problem solving for my FMP

1. FMP: PROBLEM SOLVING
Adam Lepard

2. PROBLEM SOLVING
In order to be successful in the project I need to accept the possibility of
things going wrong and plans falling through, and this will allow me to
look at my project and see where things are likely to go wrong. By doing
this I can try and prevent things going wrong in these areas or prepare a
back up plan so that I can quickly fix issues and move foreword. Problem
solving is all about planning so that in the eventuality of a problem it can
be prevented or there will be another plan that can be followed. I think
that problem solving will be important to me as I have run into issues in
previous projects without having a back up plan and this has cost me lots
of time. Problem solving will help me to stay on track and allow me to
keep as much time as possible to work on my project so I can make it as
good as possible. In this power-point I want to look through all the aspects
of my project that have a chance of falling through and taking action to
make sure I can resolve these issues or prevent them entirely. I also want
to track problems that occur during my production and how I solve them.

3. PRACTICAL/TECHNICAL PROBLEMS
• Equipment
• Techniques
• Music
• Storage
• Software
• Working at home
• Props

4. PRACTICAL/TECHNICAL PROBLEMS
Equipment
At the moment I film with my cannon 350D which
I’ve used for all my previous video projects and I’ll
be using it again in this project as I’m used to
working with it so it’ll be the easiest to film with. I
also want my friend Ollie to help me out as a
second camera man so that I have a second camera
on board and someone who’s skilled at filming. As
I’m going to be filming a long take in the scene I’m
shooting I want to bring A shoulder mount along
so that I can get a steady tracking shot. I also want
to test out college’s gimble as I think that this
could also work really well for a steady tracking
shot but in order to use this in my production I will
need to be trained how to use it. I also need to use
coloured lighting in my scene by using gels onto of
different sources of light, in order to do this I will
probably need to buy some LED lights as normal
lights melt gels. If the gels don’t work or I can’t get
the lights I will probably see if I can create a
coloured effect in premiere or after effects but I
Techniques
In my scene I will be shooting a tracking shot which
will probably last for 45 seconds, for this shot I will
need to use equipment such as a gimble or shoulder
mount and I can create the illusion of the shot all
being one take through editing techniques. Before I
film the tracking shot I want to make sure I have a
solid plan of how I will film the shot, I also want to
make sure that all the actors and camera operators
know the plan and have to shot well rehearsed so that
we we start filming it will take us less attempts to film
the scene. I think it would help if I practiced some
tracking shots in my production experiments as I
could get a better understanding of how to film these
shots as well as gaining an understanding of what
could go wrong in a tracking shot. I want to have a
match cut at the end of the tracking shot which
should be pretty easy to film/edit and shouldn’t
require a backup plan, I just need a lot of takes so
that I can match the edit. I want to film and edit some
match cuts for my production experiments so I can

5. PRACTICAL/TECHNICAL PROBLEMS
Music
In my production I want to create my own piece
of music to create a unique atmosphere to the
film as it a horror film I think that an original
score would be a great addition to my work. As
I’ve made music for previous projects I have
knowledge of problems that will occur in this
area of production. The main issue that I’ve
faced in the past has been that I spend too
much time working on my music as I go through
the process of having to learn how to create
music. I think that I can fix this problem if I try to
create a short track in my production
experiments so that I’m more adjusted to
making music and if the short track sounds
good I can extend it so that I can use it in my
project. If I can’t make any good music then I
will resort to using a song that sounds similar to
what I want as I don’t want to spend too much
Storage
I will mainly store all of my work on my mac at
college however I also want to E-mail myself all
of my work so that I have a back up incase
there’s anything wrong with my computer so I
will always have my work saved somewhere. I
think that it’s important that I store my work in
various places as it’ll mean that if anything were
to go wrong I would be able to reach my work
anytime I need to. I make sure that I save my
work frequently incase my computer crashes as I
don’t want to loose any work and this is
probably the best way to make sure that I loose
as little as possible in case something were to go
wrong.

