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Film Adaptation

Post-Production

Fortunately, our post-production of the film also ran smoothly - with the picture lock coming in decent enough time to allow the sound and colour grade to be completed. The editing took place over many hard hours inside Screen Academy, battling against the clock to provide a picture lock to our sound mixer.

When the first draft arrived, the team looked it over and provided comments and suggestions for the next draft. Unfortunately, one of my favourite parts of the film ended up being cut - a montage with various match cuts with changing costumes, set design, and lighting set-ups to show the passage of time. In the end, this was for the better as it interrupted the flow of the film as a whole.

With the team's suggestions taken into account, a second draft was sent out before finally we had picture lock. Picture lock meant that our sound mixer could begin, and created a rich and layered soundscape to fill the atmosphere of the scene.

All the while the stage was being set with sound, the colour grade began, and after weeks of post-production - we had our finished film.

As, primarily, a documentary filmmaker, returning to narrative filmmaking was a challenge - especially after taking on this role for the first time. The workload for a producer seems non-stop, continuing throughout the entirety of the production process. I have gained a new respect for those who produce, especially those who do it to such a high standard. The experience overall was enjoyable, however, and I look forward to working on more narrative film sets in the future.

[kconfilm]

Film Adaptation

Production Day 2

After the faff of the previous day, our first official shooting day went so smoothly in comparison it was almost unbelievable. By the time lunch rolled around, we were bang on schedule and everybody seemed to be enjoying themselves. I was giving a helping hand where need be and when my presence was unnecessary, I retreated into my Harry Potter-esque cupboard under the stairs where I could work on some production documents.

We made great progress throughout the day and wrapped only a half hour later than planned. Our weeks of preparation had come to fruition as we had all of the footage necessary for our film. Onto the edit.

[kconfilm]

Film Adaptation

Production Day 1

Our first production day turned out to be the nightmare to end all nightmares. With issues picking up equipment, and getting access to the location, day 1 turned into an extra day of preparation. Our director and writer had more time to sit down with the actors, going over lines, deliveries, and blocking. All the while I drove all around Edinburgh fixing the equipment and location issues, before heading to our shoot location near Glasgow.

This turned out to be a blessing in disguise as much of the stress which the crew had seemed to alleviate after this extra day of preparation.

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Film Adaptation

Pre-Production

As a first time producer I wasn't looking forward to the busy few weeks ahead of pre-production. I sent more emails those few weeks than I can ever remember sending before, but we made it through.

We sat down every few days and continually planned our adaptation after we finally decided which story to adapt. Settling on O'Henry's 'The Last Leaf,' we then had a few different ideas for which way to take the story. Finally, after a long few hours in the nearby Starbucks, we settled on our idea. A support session with Ciao and Joe confirmed our decision for the story as they both agreed with it's potential, and we got planning.

My first main stress here was finding a location - as we could not bring any actors on board without knowing the shooting dates, which we would only know when we had agreed on a location. A fellow film student came to the rescue with their family home which was exactly what we were looking for - a mix of homely warmth and academia.

With the location sorted, we released our casting call and had an overwhelming response. Unfortunately, our main actor who we were all incredibly happy with had to pull out last minute, but we were able to replace him with another very capable actor - and it all worked out okay.

After our writer sent us the last draft of the script, we quickly finalised our prop and costume lists, shot lists, and shooting schedule. After many weeks of hard work, we were ready for production.

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Representing the Real Critique Feedback

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FN2 Critical Reflection

 For our short narrative Film, Psalm 103:13, I officially took on the role of DOP. However, due to issues with a group member I was also a writer and took on some producing duties. In the beginning, I attended our brainstorming sessions and put forth my ideas until we reached one that we all liked, where we then began working on a first draft of the script. This proved more difficult than it should do to ongoing absences from our writer, however, we pulled through and finished the first draft - before beginning feedback sessions with our group and continuing to redraft until we had a finished script. After we agreed on the where and when I completed risk assessments and then we just had to wait until our filming date rolled in.

 When it finally did, we arrived early to set up - and thank goodness for that as a few items we had booked had yet to be approved. We sorted this with a few quick emails and then finished setting up our scene. When the actors arrived we hadn’t yet finished the set up so our director, Gaby, took them aside and began, well, directing them. We finished the setup shortly after and then had a few runs with all of the equipment, but without recording. When we felt we were ready, we called action and began rolling the cameras.

