Davies, R. (Writer), & Ahearne, J. (Director) (2005, June, 18) The Parting of the Ways (Season 1, Episode 13) [TV Series Episode] In P. Collinson (Executive Producer), Doctor Who. BBC. Retrieved from: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0074dv1#credits
When considering my Presentation task, YouTube comes to mind. YouTube is a very easy place to showcase films that will be easy to access to everyone, whilst also making a little bit of money whilst it’s up there thanks to AdSense.
I also looked into submitting Out of Time into a film festival. The one I came to the conclusion with submitting is the ‘Short Focus Film Festival’. The Short Focus Film Festival is an annual short film festival that takes place around the third weekend of September in selected cities. This year the event takes place online and in London from 17-26 September. Which has a timeline for what to do at what point. It currently is at the ‘Final Deadline’ for uploading your films which expires on June 30th.
Out of Time could do really well here due to the fact that it does not cost to submit a film to this festival and it has a very good track record with reviews and people getting their films out in the open.
Present:
I knew I would need to ‘Sell’ my video if I were to post to YouTube, by this I mean having a striking YouTube thumbnail and a description that people would click on and want to watch. I was a bit stuck with what to do for the thumbnail. I was inspired by old Doctor Who VHS artworks which later inspired the poster for series 5 of the spin off ‘The War Master’ I love this series so much and find the artwork very dynamic how the two main characters of the Doctor and Master are almost linked by the lightning bolt shooting through each character’s eye, I also love the swirly vortex’s invoking the time travel feel which also links to Out of Time so that was echoed in the poster too. The original artworks, (seen below) is what I ended up basing my Out of Time poster on.
The finished poster is seen below, this will also act as the thumbnail for the video at any festivals that need the poster to go with the video.
Speaking of YouTube, The specific specs for uploading YouTube videos are as follows…
Luckily with my copy of Out of time I have met this criteria and managed to upload my video without any issues.
In addition I added a description for the film into my YouTube video. The description reads as follows… ‘Out of Time follows Charlie, an 18 year old boy from 1985 who finds himself in 2021, where he meets a boy called Benji. The film follows the two of them as they must come together to try and return Charlie to 1985 whatever way possible. Whilst both coming to terms with the possibility of time travel. ‘
Lighting techniques – for example how light reflects off the person depending what visual effects could be seen on screen e.g a portal
Sound tests – find out the difference between and work out which sound recording equipment is best to use.
Visual effects tests – try out a different variety of visual effects that could be used in my production e.g portals, masking etc.
My chosen topic will be How a visual effect element would be made to look like it’s part of a scene by mimicking the light it would cast. Also how would light react to a subject’s face if there isn’t the effect already there According to behind the scenes documentary ‘Through the Anomaly’ the way the next three shots are achieved is by the use of a studio light to stand in for the actual portal effects. This will also be used as an eye line as well, so the actors know where the effects will be placed so they can see straight into it.
Dir: Ware, C. Executive Producer / Writer: Haines, T. Hodges, A. (2007) Primeval: Series 1 Episode 2 “Underground Infestation”. ITV / Watch
The point in using gels on the lights is to mimic a portal that would be added in post production that will give off lights and look more natural. So, not only is the lights an eye-line but it helps in post production when having a portal that will give off light.
I then went out and created the same effects with the portal based upon the one seen in Primeval for inspiration for this practical experiment. I achieved this by creating the anomaly effect in After Effects and blender 3d for the particle effects and rendered it so it could be compatible with my file in Sony Vegas to edit it all together. I started off by creating a lens flare in After Effects and adjusting the size and proper proportions of it as well as editing the colours to try and reflect ones that fit in the shots i had taken. This then had shard effects placed in and around the portal with motion set to be added to them in After Effects. I then took some creative liberties with it by adding some blur and playing around with the editing until I was happy with the final effect.
This was then put into After Effects to add some motion and rendered where i could edit the full shots in Sony Vegas to place it as i like as well as tinkered round a little bit more.
When talking about lighting and using someone to stand in so the editors will know how to create the effects depending on the person there and the light, Gary Jones had this to say “First, we used an actor to always play the part so we had good lighting reference. Then create the effects around that.” (Jones, G 2020)
I took some creative liberties whilst creating the anomaly, for example tinting it a more orange colour which also enabled me to use the gels on the lights to also try out some lighting experiments as well.
As you can tell from the below image Also practised masking where I masked Jayne so it looks like she is in front of the anomaly. I also lined up the anomaly with the lights to create the eyeline too which helped me to create the anomaly in After Effects and blender to be the right size and get the proportions accurate.
I used the lighting kits to help keep the eye-line with Jayne so I could make the anomaly center and fit in to make it look like the light is coming straight from the center as well.
I think this went quite well and I managed to achieve the effect quite well and replicate what is seen on screen. The only thing I wish went better was the render for the Anomaly. Unfortunately I didn’t save the file and the render went a little wonky meaning the quality isn’t up to the quality of the shots themselves, Another issue is how the track looks. There are still some corners of the light you can see behind the portal. When doing this properly I will make sure the light is hidden slightly better but I am happy overall with how the shots came out and I can’t wait to improve upon this. But for a first test I cannot fault the fact it shows off what I wanted to achieve quite well. I’ve learnt that it can be quite hard to create a portal and that there are a lot of features that need to be considered before creating it, including size and colour that will be in the shots as well as how it is going to look in the shots. Will it be the right quality or will it look tacky. https://youtu.be/-eqqCG9ZrgA
I also used some colour correction to colour grade the finished effect to make it match up more to how the colour in the shots were. This was achieved in Sony Vegas where I compared the two shots with the effects placed on it. I then added the colour to add some creative licence to it and make it more natural with the colours in the shots.
Overall I think this was very successful due to how natural it looks in the shots. The colour grading worked really well and I like to think this was a success. On the other hand though I thought the render could have gone slightly better so the anomaly wasn’t as pixelated as seen in the finished version, given more time, I’d liked to have been able to try another render, or play around with the settings to make the finished product that little bit better. So, when it comes to doing my FMP this is something I will bear in mind and work on to help create a better product for my finished production.
LIGHTING EXPERIMENT
There are also examples shown in Doctor Who (2005) These also show light reflecting off surfaces that was put in via VFX and according to Doctor Who Confidential (2005) This was achieved by having lights with gels shown at the subject and then VFX added on top in post production. The purpose of this effect is to show a ‘regeneration’ between two different actors. This is achieved by having the second actor stand in exactly the same position as the previous actor with the body in the exact same position to help ease the transformation better. It is quite common for this to be done with a bright orange light that lights up the entire room with effects being placed around that as seen below.
Dir: Ahearne, J. Executive Producer / Writer: Davies, R T. (2005) Doctor Who: Series 1 Episode 13 “Dr. Who and the Parting of the Ways”. BBC Wales.
My aim is to try and replicate the full room of light shown above for dramatic scenes and showing moods. I tried this out with some gels on some lighting kits in the TV studio to see what I could achieve and I am quite pleased with the results. I used 2 lights for my shoot. A fill light and a key light. Both positioned on either side of the camera to get the best amount of light reflecting off Jayne’s face without creating any shadows. Although it is quite common for there to be “Three Point Lights” there were only two available due to the availability of equipment. I ended up having to sacrifice the Backlight in favour of the Fill and Key lights. This benefited my shots though because I think with gels on all 3 cameras, there is a risk of the shots looking too harsh. So I am happy with how it turned out.
Given more time and the availability of the equipment I would have liked to have tried using a black light to see the differences, maybe it would have benefited the shots and made them look much better but sadly I was not able to find out. I am happy with the overall finished product though and can see this benefiting my film to help create dynamic shots and show off some mood lighting.
Lens experiments
This experiment will be to determine what lens is best for when I come to do my FMP. I want to determine which will not only be the best to use in the situation I am in and the shots I will be filming but the ones that will pick up the best background. My film is going to have a few shots featuring very confined spaces which means I need a lens that will work in any kind of environment depending on my shot at the time of shooting. This one below was shot with a 50mil lens with the result shown next to it.
