Final Film
Evaluation
Research and analysis
When deciding upon appropriate research sources for my FMP I took into account the feel and style that I was trying to produce. I knew that I wanted something visually striking but also with a coherent story. With this in mind I decided that I should take inspiration from my previous project where I researched Spielberg’s camera movements in great depth and also to look at Floria Sigismondi’s work, analyzing her visual style. I also knew that I wanted to look into music videos as a whole as well in order to identify common themes within music videos.
In order to find particular research and films that I wanted to look into I took advantage of various sources I could take these from. When looking into Spielberg’s work I revisited my previous project as I had already done extensive blog posts regarding his style and camera work.
https://wordpress.com/stats/insights/matthewtuckerfilm.wordpress.com
Next I began to look at the style that Sigismondi uses, I originally noticed her work from her feature film ‘The Runaways’ and after a quick search I found her website with a large collection of music videos that she had written and directed.
http://www.floriasigismondi.com/film/
This was my main source of research for Sigismondi as there was an abundance of material available.
When looking at music videos to research I found that the main source of material I got from youtube and Vimeo as they both contain an extensive and varied collection of music videos which I could use.
I feel that my research was very in depth for each film that I looked at and provided me with a large amount of information that I could work with and incorporate into my FMP. However upon reflection I think that I could have looked at a larger number of different films from each source in order to get a more varied look at how each director works across all their films. This would of provided me with border research that I could pull inspiration from. Although I feel that my research was still detailed enough for my to identify themes and styles I could use myself or interpret in my own way.
When researching my various sources I complied my findings and observations in the form of a number of posts on my blog. I watched the films I was analyzing through a few times to get a feel for them and also identify anything that stands out to me. I then began looking at them shot by shot, analyzing them alongside a selection of screen grabs and clips. Doing it this way meant that I had a coherent list of the shots used and why they were important or effective for the film. It also meant that it was very easy to then identify common themes within the film as I would find myself writing similar points about each shot.
I feel that my research does contain depth and focus as looking at films shot by shot allows me to go into great detail for each moment in the film, identifying themes, styles and techniques and then how each shot work together to create a finished piece.
In terms of styles and themes that I identified while looking at my various sources I found that Spielberg likes to make use of a lot of motivated camera movement. This is something that is apparent in ‘raiders of the lost ark’ where there is a long shot following the movement from actor to shot glass to second actor, I adore these type of shots as I feel it is a fantastic way to incorporate the audience into the film.
This is a prime example of how Spielberg orchestrates his shots depending on what he has in the scene. This is an idea that I tried to incorporate into my own film with some of my shots.
In this shot I tried to replicate some of the ideas from Spielberg of motivated camera movement. The shot begins with a CS of Tom’s hand and follows his movement up Lauren’s shoulder and then pans across both their faces. Although I do quite like this shot and think that it is effective within the film I don’t think it compares with the professional quality of Spielberg’s work even though it is a step in the right direction.
This is another shot that was inspired by some of Spielberg’s work. The camera pushes forward and then twists round, this was motivated by the shape of the log and I think it works surprisingly well. It also pays tribute to Sigismondi’s work by being quite a weird/abstract shot making it stand out visually similar to a lot of her films.
When Looking at Sigismondi’s work the main theme that stood out to my was how visually striking each of her shots are across her films, in particular ‘Blue orchid – The White Stripes’
In this shot Sigismondi makes use of an overlay effect called light leaks. I found these to be really effective in providing the icing to make a shot more visually appealing. I decided to use this technique in my own film in order to reflect on some of the emotions and themes at that point in the story.
This shot is a prime example of when I have incorporated light leaks into my film in order to add another level of visual interest much like some of Sigismondi’s work.
By identifying and analyzing these particular styles and themes I was able to see how they work as part of a film to help highlight themes and emotions, because I had looked into how these effects and shots worked within the film I was able to recreate my own version of them and use them effectively within my own.
