Narrative & Genre
Downton Abbey is a Period Drama set in the 1910's, the first episode set specifically in 1912. The narrative of the show follows different types of people who live in the Grantham Estate, from the servants and staff up to the Lords and Ladies.
The story in the extract we watched followed the news of the Titanic sinking making it's way to Lord Grantham. This meant seeing the different class and status between various characters. In 1912, class was incredibly divided. This is very prominent in the way the characters act around each other. Characters of a higher class tend to look down on the lower classes, speaking in a more derogatory manor however, when speaking amongst the same class they speak in more polite, respectful manor. The accents and dialect of characters are also very distinct between classes, which makes it easy to tell the difference between characters straight away. The lower classes sound like they are less educated than the higher classes due to the words they use.
The narrative of the extract/scene we watched follows characters in order of their class. Introducing the poorer, worse off people first and as more are introduced, going up the ladder in terms of their class. Each character that is introduced is of a higher class each time until we eventually meet the lords and ladies of the manor. The news of the Titanic sinking travels through each of these characters, each of them reacting to the news before they hand it over to another character.
Mise en Scène
Despite the caption at the beginning saying '1912', there are many other details in the show that indicate it is set in that specific time period. Things such as costume and set design is an important part of creating the illusion all that is taking place in the show is during 1912.
The costumes of the characters are very specific to the time period it is set in. Although the clothes worn are very different to what people wear nowadays, it is still very obvious to the audience which characters fall into which class. The lower class workers wear much more basic, plainer clothes compared to the lords and ladies who wear very expensive looking, posh garments. There are also different classes of workers too, the servants who deliver the food and drinks to the lords and ladies wear black suits, much nicer clothing than the staff in the kitchen making the food who wear dull, scruffy looking rag-like clothes.
The set in the show is a large manor with many different rooms. The varied rooms look distinctly different. The kitchens and the bedrooms of the staff are very dull and grey, with very little detail on the walls or on furniture. As we follow staff into the main living areas and rooms of Downton Abbey, the surroundings of the characters change. The rooms where the higher classes stay are much more furnished with more extravagant items and they have much more detailed design in the architecture of the room. A lot of the furniture in the room is made from expensive materials such as leather, silk and even coloured gold in some cases.
Camera & Editing
The use of camera in the extract is another way class is represented. One of the opening shots is one long tracking shot follows different characters through the different rooms. Each time the camera switches between a characters, that next character is of a higher class. It changes character multiple times, throughout the tracking shot as a way of going up in the ranks of the abbey.
The shots and editing used are different between classes. The staff in the kitchen are the first to be shown and their scene is very fast and rapidly paced with fast camera movement and quick cuts. This represents the hectic environment of their work and possibly even their lifestyle. However, the camera and editing for Lord Grantham when he walks down the stairs towards the end of the extract (as he is the last character to be shown) is very slow and calm. There are only 2 shots used when he walks down the stairs, a close up of his feet and a wide shot of the entire staircase. There is only one cut between these for the entire scene. The camera movement is a very slow pan as he walks down the stairs which represents the calm in his life as all the hectic jobs are taken up by the staff.
Sound
The sound and music is also a huge indicator of class in Downton Abbey. The music used is classical and sets the scene of 1912.
The music is very subtle when we first meet the characters of the staff, and it is a slow start. Upon those characters entering the abbey the volume of the music increases and becomes a much bigger sound to show that the abbey is very extravagant and is quite a lot to take in. The music makes the building feel larger than life.
While following the workers in the tracking shot the music stays very fast paced and hectic to show the workers all at different jobs and switching jobs frequently. The music stays this way all the way through the extract until Lord Grantham enters. When he does, the music drastically slows down to a much more peaceful calming sound. Similarly to the camera movement, everything about this scene slows down representing a calming important presence in the scene.
8 June 2017
Unit 15: Developing a Small Business in the Creative Media Industries - Task 3 - Business Idea/Proposal
While Ufilms is currently very successful for us, many of us are leaving for University in September, meaning it could be difficult to continue Ufilms as it currently stands. Instead, we hope to extend Ufilms to different regions, starting Ufilms branches around the country. The specific branch of Ufilms I would hope to start would be Ufilms Manchester, as this is where I would be living for the next 3 years. I would be able to transfer the skills I have gained while being part of Ufilms and use them in another branch as the jobs I would be doing would be very similar to what I've done previously. Ufilms currently offers filming, editing and DVD production services via the college facilities and I would hope to do the same using the university facilities.
I believe starting a new Ufilms branch in another part of the country is a practical, smart business move instead of just giving up working with the business. I will have the strong reputation that Ufilms has gained over the past year to take with me to Manchester and use to my advantage. While this will be a new business, I will be able to show customers the show reel of films we have created in the past under the same brand name.
There are many varied businesses in and around the Manchester area and there are huge amounts of people who are all potential customers. Opening the business to a new area opens up a huge amount of new opportunities for Ufilms as promo videos are a very important part of businesses with the rise of social media and, as is the situation currently, we have many customers who just want their events filming such as weddings, for example, so having a whole new highly populated area to work in means there are a lot of potential customers.
To reach customers Ufilms Manchester would need to use work from previous Ufilms jobs to show how we work and the products we can make. We would make an updated 'What We Do' video, just like we have on our current Ufilms Facebook page, with all of our latest work featured in it. We would create a Ufilms Manchester Facebook page and post it there. Setting up the page as being in Manchester will allow us to advertise to local people, our target audience for this business. We could make a link with the university to promote the business as it would also promote their Film & TV courses. Other than advertising via social media, the best way to get Ufilms Manchester known will be to share it through word of mouth, telling people about it whenever possible.
As for staffing the business, 4 members of Ufilms,including myself, are attending the same university in Manchester. This means I will not need to start a new branch of Ufilms myself as we can all continue working for the business. Having 4 people who have already worked for Ufilms means that the business already has credibility as we are able to tell customers we have all previously worked on some of the most successful projects produced by Ufilms in the past. We will start the business with 4 team members which will allow us to cover different aspects of it each, making it a smoother process of bringing Ufilms to a new part of the country. As the business grows and we continue to work in Manchester, we will need more staff. A great place to start would be contacting the many people on our course and discussing the possibility of working for Ufilms. We will have a huge amount of people to choose from and working for a small media production business while being a university student is great experience for a media CV and for a show reel and it is also a great way to create an income. This would be very appealing to the majority of film and TV students at university and we would be able to staff the business from there.
I believe starting a new Ufilms branch in another part of the country is a practical, smart business move instead of just giving up working with the business. I will have the strong reputation that Ufilms has gained over the past year to take with me to Manchester and use to my advantage. While this will be a new business, I will be able to show customers the show reel of films we have created in the past under the same brand name.
There are many varied businesses in and around the Manchester area and there are huge amounts of people who are all potential customers. Opening the business to a new area opens up a huge amount of new opportunities for Ufilms as promo videos are a very important part of businesses with the rise of social media and, as is the situation currently, we have many customers who just want their events filming such as weddings, for example, so having a whole new highly populated area to work in means there are a lot of potential customers.
To reach customers Ufilms Manchester would need to use work from previous Ufilms jobs to show how we work and the products we can make. We would make an updated 'What We Do' video, just like we have on our current Ufilms Facebook page, with all of our latest work featured in it. We would create a Ufilms Manchester Facebook page and post it there. Setting up the page as being in Manchester will allow us to advertise to local people, our target audience for this business. We could make a link with the university to promote the business as it would also promote their Film & TV courses. Other than advertising via social media, the best way to get Ufilms Manchester known will be to share it through word of mouth, telling people about it whenever possible.
