Final Cut Pro and editing

Ending this semester’s Film-TV 1 with editing in FCP or Final Cut Pro is fun, and it is great to see how the footages really went. This advanced software program is giving me new editing skills and having logging the shots today some things came up. Instead of learning to use this software the wrong way I took all sorts of questions while playing around with it that needs to be cleared then the final editing can start.

Shooting ‘Sneaker Spastic’ Part 2 – w10

Shooting main scenes 1,2 and 3 and managing a group project as this one, was easier in the appartment than in the dead end lane. Lighting the actors was fun and trying to get the same light as outside improved the quality of the movie. Production design here was sun and transforming Goi’s apartment into a lane worked and we were ready to let camera roll. The main scenes were shot here and we had full control over the equipment without any interruptions. Crew development here got stronger as all of us committed to the pre-production fully and we’ve shared ideas and suggestions all the way. Therefore, during the shooting no discussion was allowed until after the last shoot as it could breach our timeframe. Neither did we face any issues with crew temperament and this might be because if something is wrong, meaning we’re just human beings and we all do have issues at some point in life, we’ve talked about this and consulted each other. Not because the feeling of that we had too, but because of professionalism and respecting each other beyond technical and film production skills. And having said that, after doing so, the division of responsibility was easier as well. I think in terms of collaboration, this one of the strongest key points we have within the group’s communication.


The actors were easy going in the main shooting, however the antagonist did have opinions that was dealt with but I think this made the shooting even more challenging and interesting as one imaginary expression of body language was replaced with another and more natural one. When doing so, the awareness of focus, focal length and lightning was in mind. Daylight interior and daylight exterior differed from the lane and into Goi’s apartment, and we experimented with the key light, red lights, main light and small lights to figure out which one was the best to use. We wanted the street light effect but without shadows on the actors faces. Luckily we had two extras on set to help us, and fitting the lighting gear into the apartment reminded us on how to use a certain amount of space into the film production.

‘Cake’ – Week 10

Super crewing is super fun. Helping out Ryan’s group of ‘Cake’ was learning full and fun. This crew, consisting of 5-7 members operated more laidback and relaxed which sometimes gave me tasks they had not thought about. For TV 2, this is how I would like to work, with a bigger crew and in a closed private location, with an actor I know. The freedom of shooting inside a house, opened up the possibilities to play around with equipments and camera angles to the fully, and compared with my own group were we take care of each other (sometimes too much), this one all the members focused on their own roles and barely intervened into each others tasks. That worked as well.

Shooting ‘Sneaker Spastic’ Part 1 – w10

Friday the 14th May was the first day of shooting and we decided after changing the location was that the first part of scene 1 and last part of scene 3 would be in the 112 Collaboration lane. After receiving film permission from the Melbourne City Council, stakeholders were notified and I got Friday’s details of delivery times and we were ready to shoot. Things that went wrong during the shoot was timing, stakeholder interruptions and actors communication. The loss of time happened early Friday morning when I thought we wouldn’t spend much time picking up the camera kit. About 45 minutes got lost and the monitor wasn’t working. However, when doing the shooting list for the weekend, we thought about things that could go wrong and the scenes we were doing this day were not big scenes but more action scenes with running and walking which wouldn’t take too much time. At 12.15 the filming hit the deadline and that was part 1 on filming. A group meeting was held directly after to find out how to handle issues that arose and solutions made. I as a director was challenged to the ultimate by the actor and communicating was hard but I decided to continue and get the production done instead of continuing discussing. It worked.

No matter how much time and neatly paper work was done to get film permission, some of the stakeholders came and interrupted. The bosses knew what was going on and I realized at a point that the film permit was given for the entire lane, not just the dead end. Strangely, even though this was not I applied for and no witch hat and pedestrian management officer was made, the film permit was still given. Phone calls and emails clearly shows which part I applied for and I got more film permit than expected, including one of the stakeholder’s private property. The confusion of why the interruptions occurred and I felt we had control and non-control over the location got answered, and I realized we had not done anything wrong here. The ‘Ahaaa’ moment came when I realized we had been given the permission to film on one of the owner’s property and he was surprised the council had allowed us to. In the end of the first shooting, we also improved our communication with each other and could not wait to film on the Sunday.

What went good in the rehearsal and what we should continue doing – Week 9/10

By getting more into to our roles and following the system of hierarchy, this improved as we talked about this in detail in the group meetings after the rehearsal. Collaborating in an honest way, opened up for creating solutions. Rabiger’s article on developing a crew, shows how important it is to continue developing standards and communication all the way through the production. We’ve learned how important it is that the crew together and the actors understand each other, the development of a terse and unambiguous language of communication and the confirmation that equipment is functioning, are crucial aspects of crew development. One example is when our camera woman wanted to try a different camera angle (handheld instead of on the tripod) and the groups response to this. The angle she wanted to use can be seen in this clip at part 2.04 – 2.08; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ESdn0MuJWQ&a=JJ2XmQZqgbA&playnext_from=ML

The shaking camera angle might interfere with the rules of having the camera constantly on the tripod, but at the same time this is the cameraperson’s field and for the project the decision is left to her. Not all of us liked the idea, but for respect for the cameraperson we decided to give it a go both ways. And it worked!

