Final Evaluation Of My Fiction Adaptation Piece

I feel that my final fiction adaptation film and the final cut itself is mostly successful. After the feedback given to me during the fine cut viewing, my optimism for my film started to dwindle slightly, feeling that I had made something that was far too confusing for anyone who doesn't know the plot to understand. However, I have made changes which I had planned to do and outlined during the blog post about the fine cut feedback.

I am more confident with this new, more linear cut of the film. I feel that the story is more cohesive and viewers will be able to understand what is going on and why characters are in their current positions and the linear nature of this particular edit helps with this.

My overall biggest problem with the piece still is the fact that I feel it is a little rushed and not as polished as it could have been. Due to a tight filming schedule with the actors and crew availability, I feel that I didn't get all the shots that I might have wanted and I feel that I needed to retake a few of the shots that I was previously happy with. Use of a tripod would also have certainly helped due to some of the shots shaking and not looking as professional as it could have been.

This derives from the problem that I had basically given myself too much to do in the hopes of proving myself in several areas of the film-making process. As well as filming and editing the project, I also decided that I would create the soundtrack and do all of the sound during post production. This left me having to juggle various things at once meaning that I was giving more attention to some areas that others and those other areas faltered as a result. The soundtrack, as I have previously stated, feels rushed as I only gave myself just over a week to to create it in its entirety despite previous planning and ideas while also trying to focus on getting the edit right.

Another problem was the fact the second actor I had in mind was found to be unable to participate two days before the shoot day, meaning that I had to improvise and use a crew member as an emergency stand-in. The result was that the quality of the acting was not as strong as I would have hoped.

Overall, I am still mostly happy with the final cut of my film despite these few issues though I wish I gave the same amount of time to each aspect of the filmmaking process. This is a project that I feel I might like come back to during my spare time, as with the soundtrack, to re-film and create the definitive cut that better displays my original vision.

Fiction Adaptation Soundtrack

I had decided before I'd even started doing the fiction adaptation part of the course that I should create the soundtrack to my fiction adaptation film.

The soundtrack I had chosen to create consists mostly of electronic noises with certain simple melodies that play and repeat throughout the five-minute film. I decided to go with the electronic sound as it gave a kind of 80s B-Movie sound which I felt would have worked well with the subject matter of my film and built the overall look of the film around this type of style.

All of the soundtrack was composed using 'Audacity' on my laptop and performed with an electric piano capable of making various sounds as well as using a mini synthesiser for parts of the soundtrack.

All of the tracks are very simple and quite short in length but I shall list of few of the more prominent ones and the inspirations behind them.

The Title Sequence:
Performed entirely through the mini synthesiser, this is the piece of music that I wanted to set the mood for the rest of my fiction adaptation pice. It starts off with the gentle strings but then the 'sawtooth' synthesiser sound comes in to bring in the main hook. I then used a slider to make the music sound like it was going out of tune and starting to fall. It then cuts out.

The Dream:
The music that plays over the protagonist's dream sequence after having the metal break-down was actually a piece of music I had created previously for testing. I managed to clean the audio up with noise reduction and added extra parts in, created a stereo mix as opposed to the mono mix it was using originally and faded parts in and out to avoid the 'popping sound' whenever a new instrument comes in. Thankfully, this piece fitted the seven very well and allowed me to successfully edit the footage around it.

The Bees:
As I have written in a previous blog post. I gained the idea for the use of the sound of bees from a Pink Floyd song, 'Hey You' which described worms (which sounded much more like bees) getting into somebody's brain. I decided that I would take inspiration from this and decided to mix two different pieces of stock sound of bees and changed them to various pitches for a strange stereo effect which I think works very well.

Here is a link to the song which gave this inspiration:

Pink Floyd had actually been the inspiration for the overall sound, from the distorted sound effects to the pieces of music. These were particularly inspired by their 1979 album, 'The Wall'.

The following video is taken from the film adaptation of 'The Wall' from 1982 and features the song, 'Empty Spaces/ What Shall We Do Now' which gives a clear example of the type of sound I was trying to replicate. I even made a piece of music that used the same basic beat but I ended up not using it in case of any copyright infringement:

Overall, I feel that the soundtrack works well with the footage. However, I do feel that I rushed it due to some time constraints and other responsibilities such as filming and perfecting the edit. Therefore the soundtrack is not as polished as I would have liked. Despite this, I am still happy with it how it is and might return to it out of interest and create a better, more polished soundtrack with more time.

Fine Cut Feedback

After showing the Fine Cut of my film to the tutor, it became apparent that I may have to rethink and rearrange some of my footage; some of which would be at the expense of losing the near perfect rhythm sequencing that I had managed to create for the fine cut.

The main problem that was most prevalent was the fact that the film might not make sense to a lot of people. I obviously know what the film is about and why certain things happen but the worry is that I have not made this clear enough in the edit. Making the order of chronological events has not been of much help to that either.

To tackle this, I feel that I should change the sequence so it presents a more linear narrative. This will hopefully allow the film to make more sense for the viewer.

My use of colour was also a source for confusion. I used similar colour palettes such as the overbearing reds in two unrelated scenes and this caused some confusion for the tutor as they taught that the two scenes were the same and was unaware that they were taking place at different times. I appeared to cut to between two completely different scenes that, while relevant to each other, were not part of the same linear structure. To help solve this, I feel that I should rearrange the footage and then try to either change the colour palette for one of the scenes to differentiate them, or use the same colours but make it clearer where they take place in the narrative through my sequencing.

There was also some confusion as to what was in the past and what was in the present. Some of the footage showing the past was in black and white while other parts were not. I feel that I could solve this by showing more parts that are in the past in back and white but then slowly fade colour into the scene to show that it is still in black and white without having the exchange that for colour.

The music was well received, being compared to that of Stanley Kubrick's 'A Clockwork Orange' which features certain songs of a similar style. However, the music was said to have demanded a higher presence after a strong opening which is then dampened by the fact that the following scenes cause major confusion.

I shall take all of this feedback into account and try and see if I can remedy the problems that have been outlined here. I am worried that I may have over-complicated the plot of my story but didn't film enough footage to compensate, however I am hoping that I can make the film work for the final cut.

Creating The Fine Cut

My process of creating the fine cut has consisted of tweaking and cleaning the rough cut edit:

I have tried to incorporate more footage of the friend mourning over the person he has lost as well as trying to clean some of the edits around these parts. The edits themselves have now actually been sequenced to a specific rhythm. This was a decision I made that would help me when creating the soundtrack to the film, allowing me to easier match the music and sounds with the edits. For example, four edits consisting of two seconds of footage each allows me 8 seconds worth of music that I can match the soundtrack to. Of course, my only worry is that the soundtrack will become too sequenced with the edits that changing something in the dit will mess with the timing and I would have to re-reord or rearrange some of the musical cues.

I will detail in a future blog post my process of creating the soundtrack and my inspirations.

The colour grading of certain shots have been toned down slightly; I felt that some of the choices I had made were a little over-bearing on the overall picture quality and detracted from it. Although the colour is not changed too much, it does not lose any picture quality.

I recorded various sound effects as well as borrowing a few sound clips from freesound.org for certain sounds that I was unable to replicate myself.
My own recorded sound effects included heavy breathing, crashing of cymbals and various booms and bangs. These are intended to add to the overall soundscape and punctuate certain edits, particularly during the scene where the character has a break-down in the park.

I also got another actor to read some lines as the mother to the character who had become lost. My idea was for the mother to be as verbally abusive as possible and that, in the narrative, this constant taunting is what had caused the character to imagine his friend doing the same and causing the break-down. This worked very well and was a very quick recording session as the lines needed were spoken perfectly; there were only a couple of quick re-takes.

I also recorded some lines of dialogue of the same vain, though I feel that my delivery may not be as strong and effective as the other but I shall still use it for the fine cut and decide whether I shall use it or re-record with a different actor later.

