post production.

Evaluation - Audience Feedback

Yesterday we had some professionals ( Jake & Jim ) come into our class to give us feedback on our film opening sequences. Jake was the one who gave me feedback here is what he said:

I like the idea you have I think it works well for the genre you are trying to focus on and the audience to. At the start it worked really well the quick shots and the suspense from going to titles back to the footage, but then when it came to the part where he is hurt it lasts too long, it needs to be tighter around that area. It kills the tension and suspense that has been built up throughout the sequence.

I also liked at the start when it was black and the alarm was going off it made me wonder what was going on also adding to suspense this worked really well.

The production logo made me laugh.

Evaluation - 9 Frames Analysis - Art Of The Title

First Frame - Transitions:

In my opening sequence I didn't use too many transitions I was looking for a quick sharp feel to my shots to make then switch to another rapidly. I did use one transition at the start, the screen is black and then the alarm starts going off then slowly the first shot fades in, which creates a more dramatic effect.

Second Frame - Lighting:

First of I had decided to produce some lighting in the rooms with some lamps because I originally had the rooms pitch black. But then someone had given me the idea of doing the whole thing in night mode which gave it more of an eerie and scary feel. This worked pretty well but did disrupt some of the special effects I wanted to use.

Third Frame - Visual Effects:

I had used a number of visual effects in my opening sequence such as fire and smoke I had also created some cgi but because of the night mode effect it looks like a paper bag. In this shot I had created some smoke using after effects I used the particular tool to create my own custom particles and animate them

Fourth Frame - Setting:

The setting of my movie is in the present, I wanted to keep it to this as that's how I imagined the characters and their scenery.

Fifth Frame - Framing:

In all my shots the characters heads are all placed in the screen frame well, in the fifth frame the main characters head is not in the shot. Although this is quite distracting to the audience and makes them wonder where it is, I did it like that on purpose to add more drama to it.

Sixth Frame - Costumes:

For the costumes I had gotten all the actors in pj's this creates a more authentic look and sets the scene. The costumes were not hard to come by and on the days I needed to shoot the actors brought their costumes with them.

Seventh Frame - Camera Movement:

For this shot we zoomed in as much as we could that kept a good amount of detail and quality in the shot. I liked this as it made the audience pay attention to him and nothing else. I didn't have a wide variation of shots but I still think my movie is effective.

Eighth Frame - Narrative:

This shot is of him in pain after being hit with some debris though not seeing this, I should have included it.

Ninth Frame - Typography:

I used a text that resembled the theme and setting of my movie this made it more eye catching and attractive. I felt that if I used boring text then some of the audience would lose interest in the movie. Keeping the titles interesting will keep them interested.

Final Version - Phoenix

Evaluation - Information Cloud

Rough Cut Feedback

Here I shall state all the feedback that I had recieved from all my peers, on my rough cut.

"Too much action, makes it confusing."
"Camere: some good shot throughout the house"
"Framework: good context within the shots"
"movement: done well to get a lot of movement in a small area"
"sounds of flames emphasised to bring out the fear"
"possible scary music?"
"shouting and people talking"
"The scenes seem very dark, and the use of night vision is good, but a bit to blair witch style, try and avoid that in future, also it seems like a thriller."
"needs more transitions between shots also the fire needs putting in, also make the shots brighter"
"Needs something interesting to keep the audience interested"
"Needs titles"
"felt unfinished, couldn't tell exatly what was going on?"
"who is main character?"
"i think sounds of them whispering would work well, to explain things going on and maybe some panic music"
"why night mode when its day?"
"good shot bit confusing at times"
"night vision give horror feel to film"
"good use of angles & shot length/distance - close ups etc"
"good cuts between shots - ocasional jump that didn't match up"
"not clear where they where running"
"good shots and we understand there is a ire, it is sometimes to hard to see and the shots are a bit too dark though"
"location - house"
"costumes - casual"
"no titles, Don't understand whats going on"
"too dark"
"cant see whats going on"
"night camera/ normal camera (jump is very rough)"

As you can see all the comments I had recieved were all constructive, however at times bing critical but they were constructive and that is needed to help me understand what I need to do next and how to improve my sequence.

To everyones feedback I had added sound to my sequence, without the sound my sequence is hard to understand but now its not, the sound also creates a nice atmosphere to the movie.

I've added some more transitions in some shots to make it easier on the eye and I have brightened up some of the scenes, I think that the reason it seemed so dark when everyone watched it was because it was on a projector because it was fine on my laptop and desktop at home.

Titles have been added, before I added titles my scene was starting to look a bit like a trailer but after some editing and adding titles I think it now looks like an opening sequence.

Rough Cut

This is the rough cut version of my opening film sequence and when I say rough cut I really do mean rough, this is severly unedited and hardly any post-production in it. There is a huge lack of sound and titles. Seems more of a trailer, especially seeing how short it is at the moment. All I had done at this point was put some of ym footage together and maybe a few transitions and that is it.

We have recieved feedback from everyone in our class for this and this shall be uploaded in another post.