As a result of my research my ideas and film changed and developed. My story originally consisted of a large number of scenes following an in depth story. Once I had looked at various research and my analysis this greatly influenced my planned shots and also what I shot on my days of filming. After I had looked at my research I knew that I needed to make use of a large number of close and abstract shots and so factored this into my storyboards but also any addition shots that I looked for on the day
Looking back on my research there are a few things which I should of into more detail with my research in order to help me with my film. The first of these being framing; within my film there are a number of shots that although they fit into the film and work they are not as visually appealing as others and so let it down a bit. Looking into aspects such as framing would of helped me better understand where to position myself for certain shots to achieve a more coherent piece.
Another area I could of looked into more detail with was different ways of creating effects during editing. Even though the end of my film is very effect heavy I feel that I was limited with what I could do because of my understanding of premier. As a result of this I stayed somewhat within my comfort zone by using simpler effects such as color correction, levels, overlays and cutting techniques. Although the effects I used were fairly basic I feel that they were still very effective and followed the style of Sigismondi.
In order to have developed my research further I think that I should have looked into a wider variety of styles so that I could see the contrast between them and how each one is effective in its own standing. I also think that it would of been useful to me to look at a wider variety of films from my chosen directors in order to see the style in which they work as a whole across all of their films. This would of given me a much stronger footing with which to springboard off.
Planning and Preproduction
I first began my idea generation by thinking how I could interpret my chosen brief ‘broken’. Eventually I settled upon the idea of a relationship being broken up by the effects of terminal illness. Once I knew roughly the type of story I wanted to portray I began searching for a track that would suit the direction I was heading in. I knew that I wanted to make a music video as I had recently found the work of Sigismondi and really liked the abstract and original way she made her videos. Although the actual brief was very open to my own interpretation problems arose when I began searching for a music track as there was a time limit of 2 minuets. This was difficult because there isn’t a large amount of songs under 2 minuets that I both liked and thought would be appropriate for my film.
Once I began planning for my film and working out a schedule I knew that one of the first things I had to organize was who I wanted to act in my film and when they where available to shoot as this would dictate how long I would have for my Preproduction stage. I found out that my actors were only available for 3 days around the middle of the project, this wasn’t too bad as it meant that I would have time for my research and planning however it meant that I wasn’t able to do a proper test shoot because I needed that time to shoot the actual footage.
The planning for my film was altered and developed as my project progressed. Once I knew the overall structure and story of my film I drew up a selection of story boards and notes to help me keep track of the shots I both wanted and needed. As my project developed however a number of scenes were cut this was firstly because I felt that my story was too complicated to do successfully in 2 minuets and also because I felt that a few of the scenes and shots would appear far too cheesy as I wouldn’t have enough time within the film to develop and establish them properly. After I had decided this I then revisited my storyboards and decided on the scenes I wanted to keep, because this happened very close to the dates I had set aside to film it meant that I didn’t have time to plan or draw up any additional shots that I might of needed. To combat this I made sure that the storyboards I had kept were coherent and flowed into each other also keeping in mind that I would pay close attention on the days of filming to look for any other shots that I could get, baring in mind that I wanted a selection of close up or abstract shots as that was what I had learnt from my research that would be most effective for the visual style I wanted to produce.
Testing and Development
As I mentioned in my planning section, the actors that I had arranged were only available for a short amount of time. This was unfortunate as it meant that I wouldn’t have time to do any test shots with them as I needed that time to shoot for my film. I did however have the opportunity to visit the locations that I had scouted and took that opportunity to try out a selection of shots of the area. This gave me a slightly better idea of how each location would look on screen but also where I might want my actors positioned.
I also had time to play around with some of the equipment I had available and how I might use it to improve my shots. I took some shots with the steady cam and found that it was very effective for smooth tracking shots and close ups as long as I had space around me. When I was shooting in the tent with the steady cam I quickly found that it would be difficult to position my shot with the steady cam in a more closed environment because of the shape and how you had to hold it. To solve this I found that if I took a light weight tripod and turned it on its side I could use it as a bar and a really cheap rig in order to get much lower down and closer when space was limited. It also meant that I could rotate the camera with much more ease resulting in me being able to get more interesting shots such as the twisting hollow log. The steady cam wouldn’t of worked for these shots as it will stay in the plane you set it in meaning its very difficult to rotate and twist smoothly.