6. PRACTICAL/TECHNICAL PROBLEMS
Software
I will mainly be using Adobe Premiere to edit my
video however there’s other software that I
might be using such as Final Cut as this will be
the editing software that I use on my laptop at
home. I’ll also be using Garage-band to make
my music as this is accessible to me as well as
being convenient as I’ve used it in the past. I will
probably edit my music a bit in Adobe Audition
before I put it in my video as it’ll help me
control a bit more about how the track sounds. I
think that I’ll also need to use photo shop to
create some subtitles for my video as the
soundtrack will intentionally drown out the
sound made by the characters.
Working at home
When I’m working at home I try to keep my
process very similar to my process at college
such as saving regularly and emailing my work
to myself so I can continue work at college if I
need to. I think that working at home is
important for my problem solving in this project
as it gives me more time to work on PowerPoints
when I need to move foreword in my work as I
can just finish off any left over work at home.
Working at home also gives me the opportunity
to add anything to a PowerPoint that I might not
of thought about during a lesson such as a new
point of interest in my research or a different
form of planning to add to my pre-production.

7. PRACTICAL/TECHNICAL PROBLEMS
Props
As I’m making a horror film I will need some
props that can be used for disturbing affect. I
already have a bottle of fake blood that I can
use however I want to have a realistic knife used
in the scene but I think that if I used a real knife
it would be too dangerous so I think that I could
use an alternative weapon or make a fake knife
as I want the film to be shot safely and
efficiently. I won’t need many props for my
scene and the props that I do need won’t need
much planning for as it’s things like glasses and
bottles which are widely available.
Costume
When it comes to costumes it should be pretty
simple to sort out any issues with actors
costumes all I need to do is make sure that my
actors don’t where mainly red/green as I think
that this might look a bit weird in the coloured
lighting so I will tell my actors about this before
we start filming. I will make some masks for the
cult members out of paper-mâché as I think that
this would look cool in the red lighting and give
them more of a presence on screen.

8. THEORETICAL PROBLEMS
• Unwanted noise
• Actors/extras
• Crew dynamics
• location
• Finance
• Refreshments
• Production time
• Job roles
• Health/safety

9. THEORETICAL PROBLEMS
Actors/Extras
I think that I’ll need to make a list of people that I
know that have either worked on a project with
me before or that I know are skilled at acting. I
think that by making a list of people I can ask
everyone to help and this way I can get as many
reliable people on board as possible as my
project is one where actors can be around as
extras however this isn’t necessary. I know that at
most I will need 4 actors for this shoot so as long
as I’ve got 4 people there it’ll be fine and if I can
get more people to arrive then they can be used
as extras. I will ask the actors three weeks before
filming and keep reminding them as it gets closer
to the day we film so that I can avoid as many
potential drop outs as possible.
Unwanted noise
I thought of a way to film my scene without
needing to worry about noise sounding rough
however I think that this would only really work in
the film that I’m shooting. I’m planning to record
audio while filming and add a loud version of my
track over the top so that you can hardly hear
what the actors are saying as this will give the
party a greater sense of atmosphere. I will put
subtitles in the video so that the audience can see
what the characters are saying but really I think
that this will make the scene more atmospheric
without me having to worry about sound issues
so in a way this would solve potential issues and
it would mean I would only have to add subtitles
to the scene.

10. THEORETICAL PROBLEMS
Location
As the location of the horror film is a house party
I will obviously be filming in a house however I
need to have a solid location of a house that I’ll
film in. I know that one of my friends has a house
that’s quite large which we could possibly film in
if I make sure it’s ok with them, the open spaces
of their house would be great for atmosphere
and movement. If their house isn’t available then
we’ll need to use my house instead which will be
more cramped however it shouldn’t be an issue
to film in.
Crew dynamics
As a crew I think that me and Ollie will be doing a
lot of camera work and I think that this will be
enough people operating cameras in this project.
I think that our main objective as a crew is to set
up the lighting for the scene and to rehearse with
the actors the movement of the scene and where
the camera will be so that we can make our takes
as close to perfect as possible. I aim to make sure
that all the actors and crew members feel
comfortable working with each other and that
everyone knows their role and as a director it
basically my job to make sure that they know
what they’re doing

