Magazine article contents

One of my ancillary tasks is to make a magazine article which is talking about my short film. While I have my plans for the design of the article ready, (which can be seen here), I have only recently decided what the article itself will be saying. I found this difficult to do because I was writing a review type thing about my own film, so it just feels weird. However, I think the following paragraph will do just fine.


Dying Denial is an independent short film that looks of the process of dying. Now, while you would expect this short film to be quite depressing, it's surprisingly not. The film is about the Grim Reaper 'collecting' a young man who has recently died and guiding him to the afterlife. 

During their little walk, the two talk about the meaning of life, religion, and even about what happens to animals after they die. For such a depressing subject, the film takes quite a light-hearted and calm approach to it all. The Grim Reaper is a kind and funny character, not what you'd expect from the incarnation of Death himself.

Overall it's a nice little film. It just skims the surface on what could be discussed, leaving a lot to the imagination. The idea actually has quite a lot of potential. While the film as a whole is pretty clear cut, it is still open to interpretation.  The laid-back approach towards the subject matter is certainly a strong point of the film, with the two actors making it all feel very real. It's a reassuring look at death as a whole, almost to say, 'don't worry about it, it'll be fine.'

That's it for now. I'm still not quite sure how to finish it up, but I have time. Once back at sixth form I'm going to start creating the magazine article, because at this moment I actually have everything I need.

Reflective Comment:
The Magazine article is probably my least task from the brief, however it probably is the most simple. I'm almost finished with it now, I just need to actually assemble it. Like the poster, I'm setting myself the deadline of the end of January to finish. 

Poster Draft using Film Screenshot

So I have a very clear idea for what I want for my poster. I want it to be a scene from the film itself, which is useful because that means I can test it with the footage I already have. My plan is to take a portrait photo when I film the re-shoots, as the footage that I am going to test with is landscape, which is not what I want.

 So here we have my paint.net draft poster.



Here is a screenshot from my first draft.

Here is a rough edit.

Now I really want to make it clear, that this is a very rough draft. The only software I have at home is paint.net, which is not very good. However at sixth form we have Photoshop, so I can create a much better draft there. Once I have a good draft, I can experiment with a bit, get the portrait photo and create the final poster.

I know where the title and tagline are going to be placed, as seen in the draft. I'm not sure where the other information is going to go though. I have created another rough draft to show some potential ideas.

The main three other items I need on the poster are in red. I need my name, and my two actors name. I'm not sure what else to add, I quite like the simplicity of the poster like this. I was thinking that possibly the actors names could stretch across the bench diagonally.

Reflective Comment:
It's a very rough draft, but I'm getting closer to the final piece. One at school again, I'll have access to Photoshop and I'll be able to create a much better looking poster. I'm aiming to have the poster done by the end of January, which I think is a very sensible target.

Music creating software

I have little experience in creating music, so creating some pieces for my short film is a daunting experience. My two friends Greg and Wil are both experienced in music creating so I know that I can rely on them for help. However I have found a list of potential music creating software, that is available for free, that I'm considering to use. The list can be found here!

Reaper

Reaper is a music creation software that is free for sixty days. The free trial is fine, as I only really have about sixty days until the deadline, so that's fine. It looks good, and looking on Youtube, it seems pretty good. There are also a lot of tutorials and comparison videos, so I'll have plenty of resources to learn from. 

Here are some videos: 1, 2, 3. 

Tracktion 4/5

Tracktion 4 is supposedly similar to Reaper except for free and better looking. It's very similar to Reaper in what it offers and how many tutorials there are online. My one worry with Tracktion 4 is that it seems to be more revolved around electronic music, which is not what I am going for at all.

Here are some videos: 1, 2, 3.

GarageBand

I'm pretty sure I've used Garageband before in music or something along those lines. Reviews say that it is user friendly, which is my biggest concern at the moment. It works on Apple Macs which is helpful due to the fact that's what we have to use at school. However I am unsure of how good the music itself will actually sound.

Here are some videos: 1, 2, 3.

Reflective Comment:

The next step forward is to actually test these programmes. I'll probably do this after Christmas, as I am revising for my mocks which are in January. 

Testing filters

I want to see if I can edit the lighting levels in my scenes to give them a better look. With a simple adjustment to the contrast, lighting and exposure you can change the atmosphere of the scene greatly. Below I'm going to attach some screenshots of the different filters I can create, and I'll collect votes to what one looks best.

Default. 

Looks normal. I think at times it looks too bright. Still good.

Edit one.

Looks a bit more gloomy. I think this does suit the scene better, as it's quite a depressing subject that they're talking about.

Edit two.

Similar to edit one, but a bit more saturated. I'm not sure which I prefer more. I think if it looks too saturated it can look less professinal.

Edit three.

Edit three looks more dark and depressing. I think this may of suited a more darker script, however my script is still pretty light-hearted.

Edit four.

This edit is quite close to black and white, and therefore looks quite dull and empty. I do think it fits, however I think again it's a little too gloomy for the final cut.

