Final Major Project -
This is our last project of the year, for this we will be using every skill we have learnt to create a project entirely by ourselves, we can create anything we want for this in the realm of do-ability, our final marks depend on this unit
NEW FMP SITE
FMP | Creative Media Site (da343325.wixsite.com)
Planning stage
The Minds maps, mood boards and proposal here are to demonstrate ideas i am planning to make for our main proposal, they are the initial ideas that help develop the final idea into something that can be made feasibility and in the timeframe given. This the pre production before the actual pre production of the final idea. This FMP is going to be the biggest product we develop, having the most pre-production.
Music video idea
This is the first idea i wanted to go with, its a music video focus around the song "Channel 5 the musical, its a cynical take on news media portrayed in a, until the twist end. This idea is way too much work for me so this is the least likely
Railway documentary idea
This is the second idea i thought of, being a railway documentaries on how railways have tied to my life since i was young. i went for the same layout as the last mood board, to keep them looking
Audiobook idea
This is the Third idea i went with, its focused around the railway series set of books, which went onto inspire the Thomas show and franchise, This will involve prop making and using audio as the main element. This is the one im most likely to do, its the most fun, the one i would be most involved in doing and wouldn't require a big crew of people
Feasibilities
ON SEPEREATE PAGE
Channel 5 proposal
This is the Third idea i went with, its focused around the railway series set of books, which went onto inspire the Thomas show and franchise, This will involve prop making and using audio as the main element. This is the one im most likely to do, its the most fun, the one i would be most involved in doing and wouldn't require a big crew of people
Idea 1 - music video
Idea 2 - documentary
Main idea - short film
This is the Third idea i went with, its focused around the railway series set of books, which went onto inspire the Thomas show and franchise, This will involve prop making and using audio as the main element. This is the one im most likely to do, its the most fun, the one i would be most involved in doing and wouldn't require a big crew of people
Pitch product
This is my pitch, we were all tasked to make one before we started are pre production so we can pitch our ideas. These are long and have alot of moving
This was my pitch that i presented to my lecturer, i did not like presenting is as i don't have a very good speaking voice, so this was very difficult for me, i didn't like explain my ideas but got past that by writing down what i wanted to say
My feedback from Chris was super helpful, he essentially made me change my whole product from a audiobook to a short film as i had completely changed where my focus point was, being more focused on the model work but still leaning into the audio element of everything. I had to also change what i was de-constructing from mangus archive to buy the farm, as the mangus archive is an audiobook and buy the farm is a short film. Another thing he said for me to do was test shots with the lighting to be done with help from him and David, those were done and went super well, i got more experience using the slider and how to properly set up the set for use
These videos are me presenting the pitch as we had them recorded, in all honestly i think i did awfully as i chocked on what to say multiple times during the presentation
Test shoots
These are the tests shots i am doing to practice and test some of the skills i will need for my audiobook visual element, i will be testing elements like greenscreen as i didn't get much time to mess with it, visual effects like facial movement for the engines to give me them more personality. The first one i did with David went well as i had been given more time from people who booked the studio but didn't need to use it, this allowed me more time to faff around and set things up, as well as use more lens.
Probed test shots
Greenscreen test shot
Evaluation
ON SEPEREATE PAGE
Evaluation
Behind the scenes
This is David helping me set up the propped lens and the table we are filming with, as well as how the lighting was done
This helped me realize how big of a space i would need to film the trains and how to use the slider and probed lens,
i really enjoyed using the probed lens as it was already a fun looking design but also very useful for close up shots of the engines, however it has a fault in that you can use it in dark spaces as it runs at 14 Fstop.
lighting/smoke machine test
Evaluation
ON SEPEREATE PAGE
Behind the scenes
This is David helping me set up the propped lens and the table we are filming with, as well as how the lighting was done
This helped me realize how big of a space i would need to film the trains and how to use the slider and probed lens,
i really enjoyed using the probed lens as it was already a fun looking design but also very useful for close up shots of the engines, however it has a fault in that you can use it in dark spaces as it runs at 14 Fstop.
Choosing a Narrator
This was a process of choosing a narrator for my project, I had 3 options, 2 of which were in college and one who was in London (Anthony being the one in London, Harry and Alfie were in college) This would make you think that choice of harry and Alfie would be the one i would pick but however that isn't the case, as i will go through here
Harry - Starting with harry, I found his tone a bit dull an dry, giving no inflicting on the text, He also spoke too fast and would get stuck on words, he didn't give any infliction on the different wording of the characters, and wouldn't give spaces between the letters, though his voice is quite nice to hear, he has a nice sounding low voice, but it doesn't pair well with his unclear speaking/
Alfie - I lied allies a lot, he spoke clearly and gave different inflictions to each new paragraph, he also did the character voices well, separating them from the narrator voice. However i dint like how over the top he went with it, I liked his narrator voice but i would be hard to listen o for 10 minutes, and could be bothersome with some of the bigger exclaiming scenes, or when cutting between VAs, it could e to much of a contrast from the others.
