Fiction Adaptation - Location Scouting

Fiction Adaptation - Filming Day 3 and 4

Today i had most possible the busiest filming day ever, I started at 8am filming my forest scene in Vinters park, I got a lot filmed with grate succession, my actor were very co-oprative and my camera operator was very helpful. I got all the footage done and 3 alternative ending as I wasn't use how i wanted to show the flash back. One way i wanted to show it was with David seeing a Tv and that showing the flash back, the other two was were of death to come up and touch him which sets off the memory, one with death appearing from behind him and the other from in front of him.

We finished 1 hour ahead of schedule which i was pleased about as that meant we could go ahead a go to the pub to refill that scene. We arrived at the pub for 1, my actress then told me that she was there two as she got an early train so we could film. I went through all the shots again, while using the old shots from the first shoot as a reference so I didn't miss anything out. Also I moved to a lighter place near the window so that the camera had a bigger source of light and put the ISO down to 400 and busted up the natural light to allow all the light in. I had a little problem as a member of the public came up to me (a little drunk) and said that he didn't like that I was filming as he thought I got him in shot, I explained that he wasn't in shot as he was at the other side of the pub, but he wasn't understanding and very rude, which took me a lot to keep my professionalism but I managed to. Then to make thing worse the managed came over to tell me not to film any customers, I explained the manager the same ask I told the other guy, he was more understanding and allowed me to continue, which was a massive relief.

I finished the scene at around 4:30 which was ahead of schedule again, so from this I asked my actors if they were able to film another scene at my house, they were available so we went to the my house and filmed the house and set up the shot. I had a tungsten light from the studios as i wanted to create a spot light effect on all the shots to portray that David's lost and doesn't have much time left. It again went really well and were finished quite quick as it was a short scene.

Overall today went really good as i've just finished most of my filming for the film with only half a scene to go. If i were to do something different if would have maybe used a different out with more space and a lighter atmosphere.

Day 4 i filmed the last part of my film which was a continue of the flash back scene but from the cars perspective. I filmed all the car interior and exterior shots and they came out very good which had me done in an hour.

Overall i wasn't too pleased with it as i originally wanted to get the green screen and up it round the car and act like we were driving for the interior shots as with the car in motion it was hard to focus and stay stable. However I happy with what i have and am glad to be finessed with filming.

Fiction Adaptation - Critical Reflection

Fiction Adaptation - Music Designs

When it came to the music I got a composer called Declan Gillgallon, who agreed to compose for me several track for the film.

He came back with one idea, which was used for stabbing scene, however I wanted more and ask him for more, he said he would. I the end he dropped out because of family issues. This left me lost and behind schedule.

From this I spent the 3 days searching for music and designing sound tracks, like the pub ambiance. I came across a could of sights and found these sounds which I added to my film;

 This song I used for just after the accent in the flashback, when Ruby laid on the floor until the end of the scene. I chose this song as I thought it would add a lot to the scene, especially if a added a little distortion to it to make it a little creepy.

This track I decided to use for the car stereo track as David was speeding down the road just before he hit Ruby. I used this because it was a loud song and fast paced to show the pace of the scene and the car.

I used this song for the clouds passing scene as it was the most mysterious and dreamy track I could find without being too dark or scary. It added a lot to the scene as it showed David's passing through the clouds.

I used this song for the forest scene to add a feel of fear and mystery. It’s a quite song with not to many interments or beats that would ruin the scene. It also added tension through out the scene until the big reveal. It allowed the audience the chase to engage with the scene without getting disgraced by it.  

I used this song for the flash back scene before Ruby gets ran over. I used this to portray a happy emotion as Ruby gets engaged and is happy. This song was good for the scene as it wasn’t too cheese happy and peaceful and made the atmosphere care and settled. Also it was a complete oppose from the car song which created a good contrast between the shoot shots. 

Overall I'm very happy with the song i chose as they added to my film a lot, however if i were to do it again i would want a composer to do all the music as they can do the song to fit the film and all the aspects, i.ie. went something happens they can in cress the tension. Thus next time i would need to apply for a composer earlier than i did to ensure that i get more and they can do the whole piece. 