Reflective Comment:

I think that edits one and two look the best.  I think they suit the film as a whole well, and add to the atmosphere. I'm going to collect votes for each of the edits and see what tests best with audiences. 

My first draft of Dying Denial

I've created the first draft of Dying Denial! Overall I'm very happy with the first draft. Of course it's not perfect but it's a work in progress. I've attached it below.


So now moving forward, here are my plans.

Edit the footage's lighting and contrast levels to achieve the correct balance.
I want to mess around with the settings to see if I can find a suitable effect for my short film. I want the film to look a bit greyer, possibly getting greyer closer to the end of the film.

Attempt to look at suitable music for the scenes so far.
Music is a big worry of mine, so the sooner I start looking at it the better. I need to look at software I am also going to use.

Try to fix the sound, as it sounds patchy at times.
Really this just means find out how to reduce the sound of the wind, because it is so loud! Hoping to fix this soon.

Create a version of the first draft pointing out errors and things that need to be fixed.
This will be great for reflection and really helpful for trying to decide what needs re-shooting and what doesn't.

Organise some re-shoots with my actors.
This shouldn't be too hard, as I've already confirmed with my actors with scenes need re-shooting. They have already said they should be available.

Reflective Comment:
I am happy with my first draft, but there are clearly some things that need to be worked out. Sound, music, and reshoots all need to be added and done to really refine my short film.

Length of short film

I've nearly finished editing the footage of my short film that I got on the 3rd of December. This footage should make up about 2/3 of the film, so should be about 3:30 minutes in length. The specification makes it clear that the short film is meant to be around five minutes.

However I have noticed that the edit I have already created, which is missing footage, is almost reaching the five minute mark. I fear that once I have everything filmed and I put it together, it will be over the five minutes we are allowed.

To counter this I am going to have to take some footage out, which actually works in my favor in a sense. Some scenes aren't as strong as others and some of the script actually repeats itself, something I had not noticed at the time. If I can reduce the time of the film and take out these repetitive scenes.

Reflective Comment:
I always sort of knew from early on that I was going to have a bit too much footage. I think it's better to have too much footage rather than too little. I should be able to work around this problem fine though! 

Footage of my filming

When I filmed my footage last saturday I had my friend and fellow student Fabian get some photos and footage of my filming. I've attached some of this below so that you can see it.

Reflective Comment:
Having footage of my filming is evidence that I was the one who filmed my short film. It's also helpful in analysing what I can do to make the next shoot work better.

Problems I faced while filming

While I did my filming I faced a few problems. It was a good, productive day. There were a few small problems that I had to deal with though, and some I didn't realise until we had stopped filming and I was editing. 

Sound

In the background of many of my shots you can hear a lot of interference. This I can deal with during editing, however there are some things that I can't work round so easy. In some shots there are motorbikes revving past and car horns being extremely loud. There isn't much I can do about this, except not using those scenes.

Weather and lighting

Something you have to fight when filming outside is the weather and the lighting. During one of my scenes it begins to rain, this itself wasn't a problem, however the problem was that some rain dropped on to the camera lenses. It was so faint, that I couldn't see it at the time. Now, on a big screen, you can faintly see it. I can't really do anything about this until I re-shoot it. 

Also, during two scenes the lighting is really strange. For some reason, the lighting goes an orange color. I haven't tried editing it yet, so we'll have to see if I can work around it.

Reflective Comment:

These are minor problems that I'm facing. I could have a lot worse problems, so I'm not to be bothered. I can work round these problems. 

Location Test Footage

On the 3rd of December I got some of my filming done. Before my actors arrived I decided to capture some test footage to get a look at the lighting, footage quality and sound. I have made a quick video in which I show the test footage and list what's good and bad about it. I have attached the video below.

I recommend enlarging the video. For some reason the upload to my blog has caused the quality to significantly drop. Hoping to fix that soon.


Reflective Comment:
The test footage I got was quite helpful, as it gave me a chance to prepare for the filming. I can see what needs to be improved and can start planning on what I'm going to do counter my problems.

First Day of Filming

I had my first day of filming on the 3rd of December and it went very well. I got over 2/3 of the film the filmed, and while the footage I got may not of been the final footage I use, it's still good to have gotten so much done.

My actors were helpful and cooperative, and to my surprise they actually already knew each other! This meant I didn't have to make introductions and there was already good chemistry between them both. We filmed for around three hours.

I was happy with the shots I got. While I think they may need to be edited in some ways, I'm really happy with how parts came out. I had a good variations of shots, and knowing that I have another scene to film I can fit more unique shots in there. 

The costumes looked a whole lot better than I thought they would. The Reaper costume was great and the costume for Nathan was near enough to what I had imagined. 

My one biggest worry is the audio. The cameras used weren't the best for audio, and there was a strong wind at certain points. I think I'll be edit the sound of the footage to make it sound better, but I will have to see.

Reflective Comment:

I'm really happy with how my filming went. I was really worried about the weather, the costumes and how the footage was going to come out. But I'm actually really happy with it. I'll have several posts coming soon on organising my footage, testing some editing, and putting some of it together.