Although I wasn’t able to test with my actors so that I could look at my framing I was confident that I knew what I was doing with my camera movements because of the location test shoot I had done. This meant that there was less for me to work out on the day as I had already experimented with the equipment and how I could utilize it for my film. My test shoot overall went well as I was much more confident in how I was going to film, some of the shots worked so well in fact that I actually used some of the shots from my location scout in my final piece such as the twisting log and some of the close up flower pans.
Production and Shoot
I knew that I had my actors for a total of 3 days so planned what what scenes and shots I would film on which days paying attention to the locations and what would make the most sense logistically.
Day 1 – SeaWood and Beach
On this day I had planned to film both the sea wood and beach scenes as they were right next to each other. For these scenes I wanted to build up the relationship between the two characters and create a sense of love and happiness. I thought these scenes would be good to start with because I felt like they would be the easiest ones for my actors to get to grips with as them being a couple they could act quite naturally and get used to being on camera.
Day 2 – Coniston scene
Even though I had cut a number of shots from these storyboards I still took them as the majority of shots were still useable and could use them as a spring board to look for other shots. On this day I was going with the intention to shoot the scene where Lauren (actor) passed away and also more shots of them together to continue to build the relationship between them but hopefully portraying a underlying worried feeling. I chose only to shoot this scene that day as the location was quite a bit further than the others and thought that doing any more would make transport and filming more complicated.
Day 3 – Illness effects and diagnosis
As with the previous day not all of these shots were relevant but were still worth taking as the majority were and I could again use them for inspiration. This day was the easiest logistically to do as most of the scenes were at my house excluding a short trip to barrow for a couple of shots with the hospital. I decided to do these last as I knew they would be much easier to film and leave me with time to go back and get any shots that I might of missed or thought of over the days of filming.
Thankfully I didn’t run into too many challenges while filming as I had a pretty good idea of how everything was going to work and had organized each day so that I knew exactly where I needed to be and what I was doing. The first problem I had was that there was only one vehicle available on day one meaning that I had to run people down in stages, this wasn’t too bad however as the locations I was filming as were fairly close to where my actors live.
The first more significant problem arose on the second day of filming. I had originally planned for Tom (male actor) to play the part of being diagnosed. However when we began filming the passed away scene it became apparent that Lauren (female actor) wasn’t very confident with playing the part of grieving and despair. To rectify this I decided that I would reverse their roles as Tom was much more confident in his acting ability. Luckily this wasn’t going to affect what I had already shot as all of the diagnose scenes that dictated the roles, I was filming the next day.
Another challenge I faced was on the second day it began to rain. Thankfully it was only light rain and didn’t last too long but it meant that I had to cover cameras and equipment with various jackets and plastic bags, also making use of the tent I had brought for a prop, as a storage place when we weren’t filming there. In a way it was good to have that little bit of rain as it helped to improve some of my shots and gave a slightly gloomier lighting reflecting the emotions that I wanted to convey at that moment.
Post-Production and Edit
Firstly I logged all my shots and arranged them into folders for each day of filming so that I could easily access and find the shots that I needed in order to make the editing process smoother.
I began my edit process by adding in the audio track and arranging my clips into a rough order, this allows me to start to see the shape of the overall film and also think about points in the music I could use to transition from one scene to the next.
Once I had a rough cut of where I wanted all of my shots I began to fine tune them by choosing more carefully where I want to cut my clips and also making sure that they were in time with the music. I personally like to add markers onto the audio track on every beat so that It’s easily to move a clip forward or back in the music while still being in time, it also allows me to see how long each clip lasts and whether they play symmetrically with the music for example if they are on for 2/4 beats or 3/6, my personal preference is that the duration of the clips reflects the time signature of the song so that it doesn’t feel strange to watch and you aren’t cutting in odd places.
Once I had all my clips where I wanted them I began to add things like effects, colour correction, overlays and graphics.
