Month: March 2019

Posted in All Posts, Production

Stitches

Posted on by rebeccaawolff

As I discuss in my rough cut blog post, I really wanted to refilm at my school location. I wanted to refilm the part where my character is getting out of her car since I messed it up the first time. I also wanted to try some different camera angles of her running to class because I felt like it looked boring in my rough cut. However, I ran into a bit of a problem…

MY ACTRESS HAD TO GET STITCHES. Six of them, actually. Right on her chin. I couldn’t even hide them. She was playing volleyball, dove for a ball at the same time as someone else, and busted her chin on the floor. And the worst part is I didn’t even think of the continuity errors until she was already changed and ready to act. So because of this, I was unable to film her walking in the hallways; the only shot I could get was her running out of her car. She made sure to hide her face from view while still making it look natural.

I’m not too disappointed that I didn’t get to try out different camera angles for the hallway scenes. I thought that part of my video was boring, but everyone else I asked said they weren’t bored by it and they quite liked the tracking shots I used. Their approval makes me feel more confident about what I have.

I learned a lot from this experience. It makes me think of how, on an actual movie set, if an actor/actress is injured the entire production process has to halt. This can put films months behind schedule and cost millions of dollars. This is something I knew before taking this class, but after having this experience myself I have gained a better understanding of the feelings of frustration that go along with it. Thankfully, my film does not actually have a $3.5 million dollar budget or a production and distribution studio depending on it.

Posted in All Posts, Post Production, Production

Bloopers and Outtakes

Posted on by rebeccaawolff

In a fruitless effort to avoid tackling the bear that is my final project, I decided to edit the bloopers. I thought the bloopers would be relatively easy to make but I couldn’t have been more wrong. They were not at all easy to make and actually took me a bit of time. I used this opportunity to practice my iMovie skills and comedic editing techniques, as well as to further reflect on the entirety of the production process.

Editing The Bloopers

Like I stated previously, I have edited with iMovie before, but I feel like I still have a lot to learn (ha, see what I did there?) about the program. I went into this without having researched anything about iMovie and how to use various tools in it; this was made with my (minimal) knowledge.

screenshot from editing the bloopers

I messed around with different sound effects, titles, and transitions. Sometimes it worked out well, other times I totally screwed it up and had to hit undo around 20 times. I don’t think I will be using that many transitions in my final so I am not concerned with that as much as I am the fonts. I don’t really like iMovie’s titles and fonts; they are super cheesy. Because of this, I am thinking I will have to use another editing software to do this.

Reflecting Yet Again…

editors looking at all the footage

After watching all of my footage over again, I can see why the editor hates their life. There is so much to comb through, and what’s even more annoying is that half of it is useless. In this case, I was looking for the useless shots, but STILL. It’s super excessive, but also extremely necessary. If the cinematographer doesn’t take enough footage, then the editor doesn’t have enough to work with, but if they take more than enough the editor has to spend hours going through it. I guess the latter is better, but it is still dreadful. Editing my final should be easier since I’ve already done my rough cut and have my shots in order, but only time will tell.

Sources

Posted in All Posts, Post Production, Production

Rough Cut Reflection

Posted on by rebeccaawolff

I decided to reflect upon my rough cut and get one of my peers to reflect on it too. This way I can get a better impression of what I need to fix. The criteria I used is:

  • How much continuity does the video have? Are there any places where the continuity can be improved? How?
  • To what extent is the video readable as a film opening? Can you understand that it’s an opening? Why or why not? What can you do to make it more readable?
  • To what extent is the video readable within your chosen genre? Can you tell it’s a horror/thriller/comedy/coming-of-age etc.? How can this area be improved?
  • Partner with someone who doesn’t know anything about your video. Record their answers to the following questions:What is setting (time and place)?
    • Who are the characters?
    • What is the movie going to be about?
    • To what extent is it readable as a film opening?
    • To what extent is it readable as a [insert genre] film?
    • Overall, how might the clarity of meaning in the video be improved?

