PRODUCTION LOG - Removing Grain in After Effects

I found out that a lot of my clips unfortunately feature copious amounts of grain. Of course this is unacceptable and therefore I had to open Adobe After Effects CS6 in order to remove the grain in the footage. Now, this is exceedingly challenging as I have spent a very small amount of time working in After Effects over my time in school, I used it a bit on personal products but other than that I have very little experience in using it. I had to consult a forum website in order to help me find out how to remove the grain. Once I had found out how to use the effect correctly I then imported several of my clips in order to make them the best quality that they could be.

This is a screenshot of my using the reduce grain filter in After Effects to reduce the grain from my clip. It works automatically but it has features that allow you to tweak it to your preferences. For example; on this clip I had to raise the noise reduction in order to make sure my clip looked smooth and perfect.

This is a screenshot of me using the forum in order to get tips on how to reduce the noise in my clips. It was a very helpful tool that made it quick and simple for me to learn what I was doing.

PRODUCTION LOG - Looking at film festivals

Today I researched into different short film festivals that let independent low budget directors display their work to wide audiences. Here is a picture of me looking up the Raindance festival on wikipedia in order to gather information for my blog post.

This is helpful as it shows me what films are successful.

PRODUCTION LOG - Narrative sturcture

Today I looked into narrative structure and how it applied to my short film. I knew that my short film had a linear narrative and therefore I just needed to find some nice pictures that described a linear narrative and then I had to write about what a linear narrative meant in terms of my short film.

PRODUCTION LOG - Working on my film poster

In today's lesson I spent a lot of time working on my film poster in order to get it completed in time for the deadline that has been set for us to meet. I have created a portrait and a ladscape version of my poster so that it can be put up in different places and still look correct. For example; The portrait version could be placed at a bus shelter because it suits it as it has the correct size and shape. The landscape one could be placed on a billboard.

PRODUCTION LOG - Prop List

I worked through making a prop list today, a prop list comes in handy when reviewing your work and going back over everything you've done as it allows you to see what different items you used in order to get where you did with the short film.
I went through my video and took a screen shot each time a new prop came into it and then placed the screenshot into paint where I then drew a box around it so the viewer could see what I was referring to I then wrote a small segment about why I chose to implement this prop.

PRODUCTION LOG - Influences of my short film

This post may seem a little like the 'Evidence of Short Films I Admire' post but it differs in many ways. For this task I had to look into what I would need to emulate in my film and how I could possibly achieve that. I had to take note of what films would suit what I am trying to present and see how they present their own messages and engaged with their own audiences. For this I thought of films that I know that have a powerful message behind them and then I asked myself how do these films convey their messages.
This was all very useful as it got me asking questions about films and in turn it helped me to improve my own short film.

PRODUCTION LOG - Call Sheet

The call sheet is a document that is required to let the equipment company know how much equipment you and your production team require. This document is crucial not only to the equipment company or the production studio but to me as a director.
It helps me keep track of what equipment I will be needing,
How I will be using that equipment,
How long I will need that equipment for and so on. It helps because it lets me visualise the entire project as a whole and much like the production schedule it lets me put a deadline or a goal onto my work.

PRODUCTION LOG - Finding royalty-free music

In today's lesson I went on the hunt for decent royalty free music to use in my short film. I found a webstie called incompetech that has a whole library of royalty free music that users can download. I clicked a few selection boxes to filter throught the music they had on offer and found a song to use in my short film. I selected the boxes;

• Dark,
• Mysterious,
• Intense,
• Serious,
• and Unnerving.

I did this in order to get the song that I knnow feel is a perfect selection for my short film.

In the second half of todays lesson I started to toy around with the different effects and effect conrtols that come available to me in Adobe Premire Pro CS6. I applied an effect that put my video in black and white and in order to suit the music I had now selected I slowed the video down by setting it to 50% speed.

PRODUCTION LOG - Script

Today I spent time working in a new program that I have never used before called Celtx. Celtx is a program that allows people to make really nice and well laid out scripts. This is a valuable asset to me as it means I can create a professional looking script very quickly.
Celtx is very easy to use and it took me about as long as it would have taken me if I was using Microsoft word. This is why having Celtx available to me was very useful.

PRODUCTION LOG - Creating my time lapse video

 

Today I imported my time lapse pictures. Sir showed me how to import it and make it so that each picture only lasted for 4 frames. this was very helpful as it prevented me wasting my time by having to re size every single indivdual clip by hand. This was a huge time saver and allowed me to move on pretty quickly. The clips were inserted in chronological order making it nice and easy to export. At the end of the time lapse I have placed some pictures of my actor wearing the televison prop just to show how it was used later on. The time lapse will prove very helpful as it gives the audience and insight into the behind the scenes of my short film. It also adds a personal feel to the movie as it shows the effort that I put in, in order to make this film my own. I also feel that it shows how devoted to the film I am because i gave up a few hours in order to make one prop.

In total there were over three hundred and fifty individual photographs as it took a picture every 3 seconds and it lasted for one hour and fifty six minutes. It's very funny to think that my work that took nearly two hours out of my day is summarised in a mere one minute forty five second video.

