Film 18/6

All done and dusted. Im not really happy with the final cut, but its the best I could do with the footage I had. Thats my fault for reasons already covered in this blog, but at least now I have a better idea of what is required. If I could go back in time I would definitely change up what I recorded, and tried to come up with a better film plot. I consider this semesters class as a training exercise, so I need to take what Ive learned and improve upon it for my future study. Onwards and upwards!

Film 14/6

Last class before hand-in. Im semi happy with my footage, but I feel kinda obliged to produce it due to the amount of time I spent filming lol. It doesnt quite fit the original proposal, but it has some sexy motorbike vrooms and visuals so its not a complete waste. Ill be doing the final polishing and exporting on monday morning, just so I can step back for a couple days and come back to it with a fresh perspective. Thanks Ash for giving us an extension <3.

Film 7/6

I put my rough cut together in full today, sadly the amount of usable footage is less than I wanted, so I am going to have to be extra finicky with the editing to make it work. I have found some background royalty free music that I think fits the non-dialog parts, I just have to chuck it into the timeline and get a better idea of whether it fits or not. It sucks not having premiere at home, but I work around it by doing the other classwork at home, so on monday mornings I can focus on my film since Im at tech early in the morning. I think a couple more hours tweaking my edit, and I'll be good to go and not a moment too soon.

Film 31/5

I managed to edit 2.5mins of my film so far. That is more than I thought I had but nowhere near what I need. I have the camera booked for this weekend so I can film everything else. Ill be damned if I fail cos of this stupid thing. Things definitely ran smoother when there wasnt the whole crew around, the only unknown will be whether Simba performs or hides like the scared kitty he is. That is my problem for choosing to have him in the film however, so I need to work around that. So far my film is definitely just turning into motorbike porn lol but I am ok with that.

Film 27/5

What a damn mess today was. Shannon and myself are actually quite sick, and so today was hard for us both having to stick around for so long to get the footage shot. Lajcee was full of bullshit excuses this morning as to why she couldnt come in. Number one being that she was out of town at her boyfriends with no ride in, despite confirming that we needed to be at the park, the last 4 days in a row. The big kicker with that situation is that we only had the location for today, and it cost money to book it. Both Aaron and James had her acting in their movies since she couldnt actually do any filming due to skipping certification class. Because she didnt come in, James has had to cut a whole scene out of his movie, and the rest of us had to wait until Jordyn finished work so that she could take the spot in Aarons film. Need less to say there was a lot of angry people today, which also didnt help the mood on set. Aaron is too easily overwhelmed to be effective at directing, not to mention wanting 10 angles of the same shot for every shot, and we just dont have time for that. Frustrations are very high and I think if we had too many more filming days, there would actually be a fight and walk-outs. Good thing this class is nearly over, I just hope there is enough footage for a film, for the ones that actually deserve it. The lessons I have learned from this whole experience are, dont underestimate just how lazy some people are, and dont help everyone else to the point of screwing yourself over in the long run.

Film 26/5

Well, today I was supposed to get my film shot however it didnt quite work out that way. Aaron was the only one to show up at the agreed time of 10am. The two of us managed to get quite a few outside shots done before james and shannon finally showed up around 11:30. It was at this stage that my sister and her family arrived for their part, so we moved locations to the park and got a few takes in there before it started raining, which ended my shoot for the day. I am going to have to get the camera out myself at some point this week so I can do the shots with the cat and a few other shots that hadn't been done yet due to various reasons. It really feels like as soon as we are filming something other than rockdog, everyone just stops giving a damn and just want to leave as soon as they can. Not that Lajcee bothered to show up because she conveniently had things that needed to be done today. She hasnt showed up to over half of the shoots so far, its a little unfair to the rest of us who are actually doing the work.