Fiction Adaptation - Editing and Graphics Effects

With the editing it was a long, long process of putting the clips together, colour matching and grading, adding effect to the shots, then adding the music and sounds took me 3 days to perfect. I started by lining everything up on the time line in the order that I wanted to come in.

The first problem after assembling the time line was the duration, 6 mins 36 secs. I was over by a minute and a half which meant cutting out a lot of shot which I wanted including most of my intro of David arriving in his and and entering the pub which I particularly liked. 

After a painful cut down it was time to put in the poem voice over and put the pieces into place. This was another problem as I found most of the voice over, in one main part of the story. This was because I tried to fit too many shot relating to the poem in a short amount of time, which lead to a mash up of the poem in one bulk. This made it look rushed when read and hard to follow the story. I over came this by stretch the voice over a little, even if it didn't perfectly match up wight he visual, as long as they were close by. From this I've learnt that I should story board and shot list better in order to know where everything is going to go and have all the space for it when editing. 

After this I turned my attention to the effect which I could do with out after effects. The first thing I did was add video filter to some clips and mad some clips darker. For the stabbing scene I added a glow and distortion to make the effect of the stab more visible in the film. I then added a black and white filter to the POV's of David as I agreed on doing to add the effect of his world coming apart. Then I added a triply up side down rain effect on a part where David is meant to be sleeping, to add the illusion of a dream. Then I added a darker ting to the forest scene to make it more creepy and mysterious. After that I made a part of the film flicker with colour to fit with the part of the poem in which is starts saying colours. And finally I added some masks to the face of dead to cover any of Chris' face popping out and added a glow and TV filter to the flash backs to make them stand out as flash backs. 

After I did all I could with Final cut I turned to after effects. In after effects, the main bulk of my work was the flash back, as I wanted to start it with a Tv, when have it showing static, then cut to a static shot of the start of the flash back in the TV and then cut to the flashback. Then back out of the flash back in the same way.

After Ruby took over and as I was tweaking a mistake I had made with the edit she carefully made the poppy stay red and leave the rest of the shot in black and white. She did this quite quickly as she has done 4 time for her film and became a master.

After this I did an easy and simple effect where I blended 3 shots together to get a cloudy and glowing night sky. I got 3 royalty free clips, one of dark clouds, one of stars and one of the northern light, I then simple added a key light to the sky and light and put them together and put the stars underneath.  

 The final thing I did was to tidy up a blood effect which I shot wrong on the first day of filming. I left too big a gap between the actress and the blood, so you could tell it was coming from her. I simple added the 3 individual clips and created a mask round the blood, then copied it and moved it to cover up the gap.

Overall I am very pleased with the whole editing and ager effect sessions as I believe that I have seriously improved my skills and ability to use the soft wear professionally. However I need to learn to get some shot right when filming to avoid rush in after effect to tidy it up, as sometime it doesn't look as good as if was done properly. 

Fiction Adaptation - Prop Ideas

For my film I need a quite a lot of props to pull of each scene with perfection. For that I need good props;

A fake knife - for the stabbing scene to make it look real and to add effect of an actual stabbing scene

A ring -  this is so we can identify the stabber with the guy in the flash back, therefore concluding the story.

Poppy - this is for the POV shot of David looking up at his friend, it'll all be in black and white, besides the poppy. This will fit with the poem and also add to the film.

Glass - This is for my slow mo scene where i drop a glass with water/vodka on the floor for Sarah's(David's friend) reaction shot to the stabbing. Also just incase I break it, it's mine and not Wetherspoons.

Fake Blood - for the stabbing scene and forest scene to show that David is hurt. Also used in the flash back when Ruby is hit by the car.

Phone - for the incoming calls taken by David's friend in the pub and also in the flash back from Darren.

This should be all I need to make this production part of my film a success and hopefully have no problems.

Fiction Adaptation - Graphic Ideas

For my film I have loads of good ideas for the graphics.

For the first scene where I want graphics is the stabbing scene, this is when David get stabbed, I want to have every time it goes to a POV shot of David, I want it in all in black and white. This i think will add to the illusion that he is not well and hurt and doesn't fit in the scene.

I want it to look like this;

I want the effect to happen when David is looking at his friend, his eyes will look down at his poppy and the poppy will be i colour. This will be a nice contrast for the shot and add to the film.

