Lighting

Lighting is one of the most important aspects of our production as it sets the mood for the film and also because it is supposed to be happening at night it needed to look dark. the problem with filming in actual darkness is that the camera will not pick up very much and it will be very hard to edit, so we had to find another way,
We needed to find some very bright lights that could be altered in terms of how much light they give off rather than just a simple on off. We located some halogen lights as described in a previous post, that I had in my house and we used two of them  one of which is picture below along with another desk lamp with a blue filter on it.
We quickly discovered that the lighting was not going to be as easy as just turning the lights on as we discovered that it created very big and unwanted shadows that wouldn't be there if it was really in darkness as there would be no light to cause them. This meant that we had to place each lamp carefully around the room with each different shot as each shot required a different angle which create a shadow. the upward facing nature of the lamp was quite useful in over coming this but it did not completely eliminate them. Once we had filmed everything, Joel used After Effects to turn down the brightness and add more blue hues to the piece so as to make it look more like night-time. I think some of the shots were still to dark in the end as they appear hard to see once the blue hues were added. If I was to do it again, i would make it much brighter without fear of making it look to bright as I know the capabilities of the editing software can eliminate it completely.

Creating a poster

To create the poster, I used Microsoft Word because it is a program that I am familiar with and know how to use. I began by looking ta royalty free pictures that suited the effect I was going for and something that could represent the film as whole rather than reflecting just our opening sequence as this is how it would be if we created a whole film. I didn't use a picture from our piece as I didn't think any of them would be effective enough and also didn't bring the right message.
After choosing a picture for a background I then added the name in a similar font that we used for the titles in the opening sequence as I beleive this was more effective than using any other font as it had more correlation to the piece.
The smoke used to symbolise dreams in the opening sequence was also pictured as the hand was holding it as though it was mastering the dream/nightmare realm.
It took me a long time to find the perfect photo as I wanted it to mean something to the sequence.

How to make a video

At the beginning of the lesson we were told we need to keep a record of our group meetings we need to keep a form of diary that includes:

• date
• attendance (who was there)
• focus of the meeting
• duration of the meeting
• action points or accomplished tasks

We watched a DVD about how to make a video. It gave a brief explanation of the major roles and what they do.
brief concept:

• purpose
• intent
• target audience
• limitations (budget and time frame)

Pre production includes:

• scripting
• scene breakdown
• storyboard
• shot list casting
• locations
• equipment
• catering
• transport
• informing people

Shot list/shooting schedule:

• where
• time needed
• different camera angles
• when 
• how long

Production:
Use time well and consider safety issues.

• shooting the project
• time management crucial
• quality control (image, sound, performance)
• potential conflict between producer's limitations (time, budget)
• directors creativity
• requires cool heads to cope with pressure and ability to compromise

Post production:

• all elements are combined in editing
• off-line (rough cut)
• on-line (final edit)
• sound mix
• sound mix of final edit

Transferring footage from camera to computer

In our most recent lesson we were shown how to transfer footage from our cameras to our computers in order to edit them. 

There are two processes: one for a camera that records onto a tape and one for digital camera. For a camera that uses a tape we first made sure that our tapes were wound right to the beginning before plugging it in to the computer, this is so that it doesn't transfer only parts of the footage. We then plugged it into the computer and had to record from the camera. when transferring from a tape, the footage comes out as one long clip whereas a digital camera separates every shot into separate clips to make it easier to find what you are looking for. when uploading from a digital camera all you do is turn the camera on, plug it in and copy the slips across. We used a software called Serif to edit our footage so that we only had the bits that we wanted and could then put them into order using the timeline. 

camera shots

Today we looked at film shots and angles. Different camera shots give different effects to the scene being filmed and are very important in making a convincing film. bad camera shots will break the illusion of what you are watching. Above is a video demonstrating different camera shots.

http://www.mediacollege.com/video/shots/  This website shows pictures of different shots and angles and is useful for helping recognize each shot.

Using a camera

In last weeks lessons we were learning how to use a camera properly.

We learned how to set up the camera and tripod and how to wind the tape back to the beginning so that when we came to watch the tape the footage will be at the front and we wont have to search for it. 

After we had set up our cameras and tripods we recorded a few seconds of darkness to check that the camera and tape were working.

Once we were up and running, we went to various places in the school to get different shots and angles to try out the camera and to practice. then we brought our cameras back and got feedback on our footage. The feedback we got was that there was too much head room and that we need to use the tripod more to keep it steady. We acted on this feedback when we went out again to get some more shots by rehearsing what we were going to do before recording it.