Film 25/5

Today we continued on with James interior film scenes, and finished them. So now we only have a couple of outdoor scenes for him and he is finished shooting. My film is definitely far behind the other two in terms of footage, due to my main actors work schedule. I am getting the feeling I will have to do some more shooting next week as well, weather permitting. Its a little frustrating for me being behind schedule, and I really hope that I can get the amount of effort from the others on my film, that the other two are getting. Big day tomorrow, and I am really hoping to smash out my whole film. I took the camera for a ride on my passenger seat while driving around today as an experiment. Sadly it was shaky, as I suspected it would be, but I might be able to use some footage as a POV clip. I need to really go through it and see if there is anything usable.

Film 24/5

Unfortunately due to weather, I havent managed to shoot much of my film yet. We were editing in class today, so I only had a few clips to work with but it was good to play around with premiere and familiarise myself with the program a little better. This saturday is the day we are focusing on my film this weekend, and so far we are only going to have a 2hr window approx to film outside. However Sunday is looking fairly clear, so I am hoping we can get all three films finished by the end of that day.

Film 20/5

Shot from todays time on set. We managed to get all of the cafe scenes for Aarons film shot, however it required a lot of organisation and direction from myself to keep things moving. Props werent fully organised, one person had a breakdown, one person shutdown mentally, and only one extra had been confirmed at last minute as the casting call was only put out late last night, amidst a huge misunderstanding with the 2IC of the cafe in Queens park. I played damage control and managed to clear up that situation with her but I still dont think Aaron fully understands just how bad that situation could have been, purely because of the way he approached the conversations.
I am starting to feel like a director, producer, props master and production manager all smashed into one, considering I have organised 80% of the props and locations for all three films so far and I have no doubt that if I take a step back next week, there is going to be major time delays with everything and filming is going to drag out even longer. Which is the last thing I need, as I am struggling to keep up with everything schoolwise as it is. Herding cats is the current analogy that has been running through my head the last couple of days.

Film 19/5

Day one off to a shaky start. To be expected with completely new experiences. There was a blip with the SD card being write protected, but thats fixed now and luckily didnt need the space today. We didnt get nearly as much done as I wanted, but I guess thats usual story anyway and practice will speed things up. Organisation of actors and props has been left a little last minute which is not helping our cause either. Overall for a first time working as a film crew together I think things went ok though, there was no arguments and everyone mostly pitched in to help where they could. Hopefully that mentality last through til we are done.

Film 17/5

2 days til filming begins, I am hoping we will be able to crank out a good majority of the internal scenes this weekend. Almost all of us are now certified to use the film equipment, except for one person who wasnt present in the class. Unfortunately due to circumstances, fridays filming slot is a no-go, so we will have to be organised on sat and sun. The forecast for next weekend isnt looking too good right now, so fingers crossed it changes so we can get the external shots done next week. I have almost finished filling out the booking form and location release for the park location, I just need to confirm with Aaron what the final choice is.

Film 10/5

I am having serious reservations about some of the classes participation in the coming weeks. There is definitely going to be arguments, I can feel it. I guess its a taste of a proper production, having to deal with scheduling conflicts and personality conflicts. We are officially into the self guided part of this class now, for the rest of the semester. Ill be damned if I am failing due to other people not doing their share, I will film my own story on my own if I have to. Extreme measures, but its always good to have a backup plan right? lol. Got my script sorted this week, now I have a better idea of what is actually required so next time I wont go over the top like I did for my first one. Touch wood. I need to spend more time hands on with the camera, as I still am a little unsure where some buttons are due to lack of practice. Todays class was a good chance to do that for next weeks certification, all going well. We are still waiting for shannon and jordyns work schedule to finalise the times but I have a rough table done so far.

Film 3/5

Term two! The study break consisted of finishing off my script after the proposal. I found it easy enough to write what I did, however I need to look more into how to write a script properly. I used far too much detail, and sort of merged the breakdown into the script itself, which is not what I am supposed to do. This is the first proper script I have attempted though so at least I am on the right track. Its gonna be interesting to film the 3 scripts that we are, they are all so very different but I think we can manage it as a group. Trying to work out filming days is going to be awkward, especially due to work schedules but Im sure we will get it. Getting some ppl to give up their free time is going to be the biggest source of conflict I believe.