The second bit of graphic I want is the Clouds part, this is where David has passed out and looking up and above him clouds, stars and colours pass by, tho will tie in nicely with the poem and it mentions passing clouds and stars. Also I want to show that he is passing on in the film, so this will add to the story line also.

I want it to look like this:

The final scene in which I want the use of graphics is when David see a TV in the forest, I want the TV to show all static effects, then cut to a TV shot of the flash back before cutting to the flash back. 

This is to make the scene understanding of a flash back, so that the viewers know. Also with the trippy effects I think it'll definitely add to the scene.

Something like this:

Fiction Adaptation - How I used Adaptation in my Film

For my film I thought hard about what kind of adaptation style i'd take on in adapting my film. I looked at the 3 main types of adapting which was transposition; this is when an adapter strictly sticks to the story and ideas of the text and doesn’t stray from or change it in any way, thus being faithful to the original text. Then theres commentary; this is when you purposefully alter the text when transferring it to film, to fit certain needs. Finally theres, analogue; this is when you keep one particular thing from the novel and change the rest e.g. you keep the story line but add in extra story plots or change some characters personalities or add in new characters.  

I think for my film i'm going to go with the style of a mixture between analogue and transposition, this is because on one hand i strictly stick to the words and dialogue and try and show picture to match each part of the poem. E.g. someone was holding water to him mouth; for this i some David's friend (from my film) giving David water to drink. More over on the other hand i'm following the analogue side, there I trace the original style and theme of war and portray it in a completely different way, however still showing traces of the original text.    

When adapting my poem I focus strongly on metaphor and story line, metaphors as I want to match every word in the poem with a visual which depicts that word. However I wanted to have a strong and understandable story lien which worked around the metaphors and visual and still made sense along side it.

Overall I am very happy with the style of adaptation I have chosen to take up and fell tat this is a good and difficult challenge, however I feel that I will go on and do well, as long as I still to the guidelines which I set myself.  

Fiction Adaptation - Filming Day 1 and 2

Today is the first filming day for my fiction, I filmed the flash back scene which involved of Darren and Ruby walking down a road, Darren the proposes to Ruby. Then as Ruby was in a happy mood and Darren was on the phone, she twirled onto the road and gets hit by David's car. Darren then hears the bang and runs over to Ruby in the middle of the road and screams at the car after looking at the licence plate. This was quite an easy day of filming, besides the part where the actress was in the middle of the road as I had to stand in the middle too, to let her know if cars were coming.

Overall I am very pleased with the shoot and am excited to film the rest go my film. If i had to chafe something it would be to film at a different location, as i wasn't 100% pleased with the road i chose, next time a longer scout and asking people with a better knowledge of the area would of helped to find a better location.

Today was the very first day of filming my fiction film. Today I filmed the opening pub scene in Wetherspoons. I arrived at 9am hoping to set up but the manager was unavailable as i said i'd let him know about my arrival on filming days. I didn't get round to speaking to him until 10am which was annoying as it had set me back and my actors were due to arrive. I nearly was denied filming my the manager as he misunderstood what i was saying and thought that i was going to film someone getting stabbed, with loud and dramatic effect which would disturb customers. I confirmed that it was a small student project and the stabbing was to the minimum.

After the hiccup i started setting up, this set another problem as i didn't like the spaces left in the pub and 2 of my actors had arrived and sitting waiting and my main actor who i wanted to arrive 30 mins earlier was stuck in traffic and lost. This led me to handing the setting up process to my helper and camera operator Ruby Rogers, she knew what i wanted and set up for me as i went to go find my lost actor.

30 minutes later we were all back in the pub and ready to film. I started with opening scenes as they were at the front entrance and would block people's way, so i thought i'd get it out of the way with. I then went of to film the rest of my film in a bit of a rush, forgetting to look back at the footage.

After finishing and looking back a home of the footage, i noticed that i had made a massive mistake. I had put the ISO up too much and filmed in a dark area of the pub, this meant that there was little nature light and this made the pictures very dark and grainy, bend repair.

