FMP – The magic of the movies
Because my 2 filming days were a bit rushed (mostly due to noisy planes) I wanted to check that I had all the footage that I needed to make my film. I wanted to check this as soon as possible.
I am thinking that if I have to re-shoot some close-ups of, for example, the red or white folded papers being placed under the stick, then as long as I find a similar piece of ground in the wood by the College, it will not be too noticeable. I would keep those cuts short, to decrease the chances of the audience noticing, and I also kept the original stick so that can use it for continuity if this is needed.
Over the 2 years of this course, one thing I have learnt is the power of the camera in making the audience see what you want them to see, not always what is really there – walking in a door and into a room that can be hundreds of miles from the exterior door and the audience believing it is the same place, showing someone face to the camera as they (apparently) look out at a view that we are shown in the next shot but which is in an entirely different place as 2 examples. This is the “magic of the movies”.
The first thing that I usually do is to go through and rename all the clips to be meaningful names. This usually is very useful for once I start editing, and for knowing which audio file goes with which video clip. However, it does take quite a while, and I had a lot of files to rename. So because I was in a rush to check if I was missing anything important, I took a different approach, which in hindsight was a mistake. I should still have stuck to my tried and tested routine, which I know works.
I was concerned because I have been frequently having to change my schedule due to elements that are out of my control, such as having to redo it due to uncertainty about when we would and wouldn’t be in College. This uncertainty meant that a different Episode became a more sensible option to film, However, that meant that I would have to film at a weekend. And I was aware that the time I had originally scheduled in for re-shoots and pick-ups I would not have my crew available, and more importantly I would not have my main actor.
When using other actors who are not on your course, back-up filming days are feasible. We were shown a distinction level Year 2 FMP by Samuel Sellers. I had examined his schedule when working out mine. However, he was filming with external actors, which is not so easy under present Covid conditions. I can see that there is the risk that involving someone outside of my bubble could not only affect me, if they get Covid and I have to self-isolate, but also my Group if I catch it and they have to self-isolate.
These concerns are what made me change my normal procedure and do an initial rough cut first. I thought that I could fairly quickly put all the files in the right order into Adobe Premiere Pro, cut them very roughly, and be able to see if I had the correct narrative and hence all the shots that I need. But watching the footage is taking ages, and even making rough cuts is just taking too long.
After a frustratingly long time trying to do this, I concluded this was not a good use of time. I decided on a different approach. I decided to just look at some specific areas that might cause me problems if I didn’t have them (paper colour under sticks, hat tips, see the others). I decided that, from experience, I am pretty good at using clips from areas not filmed for a purpose, so the rest of it I was pretty sure I could make work. The particular areas I was checking were areas that I thought I might get away with taking Jack and/or Ellie to the woods by College with just a tripod and the Panasonic because those woods are also Deciduous with brown leaves on the floor. If I make the shots close up ones, and short ones, then it probably wouldn’t be too obvious that it wasn’t the same wood. This means that I can figure out quickly if I need to try to arrange to shoot some extra shots in the College wood. Knowing this as soon as possible is important, since the other in my group are also sorting out their filming days, both in and out of College. They were kind enough to give me a weekend of their time, longer if you include the test filming days, so I need to help them in return and not get on the way of their filming. That is part of teamwork.
Good News
Having checked the key shots I mentioned above, I was really pleased to find that I pretty much have them all. There will be a few challenges, particularly with some of the shots at the end of each day when we ended up rushing to get the shots before Jack had to leave. However, over-all I am happy. We shall see if I am quite as happy when I start editing since I have some pretty ambitious editing to do, especially of shots which will be edited to contain more than one Sam, ie different shots that contain Jack as 2 different Sam’s which I will be editing to look like they were one shot. Stationary shots aren’t too bad, but I also have tried some shots which have camera movement in them too. All these dual shots are important shots to me because they are one of the comedic devices that I found from my research.