As for staffing the business, 4 members of Ufilms,including myself, are attending the same university in Manchester. This means I will not need to start a new branch of Ufilms myself as we can all continue working for the business. Having 4 people who have already worked for Ufilms means that the business already has credibility as we are able to tell customers we have all previously worked on some of the most successful projects produced by Ufilms in the past. We will start the business with 4 team members which will allow us to cover different aspects of it each, making it a smoother process of bringing Ufilms to a new part of the country. As the business grows and we continue to work in Manchester, we will need more staff. A great place to start would be contacting the many people on our course and discussing the possibility of working for Ufilms. We will have a huge amount of people to choose from and working for a small media production business while being a university student is great experience for a media CV and for a show reel and it is also a great way to create an income. This would be very appealing to the majority of film and TV students at university and we would be able to staff the business from there.
7 June 2017
Unit 15: Developing a Small Business in the Creative Media Industries - Task 1B - Project Management
As part of our small business, 'Ufilms', we each had to project manage a production. The production which I managed was a promo video for Page2Stage Parties, a party/entertainment company for children. My management of this production started when I was yet to be in charge of a project and decided I had good ideas to contribute to this one. I began to joint manage the project with Chloe.
There was already ideas for the promo but I felt like they could be improved upon quite a lot. The original idea followed the Page2Stage parties staff getting ready as different characters and going to a children's party. I suggested that the idea shouldn't follow people pretending to be characters, as it isn't the point of the party company, but should fully commit to the characters and create a story of the actual characters making their way to a party. The promo would follow a story of all the different characters the company had to offer going out of the way of their usual lives to go to a child's party. Using the actual characters going on a journey to the party, I felt, adds a special touch to the promo which makes the customer and the children feel like the real characters are coming to the parties. This idea was the one we went ahead with.
Chloe and I began to write a script for the promo soon after we had decided on the final idea. The promo would have no dialogue so the script was just direction of what the characters would be doing in each scene. It was very important to link the characters as much as possible. We decided we could link the characters together by having Elsa & Anna (the two most popular characters at Page2Stage parties) gathering various characters together to bring them to the party. However, to avoid the promo becoming samey and boring, we also decided some characters could get 'party alerts' to inform them of the party happening.
Once the script and shot lists were ready, the next step was to organise the filming. Kelly, in charge of Page2Stage parties, wanted to use her staff as the actors playing the characters, so the characters being advertised were exactly what customers would get at their own party. As many of the staff are students and others employed at other jobs as well as Page2Stage, it was very difficult to organise many of the shoots as many of the Page2Stage staff were not available at the same time as others. The filming began with small, quick shoots whenever we could manage around others schedules, this usually meant filming after a party when people were already dressed in character costumes.
We eventually got round to organising a full shoot of multiple scenes with various characters. This was later than we'd hoped but we tried to get as much footage as possible. While we did manage to get more people and get the main plot of Elsa and Anna gathering characters, we still weren't able to get everyone we'd asked to be there for the shoot. However, we worked with what we had. Chloe was unable to attend the shoot and so I asked Taylor to assist me. We were able to get the majority of the footage we planned which meant we could start editing. The edit came together very well and we were able to start shaping the story of the promo.
After the main shoot, we were back to getting small amounts of footage whenever we could, which wasn't as productive as we'd hoped but we were still making progress on the promo. Since then we have still been making progress on the promo in small amount due to our own busy schedule and our cast's busy schedule. We have been in contact with Kelly on multiple occasions to negotiate our deadline for the promo and to run by new ideas or idea changes we have had to make.
The promo is still being made as I write this but we are getting closer to finishing it. It's taken us a lot longer than we had planned but this has happened due to difficulties in scheduling we haven't been able to do anything about. We have a small list of specific scenes needed to film and should have them complete very soon, along with the final edited promo video for Page2Stage Parties.
There was already ideas for the promo but I felt like they could be improved upon quite a lot. The original idea followed the Page2Stage parties staff getting ready as different characters and going to a children's party. I suggested that the idea shouldn't follow people pretending to be characters, as it isn't the point of the party company, but should fully commit to the characters and create a story of the actual characters making their way to a party. The promo would follow a story of all the different characters the company had to offer going out of the way of their usual lives to go to a child's party. Using the actual characters going on a journey to the party, I felt, adds a special touch to the promo which makes the customer and the children feel like the real characters are coming to the parties. This idea was the one we went ahead with.
Chloe and I began to write a script for the promo soon after we had decided on the final idea. The promo would have no dialogue so the script was just direction of what the characters would be doing in each scene. It was very important to link the characters as much as possible. We decided we could link the characters together by having Elsa & Anna (the two most popular characters at Page2Stage parties) gathering various characters together to bring them to the party. However, to avoid the promo becoming samey and boring, we also decided some characters could get 'party alerts' to inform them of the party happening.
Once the script and shot lists were ready, the next step was to organise the filming. Kelly, in charge of Page2Stage parties, wanted to use her staff as the actors playing the characters, so the characters being advertised were exactly what customers would get at their own party. As many of the staff are students and others employed at other jobs as well as Page2Stage, it was very difficult to organise many of the shoots as many of the Page2Stage staff were not available at the same time as others. The filming began with small, quick shoots whenever we could manage around others schedules, this usually meant filming after a party when people were already dressed in character costumes.
We eventually got round to organising a full shoot of multiple scenes with various characters. This was later than we'd hoped but we tried to get as much footage as possible. While we did manage to get more people and get the main plot of Elsa and Anna gathering characters, we still weren't able to get everyone we'd asked to be there for the shoot. However, we worked with what we had. Chloe was unable to attend the shoot and so I asked Taylor to assist me. We were able to get the majority of the footage we planned which meant we could start editing. The edit came together very well and we were able to start shaping the story of the promo.
After the main shoot, we were back to getting small amounts of footage whenever we could, which wasn't as productive as we'd hoped but we were still making progress on the promo. Since then we have still been making progress on the promo in small amount due to our own busy schedule and our cast's busy schedule. We have been in contact with Kelly on multiple occasions to negotiate our deadline for the promo and to run by new ideas or idea changes we have had to make.
The promo is still being made as I write this but we are getting closer to finishing it. It's taken us a lot longer than we had planned but this has happened due to difficulties in scheduling we haven't been able to do anything about. We have a small list of specific scenes needed to film and should have them complete very soon, along with the final edited promo video for Page2Stage Parties.
Unit 15: Developing a Small Business in the Creative Media Industries - Task 1A - Ufilms Report
At the beginning of our first year in college we were required to start a small business as part of the 'enterprise' programme. Our small business was 'SRC Infinity Productions', a small media production company providing filming, editing and DVD production services to customers for a reasonable price. While this was successful and we created products for a few clients, it never took off as a real priority or felt like a serious business.
By the start of our second year of college, SRC Infinity Productions was not as prominent as we'd hoped amongst teachers and other students in the college. We had a team meeting to discuss the successes and failures of our first year as a small business and we decided what changes would be made to make the business even better in our second year. This meeting led to the agreement that we would re brand and use this as a sort of fresh start. We would already have the contacts we had previously made (informing them of the re brand) but we would be able to make the business look and feel more professional.
Our re brand started with brainstorming a new name. We wanted something short, memorable and that represented us as a group and the business itself. This led to the creation of 'Ufilms'. We completely re branded all of our social media with our new name, new logo and created an all round more professional looking social media presence.
While at the beginning of SRC Infinity Productions we had separate departments for filming, editing, DVD production and, occasionally, photography, this began to fall apart as people wanted to try different jobs in the business and there could sometimes be a lack of communication between departments. The hierarchy in Ufilms was fairly quickly decided, despite being only a small group of 11. Ufilms was a business made up of 11 Film & TV students, who would all hopefully take on an equal role, doing an equal amount of work and spreading the work amongst the group.
While we all hoped to work equally, we still needed certain positions to be filled in order to run as a successful unit. It was decided that Danniella would be put as the head of Ufilms, a job she was happy to take. Her job consisted of making sure everything in Ufilms worked smoothly and efficiently. If we were having meetings, they would be led by Danniella, guiding us through the points we needed to discuss. Anytime Ufilms needed to be represented, as leader, Danniella would usually attend such events with other members of the groups.