 Our shoot lasted just about 4 hours, including a short break for lunch in the middle. When we were onto the editing stage, I had little to do with it. I kept up to date with the progress of our edit, and provided my feedback on any drafts that our editor(s) provided - but had no part in the physical editing.

 We went into the crit session expecting some negative feedback on certain points, which we knew were an issue beforehand but had no way to fix before the session. Most of these were in regard to the post-production sound design or the creative choices on set. For instance, a common point for criticism was the ambience that was chosen for our ‘end of the world’ vibe going on beyond the church. This ended up sounding more like a children’s playground than widespread terror. The audio recorded on set was complimented, however, we failed to harmonize it with the surroundings and it ended up sounding out of place.

 We also had a number of issues with the 180° rule, crossing the line multiple times throughout. Although due to a last minute change of location, throwing our planning for a loop, we failed to realize the issue on set when we would have been in a position to fix it. I thought about this in particular as it was what affected our final film the most, and what led to the lack of immersion most.

 As a group, I believe we managed to work around problems effectively. We had multiple issues on the day of shooting but still managed to combat most of them and introduce creative solutions for each. This is something I will keep in mind for every film I work on in the future - as shoots never go 100% to plan and you always need to remain on your toes and ready to fix them when they arise. 

[kconfilm]

FN2 Shoot Review

Our shoot was plagued with small issues which seemed neverending - beginning right with the equipment pick-up. After some quick thinking, and a few lucky emails, we received our equipment.

We also had an issue with our original location having turned into a dumping ground for the cafe folk. We rethought the scene and decided to reframe it all, facing the other way. This of course made our shot list completely useless.

When finally began shooting, things started looking up. Our actors nailed their performances - more than we could have asked. After a few hours of hard work, and a short break for a surprisingly good burger, we were done. Please find attached some BTS shots for your entertainment :)

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FN2 Script Writing

Now that we had an idea, we posed the task of drafting a script to our writer. Due to unforeseen circumstances, the writer was unable to do this so the task fell to the director, Gaby Hafner, the producer, Hayley Exton, and myself - the DOP. We worked hard and in a matter of hours, produced a script which we were happy to use as a starting point.

In the end, this first draft also became the final draft and what we shot with - due to ongoing issues within the group.

[kconfilm]

FN2 Brainstorming Session

Just a series of short posts outlining our production workflow for our most recent narrative short film. Before we shot the film we gathered with Kate Davidson to go over and develop some of our ideas. We deliberated with many different ways to spin this one main idea, eventually settling on an 'end-of-the-world' confessional.

We were all extremely pleased with this base idea and excited to get to work delving deeper into the story and drafting the first version of our script.

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Group Update 2 - C1

FEB 10th Tutorial

Our chat with Demelza was very informative for us. Other than just being reaffirmed in our idea, Demelza gave us a recommendation - ‘Jesus, You Know’ Dir. Ulrich Seidl. Even though it is a documentary, it and the way it is filmed as given us ideas for how we could frame and shoot our film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5YeiTwWEsg

She also brought up some good questions - How are we going to communicate that it is based at the end of the world, and not just during some sort of conflict. We concluded it would be through dialogue - this also showed us how important our dialogue would be.

Sound Design Lecture Sound design for our film, like most films, is incredibly important - especially since the 'end of the world’ aspect is our off-screen presence.

So we’ll have the background sound, the crashing, explosions, perhaps ringing (reminiscent of the ringing from Chernobyl). Another piece of advice from Demelza - Don’t use easily recognisable/iconic sounds to emulate other sounds. The example she used was the plugging in of an amp and guitar; this sound is too recognisable to suspend the disbelief that it is anything else.

As for the sound within the chapel - we want to keep it quiet, we want it to mainly be the dialogue and outside noise.

Shooting Plan As of now, I won’t lie - there is not much of a shooting plan. We know we want to use the Chapel space. I’m planning on doing a bit of a location recce after our workshop on the 17th. Our script is currently still in the works but should be completed shortly.

Group Dynamic Our group dynamic is good, we all get on and so far we work well - Even if someone misses a tutorial or class we manage to catch them up and help one another.

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FM2 Group Progress Update

After deciding between two ideas we liked the idea of, our group has settled on the story of a person who has gone to a church, whilst the world is ending, to confess to his sins in hopes of going to heaven (if there is one). With only two characters, the priest and the person who visits the church, we can focus on this one (after)life or death conversation.

