threesixty.002

So here's the final outcome. I'm very thankful to Alex who helped me a lot during the editing with reassurance and helpful suggestions!

The quality of the video online doesn't seem great at all, but I suppose that's all I could expect having exported it as 4096x2048 - as I couldn't export it in any higher quality without the export itself taking a whole day and a half. 

Other than that, it was very rewarding and I'm definitely gonna do this more! Here's the last screenshot and a thumbnail I made whilst waiting for the export!

threesixty.001

The idea to portray an indoors vs outdoors environment was very much Chloe's idea and I thought it would be interesting to use 360 to place the person in two completely opposite places, from a comfortable, cosy home scene to a littered, dirty outdoors - an exaggerated or possibly a very true and unarguable statement - so it was then my idea to perhaps allow the person to be in both places at the same time! 

We decided on two locations - my flat, and a spot in Farnham Park with swings that is usually very littered. The decision was to then use half sphere of each place and put them together, so that if a person looks through a VR, in front of them is the flat, but when they look behind them - it's the park. Chloe took upon the role of Producer, I was to film and Junaid was to edit. 

We got Dean to help us out with acting. On the day of our shoot, it happened to be the Advanced Photography hand-in, so both Junaid and Dean had to be in to submit their work. Dean was able to help us in the morning, but then had to go in during the afternoon for a few hours. We decided that Junaid could focus on Photography if he was to edit the films together. The morning went smoothly - we filmed in my flat, and the footage was exactly what we wanted. We then had to wait until about 3:30 for Dean to submit work and head to Farnham Park.

And that's where most of the issues started. Chloe had to leave at 5, but we only got there at about 4:30. And then, out of nowhere, the camera would only record 20 or 30 seconds of footage at a time. I thought perhaps I was walking too far away (as we obviously had to hide), so I left my phone below the camera. It ran past 20 seconds, so I left and told Dean to start moving. Three minutes later, I checked my phone... and nothing. At this point Chloe had already left and I was really confused as to what the issue could be - the settings were fine, nothing had changed since the flat. My phone would occasionally show a location error - so I figured perhaps there was something interrupting the signal. So then, on my own and both stressed and confused, I decided to let Dean go and went home to see what's happening. 

As soon as I was indoors, the camera did another 20 second cut but the next time I pressed record, it was once again working fine. Knowing we only had the one day to finish this work, I called Junaid to come help me film in a different spot in Farnham Park - a more open area. The camera acted up three times, but fourth time was the charm and it worked. Sadly, this meant we went against the original idea of having the same person on both sides of the sphere.. but it had to be done!

Junaid put the footage on his drive, and eventually transferred it to me on Friday. I exported both 3 minute clips from the Insta 360 Studio Software - it took about 3 hours in total on my laptop. Then on Saturday, I went to the library from about 12 until 6 - Junaid joined midway through. Our goal for the day was to clear the footage in After Effects and export it.

(Here's a photo from when I was in the library on Sunday, having a little panic when I realised I had messed up the first export!)

Clearing the footage indoors proved to be the most difficult, because I couldn't make the light on the carpet as gradient as it would be naturally. I think I cleared it about 4 different times and Junaid attempted to clear it 4 more times - until we were finally happy. 

The one outdoors was way easier - although I made the awful mistake of not watching the entire footage through before rendering it! For about 5 seconds, a piece of paper that flew too close to the tripod got cloned and repeated itself until wind blew it slightly to the side. So I had to export that one again on Sunday.

But back on Saturday, Junaid and I were trying to figure out what the best way to export this footage would be. Whilst waiting for Jeremiah to respond, we looked up H.265 and decided to test the 5760x2880 size - but the computers estimated the rendering time to be about 13.5 hours for each video and we simply couldn't do that. I took the project back home with me, and decided to use H.264 but my laptop offered to keep the 5760x2880 size even on H.264 so I got very excited and attempted this. Sadly it still estimated to be about 8 hours each and I didn't think that would be possible - my laptop started freezing up just 4 minutes into the export.

So I settled for changing it to H.264 and 4096x2048, as this would only take 2.5 hours to export (each) and I left it exporting over night. We really did want to export it in the highest possible quality, but the issue was we would need to export our project multiple times - as we cleared it in After Effects, but then needed to rotate sphere and crop into half-spheres in Premiere (there was simply no good Crop effect in After Effects that would work as well). We thought we might need to then put it back in After Effects to create a round line across the cut edge, however as I'm writing this we've decided to instead use edge feathering and make it so that the outdoors slowly fades onto the indoors, and symbolically as Dean takes care of his plants and the outdoors reaches indoors, Junaid's littering also falls onto the floor inside. Once I did this, I realised it looked much more intriguing and in fact said more about our rationale then just two unmoving half-spheres.