As we are were business and therefore would have money coming in, we needed a member of the team to act as our accountant. The decision was made that Jess would take on this role. This job involved writing and signing all invoices for clients and keeping track of the money coming in and going out of Ufilms.
Ufilms advertises itself as a reasonably priced media production company for hire. Our customers do pay much less for Ufilms than other production companies as we are college students but we aim to produce professional level products for everyone. Our prices start from £8 an hour as we work out our prices by the people working on a job. We charge £8 per person every hour of work. For example, a 3 hours shoot with 2 people working on it would cost £48, £24 per person.While the average minimum wage for 18 year olds is £5.60 (£4.05 for 16 - 17 year olds) we wanted to treat ourselves not as young workers but like adults working professionally, while still keeping a reasonable price.
Customers were usually required to pay a deposit towards the job we were to do for them, then pay in full afterwards. Our income from customers got to us one of two ways. We could be paid in cash which would go directly to our company money tin, this was the easiest way to be paid as we were receiving the money directly. The other way we were paid was through college. Some jobs we did required the college was paid the money, as we were still students and linked with the college. This money should then be passed down to us to be able to spend it on what the company needed. As for the rest of the group, everyone had an equal responsibility. People would be hired for different jobs depending on who had done the job previous or depending on who would put themselves forward to do a job. Everyone in the team had to manage at least one project, some people managed multiple. Managing a project meant being behind all the organisation and hiring people for the jobs.
Our main marketing has been through social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. As we are a young group of film makers who use social media ourselves, this was our best way of marketing Ufilms. We were already experienced in using social media so we transferred our understanding and experience of social media over to a Ufilms account on each platform. We put different people in front of each social media platform. Jess and I were in charge of the Ufilms Twitter account, Danniella and Taylor in charge of the Instagram and Danniella and Matthew in charge of Facebook (however the Facebook page was often updated by other members of the group too).
With social media being the main place most businesses market themselves nowadays, the more popular platforms offer business accounts, which rearrange and change certain aspects to make it easier to run an account for your business as opposed to a personal account.
As our business doesn't directly sell a product, our marketing was different to many other companies. We had to advertise our services as much as possible. Facebook made this easy as there was an option to put a list of services customers could view. Other than this and on other platforms our marketing was more down to us interacting with out customers. Our main focus of social media was to frequently post about projects we were working on, whether it was a paid job or a personal project. This would let the customers know we were very active film makers and we could be trusted to be on a paid job.
Ufilms illustrates the skills required to run a small business. This includes management, technical, financial and creative skills. We, as a business, use this skills in different aspects of running and working for Ufilms.
I've already spoken about how the business demonstrates management and financial skills.
The creative skills we show come in the form of ideas we have to come up with. Obviously, when we are hired for a job, the customer does not usually know the specifics of film making that we, as film students, do understand. This means that if we are given an event to film, like a wedding for example, it is our job to actually make the camera plan and decide on the shots we need to get to make out final product. The other way we have to come up with ideas is when we are hired to make something that isn't a set idea yet, and we are tasked with creating that idea from scratch. This is a skill all of our team have evidence for as we have all, outside of Ufilms, created short films, music videos and adverts from scratch, pitching out original ideas.
When hired for a job, we are also responsible for the footage we get and ensuring it comes out as professional looking as possible. This requires good knowledge of cameras and how to set them to get the best footage in different scenarios. While this isn't as common of a skill as others the business shows we have and not everyone necessarily understand the camera well enough to get the best footage possible, there are still people in the Ufilms team who know the ins and outs of the camera and are able to confidently go to a job knowing they will get great footage. The team also has confidence in members of the team to get the best footage possible without worrying how it will come back.
Ufilms has multiple resources and equipment. We obtained our resources via the college. We decided we could start a small media production company as we already had the cameras, editing software and various other equipment at our disposal. This meant we were able to use these at no cost on jobs we were hired out to do, this instantly made the jobs almost entirely profit, incredibly helpful for the business. The range of equipment the Film & TV course had to offer meant we were able to achieve a more professional look to our films. We are able to use equipment such as the dolly/track, the stabiliser wheel and the crane etc. We decide on the equipment and resources we will need on a job in the planning stage. We would first look at what the customer wants and whether various equipment would be necessary and then next we check if the equipment we wanted to use would work in the location we are in.
Ufilms, like any business, has had successes and failures since it started. We've learnt a lot of lessons about being a business and how a business needs to operate. We have successfully created various projects through Ufilms to the highest standard possible and had great feedback from customers confirming this. We have learnt valuable filming and business skills for the future that we can translate into the Film and TV industry. There have been multiple time when the business has failed on different aspects but these have mostly been trial and error situations.
Our communication with customers could sometimes be improved upon. There have been times when a deadline date for a project or a filming date has been miscommunicated which has led to problems with production. There have been times, due to being college students with college work as a high priority, when communication to a possible customer has been forgotten about or a job has had to be declined.
Another aspect of the business we have had issues with is the contribution to jobs and work amongst the entire team. Many people have done a lot more work than others but this isn't necessarily because people aren't willing to do the work. This is the case sometimes and this can be an issue as a successful business needs everyone to be hard working, especially with such a small team. Sometimes, this can be because people have taken on more work themselves instead of evenly distributing it to the team. This can be because people don't trust others to do the job right. This is sometimes we've tried to learn from as everyone in the team should be at the level we can trust them to do work.
Our biggest issue with the business, in my opinion, is with money. Not the management, as that is a successful aspect of Ufilms, but the actual income. This is a problem that was no fault of our own but still counts as a failure as a business. To be a successful business you need to have an income and a profit, this has been a huge issue for us as we have struggled to get the money from various jobs due to the money having to come through college on certain jobs. We have struggled to get the money from college not just for jobs but for competitions we have entered too. This has meant our overall income at the end of the year of around £1200, has been much lower and the money we worked out everyone would get has now had to change because of this.
By the start of our second year of college, SRC Infinity Productions was not as prominent as we'd hoped amongst teachers and other students in the college. We had a team meeting to discuss the successes and failures of our first year as a small business and we decided what changes would be made to make the business even better in our second year. This meeting led to the agreement that we would re brand and use this as a sort of fresh start. We would already have the contacts we had previously made (informing them of the re brand) but we would be able to make the business look and feel more professional.
Our re brand started with brainstorming a new name. We wanted something short, memorable and that represented us as a group and the business itself. This led to the creation of 'Ufilms'. We completely re branded all of our social media with our new name, new logo and created an all round more professional looking social media presence.
While at the beginning of SRC Infinity Productions we had separate departments for filming, editing, DVD production and, occasionally, photography, this began to fall apart as people wanted to try different jobs in the business and there could sometimes be a lack of communication between departments. The hierarchy in Ufilms was fairly quickly decided, despite being only a small group of 11. Ufilms was a business made up of 11 Film & TV students, who would all hopefully take on an equal role, doing an equal amount of work and spreading the work amongst the group.
While we all hoped to work equally, we still needed certain positions to be filled in order to run as a successful unit. It was decided that Danniella would be put as the head of Ufilms, a job she was happy to take. Her job consisted of making sure everything in Ufilms worked smoothly and efficiently. If we were having meetings, they would be led by Danniella, guiding us through the points we needed to discuss. Anytime Ufilms needed to be represented, as leader, Danniella would usually attend such events with other members of the groups.
As we are were business and therefore would have money coming in, we needed a member of the team to act as our accountant. The decision was made that Jess would take on this role. This job involved writing and signing all invoices for clients and keeping track of the money coming in and going out of Ufilms.
