Fiction Adaptation: Final Evaluation
This unit has been a very quick turn around and I have found it quite challenging to time manage myself to get everything done. I have really enjoyed being creative with this poem to convey meanings in an interesting and creative way.
I wanted to try something I hadn't done before in filmmaking and to give myself time to understand the kit and feel more confident using it. I decided that stop motion would be a good way to do this as it takes a lot of patience to do this and it also needs to be very methodically planned out. By doing stop motion, it has really helped me pay attention to detail as the continuity is incredibly important as every movement is recorded frame by frame. This is something I found particularly tricky because the dolls that I was using were unable to move their heads and bodies. Only their arms and legs could move, even they weren't very sturdy as they were made of string. It was very difficult to get the dolls to stay standing up, in particular getting them up and down the cardboard staircase and it didn't have any strength to it. The way that I got around this problem was to use my knowledge of depth of field in cinematography to position the dolls so that they were leaning against another object but shoot it in a way that doesn't show this. The Grandmother is a perfect example of how I did this. She spends a lot of time out in the kitchen as she is supposed to be making the tea. In the kitchen, there is a counter which I leaned her against for the majority of the film. This was because she had one leg shorter than the other making it nearly impossible to get her to stand up unsupported.
There is a dance sequence between the Grandmother and Grandfather and the challenge there was to get them to both stand up straight and then be moved minimal amounts so that it looked as though they were dancing. I had to lean them against each other in order for this to work and they counter balanced each other quite well. On many occasions the dolls fell over, making it difficult to maintain the continuity at times. I tackled this by reviewing the footage regularly to ensure that the continuity errors were not obvious before I continued to the next sequence.
Making the dollhouse took an entire day's work and I really had to put lots of thought into how to make a cardboard dollhouse look right for the poem. I decided that I would leave the outside as cardboard to show that people don't necessarily look past the initial exterior of a person. On occasion they open windows that allow you an insight into who this person is. Theoretically speaking, I have used the dollhouse as a metaphor for Deanna Rodgers. I chose to make the inside very colourful and mis-matched to show how the poem reflects this uncertainty of who they are, however the bright colours imply that this character is acceptive and happy of their culture and their history. The cardboard exterior show how other people are not which is why it is plain on the outside.
I really wanted to have my live action sequence end with the actress (Jo) leaving the dollhouse but unfortunately it wasn't possible to achieve. If there was more time leading up to the deadline I would have attempted to do another shoot day with Jo and bring her to the studios to green screen her walking past. After speaking to Ferg he said this would be quite a complicated shoot as I would need to add markers to the green screen in order to achieve what I wanted. This is something I would like to explore further and try in the future as I think the end result will look amazing.
There were lots of issues with my sound recording which has let down my film's quality. After a one-to-one with Fergus on how to use the tascam with a clip mic, I had successfully set up the kit and ensured the sound equipment was at the correct levels. Sadly, there was a problem with the clip mic as it 'over modulated' whilst transmitting to the tascam recording kit. Feng said that this was just unfortunate and that next time I should double check that my actress/actor is doing their sound check at performance level as this could be a possibility as to why it went wrong.
On the shoot to create the war programme, there were many things that needed to change. Due to the shape of the beach, the shipwreck was positioned on a bend that meant the tide came in faster to that point than to the main beach. When I checked the tide times, I had left plenty of time to get on location, set up and shoot what I needed, however I hadn't realised that the positioning of the location would mean the tide times were different. It was a very windy day which made it difficult to stand the plastic toy soldiers up on the shipwreck as they kept being blown off. The shipwreck was also covered in moss which is not something I had originally considered to be a problem, however this was soon realised as a problem when it was incredibly difficult to stick the soldiers to the shipwreck. I overcome this problem by finding grooves within the shipwreck to place the soldiers and still get some creative shots. I was pleased with the end result for this shoot.
My risk assessment had to be very detailed as I was shooting on the beach where there were an awful lot of hazards. I had made sure to cover everything that could potentially be dangerous and made a note of them whilst doing my recce. I also ensured to ask the Kent Film Office for permission to shoot there in plenty of time and notified them of any risks that I thought needed mentioning to them. They were pleased with the detail in my application and granted me permission.
I have enjoyed editing this piece because it is very different to the normal style of film making. I was unable to change the television screen to one consistent screen all the way through because of the angle in which some of the shots are. I think this is only a minor issue and doesn't distract from the piece itself. Having a poem as your entire script was challenging to create a realistic representation of a serious subject as I feel a poem is more suited to theatre as it reminds me of a monologue. It was challenging to think of ideas that were not literal to the poem and I have achieved a narrative piece that is not literal through my stop motion and live action sequence. I'm very pleased with the overall piece however with more time, I would have liked to improve it even further by adding more effects and improving the sound further if possible.