I then took these line deliveries and edited them in the 'Audacity' program. The dialogue was overlapped and I also added a reverb effect to give the voices a distant sound, as if they were inside somebody's head. The individual clips were also assigned to different stereo channels to create a sense that the voices were coming from all around. I feel that this process was very effective and sounds good when put underneath the footage.

Other things I added in were various pieces of stock footage. These were pieces of footage that I was unable to get despite my intentions but the ones I managed to find were thankfully suitable for what I needed. The scene which utilises the stock footage features the lost character's descent into the unknown as if he has drifted into another world.

I have also added text on screen to punctuate the voices inside the main character's head that slowly fade in and out. I feel that the current text I have used is not particularly convincing and doesn't fit the style of the rest of the film very well. This is something that I feel I would most definitely change for the final cut.

Overall, I am mostly happy with the fine cut and I hope that I get some positive feedback from it.

Rough Cut Edit Thoughts

I have managed to create a rough cut and put it in an earlier blog post.

Here are some overall thoughts on what worked well and what I feel should be improved for the Fine Cut:

Positives:
- The title sequence, I feel is successful with the picture fading to black and the text changing colour.
- The colourisation of the footage works well for the most part, creating a tone which I feel properly suits the subject matter according to each scene.
- Transitions between certain scenes work well together.
- The overall order in which events are shown works in order to tell the narrative.

Improvements:
- I need to give more links to the original sonnet, this could be done in the form of stock footage.
- Extra audio needs to be recorded to as to replace the silence and fill in certain plot holes regarding a character's actions or motivations.
- Sometimes the colourisation can effect the quality of the footage, sometimes creating more noticeable grain on darker images.
- I need to put more of a focus on the character who is mourning the loss of their friend as the cut still focuses more on the character who had become lost at the moment.
- Some of the edits are sloppy and should be remedied

Fiction Adaptation Rough Cut:

Here is the rough cut for my fiction adaptation film:

There is no sound as that will be created during the editing process.
Also the choices in picture colour and sequence of events are not final

Creating The Rough Cut:

For my rough cut, I have decided to create an edit which conveys the story in a simple form but also in a non-linear format to show what kind of oder I want to show certain events in and hw the plot will be progressed.

Title Sequence:
The title sequence is something I had envisioned before even starting the storyboarding. It would feature the two characters both staring either at the other off in the distance, pull back and then cut to an establishing shutoff them both where the titles would appear over them. The screen would then fade to black and the title changes from white to red.

I decided to call the film 'Empty Grave' as a both a reference to a scene in my film and a line from the original sonnet.


Changes in picture:
The orange tint that over-powered some of the footage ended up working to my advantage as the changes in colour I have applied have become more vibrant with the added colour already in place. This is especially prevalent during the scenes where the charger is sat oblivious to the world around him in the chair where I have made the entire colour palette red to help reflect on what the world might look like through his eyes and give an oppressive atmosphere.

Other examples of changes in colour are when the mourning character is featured. I added a light blue  tint to the picture to create an overall sad mournful feel to the scene. I fell this woks well as it reflects well on what the character is feeling at the time.

Scenes which take place in a character's mind have darker shadows to give an other-worldy kind of look to them.

Some fixes to the amount of exposure and light levels have also been included to help with the continuity of specific scenes.


Sequence of events:
At first I decided that I would edit the events as they happened in sequence. However, upon rewatch, I decided that it would be more creative of me to show the aftermath and then slowly hint at and then fully reveal what had happened, as if showing the same events from two different points of view.
I feel like this could work and I am happy with this choice. My only concern now would be to ask 'does the story make sense in this order of events?' I'll wait for some feedback to decide on this.

There is no sound at the moment due to all sound being part of post-production. I do feel it might have been a mistake on by behalf by not recording the sound with a microphone to add to the soundscape but I am hoping that I can create an artificial soundscape successfully.

Review of Footage

I have taken a look at the footage and am mostly happy with what was captured. All of the shots were thankfully in focus and the overall quality of the footage was of a higher standard than I had anticipated.

However, There were a few problems that I had encountered when I watched some of the footage:
- Some of the changes in lighting are still noticeable despite some of the reshoots that I did.
- Some shots were a little soft and appeared fuzzy, though there are retakes I can use instead.
- The lighting had, indeed, made a specific scene look too orange in colour.
- The camera and its red light can be seen in some reflections.

Thankfully, most of these problems can be remedied somewhat during the editing process.

The Filming/ Production of my Fiction Adaptation Piece

Today was the filming/ production of my fiction adaptation piece. As stated in an earlier post, I did eventually have to use one of the crew members to stand in as a second actor as I was not able to acquire another in the short time I'd had before the shoot.

Shoot Location 1:
The graveyard scene took slightly longer than I had anticipated. This was mostly due to the crew being later than expected. However, the subsequent filming that took place was swift. I'd already scoped out the cemetery with my actor while we were waiting for the others and had found a suitable grave and pathway to film one of the characters walking down and kneeling at the grave.

I'd decided to keep my original idea of the character walking up to a grave in order to symbolise metaphorical loss. I realise that this might closer resemble death but I felt that as long I balance this correctly with the other footage that mirrors this scene and concludes with a redemption, then the symbolism would not be so heavy-handed.

The grave we found and chose to film was clear with no name on its surface. This was perfect as the reverend of the church where the cemetery was located asked to not show any names out of respect.

There was some trouble with some members of the public walking through but we, of course, respected that they are there on their own personal business so we let them carry on undisturbed and halted filming temporarily.

The crew member himself didn't have much of a task when it came to acting as he simply had to walk towards the camera and stop and turn to face the grave, then kneel down. Overall shooting time was very quick, taking only ten minutes. I didn't want to rush this shoot seeing as I wanted to get the best footage I could for the time constraints of the actors. I did have some trouble with the focus at one point as I found it hard to see the screen properly on the Sony EX Camera I was using; I didn't feel like it gave a clear view of when the camera was in focus or not. Thankfully, one of my crew members were on hand, who obviously had keener eyes than I, who helped me with this.


Shoot Location 2:
We then headed to the nearby park. All of my locations were near to each other, meaning that we could move from one location to another and set up in very little time.

Thankfully, the filming took place at a time where all children were at school so we didn't need to worry about avoiding them. There were some general members of the public who passed through but they were no trouble; we just delayed until they were clear.

This scene involved the two characters walking through the park and one of the characters having a mental break-down as he has illusions of his friend laughing at him.

The shots for this scene were not very ordinary but had been previously planned. I still stuck to most of my original storyboard with a few minor changes to accommodate with certain changes made after my initial report feedback. Many of the shots consisted of several crash-zooms onto the protagonist's face to represent a more distorted and crazed reality that would be taking place in their mind during the scene. I tilted the camera to its side slightly to show how their world is metaphorically turning upside down.

This scene did require a lot of retakes and there are enough pieces of footage to create a small 'blooper-reel' as a side project. Most retakes were caused by either members of the public being in shot, my forgetting to push the record button at one point and times where my actor got worried that I was going to hit them in the face whenever I did a crash zoom despite my reassurances that this would not happen. A specific shot that required a lot of retakes was a low-angle shot of the protagonist falling onto the floor. The character wears a hat throughout the scene and it unfortunately kept comically falling off whenever the actor hit the floor. To resolve this, we decided that the hat should be pulled over the actor's face entirely in the hoped that it would just reach the top of his head and not fall away. This did work and I got the shot that I wanted.

Another problem that I had encountered was the lighting. The weather was mostly cloudy but the sun had broken through during this shooting segment, meaning a change in lighting. To keep continuity, I decided to reshoot several earlier shots.


Shoot Location 3:
A small pathway across a filed saved as the third location and this was also a fast shoot. Many of the shots consisted of the protagonist running down the path. These shots were done by having the actor run and with me running both behind and later in front (with support, and making sure to wear appropriate) while filming with the camera. The results worked well. Other shots included the character grabbing his head and yelling to himself. These shots were also successful and were done in quick succession.