The next test was done with a 18-55 mil lens. This one is great for establishing shots and features some great zooms which can work for a few of my shots as seen below.
These shots worked really well and are a good test as to what camera lens i should use. I think i will use both because they both give such fascinating results and are great for filming. The 50mil lens will be great for filming my average shots which range from medium – close ups and the 18-55 will be great for doing my establishing and long shots. Overall i am very happy with how these shots came out and i can confidently say this experiment was a success
Sony cameras
On Friday 23rd April 2021 Lee gave us some secondary research when he taught us how to use the new SONY HXR-NX200 cameras. This involved going through all the settings and then proceeding to test out our new findings on some shots outside. A link to watching the shots can be found here: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1W7Bg7NBfiOstQiiPYMAeOk2Yfz_lOJjY
I will be using these new cameras for my production and I will also be putting all the new skills I learnt to test to create stuffing and compelling shots and compositions with these new cameras. Onew of the positives of using this camera compared to the Canon DSLRs is how much better the shots come out. Although the DSLR’s gave some very high quality images, the image that comes off the Sony HXR-NX200 can go all the way up to 4K and be very good looking compared to the DSLR. There are also much smoother zooms, The camera is much more efficient when using it due to the fact you do not need to have an external microphone as an external one can be plugged straight into the camera itself. Which is handy in the current circumstances with Covid 19 which means you can have one less member on set controlling the audio.
When it comes to secondary research for these cameras themselves I made notes on what features the cameras do as well as how they function in comparison to the DSLR’s as well as how to set up for the perfect shot. I am hoping all the notes I made will come in handy for when I come to film and produce my final production. Meaning I will be able to faster my readiness for preparing the camera when producing my film and be able to assemble the shots much faster.
HOW TO USE:
The NX200 mounts the tripod in the same way the Canon cameras we have previously worked with do. This is by attaching the tripod plate to the camera, then placing this on the tripod, and locking it into place.
Battery:
To take out the battery, you need to:
Hold Down BATT RELEASE
Reach into the battery bit, and push the battery upwards, which should release it from the slot.
To put the battery back in, you need to:
Make sure grey arrow on battery is facing downwards
Reach into the battery bit, and press the battery down into the slot.
To turn on:
Push towards ‘I’ turns camera on.
Full Auto – turns camera on to fully automatic mode.
SHUTTER – changes shutter speed from auto to manual. The toggle at the side can be used to change the shutter speed on manual mode.
GAIN – (Also known as ISO) changes gain from auto to manual. Toggle changes this up and down – our tutor recommended not putting this above 12 otherwise the image will be too noisy.
WHIT BAL – White Balance. Pressing this button will change it from automatic to manual – When it says A or B – this means a custom white balance, and when there is a little sun, this is automatic White balance.
ND FILTER – This stops too much light coming in, and helps correctly expose the shot. This is more useful when filming out in bright sunlight, and the image is still over-exposed with the smallest aperture.
Rocker switches – these are used for zooms, the one on the top is a slower zoom, and the one on the side is faster. These help to achieve a smooth zoom easily.
Rings –
First ring – Focus – this is how to change the focus manually
Second Ring – Zoom – This is how to zoom manually
Third Ring – Changing Iris – This is how to change the aperture manually
FOCUS MAG – this magnifies the image on the display screen to be able to check for the right focus. This doesn’t zoom in the actual shot closer, it just magnifies the shot to be able to see clearer if focus needs changing.
MENU FEATURES:
Here are some useful menu features that were shown to us.
MENU > DISPLAY SET > ZEBRA
Puts zebra lines on display to show what is correctly exposed.
The number 70 is used to correctly expose white skin.
So, if zebra is set to 70, anything that is 70 IRE will have zebra stripes put on it
From there, you can change exposure so that the skin is correctly exposed
100+ zebra stripes are put on anything that is over exposed e.g. light fixtures.
MENU > DISPLAY SET > HISTOGRAM
Shows histogram on screen
This histogram is on the zebra stripes
MENU > DISPLAY SET > FPS
Changes the frames per second – for film, we shoot in 50FPS or 25FPS
MENU > DISPLAY SET > PEAKY
On – yellow/red/white
Outline what is in focus
3 different sensitivities – Low/mid/high
MENU > ‘DOUBLE ARROW THING THAT I NEED TO FIND THE NAME OF’ > REC SET
AVCHD – shoots in high definition – approx 6hrs
XAVC – approx 3hrs
XAVC X4K – This shoots in 4K, but for this, the files will be larger, they will take longer to transfer, and you most likely need a high powered computer to edit this footage.
MENU > (not quite sure which section this is in, will check when I have cam) > MARKER
CENTRE – puts marker on middle of screen
ASPECT – Shot in the correct framing – e.g. Cinematic is 1.85:1
SAFETY ZONE – Title safe area
MENU > OTHERS > MEDIA FORMAT
SD card – can decide which SD card to put footage on here
MENU > CAM SET > WB PRESET
Indoor / outdoor wb
MENU > CAM SET > PICTURE PROFILE
Different WB settings
Below I have made a mood board to help give me inspiration for the 80’s and mainly Joe’s character Charlie. I have included all things I love that have some sort of connection to the 1980’s. Specifically 80-85 (As Joe’s character is from 85) Below I have included things like
Costume – Joe’s screen used costume (seen top middle) is heavily based upon the one worn by Marty McFly in Back to the Future Part I (Seen left hand side middle). The Denim Jacket being the biggest inspiration from Michael J. Fox’s character and his shoes being an identical pair that Marty does wear in the film (Seen middle)
Television – Doctor Who, which is my favourite programme, was thriving in the 80’s. Having a successful run with Tom Baker coming to an end in 1981 which continued with Peter Davison portraying the character from 81-85 (Seen far left middle) Being a show about time travel, i felt Doctor Who should be a huge inspiration for my film as it has been my life and the reason i am taking this course today. I have also included images from my second favourite TV show, Ashes to Ashes (Bottom left and top center right.) Ashes to Ashes is the reason I fell in love with the 80’s due to it’s 80’s settings and music as well. I also have given Joe’s character a quattro (Seen bottom left) Which Gene Hunt, (the main character) drives in the show. Ashes to Ashes has introduced me to my all time favourite type of music, 80’s pop and rock! Which brings us onto…
Music – Like I said, I love 80’s music so much I had to include it. I have included images of the album covers of a random couple of my favourite songs from the 80’s for example… ‘Ashes To Ashes’ by David Bowie, ‘I’m in Love with a German Film Star’ by The Passions. Finally, ‘Rat Race’ by The Specials and finally ‘Fade to Grey’ by Visage. I aim to have a couple songs in my film, for example ‘Heroes’ by David Bowie. The songs I hope to choose should hopefully help get across certain messages in the film.
Film – The 80’s is packed full of some of my all time favourite films ever. ‘Ghostbusters’ ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ ‘Breakfast Bunch’ ‘Back to the Future’ there are far too many to mention, but certain character tropes and costume elements for example Marty McFly’s costume will help influence my film a great deal as they have done in my life.
Pop culture – The 80’s is wonderful when comparing it to today. I find little pop culture things like changes in BBC Idents and Coca-Cola fascinating which is why I have included them too in my film. I specifically wanted to harken back to the famous BBC Idents from the 80’s in my film which I successfully did at the start of my opening scene shot back in November. As a kid I was always fascinated with the BBC continuity’s on the classic Doctor Who DVDs bonus features’ so maybe it’s the nostalgia that makes it stand out so much in my mind but I just love them so much to hear about the programme before it aired and little trailers from after the episodes themselves. Here are a collection of ones from 1980-81 Doctor Who continuities 1980 & 81 – YouTube. And here’s one for the 1981 story Logopolis in HD as another example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLcLLXjip4c
And that sums up everything I have added into my mood board! Like I said, this is everything that inspires me for my film and some of what inspires me in day to day life as well as my life loves!
In the first week we considered the context for our films.
