Evaluation

Overall, I'm really pleased with how our final film turned out. I think that the different scenes link together really well and though its a very abstract piece of work, I think that there is still a coherent narrative.
As a group we worked really well together; we all played equal roles in all parts of the project. We shared out camera work and lighting set up. We had regular meetings to go over the primary narrative of the film, to come up with shot lists and storyboards. 
We had some problems with the scheduling, as our main actress could no longer work on the film in the final few weeks. This meant that our final film did change to what we had originally intended; though we didn’t have to change the main narrative of our film, we did have to make the decision to use a different actress in each scene.  We decided that this would be the best approach, taking the idea from Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Dr Parnasuss. Retrospectively, I think it works, as we ensured that the costume remained the same throughout, meaning there is still continuity between scenes. 
Other problems we had involved the equipment that we used. When shooting in the Peak District, we had issues with the portable track and dolly, primarily using it on uneven turf. For the majority of the final half of the action that occurs in Grindleford, we had planned to use a tree to be at the centre. However, here, the ground sloped down and due to the bad weather, using the track here became incredibly difficult. As this produced little footage that we were pleased with we tried to use handheld/steadicam. Despite the fact that we did achieve the shots we had planned for this, I don’t think the results are as neat as I would have liked.
As I was in a lot of the scenes in the film, I was limited in terms of what I could actually film. As a group we made the decision that I would shoot almost all the shots that I wasn’t in.  Though this meant I had the opportunity to film a wide range shots, I would have loved to have been able to shoot more. However, considering the circumstances regarding scheduling and availability, I do not think that there would have been away around this.
I think that our scene in the red room was really useful as it gave me an opportunity to use a lot of equipment and lighting that I had only used a small bit.  In particular I found it useful in terms of using lights; we had to think carefully about the lighting set up and the strength of each light.  As we used as many as eight lights at one time,  it meant that at times all members of the group were controlling a light so produce a light change for the scene.
I think one of the main strengths of our film is the abstract, fantasy narrative. This allowed us to be really creative in using and applying the four required elements in the film. Again, I think the red room stands out as the studio space allowed to have complete control over everything. We were able to produce a variety of clean tracking shots and use lighting in multiple ways. I also like our sequence shot at the beginning of the film. Doing this allowed us to think about movement within a shot really carefully. We wanted the shot to be interesting so we carefully choreographed it to allow the actors and camera operator to move around and between each other.
I think one of the weaker parts of our film is the section in Grindleford. I think a lot of the problems come down to the way that we planned this shoot. A lot of the shots that we had storyboarded were much harder to achieve within the outdoor environment than we originally thought. We were unable to use and produce many of the tracking shots that we planned. This meant that we had to resort to handheld camera and this, as expected, prdocued lower quality work. Furthermore, we had to shoot this scene over two days. For the first day we had really good weather conditions, with the sun really bringing out the autumn colours of the environment; this was key to the colour ideas we had for the scene. However, our final day filming in Grindleford brought terrible weather conditions meaning that when we came to edit the piece together, there was a stark difference in brightness and colour. I think that this is something that we should have planned much better, as doing so would have meant that while on site, we would have been far more efficient and I think would have led to less footage needing to be shot on the second day.

Doing this project has reinforced the need to plan your scenes and shots before going on set.  It has also made me think a lot more about lighting plans and drawing these out before you arrive on set, especially if you are using a lot lights. I think if we had done this, we would have shot a lot of our scenes much quicker. However, I think that the project has also made me more keen to experiment with lighting set ups in future projects as I think that though it might take a long time to put together, it can really pay off.

Lighting Change

Within our film we have a number of lighting changes, all of which are driven by the narrative of the film.

The first that we see happens in the opening sequence shot, when the girl opens the bag. This was inspired by the scene in Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, in which Vincent Vega opens up the briefcase in the apartment and all viewer sees is a light shine upon Travolta's face. We thought this would be appropriate because we wanted the item that the girl had stolen to remain a mystery. We achieved this by holding a battery light out of shot and while the camera moves in to focus on the girls face, the light is passed to the girl, who places it in a bag.

We then have a further light change in Grindleford, where the girl is looking in the mirror and sees the reflection of the blue midget. We tried to create the effect of a dark cloud going over head. We used a gold reflector to achieve this. The aim of this was to try and  give the impression that some thing bad was going to happen, in which the blue creature is some how involved.

Our final two light changes occur in the 'red room'. The first is at the very beginning  of the scene in which, from darkness, red lights fade up to reveal the girl is this limbo-esque space. The colour red is a clear indication of unease, and perhaps danger. I think the fade up from darkness to the strong red works well at creating tension and the surprise  of the room for the girl is also a surprise for the audience.