In order to make my edit more effective I used a couple of techniques to help keep myself organized.
As I was going through the film I added markers to the top of my edit to give myself a rough idea of where I wanted each section to begin and end, this meant that I knew how long I had for each scene and made me aware of the time limit so that I wouldn’t accidentally go over or make a scene too long/short.
Another common technique I like to use is alternating my clips on each layer, this means that premiere doesn’t get too overwhelmed with everything being on the same layer but also that it’s easier to see each clip and where each one cuts to better than if they were all clumped together.
I also tried to keep my effects and clips on separate layers so that I wasn’t getting confused with whats what. This meant that if I needed to go back and change something I could quickly see where it was and didn’t get clips mixed up.
I used a number of techniques within my film in order to add effect. The most prominent would be light leaks. I found free overlays on youtube that I could use as a way to add more visual interest to my shots, playing about with colours and how they interact with my shots.
To do this I added the light leak onto its own layer above the desired clip and then chose how I wanted them to interact. First I scaled the light leak up so that it covered the whole screen, next I went to the opacity tab and chose how I wanted the colours to blend, in this case I thought ‘colour burn’ was most effective. I then would alter the opacity level so that I could chose how intense the overlay was. I tried to get them to a point where you could still clearly see the footage but the overlay and color changes were still prominent.
Another technique I used was that of cross fades. As the film progressed I wanted the effects and shots to get slowly dreamier and weirder reflecting Laurens mental state as she became more ill. Crossfades were really effective with this as I can use them to flow from shot to shot without you being able to pinpoint exactly where the cut is, allowing the audience to see a visual representation of her disorientation.
To do this effect I simply added key markers onto the clip and adjusted the opacity at certain points and overlapping the clips so that it fades smoothly from one to another.
As well as adding in simpler assets such as titles and adjustment layers such as, vignettes and black and white. I also played around with the white levels of one particular clip in order to add a short transition of fading to white and back.
I feel that this method provides a better finished result as rather than simply lowering the opacity of the clip to reveal a white background this way alters the colours, overexposing them and in my opinion making it more striking.
To do this I added the effect ‘Levels’ and added keyframes to the clip to adjust the RGB white level much like you would the opacity. I then repeated the process in reverse on the next clip so that it would fade to white then back to footage smoothly.
I think if I was doing a film like this again I would still organize my edit in the same way, logging my clips and making use of markers on my audio tracks and to mark where scenes will go. However I think that next time I will try to better plan what effects I want to use and where as it took me a long time to play about and find what I was happy with. Even though I had a rough idea of what I wanted I could of made it a lot easier on myself by properly working out what effects I needed/wanted on clips before I began the edit.
Even though I knew how I wanted my story to flow it did develop slightly within the edit. I wanted it to begin with relationship establishment and then illness affects/diagnosis and then finally showing them happy together before they are separated.
As I got to the scene where they were Lauren was going to pass away I decided that I could try and portray the idea that they are falling asleep together and spending time in a dream before they are taken from one another. I started this sequence with a CS of Tom closing his eyes and went to another location making use of CS and abstract shots to support my idea. I think this worked really well as it was at that point that I wanted the effects to dramatically increase showing the mental deterioration of them and their relationship.
“The edit is the final draft of the script” I very much agree with this statement. Even though you can have a solid script and idea of how your film will look and work, there is no way of knowing how your footage will look and go together until you are sat editing it, this means that there is an opportunity to chop and change things as you see fit.
Evaluation and monitoring
The main way that I recorded my project and its development was in the form of various blog posts which I updated as I went along. I also sought out feedback from my tutors and peers as to how they thought my film was going. This allowed me to get other opinions of how people would interpurate my film and what they thought worked or didn’t. This type of feedback was very useful to me as it meant I could see things through fresh eyes and was one of the reasons I decided to alter my story with the worry that it would come across too cheesy.
I feel as though my research has impacted my film greatly, especially the work of Sigismondi through the effects and types of shots I used. I do however think that I could of better incorporated her style by using a much wider selection of different shots but am still happy with the outcome and the link that I have achieved.