The actor really put a lot of effort into his performance and wasn't afraid to be as loud and crazed as possible, saying to me 'I can do this all day, don't worry' when I wanted to do another take.


Shoot Location 4:
The last shooting location was at my house. I'd dressed the set up to make to area around our characters seem as barren as possible and used a lamp to try and create some atmospheric lighting. In hind-sight, I feel that the light did make the scene look a bit too orange but I should be able to fix this in post.

The protagonist was sat in a chair while his friend is trying to talk to him. This scene features a lot more of the friend who is seen to be mourning his loss, looking out of the window and calling a doctor to see if they can help but to no avail. However, due to it being later in the day, the amount of light did noticeably drop during the shooting of this segment/ scenes. I should be able to rectify this during post, however.


Overall, I am quite happy with how the process of filming these scenes went. I made sure to get straight down to business and filmed what I needed to film and move on to the next part, something which had otherwise bothered me when working in a group for the last project. This wasn't at the expense of setting up each shot properly however, as I took the time to make sure everything was as good as it could be and didn't needlessly reshoot parts that I deemed perfect to begin with. The result was a swift shooting schedule which paid off as I could get to editing sooner.

Shot List

Actor Troubles

Unfortunately, my plans for one of my actors has fallen through and I am unable to use them in my film due to their unavailability. Due to the short amount of time that I have between now and my shoot day I feel that I may have to use one of the people who has agreed to help me on camera crew to stay in as the second actor. I realise that it would be better and preferable to use actors from outside the course group but this probably will not happen to to these circumstances.

Luckily, I still have my other actor who was out-sourced and is still happy to take part in the role I have intended for them. I have also met up with this actor and discussed the filming and the order of events which I have also sent over via social media to keep them up to date as I complete my planning.

Research on Chosen Sonnet

Do not stand at my grave and weep

I am not there. I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning's hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry;
I am not there. I did not die.

Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep was written by Mary Elizabeth Frye in 1932. The inspiration for the writing of this sonnet was a German Jewish woman who was staying at her home with concerns about her ill mother who had eventually died. This sonnet was written by means of comforting the woman while taking the inspiration from her story where the woman said to have stated that she never had the chance to 'stand by my mother's grave and shed a tear'.

The poem itself appears to allude to the dying figure as having moved on from death and not being in their grave, not wanting their relatives/ friends to stand by their graves and mourn them.

I feel that my own adaptation of this piece links well with the poem as a character is mourning somebody that is no longer present in should but still in physical form. I just need to make sure that there is more of a focus on the person mourning the other character. 

Feedback on Project Proposal

The main pieces of feedback I was given on my Project Proposal was as follows:

- I need to make sure that my piece actually has an ending and that I know what my ending would be. Otherwise my film would lead to nowhere and there wouldn't e a point to the film.

- I should look into and do some research on the original poem which the fiction adaptation piece will be based on. The original poem was actually written by someone to comfort somebody who was struggling to cope with a loss. My film and its story appeared to deviate too much from this and I should put more of a focus on the person who is trying to cope with the loss of their friend.

- My plans to use words on screen to create more impact from spoken dialogue should be done in a more interesting way instead of just having the words appear and fade out. Should be frantic and have a pace to them.

During the feedback, I also showed my storyboards which can be found during an earlier blog.

I shall take all of these into account and shall think back to this feedback when planning ahead for my piece. I think the main thing I need to get right is the story and its focus. Before, I was giving more focus to the person who was lost rather than the person trying to communicate them and having to cope with their loss. By switching the focus to the person in mourning, I am firstly giving more of a connection to the source material as well as given the characters more depth. I feel I should still include the scene involving how the person had found themselves in such a state but not make it the primary focus. I need to find a balance between the two. 

The ending I originally had planned link heavily with the start of the piece where the lost character would envision their friend standing beside their metaphorical grave. However, this meant that I would then go back to this same scene at the end of the piece and the film would have come full circle and not have gone anywhere in terms of the narrative. I should change this so that there is some sort of resolution. I feel I could change the ending so that something occurs which snaps the character back into reality and the two friends are reunited. This would link to the more hopeful message of the original poem and would give the film a clear ending.

Experimental Film Feedback

The feedback I received from the viewing of the experimental film was as follows:
- There were some good experimental shots e.g the turning of the camera and the crash zooms.
- Good use of sound, ambience created for effect.
- Good colourisation, created an appropriate mood for the subject matter of despair.
- The change in colour also allowed viewers to see a change in perspective.

Own improvements:
-Integrate the chosen stock footage more carefully as it stands out from the rest of the footage.
-Take more time to set up each shot, perhaps use a tripod.

I felt that this feedback as helpful and will look upon this wen planning and timing my final fiction adaptation piece.

Cemetery Risk Assessment

Initial Story Board

Here is the initial storyboard I have created for my fiction adaptation short film.
There will likely be some changes from this to the final film depends on the feedback I will be given towards my project proposal.

Park Risk Assessment

House Risk Assessment

Experimental Films: Fiction Adaptation

We were all given the chance to have a an experimental shoot with all of the equipment. The end result was planned to be 2 to 3 minutes and was to have the overall theme of our choosing. As my own final project will be about somebody trying to communicate with someone who isn't fully there with little success, I chose to revolve my experimental film around the feeling of despair.

When it came to filming, I wanted to use some of the techniques and experimental shots that I had tried out previously during the first day of fiction adaptation. The most noticeable is the shots that crash zooms onto on elf my character's face.

The set-up was one character, standing, looking at another who was sat on a chair. The character on the chair has a distant look and is paying no attention to the person stood in front of him, almost as if he isn't even there. For this part, I used a two-shot of the person stood up looking at the his friend while the other is looking off to the distance. I zoom this out very slightly which is something I hope to use in my film, though I should use a tripod then as I just used hand-held here and it wasn't as stable as I'd have liked.

Other experimental shots of note included where certain shots that are starting to turn upside-down, symbolising how the character's life is turning up-side down. Another shot which I tried extensively to perfect during the test shoots was used where I would crash zoom onto a character's face. I feel theses shots worked to great effect.

During the editing process, I found that I had to prolong a few shots as the film would only have lasted just under the required length of two minutes otherwise. The result of this meant that sometimes the duration of the shots felt too long.

I decided not to use any of the captured sound and instead tried to create my own sound-scape. As with the last few projects, I decided to create my own music (though this was not very developed and was a rushed job). However, I feel that the subtle piano worked well to reflect the theme of despair. I even repeated one of the piano pieces but added reverb to create a more horror themed aesthetic. Other sounds were taken from the site, 'Free-sound'. These included the sounds of wind to reflect on the emptiness of the character's mind as well as sounds that emphasise the movement of the camera.

A certain sound effect was that of the sound of bees. I had previously listened to a song by Pink Floyd called 'Hey You'. the song is about somebody whose mind is slowly eroding. It is described in the song as 'The worms got into his brain'. The sound of the worms, however, resembles the sound of bees which had the effect of moving between ear to ear, feeling like it was trying to get into the listener's head. I tried to emulate this.

Here is the final video:

Montage- Fiction Adaptation

Montage 'The cut is a magic trick'.

Kuleshov Effect
-Putting Shots before another to change meaning/ combining two things to create a third meaning.
-Audience creating their own meaning through what is seen.
Creative Geography
-Two locations filmed then put together to make it look like they are in the same space.

Intellectual Montage
-The coming together of two things creates a third meaning. Shots of a man, then a bowl of soup equals hunger.

Tonal Montage
-A series of tonally connected shots, building up an impression with a tonal continuity.

Metric Montage
-Constant rhythm/ duration of edits.

Rhythmic Montage
-Matches the cuts to music.

Overtonal Montage
-Combination of tonal, rhythmic and metric montage.

