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Where Do We Go? Production Blog
PRE-PRODUCTION
Originally, myself and Jude were planning on creating a completely different documentary but when it became obvious that the film we were intending to make would be too complicated, we took a step back and planned to make something manageable in the time we had left. We always wanted the documentary to relate to the idea of religion or belief in some aspect, we realised what we found the most interesting was different peoples ideas of heaven. That led us to coming up with the question “Where do we go when we die?”. We were going to centre our documentary on asking this question to as many people as possible and record their response. We created a short booklet in order to re-pitch our idea.
As we began to work on the pre-production of the film, we also prepared a short booklet of “testimonies”, answers from our close friends and family, similar to what we might expect when asking the question to everyone.
PRODUCTION
Our first step in the production process was to record all of the answers, as we couldn’t start filming until we knew what people had said. So, we booked out the recording booth at Screen Academy and asked anyone we could find in the building to help participate, once we had gathered about 20 answers, we stopped. Next, myself and Jude listened to all the answers together and rated each one so we could come to a consensus on which answers to use. We decided our five main answers based on the imagery they evoked to both of us and the answers that immediately stood out to us. Once we had our five answers, we created a small storyboard for each one and went out to shoot them. The filming process often consisted of me and Jude travelling around Edinburgh trying to find the perfect space for what we wanted, many of the shots in the film take place at Cramond island. We thought Cramond perfectly captured the films link to nature and being grounded while also looking like literal death.
POST-PRODUCTION
Once we had our footage and answers, we created title cards for each section and started to make a timeline of each section of the film. We pretty much knew which footage we would be using for each section. I took the lead on the picture edit, which was pretty simple and then we moved onto ProTools where Jude took the lead. We tidied up all the answers to make them more concise and tried to add sound effects for each section, like a low rumbling for the “Terrified” segment and more nature sounds for others. We debated for a while on whether to have music and came to the decision that we could use it as long as it was quite minimal and low in the mix. At this point in the process we didn’t have an ending yet, the film just ended after chapter five. But we knew that if we were going to make an ending, it would have to encapsulate the diversity of answers on the topic of death so we took every answer we had gotten and thrown it onto the end of the ProTools track as the music starts to swell and more voices start to come in every second. Unfortunately we ran out of time to record any new footage for this section, so as a compromise we reversed the footage we had used and had it build up in a similar rhythm to the voices and the music.
CRITICAL REFLECTION
At the crit, I was very satisfied about the feedback we received and agreed with what we need to work on next for the film. Going back into ProTools and adding much more to the sound edit will help each segment feel a lot more distinct, as well as filming new footage for the ending so it doesn’t just feel like a re-tread of moments we have already seen. Overall I’m really happy with the film and had a fun experience making it.
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“This Modern Love” Cinehaiku Blog
PREPRODUCTION:
Ben made a pitch in class about telling a love story within the thirty second limit of the haiku project, with each “section” being a different stage in the love story. I really liked this approach and thought I had some ideas that could contribute well to the film so I joined Ben and we began pre-production.
From the beginning we knew we wanted to go with the 8/14/8 format as we wanted our middle section, where the couple are in love, to be the longest. Our idea was to have a montage of shots that contain iconography that connotes love as well as footage of a couple that plays as “memories” of being in love. I pitched the idea to Ben that the first and last section could be mirrors of each other, starting off warm as the couple meet but when we return to the shot at the end, once the relationship fails, it’s cold and lonely. Ben liked this idea and also thought it would be good to have the final section be almost devoid of any sound to contrast the heavy use of sound in the middle section. We had multiple meetings to decide what our “iconography” set ups would be and finally decided on the ideas of travel, birthdays and watching movies.
PRODUCTION:
We booked out the blackmagic camera and equipment and started to shoot the set ups within our film. We ended up refilming these after our first shoot because we didn’t like the framing on the initial footage.
After we had shot the set ups, we asked Jude and Levi if we could film them around Edinburgh for the day for the “memory” aspect of the montage. We wanted to capture small moments between them and eventually invoke imagery that would connote them splitting apart. Much later in the process, actually during post-production we filmed the first and the final section. We managed to film at the Bainfield accommodation bar and finally wrapped filming.
POSTPRODUCTION:
The post-production for this film is the most integral part of the process as our task was to look at sound and different ways to use it within the film. Ben took the lead on the cinematography of the film so I took the lead on the picture edit in Avid.
Once we had the picture, we began to make progress on the sound edit. Neither myself or Ben had much experience in ProTools or sound design in general but enjoyed figuring it out and experimenting.
For the first and last section of the film, we wanted the sound design, along with picture, to contrast with each other. The first section is warm and full of sound of people at the bar, drinks sliding across the table, shots clinking etc. while the final scene, when we return to the bar, is cold, lonely and empty. The only sound in the final section is the wedding/engagment ring being placed on the table.
For the middle section, we wanted to use both the heartbeat and the sound of the sparkler as constants throughout the fourteen seconds. The sound of the heartbeat adds a lot of tension to the scene, as well as being relevant to the idea of falling in love. The sound of the sparkler works as a timer for the relationship, eventually burning out. These two sounds provided a good basis for the film and were useful in accentuating the other sounds we would go on to use. For each set up, we had an idea of the sounds that were relevant to each shot and could keep returning too. For the travel sections, we used atmos from airports, the sound of the seatbelt sign lighting and tannoy announcements. For the scene where the DVDs pile up, we keep coming back to the sound of the 16mm film projector.
We also got our first experience using the foley room during this project which allowed us to get a controlled and accurate sound for the ring placement, drinks sliding across the table amongst a few other sounds.
Most of the other sounds heard during the film were from the Sound Library we had access too.
Overall I’m really happy with the final film and had a great time working on the film with Ben. Because we were a two-person crew, it allowed us both to have a lot to do as well as get experience in roles that we hadn’t really done before.
CRITICAL REFLECTION:
Overall I found the crit really useful for reflecting back on the film, where it went right and wrong and what our next steps might be. We always thought that the middle section might be literally too fast for people to process all the images so I wasn’t too surprised when that was brought up, although some of the class said they thought it was fine and were able to get everything from their first watch. There are a list of really simple improvements we can make, for example just adding a little extra sound details such as the £5 note and the phone at the end. If we end up changing the middle section, we’ll most likely be removing one of our “set ups” in order to make more room for the footage we got of Jude and Levi, as well as making it less fast. The DVD set up will likely stay in the film but possibly play out as a continuous scene, rather than being intercut with the real life footage.
I had a great time making the film with Ben so it’s definitely one we’ll go back into the edit suite and try and make as best as possible.
END OF BLOG POST
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this modern love, a cinehaiku
by benjamin falconer & andrew beattie
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