After several hours and dozens of wasted DVDs later I’ve learnt yet again that time management and preparing for the worst are very key parts of the process.

Alls not lost though I still have the 1st draft disc but its quite a rough version and far from being perfect, the interface isn’t very navigate-able as the buttons don’t light up when selected and the sound levels are off.  To combat this next time I will make sure I burn a disc well before the hand in date.

I guess it’s just my Worst Day Ever.

I knew when I took on this project that it would be hard.  For my college FMP I chose to go for the film option and I had so much to do but it was all worth it in the end.  Like this project I set out to make something that I was happy with, more than something that stuck to the brief completely.  It paid off in college so we’ll see how I do here.

When I started out with the first shoot I had two of my mates helping who have no media experience whats so ever, so from the start I didn’t make things easy.  They did well and although some of the sound is a bit jumpy from the boom operator being a bit close it all turned out OK.  If I’m honest when I’d finished my first edit of the first group of footage I was really unhappy with it and found it quite boring to watch.  It again has shown me how little things like the thought tracking and music can transform a piece.  It went from painfully slow to exciting and interesting (for me anyway).

When it came to my second day of filming which was the mugging scene I really enjoyed shooting.  I got a sense that everyone helping that day got a real buzz.  There was a big group of us (6 or 7), all in a subway with fake blood and a car to throw myself over, what more could you want!  And even though we were filming take after take for hours everyone kept working, kept joking and kept having a laugh.

I feel my editing and sound engineering skills helped me greatly in this assignment.  The fact I didn’t waste my time with Avid and stuck to a much preferred Final Cut Pro saw that I wasn’t limited by what I could do and the times I could edit.  I used Soundtrack Pro to edit the soundtracks which I love using and feel I have come quite proficient with it .

If I could change anything I would definitely have used other media students to help me keep organised.  That way I would be able to leave them equipment to use and not worry too much about how it’ll turn out.  The people i did use did very well don’t get me wrong but the piece of mind and stress would’ve been relieved a bit.

Of course like with all productions you never have enough time which is again down to planning and time management, which are skills I have yet to perfect.

I found the lighting quite hard especially as it was P.O.V. and filming outside during the dark meant I couldn’t light the street very well.  I tried using the PDX10 to combat this as the Sony Z1 is quite poor in lower light conditions and it helped a little.

Also for some reason I filmed in HD on the Z1 and decided to down convert to SD using letterbox which made the format not true 16:9.  So when I mixed it with the PDX10 footage (which I was quite pleased with) which is the screen resolution was all over the place.  This took quite a while to solve and there are still imperfections due to it.

Apart from those points and several bits I just didn’t have time to make any better I think I have done rather well.  I don’t know how it will fair compared to other students work but I’m pretty happy with it.  I felt very rusty but will definitely be making many more short projects to keep myself learning during the course of the next few years.

In terms of the written assignment I found the blog idea really effective and much more useful then writing an essay or some of the other ways lecturers have us turn in work.  I didn’t realise I wasn’t pressing “publish” until the other day but all the same I found it easier to keep on top of the work so when your ill and miss a lecture it’s all there on the blog.

Now having finished editing my film I reach the distribution stage.  Straight away I began constructing my DVD interface for the film.  After a few teething problems and a few drafts I had the completed DVD and was previewing it on my television.  I had my cast and small crew with me and we all watched the finished film slightly excited and relieved it was finished.  The interface idea with the menu having a section of the film as an overlay worked extremely well and there was only a minor jitter when changing from scene to menu and vise-versa.

So the DVD idea was a success but of course distribution wise was not a brilliant way in terms of cost and how far it would reach.

Flash

So I explored the Flash idea.

I’ve recently purchased Adobe Encore and Flash which means I can put my film in as chunks as if with the DVD and then export it as .swf.

After hours of fiddling I didn’t really like the finished product as much as the DVD.  The image quality was far worse and the actual menu wasn’t as aesthetically pleasing.  It also didn’t work as well in terms of navigation because I was new to the program.

So even though I’d pass up the opportunity to be able to upload it to the web I went with the DVD idea.  Of course in future I could always redo the product into Flash when I’m a bit more experienced with the software.

My friends who are in a small band said they’d write a song for it which I felt would really be effective.  This way they could sing about the events of the day and I could put the music in to help reinforce what is happening.  I want two versions, one which is quite chirpy and catchy which I intend to use for the opening credits and ending ones.  Then another which is slower and quite dramatic.  This is for when his feeling low and down.

Visually I intend to use blurs and over spilling colours to help show when his concuss, sad or sleepy.

So something as simple as a choice of song could totally change the mood of your piece.  You can take something innocent looking and turn it creepy and evil or take something happy and make it sad.

Like in this video if you try and imagine the video with a comical tune instead the fear factor would be lost.

I decided blinking is a good way to merge takes together and will give the impression of actually being the person.  Also I’ve played around with some features of Final Cut Pro (which I’ve been using for three years now) and found a filter that blurs the edges of the screen slightly, giving an eyebrow and nose blur effect.  This will make it look more like your looking from your eyes.