With only Monday left, my job is to quickly add the sounds (ambient atmospherics) I recorded on a Zoom whilst filming to the Premiere Pro project, and then export the file tomorrow so I could also upload it on Vimeo in time for the hand-in!

It's been a very confusing and strange week - I think I mostly felt anxious because I didn't know how to resolve any of the issues because I was still really unfamiliar with most aspects of the process. Hopefully it turns out as good as it looked to Junaid and I today - or perhaps we were just too exhausted to know any better. Despite all that, it was still so very fun and definitely something I'll do again - hopefully with more time than two weeks.

vfx.002

Somewhere between the first post and this I became really overwhelmed by what I wanted to do. I didn't know if I wanted to make something incredibly complex or simple but effective. The first tests I did were inspired by the A24 ident - my favourite. I wasn't sure what I was doing it for so I just used the word 'Juno'.

I had to create the letters as separate layers in Illustrator, then import them and craft their paths from one position to another. This individual comp was then imported into the following RGB comp where I set the individual channels, adjusted the size of each comp by 0.5 (as well as keyframe their length) and delayed each one by 1 frame to have the following effects.

So here's how that ended up looking:

And that's where the struggle started because I couldn't think of a way to get this to work with a credits sequence. I've always been a fan of simple, minimalist credits... so I sort of just went with what I personally wanted to do & knew would make nice opening credits.

I went through a bunch of films, looked at the atmosphere they established and ended up settling on Lady Bird. What followed was an hour of cutting out vintage lady birds from old postcards and books in Photoshop.

And then a lot of text alignment, optics, some blur, some noise, a bit of masking for an effect of glow with the use of decreasing exposure. At one point I used Motion Tile to add Wiggle effect to the text, and then ended up doing that to everyone single one of the lady birds as well. They all got keyframed to crawl across the screen.

So here's all that:

And then eventually, when everything seemed good to go, I decided to cut the credits with some scenes from Lady Bird ft. a lovely song by Junodream that I felt captured the feeling of the film really well.

avid.001

After the long break away from AVID, I felt rather unfamiliar with the software. Surprisingly, as soon as we all got our workspaces and passwords, it all started coming back naturally. 

On the very first day, I looked through the 'Meat Bag' footage, sorted it into bins, made a basic rough cut and left it at that. I felt very conflicted about the footage as there were large jumps in the flow of the story and it made me feel anxious when viewing it. I thought, if I have to edit together a film and I'm already feeling stressed just reviewing the rough cut, I won't be able to make it to my usual standard, or enjoy the process. 

I left it at that and the following week, after a chat with Kathryn, I decided to import the footage from 'Basement' (which I re-titled Rouge) and start from scratch. Perhaps due to the fact I hadn't seen this footage before, I felt excited and intrigued, and within one day I had made a rough cut, a second rough cut and a diegetic soundtrack. 

Following that, I saw that the weather forecast was suggesting there might be snow, so I went decided to spend my free Thursday afternoon editing until the closing time at 8pm. By this time, I had a cut I was pleased with, audio was 90% synced and I was able to do some colour retouching. 

As predicted, campus was shut on Friday due to snowfall.

The week after that, I made use of the AVID rooms after 4pm which was when the MAs left.

I added a crop because I felt it gave a more TV-like feeling, and I thought it would be interesting to add sound to the TV. I used that of an old, short trailer and it matched perfectly with the feel I was going for. During the edit, I decided I wanted it to imply that the lives of the characters were also almost TV-like. I also got some ambient and atmospheric soundtracks, to increase the feeling of suspense and oddness, with some strange noises increasing when the Boyfriend enters the basement. 

Most of my time was spent keyframing audio and retouching the highlights (as in some shots the settings looked completely different!) so that on its own took about a day and a half. Other than that, I found it very easy to keep everything tidy within each Bin, all the AVID tools felt easy and understandable to use by the end of the editing process, and I handed in my final edit on February 7th.

Here's what that almost Final Cut looked like, with all the keyframes, titles, audio, cuts and the coloured overlay at the end to make it look like a light-leak (although the implied message was it starts again!)

vfx.001

I've become so used to Illustrator that I no longer remember how different After Effects is, as you can probably tell by the text I used to experiment today...

 Anyhow, I spent today just familiarising myself with all the bits and bobs again, and made this little title sequence using Motion Blur, Wave Warp, Colour Keyframes & a quick Wiggle through Motion Tile.

I really want to make use of either Super Retro M54 or Benguiat fonts as pictured below.

