2. Week 1– Context Research & Proposal
I felt pretty confident writing through most of my proposal. I had a
fairly detailed idea in my head of what I wanted to make, though I
wasn’t going to hold onto each little bit, knowing that my further
research could easily change my mind about what would be included. I
also knew several different trailers that I could research and pull ideas
from to interpret into my own.
I may come back to these later if I find that I have taken inspiration
from more than I expected and definitely comparing between my initial
concept and what I actually ended up making.
3. Week 2 - Research
One of the first things I did for my research was start to write a survey
for my primary research. I decided to do the analysis of my results in
the second week when I should hopefully have enough responses to
know more about my target audience. I wanted to know what my age
range was most interested in, in terms of genre, to know if I should add
in any elements into my trailer that would suggest so and appeal to
more people. I also wanted to ask about promotional techniques, in
case I have any time to create additional material.
While I waited for enough results of my survey to come through, I
started to look through existing trailers and analysing them. I could look
4. Week 2 - Research
at different layouts of film trailers that I liked the setting of. I knew I was
also making a right move looking at films with action and sci-fi
elements as I could see that the results of my survey were already
favouring those genres.
5. Week 3 - Research
From looking at the different products and techniques I’ve researched,
I’ve found it being really helpful even if I’m just making a trailer. I learnt
that I can hide secrets and subtle references cleverly in the background
of shots if I think its appropriate to put across messages of undertones
that trailers often do. Finding out extra information about recording
sound also made me realise that I need to be careful about how the
sound is recorded and that I may have to consider recording some of
the sound separately and I’ll have to be very careful when recording
conversations.
Researching existing trailers was good for getting more ideas for what I
should include and was successful in giving me tips on how this genre
tends to set out its trailers. After I’d finished going through each trailer
6. Week 3 - Research
I’d decided to look at in depth, I returned to my survey to go through
the results. I learnt that sci-fi was the most popular of the genres out of
the responses. That means I should probably try and include at least
hints of sci-fi elements to my project, although post-apocalyptic fiction
often does anyway.
7. Week 4 – Problem Solving
This week of problem solving was really helpful in allowing me to realise all of the
things that I would have to consider before and during the production of my project.
Especially since I plan to do at least the majority of my filming outside, I had to
consider travelling to these conditions and how weather could affect my planning for
filming. Luckily, I should have different solutions for those, such as having my dad drive
us to the location that is further away and the other being local to college. And my
Grandad lives close by to the distant location so there may be a potential source of
facilities there if not in the local town. It does mean however that my scenes at the
distant location may have to be filmed more quickly and precisely as there is less
opportunity to be there and less crew members for filming assistance but I think that I
can make this work to my advantage.
One thing I also wanted to start to do this week and next week was testing out a few
technical effects to see if I had any problems with those that I’d need to fix. This week I
went out and took a short clip of an outside scene to test out some colour correction
for what I might want to use for my project using one of the tutorials as a start.
8. Week 5 – Problem Solving
This week I did more of my problem solving, delving into the potential
health and safety risks that comes with filming outside at each location
I plan on filming at as there are some variations with each. I also took
time to get a head start on starting my storyboard. To do each part, I’m
using a graphics tablet for the drawings and descriptions though I’m
planning on replacing that for text to make reading it easier. The tablet
was harder than I thought but I liked how it looked and I could get
across what I wanted to. What I know I need to sort next is costume
for my actress so that I can start planning when I can start to film when
my storyboard has more to it.
9. Week 6 - Planning
Planning this week has gone well. Thanks to getting a head start on my
storyboard last week, I was able to finish the part of my storyboard for
the opening to my trailer. This part takes place an hour away from
home which is why I wanted to make sure that I filmed this part first to
be comfortable in knowing I’d have more time to organise and reshoots
I might need to take. Once I finished that part, I talked to my main
actress to organise when the best time to film would be and finalising
costume. While we’re still finalising some of the details, I may have a
date to film the first part of the trailer.
10. Week 7 – Planning
When doing my planning, I want to make sure that I don’t make
mistakes and leave some planning to the very last minute to risk not
being able to film what I want on that day because of something in my
control. I spent this week finalising my plans to start the first part of my
filming. Having spoken again with my actress, we finalised the date to
be on Sunday and whether the rest of my crew would make it. I’m
much more confident about starting my filming now that I know they
should all be available and that I know how and when we’re aiming to
be there for. I am a little worried that I won’t have my storyboard
finished in time to do the rest especially once I start editing, but I am
still confident that I will have enough time to do everything.
11. Week 8 – Production
Having filmed over the weekend on Sunday, I wanted to get straight
into editing the first part of my sequence. I made a new premiere file
and made three different sequences. One was for the main timeline
that I would eventually export as my finished product. Another was for
syncing up my clips to audio and deciding which ones I wanted to use.
