Here is the link to my evaluation on the prezi site:
https://prezi.com/secure/7f838169d1b8dc9667cfd321ed39522dd4a1644e/
Wednesday, 27 April 2011
Friday, 8 April 2011
Using Garageband
We decided that it would be easier if one of us did the editing, and the other would do the music production of the piece. This way, we thought we would be getting the two tasks that would take the longest, done at the same time. Although we were both working separately on our different aspects of working on the film, we still managed to work together – conferring with what we liked and what we needed to change. For example, before Holly cut something out she would ask me my opinion and what I thought looked best and equally I would ask her what she preferred when making the music.
I was doing the music for the opening scene of our film and had to learn how to use Garageband. Once I was used to how it worked, it was easy enough to use, however I still struggled to get a piece of music I was happy with.
First of all, I looked through the different instruments and the sounds they created, but decided that piano should be the most dominant because I wanted a spooky/eerie feel to the music. I also knew that I wanted to create layers being added to the piano, to keep the audience interested, and the scene itself captivating.
I started off with the one piano layer and then with two. I ended up with three piano tracks, strings, string ensemble, orchestral strings, electric tremolo and two layers of beats.
I had the tracks layering up at the points in the scene where there was more tension. For example, where the girl walks out of the alleyway, when she is going through the door and when she goes into the kitchen.
I thought the piece needed something extra added to it, to give it more emphasis, so I added a drum beat and this worked really well. I still kept some of the piano parts over the top of the beats so the music didn’t sound completely different.
A lot of creating the music was trial and error – putting things in and trying them before deciding whether they worked or not. Also, if I couldn’t find something that fitted with what I wanted, I got the piano (by pressing certain keys on the computer keyboard) and created something myself.
I also did this for the drone sounds on the strings – went to ‘musical typing’ and put in the notes that I wanted rather than the default ones.
I really enjoyed using Garageband, I loved getting used to all the settings and sounds as I love creating music. I am happy with the final product and think it works well over the top of the film.
I was doing the music for the opening scene of our film and had to learn how to use Garageband. Once I was used to how it worked, it was easy enough to use, however I still struggled to get a piece of music I was happy with.
First of all, I looked through the different instruments and the sounds they created, but decided that piano should be the most dominant because I wanted a spooky/eerie feel to the music. I also knew that I wanted to create layers being added to the piano, to keep the audience interested, and the scene itself captivating.
I started off with the one piano layer and then with two. I ended up with three piano tracks, strings, string ensemble, orchestral strings, electric tremolo and two layers of beats.
I had the tracks layering up at the points in the scene where there was more tension. For example, where the girl walks out of the alleyway, when she is going through the door and when she goes into the kitchen.
I thought the piece needed something extra added to it, to give it more emphasis, so I added a drum beat and this worked really well. I still kept some of the piano parts over the top of the beats so the music didn’t sound completely different.
A lot of creating the music was trial and error – putting things in and trying them before deciding whether they worked or not. Also, if I couldn’t find something that fitted with what I wanted, I got the piano (by pressing certain keys on the computer keyboard) and created something myself.
I also did this for the drone sounds on the strings – went to ‘musical typing’ and put in the notes that I wanted rather than the default ones.
I really enjoyed using Garageband, I loved getting used to all the settings and sounds as I love creating music. I am happy with the final product and think it works well over the top of the film.
Wednesday, 6 April 2011
Reshooting:
When we uploaded the footage onto the computers at college, and looked through it, we saw that there were a few shots we still needed to get. We borrowed the camera again, and got any more shots that we thought were necessary.
For example, the scene where the character is on the floor with her head in her hands; we noticed that we needed a close up of her face when she hears the loud bang coming from the kitchen. We didn’t have any shots that would work, even though we had a close up of her eyes, they were already being used and didn’t fit with the shots around them. We got a reshot of the cat, because she wasn’t co-operating when we first tried to film the scene with her in. We got the shots we needed and also the sound effects.
We used the microphone that we got from college and connected it to the camera.
We took sound effects of the door creaking (holding the mic to the hinges of the door), the door slamming upstairs and the loud bang coming from the kitchen.
Because we didn’t want to risk damaging Holly’s floor by dropping a saucepan on it from a height, we went into the garden, held up a metal tray and dropped it onto a pile of tiles.
It made exactly the noise we wanted.