Ufilms advertises itself as a reasonably priced media production company for hire. Our customers do pay much less for Ufilms than other production companies as we are college students but we aim to produce professional level products for everyone. Our prices start from £8 an hour as we work out our prices by the people working on a job. We charge £8 per person every hour of work. For example, a 3 hours shoot with 2 people working on it would cost £48, £24 per person.While the average minimum wage for 18 year olds is £5.60 (£4.05 for 16 - 17 year olds) we wanted to treat ourselves not as young workers but like adults working professionally, while still keeping a reasonable price.
Customers were usually required to pay a deposit towards the job we were to do for them, then pay in full afterwards. Our income from customers got to us one of two ways. We could be paid in cash which would go directly to our company money tin, this was the easiest way to be paid as we were receiving the money directly. The other way we were paid was through college. Some jobs we did required the college was paid the money, as we were still students and linked with the college. This money should then be passed down to us to be able to spend it on what the company needed. As for the rest of the group, everyone had an equal responsibility. People would be hired for different jobs depending on who had done the job previous or depending on who would put themselves forward to do a job. Everyone in the team had to manage at least one project, some people managed multiple. Managing a project meant being behind all the organisation and hiring people for the jobs.
Our main marketing has been through social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. As we are a young group of film makers who use social media ourselves, this was our best way of marketing Ufilms. We were already experienced in using social media so we transferred our understanding and experience of social media over to a Ufilms account on each platform. We put different people in front of each social media platform. Jess and I were in charge of the Ufilms Twitter account, Danniella and Taylor in charge of the Instagram and Danniella and Matthew in charge of Facebook (however the Facebook page was often updated by other members of the group too).
With social media being the main place most businesses market themselves nowadays, the more popular platforms offer business accounts, which rearrange and change certain aspects to make it easier to run an account for your business as opposed to a personal account.
As our business doesn't directly sell a product, our marketing was different to many other companies. We had to advertise our services as much as possible. Facebook made this easy as there was an option to put a list of services customers could view. Other than this and on other platforms our marketing was more down to us interacting with out customers. Our main focus of social media was to frequently post about projects we were working on, whether it was a paid job or a personal project. This would let the customers know we were very active film makers and we could be trusted to be on a paid job.
Ufilms illustrates the skills required to run a small business. This includes management, technical, financial and creative skills. We, as a business, use this skills in different aspects of running and working for Ufilms.
I've already spoken about how the business demonstrates management and financial skills.
The creative skills we show come in the form of ideas we have to come up with. Obviously, when we are hired for a job, the customer does not usually know the specifics of film making that we, as film students, do understand. This means that if we are given an event to film, like a wedding for example, it is our job to actually make the camera plan and decide on the shots we need to get to make out final product. The other way we have to come up with ideas is when we are hired to make something that isn't a set idea yet, and we are tasked with creating that idea from scratch. This is a skill all of our team have evidence for as we have all, outside of Ufilms, created short films, music videos and adverts from scratch, pitching out original ideas.
When hired for a job, we are also responsible for the footage we get and ensuring it comes out as professional looking as possible. This requires good knowledge of cameras and how to set them to get the best footage in different scenarios. While this isn't as common of a skill as others the business shows we have and not everyone necessarily understand the camera well enough to get the best footage possible, there are still people in the Ufilms team who know the ins and outs of the camera and are able to confidently go to a job knowing they will get great footage. The team also has confidence in members of the team to get the best footage possible without worrying how it will come back.
Ufilms has multiple resources and equipment. We obtained our resources via the college. We decided we could start a small media production company as we already had the cameras, editing software and various other equipment at our disposal. This meant we were able to use these at no cost on jobs we were hired out to do, this instantly made the jobs almost entirely profit, incredibly helpful for the business. The range of equipment the Film & TV course had to offer meant we were able to achieve a more professional look to our films. We are able to use equipment such as the dolly/track, the stabiliser wheel and the crane etc. We decide on the equipment and resources we will need on a job in the planning stage. We would first look at what the customer wants and whether various equipment would be necessary and then next we check if the equipment we wanted to use would work in the location we are in.
Ufilms, like any business, has had successes and failures since it started. We've learnt a lot of lessons about being a business and how a business needs to operate. We have successfully created various projects through Ufilms to the highest standard possible and had great feedback from customers confirming this. We have learnt valuable filming and business skills for the future that we can translate into the Film and TV industry. There have been multiple time when the business has failed on different aspects but these have mostly been trial and error situations.
Our communication with customers could sometimes be improved upon. There have been times when a deadline date for a project or a filming date has been miscommunicated which has led to problems with production. There have been times, due to being college students with college work as a high priority, when communication to a possible customer has been forgotten about or a job has had to be declined.
Another aspect of the business we have had issues with is the contribution to jobs and work amongst the entire team. Many people have done a lot more work than others but this isn't necessarily because people aren't willing to do the work. This is the case sometimes and this can be an issue as a successful business needs everyone to be hard working, especially with such a small team. Sometimes, this can be because people have taken on more work themselves instead of evenly distributing it to the team. This can be because people don't trust others to do the job right. This is sometimes we've tried to learn from as everyone in the team should be at the level we can trust them to do work.
Our biggest issue with the business, in my opinion, is with money. Not the management, as that is a successful aspect of Ufilms, but the actual income. This is a problem that was no fault of our own but still counts as a failure as a business. To be a successful business you need to have an income and a profit, this has been a huge issue for us as we have struggled to get the money from various jobs due to the money having to come through college on certain jobs. We have struggled to get the money from college not just for jobs but for competitions we have entered too. This has meant our overall income at the end of the year of around £1200, has been much lower and the money we worked out everyone would get has now had to change because of this.
31 May 2017
Unit 31: Social Action and Community Media Production - Task 4 - Evaluation
SMOKING KILLS Anti-Smoking Ad:
Evaluation:
This is the anti-smoking video we made as part of our Social Action unit and our entry into the Cut Films Anti-Smoking Competition. I directed the piece and also edited it along with Rhys. As I'm the person who pitched the idea to the group originally, I am very happy with how the ad turned out.
The ad follows a man at a pub with his friends who goes outside to have a cigarette. However, instead of seeing a cigarette, the man pulls out a gun and loads it. He then puts the gun in his mouth multiple times, pulling the trigger. On the 3rd pull of the trigger the gun shoots the bullet, killing him. We see the gun in his hand on the floor before cutting to the 'SMOKING KILLS' title. When we cut back, a cigarette is now in place of the gun.
In my opinion, the piece has come out as a very hard hitting anti smoking ad that would definitely shock people who didn't know what was coming. The multiple times he pulls the trigger adds a level of suspense to the video, putting the viewer on edge as they expect a gun shot.
The whole crew worked well together on the day of the shoot. As director, it was helpful to have people who were cooperative to work with. Jess was Assistant Director, Chloe was 2nd AD and Ben was Camera Operator. Rhys was meant to be boom operator however on set there were issues with the boom mic and we were unable to use it. This left Rhys without a job however instead he and I edited the piece afterwards. Everyone fit well into their roles, making the shoot easy for everyone. Any issues were quickly resolved and we were able to finish on schedule.
The cast were great. Sol, Shannon and Kyra acted very naturally together and took direction very well. Sol did a great job of using the gun in place of a cigarette and made it seem very believable.
Overall I believe we created a great, unique piece that has a real impact on whoever watches it.
Feedback:
We received a great amount of positive feedback on the ad from various sources.
One of Sol's friends comments on our post about the video. This was a very positive response as it was someone who we didn't know ourselves giving us feedback on the video. While not an in depth bit of feedback, he said "makes me want to pack in". This is very good for the video as it shows it has an effect on smokers and how they feel about their smoking.