Continuity

In my opinion, the video has decent continuity. It is easy for me to see that it is following a girl who is going from her house to school. I’ve mentioned this before, but there is a shot that I had planned to use in my title sequence that I later decided to cut. However, after watching my rough cut, I want to include this shot for continuity. My peer said she could follow my storyline. She told me she understood that my character was late for school and was rushing to get ready. Once I told her about the shot I wanted to add, she said it would help continuity but that it wasn’t necessary. She also said that the part where my character get out of her car isn’t as bad as I think it is. I hated it because I didn’t do it in one long take so it looks jumpy. By my peer said it wasn’t awful.

Understanding of Film Opening

I think this is readable as a film opening. It is ambiguous enough to not give anything away, but some main ideas are revealed. My peer also thinks it is readable as a film opening and not a trailer.

Understanding of Genre

I feel like the coming-of-age genre is very apparent, but the comedy aspect may be lacking. However, my peer noticed the comedy right away when my character fell out of bed. When I asked her for my genre she said coming-of-age first, and then comedy. This slightly concerns me because I pitched my film as a comedy, but I feel like comedy elements will really come in during post production.

Posted in All Posts, Production

Influences and Changes

Posted on by rebeccaawolff

Influences

For my project, I pulled a lot of inspiration from The Edge of Seventeen (2016) and Eighth Grade (2018). I did a lot of research on these films, including a shot by shot analysis for The Edge of Seventeen and an analysis of the Eighth Grade title sequence, so it makes sense I would heavily rely on them as influences. I’m glad I did extensive research before filming because if I hadn’t I wouldn’t have known where to start. It helped me a lot when deciding what shots to use or what kind of mise-en-scene elements I wanted to include. I also learned a lot about the filmmaking process by using these influences. Most of the time, when people think of the word “copying” a negative connotation comes to mind. However, if you think about it, all movies within a genre contain a lot of the same. Filmmakers recycle a lot of techniques and are always learning from each other, which in turn makes the film community grow as a whole. I never thought about it this way until I began the production phase of this project.

  • A Lot To Learn
  • Eighth Grade

Here’s an example of how I was influenced. In my Storyboarding post, I included my plans for this shot. Here it is with my actress and the proper decor elements. It isn’t the exact same, but during pre production I thought about this specific composition and angle of this shot.

  • A Lot To Learn
  • The Edge of Seventeen
  • A Lot To Learn
  • The Edge of Seventeen
  • A Lot To Learn
  • The Edge of Seventeen

Here’s a few more examples, except these ones are influences from The Edge of Seventeen.

Changes

this is the shot in question

I didn’t make too many changes during the filming process; the only think I did was cut out one of the shots I storyboarded. However, I think I am going to go back and film it. I cut it out because I didn’t think it was necessary but after editing my rough cut I think it definitely is needed. Other than that, I adjusted a few shot angles from my original plans.

Sources

Posted in All Posts, Post Production, Production

My Rough Cut!

Posted on by rebeccaawolff
  • me watching the first half of my RC
  • me watching the second half of my RC

Throughout the production process, I have been making rough cuts for the footage I have shot on a particular day. Well I’ve finally put everything together into one rough cut! However, I am not entirely happy with the results. I love the first half; the continuity is good, the shots are diverse enough, it feels lively. The second half, on the other hand, is kind of garbage. There’s a much worse version of it on my Second Day of Shooting blog post, but the improved version isn’t much better. My problem, as previously stated, is that for the scene when my character gets out of her car, I didn’t do one long take; I filmed it separately. I also MOVED THE CAMER ANGLE SLIGHTLY (can you tell I’m mad about it?) which is making it difficult to fix in editing. I fixed it slightly from the original by tilting and zooming in on the video, but it isn’t the greatest. There are obvious cuts that I don’t want to be there. Also, just like before, I’m afraid the tracking shots of my character walking to class are too boring and not energetic enough. I may have to go back and reshoot, but I’ll continue to play with what I have.

The full rough cut for A Lot To Learn can be found below. As of right now, my it is exactly 2 minutes. This is going to need to be cut down some because I have to add some title images and production/distribution company names. Just like my other rough cuts, this one has no sound.