This unit has been by far the most challenging yet rewarding experiences i've had on this course. I've had days of such positive highs after finishing the shoot day, to then be knocked down once it came to the edit finding out we need to re-shoot some more coverage. It's been a roller-coaster of a journey but now i'm ready to finis university and enter the real world. I made sure that I applied all of my research to my camera work/colour grade and creation of the trailer, in the hope that it would give me a better rounded project, hopefully all the work has paid off and the end product is enjoyed by the audience that choose to watch it. I'll outline all of my creative input for this project in this evaluation, and split them up to elaborate on what went well, what didn't go so well, and what could be improved upon for the future, entering the real world. I'll start with my specified role, that being cinematography.
CINEMATOGRAPHY
WHAT WENT WELL
Overall i'm pretty happy with how the camera work has panned out, now that i'm able to see it within the edit, it has been lifted by the colour grade and fast paced edits. I'm going to first discuss about the lighting and what I thought was good about it, then I'll move on to the framing/composition and movement of the camera.
LIGHTING
I felt that I set up the lighting throughout the majority of the scenes pretty well, as I what I gathered from my research is that I needed to make it look as natural as possible but also with a hint of surrealism as I needed lighting that would be best appropriate for our project. I felt I captured this particular light in all of the beginning scenes, the hallucination scenes and the raid scenes relatively well. The pub scene was a moment that I felt I constructed a really good set up for balancing out the natural light coming in from outside to inside in a effective way. I made sure to get the equal look on the other side and I felt I did this correctly, making the piece look very authentic. I also thought I managed the Graham interior scene pretty good, I used one LED to fill the room but only from from specific angle so that it made the room look dark, once again I felt I used the lighting effectively again within this scene, as it suited Graham's persona. A scene that I was particularlly happy with the lighting was the penguin scene, as I made sure to fill the room with as much light as possible, as I wanted a really crisp looking image for this scene to accentuate the chaotic experience of the trip. I felt this was captured throughout. To conclude i'm pretty happy with the lighting as I felt it was clear and consistent all the way through the project.
COMPOSITION & MOVEMENT
I liked that I kept a consistent aesthetic in terms of the camera framing and movement throughout the piece, so at no point looking through the edit now you question anything because from the very beginning it has been shot the same all the way through. I really enjoyed all the point of view shots, I felt they worked brilliantly and research really helped this choice after watching Peep Show I thought it was an ideal technique to use as it can amplify the humour in specific scenes, like the penguin scene and the raid scene. Another shot that I believe was extremely effective in its way of conveying to the audience which hallunciation we were about to enter in was the tracking shot used for all three of the characters with the green screen. This shot was significant as it brought more dynamism to the piece but also making the narrative easier to follow and brought it up a level. I thought this shot was the money shot for our piece. The handheld footage was utilised as much as I could and I'm pleased with how that came out in the end. I was really happy with the crash zooms that I captured as these added more depth to the project, tying in with the craziness of the narrative, reinforcing the shows themes by using very nuanced camera movements that help shape our project better.
(Penguin Scene)
(Getting a low angled shot of the master)
WHAT DID NOT WORK
There were several things in relation to the cinematography of this project that I felt didn't go as well as hoped. I'll open up about them and shed light on maybe why it was that they didn't have the desired effect as one hoped for.
LIGHTING
Looking back, I regret not using an extra LED for the bedroom scenes as I felt a couple of the shots didn't really look as powerful and consistent as the rest of the project. I should of had an extra one to shine onto each individual character when I was doing my singles of them. Additionally, when doing the green screen I may of used too high of a strength for the LED lights that were being shined on the characters. Looking at the footage now, because of the grade i've used and the lighting that was slightly peaking, it gives Liam a very pink face which is not the look I wanted. Graham's scene was very difficult to light and it was meant to look dark but i'm not fully convinced that I made it look dark enough, so i'm not too happy with the lighting of that scene. The light for the field scene was a bit too over exposed but there was nothing that could be done about that as it was on location and we had no control over the sun/light outside. We tried to restrict the strength of the sun with a reflector to bounce it off Liam's face and onto his other side to balance it but it just didn't work. The lighting for Sam's hallucination again was slightly overexposed when he goes to the window, this was difficult to sort out as I wanted to light his face but because of the light leak of the window I had to change my settings to suit the indoors, so the window just completely peaks unfortunately.
