#ffcp1

[jagnfilm]

Reflective Evaluation of FFCP1

I have found this module to be very engaging as it has challenged me to overcome issues and challenges towards developing an effective and appropriate film narrative, as well as difficulties regarding shooting and editing my film. All these experiences have allowed me to develop my film making abilities to a higher and more professional level. I feel I have improved my capability to construct well formed narratives that satisfy a set brief, and can effectively plan, prepare and execute a film shoot.

The shoot itself was straight forward and simple, however the lack of any supporting crew, (aside from actors) meant I was filling all the roles that were required on set. It helped that I was working with entirely natural light as this reduced the amount of equipment that needed to be set up before each shot. Working with as little equipment as possible was very important as the entire cast and crew reached a total of three people. This was one reason why I decided not to record any sound on set, as it would have been another job to worry about on an already tight shooting schedule. This choice meant that all the sound would be added separately, so ambient noises such as background sound, footsteps, phones etc all had to be sourced and added in during the edit.

Editing 'Stair Crossed Lovers' was a very long and at times tedious process. I found creating the first cut was simple enough, but after discovering I needed to find and add two more minutes of footage, I began to feel governed by the films length. Thankfully, once I found the time to shoot some more footage, a new, longer version of my film began to emerge. Initially I had added shots of a cello being played as a sort of prelude, but after reviewing some feedback realised it was slightly too abstract and out of place. I began to realise that in my attempts to simply lengthen the film, I was bolting on sections that were unnecessary. Eventually, I found that remembering the core values of the narrative was the best frame of mind to be in when needing to add whole new sections to your film, and once I had learned this I managed to create a new, longer cut which not only kept the original narrative, but actually developed it further and reinforced it. In the end, this longer cut portrayed my story much stronger than the original.

Music was always a key feature for my narrative, therefore it was critical to make sure I had the right soundtrack for the film. When I produced an animatic to help with deciding what the soundtrack should sound like, I ended up using a mash up of two famous songs which harmonise at a certain point. This reflected my story perfectly, but the only problem here was that these songs are copyrighted, which meant that if I used them, I would have no rights to use my film for anything. To overcome this, I had no choice but to use copyright free music, and this made the process of finding two harmonising tracks extremely difficult, to the point where I still find myself frustrated about how the current soundtrack is. It’s a shame that I couldn’t use the copyrighted music, but ultimately I feel the soundtrack still tells its part of the narrative and I now have a film which will feature at the Hay festival.

The outcome of this module has been a rewarding success. I have made a film which I can say is truly my own work and be proud of, but also is being featured at a prestigious festival. This is something I feel great joy and satisfaction in knowing, that all the work and effort I've put in to this project has gone into something that will be seen by many. I think that is the ultimate reward for a film maker.        

[jagnfilm]

Stairs not Escalators

Although I originally wanted to use escalators at a key narrative tool in my film, I decided that stairs would give my film a better aesthetic, as well as be more practical to film. Below are a few different locations I could potentially film at:

1) Public steps outside Malvern Theatres, Malvern

These stairs have a lot of space around them to work in which is ideal for a film set, however due to its popular location, would most likely remain busy throughout the day. This means using film equipment here could be a serious hazard to the public, but also that continuity errors may easily occur as members of the public wander in and out of frame in the background. 

2) Public stairs outside Malvern Library, Malvern

These stairs are very wide and so offer plenty of room to work, again however the location is not ideal as members of public will be using these stairs for most hours of the day. Sunday is the only day of the week the library won't be open, so places massive shooting restrictions on the schedule.

3) Public stairs leading towards footpath to shops, Malvern

The secretive location of these stairs is ideal for minimal public interference, although there isn't as much space to set up shots around the stairs. After close consideration of the shots I will need, there is only one shot that will be challenging at this location, whereas at the aforementioned locations all shots face a notable degree of difficulty due to public interference. 

This location research leads me to conclude location 3 as the best choice for my shoot.

[jagnfilm]

‘Stair Crossed Lovers’ Animatic

I created an animatic from the storyboard for my short film:

Because of how much this film oriented around music in the cut, I needed to produce something that would let me really see how the soundtrack was going to change with the shots. Creating this animatic was the ideal way of getting to make an edit before filming anything. This helped me properly see how my shot choices would work against the soundtrack that was so important to the narrative.

[jagnfilm]

‘Stair Crossed Lovers’ Narrative Breakdown

The narrative for this short film follows the basic 3 act structure of beginning, middle and end:

Act 1:

Set up the characters -

We begin by introducing the characters as a couple who seem to be communicating through their mobile phones by texting. They are shown travelling in opposing ways and therefore the impression that they are coming together is created. They are also both clearly listening to music through headphones which can be heard by the audience too. Each character's song is different. 

Act 2: 

Build on expectations -  

Now we enhance the idea that these two individuals are lovers coming together by merging the songs that we can hear them listening too. The music is representative of each character, and the fact we can hear their songs harmonising will reinforce the feeling they belong together. It is during this section of the film we start to hear narration of Sonnet 8 come in. The tone of the sonnet will suggest that all is not as it seems. 

