Production Diary #36

Since receiving feedback from both myself and others for my first drafts I have worked to improve my products and made sure I followed the given feedback. However for my second drafts I feel that I will be giving myself feedback instead of asking anyone like the first drafts - this is due to asking people sometimes can be tedious. Not only would I completely remove this tedious effect from receiving feedback but also at the same time I will able to work on criticizing my own work and gradually learn how to give valid feedback to anyone.

Photographs for Short Film Poster & Film Article

I recorded a video to demonstrate the photographs in which I used for my film poster, however for the film article I simply screen grab parts of the short film and just gave those shots an individual touch up, those photos weren't really a contact. I recorded this using a program called Frapz which was very easy to use and then quickly edited it on premiere.

Production Diary #35

After finding out the problems with the current products I then research on ways in which I could improve them as well keeping in mind with the feedback given. I began taking into consideration what would I say to my products if they weren't mine. I also went through my blog and noticed that I have missing posts and in some cases things so make sense - for example in my film poster I have chosen the photograph however I didn't explain how I got the photo and if it's actually mine and if it is, what did I do with it. This is what gave me the idea of my next post.

Technical Difficulties

Overall there has been multiple difficulties across each piece which has driven me insane! So here is a video explaining this.

 

 

Production Diary #34

My current status:

Rough Cut of Short Film

FEEDBACK

Michael/UK/26
After viewing the draft short film I got really confused as to why there was a random burst of music straight at the beginning of the short. I am going to guess it was a miss placing of the sound - top tip make sure you double check the time line before you export. All in all the short film was amazing and I can see the message Johnny is trying to give to the audience which is a powerful, I just feel like its lost in the touch due to there not being any vibrant shots, he should colour correct.

Marlene/Portugal/21
Johnny explained to me that there will be subtitles and a dialog implemented in the film, I literally feel like this short film with those elements will hold so much power. The message will be shot out to the straight to the audience! I just hope that whoever recording the dialog has a deep voice - and an accent! That would really give it that Portuguese especially if it was in Portuguese.

SELF-FEEDBACK



 I really wanted to record my own opinion as well as others so I could get a pure and real understanding of what I thought of my short film at this moment in time. I wanted to hear my real thoughts and not me going back and editing parts of my audio off as I now don't believe that what I said was right - If I said it back then it has some effect on me as a viewer as a first impression so it needs to be adjusted. I also uploaded the audio to SoundCloud for the first time on the blog, I really want to wide the software and programs I use to post stuff on my blog. Whereas my second drafts will need to be much more thought out and I will have to give feedback from a perspective of my whole target audience and not just mine like this feedback.

Sketch Draft of Film Review DPS

FEEDBACK

Tony/UK/30
This plan for a double page spread seems really interesting! As a fond reader of film reviews I can tell that there is a different feel and aspect of this layout. Saying that I feel as if this full bleed look is working, my eyes don't know where to start and I just feel really overwhelmed by the spread. I also feel that you shouldn't have the film title on top of the image as it might ruin that clean look as you are overlaying a big part of the page which is the main image. Also maybe add the page title outside the boarder so that the page is not full bleed and more professional.

Ciara/Spain/17
With this layout I am able to work out that it has a huge comparison between text and image, its 50/50. I feel that it's best to choose down a root where the readers of the magazine prefer a more text driven spread than a image one - using too many big images looks tacky. Maybe include smaller imaged throughout the article with a few subtitles. Also have you thought about including your film poster anywhere to illustrate that this is a successful short with the whole package.

SELF FEEDBACK

I specifically chose two friends who I knew would be brutally honest with their feedback and, I know that they were talking about my work in my best interest. I think that my problem with this sketch is that I thought about making it too playful and I forgot about my main target audience which are 16+, these reviews need to be more professional and more review heavy as that's what their reading the spread for - to know what my short is about and if its worth watching. For the images I am going to have to find and choose screen grabs/photographs which best describe the short in a nutshell.

Production Diary #33

From just doing the first sketch for my short film poster I instantly remember one thing I really wasn't good at/didn't like - drawing/sketching. Not only does it take a long time, but also is very tedious in a sense that I have to draw it with pencil and paper then scan it into the computer for a digital print to them annotate it from there. I know now that for my film review DPS I will have to spent a lot of time doing the sketchs and not actually rushing it like the short film poster one as the overall image looks very scruffy and nowhere as expected - you will have to use your imagination to view the drawing!

Sketch Draft of Short Film Poster

FEEDBACK

Lily/21/USA
Johnny explained he was going for a very simple look however I think he has gone a bit overboard! He has not included vital conventions of the short that is really needed to complete the whole professional look. For example the billing block, star ratings and also a sub heading/slogan. The star rating are important - for example if I saw a movie poster with 1 star/no star there is a little to no chance that I won't watch that film. I also want to comment how I love the title name "A Vida Doce", it seems like a perfect sum for a family/love film and how it just seems to roll off the tongue ever so perfectly.

Sebastian/19/UK
To add the Lily's feedback I would think that adding a a slogan/sub heading would really give a boost to the film poster. It might be a good idea to add a good quote from the short itself - I can see you are following a clean theme which I love so I feel that you should use the colour white for the text.

SELF FEEDBACK

I really felt that this self feedback should be non-scripted so I did it. This was more so that I could go on further about the themes of the film and so I could link different elements from different parts of my products. 

Production Diary #32

Quick recording I got to illustrate and explain what's currently happening.