Other than that, I'm not too sure of what I want to do quite yet - but I did find the Title Sequence below to be really interesting.

studio shoot evaluation

Final Evaluation

previous posts here x and here x

As a follow-up to my Production Designer and First Evaluation posts, I decided to write up a new, final Evaluation as I feel like I can now look back and be more reflective about the time leading up to the shoot. The other two posts are more specific to researching my role and the way pre-production went, whilst this is more of an overlook. My role was very much pre-production based, working with the Producer and DOP to create the set, gather props and get everything ready so that the Camera Team could get to work without any issues. 

Our group had a very slow start in October, due to the fact we had issues meeting up at one certain time. Because of this we went back and forth with our ideas for a while, and at one point the Art Department and the Director came together to brainstorm and create a presentation that would portray our idea because there was still too much uncertainty. I made an Art Direction powerpoint, Anike wrote a quick script draft and Emily helped gather our ideas together. I think this was an issue because nobody wanted to step up as ‘the leader’, therefore there wasn’t anyone making the final decision, hence why Emily, Anike and I temporarily stepped up to clear it up. 

From early on I knew our DOP Lois and Director Emily wanted an eerie, dark atmosphere, so I looked into films by David Lynch, such as Blue Velvet and Rabbits, as well as found that Babadook (by Jennifer Kent), Hannibal (by David Slade) and 10 Cloverfield Lane (by Dan Trachtenberg) also had a similar odd look that we were interested in. I wrote these down as visual influences and started to work on a Set Design whilst communicating to our Producer, Director and DOP. There were some issues with getting the script finalised, so I had to start working on visuals before being able to read the actual script, hence why instead of envisioning the look from what I read, I had to come up with it by creating a thorough list of emotions we wanted to achieve. 

We wanted it to be dark, old and empty looking yet with colourful memories attached due to the presence of a child in pre-film timeline. I also suggested we use balloons instead of meat bags due to cutting down on the ‘gruesome’ and instead focusing on the ‘eerie and ambiguous’.  

After this the pre-production went quite quickly. Pip was wonderful within her role, and clearly assigned specific paperwork to everyone. I made a Studio Design sketch and a Budget list for furniture, smaller props and make-up, whilst also doing my best to source them for free so that we wouldn’t spend too much on anything. With Pip’s help, we decided to gather money from our group so we could purchase the props as neither of us could afford to spend it individually. This also went quite quickly, and soon Pip, myself, Brodie and Jen found ourselves in Homebase purchasing paint, rollers, other build-related necessities. The build itself was quite fun and we did it very quickly and without any major issues. Pip, Anike and I also purchased the wardrobe for the actors as Grace wasn’t around for most of the time, so possibly missed the fact we needed to get the costume muddy/slightly coloured as when she brought in her wardrobe the Friday before shoot, she told us we couldn’t make it dirty. 

At the same time, however, we needed to order helium because we were advised to have it on-set so we would be able to inflate the balloons if anything went wrong. The balloons supplied by Emily turned out to be too small when we inflated them, so we had to quickly order some bigger ones. This is where one of our main issues came from – the bigger balloons needed more helium, but when they came on Friday before the shoot, we thought the helium cannister would be enough to fill one up for the shoot. However, when I got there on Monday morning, the helium canister had been tampered with as half of the helium had escaped it, thereby not being enough to keep the balloon up. I quickly found the closest party shop, and with the help of Emily’s car, Pip, Emily and I were on our way to Aldershot. This pushed our filming schedule back by about an hour, although during the day we managed to catch up at one point. 

I felt very disappointed in myself as I still believe this is my fault, although I still don’t understand what could’ve happened to the helium as it had been properly closed as per instructions after the test balloon. 

Despite this setback, everything else went according to plan. I worked very closely with Pip and there weren’t any issues with getting the set up and dressing it as we successfully sourced everything we wanted. I enjoyed my role thoroughly as it was exactly what I wanted to do, and except for the accidental helium problem, everything went smoothly. Because my role was very much pre-production based, I was able to use the rest of the time to watch the camera team, actors and sound recording, so I feel like despite not participating in the actual shooting of the script, I learned more about the value of every role and importance of team work (because if one person doesn’t do what they say they will, everything crumbles like dominoes!) It was very valuable, as well as stressful, but it definitely taught me more about the skillset and mindset a person needs to make a shoot work from beginning till end!

part two of studio shoot: first evaluation

Previous post on Studio Shoot - research of my role as Production Designer

Leading up to the shoot, I made multiple different layouts as the plans kept changing due to small issues of communication between the groups. At one point we had an angled back wall, then windows on both sides, then a few different locations for the door.

