The Paperboy is almost finished!

We got the film stock back just before Easter and i have been working on the editing since, most of the footage turned out great while the sound was bad in quite a few places which I have to work around. Some scenes are absolutely fantastic in my opinion and its easily my favourite thing I've worked on so far. I have realised how much non-diagetic music can enhance a film, i have been using Audio-network to buy tracks to use in the production and it has made a huge difference. Its something i am very proud of, since working with a film camera was a challenge which i mostly did well at, and its some of my best editing I've done so far in my opinion. When the final edit is finished I'll post it here for you all to see!

I have my own camera!

With my birthday money i got myself a DSLR since i have a good interest in photography, it also shoots really nice video. Today i was bored and stuck in the house and threw this together, i personally think its awesome.

National Trust project

Over the last few weeks i've been producer on a project for the National Trust. We had to create a virtual tour of the upper levels of Ormesby Hall. I did all the pre-production paperwork and everything was ready until the day came and we were short-crewed so i had to step in on camera, i had good fun with it and was a different experience and my first one working out of college in a professional situation. Also producing for the first time i enjoyed alot more than i expected, though i was unsure what was left for me to do since the location and actors and script were all given to us.

SAKS project

Another work experience project we've been given was for SAKS Hair and Beauty, we had to make 4 short demonstration videos to go on the SAKS website, i stood in as camera operater and thought it was a very good experience that i thoroughly enjoyed. I'm looking forward to seeing the final cut.

The Paperboy Shooting review

Over the last two days we have shot the paperboy, Thursdays shoot didn't go so well, we lost our cafe location and ended up having to use the college cantine, where the lighting and sound were both terrible and could cost us alot in the quality of the finished film. Yesterdays shoot however went much better, the street location was exactly what we were looking for and we got on without too many hiccups. The film stock will be sent off and processed and when it comes back i can get on with editing, i think i did a good job on camera and got the majority of the camerawork right. I'm excited to see what the footage comes back like, and I believe the final product will be good.
Production stills below:

Piggy Bank Advert!

another quick task thrown at us in Production skills, we had to create an advert for a random object given to us by our tutor. we had the little red piggy bank and had great fun with it. i did the voiceover at the end is paticularly good haha.

16mm Project Intro

I am working on a project that will be shot on 16mm Film,  The idea's have been pitched and the best ones chosen. I am working with Chris Hanley, Craig Copeland, Jonathan Murray, and Jamie Smith. The film that has been decided was Chris's idea called The Paperboy. The theme was A sense of pride, and the main character is a middle aged man who has been a paperboy since his childhood and has never moved on from that, he a meets a girl who asks him out. A month later we see him on his round and he's became lazy and doesnt finish his round, in the end he dumps his girlfriend and goes back to his job because he is that proud of it. Chris is writing and directing, Craig is producing, Jonny on sound, Jamie on lighting, and i am in charge of Camera operation and Editing (once again). I would've liked to direct or produce for something different than the last project but i am looking forward to working with the film camera and editing is probably my favourite part, so i am happy with what i have.

Drama Project "The Good Samaritan" Complete.

I’m not totally satisfied with the final product, but when I watched the footage back after our shoot I thought it was going to be absolutely awful, but after a good bit of editing it didn’t turn out too bad, it’s just not as good as it could be. I believe we made the best of what we had in the situation we were in. Each member of the team pulled their weight and we ended up with a decent production. I am satisfied however, with what I have learned from the whole experience, and I know what to do differently for the next production.

Next time I think we should have our pre-production work finished a lot earlier to give us enough time to find the right actors and locations for the project. I think we should also take more care and time while we are out on a shoot so it can be as good as it should. I’ve learned that preparation is very important when it comes to shooting and that teamwork is equally important.

Drama almost done

Editing is going good, the footage looks okay in sequence, personally I think it lacks a lot of close-ups and is too many long shots, but Dan seems to be happy with it. Me and Dan went out to record some new sound we can use as background atmosphere since the sound while shooting was pretty bad, and we are placing that on the edit suite. We’re not getting the actors back to fix the speech which is a shame. We should finish the project next week.

Trailer Mix-up: Code Of Silence

We were given the task of taking a movie and making a trailer for it, as a bit of fun  Mike wanted us to try making it look like something it isnt. I thought it was a rather fun editing exercise. My group chose the Chuck Norris movie 'Code of Silence', and the idea was to change it from an action movie, to a gay-romance thriller revenge movie. The film is rather over the top in the first place but it was great fun putting this together, even if the final product doesn't make much sense and is rather far-fetched. There's a few rather bad-ass moments towards the end since Chuck Norris is kind of a legend in today's geek culture.

Check it out below:

Drama Update

We have loaded the footage onto the edit suite and watched it back, and managed a rough edit and the stuff is OK bar a few problems. There are a few obvious continuity errors, water on the lens in a few shots due to the heavy rain, but my biggest problem is with the sound. There is no sound at all through the first outdoor scene which we will have to fix, the sound for the rest of the footage is there, but the acoustics in the locations mean the quality of the sound isn’t as good as it should be. Hopefully I think we should get in contact with the actors and arrange a re-dub of the sound. Editing will properly start next week.