For the first two weeks we touched upon the contextual analysis which was all about demonstrating how we came up with the ideas for our films and exactly how we’re going to translate it from idea to production. We also made an action plan that detailed our week by week plan of what we want to do. I had to make sure I went into enough detail for each week to give the most accurate idea of what I was going to be doing. This detailed all the tasks I would need to complete and when they would be finished whilst also listing the hand in date and end dates for the unit. This action plan will be my guide week by week so I can keep on track with work and hopefully not fall behind. When filling this in I thought back to how I had done previous plans for my work and decided I should give myself more time to catch up with work as at times I can be a slow writer and sometimes get a little behind. With this in mind I continued my action plan and gave myself some time during the Easter holidays and some time after to catch up if I need to or touch up on any comments I may have gotten that needs improving upon. We also made a proposal, which listed my rationale, project concept, evaluation and proposed research, which will help me to detail the type of research I intend to do to help with my work. I talked about the intended primary research I intend to undertake the week after which was to do some lighting experiments to test how light would react against a subject with VFX then being placed in the shot. This will hopefully help with my final production as I will know what works and what doesn’t when it comes to lighting.
This contextual analysis really helped me to understand my idea much more and get to grips with how I am going to tackle the idea of my film. Making this and my proposal really helped me to get to grips with the ideas I had created and how I was going to translate them from idea to a full production.
Research – Reflective Journal Entry
When doing my research there was a lot that I had to look at. It started off with looking at 3 – 5 different topics to research that will help benefit my project. The first one I chose was a lighting topic which I wanted to specifically explore mood lighting in scenes and how lighting affects visual effects in post production, (but I will come back to that.) The mood lighting I wanted to do to show how the characters will be feeling especially in the last scene. I felt I wanted to try to practice what was harsh and not too harsh so that is one of the main reasons I chose to do this as a research topic. For this I took a look at the three point lighting techniques to get the right amount of lighting on my subjects face and the background without one drowning out the other. I also wanted to take a look at how lighting reacts to visual effects if I wanted to use any in my final production. Mainly for something like a portal which I was debating when doing my research. I achieved this effect by using a gel over a light then hiding it in post production by either masking it or hiding it with the portal on top. By doing this I could then in editing play around with the effect itself to get the right colour and blend it well into the shot to look more natural as seen below
Before: After:
In editing I spent a long time mixing colours and trying to get the right colour to match the gels. If I were to do this again, I would not spend as much time on the colour correcting and general colourising for the portal, instead I would spend more time on constructing the portal itself and making it look a lot better quality. Thankfully though this was only for the research and I am glad to say that I learnt a lot doing these and looking back they only benefited my final production. The last research task I did was a camera lens test to work out what camera lens I will use to film my final production. At this point I had no idea we would be getting new cameras to use (the SONY HXR-NX200 cameras to be precise) until the end of my research. These cameras don’t give you the option to change the lens unlike the DSLR’s we were used to at the time which we thought we would be filming with at that point. Unfortunately that means this section of the research was deemed useless by the end of it. Given the chance to do it again (and knowing that we would have the new cameras to use) I would have used my 3rd research topic based upon them to maybe learn about the new cameras and try out some test shots, which we did later on which I will come back to.
Overall my initial research went quite well and although having some ups and downs especially with the topics I chose, I am happy to say that the research will impact my film in a positive way.
We did some research on the new cameras when Lee taught us how to use them and go over all the settings which I have made in depth notes on in my Research Portfolio. I was astounded at how many different settings and modes there were on the cameras and how they worked. I enjoyed learning about how to change the shutter speed as well as being amazed to learn how fast and easy it is to white balance the camera compared to the DSLR’s which we had been used to doing manually via the settings. I was also very excited to shoot with the ability of using 4K, although we were advised against doing this by Lee due to the size of the files and how long it will take to render, the fact we had the option to was exciting enough! After spending about an hour going over all the settings and learning where basic functions like zoom, focus and shutter speed were, we were off to take some practice shots and learn how to frame them properly by doing practical experiments. I loved doing this as it gave us a good chance to make any mistakes before we took them out to film our final productions. We had some shots already composed and made by Lee to go out and try and replicate and I think we did this rather well and it gave us a good chance to get up and close with the cameras.
Throughout my production I continued my research, I made a moodboard before I was due to go into filming and continued it afterwards. The moodboard was everything that inspired my film, mainly the things that helped inspire my 80’s settings and designing stuff like costumes and props for Joe’s character Charlie. I took a lot of inspiration from Back to the Future. Especially Michael J. Fox’s character Marty McFly’s aesthetic and costume for the first film for Joe’s character. I think it is the most 80’s costume there could possibly be and I wanted to harken back to the film as much as possible and the storyboard shows that. It also shows some of my favourite 80’s films and TV shows as well as music that has inspired me and given me the ideas to make Out of Time. I think this has helped my research more, especially the fact I have been able to compact everything into one picture and I also listed descriptions for everything on the storyboard in my Research Portfolio to explain how the inspiration fits into my film and how much it means to me.
I think my research overall has gone really really well and it was fun to learn all that i had throughout this Unit, especially learning all about the new cameras and making thinks like my storyboard which has helped me to learn new things about the 80’s to help make my film more historically accurate and hopefully will help me to leave easter eggs that the audience can pick up on!
Planning and Production – Reflective Journal Entry
Part I: Scripting Out of Time
Out of Time went through many ideas in its original scripting process, from being set in the 80’s where Benji finds himself in the wrong decade, not Charlie, to being about cops who find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time. (A bit too Life on Mars which is why the idea was scrapped!) Many hurdles got in the way of some of the great ideas. Mainly the COVID-19 pandemic which would heavily restrict our time and resources. Out of Time was going to feature a couple scenes set in the 80’s but with the lack of resources and budget. This was not possible. The script still went through many drafts as I was learning who exactly mine and Joe’s characters were and the more I learnt about them as I was writing the more I wasn’t happy with the script I had done. This went on for a while until I had managed to write a good backstory for each character that I was more than happy with. I was always stuck for a compelling ending. When doing the research we watched a couple short films to get an idea of what we could achieve on our budget and amount of time. One thing I noticed with all of them was that each one of them had a shocking twist ending that no one saw coming. This stuck with me throughout the whole process of writing the script. But what was the twist ending going to be? I was completely stumped. I kept doing some research to work out what had been done before. I looked up the works of one of my favourite writers Russell T. Davies and read his book ‘The Writer’s Tale’ which Russell wrote during his time as Executive Producer and Head Writer for Doctor Who from 2005-10. Here he writes his thoughts of writing the episodes and any issues he had as well as where ideas had come from. At this point I was looking for a bit of inspiration and had hope that something would come to me from reading the book. A couple ideas had come to mind but nothing that was ‘good enough.’ It was at this point I decided to contact a good friend of mine Nicholas Briggs who is the co-executive producer for a company called Big Finish Productions. Big Finish have been producing audio dramas for Doctor Who, Blakes 7, Space 1999, The Avengers, Sherlock Holmes and many more since 1995. I had a good long chat with Nick, (who has written / executive produced a staggering 1785 audios for Big Finish) about writing in general and specifically script writing. Nick told me how if it’s hard to think of an ending that means there isn’t one and the script isn’t working. That opened my eyes. He also told me many tips like how he usually gets an ending before having a full script written. “Sometimes it starts with an idea for an ending and you work backwards from there. All I had for ‘Ravenous’ (A series of 16 full cast Doctor Who audio dramas starring Paul McGann as the Doctor) was that The Eleven would sacrifice all 11 of his incarnations for the Ravenous to overfeed them and that was in episode 16. So, I worked back from that to episode 1.” So, with Nick’s advice and input for Out of Time, I went away and came up with a great ending, one that really fitted in well with a slightly altered story, so I worked back from this ending to the start of the story to get my full idea and i had a path of where my idea was going to head to. This idea was that Charlie (Joe’s character from 1985) was a relative of Benji’s friend Liz, and you don’t find out until right at the very end where Benji discovered Charlie’s denim coat he wears throughout the film at Liz’s house. I presented the finished script to Nick who loved the idea. “I didn’t see that coming! Great way to show off the reveal and it’s nice how it ties the whole film into a little package having the main plot of Benji and Charlie’s issues be tied into the side plot of Benji having issues with his friend.” After getting this great response, I was more than happy to move forward with the script I had done. I made a few copies and handed them out to Joe and Liz as well as my friend Jayne who will be helping me film Out of Time.