In the end, we went to the first day of studio build with this layout:

However, when we took the Film set down, we realised there was only one window panel of the size we wanted. As we had already placed it on the side that Group A wanted, Group B sadly agreed to have the one window on the right side. Also we decided to go for 4 x 4 panels as we didn't necessarily want a big space, and were going for the atmosphere of cosy, smaller room.

After the build came the sanding, painting etc. The weekend before our studio build, Pip, myself, Brodie and Jen went to Homebase to get all the things we needed: paint, rolls, tape, brushes, etc, so as soon as the walls went up, we were able to start painting! Here is a wonderful photo taken at about 6pm on Tuesday, 20th.

And here's the prop list we went shopping with:

It was very impressive how quickly the set came alive. Even though there were some issues of communication, most of the crew followed art direction and on the first day we left with most of the walls having had the first coat of paint. The following day we focused mainly on re-painting the walls, window and door. We wanted the door brown, so we sanded it before spray-painting it brown. Within a day and a half, our set was up and ready to be dressed, which was very impressive and unexpected. With the door and window in place, we decided to focus on putting up the curtain pole / curtains and the flooring. When doing this, the first issue I came across was that there weren't enough wooden floor boards, but with Alex and Jen's help we put together a rather interesting flooring consisting of two rugs, floorboards, and other wooden panels we found in the studio. Despite how strange it sounds, it actually looked lovely.

Then came the actual dressing and with the help of my group we placed the furniture where we wanted it and I added little bits and bobs, such as a plant outside our window so it would be visible when the light shined inside against the back wall, and used fake blood to fake wine stains inside the wine glasses as we didn't want any liquid on set.

Surprisingly enough, everything was perfect so surely enough something was gonna go wrong. Pre-light went fine, although Pip, Anike and I had to go out shopping for one of the actor's wardrobe as the clothes Grace had brought in couldn't be made dirty using fake blood. This took some unplanned money out of our budget as we had expected to use clothing we already had. 

When we came back after the weekend, as I was inflating the balloon in the morning I realised that something was wrong with our helium canister. With 30 minutes before the shoot, Pip, Emily and I jumped into a car and drove to Aldershot to find a party shop with helium canisters that we could buy. 

Despite our rush, we held the scheduled time back by approximately an hour and that's my biggest regret of the studio shoot as I feel like it was my only job to ensure everything was okay for the shooting to begin and I failed. I'm very thankful for my group being supportive, and for Emily and Pip being quick thinkers and getting more helium.

After that, everything actually went quite smoothly.

In terms of my role, I felt like I achieved what I set out to do. I learned a thing or two, and worked very closely with our Producer and my Set Designer to establish a visual look from quite early on in the pre-production. I'd like to think I achieved the look we were going for and to see it come alive was an amazing experience - it actually looked like a cosy little room once it was lit up.

I don't think there's anything I would change at all because I feel like we did everything the way we planned to. I'm definitely thankful I had the support of my team & Anike did a wonderful job at creating the fake meat we used on set. 10 out of 10.

part one of studio shoot: production designer

The Role of a Production Designer:

They are the Head of the Art department and thereby the person responsible for the visual look of the production and the choices made. They work with the Director, Producer and Director of Photography to select the best style to tell the story.

In our Art Department I'm the production designer, Anike is the set dresser and Grace is the wardrobe/make-up artist. As part of our first three studio shoot group meetings the concept of the story kept changing so we were unable to come up with much in terms of a look, so the three of us decided to meet up to discuss the possible look based off the outline of an idea.

First, we researched the photo and Gregory Crewdson's inspiration - David Lynch.

So after this I created a mood board to portray the sort of atmosphere I wished out set to convey in relevance to the story-line of an unusual family in a dystopian type of location.

I also mainly focused on the sofa as I felt within the image it was the most eye-catching piece of furniture and the careless/carefree way the girl lay was very much what inspired most of our ideas.

It's very much the starting days for our studio shoot and without a script and communication it's very hard to come up with much in terms of what the director and dop will want to see.

The next step would be reading through a draft of a script to visualise the story so that I get a better understanding of how the story will unfold.

As it happens at the moment myself, the director and the set dresser have all taken on the role of writing up a broader version of the story line from the previous script-writing team just so we could present a more detailed plot to our group tomorrow.

Based off this I have also created a rough set design and along with Anike and Grace we have come up with a rough list of possible props/wardrobe within a budget of £100 or less that we hope to pursue with the producer.


The list of things I have to do as a Production Designer:

• Envision the look and layout of the set based off the script
• Fulfil the requirements to portray the wanted atmosphere
• Brief the look of the characters
• Communicate this information to the DOP, Director and Producer for approval
• Forward these plans to Anike for budgeting with Producer
• Forward wardrobe/make-up related research to Grace