Draft Project Proposal

Andrew Ayres Project Proposal:

I have chosen to adapt this sonnet:

Do not stand at my grave and weep
By Mary Elizabeth Frye

Do not stand at my grave and weep: I am not there; I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow,
I am the diamond glints on snow,

I am the sun on ripened grain,
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning’s hush I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circling flight.
I am the soft starshine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry:
I am not there; I did not die.

The adaptation will tackle the concept of somebody mourning the loss of their friend who has become disenchanted with society and has cut themselves off the people around him. Therefore, they are mourning who they once were as they are not truly there anymore.

Summary:

Scene 1: 

(Big, empty room except for a chair) 

We see someone watching our protagonist. The protagonist is sat in a chair with their eyes adrift, completely ignoring their girlfriend in front of them. She tries to get their attention but to no avail.

Scene 2: 

(Flashback, A living room) 

A child, a younger version of our protagonist, is being lectured by their mother, telling them that they will not amount to anything. She is becoming over-protective of her child and we visually see our protagonist becoming shrouded by protecting hands.

Scene 3: 

(Various clips) 

Various clips of protagonist growing up. School, Girlfriend. Protagonist is not good at socialising with his girlfriend.

Scene 4: 

(In a local park) 

Girlfriend is seen having a friendly conversation with another man. Protagonist gets jealous, jumps to the wrong conclusions. Various voices are heard of people from their past reciting various vicious comment about him.

Scene 5:

(Bathroom) 

Protagonist is seen falling into a bath. While he is under- visually losing touch with reality.

Scene 6: 

(Back to the empty room) 

Girlfriend is still trying to talk to protagonist in the chair. Still no response.

Scene 7: 

(Graveyard) 

Transitions to girlfriend standing by a grave- metaphor for her loss.

Visual Statement:

Picture:
The colour palette will include a lot of red as the protagonist descends into madness, trying to visualise what it is like to be in the mind of someone who is becoming more cut-off from the rest of the world.

Camera angles will be more experimental with the camera even turning upside down to visualise the character’s life turning upside down. I want to give the project a ‘B-Movie’ type of look.

Sound:
I have already experimented with some music myself. I have used some synthesisers and have managed to create some foreboding sounds to reflection the times of loss and madness. I wanted to give the project this sound to create my own type of creative style.
There will also be various sound effects to reflect on the themes of the subject matter as well.

Actors:
I have already been in touch with an actor who has willingly agreed to star as the protagonist. I just need to find others to fill in the rest of the roles. The actor is somebody I know personally and I know they have a lot of acting experience.

Lecture: Classic Adaptation

CLASSICS IN FICTION ADAPTATION:

What is the appeal of the Classics?
-Adaptations of Classics can be seen as an exercise in ‘nostalgia’ – “Adaptations of classic texts enable contemporary audiences to re- visit the past; as such they can be situated within the broader context of postmodern appropriations of history” (Carrol,
R: 2009: 2)
-Continued appeal of classics means they are frequently part of TV schedules...

Dickens on film
-Most adapted author of all time.
-All his novels have been adapted to some degree.
-There are around 100 silent films made of his works, of which around a third still exist.
-His publications featured illustrations of his stories which again brought them to a wider audience and have subsequently given adaptors a guiding hand in bringing the stories to the screen.

Dickens – mass appeal
-Dickens original works were always intended for ‘the masses’.
-It’s literary form has become more elitist in recent times, however the screen adaptations continue to appeal to a wide audience, thus continuing Dickens’ original aim.
-There were a number of events to commemorate the bi- centenary in 2012, including a Film and Tv Retrospective at the BFI and a raft of new adaptations for the big and small screen –
-Great Expectations and The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

Authors Adapted
-Dickens has become a ‘character’ to be utilised in drama and his ideas taken into new series (e.g. Carlton’s ‘Micawber’ 2001).
-Dickens popular source for TV adaptations.

Classics & Public Service Role
-Broadcasters may utilise classics as a source of adaptation to satisfy the public service remit.
-“[recent TV adaptations are a ] combination of classic author and innovative style [which is increasingly important] ... in a television environment in which the role of public service broadcasting is...questioned and under threat” (Carroll, R:2009:113)
-But with this comes an additional pressure – the need to be ‘faithful’ as
-“there are often pre-existing expectations and knowledge which need to be negotiated, while at the same time .... [keeping] the material fresh and meaningful...the existence of multiple versions...makes it possible to trace changes and transformations over time” (Caroll, R : 2009:111)

Dickens - ‘Serials’ & ‘Soaps’
-Dickens work was produced in serials – editions were published weekly or monthly and regularly featured cliff hangers.
-Maybe it is this which has made the material so perfect for adaptation on television, just like modern day soap operas they tell the story in episodes.
-Contemporary adaptations have utilised ‘soap- like narratives and editing – e.g. Andrew Davies’ 2005 version of Bleak House for the BBC
-This moved away from more ‘traditional’ approaches and used dramatic methods more in the style of other dramas of the time, such as Spooks. (Carroll, R : 2009:115)

Enduring Social Concerns
-They are able to fit into modern treatments and approaches – universality of themes.
-Just like modern dramas and soaps (Eastenders etc), he sought to bring the social ills of Victorian Britain to the notice of his readers.
-He did so through stories involving caricatures of the people he sought to bring to book
-2013 – the first full stage version of Great Expectations at the Vaudeville Theatre in the West End with some of the profits going to a charity set up by Dickens’ great-great-great granddaughter to help with causes such as prison reform, adoption and literacy.
-It’s producer Bruce Athol MacKinnon noted that “Dickens was very keen on access to education and literature” (Evening Standard, 6 February 2013)

The challenges of adapting a classic novel
To take it from the page or stage to the screen involves a series of deeply personal decisions influenced by factors such as :
-Class, culture, religion, politics and personal taste
-It is almost impossible to produce a piece of work which does not in some way “subvert” it from the original text.
-“They not only interpret that work but in so doing they also take a position on it” (Hucheon 2006: 92)

The tone of adaptations can take a number of slants such as:
-Reverential
-Critical
-Satirical
-Contemporary
-Subversive/challenging

Nicholl’s take on Great Expectations
-New film version released 2012.
-Adapted by David Nicholls (author of ‘One Day’ - previously adapted Tess of the D’Urbevilles and Much Ado about Nothing).
-Nicholls described the scenes in the new film in which Pip meets Miss Haversham as “a bit like going to see Hannibal Lector”.
-The film approached "like a thriller".
-The heartbreaker Estelle will be a "femme fatale" and, most contentiously, Nicholls revealed that he has “come up with an ending that isn’t in the book".

New beginnings, new endings
-Most controversially he wrote a new ending for Great Expectations – Dickens himself wrote different endings –
-1st was bleak and unforgiving - Estelle ends up leading a "most unhappy life" having been treated "with great cruelty by two husbands".
-Pip meets her by chance and takes satisfaction in seeing how she has suffered.
-Dickens thought his public would not like such a dark conclusion and re-wrote the book to have the pair meet in a "tranquil light" in which Pip saw "no shadow of another parting from her".

