Communication
On the day before our first filming session I invited my main actress Hannah over so I could explain the plot and requirements in more detail. It was a very casual discussion, and once I had explained all that I had to say she later asked some questions going into more detail regarding costume, props etc.
Messages between me and Hannah
Since Hannah was very busy during the time of filming, most of out texts were just going over times and dates that we were available to film. When it came to arranging filming sessions with Josh, Hannah contacted him instead of me, since she was a lot more familiar with his schedule and could arrange things between themselves such as if Josh needed Hannah to drive him to any locations.
Contacting Record Company
Since I am making a music video for my project, I needed to get into contact with the record company to ask for permission to use the song. Since I will be uploading my video to YouTube, I realised that copyright may become an issue, and without permission, the video could be removed and my account could get a copyright strike. Because When You Leave is not a very well known song, and the artist Maps are quite "underground", I did not know how easy it would be to get in contact with the label, however after a quick search on Wikipedia i was able to find out what label Maps was under.
Despite having the option to contact Maps directly, I instead decided to contact Mute Records (http://mute.com/contact) for permission to use the song.
Feedback
Bella - 18
The shots go so perfectly with the song's vibe. The transitions are smooth. I really liked the colour hue, that was a really good detail and really stood out. It looks really good you should be really proud!
Roma- 18
I felt all sorts of emotions while watching this so the story worked really well. I really enjoyed the transitions and I just wanted to keep watching. I was HOOKED.
Leon- 18
A lot of the shots were uncentered but the actual cut on action and climax building is good. If you did a retake on some of the shots but edited it the same way it'd look a lot better instantly.
Josie- 18
The music is very fitting and creates a calm and abstract atmosphere. I also like the open ending and chance for interpretation.
Joe- 19
I would have preferred if the ending was clearer to bring closure to the story.
Julian- 20
I think the song choice worked great with the story, especially with the repeated lyrics. I was unsure about the ending since I didn't know if I was supposed to decide for myself or if I was just being slow and not understanding it.
Although most of my feedback was positive, it seems as though I had some mixed opinions on my interpretive ending. While planning the story I did consider giving it a definite ending, however I thought that I'd prefer it if the viewers came up with their own ending so that they went away from it with more to think about, and if I gave them the option to take the message away that they thought was right for them. Based on Leon's feedback, if I was to recreate my project, I would have spent a little more time making sure some of the shots were central to make the overall project a little more aesthetically pleasing. It seems as though everyone thought that the song choice was perfect for the story, so I am glad that I settled on that song instead of some of my other options.
Learning Journal
05/05/21
Today we were officially introduced to our FMP project. Despite already having an idea for what I wanted to do for quite a while, I decided that instead of a short film I wanted to make a music video, but with a very similar premise as my short film idea. My initial idea was to create a video about a couple dealing with loss, focusing mostly on the cinematography and the editing, which is why I went towards a music video rather than a short film, because it means my project is not as reliant on a script. There was one song that I was instantly drawn to, however i brainstormed some other songs that I could use so I had more variety of choice.
12/05/21
Since I usually struggle with keeping on track with my portfolio work, I decided to instantly get the informing ideas section out of the way. Doing all the research really helped me create a clearer idea of my project, and I posted some public Instagram polls so that my target audience could give some opinions and suggestions for the plot. I also did a bit of research online so that I could correctly portray the emotions I wanted, especially loss and grief, and the websites that I found really helped with that. I also decided on who I want to act in my video, so I got in touch with Hannah and Josh and they said that they were more than willing to help out.
19/05/21
This week I did a lot more of my portfolio work and had a solid, definite idea as to what my project was going to be. At the end of the week it was my first filming day at West Bay beach. When we got there we realised that the weather was going to be bad all night, which sort of ruined my idea to have a sunset background, however it worked out quite well, and I decided that I can just edit the sky in Premiere. Since it was the first day of filming, it was a little awkward at first since my actors had never acted before, and I felt a bit too bossy directing them, however after a short while it finally picked up and we were all a lot more comfortable with it.
26/05/21
This week I managed to get all of my filming done. I felt like I was a bit limited for time, so we had to squeeze a lot of filming into 2 days, since my actors had a lot of their own work to be doing. Despite feeling sort of rushed, the filming actually went the way I wanted, although once again the weather was very bad on a day that was supposed to be sunny. Not only did I get my filming done, I was very on top of all my portfolio work, and only had the post-production things left to do. I had planned, in full detail, how I was going to edit my project, so I was not at all anxious about getting that done in time, and made a mental note of the day i'd get the edit finished by.