Our entry to the Cut Films competition gave people the opportunity to vote for video to win. This meant we were up against other groups who made anti-smoking ads. Despite this, we ended up in 1st place with nearly 100 votes which obviously shows people enjoyed our advert and felt I deserved their vote:
Evaluation:
This is the anti-smoking video we made as part of our Social Action unit and our entry into the Cut Films Anti-Smoking Competition. I directed the piece and also edited it along with Rhys. As I'm the person who pitched the idea to the group originally, I am very happy with how the ad turned out.
The ad follows a man at a pub with his friends who goes outside to have a cigarette. However, instead of seeing a cigarette, the man pulls out a gun and loads it. He then puts the gun in his mouth multiple times, pulling the trigger. On the 3rd pull of the trigger the gun shoots the bullet, killing him. We see the gun in his hand on the floor before cutting to the 'SMOKING KILLS' title. When we cut back, a cigarette is now in place of the gun.
In my opinion, the piece has come out as a very hard hitting anti smoking ad that would definitely shock people who didn't know what was coming. The multiple times he pulls the trigger adds a level of suspense to the video, putting the viewer on edge as they expect a gun shot.
The whole crew worked well together on the day of the shoot. As director, it was helpful to have people who were cooperative to work with. Jess was Assistant Director, Chloe was 2nd AD and Ben was Camera Operator. Rhys was meant to be boom operator however on set there were issues with the boom mic and we were unable to use it. This left Rhys without a job however instead he and I edited the piece afterwards. Everyone fit well into their roles, making the shoot easy for everyone. Any issues were quickly resolved and we were able to finish on schedule.
The cast were great. Sol, Shannon and Kyra acted very naturally together and took direction very well. Sol did a great job of using the gun in place of a cigarette and made it seem very believable.
Overall I believe we created a great, unique piece that has a real impact on whoever watches it.
Feedback:
We received a great amount of positive feedback on the ad from various sources.
One of Sol's friends comments on our post about the video. This was a very positive response as it was someone who we didn't know ourselves giving us feedback on the video. While not an in depth bit of feedback, he said "makes me want to pack in". This is very good for the video as it shows it has an effect on smokers and how they feel about their smoking.
Our entry to the Cut Films competition gave people the opportunity to vote for video to win. This meant we were up against other groups who made anti-smoking ads. Despite this, we ended up in 1st place with nearly 100 votes which obviously shows people enjoyed our advert and felt I deserved their vote:
2 May 2017
Unit 31: Social Action and Community Media Production - Task 1 - Presentation
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1e6A-oAG93pt_c1adyAELJ4ReJmw-poASKwtn2wbIAFk/edit?usp=sharing
31 March 2017
30 March 2017
Unit 4: Creative Media Production Management Project - Production Diary
19/03/17
My original plan for my Personal Management Project wasn't going to work out so, last minute, I had to come up with another idea. I went through other small ideas I'd had in the past, picked one and began to build a story around it.
The idea I picked was the idea of a character's conscience acting in a angel & devil on their shoulder kind of scenario.
I've attached a screenshot of my notes page of my brainstorming for my PMP.
21/03/17
Today I made my pitch for my new short film idea, 'Conscience'. I struggled to get the idea down in words which also made it more difficult for me to explain while pitching, but I think I managed to explain it as well as I could, maybe just maybe not as clearly as I have it in my mind.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1s9cWI92tL-IkoQNlh5BGruulnjdWMPW9tucRB0rmOpc/edit?usp=sharing
07/04/17
Today I came across a music video that might be the best thing my eyes have ever seen. The video was for 'HUMBLE.' by Kendrick Lamar. There are some very interesting visuals in the video that I would love to use as inspiration or even replicate in my short film.
The specific shots I really enjoyed in this video are shown below:
The camera/editing technique I'm hoping to replicate in my short film is the one on the right. The rapid cuts between slightly different positioned shots creates a very unique look and could definitely represent a characters mental struggle in the right context.
03/05/17
I am currently scouting location for my film. I need an office building to film in which is proving to be a difficult location to get permission to. When mentioning the location I needed to my mam she explained that she knows someone who owns offices and may be able to ask for a favour from them. She messaged the person, Joe, and he responded very positively and was happy to help however he could. I got his contact details to get in touch with him and discuss further.
12/05/17
Today I spoke to Joe for the second time about location. While he didn't have any of his own offices that I would be able to use for filming, he was happy to ask around his contacts whether anybody would be able to help. He got me in touch with Tim who said he had an office that we could film in during working hours. I just needed to ring Tim and discuss dates and times with him.
21/05/17
Today was the first shoot for my short film. I started my filming later than others due to my film not fitting any earlier on the shoot schedule. Two scenes were being filmed today and they were Scene 1 and Scene 5. These are both short scenes without dialogue so they were fairly quick to film, making the shoot a short one.
Scene 5 follows the protagonist, Chris (Dylann), at a bus stop concealing a gun while he waits to go to his ex-place of work. Chris is watched suspiciously by a man at the bus stop (Josh) who notices he is acting shady. Scene 1 is just the opening shot of the film which is Chris walking toward the camera.
Both Dylann & Josh were very easy to work with, both taking direction well and adapting their performances whenever they were asked to do something differently. They were both very professional for the full shoot and made the shoot very smooth.
Although I wrote and am producing the project, I decided to take on the role of Director of Photography instead of the more obvious role of Director. I believe I am much stronger in the camera role and I had a lot of visual ideas. Taylor took on the role of Director for my film, this was interesting to work with as I had very clear ideas for my film but had to let Taylor direct the actors and myself. However, as was the case with Taylor and I working together last year, it is a very collaborative working relationship where we bounce ideas off each other to create the best product we can. Jess was my Assistant Director, a role she is always great in. She made sure she took note of everything she needed to and kept everyone on track if anything began to slow down (which wasn't really the case anyway). Ben informed me the day before that he was too ill to attend the shoot but luckily there was no dialogue in the scene, so a boom mic was not necessary. If we had been filming a dialogue heavy scene, either Jess or Taylor would have had to double up on their role and boom operator.
22/05/17
Today was the second day of shooting. We planned to film Scene 3 and the Conscience cutaways. We successfully filmed all of Scene 3 that was planned however we did not film all of the Conscience cutaways which means we will have to do pick ups.
Other than not completing everything we had planned, the shoot went very well. Once again everyone worked professionally and we got things done at a good pace. Todays only actor was Dylann and despite having no other actors to work with he got on with his job and delivered good performances. We filmed at Danniella's flat for scene 3. As she was not on set we had to make sure we took care of the location and put everything we moved back where it came from. There were children's clothes and toys in the flat and some of it made it in shot so we had to move them before filming. There were also photos up on the wall which we had permission to move and did so.
Everyone was great in their role again. Jess was unable to attend the shoot due to prior commitments to another film. Instead, Chloe took on the role of 2nd AD and filled in for her job. Chloe was great and kept up with all the paperwork. We did not hear from Ben today and he did not arrive on time for filming, we were close to finish when he did. He said he did not see the call sheets but did arrive on time for Danniella's shoot.
24/05/17
Today was shoot day 3. We had planned to film Scene 2 but due to location unavailability we were unable to do so. Instead, we decided to film the pick ups for the Conscience cutaways we didn't get yesterday. We still had the time scheduled that was planned for scene 2 so we had plenty of time to film. We finished ahead of schedule but this left us with time to make sure we had anything and try lines multiple times.
There were a few issues with the sound due to the air con in the room being very loud and the lights buzzing at certain times. Luckily because of the extra time we had time to wait for the buzzing to stop of to turn the lights off and let them cool down.
We got the rest of the conscience cutaways we didn't get yesterday so the conscience cutaways are now finished.
25/05/17
Today we filmed scene 6. This scene takes place in the toilets so we used the college toilets. I had used the toilets to film in for last years short films so I knew how to go about closing off the room to film in. However, while I did mention it to maintenance a week before, I struggled to speak to them again to confirm until today. While last minute, I was filming late and had done so before so maintenance were happy to help and allow us to close of the toilets.