Nicholls’ New Ending
-Nicholls explains:
-"Dickens came up with two endings - one which is incredibly bleak and one which is unrealistically romantic and sentimental. Neither are quite satisfactory and we've come up with an ending that isn't in the book - and is somewhere in between. It draws on events in the book but takes them in a slightly different direction, but is in no way sacrilegious”

Tampering with perfection?
-In attempting to adapt a classic you are inevitably facing a loyal if not fanatical fan base.
-The reception to it is thus affected by whether the audience is what Hutcheon refers to as either ‘knowing’ or ‘unknowing’ i.e. To ‘experience’ the film as a classic you need to have recognition of it being a classic novel.
-If you are unfamiliar with the original text your experience is not affected by memories of the text and therefore it is read in a manner which is unfettered by prior expectations.
-As Christopher Columbus, who directed Harry Potter and the philosopher’s stone explained:
-“People would have crucified me if I hadn’t been faithful to the books” (originally quoted in Whipp 2002:H4)

INTERTEXTUALITY : David Lean’s Great Expectations – the definitive adaptation?
-David Lean’s adaptation of ‘Great Expectations’ was named number 1 in a list of the 25 Best Book adaptations of all time by The Telegraph (Dec 2011)
-It’s iconic opening sequence brings to life the bleak marshes visualised in Dickens’ novel.
-It tells the story of a young boy, Pip, growing up with his Sister and her husband, Joe Gargery, who is feted by a local.
-Is it so ‘definitive’ that all adaptations which followed pay ‘homage’ to and reference it, even inadvertently ? (INTERTEXTUAL ADAPTATION OCCURS)

INTERTEXTUALITY EXPLORED : ‘Inspired’ adaptations
-On occasion the original text is no more than the inspiration for a double-entendre be it the title of the film (e.g. The poem “The Night Before Christmas” becomes “The Nightmare Before Christmas” )
-Alternatively it’s plot merely inspires a new story (e.g. Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew inspired Cole Porter’s musical Kiss Me Kate and the recent film 10 things I hate about you)
-Either way, the stories often tap into a shared cultural appreciation and experience of the classics from which they take their inspiration – this is true of many classic works, such as that of Dickens. They are the ‘reference’ point.
-This shared experience is part of the reason for the continuing popularity of classics on screen – THEY ‘REFERENCE’ A COMMON UNDERSTANDING AND EXPERIENCE – PRODUCING COMMONALITY OF RESPONSE

CASE STUDY IN INFIDELITY: Jane Austen -Pride and Prejudice
-A popular choice for adaptors -
-Adapted in 1940 starring Laurence Olivier and Greer Garson - the ending changed so dramatically that the tone of the film was affected and it was criticised for this (it changes the book’s storyling about Darcy’s aunt so that she eventually believes she is an “excellent match” – this is not the case in the book where she does not change her opinion)
-More recently the 2005 adaptation starring Keira Knightly and Matthew McFadyen was given two endings – one closer to the text (for the British audience) and another deemed more appropriately ‘smoochy’ for the US audience!

Inspired by Austen
Several very loose adaptations inspired by the book including:
-Bridget Jones Diary (2001), Bride and Prejudice (2004 Bollywood version) and Lost in Austen(2008) for television.
-‘Pride and Prejudice and Zombies’ (2016) is a notable departure from the original!
-Distinctly post-modern approach to the adaption - it parodies the original book and brings together two very different genres - luke-warm critical reception
-A spin off novel - ‘Longbourn’ sold to US and UK publishers early February 2013.
-It tells the story of the servants at the Bennet’s home and runs a love story, between a housemaid and a new footman, in parallel with the story of Elizabeth and Mr Darcy.
-It is already in the hands of the film distributor behind the 2005 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. James Schamus from the Focus Features explained their interest:
-"By compellingly exploring new avenues in the world of Pride and Prejudice, she has fashioned a tale of a calibre that film-makers dream about.”
-“Austenland” (2013) – INTERTEXTUAL ADAPTATION - comedy about a girl’s obsession with the 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.

Lecture: Creative Meaning: Intertextuality and Authenticity

Creating Meaning
-Study of media explores it’s ability to not only create a ‘meaning’ from the images it puts together, but how it helps the audience understand themselves and the world around them.
-Media’s impact on society in terms of of ability to frame, inform and influence: culture, economic and ideological ideals in society
-However, the media “forms” themselves are reference points in the creation of meaning – Ie combining together and referring to one another to construct more subtle readings which work across a range of media products – AN INTERTEXTUAL RELATIONSHIP HAS EVOLVED...

Intertextuality- Influencing Meanings:
-Julia Kristeva (1966 “Word, Dialogue, Novel’ and ‘The Bounded Text”) first used this term “INTERTEXTUALITY” to suggest that texts do not exist in isolation, but instead are naturally influenced by other works –
-Thus any work is a process of REPETITION and TR ANSFORM ATION.
-“any text is the absorption and transformation of another” (Kristeva, 1986, 37).
 -Therefore there are TRACES of other works always present in any “new” work.
-It may include overt references in a new piece of work (ie ‘homage’) or more subtle references (eg influenced by a prior director or writer) or it may refer to the conventions of that particular form of media (eg classic novel adaptations referring to one another, or news programmes "CNN-isation" etc) - it can include genre conventions...

Genre and Intertextuality
-This is also true of the genre into which we place a piece of work.
-This is because it necessitates us to understand those ‘genre conventions’ in order to understand the meanings the piece of work holds. E.G horror, Sci fi etc
-Therefore this could include pastiche.
-As genres evolve and “hybridise” - eg Comedy-horror
-So this ‘intertextual’ relationship can be exploited – the ‘reader’ is able to understand not just the narrative, but the CONVENTIONS which it uses to tell that narrative which in themselves contain other references and meanings.

Intertextuality and Reading:
-This creates a far more complex and dynamic relationship between the audience and the media text.
-What does this say about :
-OUR UNDERSTANDING OF NEWS CONTENT ? What intertextual relationships are exploited?
-Equally what about OUR RELATIONSHIP TO TELEVISION ADAPTATIONS? What televisual “benchmarks” exist which inform adaptations and later iterations of novels and texts?

Authenticity and Fact:
-Much of the debate surrounding both fiction adaptation and news content revolves around AUTHENTICITY AND FACT, how RELIABLE are they?
-How ACCURATE is the media product to the original material?
-NEWS – themes such as ethics, representation and legality are at the fore
-FICTION ADAPTATION –can include these same themes, but does fiction adaptation face another more insurmountable challenge. ie it is a story which has never existed in 3D, or even necessarily in the ‘real world’, but rather in the head of the writer and then in those of the reader.

THEMES TO EXPLORE IN ADAPTING/TRANSLATING FICTION AND FACT FOR TV:
-Truth and accuracy } Taste and decency. } Historical accuracy } Factual accuracy
-Realism

TRUTH AND ACCURACY IN FICTION:
-This is a consideration in factual and fictional storytelling :
-When story has its roots in real events, places and people e.g. BBC Four biographical dramas (Biopics) ‘The Long Walk to Finchley’ about Margaret Thatcher or ‘La Vie En Rose’ about Edith Piaf.
-When dealing with contentious or sensitive storylines e.g Eastenders and cot death/baby swap storyline

How do you ensure you are accurate and truthful?
-Typically rely upon –
-Research and use of relevant experts/consultants
-However, is this really effective? Is that all it takes?

HISTORICAL ACCURACY:
-When translating a historic event or person into a story for the big or small screen there is a potential conflict between the needs of storytelling, constraints of time on screen and commercial demands.
-Difficult path to tread between storytelling and RE- PRESENTING real events
-Even Shakespeare used ‘artistic licence’ in his writing – misnaming characters or changing their known attributes e.g Henry IV – contains alterations to attributes, ages and names of characters.
-But consider also – ALL HISTORY IS SUBJECTIVE STORYTELLING

Historical accuracy - A most unusual case
-GARROWS LAW – drama derived from real cases from archives about a pioneering 18th century barrister - William Garrow.
-Produced by Twenty Twenty – production company better known for factual programming.
-Decided to adapt into drama rather than present as a documentary (produced in conjunction with Shed Media Scotland)
-Quote from writer Tony Marchant
-“We want to be historically accurate but dramatically compelling at the same time. The cases we dramatise all come from real events, real trials but we have necessarily used dramatic licence, using Garrow as a lightning rod through which to illuminate such cases”

Garrow’s Law – truth & accuracy
-Employed a consultant on legal and historical matters to ensure accuracy.
-However, dramatic interventions were necessary on many occasions – such as inventing the sentence in the case regarding slavery, but it took inspiration from other cases where Garrow prosecuted someone who was transported and where someone tried to commit insurance fraud.
-They also placed the case in the Old Bailey and made it a criminal rather than a civil case.
-Characters were also merged for simplicity in storytelling.
-Series won prestigious Royal Television Society award for best history programme in 2010 – "The jury were very impressed by the accessible telling of such a good ‘unknown’ dramatic story based on strong historical research".