11. THEORETICAL PROBLEMS
Refreshments
While I’m filming with the crew and actors we will
be in someone's house so issues that occur such
as food and drink shouldn't be a problem. I think
that maybe refreshments could run into my
budget at the worst but really there won’t be
many issues giving my team food and drink while
we’re working.
Finance
I probably won’t be spending much money on
this project as I’ve mainly been planning the
project around this idea. I will most likely spend
some money getting some LED lights as they
won’t melt the gels I’ll use and I can use them in
later projects. I might need to spend some money
on a pizza for a shot in my trailer which is
probably something I’d spend money on anyway
if I wasn’t filming. Really I’ll be paying for
anything that I need but I aim to keep my budget
around £50.
Health and safety
Health and safety is possibly one of the most important
parts of filming, especially when there could be lots of
people on set as it means that it’s probably more likely
for someone to get hurt. I think that by letting everyone
on set be aware of risks such as cables that they could
trip over. I think that awareness is probably the best way
to prevent risks, to be aware of potential issues and to
point them out to everyone or to change things so that

12. THEORETICAL PROBLEMS
Job Roles
It’s quite easy for people to loose site of their role
during production so in order to prevent this I
want to make sure that Oliver who will be
operating the camera knows the route he will
take around the set and knows what types of shot
I want, I basically want him to have a good idea
of what the scene should look like and I can do
this by sharing all my planning material. I will
make sure actors know what characters they are
and give them the screen play about a week
before filming so that they are prepared for
filming. As director I need to make sure that the
actors know the the part they play and that it can
all be filmed well and by preparing everyone in
advance to work in their roles.
Production time
I think that running out of production time is an
issue that’s very likely to occur if I don’t prepare
well enough as this happened to me on previous
projects. In this project I think that I can avoid
running out of time if I put more effort into
planning out each stage of my production. In my
pre-production I want to make a plan of how I
want my production to go and I also want to
make a plan of where things could go wrong and
list what I should do if this happens. I think that if
I can make these plans then I will be prepared for
most issues that I could face. I also want to make
more types of plans such as story-boards, scripts,
a short screenplay and a shot list as I think
preparation will help speed up the production
process.

13. CREW
Film Crew
• Oliver- filming on the Black-magic camera or the Canon 350D with the shoulder mount
for the tracking shot
• Me- I’ll be directing the actors as well as filming a few shots
Actors/cast
• Nathan L – will not be the primary focus of this scene however he will be shown as the
main character
• Fiona – will be the love interest of Nathan-L’s character so they will most likely have
some chemistry as they are dating.
• Peni - Will play one of the cult members
• Sarah – Will play a cult member and someone who is aggressive to Nathan-R’s
character
• Nathan R – will play the victim of the scene where he is chased through the house and
killed by the cult
• Me - I will play a cult member if I can’t get any more actors
• Extras- anyone else I know who is interested can either play an extra or a cult member
to replace me

14. MONEY/COST OF PRODUCTION
props/equipment cost
Coloured lighting gels £8-10
LED lights £15-30
paper £5
Paper mâché £5
PVA glue £3
Total £36-£53

15. MONEY/COST OF PRODUCTION
I honestly shouldn’t have an issue with the cost of production.
When I was working on my concept I knew that I wanted to
conserve my money so I designed my concept around the idea
that I wouldn’t need to spend much money so the only thing that
really requires much money is the lighting which is fine as the
equipment that I buy will be useful for this project and any film
that I plan for in the future. I will be making some props out of
paper mâché such as masks for the cult characters as I think that
this will add an extra layer of detail to my video and it won’t cost
much to make either.

16. EXPERIMENTS

17. ONE TAKES
I made a video where Ollie and I practiced filming one takes and it went
fairly well, we didn’t have shoulder-mounts so the footage is a bit shaky
however the point of the video was to get used to how it feels to film a
one take. I think that I could’ve improved this experiment if we had
filmed some shots for longer and did some more interesting things with
the shots. We mainly walked up stairs as I knew that I’m going to be
filming someone walking up stairs in the production so I thought of this
as a sort of practice for the actual filming. I think that in my production I
will need to film with a shoulder mount as this definitely made my shots
more stable in my FMP last year and I’d like the shots in my project this
year to be just as clean.