02/06/21
By this time, I had finished my edit and uploaded it to my YouTube portfolio. Because of my plan, the edit itself did not take a long time, however I spent a little longer colour grading all my shots and making sure the shots change exactly on beat. I also learnt how to do cross-fade transitions, and I ended up using two of those in my project. Since I had started to fall a little behind on the portfolio wok, I spent a little while going through all 5 sections and adding things I had missed and making the already existing work a bit better. I also began collecting relevant things to include, such as behind the scenes photos, text messages and screenshots from the editing process.
09/06/21
This final week was mostly doing portfolio work, especially adding last minute things to my portfolio checklist to make sure it is as good as possible. I also had a look at some other people's websites to get inspiration and to check if I had missed anything important. I spent a bit of time going over my pre-existing work and checking that it was all up to standard, and I began finishing it off with the final documents like the feedback and the evaluation. Collecting feedback was a little difficult, because everyone I asked was around the same age so there was not much variety, and most of the feedback I received had nothing negative for me to reflect on.
Evaluation
Since the FMP project was mentioned to us quite a while ago, it gave me a lot of time to actually plan my project and come up with an idea that I am happy with. My very first idea was to create an LGBT short film starring two of my friends, portraying a romantic relationship where one of them pass away, and leave the other dealing with loss and acceptance. I was going to write a script which I would then narrate over the top of my shots, however it was quite difficult for me to think of script ideas since writing is not my strong point. When it was finally time to do the FMP, I instead decided to make a music video instead, so that it was less script reliant, however I planned to follow a similar story about a couple with a tragic end. I had to reconsider the actors that I used for this, since I had previously worked with the actress I had in mind and I knew that the filming process would be very difficult and not very productive with her, so my LGBT story ended up transforming into a straight couple, which wasn't entirely what I had in mind but the story itself did not change. My new idea was about Laura, a young girl who had to come to terms with her boyfriend Jack's disappearance. I decided to keep the ending interpretive, so that my audience could decide for themselves why he left based on the abstract shots I used throughout.
I was very invested in this idea since the subject of love linked with loss really spoke to me based on some previous experiences, and I wanted to make a video that in a way spoke my feelings for me. Despite death being heavily implied throughout the video, the way I personally felt about the subject of loss was not actually about losing someone to death, which added to the reason I kept the ending open, so that people who have also experienced loss could relate in whichever way suits them. The song itself (When You Leave- Maps) has a duration of 6 minutes, however for my story to be as effective as possible, I cut it down to around 3 minutes, to make sure that it did not drag out and make the audience bored and less attentive. If I was unable to create this project, or find anyone to act in it, I planned to film it all myself from home, with only me acting, and narration over the top telling the story of loss instead of showing it. Since my project did not require many props, I did not really have a back up plan for if the props were unavailable, since the story would have worked perfectly fine without them. There was a few shots that required my actress Hannah stood rather close to a main road, or on the island in the middle of the road, which could be considered dangerous. I planned to properly assess the danger on the day of filming depending on how many cars were on the road, and if it was deemed too dangerous to film I would have filmed the same shots but much further away from the road itself e.g. on the pavement.
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Most of my research came from social media polls and suggestion boxes that I posted publicly to Instagram, that received about 200 views. This was very beneficial to my research since the majority of the viewers were within my target audience age range (16-24), so their opinions were extremely helpful. Some of the questions I asked were a little difficult, such as how long it takes to get over losing someone you love and how you first realised you were actually in love, however I did have a wide range of answers to consider. A fair few of the people who replied to my question boxes gave joke answers, which made it a little difficult for me to figure out with answers to actually take into account, but I made a note of the helpful answers which I included on my informing ideas page. As well as primary research, I had a look at a few YouTube videos to give me a better understanding of romantic scenes in media, since I was very unsure what couple activities I could film. I also looked at some websites for date ideas to give me inspiration, and a few other websites about how people deal with loss. These websites taught me that there is no defined way to deal with these emotions, and everyone processes them differently, which took the pressure off a little when it came to the acting in my video. I also learnt that everyone has a very different perception of love, meaning that my ideas may not have appealed to everyone.
When it came to my portfolio work, I felt very on top of it all at the beginning but found myself falling off a little as my project progressed due to stress and personal issues. As well as this, filming was on quite a tight schedule since both of my actors had their own college work to be doing, and it was a little difficult finding days that we could all do, however we managed to narrow it down to 3 filming days, which we fit in after college hours. The editing, however, went very well and only took me just over an hour to complete, since I had already pre planned my edit and made a list of which shot goes at which timestamp. This meant that I was able to spend a lot more time trying out effects and transitions, and I spent a lot of that time on the colour grading, since that was a very big part of my project. My two actors, Hannah and Josh, had never acted before meaning that they were a little apprehensive when it came to being in front of the camera. This caused a bit of a slow start, but as the filming went on they became a lot more confident and it really showed in the footage. If I had more time to complete this project I probably would have spent more time on retakes, which would have given my actors more time to get comfortable with the script and I would have ended up with some better shots. The biggest problem during filming was that the weather was not how I planned for, so a lot of the scenes that were meant to be in the sun or with a sunset ended up being filmed in the rain. This worked out well for some of the scenes and created the right atmosphere, but for the more upbeat scenes I had to edit them in post to give them the warm sort of tone I was going for. Filming in the rain was also very difficult on the main road, since Hannah and I were the only ones there, and setting up the equipment in the rain was quite a task.