NEWS AND ACCURACY/FACT :
-Similarly storytelling in news and constrictions of time (both in terms of pre/production/post and time on screen) mean that information is FILTERED and RE- TOLD – what is the impact of this on TRUTH and TRUST?
-Are traditional broadcasters necessarily the best people to be given this responsibility?
-What are the implications of a world where social media allows all of us to tell the world our TRUTH?

Representing reality and the law:
-Both news journalism and fiction can be subject to legal action for inaccuracies.
-Misrepresentation, slander and libel are potential charges which could result.
-The simple fact is that audiences are potentially educated as much by fictional representations as by factual ones.
-But does the media have an even greater responsibility beyond factual accuracy - how about CHALLENGING widely held notions?
-Is it all about re-telling existing stories and what does that say about fiction adaptation, which necessarily returns time and time again to the same source material – can that CHALLENGE the original (what examples can you find for your own work where an adaptation has actively sought to do something different with a piece of work)

CHECKS, CHEQUES AND BALANCES:
-In a market-driven media economy, where there is always an audience to chase and a financial backer to pay, what are the implications for both RELIABLE, DIVERSE & NEW content in broadcast journalism and fiction adaptation?
-In what feels like a era of ‘niche’ markets, where individualism is king – does a system where global, mass- media still dominates really allow for something NEW let alone reliable and diverse?

Re-cap:
Storytelling may necessitate minor or even major changes to facts, but such changes should be made with caution and due diligence to the law regarding defamation, slander and libel.
Accuracy and authenticity are always challenging, whether in factual broadcast or fiction. Art might be able to mirror life, but somewhere it will always re-create it rather than accurately reflect it.

7th November 2017 Camera Movement Workshop

Today we started our first workshop for the fiction adaption course. I am quite excited about this course as we have been given the freedom of our own creativity when we adapt our chosen sonnets. As mentioned in a previous blog post, I have already chosen my sonnet and have continued to brainstorm ideas for this, building upon those which I had listed previously.

The workshop was primarily based around camera movement and how it can be used to visually tell a story without any sort of exposition. I found this very interesting seeing as many of the listed techniques such as the framing of certain characters to show their emotion or status were very creative and I feel I would want to emulate similar techniques.

We were then given some time to get some footage using various piece of equipment. Firstly, I used the 'fig-rig' as well as using the camera hand-held. This was to get some shots that resemble a crash zoom onto a person's face. This type of zoom was heavily inspired by the types seen in films such as those directed by Sam Raimi. I tried getting some experimental shots due to my ideas for the piece being about someone whose life was turned upside down. My aim to to present this metaphorically through my camera movement. The fig-rig footage worked well when keeping the camera stable but I found having the camera hand-held allowed for a much faster and urgent movement. I had some trouble with the focus at first, with it going out of focus as I zoomed on the person's face but I was able to overcome it by focusing on the close-up first and then pulling back.

Next I had a go on the track. My shots mostly consisted of the camera pulling away from a person sat in a chair and the camera following the person walking side-on. On particular shot of this type I liked was when I had the camera follow just behind the person as they were walking and then stop and pan as the person carries on their path.

Other shots I tried involved a crash zoom on the face as somebody turns around.

Here is a video showing some of the shots I had achieved:

Fiction Adaptation: Chosen Sonnet

Here is the sonnet I have chosen to adapt for the Fiction Adaptation project:


Do not stand at my grave and weep
By Mary Elizabeth Frye

Do not stand at my grave and weep: I am not there; I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow,
I am the diamond glints on snow,
I am the sun on ripened grain,
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning’s hush I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circling flight.
I am the soft starshine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry:
I am not there; I did not die.

An initial idea I have had for adapting this features somebody mourning the loss of someone, while still present, has changed for the worse. Therefore they are mourning the person that they used to be. 

This could be related to someone who might have had dementia or some other type of disability.

Talking about a disability might be a hard subject to tackle and needs to be respectful to those who actually have experienced these disabilities.

Another possible direction this could take is if the person is question had become disenchanted with society, thus secluding themselves within their own mind and ignoring those who care for them the most, causing them to mourn who they once were.

I shall think about this further. No doubt some of the lectures that I'll be attending shall be informative enough to allow me to make my decision.

Critical Perspectives: Cultural Imperialism and Appropriation.

Exploring the impact of:
-Globalisation- the media is a global marketplace/www.
-Cultural Imperialism- 'exploration' of values through global media
-Cultural appropriation

Global dominance explored:
-Globalisation considers the extent to which certain political economies 'dominate' the world through the process by which global media organisations as 'cultural transmitters'.
-Thus major media organisations on the world stage 'drowned out' smaller regional outlets as they tend to follow this lead and effectively replicate their stance and mode of production.
-In terms of news, accusations that 'US style journalism' is 'homogenising' world news coverage, becoming 'missionaries of corporate capitalism.
-Equally it has the potential to establish a dominant GLOBAL CULTURE.

Globalisation:
-It can be regarded as a positive or a negative phenomena.
-Why has it happened?
-Global media brands and output transmitting and selling formats on a worldwide scale are at least part of the reason.
-An increasingly 'marketed' media landscape on a global scale, chase big revenues and operate as nay other product being sold- dependent on supply and demand. But what affect does that have?

The consequence of 'Cultural Imperialism':
-In general, what we are talking about is the potential for the media to allow one culture to dominate over another.
-What does this mean for storytelling and the coverage of world issues.

Consequence:
-CNN have been accused of stirring up 'compassion fatigue' through their reporting of global suffering.
-Rather than motivation and mobilising change amongst world powers and individuals, its suggests that it has desensitised the audience to major world crises.
-Furthermore, focusing on particular events of 'crises coverage', global tv news coverage ignores many more significant events and there for they are excluded from policy debate.

Globalisation: World News- Whose News?
-When related to news, globalisation is distinct from globalisation in general- which tends to focus upon socioeconomic lines such as the impact of international trading.

Changing News Formats:
-Change the style and presentation of news programming.

-EG British television inherited it’s news formatting model from the US in the mid 1950s, with both ITN and then the BBC taking on generic features such as :
-‘dramatic’ tone, but distinct in form from drama.
- Half an hour in duration of ‘comprehensive’ coverage.
- Generically formatted but still unique to their individual brands.

Truly Global?
-How likely is it that TV news can truly provide 24/7 global ‘breaking news’ -
-More often it can revert to the usual short cuts in storytelling and story seeking as it does on domestic stories? Ie elite voices and establishments dominate.
-Global TV news players emerged throughout the 1990s and beyond
-with the likes of BBC World and Murdoch’s News Corps news brands such as Fox, Sky and Star competing with one another on a world stage for audiences in new markets such as China and India -
-what ideological impact is this likely to have?

TV News & The Global Public Sphere

-Not everyone agrees that global ideological dominance is a consequence of modern TV news operations –
-[global TV news] has the capacity to contribute to democracy ..... Through it’s range of respresentations, genres and information. ...... [but it’s plurality is] compromised by .... Images of consumerism’ (Barker, C : 1997 “ 230)
-I.e. the media can enhance and convey cultural differences, as well as the sort of ‘bad’ news which might reinforce cultural prejudices e.g. conflict or famine in the Third World etc.
-Furthermore meanings are negotiated and filtered through culturally varied ways of understanding therefore less culturally “imperialist” than the ‘Global Dominance’ model suggests.
-‘Although US programmes might lead the world in their transportability across cultural boundaries .... They are rarely the most popular .... Where viewers have a reasonable menu of locally produced programmes to choose from’ (Sinclair et al, 1999 : 176)
-Is this the case?
-What is the affect of social media on re-dressing the balance?