COMPOSITION & MOVEMENT
I wasn't too happy that I was utilising the tripod as much as I was, but this was Will's decision and from research stated for the relationship between the DOP and director, you have to facilitate the directors wishes and commands, you can only suggest things and if he/she doesn't want to do that then you can't do anything about it. So looking back at the footage, it goes from handheld to static a lot, which does suit the piece but for me personally I would of liked to keep it all handheld so there would of been a much clearer stylised technique consistently used throughout the project. I felt this would of added more to the narrative and amplified the chaos and mayhem that the characters were experiencing. I felt as if I may not of been as dynamic as the project demanded, we needed more movement instead of being on the tripod, and I felt we should of never really used one but that wasn't my choice. Also because of the location, we were restricted on space so if we did want to use a track and dolly, we couldn't, not that we had planned to, but I would of liked to have more movement injected into the piece to bring it to life more. As we had to de-rig at the end of every day, and put camera batteries on charge etc, the master shot would change every so slightly from last time as we could never get it to match 100%. This was slightly frustrating to come to terms with as I set out to achieve a super consistent aesthetic but I was quite able to capture it. The field scene was shot too quickly as people were rushing around trying to get it done so we could have our Sunday off, I didn't like that mindset. It made me feel uncomfortable and it definitely affected the outcome of this shoot by the framing and movement of this particular scene being less effective than it was in the test shoot. To finish up on these negatives, I do look back at the footage now and feel I could of done better if maybe I compromised with Will more about the tripod usage and if we could go handheld more.
WHAT COULD BE IMPROVED ON
I feel there's a lot that could be enhanced for my future productions after completing this project. In terms of cinematography, I know that working with the director is key and it's essential to have a really good relationship with them to get the best out of your project. So looking back I think for the future i'll have to be very flexible and open to new concepts that don't particularly tickle my fancy, as i'm entering the real world now where the possibilities of this happening are relatively high.
LIGHTING
Looking back I know that there's so much learn still on this element. Learning how to light things properly could be a degree option in itself. I know from specific scenes like Graham's room and trying to make it look dark to the hallucination scenes to try and amplify the feeling on their mental state, lighting is pivotal and conveys the tones of the scene just as much as the movement and colour does. So with that being said I need to think more carefully about where I should position the camera for tight spaces, and also what strength of light and kelvin should be used when trying to make a room look dark. I also feel that my timing to set up the lights to fill the room with the right amount of light needs to be more efficient, as I felt I rang over a little bit trying to figure out the place place to put them. I can definitely go onto my next filming project with more confidence though from this experience.
COMPOSITION & MOVEMENT
I believe that my ability to go handheld and my point of view shots can be enhanced by holding the camera tighter to my chest than I was doing for these shoots. I need to focus on where I should be angling the shot to get the most emotion out of the characters through the lens. Furthermore I feel like within this project my ability to think more creatively about certain shots was lacking a bit, so I need to really be able to think more out of the box when it comes to shooting projects as the more original i'll be, the better a filmmaker i'll become. I enjoyed the amount of camera settings I used on set but I need to learn more about how these can truly benefit a piece of work, and how they can push it to the next level. For my future projects to come, I need to try and incorporate my movement in my recording, and that will just come with time and confidence from attempting. I will try to learn about how to use gimbals and steadicams to be able to create beautiful fluid sequences that I felt this project could of benefited from massively.
SUMMARISATION
To conclude on this reflective analysis of my own work, I think it's safe to say that i'm not the finished article in terms of my camera work. I need to be able to think more creatively and work with the director openly about discussing better approaches to the work at hand. There is still so much to learn about this skill that it doesn't worry me about some of the mishaps that cropped up within this project because I know this is just the beginning of things to come. I finished university now but I begin work outside of here, entering the real world and dealing with real issues. Overall i'm pretty happy with how the piece looked as I felt it was very much the style the story deserved but possibly in my opinion not what it needed.
COLOUR GRADE
For this piece I was in charge of the colour grade and I did a vast amount of research before beginning the grading process which set me in good stead for the objective of giving it a surreal look. I knew I needed to add to the narratives overriding themes by manipulating the colour grade in a certain way that would fit them, and I felt this was possible by making the overall colour a consistent light pink/natural pink/orange tone throughout. It was almost as natural as you'd get in a drama but with a twinge of an extra bit of pink to add to the surreal elements dealt within this narrative.
WHAT WENT WELL
I thought that the approach I took with the edit was smart, I basically had atleast 100 LUTs downloaded already, and then through a trial and error process, tested them all until I curated a list of about 10 of the best looking ones that suited our narrative and the tone of the piece. This was through research that had guided me to approach it as such. I had a consistent workflow for this colour grade, and wrote everything down on paper to know what I had done and what scene I was up to, so I didn't lose track of anything. I think the end result for the majority of scenes was a overall solid and clear aesthetic throughout, keeping aligned with the story's overriding themes, so I was happy with that. I was really pleased with how the hallucination scenes came out looking. I spent the most time of these scenes after receiving feedback from Nathan and Simon suggesting to 'fuck it up' more. I took this on board and I feel the scenes really amplify the psychological state of all of our main characters which is great. I was also impressed with how I managed to make the penguin scene look, as the lighting for this scene was slightly different to the rest of the footage recording, so getting this to match up but also make it feel a bit more surreal than the rest of the footage other than the hallucination scenes was a challenge, but I feel I managed to overcome it. Furthermore, as we shot to acquire more coverage for specific scenes later on after our shoot week, these had a completely different look to it than the original footage shot. So when colour graded I had to spend some time figuring out the best way to make it look as similar to our original footage, and I feel again I controlled this issue and you can't really tell that it was shot on a different day with different settings.
Finally I felt as I was able to lift the narratives tone to match it's content through the use of the colour grade, ultimately achieving what I set out to achieve.