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My project was not at all reliant on props, meaning that there were no financial constraints or struggles with not having the right equipment present during filming. Since my story heavily alluded towards death and grief, I was a little worried about it being a sensitive subject, and I had to make sure that I executed it well in a tasteful and respectful way, especially since I had never personally experienced it. I also was a little worried about addressing such a sensitive subject in a watered down light-hearted way, and I did not want the music and actions to be seen as making light of this kind of situation, which is another reason why I did not want to outright say that Jack had died. Since my narrative was not chronological, I think I did a fairly good job of making it clear what was flashback and what was in present time, especially with the noticeable change in colour and saturation, and since Jack fades into the story and away again at the end, it implies he was not actually there with Laura, and instead it was either her reminiscing on good times, or a version of him that she created in her head. For the scene on the bench near the end, I had to learn how to do a cross-fade in Premiere Pro, which I was very happy to learn since I plan to use it more in the future. I filmed this scene by having Hannah and Josh sit on the bench for several seconds, and then asking Josh to leave while Hannah stays in the exact position. Unfortunately when it came to editing, there is a clearly visible jump as to where Hannah had slightly moved, however once I faded it out from warm to cool colour grading, the cut was not all that noticeable. I also really liked how the music starts to change tempo as he fades away, because as well as the blue tint, it adds to the assumption that Laura's life was much more depressing and empty without him in it.
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This project really helped with my portfolio production skills, since it was my final major project and I wanted to make sure I was always on top of my work and creating everything to the best of my ability. As well as the content, the presentation of my portfolio has also vastly improved since my previous project, which strangely gave me more motivation to get my work done. During filming for this music video, I had to become a lot more comfortable directing and giving orders, especially since my actors were nervous and relied on me to get everything going and to tell them how they need to perform, also meaning that I had to work on my independence and sorting everything out by myself, which I quickly got used to and rather enjoyed. Since I am extremely into editing, I was very happy to have learnt some new skills on Premiere Pro, especially since that is my go to software which I intend to continue using for future projects. Due to the shyness of my actors, I was able to reassure them by reminding them that they will not be judged for the outcome of my project, and instead it will be me that receives the feedback, which helped them a lot since I believe they were a little worried about who was going to be viewing my final product and how people would react to it. I had to step out of my comfort zone many times to make sure everything was on track and to be a little pushy when it came to time limits and arranging, especially since at first I was quite nervous to be stern with Hannah and Josh, which I personally think is one of my weaknesses, and I shall improve on my directing skills and making sure my actors aren't feeling uncomfortable for my next project. I think overall my main strength is definitely editing, which I will hopefully continue to develop on, however for this project specifically I was quite impressed by my organising skills.
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Overall I was very pleased with my outcome, even though my project did not turn out exactly as planned, and I was very happy with a lot of the cinematography, however there are a few changes I would like to make, such as the tripod being in frame for one of the scenes, and I would consider making my ending a little more straight-forward and defined. Out of everyone who watched my final project, it definitely appealed more to the people in my chosen age range, probably because of the use of younger actors and the idea of "young love". In my feedback, despite being mostly positive, something that stood out to me was that some of my shots were not centred, and I would have definitely worked on improving that if I had the time to do so. It appears that most people really liked the song choice, which I was very pleased to hear since I thought that it fit my story perfectly, and it was the first definite decision I made about my video. There were some very mixed opinions about the open ending, and I do not know if I would have changed this element if I recreated my project, since I was very set on it from the beginning. Since the original purpose of my video was to show the contrast of love and loss, I think my video met that criteria, since I showed a very clear difference in the flashbacks vs the real time scenes, and the tone itself for these two sections of my video allowed the audience to feel the appropriate emotion for that scene, to then be caught off guard with the sudden change. If I was to create this video again, I would firstly plan the days better so I was guaranteed better weather on the scenes that needed it. I would have also spent a little longer planning my shots, since I had to rely a lot on B roll footage when it came to editing, to fill the time. I would also make sure I filmed every shot multiple times until I was happy with them, so that the acting felt a little more natural and less awkward, and to make sure that every shot was properly in focus.