We then realised after we had finished, that in fact the mic was switched off for the whole time we were filming. So we had to go back and do it again, it was a silly mistake, and one we did laugh about, because it was typical of us to overlook such a simple thing.
Problems:
When we had our footage done and edited it, we showed a couple of people to ask for their opinion. One thing that we struggled with is once we mentioned the car, the said they didn’t realise that it was actually a cat, maybe it was because the cat didn’t move too much on the side, and she is really fluffy.
On the Tuesday night that we did the reshoots, I couldn’t find my brown leather jacket that we had used to shoot all of the outside scenes and some of the inside. We did have the shots we needed with the jacket, but thought that some of them could be improved. Because I couldn’t find it, it meant we couldn’t get the shots and we would just have had to make do with the ones we had.
As it turned out, we had too many shots as it was (we had to cut our final scene down from over four minutes, to fit within the time limit, because we had a lot of footage to work with), so we wouldn’t have used the reshoots we would have done if I had my jacket anyway.
For example, the scene where the character is on the floor with her head in her hands; we noticed that we needed a close up of her face when she hears the loud bang coming from the kitchen. We didn’t have any shots that would work, even though we had a close up of her eyes, they were already being used and didn’t fit with the shots around them. We got a reshot of the cat, because she wasn’t co-operating when we first tried to film the scene with her in. We got the shots we needed and also the sound effects.
We used the microphone that we got from college and connected it to the camera.
We took sound effects of the door creaking (holding the mic to the hinges of the door), the door slamming upstairs and the loud bang coming from the kitchen.
Because we didn’t want to risk damaging Holly’s floor by dropping a saucepan on it from a height, we went into the garden, held up a metal tray and dropped it onto a pile of tiles.
It made exactly the noise we wanted.
We then realised after we had finished, that in fact the mic was switched off for the whole time we were filming. So we had to go back and do it again, it was a silly mistake, and one we did laugh about, because it was typical of us to overlook such a simple thing.
Problems:
When we had our footage done and edited it, we showed a couple of people to ask for their opinion. One thing that we struggled with is once we mentioned the car, the said they didn’t realise that it was actually a cat, maybe it was because the cat didn’t move too much on the side, and she is really fluffy.
On the Tuesday night that we did the reshoots, I couldn’t find my brown leather jacket that we had used to shoot all of the outside scenes and some of the inside. We did have the shots we needed with the jacket, but thought that some of them could be improved. Because I couldn’t find it, it meant we couldn’t get the shots and we would just have had to make do with the ones we had.
As it turned out, we had too many shots as it was (we had to cut our final scene down from over four minutes, to fit within the time limit, because we had a lot of footage to work with), so we wouldn’t have used the reshoots we would have done if I had my jacket anyway.
Preliminary Task...
We had to do a short video showing a shot-reverse-shot, and shot of walking through a door (on both sides of it) and an over the shoulder shot.
We had to have a short script, not too long because the video is only a few seconds lings - so I chose for mine to be based on a police interview. This meant the reason for leaving the room would be because of an important phone call, and I thought this was appropriate for the scene.
I think there are definitely things that could have been improved with this clip, but overall I think it went okay for a first attempt.
I also think, that if I were to film this exact scene again, the editing would be better, because this was done before I had much practise, and I feel I have improved since then.
SCRIPT:
This is the script for the preliminary task:
Courtney: Where were you on the night of February 1st, at 10pm?
Holly: Sleeping.
Courtney: Is there anyone who can confirm this?
Holly: No
Courtney: Well, do you see how this could be seen as suspicious?
Holly: No, I can't, sorry.
* phone rings *
Courtney: Interview postponed at 11:36. Do not move.
Courtney: *on mobile* Hello. Yep. Yeah I'll be there.
We had to have a short script, not too long because the video is only a few seconds lings - so I chose for mine to be based on a police interview. This meant the reason for leaving the room would be because of an important phone call, and I thought this was appropriate for the scene.
I think there are definitely things that could have been improved with this clip, but overall I think it went okay for a first attempt.
I also think, that if I were to film this exact scene again, the editing would be better, because this was done before I had much practise, and I feel I have improved since then.
SCRIPT:
This is the script for the preliminary task:
Courtney: Where were you on the night of February 1st, at 10pm?
Holly: Sleeping.
