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.
Thursday, 14 December 2017
Tuesday, 12 December 2017
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.
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.
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.
Saturday, 9 December 2017
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.
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.
Wednesday, 6 December 2017
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
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
Tuesday, 5 December 2017
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
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
Monday, 4 December 2017
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.
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.
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