Finally, we put a light change as the camera tracks and zooms into the objects on the table in the center of the room. The light change actually occurs when the girl touches the center object. The light changes from red to green. This strong contrast creates an uneasy feeling and hints to a dramatic change in the narrative.

Shooting the Red Room

For our sequence in the red room we have used the performance studio because this will allow us to fully pull off the effects and shots that we want. We want it to be a sort of 'empty space' that as no real obvious begining or end; the size of the studio will allows to create this effect.

To create the red of the room we set up eight dedo lights in a large circle, all with red filters in them. we chose to have all the lights facing directly into the center of the circle to create maximum impact on the girl and table that take center stage in it.

It took a long time to set up a lot of the shots simply because we had to assemble, move and reassemble tracks . It was good using half of the circular track as this created a really effective and smooth curve. You can see some of the lights in these shots but for me, I don't think this matters. It is such an abstract space that seeing these man made objects just adds to the interest. It makes it seem as if this has been made by someone/thing for the girl to arrive to.

One of my favourite shots that we achieved in the red room is shot that tracks forward, towards the table of objects and moving and focusing in on the animal head that the girl touches. At the same time, the lights change from red to green. I think this is really effective and makes for an uneasy feeling. Linking back to Twin Peaks, I think it makes for a very cinematic nightmare.

In addition, we filmed a short bit with my character speaking backwards. This was taken again from Twin Peaks in which the small man speaks backwards while dancing in Cooper's dream. I did some research into this scene and how it was filmed. It turns out that the scene was shot backwards, with the actors speaking backward too, and then in the edit, it was reversed. As it is still a bit unclear what the actors are saying, subtitles were put in. As said in a previous post, the lines I say are taken from Dr Seuss. When shooting this bit, we moved the lights so that that I would be walking from darkness, back into darkness, while moving in an out of light between lines. The idea behind this is that it would emphasize the mystery that surrounds my character. In this whole scene, I subtly move in and out from darkness, so putting lighting this way seemed the most fitting.

Red Room Shotlist

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#	Shot	Notes
1	CU of Ruby’s face	Lights fade up to red
2	Track round	Ruby turns round, freaks out about lights
3	Track of table of objects	Track slowly, at end R and G appear
4	Track following G	G appears of blackness, track towards R and G talks backwards
5	Track of G going to R	Profile
6	OTS of R looking at objects	Illuminate up
7	CU	R picks up object
8	Mid	Light gets more intense
9	Cantered angles	R gets freaked out, steps back
10	A different angle	G pops up next to R
11	Mid CU	G grabs R’s hand slams it onto right object
12	Take empty shot of same set up

Grindleford Shoot #2

Today was our second and final day shooting in Grindleford. The weather was unfortunately, horrific. This means that a lot of the stuff that we shot will contrast in brightness to our footage from our first shoot.

The weather also meant that carrying out some of the shots was a lot harder; the main example being the tracking shot we had planned for the 'magical tree'. We wanted to track along the tree but the ground actually sloped down along the main branch. With the weather conditions, the ground itself was really slippy so it was really hard to put down the portable track and smoothly pull the dolly along without falling over....

Furthermore, due to fading light, we ended up being a bit rushed for our final shots, but having since reviewed the footage, we managed to get everything that we needed. ALso, as we have shot this scene first, if needed we can include long bits of narrative in the red room and in Sheffield.

Grindleford shoot #1

Today was are first day shooting in the Peak District. We were really lucky with the weather; it really brought out the colours of the leaves, which is ideal for us since we are using the colours in this location as a key element.

Even though we got some good footage, we didn't get that much shot so we are going to have to go there again to shoot.  I think this was partly because we didn't plan it that well and didn't have too much of a clear idea in our heads of what we wanted.

As I am part of the film, I was a little bit limited in terms of what I could actually shoot myself, however the two main shots that I did included some of the travelling shots of the girl and one where the girl starts getting suspicous that she is being followed. For this I chose to do a mid/cu, so that we could be close enough to see the expressions on the girls face but also still have some of the background in shot, for her to look behind her. For this I used a kit lens; I considered using a 50mm however the depth of field was so narrow that it didnt quite work with a mid cu shot.

