5 Minute Film – Evaluation
Type of
Production
The production is a five-minute short film single camera drama. It
was all shot at one location; this meant that the cost for location hire was
low. This film follows a healthy young man and his granddad. The Grandfather
surfers with dementia but he is unaware that he does. During film his condition
get worse and he mistakes his own grandson for a burglar and attacks him. After
this the grandson feels like he can no longer cope with granddad and talks to
his mum about putting him in a home. The Grandfather over hears and realizes
important parts of his life.
Finance
This short film has no budget, which means that we had to cover
any expenses ourselves, for example train tickets to get to the location,
catering and the slider. To safe money our production used Jack’s camera and
lenses, Robyn’s lenses and my backdrop legs. Our college provided other pieces
of film equipment.
Time
Our production had three deadlines, the pre-production, shooting
and editing deadline. The group met the pre-production deadline with the work
at a high standard. We also met the shooting deadline on time. Something we only
considered when shooting was that some of the time would be set-up, pack-up and
returning all of the equipment to the college.
Personnel
One of the first parts of pre-production is to find the right cast
for production and for the right cost. For this production Jack the scriptwriter
was assigned as director and Robyn who also pitched the idea was assigned as 1st
AD because of her skills in pre-production planning. Ashley wanted to be sound
designer because he had been a camera operator on his last project and I wanted
to Director of Photography as I was a camera operator before on a smaller
project and I wanted to do improve my grade. It is always import to consider
what skills our production groups has to assign them to the right job role. It
is also useful to help your co-workers so you understand other roles.
Facilities
There were facilities for the group to have breaks on set and to
the toilet. It is important to have a separate facility to have lunch breaks
because the cast and crew can relax and the set wont get dirty. We also have facilities at college to complete
pre-production work and to edit.
Materials
After finishing the pre-production we set up a test shot so we
could get an idea of set-up positions and framing certain shots. Test shots allow
the whole group to rehearse their job role.
Contributors
The production director and scriptwriter, Jack Roper was also one
of our actors. David Roper, Jack’s father was our over actor. This made it easy
to get both on set because they live together; also David is an actor and was a
perfect chose for the role of the old man. This kept our production cost lower
as both actors would work for free.
Locations
The whole film was shot at Jack’s house, which meant getting
permission to film was easy. It was also in the middle of the crew’s home
locations. It was also a safe location to film in.
Coded of
practice and regulation
Before filming we got our film’s actors to sign an actor agreement
form, this allows them to be featured in the production and also to understand
any terms and conditions according to this production. The location’s owner
also had to fill out a location release form. Our college covered us for public
liability.
Evaluation
Our film storyboard included both photos and hand drawn images,
depending on who had completed that storyboard sheet. These sheets included
information about the duration of the shot, so I know roughly how much time I
have for camera movements. The sheet also contained visual information like
what type of shot e.g. Close up. There was also information about what scene,
what will be heard, what the actors are doing and shot number. Most of the shots in the storyboard were
close ups and mid shots, this is because the film is based on the relationship
between the old man and the young man and these shot types show the detail of
their reactions towards each other. The storyboard could have been used as
a shooting script but we already had one, which we used instead.
A shooting script is a sheet, which contains a list of every shot
in every scene within the whole production. On set it was used as a checklist
for each shot, even the addition shot, which were added after the storyboard.
Our groups 1st AD was in control of the shooting script and before
“action” she would read out the scene and shot number. This would have been
very effective if we had stopped rolling after each take and then remarked it
when starting the next. This would have meant we could have logged the footage
and the audio easier after the end of filming. This would have also made
editing the footage easier as we could match the audio with the correct footage
by labeling them for example S1, S1, T1 (scene1, shot1, take1).
Our director, Jack Roper, wrote the script and a copy was given to
each member of the group, including actors. It is important that a copy is
given to the cast so they can prepare themselves for the shots. A couple of
drafts were made after the crew wanted to change sections of dialogue because
it sounded unnatural. Each member of the crew used the script to help them with
their job role, for example my copy had annotations about camera set ups, the
look of shot and equipment. The Sound Designer’s copy had information about
types like Foley, atmos and ADR. 1st AD’s had information about who
and what will be needed during each scene. Both of the actors after receiving their
scripts they would rehearse them and write notes and ideas about how things
could be preformed.
To help organize each day of shooting our 1st AD
created a call sheet. This informed everyone about who would be needed on each
day of filming and what they would be responsible for, for example piece of
equipment. It also featured where we were filming, what scenes we were shooting
and how much time to spend at each location.