Courtney: Is there anyone who can confirm this?
Holly: No
Courtney: Well, do you see how this could be seen as suspicious?
Holly: No, I can't, sorry.
* phone rings *
Courtney: Interview postponed at 11:36. Do not move.
Courtney: *on mobile* Hello. Yep. Yeah I'll be there.
Wednesday, 16 March 2011
Filming Diaries...
Day 3:
This was the most productive day of filming, and hopefully we filmed everything we need. We planned for this to be our final night of filming, and we shot all of the inside scenes, and the outside scenes by the front door, with the character rushing to get her keys in and unlock the door.
We worked efficiently I feel, and got most of the filming done. We filmed the scenes in the doorway first, and then the living room and kitchen scenes.
Problems:
Our tripod was missing a piece that was needed to attach the camera to it, we didn’t realise until we actually came to film the scenes. As we were filming in the evening, there wasn’t anything to could do to solve the problem, so we just had to try and work around it. It was our final night of filming, so we just had to film the shots hand held, but tried to keep the camera as steady as possible, and I personally don’t think it’s that obvious that the tripod wasn’t used inside the house. We still got the shots we needed.
Something else that we struggled with, was getting the cat to co-operate (I now know why to never work with animals when filming).
Holly’s cat, Paris, was supposed to sit on the kitchen worktop, with the saucepan on the floor, to show that she had knocked if off and the character’s relief that it wasn’t as bad as she had thought. Although this was fine when we took the pictures for the storyboard, she decided that she wasn’t happy with the arrangement when it came to getting the shots of her we needed.
Even after milk and treats, she still kept moving before we had the shots. However, in the end we did get brief clips of what we needed, it just took a little longer than we anticipated.
We tried to get varied shots, such as high angle, over the shoulder, point of view, etc. and I feel it went well.
If we notice shots that are missing when editing the footage, we will have to borrow the camera again, to get anything that we missed, but hopefully this won’t be necessary.
This was the most productive day of filming, and hopefully we filmed everything we need. We planned for this to be our final night of filming, and we shot all of the inside scenes, and the outside scenes by the front door, with the character rushing to get her keys in and unlock the door.
We worked efficiently I feel, and got most of the filming done. We filmed the scenes in the doorway first, and then the living room and kitchen scenes.
Problems:
Our tripod was missing a piece that was needed to attach the camera to it, we didn’t realise until we actually came to film the scenes. As we were filming in the evening, there wasn’t anything to could do to solve the problem, so we just had to try and work around it. It was our final night of filming, so we just had to film the shots hand held, but tried to keep the camera as steady as possible, and I personally don’t think it’s that obvious that the tripod wasn’t used inside the house. We still got the shots we needed.
Something else that we struggled with, was getting the cat to co-operate (I now know why to never work with animals when filming).
Holly’s cat, Paris, was supposed to sit on the kitchen worktop, with the saucepan on the floor, to show that she had knocked if off and the character’s relief that it wasn’t as bad as she had thought. Although this was fine when we took the pictures for the storyboard, she decided that she wasn’t happy with the arrangement when it came to getting the shots of her we needed.
Even after milk and treats, she still kept moving before we had the shots. However, in the end we did get brief clips of what we needed, it just took a little longer than we anticipated.
We tried to get varied shots, such as high angle, over the shoulder, point of view, etc. and I feel it went well.
If we notice shots that are missing when editing the footage, we will have to borrow the camera again, to get anything that we missed, but hopefully this won’t be necessary.
Filming Diaries...
Day 2:
On the second night of filming, we did less than on the first night, because we just got any other shots that we felt we needed, this was still on the outside scenes.
Obviously, we had to use exactly the same costume and props that we had on the previous night of filming.
Something that we struggled with on this night, was waiting while people walked past the set (as it was outside), with their dogs in most cases. However we only had to wait for a few seconds so it was easily resolved.
We re-shot any shots that we weren’t happy with, and overall it went well.
On the second night of filming, we did less than on the first night, because we just got any other shots that we felt we needed, this was still on the outside scenes.
Obviously, we had to use exactly the same costume and props that we had on the previous night of filming.
Something that we struggled with on this night, was waiting while people walked past the set (as it was outside), with their dogs in most cases. However we only had to wait for a few seconds so it was easily resolved.
We re-shot any shots that we weren’t happy with, and overall it went well.
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