Planning and Production – Reflective Journal Entry
Part II: Casting our Actors.
When it comes to finding our cast for Out of Time, I already had my two main actors cast from filming the opening scene back in November. Joe was set to return as Charlie and I was playing the role of Benji. Joe took a little persuading to come back but after showing him my script and then explaining the plot he liked the idea and wanted to return. I introduced a new character in Out of Time, Liz, who I had written especially for my best friend (Of the same name) Liz. I had promised Liz a role in a few of my college projects but due to scheduling conflicts this never ended up happening. I was sure I was going to make it happen for Out of Time though and although filming the final scene with her 2 weeks after production had wrapped with Joe, it was all worth it in the end to get someone who takes acting at University to be in my film really pays off. I think it will be easy to tell in the finished film which one of the three main cast members studies acting. Liz was really happy with the script and after explaining how the ending works she liked it and suggested some ideas about how it could be done. Which I loved and worked into the script and overall production. I love it when a fresh pair of eyes sees the idea I have because it means I can get some added parts I may not have been able to come up with. Which is why I was so happy to have Liz on board because with her acting experience she knows quite a few things about how a character would react in these situations. It felt very refreshing being able to share ideas from more of a director to actor viewpoint rather than a friend to friend viewpoint as she knows how an actor would react in given situations (but not a director) unlike me who knows how to play the role of director compared to an actor.
In conclusion, I was very happy to have Joe back in Out of Time and was more than happy to have finally managed to secure Liz in one of my productions. I know both of my actors will bring their all to the production and will help me in any way they can. Knowing that I have the opportunity to work with these two amazing people makes me ever so excited to begin shooting my film.
Planning and Production – Reflective Journal Entry
Part III: Completing the Rest of Pre-Production
After I had my cast ready to go I had but a few pieces of Pre-Production left to complete. After finishing my script I moved onto my shot list which I knew would be one of the longest/hardest pieces to complete (with my storyboard coming in a close second). But with the storyboard needing the shots listed on them it would make more sense to do my shot list first. This didn’t take me long as I had been making notes since doing my script of what would be best for what shot. I had a rough idea for most of them which gave me a great advantage to completing my shot list. Using my script I was able to work out exactly how long a shot would last as well which helped drastically. I knew I would need to keep my film short and not drag out too long, mainly because of the amount of time I had to complete production but I was still able to finish up with 60 shots. Once I had finished the shot list and had realised how many shots I had done I got worried. Would I be able to get them all shot in time? It felt like a lot of work I wasn’t entirely sure I could complete in the short amount of time I had, but it was definitely worth the challenge, and one I was excited to undertake. Looking back at my shot list I do feel I may have used a couple too many shots to get a few different angles but I will shoot all of them and see which ones work best in editing. That way I can determine whilst editing what fits best and what works best in comparison to other shots I want to use.
I then moved onto my Storyboard and although it took quite a while to do the drawings, I was happy with the finished product that finally gave me a clear visual of my film. I was excited to recreate the shots I had sketched out in real life due to how close we were getting to filming and the thought of finishing the big hurdles was quite exciting. I was quite surprised however to find how some shots looked when they were sketched out. I had originally imagined them looking different but once sketched out a few of them took a different turn, looks wise.
Next up was going out and filling in my Location Recce and my Risk Assessment. I knew that I would have to film at my original location from the opening scene of Out of Time which I shot back in November, so it was very helpful to be able to have a little head start with knowing one of my locations so I went down and took pictures of the woods and I was happy to find that the location was exactly the same as it originally was back in November. I knew this is where I wanted my story to finish off where it started so I was happy to see nothing major had changed (e.g trees being cut down etc…) Another location is my house which was easy to use because I knew I had some free house days during the film schedule so it will be easy and convenient for me to film without anyone getting in the way and we do not feel like we have to rush if my Mum or Dad are coming home from work or any issues happening. The last location is going to be Liz’s house to film the final scene. This scene is going to have to be shot at a different location to my house and I am thankful that Liz only lives a minute away from me making transport to all the filming locations very easy and convenient with the woods being a mere 10 minutes away in my car and only a 3 minute walk away from Joe who can get there ready to film. My Risk Assessment followed that which I found much easier to do once I had finished my Location Recce. This was because the locations I was at made it easy to work out what needed to be assessed. COVID-19 was a big factor in my risk assessment due to the fact that this would be the first outdoor project needing to be filmed and with the ever changing rules and regulations. I made sure that I was going to continue to maintain social distancing whilst filming and disinfect any equipment before and after filming. This wasn’t the only big risk though, there were others such as risk of falling / slipping (especially if filming outside is set to happen). There was even a big risk of cable wires which is always possible so I will make sure that I always have the cables tied up and out of the way when filming. The Risk Assessment can always change throughout filming so I will keep on top of it and make sure that it regularly gets updated if anything is set to change. For example the weather could drastically change and the risk of falling / slipping will be raised and then the equipment could break. Although there is a very low chance of this happening I will always make sure that the Risk Assessment is as up to date as possible.
Lastly there was my Call Sheet to fill in. This was the easiest part due to already having all the information needed, for example our actors phone numbers, relevant information and much more. The call sheet listed Me, Joe, Liz as our actors and also featured Jayne, Louis and Fraser as camera and sound operators. Due to Jayne not being available to help me film with my filming days clashing with hers so she cannot help me film. Due to this issue I have had to get help from my two friends Louis and Fraser who I will teach how to properly use the camera and the relevant equipment so they can film the production when filming begins. Thankfully they both were available for any days I needed and having the extra body will help drastically. After completing this it meant I was ready to film so I booked out the relevant equipment ready to begin filming shortly. I booked out the SONY HXR-NX200 camera along with a boom mic and boom pole. I was going to book out a marantz kit but remembered that one of the benefits of these new cameras is that the audio can be recorded directly into the cameras and not with separate equipment like the DSLR’s. That night I went home and prepared for filming. I went over all the notes I made in Lee’s lesson when he showed us an in depth demonstration of the SONY HXR-NX200 cameras. I took a few practice shots and got all my settings precise and ready to shoot. I practised over the weekend which developed my skills quite a bit and made me ready for our first filming day which was Monday and then Out of Time was all ready to begin it’s week of shooting and production.
Planning and Production – Reflective Journal Entry
Part IV: Lights, Camera, Action!