Anthony - Anthony w my clear option, his upper class sounding London accent and his clear speaking made it easy to se that his was the best choice for my project, he gave the character different voices that fit his narrator as well, so wouldn't be to much of a contrast between other character voices.
Final Major Project
weekly diary
Week 1,2 -
work done this week: mind maps, mood boards
work uncomplete: Proposals
entry - Week started off kind of bad, I thought it was Sunday and missed first lesson, thankfully I didn't miss much as it was a simple introduction, but would've been nice to have heard it, rather than a small debrief, As well as he able to see the previous years short films, I seem to always miss the screening of those, couldn't immediately start as I have 2 evaluations I forgot to do, thankfully I had done them fast and I think rather well for the time crunch I had, I really wished I had put more effort into getting the first 3 ideas done but I wasn't fully understanding how much effort I need to put into this unit, thankfully i had been brainstorming my main 3 ideas during the week half-term so their wasn't any delay in putting my mind to work on them, i had changed the final 3rd idea more than once though, first being a short film hat had no real idea what i wanted to do for it, to being a documentary and railways and my relationship with them./ then a next week I will be mainly focusing on completing the work then hanging out with people, I am happy with the ideas and I am flowing with ways of doing it, getting in contact with people I will be using if I do one idea or the other. Out of the three ideas I'm stuck between doing 2, the audio book really stands out to me overall though i may need to change book if I'm going for visuals I Just need to focus on work over everything in this unit, do i can stay on-top of it all and not fall back and drown in the amount off work i need to do.
Week 3 -
work done this week: pitch, first test shot
work uncomplete: feasibility, deconstructions 1 and 2
entry - so this week went well, finished my 3 ideas proposal mood boards and mind maps, and decided on doing the audio book, I'm honestly really looking forward to making the models and messing with the ideas, though this week was quite short as we didn't have Thursday, and during the week our lecturers weren't in the class. I started my pitch to a rocky start, I got myself confused due to overthinking it and what I needed to do for it, I honestly need to work on just doing something and if it doesn't work out just keep trucking on, or constantly asking for someone to check on my work, this will help me from stopping work and failing behind. I was able to get my cast completely sorted for the book, having people from college and voice acting friends them being Anthony who's a really good help on getting references for images and sets I can make, Jay, whos a good friend and a good voice actor, Tyche who really want to voice someone so i allowed them, and Bear who is my partner and also really wanted a part in this. he also has a naturally good narrator voice. I had help from Lindsey, helping me polish my proposals for my three ideas, adding things I forgot to or didn't think to add before, like adding fonts and more images. Overall this week went well, besides the obvious of the week being cut short and our lecturers being busy for 2 of the 3 days we were in. For next week, i shall focus on the pitch, just get it done and fill out as many holes as possible in any of the other works I have.
Week 4 -
work done this week: test shot 2, feasibility 1-2-3,
work uncomplete: deconstructions
This was a pretty productive week, focused on the pitch product and getting it done to a good standard as we were presenting them on the Thursday this week, it was a whole class deadline . This week I did my first test shot with David, for this we tested using a slider and probed lens, this was my first time using either as I was meant to use the slider during my ad but never got the chance as it was already in use. This gave me perspective on how to use a thing like this as it's very easy to use but also very easy for everything to do wrong during the shot
The probed lens however is super fun and also very easy to use, being a super long lens that can see detail from far away. This test shot brought alot of perspective on how to use the probed lens and how the wide lens makes the toy engines seem bigger
The pitch day came along and I thought it went awfully, my speaking voice still isn't good and I chocked on my words twice, almost restarting completely at one point, didn't help that alot of the class was watching it. when it was over I didn't watch the video and just put it on my site
What I did get was good feedback from Chris. Overall, pretty productive week.