For our group roles we agreed on;

• Director - Gaby Hafner

• DP - Kieran Craigen

• Producer - Haley Exton

• Writer - Georgina Ramsay

• Editor - Caspar Galbraith

We also split up secondary roles, such as sound designer, sound recordist, camera assistant, etc., for when we are on set so everybody has a main priority during the shoot.

To aid with our pre-visualisation, we have devised a mood board (https://www.pinterest.co.uk/hafngab/narr-2-film/) with costume/props/shot/mood/tone inspiration to help us visualise how we want the film to look and feel. We also began looking at locations, with the chapel space at Craiglockhart Campus looking most promising - as well as the space directly opposite. We believe we can create a scene that feels like a genuine church and confessional using these spaces and lighting.

Overall, I am enjoying working on this project and believe that our group works well together. Having worked with Hayley a great number of times in the past, I believe we have a good report and work well both before the shoot and on set. This being the first time I have worked with the rest of the group, I am excited to see what we can create together.

[kconfilm]

Whiplash Scene Recreation, Shot Comparisons.

(Top: Shot out of Camera, Middle: Shot with Colouring, Bottom: Shot from Whiplash.)

Director - Kieran Craigen

Assistant Director - Ivan Wainwright

DOP - Oliwia Szostka

Camera Assistant - Ivan Wainwright

Producer - Duncan Forbes

Sound - Cara Fidelo, Kieran Craigen

Production Design - Cara Fidelo

Editors - Duncan Forbes, Oliwia Szostka

Actors - Chell Logan

[kconfilm]

Whiplash Scene Recreation, Final Project.

"Now, are you a rusher, are you a dragger, or are you going to be on my f***ing time?!" - Terence Fletcher (J. K. Simmons)

For this project, my group allocated the following roles:

Director - Kieran Craigen

Assistant Director - Ivan Wainwright

DOP - Oliwia Szostka

Camera Assistant - Ivan Wainwright

Producer - Duncan Forbes

Sound - Cara Fidelo, Kieran Craigen

Production Design - Cara Fidelo

Editors - Duncan Forbes, Oliwia Szostka

Actors - Chell Logan

(Left to Right: DOP, Oliwia Szostka, AD and Camera Assistant, Ivan Wainwright and Director, Kieran Craigen on set framing a close-up.)

Pre-Production: This production took a significant amount of time in every stage, including the planning stage. We had various elements to think of, a lot more than in any other projects. We had to think about actors, props, locations, shooting times and others. After discussing for over a week, we finally settled on a scene from whiplash to recreate. As we had no budget to try and recreate it as closely as possible we spent a long, long time figuring out a suitable location - finally realising that the music department at our own campus had a room which was perfect. The production design took up a large portion of our pre-production as we spent hours and hours scouring the internet to find the posters and props which were used originally, and any we couldn’t find we recreated ourselves. We also had to create a call sheet, crew list, costume and prop list, shot list, visual breakdown, shooting schedule and kit list. This was definitely a task which we underestimated.

(Left to Right: Production Designer, Cara Fidelo, Director, Kieran Craigen and DOP, Oliwia Szostka on set looking at a close-up shot.)

On Set: Overall I think our shoots went well. We shot for 15 hours over two days, long into the night. On our first shoot, the actual drum scenes, we spent a great deal of time figuring out how best to place our lights to create the same effect that the film did. Due to the large number of shots in the drumming sequences, we had many different camera setups which could sometimes take a long time to get right. After many long hours we finally wrapped shooting for the day and headed home for a well deserved rest.

(Actor, Chell Logan, in place to work on framing and blocking.)

The next day we woke early to head to our second location, a flat - in which the home scenes were to be shot. We couldn’t face walking with all of the equipment again so we ordered ubers - which was the best decision as a few minutes later it began to pour with rain. After arriving at the building, and rescuing Duncan who had locked himself between two sets of doors, we headed up to the flat. Again we had a large number of shots to get through so straight away got to work setting up the camera and the lights. We also had to start preparing the makeup which was being used to create the blisters on the hands. A few hours later we had recorded everything we had to and headed home once more.

(Production Designer, Cara Fidelo, working on posters.)