Moving onto filming I had my shot list ready and we began the first day of filming. I knew I unfortunately didn’t have my camera and sound operators any other day so my hope/aim was to complete all filming on the one day. The day started with picking Louis and Fraser up at 1. Looking back, if I was to do this again, I would’ve tried harder to get Fraser and Louis to start earlier but they were adamant at starting at 1 and not earlier. This gave me a bit of time to get all the equipment ready to unpack straight away with the camera set on the right settings and with the battery in and ready to go. I picked them up at 1:20 due to some heavy traffic with a closed lane in Crookes. It was absolutely vital that we began filming as soon as possible. We could not risk any more delays. Once I had picked up Fraser and Louis we set off to Stannington to pick up Joe and begin at our first location at Stannington Woods. We bagan shooting at 1:45 and worked all the way through scene 4 which is all set in the woods. Looking back I am very thankful I set all the equipment up before I set off because with our time delay it made it easier to start filming when we did as I only had to show Louis where the start/stop record button is and how to zoom and focus which he understood very easily. Nearing the end of shooting this scene we began to notice some rain was appearing but on the positive side we were nearing the end of the scene anyway. Unfortunately sound was very tricky to do with the impending rain and wind being picked up and Fraser’s lack of knowledge on how the sound equipment works taking its toll on the day. I was determined not to leave the woods until we had shot all the shots we needed to and they were adequate enough to use in my film. After about 2 hours we finished the shots in Stannington in and outside of the woods. Looking back at these shots I wish that I had made sure Louis had the shots in focus as when I went over the shots after filming I wasn’t entirely happy with the framing and focusing of a few of the shots. But on the other hand a lot of them looked really good and I was glad that Louis was filming as he definitely was a fast learner who picked up how to film fast. Although we would need a reshoot day to try and get a couple these shots filmed again, there were a couple I knew I could salvage in editing, ones that could be saved were ones where there were a boom mic seen in shot or the equipment bags are just creeping in the corner of the shots. After we filmed the shots inside Stannington Woods, we proceeded to film the couple shots set inside/outside my car parked outside the woods. Little did we realize that the local school had just kicked out and there were school children everywhere, this is where I came up with the idea to move locations to outside my cousins house on the other side of the village which means it was more quiet and we could easily get a few takes if needed due to the fact we had a space that was ‘ours’ Looking back I am glad that I chose to move this shot to my cousins house because of not being near the woods we had much better sunlight so we were adamant we would take as much advantage of this as possible. Thankfully this paid off in our favour. Whilst filming at my cousins house the shots I needed to get were all of scene 2 which takes place after the opening scene where Benji and Charlie get in Benji’s car and drive back to Benji’s house. There were also about 3 shots I needed to get for the start of Scene 4 to fully complete that one. I am really happy with how I planned to do all these shots because It means I took as much advantage of the time going from one location to the next and filming out of sync. The shots filmed outside my cousins house went really well, Although there was only a couple shots that needed to be reshot,due to positioning of the camera and other little snags like that, The shots did go really well, sadly though the rain did start to come down towards the end of this shoot, but thankfully we were just about done with all the outdoor shots. By this point just about half of Out of Time was shot. I only had scene 3 (set in my house) and scene 5 (which will be filmed at a later date at Liz’s house). I made sure that I had gotten a few takes of each shot to make sure that if any issues were to happen from filming-editing then I had a couple different takes to find the perfect one. I’m sure this will take me a long time to filter through all my shots when it comes to editing, but it will mean I have the perfect film with shots I can whole-heartedly say I like and are good. Once we got back to my house we set straight off filming scene 3. This one was, although not long, had quite a few shots to shoot in it so we cracked straight on. Due to the impending rain we shot the one scene set outside before the wind picked up. This one was the flashback sequence. It went quick and easy and only needed two takes which means we had much more time to film the shots inside. Looking back, I wish I had filmed these shots on a different day where the weather outside was a bit more in our favour. Looking back on these shots I am happy to see that they all turned out very good. I am pleased with all the framing and although one shot on the settee is slightly soft, It works very well. The quality of the sound had improved quite a lot by this point as well, due to Fraser getting used to how and where to hold the boom pole. This thankfully was the last scene to film in the day and we finished at roughly 6pm. We took a break around 3-4 So I am pleased with how fast we managed to get all the shots. The last things we recorded were voice overs for some shots / replacement audio where a shot is quite far away from the subjects which will be placed over in editing. I am happy to have done this because due to the wind in the woods it helps to have that boost with the audio. This wraps up the filming for Out of Time and although I still had scene 5 to do and a few reshoots still upcoming I was happy and pleased with the shots I got today. I am happy I got all the intended ones shot and think everyone did a great job. Joe was very patient with me whilst I tried to direct the camera and Louis and Fraser’s jobs. I am very pleased with his performance, to say we are both not actors and haven’t had any acting experience in our life. I was happy with our performances. I am also glad that Louis took such care with filming and took the time to listen to me as I explained how the camera works and overall, the day was a huge success.
When it came to filming the last scene with Liz at her house it was 6 days since we shot the rest of the shots. We filmed the final scene without much time after we both finished work and immediately went and shot the scene. Liz, due to her history with acting, was amazing in the scene. It took her a while to get into the right ‘groove’ for it but once we began shooting we were on a roll. I was very pleased with the shots I took. Liz even had to have a go at filming with it just being us two but looking back she did a really good job. She knew how to focus, zoom, and everything like that. She gave some great input on how to light the scene and suggested using the warm yellow settings on the lights due to the lighting being very bad in Liz’s house due to her energy saving light bulbs which take ages to power up and are very dull. The idea of using the warm yellow settings worked really well as it helped cement the warm / happy moods the shot is supposed to give off. We took many many takes for this one short scene, somehow something would go wrong with each one, mainly Liz would fluff her line but once we got the right take, it was perfect. I was very confident and happy with how it turned out and was pleased with the camera angles I decided to use, especially the P.O.V shots when Liz answers the door. I believe these actually turned out really well, given the small amount of space I had to record them and the size of the camera and the tripod. I loved how unique they are mixed in with the usual set of shots. Now I had finished this scene I only had a couple reshoots to do from the other day. Once I got home I uploaded all my shots to wordpress and began filtering through them one by one.
The reshoots were helped massively with the help of Jayne who knows how to use the equipment well and could get the perfect shots needed. The following day from filming scene 5 with Liz was spent with Jayne and Joe getting these reshoots. We were only out for a few hours because I thought it would help all of us if we knew what we were filming before we got there. Thankfully this did help and We did our first reshoot in Stannington outside my cousins house doing the shots inside the car which upon further investigation into the shots taken a few days prior I came to the conclusion that we need to reshoot a couple more than i originally intended. Most of these would have worked perfectly fine in my film, but I made a decision to reshoot them as I was going out anyway to do some reshoots and thought it would be best to help get my film looking as nice as possible. By the end this took about 1-2 hours in Stannington mainly reshooting all of scene 5 which was the first shot we filmed the previous shoot day which came out looking really nice after finishing. Every shot was in focus and it was positioned right and with the new sound we recorded at the end of the other day’s shoot giving that extra boost to the sound. Out of Time was all done shooting and was set to begin editing. I think the filming went really well and I was excited to get all the shots put into editing and take a proper look at what went right and what could’ve gone better. I hope my editing will be easy, but with a few issues I had with my original scene back in November, I fear there may be a few issues. But I am prepared to try and edit the best possible film.
Editing – Reflective Journal Entry
With all the shots ready on my harddrive I had already hit a snag. The shots would not copy over onto Sony Vegas Pro. From memory this had happened before but I could not remember how I fixed it. I Googled the issues I had and learnt that I needed to install a software called ‘Handbrake’ This enabled me to convert the clips I had into a different format. That format being an ‘.m4v’ file and not ‘.mp4’. I had no idea why this issue would occur but thankfully after converting each and every shot into a brand new folder for each shot it enabled me to upload my shots onto my workbench on Sony Vegas Pro 13. It took me a whale to do this as it took around 5-10 minutes for each and every take I had on my laptop. Once this was done I had over 100 shots to begin editing with. I didn’t want to overload the software so I decided a good tactic would be to edit the film scene by scene and then into one long video. This would backfire on me but I will come back to that. I started with the opening scene I edited in November which acted as scene 1 of 5. I then began with scene 2 shots right after. Although having the delay with the issue of the shots’ format, I Was glad to get started. I wanted my film to look as nice as possible so after getting all the shots I liked I made a rough cut of the scene and then began to tweek that. I worked quite hard to cut out little errors and mask out any boom poles seen in the shots. Thankfully the majority of this was using the reshoots I had filmed the previous day. Upon editing I noticed that a few shots were soft so I tried my best to make them look as nice as possible. I attempted to add in a ‘Sharp’ effect to get the production looking as nice as possible and to un-soft a few shots but to no success. If anything it made the shots worse, The reason they were a bit soft is because of us being too close to the camera. I had no choice but to continue with the shots that were taken. I then edited the shots down to a clearer cut and then rendered it.
I continued this same process with every scene. Rough cut, glamour up with effects, then a cleaner cut, then render. Once I had finished all of this I had the credits left to edit and that meant my film was done! In 6 parts which would then be placed together and was finally rendered. This at the time looked really nice but it was only when we then did the ‘Present’ task and I saw my film on the big screen that I realised there were issues with the cut. A lot of issues that needed to be fixed.