Conclusions
Overall I am very pleased with my final film, I think my story works well and is understandable. I am happy with the way the effects and Sigismondi style improve the visual side of my film and how they complement the story. I do think that I could of better followed in Sigismondi’s footsteps and the ability to do test shoots with my actors would of greatly helped me by allowing me to see how thing do or don’t work before I began filming but still feel that it is definitely a nod to her work.
Working on this film has definitely improved my ability as a filmmaker, particularly an editor. I didn’t know much about overlays or effects before starting this project and this film has allowed me to explore that area. It has also given me the opportunity to further practise my existing editing skills and also get a better understanding of how to go through the whole process of making a film.
I think the skills I have learnt from this project will help me with future films. In the summer I am planning on making another music video, this time for my band, and would love to experiment further with the techniques I have learnt in particular those from Sigismondi, hopefully developing my own interpretation of her style in the process.
There are a number of skills from this project which could be utilized in different areas, for example organisation, planning, leadership and decision making abilities are strong skills that can be applied to the vast majority of situations. I aim to further develop these skills by participating in more film projects both my own and others so that I can become better at both leading and being lead.
Over the course of this project I think I have a better understanding of the area of film I want to pursue particularly editing and more specifically working on music videos. I find editing highly enjoyable as you still have a large amount of creative control in regards to the edit being the final say on how a film will work and look. Filming is almost like choosing and mixing your paints before you edit and apply them to canvas. It has also highlighted to me the importance of managing time effectively as there were moments when I fell behind a little especially while trying to balance my FMp with extra curricular things such as ‘world skills’.
I feel like this film has and will make me a stronger film maker as I now have a greater repertoire with which to work from and draw skills/inspiration from. Also looking into particular peoples work in such detail I think will allow me to transfer those skills when researching other areas of film.
I think overall my film connects well with my research, The style and feel that I used was definitely reminiscent of that of Sigismondi’s work, particularly visually. My work on spielberg from previous projects was also extremely helpful in terms of my framing and choice of camera movement, allowing me to try and combine two very different approaches to film into a coherent and entertaining piece.
Before this film I was already very interested in directing and writing my own films but this project has highlighted to me the value of editing and how it can be used to improve or change a film’s characteristic. I think that it is definitely an area I want to look at in more detail an improve upon. So much so that editing could become a potential career path for me and a fascinating aspect of film to explore.
“Films are never finished, only abandoned” I feel that I agree with this statement as there is always a new angle to look at a film from and a different way to interpret it. The difficulty comes from knowing when it’s time to say enough is enough and stop before you start to negatively affect your film by adding too much or changing it beyond recognition.
If I was to do the same project again I think the main thing for me would be to organise my time more effectively. I would still want to look at the work of Spielberg and Sigismondi but feel that I would want to see if I could go much more in depth with the way I take inspiration from them. I also think that I would perhaps try using a different audio track and a more upbeat story to see if I could apply these techniques across a range of genres and films. Overall though I really enjoyed this project, the lessons I took from it and can’t wait until the next one.
Matthew Tucker 
This grade has been reviewed and confirmed by the external moderator from the exam board, but will not be official until you receive a letter from UAL:
This is a little frustrating, Tucker! You didn’t make much use of my interim assessment feedback to expand your research, and this has therefore limited your analysis and the sense of development and evolution that comes from directed research and reflection. It’s particularly frustrating when your research is generally so outstanding. I suspect that your extracurricular gigs and rehearsals got in the way of your project a little, and this impacted in turn on your workflow and your time in class. With poor recent attendance and reduced discussion time with Dom and I, you simply haven’t experimented or developed some of your ideas as far as they could go, particularly with regards to practical testing and developing particular techniques. This is frustrating for us when your work in previous projects has been so consistently and astonishingly good. The final film (8/3.1) and your evaluation (8/4.1) are both strong pieces of work, showing your excellent skillset, and I really, really hope that you’ll dedicate more time to your FMP next year. This was a strong Merit project, knocking on the doors of Distinction, and Dom and I know you can achieve this next year.
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