I had to come to the conclusion to re shoot the whole scene again the following day. Lookly my actors were ok with the days, besides one, Charlie couldn't make it as he had filming of his own to do. This left me without a David's friend. Lucky I had asked Chris to pay the role of death the same day i plan to reshoot the scene so i asked him to be the friend as his face is not seen during the death scenes. He lucky agreed, however with a deadline on 4o'clock, which gave me a tight day of filming and a bit one.

On conclusion i think i need to look over my shots to check they are all good and useable. Also to get to the sites earlier to make sure i avoid delays again and fall behind.

Fiction Adaptation - Equipment List

For my film i will need the following equipment;

Cannon 700D - Owned

I want to use this camera for it's amazing picture quality and capability, it's light and easy to use and should make a great picture for me to edit.

Tripod - Owned

This i needed for a simple reason, stabilisation. All the shots need to be stable unless not wanted. Therefore a good tripod is needed.

Fiction Adaptation - Music Ideas

For my story I need to find music that fits the theme and the genre. I want quite dramatic tracks throughout my film as the film is a dramatic story.  Also they need to be serious track as the scenarios aren't happy or funny and indicate death.

I have looked at a few tracks which I like;

Dream Culture

With this song, i wanted to use it for the forest scene as i wanted something mysteries and dreamy, this spoke to me as it gave me a picture of what the it would feel like to be there. 

Rites

This on i wanted to also use for the forest as it adds an element of danger and mystery, however it's a bit wary as it has the hint sound of battle. Also i don't like the voice i just want a track without singing of any type in.

The other side of the door

Another possible forest track as this song has mystery and it adds a layer of creepiness as i want to also portray in the forest scene along with, scary and dreamy. However this song is just creepy as it doesn't impose fear of a dreamy world. 

Ofeliasdream

This i yet another sound track which i might consider for my forest scene, as this is a key scene it is most important that the music is perfect to add the right feel to it. This song is one of my favourites as it has most of the things i'm looking for. It is dreamy in the way that you could imagine a dream happening during it. With the nice key changes the element of fear and creepy if added to make the scene dark and unknown. However it's not very mysterious, but saying this i don;t think it need to be given the strengths in the other categories. 

Free indie music

This is just a simple track that i want to be playing during the pub scene leading to the stab. I wanted just some simple typical pub background music that make the atmosphere clear to be a pub. This i think does the job nicely. 

Awkward meeting

This is a track that i want to consider for my sky, clouds and starts part of the film. This is where you see flashes of clouds, colures and stars in the sky, indicating David passing on. This needs to be triply and mysterious to make the feel of the scene as i imagined to be, weird. 

Royalty free drum and bass

This is another simple backing track which i am considering using for the flashback scene when you see David in his car. This is so you can see that he is distracted and not paying attention to the road. A heavy drum and bass song should do the trick definitely. 

White lotus

This I found across and thought it could be good for after Ruby gets ran over to create a abnormal world in which things are all falling apart. At the moment it's a bit too happy but i shall add an effect to it to distort it to make it more fitting to the scene. 

Spiritual

Another track which I think will be great for the clouds passing scene in the film. It's tripy and mysterious. 

Wrong turn

Finally for now, the last track which I've looked at, I think that this will be good for the clouds passing scene as its mysterious and dreamy and tripy. This songs is the right combo of all the attributes and think it will create a good ambiance for the scene. 

Fiction Adaptation - Interview/Audition Dates

DATE/TIME                                                INTERVIEWEE                              KIND OF AUDITION

11th November, 1PM                                          Hayley Riby                                          Face to Face

13th November, 2PM                                        David Sandham                                       Face to Face

15th November                                                   Neil Duffield                                               Video

20th November, 2PM                                         Julian Gamm                                          Face to Face

Fiction Adaptation - Essay Feedback

 After speaking with Kath about my essay, I realised that I had a lot more work to put into. She commented on my layout, which was fault as I printed out a wrong copy which was in a smaller font and all clumped together. I shouldn't rush it next time so this won't happen again. 

She also said I need to check Harvard reference to make sure it's done properly, another thing I shouldn't rush in order to avoid this mistake again. 

Another point she made was to not write in the first person and always in the third.

Finally she said to avoid online journal and look at more books to bust the bibliography and information.