The third was for editing this specific section so that I could keep all my
videos organised. One problem I did notice was that the opening three
shots I wanted to use were slightly out of focus. At first I was worried
I’d have to reorganise going back to Pately Bridge but luckily it was
pointed out to me that I could refilm those shots without there being a
continuity error as long as the weather would be similar.
12. Week 8 – Production
The second thing that I did was organise all my files into folders so that
I could easily find different clips that I wanted to use.
From there I started by putting the film clips together
in the order of my storyboard and then syncing it with
the corresponding audio from the recorder. Once I’d
added the audio in, which wasn’t a lot by choice, I started to add in the
music as that was what I wanted to use as the predominant source of
audio in this part especially. This took longer than I had expected as I
13. Week 8 – Production
made lots of extra little adjustments to the soundtrack so that parts
lined up better and still gave off the eerie, desolate and lonely
atmosphere and when other people are around it’s dangerous. I then
moved on to the adjustment layers for colour correction. I started with
one from what I researched but it made my footage too dark. So I tried
giving it a slightly orange, higher constant tint, similar to what I took
from my context research. I initially had the idea that I would use this
for the flashback but quickly changed my mind.
I actually ended up with three adjustment layers: one a toned down
version of the YouTube tutorial, the other to level out the contrast and
14. Week 8 – Production
the other to add the colour tint that ended up working really well with
the footage in my opinion and really put across the effect I was trying
to create.
While making these adjustments did take quite a lot longer
than I’d hoped, I was definitely pleased with the outcome
and worth the extra time it took to perfect. It may need
tweaking slightly when the rest of the footage comes in but
by being a similar landscape it shouldn’t need too much.
15. Week 9 – Production
This week I resumed my storyboard so that I knew what I would need
for the rest of my trailer and could plan accordingly to get both my
actors in and the kit booked. It’s a little more difficult to plan now that I
have two different people acting though the upside is that it is an
easier place to get to for most of my crew members and any train and
bus expenses will be paid for those who need it. Another thing that I
noticed was that while I loved the effect of the colour correction, the
high contrast had turned the sky white and the clouds weren’t visible.
While I thought that it still looked good, I decided to try something. I
copied one of my video clips onto a new layer so that I had a backup
one already edited and created a mask around the sky. Once I’d done
16. Week 9 – Production
that, I went into Lumetri colour and turned down the contrast for that
area. I was so pleased when I saw it brought the clouds back into view
and some detail into the sky while still fitting in with the colour grading
I already had. One thing that did worry me is that I realised if I did it for
one clip, I’d likely have to do it for multiple where the sky was too
bright however I decided that it made such a good contribution to the
overall look of my film that it would be worth the time it would take.
17. Week 10 – Production
I filmed on Friday 5th April to get almost all of the remaining scenes for
my trailer. Filming went successfully, especially with the weather being
similar to when I filmed in earlier and I got the shots I wanted. While I
was on the set, I did decide to change my storyboard a little. I didn’t
have quite enough time to obtain the prop I wanted to have the
character look at a photograph which starts a flashback to when she
has to leave home and takes the photograph with her. However, I
realised that I didn’t necessarily need it to still make the scene give the
effect that I wanted. In a way, I decided that it could actually make it
better emotionally because it really highlighted that she did lose
everyone and doesn’t have even a picture to remember them by.
18. Week 10 – Production
I spent the start of this week finishing up the part of my storyboard I
was planning to film on Friday the 5th of April. It was a little rushed as I
was initially unaware if the day would be the Friday or the Saturday
which did result in one of my crew members not being able to join us,
although I was able to find a replacement at short notice which worked
out just as well. The other part of my week was finishing up masking
through my footage to sort out my overexposed sky. This took longer
than it should have as at one point I tried to speed up the process of
going through each frame to adjust the mask, I managed to delete
some of the progress and had to do it again. This annoyed me and I
started to worry if I would have enough time for everything else to do.
19. Week 11 – Production
On the last week before the Easter break, I spent my time at college
continuing to go back through all of my shots and masking the sky so
that it fit better with the colour grading. I was glad that some of these
shots were easier to mask this time as I didn’t have to move it around
each little movement on them all because you couldn’t tell the
difference but it still took me most of the week to do most of it where
it was necessary. It did however take me almost all week to do the
remaining scenes as some of the skies overlapped with Isabelle so I had
to make sure that she wasn’t in the mask and the small movements
made it more difficult. However, knowing that I don’t have many left to
do and what I’m planning over the holidays won’t require a mask as it is
inside so I am slightly less worried about that front.