Act 3: 

The reveal - 

 In the final act it is discovered that these two people actually don’t know each other at all. The illusion built by the previous acts is broken when we finally see a frame that includes both characters passing on a flight of public stairs. It is here we see them pass without a single glance toward the other and they continue to use their phones as before. We do however notice that the music is still united which serves as a suggestion that they truly where a good pair, but fate had decided they were never to meet despite getting so close. The final shots are of each person looking back curiously at different moments, as if they somehow knew the person they just passed, but eye contact is never made as they go separate ways.  

END

[joshiebrooks-blog]

FFCP1 Research

when doing my research for FFCP1 i found some challenging hurdles to over come. the first hurdle was understanding the meaning of the sonnets and for this i used two websites.  

http://www.shakespeares-sonnets.com  

http://www.shakespeare-online.com/sonnets/ 

i used this to find the modern day explanations of what the sonnets mean to fully use and understand how i want to create ideas for my film. 

this is the sonnet I'm choosing with the modern day equivilant.  

https://3.basecamp.com/3364423/buckets/766783/documents/118989358 

i then researched other sonnet film to try make my film as original as possible. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxBpGZ6VZRE 

as an example they are mostly all very slow paced with very similar themes. 

I didn't want this to be to do with cycling but i wanted to make my film original so decided that sonnets and cycling could work well together. 

after doing some technical research on the best way to colour grade to change scene from a day dream i code how i wanted my film to look and have hopefully achieved this goal.

[coombesfilmandphotography-blog]

Research reflective account

For module FFCP1 we had the task of creating a 3 minuet short film that was based on William Shakespeare as it was coming up to the 400th anniversary of his death, because Shakespeare has such a rich and broad amount of work the first task was to narrow down on what the short film should be based around.

At first i was looking at more of his recognisable work and coming up with thoughts for how i could use them and my original plan was to use a section from one of his most famous plays ‘Macbeth’ , the section was going to be the ‘Tomorrow speech’ a scene after Macbeth finds out that his wife has died however after re-visiting this idea again in a feedback session it was decided a better approach for the module would be to use a Sonnet something pro-haps less familer and easer to create you own adaptation of as Macbeth all reddy has multiple versions, another reason was that a sonnet has 14 lines and this would make things potentially easer to stretch across 3 minuets.

It was interesting that when coming up with the idea for my film i would do it backwards, i got the idea of filming the preparation of a meal while at my part time job and it was because i took a moment to look past the fact it was about Shakespeare and i thought of ideas of thing people do in there normal day to day routines this links back to one of my first ideas of a phone conversation but in Shakespearian, i thought of a couple of ideas but the one that i thought i could make most interesting was cooking a meal, so i had an idea but needed a sonnet so my next task was to find one and by luck i found an old sonnet book in a charity shop and the first sonnet in it had allot of relation to food and cooking.

out of all the module so far i found this one to be really enjoyable once i had my idea set and method down, i found it really fun to play with how light fell on the food and how beautiful i could make veg look using a macro lens.

After doing some test shot i found that my macro shots were super and worked but the one thing that was letting it down was the end shot, my original idea was to have the camera pull back to reveal a table full of plates and bits of food but this proved to be a bit tricky so i tried using my tripod as a anchor point and i tried pulling up and back at the same time this created a good effect but also gave it lees of an impact than i wanted, so i rethought the hole thing while having feed back and so the new idea was to suspend the camera over the table and then have it track up the table revealing the food and rubbish that way. 

It took me a couple of tries to get right with a few renditions of home-made camera cranes but i managed in the end, the next task was getting the right pace and scale of food and rubbish and i think i pulled it off well.

For this module i did a massive amount of research from book to films and even visiting the site Shakespeare was born and it was all super helpful in understanding and taking inspiration from his work.

[jagnfilm]

Escalators in Short Film

Now that my narrative has changed to one which revolves around the idea of two potential lovers passing each other, I started looking into how escalators have been used in short film. I feel this could be the ideal location for my film as the movement of two people coming together on escalators seems to me an ideal way to show visually how these characters have a destiny to be together. 

‘Girl on the escalator’ by Charles Bukowski (2016)

This short film uses the escalator as its location in a restrictive way. We are put into the point of view of the main character who is stuck behind a girl and her boyfriend traveling slowly up the escalator. I find it interesting how effectively this location is used to make us feel this character's awkward and confining encounter.  

‘Broken Escalator’ Becel ad (2007)

In this short film escalators are again used in a very confining way. All the characters in this film are imprisoned by escalators, getting stuck on them when they break. Its is of course done with humorous effect as you cant really get stuck on a broken escalator, but that idea of escalators being in control of our movement has made me question if they are a suitable choice of scene for a romantic film. The idea of destiny could fit well here, but I feel the mechanical aesthetic could also be inappropriate for my short film. There are many shots that have been framed effectively and capture the the escalators in interesting ways. These thoughtful compositions are something I will take note of when deciding how I should frame my shots, even if I choose not to use escalators.

[jagnfilm]

I found this advert for Galaxy, which uses music as a narrative tool. The use of two different styles/genres coming together so well symbolises for me the unity of two people or characters. I want to do something similar with my short film. I plan on utilizing my films soundtrack in a way that will reinforce the narrative idea of two characters who are a perfect match. By introducing each character with their own unique theme, and then letting these themes merge in shots portraying both characters together, I believe I can create a strong feeling of belonging. This is a clever way of showing a relationship that has so much potential without having the characters actually talk or communicate in any way.