WHAT DID NOT WORK
I found it quite challenging at first to actually find the right LUT so in many ways, the things that were going wrong was maybe the time spent beforehand trying to find the right LUT, this should of been done maybe way in the pre-production element. Also because there were so many of us with differing opinions, we never came to an agreement on a single LUT, so I had to make the decision, with Will of course and ignore the creative input of Callum and Aimee at times to just get on with it. It wasn't really a team process but from research and what I gained the knowledge of is that it definitely should be a team process, everyone should be on board with the colour scheme and how it looks as the colour is most important bit of conveying the characters and their emotions through the screen to it's audience. Maybe some of the scenes outside on location, like the drug scene was a bit too overexposed and I couldn't really save that within the colour grade. Also in Graham's scene, potentially I could of made her room darker around her, but I felt at the time the room and her face were lit dimly enough to convey to the audience that she's in a dark space.
WHAT COULD BE IMPROVED ON
I definitely think that I need to learn more about the colour grade, and after the workshop with Nathan, I need to master the art of colour correction on DaVinci resolve. I feel as if this workshop would of been super useful maybe a two months before hand in rather than a week before. This isn't to say it wasn't useful but it would of been way more appreciated as then I would of started to learn DaVinci before then and graded on it to achieve a better colour grade for our piece. My listening and communication with others on the colour grade process needs to be improved as I felt at times I would get frustrated with others for not taking in my ideas when I should listen to them as they could be right. I need to be able to be open to new ideas and be willing to compromise on things even if I don't like it but the director does, we have to reach a middle ground as it'll benefit the project. But to conclude, I need more practice with grading to become better, it's fine doing all of this research but until you're actually grading I don't think it'll stick in my brain. That's why the process was so eye opening as it really allowed me to immerse myself into the projects creative side.
TRAILER
The trailer was my baby to be responsible for. I took great care essembling this piece, using all of my research to help with the construction of it. I knew the main things were to include the conflict within this project, the main protagonists and some one liners. It was a challenge to say the least.
WHAT WENT WELL
I really enjoyed doing the research for this short project, it had inspired to try out several techniques that i'd never done before whilst editing. One of those techniques was to have dialogue playing over a black screen, and to use a completely different image than the sound was from originally. I knew it needed to be short from the research I had done, roughly in the 20 - 45 second mark and I got it bang on 40 seconds. I thought that I shown an equal amount of good and average clips, so that I didn't saturate it with some of the best clips so that I didn't spoil it for the audience. I liked how I had paced the editing at the second half of the trailer, as it's cut to the bit and each frame is the same length so there is a real rhythm with the piece. I felt I gave the characters a good scene to be portrayed in as they each are able to demonstrate clearly their characters behaviours very clearly with each of them having dialogue within the first half.
WHAT DID NOT WORK
I struggled with using the music from the actual project and looking back maybe I shouldn't of used it at all. After discussing this with Callum he felt as it the music was for a very young target audience to which I agreed with him but said that this is the actual music in the narrative so that's the way I justified it. But I do now regret using it and I should of went with a musical score that supported the tone of the piece more. I also regret using some of the key frames from the penguin scene, as I felt this was potentially spoiling a plot line that we have within our project and this shouldn't be disclosed yet with the audience. Also I feel as if the clips are montaged together to quick, and you don't get to see a lot other than the first line of the first half of the trailer. Maybe looking back this was the wrong decision but at the time I justified the pacing of it by wanting to indicate the chaotic nature of this projects narrative.
WHAT COULD BE IMPROVED
There a lot of things that could be improved in terms of the trailer, but I did the best with what I had. If we were to improve it we'd have to improve the project itself, I'd like to include more one liners and hilarious moments between all of the characters but unfortunately we didn't have that footage to play with. I felt the piece didn't have a variety of scenes to create something that you could tease the audience with because the performances through parts lacked, or the script didn't shine through. Maybe looking back at it I could of been again more creative with my approach, by adding in more experimental transitions to each frame from the second half of the trailer to spice it up a bit.
THE FINISHED CUT FOR CEREAL OFFENDERS
OVERALL SUMMARY
Woah, it's over, my university experience is over! How has it been three years already!? Honestly this project has had it's ups and downs, but I feel my contribution to all of the elements I was responsible for was to a high standard and I feel I did the best I could of with the script and team I had to my disposal. I'm happy with how the final edit has came out, Aimee has done a really good job, there were times though where I was concerned and her and Andrew had a very conflicting relationship which made the edit seem like it wasn't going to get finished in time. In the end though we got there and we all survived it. The colour grade came together well and received the seal of approval from Will et al, so I couldn't really ask for anymore other than that. The trailer didn't go down too well as Aimee was the editor and she had a completely different style and vision in her head of how to do it but she never mentioned to me any of this and when I asked for help, I wasn't really given any. I did the best with what I had I feel so there isn't anymore I can contribute to this. This experience has made me realise that these kind of productions are not solo efforts but team efforts and by helping one another on something you're speeding up the process of ultimately everything, so I'll be applying this to future projects for sure.