A huge issue was the quality. Due to the film having two render’s, (Each scene and then a final render altogether) The quality had been compressed drastically. I felt whilst watching the film that it needed to be rendered once to stop the film compressing and losing the 1080p quality that I had when recording.
Due to this I was back to square one. I decided to restart the editing process and do it all in one timeline. After doing this I hit another snag. The more shots I tried to add to the timeline the higher the chances were the timeline would just fail with the shots in. I still had my sound but the shots would turn black. I had no clue why this was happening and could not find a solution that ended with me rendering my film in 1 video. I decided that I would try to copy all the shots in the sony vegas file and paste them into a new timeline. After attempting this a few times, I would still have this issue. Luckily there was a 1 in 6 chance it wouldn’t be so, after trying a few times, I managed to get a timeline in Sony Vegas where everything was working perfectly. I could see every shot perfectly and then I proceeded to add colour correction. I did some research to find what the most common colour correction settings are used in films and I gave each of them a try. After playing around with my settings for quite a while, never truly happy with what I had done, I decided to take a break where I watched some of my favourite shows. I watched Doctor Who, specifically an episode from Series 12 where I noticed the series uses a distinct colour correction, one that makes the shots have a greener tone to them. I then had a google of other shows and films to find this is really common. Below are two examples of the colour correction used in Doctor Who series 12
Before: and After:
As you can see, there is an added ‘dishwasher water green’ colour added to the grading which, although quite strong in this shot, is used in all different strengths in many productions. I wanted to take advantage of this and really wanted to use it to make my film look as professional as possible. I didn’t want to use as strong a colour in my production to take away from the shots themselves to make them be almost unwatchable, but I was determined to echo this as much as possible. Below are a before and after when I use my colour correction. As you can see there is a distinct change in the grading, but nothing that would take away from the screen.
Before:
After:
As you can see, although not distinctively different, adding that little amount of colour correction can make a film not look as cheap and as ‘student-y’ This was a great decision I think, and one that pays off quite well in my favour. Below are the specific colour correction specifications I used.
Another thing I wanted to do with my film was to ‘Letterbox’ it. This means that the film’s aspect ratio will be cropped to look more cinematic and professional. Usually Letterboxing short/full length films are put into a 1.85:1 or 2.39:1 aspect ratio, this cuts off quite a lot of screen, but due to there being a couple shots where I didn’t want any headroom cut off I needed an aspect ratio that would keep more head room in. This is where I once again Turned to Doctor Who which since 2018’s Series 11, the show has adapted a new 2:1 aspect ratio instead of the traditional 16:9 aspect ratio seen in the majority of tv shows from the mid 1990’s- the present day. I feel this decision benefited me greatly as my film now looks like a professional film compared to what it looked like before. Comparison pictures below
Before:
After:
Overall, I am very happy with my edit and although having the most problems with my edit compared with how filming went, I think the editing has done the film justice that it needs and so with that editing is complete! Looking back, if I was to change anything I probably would have edited in Premiere Pro. This is due to the fact that I had some issues uploading my shots to Sony Vegas’ workbench whereas when asking my classmates, no one else seems to have this issue. I presume this is down to the fact that I was editing in a different software to everyone else but at the end of the day, I am satisfied with the finished product and every shot is as best as possible.
Presentation – Reflective Journal Entry
On Friday the 28th May we presented our films to everyone in the TV Studio, we got feedback and gave feedback on everyone else’s. Thankfully I didn’t have the final edited version of Out of Time ready for everyone to watch at this point. I did get some great feedback, some including…
‘Good use of different shot types and framing.’
And…
‘A really great variety of shot types, sizes and angles, and these flowed into one another really well. Some of your shots were slightly out of focus, but not drastically. I think you had some really nice moving shots, and this helped create a dynamic feel to your film! I think the shots within the car are really well exposed, and look really good!’
I also got some constructive feedback for example…
‘The audio varies slightly from shot to shot, so just make sure the levels are consistent the way through. I like how you carried the music through different scenes, and I think the music added extra interest to the audio. At 1:43, the audio is only in the left ear, so I would just have a look at that. Some of your lines are slightly muffled, and a bit quick, so it can be a little hard to tell what exactly you’re saying, so if you were to do it again, I would maybe re-record the audio, or the shot again.’
I took this and all my feedback on board and acted upon all of it because I knew all these little issues were there anyway and were the things I wanted to tidy up in my final cut.With this being said, I am glad I got the chance to present my film to my peers as it gives me a non biased look on my film that means I can get opinions my friends may be a bit too kind to say. Safe to say though every comment on my film got acted upon and I am glad to say it did improve my film. There were a few little errors I didn’t notice though, for example the sound coming out of one channel is something I thankfully found out before editing my final cut.
Evaluation – Reflective Journal Entry
Looking back at my proposal comparing it to the film I have now completed, I set out to create a film for 18-25 year olds. But something that everyone any age could enjoy. I also set out the task of making the film that evoked all my favourite genres and themes for example the 80’s, supernatural, drama and action but to name a few. I believe Out of Time is the film I set out to make and looking back i fulfilled my hopes and dreams as a filmmaker and believe it has improved my skills as a filmmaker.
I liked being able to express myself through my film. I was happy I was able to unleash my set of skills when it came to my editing. Compared with my original edit, I do think that the final cut is some of my best work where I have been able to shoot shots I wanted to and leave my own stamp on the project. I am happy with the final shots that came out and to get the help of my friends in the film was the best help I could possibly ask for.
On the other hand, nothing is perfect and Out of Time still has a few issues. I feel like Me and Joe should have done a few more takes with more emotion. Due to our lack of acting experience, I regret that we aren’t entirely capable of giving a dramatic performance. Looking back as well, given more time I wish I thought a few of my shots through more so that they look much better and I could’ve worked around a couple that were not in focus. But, given the short amount of time we had, I can fairly say that I have achieved the film I set out to and I am glad I was able to get Out of Time from script to screen.
I want to make my film, Out of Time because there is definitely an audience for a film like mine, as seen with the success of shows like Stranger Things and Back To The Future. It will use famous conventions of a Sci-Fi film for example “Time Travel” “Space travel and exploration” and finally “Dystopian fiction”
The skills I aim to develop further when it comes to my editing as well as my scriptwriting. I definitely think my skills in writing scripts has improved since finishing Unit 12 which I chose scriptwriting to focus my essay on. I wouldn’t say there was exactly a gap in the market for this sort of film, but they are very popular with my intended target audience which is around 16-21. This is seen with target demographics like Stranger Things being a hit with this target audience I intend to use shows and films that have inspired me to push the boundaries of my short film, Shows like “Primeval and “Doctor Who” spring to mind when developing a time travel subplot but aimed at a young adult audience like “Stranger Things” and “Back To The Future” which is set in two different decades like my film and and is still very popular today with it’s elements of time travel. Although being made around 30 years apart, the popularity of these two show that there is still a huge appetite for films and tv shows of this genre and a film like mine. The difference with mine will be that a lot of elements seen in these shows I want to replicate will have to be cut down and simplified due to the budget and time restrictions.
My film will be an exploration into the supernatural and sci-fi genre whilst using the generic tropes seen in productions of the same genre. The perfect place to show my film will be festivals. There are some really good festivals that will be starting up soon, for example the BFI Film Festival which has a section for short films and the Aesthetica Short Film Festival which features a lot of short films and will be in November 2021. There are also a few festivals that specialise in short films such as the Cardiff Mini Film Festival which has been ongoing for the past 9 years and is currently open for entries and is on the 24th September. YouTube is also a good place to show my film because I know for a fact there is a guaranteed audience on YouTube due to how wide the website reaches so I will definitely be able to reach my intended audience on there.
In conclusion my film is a follow up to my Unit 9/10 project called Out of Time which is a drama about a young boy from 1985 who finds himself stranded in 2021. The plot of the film is about him finding a way home whilst meeting friends along the way and overcoming any issues he may have. The film has a target audience of young adults around 16-21 but is suitable for any ages over that. I hope to get my film to reach a wider audience throughout festivals shown online.