PRODUCTION LOG - Health and Safety

I had to write a report about how health and safety was tan into consideration when I was shooting my short film. This is important as I need to make a document of what precautions I took to ensure that whilst we were fiulm my actor was as safe as he could possibly be.
I discussed in great length the efforts I went to in order to make sure that everything was ok.

PRODUCTION LOG - Audience Research Results

I gathered the results from the questionnaire that I gave out on-line to my target audience. Survey monkey is really good for this as it actually compiles the results for you and turns them into a graph or a table so that they can be easily displayed. This was a lot of help as it meant that my results were ready to post after a little time spent cropping them and aligning them on the page correctly.

PRODUCTION LOG - Discussing the software I'm using

This was a particularly argues task for me as I knew what I should write and what I should discuss but it was a matter of knowing what to talk about in order for it to be recieved positivly. I wanted the post to be easily readable by even the most technologically challenged of users.
I spoke about all of the programs I have used in great detail as I wanted to make it clear what it is like going through the process.

PRODUCTION LOG - Looking into character styling and prop planning

Today I looked into how I want my character to be dressed throughout the short film, this is important as I feel that the way that the main character looks is something that is very central to the success and appeal of the short film.

I looked at different outfits that are currently in style at the moment and what most of the shops are currently selling for inspiration as I saw it fit that shops would know what is best and what is in fashion currently.

PRODUCTION LOG - Analysis an existing movie poster

Today I created an analysis of an existing movie poster in order to help me create my movie poster later on. This is a very beneficial task as I get to see what the professionals do, obviously movie posters are everywhere but you rarely get time to actually take a seat and look them over for a long amount of time in order to understand everything that has been done in order to get all of the information about the film.

            This is also beneficial as I see what I should be doing in order to create my own short film poster and what sort of information I should include in order to allow my audience to get a full understanding of what my film is actually about.

PRODUCTION LOG - Researching Postmodern Theories

I looked at the theories and motifs behind the highly controversial arts movement that is postmodernism. I needed to research postmodernism as it is a main feature of my short film as my short film fits many of the conventions of postmodernism.
I researched theorists like Jean Baudrillard and I looked at his work and how it has influenced films such as The Matrix and Blade Runner.

PRODUCTION LOG - Evidence of Films I Admire.

This was one of the tasks that I found the most difficult as I was very torn on what I could catagroise as a film I personally admire. At first I just figured I should list all of my favourite films and why they were my favourite films but it is very likely that, that would have just been a plethora of strange and irrelevant reasons. I instead chose to go with films that I admire for the way they were shot, the way they tell a story and the way that they play out. I feel that having this sort of focus increases my chances of making a film that someone may admire a lot.

PRODUCTION LOG - Planning for the article

Today I complete my film poster. Obviously it still needs the images from my short film, I will be obtaining these images upon shooting my short film.

I have been using Adobe InDesign CS6 to create my poster, this has been an interesting experience for me as I have found getting used to the new update very challenging, obviously all of the previous items are either there or improved, but with these new upgrades comes a certain need for revision of the software.

The poster itself has come along nicely. Throughout its life the poster has proven to be a challenging feat. Now that it is 99% complete I can begin work on my actual article.

So far the article features many placeholders. This is so that I can visulaise the page before I actually make steps to complete it.

This is what my article looks like after today's lesson. The blue boxes represent where I will be placing images once I have obtained them. The placment text was good as it gave me na understanding as to what I should be writing and how much space it was going to take up. It also gave me an overall feel of what the article would look like with the text added.

You may notice a box on the first page that has been coloured grey. This is the only complete item on my article so far and it is a small fact file type box.

PRODUCTION LOG - Planning the research into a director post

My chosen director is Neill Blomkamp as he started off shooting and directing short films and has since progressed into the feature film industry. One of Neill's most recent and most famous works is the film Elysium starring Matt Damon. It is a sci-fi thriller film that has received many good reviews recently. 

 

I started off by Google searching Neill's name to see what results would come up and to see what he looked like because I thought that would be an important thing to know, especially if I'm going to research him.

I then watched his most famous short film "Alive in Joburg" which is a short film that was picked up by world famous director Peter Jackson and then turned into the box office hit District 9. It is important to watch his work because it gives me an idea as to how he directs his films. 

PRODUCTION LOG - Working on Research tasks

In today's lesson I have worked on my research tasks; I mainly looked at the short film "Alive in Joburg" which is directed by the director who I researched into Neill Blomkamp. First, I watched the film all the way through once taking in as much as I could (and enjoying it).

 
            I found the film on YouTube.  It’s had over 35,000 views and has been re-uploaded several times, this makes it difficult for me to understand fully how many views it actually has.
            I then opened a word document and played the film. I paused it every time I found something that I deemed good enough to write about. I then opened the word document and wrote a paragraph about it. I coupled the paragraph with screen grabs from the video to make it more engaging.
            First I noticed the documentary-type style of the short film. I established that this added a sense of realism to the film as it could easily be passed off as a legitimate news broadcast.
            In the end I eventually wrote two whole pages of information, I then uploaded it to slide share and ticked it off of my checklist.