4 Hour Film Challenge - Will Barlow, Charlotte Haile, Abby Woodward

4 Hour Film Challenge: Will Barlow, Abby Woodward, Charlotte Haile.

Brief: We were placed into groups of 3 (containing 3 members each) to shoot a short film that takes an unusual perspective. The specification told us this could be associated with camera, lighting, narratives or techniques.

Planning:

PLANNING SHEET

Picture I've taken from Edmund Clark's
'In Place of Hate' exhibit at IKON.

As we were put into groups, we decided to use our time effectively. We spent about half an hour planning, an hour and a half filming and the rest of the time editing, as this we knew this would be the most time consuming - "If you've had to make a video yourself, you'll know it can be a time consuming process" (Joshua Lockhart, 2018). After a discussion and research, including a gallery I went to earlier on in the year, we decided to focus on the idea of windows and entrapment. We concluded this after viewing the images I took from the Edmund Clark - 'In Place of Hate' exhibit at the IKON Gallery in Birmingham. The exhibit focuses on the ideology of prisoners who are ex-communicated from the outside world, they can only see the world from behind a prison fence or cell window. We thought this would be an interesting start to a concept. Looking at location, due to a small amount of time, we decided to use windows at college, specifically R and Q block being as they're the oldest buildings - we wanted an eerier, 'less modern' feel. Building upon soundtrack we also wanted this to be contradictory and upbeat, something that is old but kind of reminisces a time where the person behind the glass remembers. We decided to use a soundtrack that was non copywritten so we would have no issues uploading to YouTube, we chose 'Aurhur Pryor's Band - Narcissus' due to its static recording and poor sound quality, which are conventions of vintage and retro music.

Shooting and Editing:

When shooting, we came across difficulties with equipment. We loaned out the last tripod available for the DSLR, however the tripod was missing the screw which attaches to the camera. We therefore had to improvise and use the camera handheld (relying on any shakiness to be edited with the 'warp stabiliser' tool in Premiere Pro. Overall, filming took as long as planned and no issues were encountered, besides height and obstructions(people/cars). We adjusted the ISO, Aperture and Shutter speed with good practice and used pull focus throughout certain clips, we aimed to use tilts and POV shots and this was proven successfully. I also used my photography knowledge and practiced formal balance and rule of thirds within certain still shots. Within lighting, we created a sillhouette by standing a subject in a dark setting, in front of a bay window - allowing the subject to block the light source.

Editing:

Editing was an easy task for our group, however we ran into a few issues with the sequence. The clips didn't match the sequence settings originally but we rectified this by pressing the "change sequence settings" button when the alert popped up. We relied on the Warp Stabiliser tool in order to cancel out any shakiness, however this wasn't always possible due to us rectifying the speed of certain clips. We exported the clip as an MP4.

Group Critique:

When receiving feedback from our peers, the overall feedback was positive, however; these were the points that were arisen. The first thing we were asked to consider on our next project is perhaps a variation of shot types or more shots of the character in order to reinforce the storyline. Another point that was suggested was the editing being a little faster paced as some shots did feel a little slow and can cause the audience to become disinterest. I am happy with the feedback we received as it allows us to develop from our ideas and consider more technical aspects when planning, filming and editing.






Bibliography:
Lockhart (30th April 2018) [online] - Make Use Of: How to edit videos like a Pro: 8 tips you will need to know - https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/8-tips-editing-videos-like-pro/