I wanted to try something I hadn't done before in filmmaking and to give myself time to understand the kit and feel more confident using it. I decided that stop motion would be a good way to do this as it takes a lot of patience to do this and it also needs to be very methodically planned out. By doing stop motion, it has really helped me pay attention to detail as the continuity is incredibly important as every movement is recorded frame by frame. This is something I found particularly tricky because the dolls that I was using were unable to move their heads and bodies. Only their arms and legs could move, even they weren't very sturdy as they were made of string. It was very difficult to get the dolls to stay standing up, in particular getting them up and down the cardboard staircase and it didn't have any strength to it. The way that I got around this problem was to use my knowledge of depth of field in cinematography to position the dolls so that they were leaning against another object but shoot it in a way that doesn't show this. The Grandmother is a perfect example of how I did this. She spends a lot of time out in the kitchen as she is supposed to be making the tea. In the kitchen, there is a counter which I leaned her against for the majority of the film. This was because she had one leg shorter than the other making it nearly impossible to get her to stand up unsupported.
There is a dance sequence between the Grandmother and Grandfather and the challenge there was to get them to both stand up straight and then be moved minimal amounts so that it looked as though they were dancing. I had to lean them against each other in order for this to work and they counter balanced each other quite well. On many occasions the dolls fell over, making it difficult to maintain the continuity at times. I tackled this by reviewing the footage regularly to ensure that the continuity errors were not obvious before I continued to the next sequence.
Making the dollhouse took an entire day's work and I really had to put lots of thought into how to make a cardboard dollhouse look right for the poem. I decided that I would leave the outside as cardboard to show that people don't necessarily look past the initial exterior of a person. On occasion they open windows that allow you an insight into who this person is. Theoretically speaking, I have used the dollhouse as a metaphor for Deanna Rodgers. I chose to make the inside very colourful and mis-matched to show how the poem reflects this uncertainty of who they are, however the bright colours imply that this character is acceptive and happy of their culture and their history. The cardboard exterior show how other people are not which is why it is plain on the outside.
I really wanted to have my live action sequence end with the actress (Jo) leaving the dollhouse but unfortunately it wasn't possible to achieve. If there was more time leading up to the deadline I would have attempted to do another shoot day with Jo and bring her to the studios to green screen her walking past. After speaking to Ferg he said this would be quite a complicated shoot as I would need to add markers to the green screen in order to achieve what I wanted. This is something I would like to explore further and try in the future as I think the end result will look amazing.
There were lots of issues with my sound recording which has let down my film's quality. After a one-to-one with Fergus on how to use the tascam with a clip mic, I had successfully set up the kit and ensured the sound equipment was at the correct levels. Sadly, there was a problem with the clip mic as it 'over modulated' whilst transmitting to the tascam recording kit. Feng said that this was just unfortunate and that next time I should double check that my actress/actor is doing their sound check at performance level as this could be a possibility as to why it went wrong.
On the shoot to create the war programme, there were many things that needed to change. Due to the shape of the beach, the shipwreck was positioned on a bend that meant the tide came in faster to that point than to the main beach. When I checked the tide times, I had left plenty of time to get on location, set up and shoot what I needed, however I hadn't realised that the positioning of the location would mean the tide times were different. It was a very windy day which made it difficult to stand the plastic toy soldiers up on the shipwreck as they kept being blown off. The shipwreck was also covered in moss which is not something I had originally considered to be a problem, however this was soon realised as a problem when it was incredibly difficult to stick the soldiers to the shipwreck. I overcome this problem by finding grooves within the shipwreck to place the soldiers and still get some creative shots. I was pleased with the end result for this shoot.
My risk assessment had to be very detailed as I was shooting on the beach where there were an awful lot of hazards. I had made sure to cover everything that could potentially be dangerous and made a note of them whilst doing my recce. I also ensured to ask the Kent Film Office for permission to shoot there in plenty of time and notified them of any risks that I thought needed mentioning to them. They were pleased with the detail in my application and granted me permission.
I have enjoyed editing this piece because it is very different to the normal style of film making. I was unable to change the television screen to one consistent screen all the way through because of the angle in which some of the shots are. I think this is only a minor issue and doesn't distract from the piece itself. Having a poem as your entire script was challenging to create a realistic representation of a serious subject as I feel a poem is more suited to theatre as it reminds me of a monologue. It was challenging to think of ideas that were not literal to the poem and I have achieved a narrative piece that is not literal through my stop motion and live action sequence. I'm very pleased with the overall piece however with more time, I would have liked to improve it even further by adding more effects and improving the sound further if possible.
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