Other rooms for improvement during the rehearsal were working with the actors. If a suggestion of change on lines came up, letting them do it their way was more natural and worked better for both the crew and the actors. Communication development within the crew so far has also shown another field of production; project management. In terms of the learning progress of Film-Tv 1, this skill is learning ful and challenging but teaches me a lot of time priority, paper work decision and communicating to crew and actors in different ways.

What went wrong in the rehearsal and needs improvement – w9/10

Facing technical issues as lighting and sound, we learned here that little things can happen without any prediction and back up plans are crucial. Even small details as reserve batteries and the use of light fill or not makes a large difference both in production and learning Film-TV 1. Lighting the actors faces were so important to get the master shot and have continuation of light, and keeping the shot’s color balance to warm. However, the most interesting and challenging aspect of teamwork that we have had to face in the pre-production is the human nature of helping each other. Since week 2 this has been in focus from the tutes about NOT entering each other’s project tasks as this can lead to accidents with equipment and also ruin the build up of crew hierarchy. Keeping on to roles and not intervening into each others tasks as a skill is fun but also means a lot for project management seen in a whole. The problems rose when we wanted to help Vanessa with the camera, help Goi with sound and help me with directing. When we did this altogether some tasks got left out and we also lost a bit of time even though we went trough it all. Also, for collaboration a rule was set ‘Never say no’. When saying just ‘no’, this leaves group members out and limits the right to speak up. After putting this rule into practice, the collaboration has grown and the group operates more organized and professional than ever before. Discussion on technical issues, framing and acting were from then on also put to the side and more silence and order got created giving us more time and space to shoot.

Serendipity, serendipity, serendipity and serendipity. The right spot for location has been a challenging task, and having no experience for this kind of film making, the thought was to have it in a dead end of a lane. While doing the paper work in the pre-production for this, the more Film-TV 1 introduced about the camera kit the more suspicious we got about the lane. Not knowing that many Australians that owns a home, we decided to split the shooting into two sections; the action and outdoor scenes in the Collaboration Lane 112 of Lt La Trobe Street and the main stages of scene 1,2 and 3 in Goi’s apartment. Everything happens for a reason, and so does the change of location.

Directing the actor - w9

Running through the rehearsal of ‘Sneaker Spastic’, things as what went wrong, well and what needed improvement got clear. However, as a director I could not work well with one of the actors and I could not figure out why. I left it there and stepped out of the director-actor relationship until after the shooting so I could flick through Mackendrick’s article and find out what was not going so well. The thoughts on the working relationship between the director and his most important collaborator: the actor, together with Paul’s statement on how to work with the actors, taught me that I as a director sometimes have to put actors in place. For me, this required an awful amount of thinking of how to communicate ‘ that performance just sucked, you seriously have to do this or that’. I gave it a shot where I took the script away from the actors and told them ‘do this while saying that to me’ and it went from acting to doing, as if the scene was happening in the reality. At one point a question which should not be asked from an actor came up and it really pissed me off but I decided to continue staying professional and cool, and I surprised myself by talking back to the actor in a persuasive way for the purpose of a) don’t ask questions just act, and b) gain respect when I say or want ‘do this’ and ‘give me that’.

“When I get my master shot via your best performance, that’s when we finish”. I don’t like to get angry and I don’t like fighting but this worked and lesser questions came up and I got more confident as a director. What we in the group have discussed upon how much work the actors needed, the outcome of the shoot prove the opposite and we could not believe how wrong we were in the casting compared to this point of the ‘Sneaker Spastic’ production. We had thought that the protagonist needed most work but in the end it turned out that the antagonist was the one that really needed specific guidelines. Lesson learned.

Lightning

Following up on Malkevick’s article on lightning, designing this for the location when shooting Sneaker Spastic raised questions as which lights to use, do we need a generator or can we do it just using Flexifill? When casting and rehearsing we could see how the light fell on the actors face, which light source to use and how to calculate the physics of volts.

While shooting outdoor, it is important to know which direction the sun goes and where we will have to place the actors in accord with this. Malkevick’s article here tells how to differentiate daylight scene and Nykvist’s explanation of the shadow that would be good to practice. As we’re shooting in partly in daylight and in the evening, we decided to not use lightning equipment but the flexifill instead. The light will fall on the actors faces here and where it doesn’t ‘fill up enough’ we will use the flexifill.

The exam providing questions upon crash zoom and how to adjust the focus from point A to point B showed the massive amount of choices we have when shooting outside for the depth of field. When shooting in a dead end, we will experiment this with objects, props and the actors.


Learning about the safety rules of lightning shows how aware we must be when putting the lightning equipment together and when turning it on.