Original Footage in RAW State

Just as I did my RAW footage of Location post, I recorded my screen using a program called Fraps which recorded both my screen and my voice. This meant I was able to smoothing record and talk about each shot easily just by holding down a button. Anyway I only spoke about the shots that really stood out to me and ones which I knew were going to be used in the short film.

Production Diary #31

So after uploading my practice task I feel that not only was that beneficial for me as a learning curve but also to the final short film. That was the first time using Adobe Premiere to create a proper film and I encountered multiple errors which I have now found and know fixes to - this also means that these problems shouldn't come up in my final products but if they do then I know how to deal with them.

I am beginning to start getting nervous as time comes so close to when we are actually beginning to create draft copies for our products. I just hope my products come out as good as I want them. I guess it just needs some hard work!

Practice Task

I felt that before beginning my short film I should practice my Adobe After Effect skills and try to get my head around colour correcting and the way the software is laid out. I basically collected all the footage of my brothers wedding a created a mini wedding video for them in a perspective of a guest. The soundtracks used were two songs which meant something to the bride and groom and for me that was sort of the icing on the cake, there was meaning and depth in the video. Once I showed them the video they both loved it and were happy I was able to upload it to YouTube so they could post it on Facebook and all their friends could see. After watching the final video I noticed some colour correction errors which I will have to work on when editing my short film, as well as this I also noticed that the wide screen bars might be a bit too big and they are cutting too much detail in the film. Lastly even with the colour correction I know I rushed them as I wanted to show them the video as soon as possible and from this I can see how badly the colour correction has been done and I now know that colour correcting will take time and I will need to learn to be patient.

Production Diary #30

I kept hearing my class mates use a browser based software called Voki for their production diaries. I had to see what all the fuss was about and I created and account and gave it a try. Anyways moving on I just finished the audience feedback which the lovely Neha who is a class mate of mine did for me. I will now being moving on to finally creating the products! However before that I wanted to include the wedding video I did for my brother as a practice task for my block and before I get into my products.

Audience Feedback

I was lucky enough to get Neha (a class mate) to review my blog in its current state and my film ideas. I specificially wanted Neha to give me feedback because I knew she would be honest and say the truth so I know I could rely on her feedback. I felt the need to get a whole feedback on the blog so far so that I can find out if I am doing something wrong so far and that I can work on it before continuing the blog and doing the Construction Evidence section of the blog.

Production Diary #29

I have now finally published the handout sheet I gave out when I was filming in Portugal. I had to make both English and a Portuguese versions because I will be around multiple English speaking people however there will also be family who live in Portugal who I will be filming aswell who arn't that great at English. And as I now completed my Planning section of my blog I am going to ask a school friend to do a Audience Feedback for me.

Handout Release

Here is the handout release that I gave out to all of my family,friends and anyone who was going to be in any of my shots. This enabled me to be relaxed when shooting as I knew the people knew they were being films so it wasn't a surprise to them. This also meant that I wouldn't make anyone angry or upset for filming them and if they did have a problem I knew before filming. I had to make both an English and Portuguese version as I was filming in Portugal.

 

English & Portuguese Handout Release:

 

 

 

Proposal for Short Film

Title - ???
Length - 5/6 minutes
Narrative - Carlos Fonseca
Target Audience - PG
Music - Andrea Guerra - Welcome Chris (The Pursuit of Happyness)

Synopsis:
A digital storytelling documentary about family. A short documenting the lifestyle and culture of Portugal and and see Portuguese family's in action through my eyes. Do we take family for granted? Are we just being greedy? What does family mean to you?

Editing:
The will will not include crazy SGI and effect created with Adobe After Effects, this short will be simple and beautiful. Simple transitions like fade in/outs both black and whites, Cross dissolves and quick cuts. I want the audience to focus more on the narrative and footage more than them getting distracted by crazy transitions. Simple and Beautiful!

Audio:
Portuguese narrative mixed with English subtitles, I felt this would really create the mood and meaning for the short. By using another language and forcing the English audience to read the narrative makes them more focuses and aware of the content instead of them just watching the footage them will understand the message and meaning within them. The narrative will be mixed with a beautiful backing track by Andrea Guerra. Simple orchestra which really combine's with the footage and gives a meaning to the short itself.

Target Audience:
I wanted my short to be viewed by everyone, it's a simple message for every (Cherish your family). However the content could be a bit deep for a younger audience so it really then depends on how mature the person who is viewing the film. I made the age rating for this short as a PG as there is scenes which feature alcohol and smoking.

Length:
With all my footage I knew I could easily made a 10+ minute short, but in my opinion I wanted my short to be quick and easy, you didn't have to watch it from the beginning to understand, you just had to focus. Instead I feel my short will go around the 5 minute mark, however saying that means I will have to find the best footage through all the 350+ clips and only use those which really stand out. But I know there will be loads of clips that I love so I have a plan to use multiple shots in a space of 30 seconds.

Title:
For the short title I am still undecided so I will be doing a post brainstorming different titles and I will begin to choose one before editing my short. The title will need to summarize the film in a whole.

Production Diary #28

I have now basically done every element to now create an overall proposal for my short film. This has made me think about what type of background music I want to add, music seems as if it's nothing important however music adds so much emphasis and impact to the short. It's actually so important that I choose a piece which suits my whole theme and also the look of the overall short. So far the one composer who has caght my attention is Andrea Guerra - she created multiple tracks for the film Pursuit of Happyness. There is something about her music which really hits the spot of emotion.