It's a Small World After all
-Can global and social media make the world more ‘interconnected, inder-dependent” (Cottle, 2009, p351)?
-Thus is global television is not something which necessarily causes cultural imperialism, but rather allows us to see the ourselves and each other as facing the same challenges and issues.
-What impact does this have on the potential for both news and fiction adaptation storytelling?

Drama & Cultural Appropriation:
-Equally drama and dramatic adaptations move across cultural ‘boundaries’.
-Consider : implications of taking a Manga-inspired story such as “Ghost in the Shell” and translating that to a US blockbuster? Is it as some have claimed an example of “Hollywood Whitewashing Controversies”:
-The issues of Cultural Appropriation is at the fore in these cases.
-What implications or examples are worth considering in your choice of screen adaptation? They may be less overt but still important to consider.

Global market place Vs Global representation?
-So why is it that, given there is an inherently global marketplace for media (particularly online) and that therefore audiences are inherently diverse, that major film producers should consider it so difficult to be more representative of the original ethnicity of the text itself??
-What is it that motivates ”cultural appropriation” ?

Does any of this matter? Reception Theory:

-The implications for cultural appropriation are not necessarily that we in the audience are “Passive” to the meanings “encoded” in the material they watch.
-Stuart Hall’s Reception Theory (1980) argued that audiences “De-code” what is presented to them and impose their own ideologies onto what they see and hear.
-Dominant Reading (views as intended)
-Negotiated Reading (views with some interpretation) • Oppositional Reading (opposition of intended view)
-Thus it is not necessarily the case that views are always imposed as intended nor even that the intention is always overt in the producer of the piece. is it not true that the media can affect our views and behaviour towards one another?
-Consider the role of the media in making sense of the world and what “matters”...

Post Submission Update:

After a quite distressing response from my group over social, I felt that I had to make a few minor adjustments to some of my blog posts and the final evaluation. This is because my fellow group members reacted extremely negatively to what I had said regarding my experiences working with them.

Upon looking at the original posts, I realised that a lot of the content, while truthful, was written rather aggressively and specific wording made the group appear far worse than was the reality.

Because of this, I felt like I had to change the posts so that they would appear a little more friendly towards my group and my experiences working with them, cutting out a lot of the true concerns I'd had about them and the project. However, upon doing this, I realised that my blog and evaluation were no longer accurate. As our blogs are marked based on the content we write and our truthful opinions of our experiences, I thought it was only right for me to put what I had initially written back in, albeit in a much less aggressive manner, also adding in areas where I admitted that certain problems came down to me and my own short-comings. This made me realise that I couldn't just change the content of my blogs to fit the rest of the group's views until they were happy with it as it wouldn't be an honest representation of how I had personally experienced the project.

I had made a similar post to this one stating that I owed the rest of the group an apology for the aggressive nature of the blog posts and I have apologised to them. The reactions to this from my peers may no doubt have reflected badly upon me as I know that they had tweaked their own blogs in response to the first version of my evaluation. However, I have nothing against them personally and don't wish to paint them in a bad light but I wasn't going to allow my blog posts to be dictated by  their own opinions and points of view instead of mine.

Final Evaluation: News Project

I have finally been able to see the fine cut/ final cut and personally I think that the final project that is being handed in is mostly successful. The final edit is very cohesive as well as looking professional. The edits between the transitions are all mostly smooth (with perhaps a few minor issues with cutting between different locations) and the same can be said with the music.

I feel that both Cailan and I make good studio presenters and we both appear comfortable in our roles. However, I do feel that the generated background behind us does not particularly fit in too well when transitioning to and from both the package and the live segments.

All of the footage looks very professional and mostly blend well with each other with some very good B-Roll that we can cut to to break up the long shots where one specific person is speaking.

I also was finally given the chance to help with the sound editing. I managed to take control of the edit for a short period of time to edit in the music without interference. We then all watched the segments and agreed on my edits with some minor tweaks from Alex. If I had not done this, half of the soundtrack that I have made may not have been included, making this part of my contribution rather redundant. As it is, a lot of the music is very quiet and not very noticeable but this was overall a group choice. Also my Voice-Over is apparently missing for unclear reasons.

Here is the link to the final video uploaded on Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWls47PhxPc&feature=youtu.be

The group themselves were mostly pleasant to work with in person, however there were instances where I would not get on so well with them and certain problems started to arise as some of my contributions appear not to be noted by them. However, I managed to work well with them most of the time despite some times where I'd had some trouble coping with some unfair comments I have received from them over social media.

Here is a full list of most of the contributions that I have made towards this project as they are missing in the final submission:

Pre-Production:
-Initial research
-Electric car research
-Branding research (websites and adverts)
-Filming location finding
-Finding contacts
-Finding a wide range of car dealerships that we can contact as well as getting their numbers.
-Finding some quiet back roads for filming Alex in his car
-Contacting the Kent Film Office for several locations
-Getting in touch with various contacts
-Getting in touch which various car dealerships
-Route planning
-Music research
-Script Editing
-Creating every Risk Assessment

Production:
-Secondary camera operator
-Location scouting
-Fig-Rig operator
-Sound operator on certain shoot days.
-Keeping contact with other crew members when in separate locations.
-Initial solo performance as News Anchor
-Re-filming and performing with another News Anchor

Post-Production
-Creation of the entire soundtrack
-Helping to re-film B-Roll
-Giving constructive Feedback to the various editing stages
-Recording of Voice Over
-Sound editing (eventually, when I was given the chance)

It should be noted that, out of the eight primary days of shooting and re-filming, I managed to make it to six of them, only missing two. This is better than some of the others in the group as they have missed more days. I had a clear role on all of these days, whether it be getting some secondary footage of the presenter from different angles, monitoring the sound levels, getting some B-Roll of the subjects being presented and helping to set up and pack away the equipment each day. On the two days where I could not make it, I started work on other aspects of the project such as the soundtrack.

My dedication to the course and this project, although questioned by my peers, has been high. I’ve had to cancel many appointments and family gatherings that had been pre-planned earlier this year to make sure I am available to make it to the shoots whenever I can. I have come in early (perhaps too early) everyday that I have been here for this project to make sure I am there when I am needed.

Overall Positives:
-I had a clear role on every shoot day.
-I was able to fill in the days I had missed with other work to help support the project.
-I presented my own ideas and concepts (even if a lot of them didn't end up being used).
-The footage we captured was all of high quality.
-I am overall quite proud of the soundtrack which I made for this project.
-The final cut looks professional.
-Alex made for a good piece-to-camera and live presenter.
-Cailan and I made for good Anchormen.

Overall Negatives/ Improvements:
-Choosing to film in 4K led to a much longer production and edit time as the footage takes much longer to render due to its quality.
-Sometimes communications could be a bit strained as not everybody was on social media at the same times. Sometimes this led to me not knowing exactly what it was I was supposed to be doing at times.
-I noticed a few times where my group failed to acknowledge some of my contributions, leaving me a little worried how they would react to me in their blogs.
-Towards the end, tensions started to rise and attitudes such as bad language started to appear with some conversations becoming needlessly aggressive and stressful to go through.
-I needed to be able to get in and edit the sound sooner, seeing as I was only given a strict five minute gap by the group before submission.

Overall I feel that the final project is, indeed a success. It has just been a difficult ride getting here. I look forward to the next project as I have chosen Fiction Adaptation. This will be good for me as I can prove myself through my own creativity and work on and develop the project by myself without having to worry about being in a large group.

Finished the Soundtrack

I have successfully finished the soundtrack after some trouble. Here is a list of most of the tracks that I have created as they appear on my 'iTunes'.

The twelfth track appears to be missing due to an error I made when exporting the music to mp3 files. There are only supposed to be thirteen tracks. Also, some of the tracks I had created beforehand had been saved over so most of the ones presented are in their later states.