Grindleford shot list

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Sequence of action

Grace arrives

She walks around lots – move from green to yellow

We see something blue in the background

Sees a mirror on the ground, and sees reflection of blue midget

Grace walks to tree

Goes to hammer in coin

Sees blue midget in front of her AHH

Hammers in coin

Transported to RED room

#	Shot	Description/notes
1	High angle	Sam’s shot
2	Long take	Moss in foreground, Grace walks past into yellow leaves – walks past blue person in the background?
3	Low angle	OTS of the mirror, Grace sees mirror and picks it up
4	OTS	Grace looking into the mirror, sees blue midget
5	CU	First of back of mirror as Grace is holding it up. Grace lowers mirror so now CU of her face. She’s seen the blue midget “OH SHIT”
6	Tracking shot	Introduction to the tree. Shimmering and golden. Shot finishes with Grace walking into frame.
7	Low angle	Looking up at tree, more shimmer gold stuff
8	Mid/CU	Grace’s reaction to the tree
9	Tracking shot	Camera follows Grace as she lowers, picking a stone by her feet off the floor, camera moves back up with her. The midget is now opposite her.
10	SRS	Grace and midget face off
11	Mid	Grace and midget side on with branch b/w, Grace goes to hammer in coin. Midget tries to stop her but too late. Grace is transported to the red room.

Black and White

We have decided to shoot all of the sequence shot in Sheffield in black and white to emphasize the colouring in the other two scenes in the film!!!

The Long Take

For our long take, we are going to have relatively simple action, but with more complicated choreography. Like Tarantino achieves in the long take above, we plan to have people moving in and out, over taking, camera turns and zooms in.

We plan to have our female character walking down the street, and then from around the corner the man turns to follow her. She over takes the camera, which then goes to focus on the man following her. The camera then catches up with the girl, and unlike the beginning of the take, the camera now frames her face in a mid/cu as she begins to suspect that she is being followed and turns round to see if there is in fact someone following her. The man at this point has hidden himself out of sight in a doorway. Following this action, the camera then turns to face down an alleyway, which the girl subsequently goes down to hide from the person she thinks is following her. The camera remains static and we see the man walk past. The camera then moves in to frame the girl again and follows her as she puts the bag down. The camera then moves forward as she opens it and we see her face glowing. The camera zooms out until the girls feet and the bag are in frame. Here, the shot ends.

Colour

Colour plays an important role in film; it affects how viewers react to a scene and can immediately suggest to an audience to tone of the scene or can inform them of information about the characters or environment without the need for dialogue.

As per Patti Bellatoni's book, If Its Purple, Someone' s Gunna Die  , we have made colour an important part of our film.

In the scene that takes place in Grindleford, we carefully chose locations for each shot. This was because we wanted to the colour to move from predominantly green, to predominantly orange/ red.
We wanted it to move from an earthy, natural green to a more ominous red colour, perhaps signifying that danger lies ahead.

Into the red room.The red in this room continues nicelty from the red/orange colours that we leave in Grindleford, only more intense. The red light falls upon the animals on the table, bringing up connotations of death and danger,again. We then move to a colour change to green. Unlike the green that we see in Grindleford, the aim of this colour change was to bring a far sinister feeling to the room. Also, as its at the opposite end of the colour spectrum, it brings a huge contrast to the red lighting, making it a jarring and uneasy change. This inturn, hopefully adds to the uneasy feeling the audience get when viewing the scene in this room.

For the scenes in Sheffield, we chose to film these in black and white. The main reason behind this was to emphasize the colours in the other scenes and highlight their importance and otherworldliness.

Where the Wild Things Are

As well as the Alice in Wonderland reference, the character I play in our film is also heavily based around Max, from Where the Wild Things Are. Obviously there is the element of running around in a onesie, but also the ideas about trying to escape to other worlds.

we also tried to capture some of the child-like mannerisms, such as the excited curiosity of a young person in a giant playground.

Alice in Wonderland

The character that I play in our film reminds me a bit of the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland, simply because I;m a bit of a mysterious creature who appears here and there and gives odd bits of advice.

Also, the Alice in Wonderland element continues through the film with the addition of the forest but also the alternate realities and worlds. Alice finds herself in a 'limbo' environment, where she has to get the key to unlock the door to Wonderland. In our film, the case is slightly differnt but we have decided to have an alternate world between when the forest scene and returning to Sheffile.d And like Alice in Wonderland, our character has to choose an item from the table to return home. 

Session with Sound #1

Workshop working with sound students to recreate a scene from No Country for Old Men


We had to recreate and shoot this scene. It was a lot of fun working with the sound students on this, as it felt a lot more like we were working on a real project. It was also good as it meant we could get further practice with playing round with lighting and the Z1 cameras.

dr seuss

For the scene in the red room, we wish to emulate Lynch further by including some backwards dialogue. This will add a further element of surrealism.

When thinking about what to say, I decided to look into quotes regarding time, considering that our film involves travelling through different time spaces. I came across some by Dr Seuss and immediately looked into further quotes from his work. The playful nature and rhyme of his work fits perfectly with the tone of our film.

The final dialogue:

-->They say I'm old-fashioned, and live in the past, but sometimes I think progress progresses too fast!

 

From there to here, from here to there, funny things are everywhere!

Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try

How did it get so late so soon?

Red Room

Filming St Pauls Tower