We had to break a mirror as Dylann's character is supposed to punch and crack a mirror in the scene. The idea was that we would prop up the cracked mirror against the actual mirror for Dylann to look into. Unfortunately, despite planning out how we would break it before hand, the cracking was unsuccessful as the mirror broke and the glass didn't stay in place. This meant we had to work around this, having him look into the un cracked mirror and possibly cracking it in post. If this does not work, we may have to reshoot for the single shot of the cracked mirror.
Once again, everyone worked very professionally and we got the scene finished well before schedule.
09/06/17
After back and forth discussion between myself and Tim, we were unable to reach a date and time the office was available at the same time we were able to film. I had to inform him we would be unable to use the location but I thanked him for his help. Instead I will have to come up with another option for location. I spoke to the LRC staff about using one of the Learning Pods and I have managed, through Kelly, to get a the location from 2pm to 4pm on 16/06/17. Hopefully through the use of specific angles and set dressing I will be able to make the Pod look more like an office.
Evaluation
There many ups and downs to the PMP process for me but in the end I feel like it's often been a enjoyable, creative unit where we've been able to put out film making skills to the test. While not every aspect has been a total success, I've tried to make the best of every situation and do the best job of managing the project as I can.
When we first started the unit, I had multiple ideas and had to decide on one. I went through short phases of being set on each different idea however each idea I realised, logistically, wouldn't work for the PMP unit. I struggled with decided on a final idea and it wasn't until a couple of days before my pitch session that I finally decided on a completely new idea based on the idea that I wanted to experiment with lighting and use more experimental cinematography in my project. I decided on my idea, 'Conscience', a short film about a man who's good and bad conscience tries to dictate his life back and forth.
Organising the film shoots was problematic for me. By the time I could schedule my film after auditions and casting, most of the slots were filled. As I was also working on multiple other projects managed by other people, it became difficult to find spots when myself and everyone else in my crew was free. I did eventually find dates to film but they were a late start for the project. Due to actors availability and location availability there were a few shoots that had to be changed multiple times and shoots I didn't get scheduled until the very last minute. While the organisation of my shoots were not as smooth as I'd hoped it to be, I have eventually ended up with a fully organised schedule and I will get all the footage planned for my film.
The filming process was a great experience, which is the usual case on any unit. Being able to work collaboratively and experiment with new filming styles is always great and it's an enjoyable experience to create something like a professional film crew. There were only a couple of issues when filming and they were nothing that we could have helped. These problems have led to the project needed pickups for single shots which we will try to get but the film can manage without. Other than small issues, the filming process has been the best part of the PMP unit for me. Being able to work as DoP on all kinds of different projects with different people really tested me as a film maker and also allowed me to have a variation in filming styles.
The post production process started as soon as I got my first shoot finished. I realised the best way to go about editing my film was to edit as I finished each shoot and piece it together at the end. This was due to my shoots being spread out and scheduled all the way to the final filming week. Editing after the filming weeks were finished would not have been a good idea as there may not have been enough time. However I have had scenes fully edited while I have waited to film another, which is handy as I don't need to worry about getting the film completed in a rush.
Overall, the process has been a real learning experience where I've worked strongly in the practical work and pushed myself when working on the management of the project, something I've never thought was a strong point for me. This unit has proved management isn't my best skill but I am still very happy with the way the project is turning out and how I have acted in the management/producer role. I have been able to work as camera on many other projects this unit and this has been a comfortable place for me to be but I am glad that I have been put in a spot I don't work so comfortably as I've learnt that there is always space to learn more in different aspects of film making.
My original plan for my Personal Management Project wasn't going to work out so, last minute, I had to come up with another idea. I went through other small ideas I'd had in the past, picked one and began to build a story around it.
The idea I picked was the idea of a character's conscience acting in a angel & devil on their shoulder kind of scenario.
I've attached a screenshot of my notes page of my brainstorming for my PMP.
21/03/17
Today I made my pitch for my new short film idea, 'Conscience'. I struggled to get the idea down in words which also made it more difficult for me to explain while pitching, but I think I managed to explain it as well as I could, maybe just maybe not as clearly as I have it in my mind.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1s9cWI92tL-IkoQNlh5BGruulnjdWMPW9tucRB0rmOpc/edit?usp=sharing
07/04/17
Today I came across a music video that might be the best thing my eyes have ever seen. The video was for 'HUMBLE.' by Kendrick Lamar. There are some very interesting visuals in the video that I would love to use as inspiration or even replicate in my short film.
The specific shots I really enjoyed in this video are shown below:
The camera/editing technique I'm hoping to replicate in my short film is the one on the right. The rapid cuts between slightly different positioned shots creates a very unique look and could definitely represent a characters mental struggle in the right context.
03/05/17
I am currently scouting location for my film. I need an office building to film in which is proving to be a difficult location to get permission to. When mentioning the location I needed to my mam she explained that she knows someone who owns offices and may be able to ask for a favour from them. She messaged the person, Joe, and he responded very positively and was happy to help however he could. I got his contact details to get in touch with him and discuss further.
12/05/17
Today I spoke to Joe for the second time about location. While he didn't have any of his own offices that I would be able to use for filming, he was happy to ask around his contacts whether anybody would be able to help. He got me in touch with Tim who said he had an office that we could film in during working hours. I just needed to ring Tim and discuss dates and times with him.
21/05/17
Today was the first shoot for my short film. I started my filming later than others due to my film not fitting any earlier on the shoot schedule. Two scenes were being filmed today and they were Scene 1 and Scene 5. These are both short scenes without dialogue so they were fairly quick to film, making the shoot a short one.
Scene 5 follows the protagonist, Chris (Dylann), at a bus stop concealing a gun while he waits to go to his ex-place of work. Chris is watched suspiciously by a man at the bus stop (Josh) who notices he is acting shady. Scene 1 is just the opening shot of the film which is Chris walking toward the camera.
Both Dylann & Josh were very easy to work with, both taking direction well and adapting their performances whenever they were asked to do something differently. They were both very professional for the full shoot and made the shoot very smooth.
Although I wrote and am producing the project, I decided to take on the role of Director of Photography instead of the more obvious role of Director. I believe I am much stronger in the camera role and I had a lot of visual ideas. Taylor took on the role of Director for my film, this was interesting to work with as I had very clear ideas for my film but had to let Taylor direct the actors and myself. However, as was the case with Taylor and I working together last year, it is a very collaborative working relationship where we bounce ideas off each other to create the best product we can. Jess was my Assistant Director, a role she is always great in. She made sure she took note of everything she needed to and kept everyone on track if anything began to slow down (which wasn't really the case anyway). Ben informed me the day before that he was too ill to attend the shoot but luckily there was no dialogue in the scene, so a boom mic was not necessary. If we had been filming a dialogue heavy scene, either Jess or Taylor would have had to double up on their role and boom operator.
22/05/17
Today was the second day of shooting. We planned to film Scene 3 and the Conscience cutaways. We successfully filmed all of Scene 3 that was planned however we did not film all of the Conscience cutaways which means we will have to do pick ups.
Other than not completing everything we had planned, the shoot went very well. Once again everyone worked professionally and we got things done at a good pace. Todays only actor was Dylann and despite having no other actors to work with he got on with his job and delivered good performances. We filmed at Danniella's flat for scene 3. As she was not on set we had to make sure we took care of the location and put everything we moved back where it came from. There were children's clothes and toys in the flat and some of it made it in shot so we had to move them before filming. There were also photos up on the wall which we had permission to move and did so.
Everyone was great in their role again. Jess was unable to attend the shoot due to prior commitments to another film. Instead, Chloe took on the role of 2nd AD and filled in for her job. Chloe was great and kept up with all the paperwork. We did not hear from Ben today and he did not arrive on time for filming, we were close to finish when he did. He said he did not see the call sheets but did arrive on time for Danniella's shoot.
