POST PRODUCTION: FINAL EVALUATION 10/04/15

Here is a Prezi Presentation of my evaluation. Please watch it in full screen mode to read it.

POST PRODUCTION: Editing problems and how we overcame them 10/04/15

• Credits and Titles:

Although titles at the beginning and credits at the end of our film would enable it to look more professional and authentic, after much research and self-tuition this proved to be too difficult for our team. Callum worked on this in particular to try and overcome this, as he was very talented at the titles in the program 'After Effects' but came to the conclusion that in order for us to include the credits they must have been imported before any editing took place. By lack of tuition on this, we were unaware that text must be imported and can not be created on Premier Pro itself, so this was not possible to do. If we had included credits, it would be a roll of our names on the left hand side of the wall on the final scene so as if the names are actually projected on the bricks in the scene.

• Wind noise:

During the Final scene, the wind was absolutely atrocious. We had no other clips to use, and no time to film any more. The film ending is obscured by the sound of the wind as it is difficult to hear what the actors are saying over the noise. The true ending was to have the girlfriend asking for forgiveness, and Jake saying yes and hugging her; but this is very unclear. If we had more time to film it again, we would choose a day to film with much less wind, use a clip-on microphone for the actors to wear on their chests, or film inside. There was no way to overcome this unfortunately, as all the sound is one track and over-dubbing would look amateur and would be unsuccessful, so we just increased the whole track volume in order to hear the dialogue- even thought this did increase the sound of the wind too.

• Interest

Our film became very 'slow' feeling towards the end. The movements appeared to be dragging and interest was being lost- therefore the audience were in danger of becoming bored. To overcome this, we cut out all of the slow transition scenes, the unnecessary establishing shots and the boring walking shots to keep the pace fast and sustain interest.

• Time Management

Naturally, as we came close to the deadline everything was rushed. Therefore the final (and sometimes most critical parts) were rushed in order to hand it in on time. A large part of the problem is that the technical support room where the equipment is kept is only open weekdays 9-5, so there was a lot of rushing of films to hand the camera back in time. On repetition of the project, we would manage our time much more efficiently and also we would be quicker to complete process due to experience from this project.

POST PRODUCTION: The editing process. 10/04/15

Colour Correcting 

I did most of the colour Correcting, and I thought it was absolutely paramount that all shots were the same colour. This proved difficult in the scenes that were shot at dark, such as when Jake is walking home. In the end, it was so nearly impossible to receive the correct colour, that we in fact ended up cutting the two most problematic shots within scene 2 under Helen's instructions. Furthermore, once rendering the colours often looked different than when they were edited in Premier, so that enhanced our decision to cut these two shots.



Duration:

As our film is only three minutes, this proved to be a LOT shorter than we first anticipated. Therefore, we scripted a lot more dialogue than we needed.
Therefore, this created a lot of problems because conversations had to be cut and still flow. When cutting the scenes, such as the 'Bromance' Scene (Scene 4), I had to mix up what we originally thought would be a continuous conversation, and sometimes even revert back to answers from previous questions that the actors asked each other. This was very challenging, especially in the scenes with a lot of dialogue so as a result of this the storyline changed a bit. The story changed from a Rugby player always becoming second best and working incredibly hard to achieve his goals, to a rugby player receiving a lot of unnecessary cruel pressure from his girlfriend- ending with forgiveness. I thought this slight alteration of the storyline to overcome the problem of struggling to stick to the film times boundaries was in fact very sensible and a mature decision by the team to make.

 Sound:

Editing the sound was important, as we needed to make a decision to include music or not. The first problem that came up was the issue of Copywrite, and receiving permission for music for our film. As this was not an option given the time scale, we searched on Youtube for Free music. This proved to be quite successful because there was a large variety of free music following all genres and moods- such as romantic music, calming music, tension building and exciting music. This large variety provided lots of possibilities for us. However, upon choosing our appropriate music, as the scenes were so short given time time restrictions, the music was eratic and confusing to listen to, and in fact having a negative result on our film rather than enhancing it. Notwithstanding this information, we decided against music and just using the dialogue as our soundtrack. 
Secondly, the wind in the last scene was an extremely big issue. The high noise caused by the wind in face completely drowns out the dialogue in scene 5- resulting in almost complete confusion about how the story ends. This was very disappointing and due to the dealing being so close, there was no time to re film it. This is very unfortunate as if we had managed our time better we could have re filmed this scene, but it is not possible so if we did the project again we would remember this problem and overcome it by not filming outside on the windy days. Or, this could be overcome with clip-on microphones which localises the sound from the actor's mouths, rather than using the microphone on the camera.

POST PRODUCTION: a short video of our editing processes 10/04/15

Here is a video of a collection of clips of our editing process. I have linked the mp4 files with an app called 'Video Editor- Wondershare.com' and unfortunately is expensive to buy, so therefore I used a trial version; hence the 'Video Editor' Watermark over the clip. However, it shows a small collaboration of clips of our editing, including themes of discussions and debates that we had when editing. The only problem was that I took all the videos and pictures so I am not in them which is a shame, but the gist is clear.

PRODUCTION: consent forms 02/04/15

Consent forms:

Here are scans of the consent forms that were compulsory to complete the filming process. Included in the form is the participant's address,  an email address and signature.

PRODUCTION: The Final scene- Setbacks and Overcoming then 28/03/15

Today, as a group we liaised with the rugby team to discuss when the next training session or match would be. Unfortunately, as we are coming to the end of the season now and Varsity is over, there are limited times to film the final scene of our film- the rugby match.

Therefore, as there was a rugby match this saturday (The Dutch team were on tour), we thought that this was the best time in case there was not another opportunity to film a match or training session.
When we got there, the match was extremely rowdy as both teams had been drinking. This became almost an impossible task to set up as players were demanding to be interviewed and generally causing unwanted chaos. 
Furthermore, once the tripod was set up we discovered that the release plate was the wrong size for the tripod. This was hugely frustrating because being a saturday the Jennisson building was not open. However, as a team we decided to make the best of a bad situation and continue to film regardless of the technical difficulties. We took a selection of hand-held shots- including panning, zooming and a selection of still shots to try and build up a large enough portfolio of footage that we could possibly use when editing. 
This was a huge setback, and will the best of luck we may possibly have some shots that we can use, so tomorrow we will film the dialogue and try to incorporate the rugby game footage with the dialogue that will be shot the next day.

When we filmed this scene again, we had learn from our mistakes and the adrenaline and focus in the team was high. We were motivated and quick, and ensured in advance that we had all the necessary equipment in place so we would not be held back. The filming went well, but unfortunately the wind was extremely powerful and fast. This often drowned out what the actors were saying, but hopefully we had enough shots to make the final cut acceptable. With the fast approaching deadline, there will be no more time to film it again, so we will have to make the best of what we have. 

PRODUCTION: Humorous moment 25/03/15

Here is a video of the comedy element of our film. As a team, we feel that within the dramatic genre, there must be at least one moment of humour for the audience- being teenagers and young adults. The most appropriate time for this section was during scene 4- the "Bromance" scene. The true friendship that these two young men must be portrayed within our film, so therefore we decided to do a "secret handshake". This is lighthearted and funny, which will lighten the mood from the previous scene- the "argument" scene. This is just one camera angle of the handshake, and to sustain interest it must be re-captured from more than one angle- cutting between them so that they are fluent and do not jump.