Film 12/4

DAMN! The big problem with being the first to present a proposal is that you dont get a chance to point out things to remember. I definitely have a problem with forgetting some points due to nerves. Its the worst feeling listening to the other speakers and realising what you missed saying, but actually had written in the speech. *facepalm* live and learn. It was interesting hearing everyones ideas, and such a wide variety especially since there is only 6 of us. I have jotted down half of my script so far, but I will have to google the correct formatting because I am not 100% sure on how it is supposed to look.

Film 5/4

Our surprise for today was a broken door to the classroom lol. The silver lining was that we got to practice outside film setup, using the ND filters, and composition consideration with regards to lighting.  I actually learnt quite a bit about positioning using sunlight angles and diffusion screens/light reflectors. I will need to keep this in mind for my concept as it involves mostly outdoor scenes. We also got a brief intro to the green screen studio, and had some fun mucking around with different backing vids and cropping.

Setting up

When the light batteries died.. lol

3rd wheel removal

Film 29/3

Todays class was dedicated to using Adobe Premiere and editing our footage. It was quite interesting to see how everybody edited their versions slightly differently even though our pool of shots was small.

Once I got the hang of the areas to drag and drop, how to import, and the manipulation of the sequences, I found it easy to sort out my footage. I think a couple more practice sessions will help in regards to feeling comfortable with the editing title/credit screens and the frame by frame editing

I think our little film turned out pretty ok considering the short filming period.

Film 22/2

Today we received the proposal information and due date. Handy for adjusting my wall planner as my time management is a work in progress and the wall planner seems to be helping visualise due dates. We also finished filming the class short, unfortunately we ran out of time to edit anything, but got to play around with some of the footage from last week a little bit. Premiere is a little confusing at first, but didnt take long to get a basic grasp on how to use, I think the mini tutorial I got from Chris during animation last week was definitely a help.

Film 15/3

Today was the first time shooting scenes from a script I wrote. Score 1 for me! There is a lot of work that goes into shooting a few seconds of footage. No wonder movies take forever!

I need to start thinking about all the little things in regards to my own project, appropriate shots and  angles for each scene being one of them. It was a lot of fun though, however Im guessing that's because its just a class exercise and not serious lol. We have a couple of scenes left to shoot and then its on to editing. I am definitely entering the unknown zone now but it is definitely starting to get interesting. I definitely preferred being behind the camera directing and not acting in front of it, but Im not hating that as much as i thought i would.

Film 8/3

This week we were supposed to come up with a film script for next weeks class. Our usual classroom was off-limits due to a taster class being held, so we ended up staying in the student lounge. I dont know if this was such a great idea because we didnt really get much done. We have two options, Lajee's joke from last week, and she has already written it up into a script, or I came up with another short skit, spy vs spy style, that I am currently in the process of writing up. Im not sure which one will work best when we start filming, but will find out next week i guess lol.

Film 1/3

Today we are allowed to hang out on set while the 3rd years were filming as part of their boot camp this week. We were given the "baby" camera and a sound kit so we could take turns filming behind the scenes shots, which we managed to get some interesting stuff, and some funny/risque stuff. It was quite eye opening to see just how a working film set runs in person, of course because everyone was still learning there were a few speed bumps but overall it seemed to go pretty well. I learned just how tricky it can be for the boom operator to stay out of shot if there is a lot of lighting to cast shadows everywhere. It was good to get a feel for the tilt and pan drag on the tripod, and the weight of the camera itself in a setting other than just a quick play like we had in class previously.

Figure 1.

Reference

Figure 1. Vlogging, the Basics of Audio and Sound, Peter Ward, 2016 https://www.bhphotovideo.com/explora/video/tips-and-solutions/vlogging-basics-audio-and-sound