24/05/17
There were a few issues with the sound due to the air con in the room being very loud and the lights buzzing at certain times. Luckily because of the extra time we had time to wait for the buzzing to stop of to turn the lights off and let them cool down.
We got the rest of the conscience cutaways we didn't get yesterday so the conscience cutaways are now finished.
25/05/17
Today we filmed scene 6. This scene takes place in the toilets so we used the college toilets. I had used the toilets to film in for last years short films so I knew how to go about closing off the room to film in. However, while I did mention it to maintenance a week before, I struggled to speak to them again to confirm until today. While last minute, I was filming late and had done so before so maintenance were happy to help and allow us to close of the toilets.
We had to break a mirror as Dylann's character is supposed to punch and crack a mirror in the scene. The idea was that we would prop up the cracked mirror against the actual mirror for Dylann to look into. Unfortunately, despite planning out how we would break it before hand, the cracking was unsuccessful as the mirror broke and the glass didn't stay in place. This meant we had to work around this, having him look into the un cracked mirror and possibly cracking it in post. If this does not work, we may have to reshoot for the single shot of the cracked mirror.
Once again, everyone worked very professionally and we got the scene finished well before schedule.
09/06/17
After back and forth discussion between myself and Tim, we were unable to reach a date and time the office was available at the same time we were able to film. I had to inform him we would be unable to use the location but I thanked him for his help. Instead I will have to come up with another option for location. I spoke to the LRC staff about using one of the Learning Pods and I have managed, through Kelly, to get a the location from 2pm to 4pm on 16/06/17. Hopefully through the use of specific angles and set dressing I will be able to make the Pod look more like an office.
Evaluation
There many ups and downs to the PMP process for me but in the end I feel like it's often been a enjoyable, creative unit where we've been able to put out film making skills to the test. While not every aspect has been a total success, I've tried to make the best of every situation and do the best job of managing the project as I can.
When we first started the unit, I had multiple ideas and had to decide on one. I went through short phases of being set on each different idea however each idea I realised, logistically, wouldn't work for the PMP unit. I struggled with decided on a final idea and it wasn't until a couple of days before my pitch session that I finally decided on a completely new idea based on the idea that I wanted to experiment with lighting and use more experimental cinematography in my project. I decided on my idea, 'Conscience', a short film about a man who's good and bad conscience tries to dictate his life back and forth.
Organising the film shoots was problematic for me. By the time I could schedule my film after auditions and casting, most of the slots were filled. As I was also working on multiple other projects managed by other people, it became difficult to find spots when myself and everyone else in my crew was free. I did eventually find dates to film but they were a late start for the project. Due to actors availability and location availability there were a few shoots that had to be changed multiple times and shoots I didn't get scheduled until the very last minute. While the organisation of my shoots were not as smooth as I'd hoped it to be, I have eventually ended up with a fully organised schedule and I will get all the footage planned for my film.
The filming process was a great experience, which is the usual case on any unit. Being able to work collaboratively and experiment with new filming styles is always great and it's an enjoyable experience to create something like a professional film crew. There were only a couple of issues when filming and they were nothing that we could have helped. These problems have led to the project needed pickups for single shots which we will try to get but the film can manage without. Other than small issues, the filming process has been the best part of the PMP unit for me. Being able to work as DoP on all kinds of different projects with different people really tested me as a film maker and also allowed me to have a variation in filming styles.
The post production process started as soon as I got my first shoot finished. I realised the best way to go about editing my film was to edit as I finished each shoot and piece it together at the end. This was due to my shoots being spread out and scheduled all the way to the final filming week. Editing after the filming weeks were finished would not have been a good idea as there may not have been enough time. However I have had scenes fully edited while I have waited to film another, which is handy as I don't need to worry about getting the film completed in a rush.
Overall, the process has been a real learning experience where I've worked strongly in the practical work and pushed myself when working on the management of the project, something I've never thought was a strong point for me. This unit has proved management isn't my best skill but I am still very happy with the way the project is turning out and how I have acted in the management/producer role. I have been able to work as camera on many other projects this unit and this has been a comfortable place for me to be but I am glad that I have been put in a spot I don't work so comfortably as I've learnt that there is always space to learn more in different aspects of film making.
29 March 2017
Unit 13: Multi Camera Techniques - Task 1 - Multi Camera Scenarios
The following is a link to my presentation on different multi camera scenarios and the uses of multi camera for different coverage.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1QL_j40BWQGkYLz-cfvBqJ0-sHzlPv3Ht0YPFqL7wehE/edit?usp=sharing
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1QL_j40BWQGkYLz-cfvBqJ0-sHzlPv3Ht0YPFqL7wehE/edit?usp=sharing
Unit 13: Multi Camera Techniques - Task 2 - Production Diary
17/02/17
We began the filming of the Ufilms Oscars Rundown with a group intro. We filmed this on the Thursday before our first official shooting week (beginning on the 20th). This shoot consisted of the entire group being on camera to welcome the audience and prepare them for the episodes in the coming weeks.
Danniella, Kane and I were the main presenters for this piece. Our presentation was to speak about the upcoming Academy Awards and inform the audience that would be uploading videos. We had little preparation for this and had to quickly plan our script beforehand. While we spoke, the rest of the group gathered behind us and once everyone was in the shot, we all looked at a separate, higher camera and announced "The Ufilms Oscars Rundown".
The camera set up was one camera on a track in the centre which pulled back as we walked towards it and then we had a stationary camera held up high on the crane to get a wide shot of everyone on the set. This was used for our big final shot. The lighting we used was natural room lighting with a simple 2 light set up either side of the set to create a more professional look.
20/02/17
Today the first episode of The Ufilms Oscars Rundown was filmed. Rhys & Adam began the week with their old fashioned style episode about the history of the Academy Awards. For this shoot I was a camera operator for one of the cutaway shots/close ups. I also was in charge of the teleprompter which we put on the big screen prompt Adam & Rhys. While I wasn't Director of Photography therefore not in charge of all the cameras I still made an effort to check my shots white balance, gain etc. looked the same as the others and made suggestions on how things could be shot every now and then. However I made sure I wasn't trying to take charge of the shoot and left that to the actual DoP. Rhys and Adam did a great job in the presentation and they were very comedic which was their aim from the beginning. The shoot was fairly quick and easy.
The next shoot we did on this day was for Matthew & Danniella's Fashion episode. For this shoot I was mostly in charge of camera. I made sure each shot was framed correctly and all the settings were the same for each camera. I kept an eye on things such as making sure the boom mic didn't fall into shot. This was another successful shoot with very few issues. Danniella & Matthew worked incredibly well together and even entertained me when talking about fashion, which is difficult to do.
Finally, we shot Chloe's 'Iconic Oscar Moments' which was another straight forward shoot. This was the first solo presentation and Chloe did a great job of it. I was camera operator once again and was continuing the same responsibilities form previous shoots. There were a lot of takes filmed on this shoot due to getting lines wrong however this was just a case of remembering the lines and not a problem with Chloe presentation. Chloe's 'moments' were cut up into different scenes and were to be filmed separately. This meant there was a lot of stopping and starting which each camera operator needed to make sure they were filming at the right times. Once again, very few issues and another easy shoot to be done.
21/02/17
My first involvement in a shoot on this day was for Taylor & Ben's Music episode. The pair presented well together but this episode relied heavily on using the script which took a lot of getting used to before they got it right. I was, once again, camera operator, this time on the master shot. I followed the same responsibilities as usual, making sure the shot was perfect and keeping my eye out for anything being in shot which shouldn't be i.e. the boom mic. There were very few technical issues on this shoot and it was very easily completed.