Scriptwriting is one of the most important processes in film making. There are established conventions for laying out screenplays that make it an essential tool during all phases of production. Through exploring layout and formatting conventions, methods for overcoming writer’s block and story structure this report will summarise the key skills required to write a successful screenplay.
In a screenplay there is usually what is known as a three act structure. It simply keeps your beginning separate from your middle and the end so it helps make the story flow much easier as a guide to the type of thing that should happen to allow the story to progress. The three acts are simply numbered 1-3. Act one sets up the story, characters and plot. act two features the confrontation between the character and the issue and act three’ is the resolution, which resolves the conflict from act two. Inside these act’s there are even more sub structures, act one features the “exposition” which is usually at the start of a story and is told through background information. It also features the “inciting incident” which is the beginning of the main plot, something that triggers the character to do something. Act two has the “midpoint” which sets up the chain of actions that will lead the characters into the climax. In many ways, the midpoint is like a second inciting event, and “rising action” which is the section of the plot leading up to the climax. Finally act three gives us the “climax” which is often recognized as the most exciting part of a story. Finally, “Denouement”. This is the final outcome of the story, generally occurring after the climax of the plot Most Doctor Who episodes follow this structure. Taking the story Heaven Sent (2015) for example, act one opens up with the Doctor finding himself in an empty castle trying to get out, this is setting up the characters, plot and setting which act one’s do. In the episode, we see the Doctor teleport into the castle to discover he’s there and finds out he needs to get out. This is the plot set up here Act two features the first confrontation of the monster and the action begins to rise. In the episode it’s the discovery of the new room in the castle that ignites the inciting incident. Act three gives us the climax where the Doctor discovers his way out is on the other side of a diamond wall and spends 4.5 billion years punching it. Then the episode gives us the denouement. This is where everything goes back to normal and the characters are in the same position as the start of the episode before anything happens. Most times this can be very good for a show. In the case of Doctor Who, it is very important that the Doctor grows from his time in the castle and it helps the character develop more later in the series. So, when using the 5 act structure in a script, it can be very helpful because it means a writer won’t get lost along the way writing a script. It will help them to keep on track and not have an unbalanced script when it comes to the 3 acts and 5 sub structures.
The ‘Narrative Theory’ which was created by Tzvetan Todorov in 1960. The basics of narrative theory is that every story follows the same formula of a 5 step recipe that makes up many thousands of stories in Film and TV. People can easily get narrative and story mixed up and even think they’re the same thing but they aren’t. According to the narrative theory, the story details all the ‘building blocks’ seen in any medium of storytelling. That’s where “narrative” steps in: it’s how you weave the story material together and give it shape. Narrative is about organizing the story material and making choices about how to put it together. Narrative theory is so common that it’s hardly noticed in films, books, musicals, it’s everywhere. Most episodes of “Sherlock (2010-17)” follow this traditional narrative structure. Sherlock and John are relaxing at the start of the episode, then an action or character will do something that creates a case for them to solve. They begin their quest to find a solution and apprehend the villain. The narrative continues until they confront the villain at the climax. Once the disruption is resolved and the equilibrium is restored, Sherlock and Watson can relax again. That is until another case comes to their attention in the next episode. Todorov mentioned that there are 5 stages that a character will go through; those are “Equilibrium, Disruption, Recognition, Repair the Damage and Equilibrium Again.” (Richardson, J. 2013) The first stage is Equilibrium, this is the stage where the character is having a normal life and shows the day to day life the character has. Next is Disruption, this is a stage where the character started to get something wrong going off in their life. This could be anything ranging from an unexpected visitor, to something in their life beginning to fall apart. After that it’s Recognition, this is a stage where the character has realized the problem that affects the character’s and it starts to affect them, in a big way or a small way. Repair the Damage is next. This is a stage where the character tries to fix and manage the entire problem that is happening in the story. Usually this occurs towards ¾ the way through the story. Most people know this stage as the ‘climax’ as well. Where the big event happens and something is done to fix it. Finally there’s Equilibrium Again, this is a stage where the character has fixed and managed all the problems that happen in the story and in this stage, the character is back to how they were at the beginning of the story. Often this section is put in an ‘epilogue’ to show how the character is after the events of the story. Almost every script and screenplay follows these 5 narrative steps when a story is being created and developed.
‘Knowing how to format a script in the correct way is also a key tool for a scriptwriter that has a direct impact on production. A single page on a script usually equates to a minute on screen. Not having too many descriptions will help keep the page count down. Scene descriptions should usually be short but thorough. Not too detailed but enough to let the reader know what should be seen on screen. Usually it is quite common for scripts to have a few extra pages worth of content to help with setting up scenes and describing certain aspects to the audience, so, for example a 45 minute TV episode screenplay will usually have around 50 pages “the one-page-per-minute rule of thumb sometimes doesn’t hold up to much scrutiny. True, most film screenplays are about 120 pages, and true, most movies are around two hours. But the conversion rate between paper and celluloid is rarely one-to-one.” (Kaplan, M. 2006) There are a few writers who believe this as well, TV Screenwriter Russell T Davies also had to say “I and I know many other writers use these extra spaces in a screenplay to describe what a character is doing, we take the extra time to tell the audience what a character is like, it helps the actors to understand their characters more and that does mean having to use up more pages in the script” (T Davies, R. 2010)
Screenwriting can come with a lot of issues for example writer’s block. This happens when a writer’s ideas for a script or a story comes to a halt and they don’t know how to continue. Every writer will experience writer’s block at some point whilst writing a script whether it’s serious or not. It’s a little known fact that doing something completely different can help with writer’s block. “I’ve always adored painting but recently really got back into it and i think if you can light a little creative fire it can help the rest of your work, i got very blocked writing wise last year, it was bad and i felt very flat and painting scratches an itch which really invigorates me and helps with my other work for example my block in writing.” (Gatiss, M. 2018) If you take your mind off the issue at hand and try to be creative in another sense it can really help with writer’s block or any kind of block in general, It may even help develop new skills in something brand new! Talking at a panel, Mark Gatiss also said about writer’s block “I was talking to Steven Moffat about this the other day… and he said, ‘Really, in the end, you’re blocked because something you’ve done isn’t right. It’s not working.’ So you can unblock yourself by sort of admitting that, and going back and fixing it.” Writer’s block is usually a sign that an idea isn’t working on page so although it may seem like a good idea in your head, it can sometimes be hard or impossible to translate it to page”
When discussing short films you can find yourself quite limited with what you can do purely down the amount of time you have. There are a few differences between a short film and a feature film. A short film is obviously shorter in length so it limits you to the amount of content you want to put in it. Everything will be limited, from the amount of settings, to the amount of characters and even the plots themselves. According to Nick LaRovera in 2019, “Firstly, remember that with short films, less is more. Due to their shorter length, you are limited in how many ideas, characters, and conflicts you can explore effectively. 1. Have one major idea or concept with a simple setup and payoff. 2. There isn’t time for in-depth character development, so focus in on one relationship and conflict. 3. Make sure to wrap up the story cleanly by giving your audience a satisfying payoff at the end.” There is a pattern with most short films and that is a memorable start and ending. It is quite common for short films to have striking shots to open with, something that pulls you in right from the off. The vast majority of short films have a surprising ending too and takes a twist that no one else expects. This is because they all follow the same structure that due to having a limited amount of actors and plot points, directors want the audience to leave the film with something to remember and to make it worth their watching. “Every short film I watched had a three-point structure of setup, midpoint escalation or reversal, and satisfying conclusion. The midpoint is especially worth thinking about. At pretty much the exact midpoint of nearly every short, there was some sort of major escalation or reversal that took the story in a new or more extreme direction.” (Stark, L. 2015) For example a short film named ‘Coming Home‘ where the main character Sean finds he’s a dad only for the twist to be the mother of the child is just trying to find refugee kids a home with random people. Scripting short films follows the same route of scripting a full length film or a tv episode. The only exception is how short it will need to be and to try and keep to the three act structure and Tzvetan Todorov’s narrative theory as much as possible to keep the story intresteresting and to keep a nice flow to the whole thing. If that is achieved properly then a short film can be as engaging and gripping as a feature film and will leave people yearning for more once it ends.