Week 5 -
work done this week: test shot 2, feasibility 1-2-3,
work uncomplete: test shot evals 1-2-3, shooting, edit
another pretty productive week, however it was another strike week so we had 2 days where no lectures were in, Monday I finished my first deconstruction, and also learnt we had to do 3 instead of 2 deconstructions, so I had to find another thing to deconstruct, this was also the week I did my last test shot, this was the most crucial one, as it dictated whether I could actually use my engines properly. The shot went well, I had a lot of help from David and Chris on what shots looked the best and how to properly use the slider, it was easier that i expected, just having to keep in mind how lose it is and how long you want to being for. The rest of the week I spent finishing my deconstructions and editing my test shot, editing of these two were really simple and didn't take much time, just adding music and text to make them a bit more digestible. I did a very rough draft of my narrations as well, making me rethink how many of the stories I can actually do, as two stories are 10 minutes, I ended up changing it on only 2 of the stories to make it easier on me and much more feasible to be finished in time, this doesn't change much however. On the Thursday it was only mean and one other person so we just cracked on with work, being the start of my re-search, i felt like i should only do the introducing and start learning about the people, rather than doing it without asking my lectures first so i didnt do much for the re-search this week unfortunately, as i was busy shooting. and i got the other deconstruction done, Overall good week.
Week 6-7:
work done this week: first and second test shoots,
work uncomplete: deconstructions
This is the week i started with finishing my test shot evals as they wer easy to get out of the way, then started to actual do some of my re-search and my actual shoots, i started with shooting as it was the most importathe first actual shoot went really well, i had help from David and Tyche to get it done, i had trouble with getting the slider shots correct but had help from David with making them smoother and slower, this was only 1 set so what i filmed was for only a couple scenes, this shows me how much time i will need to spend in each set and how much will need to film, i had Tyche helping me with this, they were controlling the smoke machine and pushing the engines around, this made it easier for me to focus on the slider and getting this hot right, however one glaring issue is the fact i used manual focus instead of auto, so some of the shots were focused poorly, and had to be re-done, plus me not being attentive enough to what i had on my shot list, some of the shots had the wrong faces on and needed to be re-done the following day in the 2nd shot, Speaking of the second shot, this one was a bit more chaotic, i had less time and was missing my backdrop i had got, i later found it during the two days i came over the first week of half-term, but this meant i had to use a bit of my brain to have the set edges not be seen, i had David hold up some green and had the lights alot less bright for the scenes it would be most seen in, thankfully it doesn't show much on the camera and i got away with no backdrop for this shoot, i do regret rushing the last things i filmed, as it can be seen on camera how the sets are a bit barren and you can see the edges slightly. I got a really, really rough version of my edit done before half-term started, missing footage and having no audio over it, but thankfully the college was open over the half term, so i got most of the edit done and my re-search on full steam, with help from David i had done a lot of work to it and almost done 2 theorist. I will be focusing on my research alot more next week to get it done and over with.
Week 8:
Work done this week: finishing re-search, finishing editing, re-did parts of treatment
Work uncomplete: re-search and editing, start eval, readying for screening
This week was the last week of editing, i had to get my edit done as i had a few scenes that needed audio and sounds, i had to start my actual sound editing, this was the part i looked forward to the most as i really like doing the audio and making sound effects work, i had also changed around some of the footage and colour-corrected the night scenes to be black instead of a blue tinge, one thing wrong with my edit is the fact some of the shots were out of focus, so i had learnt to sharp[en the faces to make them stand out more. With this my edit was half done, this was when i decided to work on my theory work more because i had 1 more theory, this one was the easiest one and allowed me to focus on my editing. Not alot besides that went on this week so i dont have alot to write about.
Week 9
This week was are last week to edit, I had got my sound effects all sorted and started, prety much that's all I did this week, I had a minor scare on Wednesday as my project wouldn't load on a different computer and I almost lost all the work I had done, thankfully I had auto saves on my main computer I use in college. I was pretty stoked to show my project to everyone, I was and still am proud of the audio work I did and the visuals too, but the second years seemed to not care for it as the feedback I got was either really dry or just plain nothing. Thankfully the rest of the class was pretty fair with it and I don't really have to changed any of my edit. Near the end of the week i was asked to do ADR for The project i starred in as they didn't record audio correctly, i didn't mind doing so as it was quickly done.
week 10:
This is the last full week, I spend this week doing some of the pre production I hadn't done like the proposal and fixing my treatment, but most of the week i spent editing the audio on my project for the eventually screening, my screening was one of he first that day and went really well, it was so fulfilling to see loads of people watching what i had spend my 2 months working on, but less fulfilling to see the feedback i got, as most people either didn't write much or didn't write anything at all. My eval was probably the most draining thing I've worked on yet, it wasn't hard or anything but it was just really easy to do so it made doing it boring. Though i completed it to a high standard in my opinion.