The tracks which I am most proud of are:

-Track 10: Carology Titles with Strings.
This is the track that would play over the titles. After much feedback, I made several changes to this pice, including creating a beep (much like BBC News) as well as adding some strings and Sound effects.

-Tracks 5 & 6: Electric Car
For when the we show the cars in the showroom, this was the first track that the group actually liked and thus I continued to create and adapt the other tracks in this style. I especially like the bass which comes in after a while as it sounds very powerful against the soft strings and sets the mood nicely.

-Track 14: Final Driving Song
For when Alex is driving his car around, this probably has the best production towards it and was a trac that I had to try and perfect time and time again. It has some resemblance to the type of music that can be found in shows such as Top Gear.

Major Concerns

As I have said in one of my early blog posts towards the start of this project, I do not agree with the idea of looking at each other's blogs as they are our own individual development logs which are fed back to the tutor, though my peers have obviously ignored this repeatedly. However, I got a bit worried after a rather unnecessarily heated argument over social media took place and I decided that I would take a look. I ended up finding the comments on me a bit worrying and often misleading in regards to my contributions to the course through a series of what I can only think of as misunderstandings, if not plain ignorance.

Specifically, I found that my contributions to the course may seem nullified by what has been written by the others in their blogs. I also saw comments about when I wasn't able to make it to certain meetings on just two of the eight days of primary filming despite me letting them know why I couldn't make those days. I feel like I should list a few examples where my reasons for these were perhaps not so clear.

Here are a few times where I was not able to make some of the shoots and reasons why:

- 5th October, After feedback on the script from Helen.
I was unable to stay to consult with the rest of the group on a few matters regarding the feedback due to needing to get home to help with some problems involving the landlord. This had already been promised to the my family but I probably did not communicate this to the group properly.

- 10th October, Filming Day 2
I had to leave filming slightly earlier as I needed to get home as the landlord was visiting and I needed to be there. I had relayed this to by group earlier that day.

- 21st October, Brands Hatch Filming.
After we got feedback for the rough cut, we were told that we needed to get an entirely new live segment with meant that we had to film a load of new footage. It was decided that the live footage would be shot at Brands Hatch on the Saturday. Unfortunately I was unable to make this shoot as I work from 11pm on the Friday night and do not finish until between 7am and 7:30am on the Saturday morning, meaning that I would have been asleep for the majority of the Saturday. As it turned out, I wasn't feeling too well for the short time that I was awake during that day.

- 25th October, Final Editing
Plans had already been made quite a while ago by certain members of my family (who live halfway across England) that they would come down specifically to see me and we would go out for the day for dinner. Unfortunately, I was asked at the very last minute last night if I was able to come in today. I didn't feel that it would have been a good gesture for me to suddenly turn these family members away right at the last minute. However, I do agree and realise that this was not the best time seeing as it is the day before submission and I have apologised profusely for this bad timing. I should have used better foresight in this instance. Though Cailan also had to miss a day for similar reasons but there appeared to be no problems with him doing this.

Other complaints I have had from the group include how I have supposedly not had much input into the editing process. I spent quite a lot of time during the edit time creating the soundtrack, sending them to the rest of the group, getting feedback, adapting the music to this feedback, creating brand new tracks from scratch and rinsing and repeating. This is something that I have been doing non-stop.  There was then a time when the group were happy with the soundtrack as it was so I stopped, leaving it for some time. I then started again as soon as there was some dissatisfaction with some of the material. This has taken up much of the editing process time.

In terms of the edit itself, I have not yet had the chance to properly get in and edit the sound and the music track that I have created. This is partly because a certain group member appeared not to listen to much of the feedback we were giving them and wasn't letting anyone intervene into 'their' edit. My experience with the editing process thus far has mostly involved watching various stages of the edit and trying to give some constructive feedback to what has been accomplished.

There have been these kind of issues all the way through the development, production and post-production of this News project but have mostly kept this out of my blog for fear of having my fellow group members reading it and taking things the wrong way.

A big concern I have is that I may not be properly credited for the full amount of contribution I have given to this course in the final project due to these misunderstandings. If so, I shall make a full list of my contributions in my evaluation of the project.

I hope this blog doesn't sound like I am making a load of excuses and I am not trying to attack my group; they have been pleasant to work with most of the time. I also know that I don't nessecarily get marked based what they say in their own blogs. I have just outlined various problems I have had throughout the duration of this project and I am just worried that certain claims by the others might be misleading as to full contributions I had to this project.

Second Studio Filming

After we had to take the interview with Ajay out of the live segment, the footage of the presenter in the studio which was already recorded at this time had to be reshot. This is because the script itself no longer made sense now that the entire news piece had switched around and new segments had been brought in.

Now we had rewritten the script, it was time to re-film the studio segments. However, we decided to change the set-up a bit and use two anchormen to present in the studio standing side by side. This choice was thankfully a group choice instead of just being down to George and his own preferences The two presenters were myself and Cailan. This made me glad as an earlier post I wrote was partly dedicated to my disappointment of not being the anchorman as I felt that it dampened the overall physically viewable involvement I had for the final news piece. This change allowed this worry to be retracted.

The shoot itself went mostly well. Both me and Cailan had taken a large effort to try and learn the entire script and we were both confident in what we were saying. However, we unfortunately stumbled several times when put on the spotlight (literally) in front of the camera. Though we were confident in what we had to say, we often stumbled trying to remember the lines whilst also trying to concentrate on communicating appropriately towards the camera.

It also didn't help that a certain member of the group was giving some rather patronising comments whenever we messed up. However, when we asked the other two if they would leave the room to see if we would fair better without them in the room. We did. After a few tries, we were able to perfect the part that we were previously having trouble with and even recorded the next segment with ease. Unfortunately, when it came to recording the rest of the script, the others were back in the room and we continued Mohave some trouble. Despite this, we managed to get all of the filming finished, albeit taking a lot longer than it could have taken.

Some other problems included some issues with the lighting casting shadows but this was something that we managed to deal with and thankfully did not effect the green screen effect too much.

We were also given some advice from Ferg who said that we were stood too close to the green screen and the lights would emit a green glow on us. This is something that we will have to keep in mind in the future as we had already finished the filming for our studio segments by this time.

despite these issues, I feel that today was mostly a success and I am happy with the footage.

The Editing Process 3: Nearly Finished/ Justified Concerns

The good news is, everything has been filmed to adjust to the feedback that we got from Helen last week. We have just finished the final pieces with the two anchormen in the studio set and now we have started to work towards the fine cut.

Thankfully, the green screen has proved to be effective so far despite the problems with shadows that the lighting rigs caused. A lot of the existing footage is still prevalent within the edit as well as the additional new footage to allow for the new order of the piece and how it is now being constructed. The actual edits themselves appear to be smoother with better transitions between shots and a more cohesive piece is the ending result of this.

However, unfortunately I still haven't been given much time to look into getting in and editing the music into the piece which I find worrying as we are quite close to the deadline. There was still a feeling of not properly being able to work around the editor as they still appear to be quite controlling over the edit, sometimes getting quite defensive whenever constructive criticisms and feedback was given in regards to the edit. Also some dissatisfaction with certain tracks from the soundtrack I made was voiced. This is fine as I can go and create some new bits but I wish these concerns were fed back to me sooner. I also am a little unclear now as to the style of music and the overall 'vibe' that I need to create seeing as the group has given me mixed feedback whenever I do one type of style or the other. I think the best thing for me to do is to try and find a balance between the two.

I, along with Cailan, had to leave early today as we both live a bit further afield and unlike Alex and George we both have to rely on public transport . Meaning we would not get home until much later and we both wanted to get home for a reasonable time. However, I shall talk to the rest of the group on Facebook and discuss the feedback then.

Hopefully I will try and get my sound edits into the final edit by the time submission day comes around.