In conclusion techniques new screenwriters need to be weary off and need to keep in mind are mainly the narrative theory by Tzvetan Todorov and the traditional three act structure for writing anything. It should be known that there are many ways to combat hurdles along the way for example writer’s block. Whenever a writer faces this issue they should try and tackle it by being creative in a different way. Channeling this creativity in a different way helps to open up doorways to new ideas and stories to help combat any issues a writer could have when it comes to writers block or any related issues they may have. If a screenwriter is tackling a short film then an important tip is to keep it not very complex, but memorable like having a twist or something that viewers will remember when they leave the film. Try not to go overboard with the writing as the time constraint will be a hurdle in terms of how creative you can be but some ideas thrive in the short films format so it is important that you have the right idea for the right film. Armed with all this knowledge it will help in making a professional and compelling screenplay that is up to the standards of scripts used for movies and tv shows by professional writers today.
Bibliography. –
Davies, R T and Cook, B (2010), The Writer’s Take: The Final Chapter, BBC Books: Ebury Publishing.
Dir: Talalay, R. Executive Producer / Writer: Moffat, S. (2015) Doctor Who and the Heaven Sent. BBC Studios / BBC Wales
Dir: (Various) Executive Producers: Gatiss, M and Moffat, S. Writers: Thompson, S. Gatiss, M and Moffat, S. (2010-17) Sherlock. BBC Wales / Hartwoods Films
An exploration into foley and sound design techniques for low budget short film.
How editing is used to tell a story
Report on established script writing conventions, dialogue and scene description.
Essay Title One: An exploration into Foley and sound design techniques for low budget short film.
I want to look into this because it is something that I enjoy learning about and I find it interesting and something I like to learn much more about. I also am fascinated with audio dramas and how they are structured to create a world that features many sound effects and foley sounds built in. I feel I’ll be able to write a lot about this given I have had some experience in editing with foley sounds.
This will help to inform and improve my FMP by being able to develop my skills further to benefit the end result of my final film by having great sound design and wildtrak placed in when needed.This includes having better sound overall which includes the separate audio recorded from the microphones. After reading a survey about sound design, it came to the conclusion that sound design helps viewers to be more immersed into the film so it helps with the final result of my FMP.
It will help me improve as a filmmaker by being able to have better placed foley sounds and wild-track. If I need any more foley sounds recorded I know I will be able to have better ones recorded as I will have done a lot of research into it for Unit 12. More specifically this will include looking into the placement of the sound effects whilst editing.
Some difficulties I might face are being able to get a wider range of results in terms of my research. This is because foley sounds are very specific and once you learn the vast majority there is to know about it, you pretty much have learnt the whole process. For example how to record and edit them to make them sound like their supposed sound. The only worry is that I won’t be able to write a lot, but I will try my best to have what is written to be the best quality it can be.
I have done some initial research and this has been quite successful. I have looked at many behind the scenes documentaries for the audio dramas I talked about above to see how they make the foley sounds and develop the sound design and I have checked the internet out on many different websites to see if there is any more information I could gather. I found almost all the research to be helpful in my search for information. All the articles had something to offer in some way but i found a lot of the same stuff repeated so i think i will have to delve a bit further into the research.
Some practical experiments that I could carry out are making my own foley sounds and trying to replace them in some scenes. Some easy ones I have made before are sounds of doors, locks, walking, and many more which we did for Unit 5 to give us a better experience of how foley sounds work in editing. I could also try looking at an experiment in seeing which objects work best for my foley sounds and trying different objects to get the best result. These will all help me a lot because they will give me a much better understanding of the tasks needed to better my understanding of foley sounds and overall sound design.
Essay Title Two: How editing is used to tell a story
I want to look into this because editing is a huge passion of mine and it’s something I would love to learn much more about. I think editing is also pivotal in how a story is told and can be easily help with how the viewer interprets the story
This will help to inform and improve my FMP by giving me much more knowledge on how i can use different methods of editing to help tell a story. This will help my FMP a lot because my final project could differ hugely and benefit my grade very greatly.
It will help me improve as a filmmaker by exploring different ways of editing. This will help to broaden my styles of editing to help edit different types of films and projects. If I am to ever get a job as a filmmaker I will need a huge range of different editing skills to help me edit more unique projects.
Some difficulties I might face are trying these skills out. It’s all well and good being able to learn new skills for editing and creating new projects, but to do this you do need a lot of new effects that cost quite a lot of money. Sony Vegas and Adobe Premiere charge quite a lot for new and fancy effects. If these were free or affordable i would definitely consider choosing this essay to do but due to the price i may not be able to put any new skills to use.
I have done some initial research and this has been very useful as there is a lot of information on how editing can be used to tell a story. There are quite a lot of magazines out there on editing and its many uses and how it can help tell a story. They have many articles on different skills and tips and tricks, probably the best amount for all 3 essays so i believe it would be the best for research but will not be the best for use with my FMP
Some practical experiments that i could carry out are trying some of these effects and trying different ways to tell a story. This will be quite limited though due to the cost of some of the effects that are on the market but i would try a couple out and try different ways of telling a story through editing.
Essay Title Three: Report on established script writing conventions, dialogue and scene description. To craft a professional script.
I want to look into this because I love scripts. I think they are where most of the magic happens with any project. I like the journeys they go on to become the final script they are that’s used for projects. I find it fascinating to see differences from first drafts to the final production, sometimes these can range from huge changes to quite small ones but every change is interesting for many
This will help to inform and improve my FMP by getting the best script written as possible. This will help me get the best dialogue and scene descriptions as i possibly can. Any film project begins with a script and is the glue that holds everything together and mine will be no different so i believe it’s quite important to get everything right from the dialogue to the scene descriptions.
It will help me improve as a filmmaker by being able to write professional scripts that will help influence the outcome of my project and by doing a bit of research all famous filmmakers, (Russell T Davies, Todd Philips, Quentin Tarentino) to name a few, all write fantastic and professional scripts that help shape their projects and craft their films so if i ever want to be as good a filmmaker as they are, i need to start with a good script.
Some difficulties I might face are for starters it’s going to be hard getting 1st hand research into this. I will try and contact some people I know who write scripts and get some research done from them. But that is going to be my hardest challenge due to how busy they are.
I have done some initial research and this has been very interesting. I’ve seen some documentaries on how script writing is done and have gotten some facts on this subject so i hope to continue this and get some better knowledge of the conventions of script writing. I have quite a few different documentaries and a book on the way called ‘The Writer’s Tale’ which is a first hand account on Russell T Davies time writing Doctor Who and Russell goes into grave detail about how he wrote the show and the troubles he faced with scripts and everything in between. I feel this will help me a lot as it is exactly the kind of research i need for this kind of essay and i believe it will be the main source of material i use for writing my essay.
Some practical experiments that I could carry out are writing my own scripts. The best thing to do with an experiment like this is to keep on writing scripts until they are as perfect as can be. As professional as they can be and as gripping as they can be as well.
The essay that I have chosen to write is essasy three.
I have chosen this particular essay because I feel I can get the most out of it in terms of what I can write, I thought heavily about doing essay one and then I came to the conclusion that although I could write about the same as I could if I wrote essay one. The actual content would be much better and there would be much more there in terms of quality.
I would love to apply for a job that is currently on offer at PQA (Pauline Quirk Academy) I have a friend who works there and has told me how their camera guy / editor has just left and says I am perfect for the job. From the sounds of what would be required of me there I could be a welcome addition and fir in very well. I feel I am quite skilled when it comes to filming and editing so I will try my hardest if I am to get this job.
These shots worked really well and are a good test as to what camera lens i should use. I think i will use both because they both give such fascinating results and are great for filming. The 50mil lens will be great for filming my average shots which range from medium – close ups and the 18-55 will be great for doing my establishing and long shots. Overall i am very happy with how these shots came out and i can confidently say this experiment was a success
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