Next I was involved in filming Matthew & Danniella's 2nd Fashion episode. This time the pair were presenting which Jess got her Make-Up done by a Make-Up student from the college, Callum. This shoot required an extra camera added to the usual 3 camera set up we'd been using and created a 4 camera set up. I was made camera operator on the newly added camera which covered Callum's close up. The reason for the extra camera is due to Callum's height, he is very tall and one camera wouldn't cover both him and Jess in the same way one camera was covered both Matthew & Danniella. Instead two separate close ups of Jess and Callum were used.
This was the first shoot we used 3 point lighting. Before this we had though we only had 2 working but we were able to get another. Before filming we had to find out a good placement as we had no obvious place to put it. I suggested having it point down from above the black backdrop we were using. I extended to light as far as it would go and had it lean over the backdrop and it worked as perfect back lighting for everyone in the shot while also being completely off camera. I also made sure the light did not actually touch the backdrop and left a large gap as lights heat up quickly and that would have been dangerous.
23/02/17
This was my first day of presenting my own episode of The Ufilms Oscars Rundown alongside my co-host Kane. This was the last episode of the week and the last instalment before the Oscars on the Sunday. Since we had a little extra time compared to a lot of people, I decided to make graphics which we could display on the TV and refer to when speaking on certain subjects. These graphics were to visualise the Award Category we were speaking about had the the Award title and the poster for each film nominated. This definitely added to the episode as it added something more interesting to look at for the audience, especially since the full episode was Kane & I sat across from each other simply talking.
The camera set-up for this shoot was different to other episodes which had been filmed so far. In this shoot Kane & I mostly spoke to each other rather than speak to camera so we had to set up the cameras to film a conversation. This meant we had a camera in the centre which filmed a wide shot (which was also our master shot) and then two cameras either side of the set which got mid shots of both me and Kane.
The lighting on this shoot was a 3 point lighting set up. Unfortunately, we had the three lights set up in the right positions but our back light broke just before our shoot. We had to improvise with the lighting and decided we would keep the fill & key light and instead use one of the rooms normal lights as a sort of back light substitute to help us stand out from the background. This wasn't ideal but it was all we had to work with.
The filming went on for a lot longer than we'd planned. Kane and I had decided to go unscripted to get a more natural presentation, simply using notes to prompt the conversation further. While we did achieve the presentation style we were aiming for, the shoot went on for over an hour with a huge amount of footage that, in the end, needed to be cut. Other than the lighting and timing issues, everything else on the shoot went great and we were able to present an episode we were happy with.
I did the floor/camera/lighting plan for this episode:
As we planned to use the TV in our episode, so we could have graphics to refer to and help our presentation, I had to design the graphics we would use. This took some time but we were able to do more with our presentation by including this. I gathered the posters for all the films in each category and made a slide show with a slide for each award.
24/02/17
On this day we continued to edit the predictions episode which we planned on uploading on Saturday 25th. Due to the large amount of footage we gathered, the edit took far longer than expected. We edited for 5 hours and were only able to achieve about 3/4 of the final product. We were unable to complete the edit in time and would need to continue the next day, having a last minute editing session before uploading it, hopefully, on the Saturday.
25/02/17
Today Kane & I managed to find a slot where we could complete the edit. Unfortunately we had many issues during this time with editing and were unable to complete the edit in time to upload it the same day. Instead we scheduled the upload for Sunday 26th which still worked as a pre-oscars episode.
WEEK 2:
27/02/17
This week, Kane & I started the week with out follow up video to our predictions, 'Our 2017 Oscars Reactions'. This filming was significantly different to our first shoot. While the camera and lighting situation stayed exactly the same, we were conscious that we needed to take less time filming due to issues with last weeks video. We also had almost no time to prepare and we were very on the spot in our presentation as we were reacting only 4 hours after the Oscars had ended. We had printed off the winners of each award and I had stayed up to watch the entire Academy Awards so I was able to offer a more in depth view on what had happened.
Thankfully, a lot had happened on the night of the Oscars, including a huge mix up on the announcement of the final award, which made a great talking point for Kane and I to have. We managed to cut filming down by a huge chunk of time compare to last weeks shoot, with this shoot taking only half an hour. We also got the entire thing in one take meaning we had a lot less work on the edit and we would be able to upload the video on the same day of filming.
We also came up with a last minute skit to open the episode based on the Best Picture mix up from the Oscars. For this we had Kane announce the wrong co-host and awkward ask me to come on instead afterwards. We thought this was a very funny and somewhat clever joke for anyone who had heard about the mix up.
We had a lot of sound issues on this shoot which was unfortunate as it went successfully in every other aspect. We used the tie mics to get a better, clearer sound quality for both of us however when editing we noticed that throughout the footage Kane's mic spikes and crackles making the sound almost impossible to listen to. Luckily we used a boom mic as back up which we ended up using for the majority of the episode. However, near the end to boom mic begins to make a scratch-like sound which we couldn't use. This meant out only choice was to use the tie mics and cut around the spiking/crackling. Other than the sound issues, the episode was a good quality instalment to the Ufilms Oscars Rundown series.
28/02/17
The first shoot of the second week was Adam & Rhys' episode. In this episode they parodied Wayne's World while talking about the details of the Oscars after parties. This was once again a very funny, comedic piece and they were much more natural than their first episode the week previous.
One huge change we made to our set up was the boom mics. After last weeks sound issues, I discussed possibilities about what could be changed and we had a few different ideas on what could be changed. One that we tried was to use 2 boom mics on either side of the set, both plugged in different channels on a single camera. These boom mics were also attached to mic stands which meant there was no need for a boom operator anymore. The sound was a huge improvement as you could hear both presenters clearly, something we'd struggled with achieving in previous shoots.
The camera set up was similar to their first episode, which was a basic 3 camera set up with a master shot and two close ups.
Next up was Taylor's Music episode, which he decided to follow up on presenting on his own. I was camera operator on the master shot of this. There was a slight issue in white balancing, which I hadn't checked properly, which I usually would have done but instead the shots colour changed slightly half way through which Taylor had to correct in post. Obviously this isn't ideal from a camera operator but this was really the only issue i'd had when operating camera since we began filming the Oscars Rundown.
I also partly directed the shoot as I had to carry in a prop for Taylor in the final scene. Because of this, Jess (the current Director) and I had to swap roles for the final piece of filming. This meant I had to call for cameras to record, call Action and bring the prop on at the right cue. This took only a few takes and the shoot was finished.
01/03/17
This was our last day of filming episodes for The Ufilms Oscars Rundown. We had 2 more episodes to shoot before we had all the episodes ready to upload each day.
We started by filming Chloe's 2nd episode, 'Facts of the 2017 Oscars Winners'. This was a similar set up and filming process as her first episode. Chloe presented on her own, switching between cameras for certain lines. The piece was completely scripted and presented well. Chloe had her script on the table in front of her so it was important to keep it out of shot and not make it obvious she was checking it every now and then. As Chloe was talking to different cameras, the camera operators had to make sure they knew when to record at the correct time and know when Chloe was going to change camera as it was sometimes a reference point for her to know when to cut.
Next up was Jess' episode. This shoot was the first time since beginning The Ufilms Oscars Rundown that I wasn't operating camera (other than when I was presenting). It only took me 8 entire shoots to try a different role, impressive. For this shoot I took on the role of Director as I'd been hoping to try it during filming at some point. I was in charge of making sure all the cameras were recording at the correct times, letting Jess know if she needed to change anything she was doing and calling Action and Cut. I think I did a good job in the role and took control of the shoot well.
02/03/17
Today we filmed out last piece, the outro the the Ufilms Oscars Rundown. This was a piece to let the audience know that we were finished but we would also be uploading in the future. This was not as complicated of a shoot as the intro was. This time we used a single camera and positioned everyone so they were all in frame (except for Adam & Rhys, who kindly offered to keep the backdrop extension held up behind us). We took turns delivering lines and, similarly to the intro, ended with us all speaking in sync. This time it was us saying "Stay tuned" as a group.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)