This is all vital information to help each day of shooting run smoothly
and on time. The whole group did not have copies of all the call sheets but
everyone could access them on our Facebook group. After looking at the call sheets
online I knew which pieces of equipment I needed to book and for how long.
The schedule we created was three weeks long and each day was
broken down by Morning, Afternoon and Evening. Each section contained a brief
description of what we hope to achieve during the day. There was also a section
for any note for that day. Although the schedule was brief we did have detailed
call sheet and shooting script and will all of these sheets combined it gave
use a clear understanding of each day. On the other hand I still believe that
the schedule should have contained times for brakes and lunch. I think because
we did not include plan for lunch brakes or time to stop and check the footage
we would become quite slow and unfocused during the day.
As a team we worked well during pre production, as we would keep
each other motivated by working closely and checking on the work sheets we were
completing. This meant we had an effective pre-production quite quickly so we
could begin filming sooner. My job role
in this production was director of photography. This meant I was responsible
for booking out the camera and lighting equipment. I build a camera slider I
also worked closely with the director. We talked about the “look” of the film.
I would then research about cinematography and how to preform camera movements,
which would illustrate the emotion behind each scene. I would normally watch Indy mogul on YouTube
to increase my understanding.
After
reading the script I annotated it with ideas of shot types. Early in the
preproduction I know I wanted to build a camera slider. I wanted the intro to
move slower front left to right. The reason for this is because the film has a
slow pace and the slow slides established the pace of the film. The shots also
worked with the music chosen for the intro. These intro shots create a peaceful
start to the film for the audience.
In one scene
where the old man is asking about his wife I used a pull focus to show the
concern on the young man. By pulling focus or setting a focus point it allows
the audience to only be focused on what I want them to. The way I use it in
this scene it shows the progression on the old man’s illness and deep concern
and gilt the young man has about lying to his granddad.
In the next
scene we see the old man attack his grandson. I started the scene with a
handheld tracking shot. I chose to use a camera movement because I wanted to
follow the young man into going into the action. For the audience it is more
connecting because they are moving with the character, putting them in the
scene. The rest of the scene I used extreme close-ups. These shots show the
audience the change in the old man from polite and caring to dangerous. The use
of the extreme close ups show how dangerous the situation is for the young
man.
Having a great pre-production because of our teamwork we started
the filming on the allocated week, with a test shot complete as well. This test
shot was important because 1st could fill-in all location Reece and
release forms. Also me, Ashley (sound designer) and Jack (Director) could run
through some scenes and practice with the equipment. This made us quicker at
setting up on the day of shooting because we had knew how to deal with the
problems we faced on the test shot. As a group we all helped each other if
there was a problem or if we wanted feedback, for example I was unsure about
the placement of the camera in scene 5 so I recorded the scene and ask the
group for feedback. A problem that we face that we dealt with was in scene 5.
The scene starts with David roper (Old man) putting on his coat and leaving for
work. I was going to place the slider in front of David and follow him but once
we had done take one and I watched it back I realized that it did not have the
long tracking effect I wanted. Jack suggested using his tripod, which is also a
monopod; this gave me a much longer range of motion when tracking David. One issue
with this movement was that I what to walk backwards down Jack’s hallway but to
help me Jack guided through the corner. My group met our filming deadline with
all the shots completed.
Once the day of shooting was over Jack and Robyn would both get a
copy of the camera footage and the audio. When we had completed the final day
of shooting Jack started to log all of the files at home. When we started the
week of editing we were all giving a copy of all the shots we planned to film
and Premiere Pro Project file to start working on. Syncing the external sound
with the footage was very time consuming because the audio was not in the right
order, so because of my deadline I made my main focus editing the footage and
putting shots in the order I wanted. After that I improved any footage that was
unstable. Once I finished I had to export my project to reach my deadline, so
unfortunately I did not get to sync the footage with the externally recorded
sound. I feel that my deadline edit was more of a ruff/daft edit and because of
this I think the edit does not show the change of days clearly and the mental
effect of the Old Man’s illness in the last scene.
The most important improvement would to have stopped recording
after every take, like I spoke about at the start of evaluation. I we had done
this it would have been easier to log and match the footage and the audio after
each scene. Another problem that we faced was that the slider was not smooth
when it was above 3ft. As a group we realized that the backdrop legs holding
the slider up need support so I would slider the camera and Ashley would
support the legs. Having sandbags, which would weigh down the legs and improved
the performance of the slider, although after using warp stabilization in After
Effect it made the shots very smooth.