18. ASPECT RATIO
In my experiment video where I tested out movement with the
camera for tracking shots when I was editing the video I realized that
I could use this video to experiment with aspect ratio as well. I
decided that I would use the ratio of 21:9 / 64:27 which I did by going
into the sequence in premier and changing the frame size to
2560x1080. I think that the result of a widescreen aesthetic looks
really good and I will most likely use this aspect ratio in my
production as I can see it working well in scene that I’m going to film.

19. MATCH CUTS
I think that my attempts at making a short sequence of match cuts was
quite bad as there were multiple continuity errors between each shot so I
will need to try this experiment again. I should practice getting things into
center frame and making sure that someone is in the same position. I think
that I’m also going to have a go at filming match cuts using objects as well
as people so I have more practice using match cuts so that I’m more
prepared for the filming in in my final production.

20. COLOURED LIGHTS
In this experiment I wanted to test out the
coloured gels that I borrowed to see how I can
use them as lighting in my project. I started
out by testing the red gel. I used a clamp to
attach the gel to my phone so I could use the
light on my phone to create a portable red
light. This technique worked however it wasn’t
too effective as the footage was dark and
quite poor in quality as DSLRs aren't that
good in low lighting. The darkness of the
footage can be fixed in premiere however the
quality can only be changed slightly. I think
that this technique could work if I were using
a different camera or if I were using a stronger
light.

21. COLOURED LIGHTS
After my first attempt to use the red gel I decided to use
a different technique I placed the gel over the camera
lenses and kept the lights on in the hallway. This was
fairly effective with all of the gels as it covered the whole
image and kept everything clear. I think that the main
issue with this technique is that it’s clear to see where
there are sources of light as can be seen in the images
shown on this page. Another issue with this method is
that the gel being placed over the lens makes it difficult
to move around with the lighting as the gel moves
around as your shooting and it’s difficult to hold it in
place.
I don’t think that I’ll use this technique in my project as I
think that there are too many issues that could occur
while filming which could ruin shots. I think the main
thing to take away from testing this technique is that just
because a technique looks good doesn’t mean that it
should be used as it can have faults that make filming
more difficult.

22. COLOURED LIGHTS
Another issue I’ve found from the experiment is that in the
footage where I used the phone light there are points where you
can see the reflection of the light on walls and on reflective
surfaces such as mirrors or glass so I know now that I should
avoid having these types of surfaces in my video so that the
light source isn’t shown in the footage. I think that I should also
not have the light be portable as I think that If I just sources of
light that satay in one place then it would look a lot more
professional.
I think that editing the footage by colour grading is useful and
effective as it enhances the colours and makes the footage more
visible. To avoid forgetting how I graded the footage I’ve kept
screen shots of all the colour changes so it will save me time
when I’m editing my video.
I think that to make the lighting better in my video I will need to
either buy some LED lights or borrow some from college so that
I can save money.

23. MUSIC
• I started making my music by looking through the
garage band synth instruments and picking some that
sounded good. I knew that I was looking to make
something that sounded dark and loud so I tested out
each synth bass instrument to see if it had the certain
sound I wanted. I ended up choosing several synth
instruments and making little rhythms and layering
these to make a whole. This took a fairly long time as
some of the beats I made sounded bad or didn’t fit
with other ideas so making a whole track was a
process of trail and error for me.
• An important part of the process for me was making a
drum loop that sounded heavy and suited the track,
this was more difficult than it seemed. I resorted to
picking a drum loop from the loop section in garage
band as it was easier than making a drum loop and
more effective as it was exactly what I was looking for.

24. MUSIC
• I wanted to add a sort of horror element to the track
by distorting some of the synth instruments using
the bit-crusher effect which pixelates and distorts
the notes which creates an eerie atmospheric vibe. I
think that doing this experiment has definitely got
me back into the flow of using garage band I think
that looking at how different effects such as the bit-
crusher.
• In a lot of the instrument track I had to adjust certain
settings such as the reverb, resonance and distortion
to make the track sound more atmospheric and
layered.
• Overall I think that my music turned out great and I
probably won’t need to make another track for my
production but I might anyway so that that there’s a
different song for the trailer. I think that in my
production I’ll probably need to edit the track so
that it sounds more distant as it reverberates in

25. UPDATED PROBLEMS