production and post-production process
Practical skills
Under this section I will present production and post production process of my project development, as well as my final project (short film)
My Final Major Project
A short film: Lost Letters
My Final Major Project + bloopers
Production Process
Friday the 13th
On Friday the 13th I began filming my FMP short film 'Lost Letters' my plan for the day was to hopefully get as much/all of the scenes filmed and record the audio of the letters from each actor. With my first actor available I began the recording of the three letters, It took a couple of tries for the actor to not rush or mumble the script for me to then ask the to be more enthusiastic by the end of the recording I knew I had at least two for each letter that would be editable. I then moved onto filming, ensuring all of the props were in place and the area was free to film in we began. I decided to film all of the scenes before then getting the actor to change and move the props around etc. I also made the decision to film extra clips to have more then enough footage to edit with. Overall in the first half the filming ran smoothly some of the calendar scenes took a couple of tries to ensure the actor was standing in the right place but all together I gained some pointers on how to direct the next actor and film the following scenes. With the second actor then available I had him meet us at the first location to film all of the scenes there before then moving to location two, when we went to film however we realised the camera was dead; with the camera charging we decided it would be the best time to record the audio for the letter's. With the experience from actor one I had a better understanding on how to direct actor wo making the recording process a lot quicker. With all of the audio recordings out of the way we went on to film, only one of the scenes caused us trouble as I was unsure on what I wanted actor two to do when the door was opened for the very last shot in the film; so instead I got him to try a couple of different ways to allow me to then decide in post-production. With all of the scenes completed at location one we moved to location two, the very first scene we went on to filmed proved to be very difficult; I had my friend Valerie put a letter through the letter box however there was bristle stopping it from going through. To overcome this problem I had Fin (actor two) have his hand through the bristle ready to pull the letter through; which we then realised you could see his hand with the letter box half opened and Fin pulling the letter through slowly we were able to get the shot. Overall I was able to get the rest of the scenes filmed in not time at all being done with the filming all in one day, throughout the process I further developed various skills such as my organisational and forward thinking capabilities to make the process run as smoothly as possible. I was also able to improve my directing skills noting down what to do to get the outcome I had envisioned; all skills I can transfer to future projects.
The photos show the different areas of the house I filmed in and the set-up, they also show the people involved.
Post-Production Process
16th-17th
On Monday the 16th I began editing the footage for my FMP short film 'Lost Letters' my plan was to get as much editing done in one day as I could. Firstly after exporting all of the footage I sorted through it labelling the shot types to made editing onto the timeline a lot easier with the shot numbers labelled and in order. I then decided to edit a chunk at a time to prepare for less mess when moving around tracks, my editing process consisted of apply the track to the timeline muting the audio playing around with the colours creating a filter and then sourcing sound from a sound library, I decided to use a website called freesound.org for the entity of all sound effects. The first two letters footage matched up to the length of the audio however the third letters footage ran too long, to fix this problem I had to cut up the footage matching the movements as best I could. The letters read by the actor writing were slightly quit even with the volume at its highest therefore next time I would instead perhaps record the audio myself. Once I began adding more of the footage I came to the realisation that the short film would be too long and perhaps slightly boring so instead I created a stop-motion of the calendar, which if next time I knew I was going to edit in this was I would of filmed all at once without moving the camera around each time. I also had to cut out a lot of extra footage however I believe the ending came to together quite well. When gaining feedback from my tutors it was brought to my attention that perhaps I could of filmed extra clips of the characters everyday life to fill in the gaps of the letters being read, not only does this fill time but it would also give the audience an insight to the characters personality. The over-all editing process spanned across two days the 16th and 17th of may within this time I was able to edit all of the footage as well as create a blooper real and add credits. Throughout I was able to improve my knowledge of editing software developing my skills of colour grading and even creating my own filters, sourcing sounds and editing them to the exact movement; and overall time management skills. I was able to make noted on what to do differently next time when filming to plan for changes that may occur when editing.
(Freesound.org, n.d.)
The screen grabs show the editing process, final editing, colour editing and the website I used for the sound effects.