Brainstorm

We had a brainstorm today about our soundscape. The Sci-Fi theme is something we are keen on so sticking with that. However, we are thinking less deep space, more futuristic city.

To allow us to have the most scope for a variety of sounds and to help us make the piece as interesting as possible, we are thinking we shall have our music set in a dystopian city, specifically on a street. We may even have it through the eyes of a character, so the piece would begin with person A walking up, as if knocking out - or something along those lines, in the street, sounds gradually filtering into their consciousness.

Inspiration wise, my mind leads to the epic film that is Blade Runner

I imagine our soundscape to be a bit like the scene at the beginning of Blade Runner, where we see Harrison Ford eating noodles on a street that has so much going on.

By doing something similar I think we can incorporate some really great stuff into our track, especially as the idea doesn't really restrict us in anyway; anything can happen. However, we to need to keep it constructive and not over complicate things for ourselves. Initial ideas about what might take place on this imagined street are people talking, arguing, having physical fights as well as sounds of all varieties of transport. I think it would also be great to record just little things that you hear when you walk down a main street, such as snippets of conversations and activity within shops, restaurants and cafes. Industrial and mechanical sounds I think are key too. Might try to include a dog bark or two in it as well.

Sound

So, we have been given our first sound assessment: to create a 3 minute sound scape, evoking a sense of space.

My immediate thoughts?

Deep deep SPACE

Reflections

We have now completed our film! Very relieved. I think we have done the best we could with what we had. Overall though, I think we could have done some things differently.

The main problem we faced was not having enough footage to fill the three minutes so I definitely would get some stock footage in the future. Also, we could have got some general view shots. Though in our piece I think they would have looked out of place, in future projects I would like to make sure I have some, just as back up.

I think we could also have done our planning a bit better. Though at the time, we felt like we had everything sorted, when we got to edit there are a couple of things issues that came up when making our rough cut. I think the most obvious being that we - or I certainly - didn't always think about the audience. Which is a big thing to not do. But for me, at first, our idea and what we were trying to show was very clear and so assumed that of course everyone would get the same ideas from our film. Rubbish. Of course not.  I think that sometimes, when you work on a project and think about it a lot, you can forget to take a step back and think, will this make sense? If we had thought about this more in our planning, our film could have turned out differently.

But I am happy with our short and as I said, I think with what we had, we did the best we could. We worked hard at editing it right and think what we have got is good.

Finished...but not quite...

So, we were finished and ready to head off before quickly burning our DVDs. This didn't happen as easily as we thought...

We decided to use iDVD and so, after exporting our file in 16:9 and then setting up iDVD to be 16:9 we burnt our DVD and all was well. When we checked the DVD however, it turned out is was 4:3. What?

So, after a quick check of all our files and all the preferences, we found that everything was set to the correct ratio. More confusion set in. We checked it out online as there was nothing obviously wrong, and found this...

Well done Apple.

Edit update

All is going well. The close up of the TV bookending the film I think works really well and definitely helps to add meaning to the piece. It is taking a fair bit of time to put our video clips inside the TV, and then with the added zooming in and out its taking even longer to match all the elements up. But I think it will be worth it. The last scene especially looks really good because we end with the river scene and the flowing water looks great when on the TV. Really makes it seem realistic. I think the hardest part is going to be to get the lighting and colouring looking decent; the weather conditions have given our work a beautiful dull grey look. Brilliant.

Rough cut after thoughts

Today we had a big talk about how to improve our little film. Questions such as how to explain why there is a person sat in the middle of a field? Why is there a TV there? and why are they watching it? Our main concern is that when we first planned this projects, we never intended there to be much of a plot. It was always going to be a fairly abstract piece. So, the fear is that trying to impose a plot on it, will just not work in anyway. It could also make it seriously complicated.

We had planned to film extra bits today, potentially in my dorm living room (this could be made easier now we've had a lighting workshop..). But we decided against the filming because neither of us felt very confident in being able to create an adequate lighting set up. Also, the fact that we would be filming indoors, away from Edale bothered us slightly as it would mean that we would be deviating from the brief. Despite that we have permission to do so, I think we would both feel more comfortable completing the assignment as closely to the brief as possible.

We discussed all sorts of ideas, from dreams to adding adverts to having this person wish they were on holiday. But as I have just said, none of these ideas really worked for us because we never really intended for this person to have an identity or story.

So, in the end, we have decided that we will have a close up a TV and zoom in as suggested but we will use the shots that we have from Edale. I think zooming in and out of the TV - which will fit the screen pretty much I think - will nicely book end the film and also add a bit of context. Its just trying to get a good mix between sticking to our original idea but also keeping the viewer engaged...

Hopefully, this will work!

Rough Cut Feedback

Just had a tutorial about our rough cut.  A lot needs to be done.

Its strange because when it is just yourselves watching and editing your footage you get it to a level that you think is okay. But then you watch it in the presence of another, someone external to the creative process and you can view the piece completely differently. The feedback we got was really useful and some of the points seemed glaringly obvious when pointed out by someone else. 

Main points for final cut;

 - It is far far too slow, must drastically pick up pace. Its better to have a shorter, better film than one that is obviously padded out and isn't at all good.

 - The cuts need to be more considered

 - There is a lack of context. A way to overcome this would be to film in a living room and zoom in on the TV. 

 - Would be nice to include some nature shots, which could also pad it out. 

So, looks like we are going to have to shoot some more footage. I think the point about context is really key.. our film so far jumps straight into it, so as a member of the audience you don't have a clue what is going on. Going to have to think of a good way of doing this. Not sure about filming in a living room as we'd have to use a dorm living room where light is rubbish and it looks like a prison cell. ...