My Short Interactive Film will be called “Worst Day Ever” and takes you through the day in the life of a young uni student called Lee.  Problem is it’s a really bad day where everything seems to go wrong.

I’ve decided to write a script like this because of it’s simplicity.  I didn’t want to spend ages writing a complex Short Film with hard hitting views and twists when nobody is going to get it.  Also it would be so much harder to make it interactive with multiple paths and endings.

I got some help on the interactivity part from watching Sliding Doors (1998) which had two parallel universes of a woman’s day working around missing the train and catching it in time.

Research

After completing a script for my proposed interactive film I started casting and location scouting.  It then came to me, why not make the whole short film Point of View.  Like what I was going to do with the Parkour trail but an actual film.  Not like “Cloverfield” where it’s a camera but actually as though the audience is the character.

I had thought of the idea before and so I started watching several films that could help and studied how they managed to use P.O.V. effectively.  Layer Cake (2004) was extremely helpful as it showed a man getting beaten up in P.O.V. and it’s one of my favourite film scenes.

(It’s near the end of the video)

I found Gangster No 1 (2000) had a similar clip.

And of course I watched Cloverfield (2008) which although was more camera still was similar to POV.

I then realised that the whole film isn’t violent and that there are parts where Lee (the main character) is just doing normal things like getting dressed and walking around.  He is by himself for a lot of it as well so to keep the audience interested having conversation isn’t going to be an option.

Then I thought of Peep Show (2003) the perfect example to help with my idea.

So the answer is thought tracking.  While he is walking around you can hear his thoughts.

Experimental film uses alternative mediums in thoughtful yet sometimes pointless ways.  I think Experimental film is necessary as it opens up new ideas and inspirations for film makers but don’t believe it should be put on the pedestal that it is.  I understand that experimental film makers are messing around with the media to try and find that spark that could revolutionise film or help add a fresh concept.  Still with that in mind I think a lot of it is quite pretentious and over rated.  Moth Light 1963 is a perfect example.

Now I know you could get many connotations from this like “It’s like an Autumn walk” or “It’s like a moth flying around” but it’s just a man who has stuck pieces of leaf and moth in some film scratched the words Moth Light into the beginning and played it.

As for examples like Eraserhead 1977 and The Last of England 1988 to me there just random distressing images thrown together.  There not particularly well made or well edited and after a while there quite boring.  To make things like that you must be under some sort of influence and as many of the more decorated Experimental film makers were allegedly drug abusers, that would explain it.  Another reason I dislike Experimental film is that they say there trying to evoke an emotion but why is it normally a negative one.  Most of the pieces I’ve seen display feelings like depression, suicide, lonliness and hate.  Where are the positive ones?

One piece of experimental film I do like is “Play” by Samuel Beckett directed by Anthony Minghella.

Now this is well made and has some actual intentional symbolism.  The editing is quite dark yet effective and the content is really interesting and engaging.  The director looks as though he has actually thought about what he is doing and it shows.  Having good actors like Alan Rickman help as well.  I really like this piece, it is still dark, quite eerie and doesn’t follow a particular narrative yet  it doesn’t try to be too weird.  For me I think the key to a good film, experimental or not, is a good balance between being different (trying new things) and not going too far.  If you go too far you shut out your audience which I know experimental film isn’t meant to be revolved around but art isn’t just for the artist or they wouldn’t show it in public.

People need to like their piece or they won’t be able to keep up their drug habit.  Seriously though, experimental concepts are like anything in film, if you use too much you’ll ruin the finished product.  Too much CGI ruins films just like being too experimental.  Take Bronson for a modern example.  A brilliant film which explores experimental concepts quite widely.

It breaks the fourth wall, has various alternate realities for the viewer and uses different medium for certain scenes e.g. when he talked of robbing a post office they just showed a picture of the building and then the money he stole.  The whole film is extremely different and it really works because they’ve got the balance right.

I’ve already stated previously how I intend to make and distribute my film but I still had a look at the examples given in the lecture.

Storytron

Now I had a lot of fun with this site and thought it worked really well.  The interface was very easy to use and gave a great deal of interactivity.  The content (being a World Leader) was exciting and well constructed.  They also have a SWAT (Storywoard Authoring Tool)  download which allows you to create your own world and interactive story.  This has enormous potential and it is a pity I could only find one storyworld on there because it is great fun.

If my idea was along this format I would definitely use it.

Koraskow

I had a brief look at this and didn’t really understand the idea of Korsakow.  I understood the POCs and IN words and OUT words but after watching them didn’t understand why.  The videos became very confusing and rather pointless.  I reckon if I played with the program for longer I could maybe use it as a way of distributing my idea but I don’t think I will.  The interface is quite confusing and you need a patience to get started.  The tutorials didn’t help really they just made some strange man and woman video which I didn’t really see the point of.  Most of the content just seemed to be overcomplex video blogs so maybe a good program but the way it was presented and all the examples turned me away for now.