We realised after arriving back at our own flats we had forgotten some shots which required a photocopier/printer, so headed to the library at 10pm to get these. We arrived, and after the painful process of figuring out how they actually worked we left and wrapped the entire shoot.

Post-Production: After finishing shooting, our editors got straight to work and over the next few days they spent over 20 hours editing and colouring our footage to resemble the original film as closely as possible.

Reflection: I absolutely loved working on this project! Our cast and crew were already great friends so we knew how each other worked and it all ran smoothly. At times we forgot about our shot list and shot in an order which didn’t make sense as we had to re-setup camera angles we had already done, but we did this with relative ease.

During the feedback and crit. Session we were all extremely nervous as we hadn’t seen any other groups recreation, and did not know if we’d put in too little or too much effort into our scene. When the time came, we received numerous positive comments from both pupils and lecturers - which felt amazing!

Filming this showed me the level of effort that goes into making a full feature film as after only 2 days of filming and 2 minutes of the film, we were exhausted. This has motivated me to try and recreate more scenes from films in the future.

(The original clip from Whiplash, for reference.)

[kconfilm]

Film Narrative 1, Reflection:

For our second project, I was mainly working on the script and also operating a boom mic, however our whole group also helped with other roles so I also had some creative input when it came to directing. I also casted the short and booked equipment. The original script was written by Esther but we had a sizable job rewriting to fit the task, which I was in charge of, and also changed a number of things within it which we thought would transfer better to the screen. All of this was done before our shooting dates. I was also operating a boom microphone and also spent a considerable amount of time troubleshooting the boom when we realised one of them had been rattling slightly during our takes. Having worked on the script I had a vision for our story so I also helped bring it to life.

For my participation I would grade myself A (Excellent) as I worked hard on each of the small jobs I had, and also spent a large amount of time thinking about the story, writing and rewriting the script.

For our group's teamwork I would also grade an A (Excellent) as we ensured that everything we had to do was done. Each stage went well, with the planning, shooting and post production all running smoothly due to our continued cooperation and collaboration. Overall we ended up with a film which was well-received by students, and that more importantly, we were all happy with.

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Film Narrative 1, Film 2: Destiny

"The finest moustache on the whole of the film course." - Me.

For this project, my group allocated the following roles:

Director - Hayley Exton

Producer - Myself, Kieran Craigen

DOP - Sean Dinwoodie

Camera Assistant - Esther Elbernova

Sound - Kushal Dhingra, Kieran Craigen

Editor - Kieran Craigen

Actors - Duncan Forbes, Sonja Hill

Pre-Production: For our second project we also had to create a short piece using only one shot with no cuts allowed. We decided to centre our entire narrative around this - using the camera movement as part of our story. For a previous script writing exercise, Esther had written something based on a hostage situation, which we spent a great deal of time rewriting and introducing a number of camera moves into. We figured out which days would work for all of us and I then booked equipment and arranged two actors to help us.

On Set: For this second film we had a lot more equipment to set up this time, as we had both dialogue and extra lights. We spent some time figuring out how we wanted the light stands set up and then blocked the scene with our actors. During our first take we realised there was an issue with one of the boom mics as there was a rumbling noise the entire time. After some troubleshooting I realised that the boom microphone I was operating was loose in the blimp, and after a few minutes and some handy work - we fixed it! From there the shoot was smooth sailing!

Reflection: Again I loved working on this project. I had proper actors, instead of my own shoddy skills, and so could focus on the actual filming of the piece. My group had worked together twice before already and so we all got on well.

[kconfilm]

Film Narrative 1, Film 1: The Janitor

Could this be my acting breakthrough?!

For this project, my group allocated the following roles:

Director - Kushal Dhingra

Producer - Myself, Kieran Craigen

DOP - Sean Dinwoodie

Camera Assistant - Esther Elbernova

Editor - Kieran Craigen

Actors - Hayley Exton, Kieran Craigen

Pre-Production: We spent a large amount of time planning our story, figuring out how to convey what we wanted to without any dialogue. This proved difficult as we had limited time and resources, and had to continually rethink our idea and rewrite the script due to being turned away by multiple locations and a lack of actors. In the end, I stepped into the role of the janitor as we could not find someone to fill the boots.

On Set: After we picked up our equipment, which I had booked a few days prior, we thankfully only had a short walk to our shooting location at Merchiston Campus. We set up the camera, I got into costume and we began blocking the scene. Our narrative was simple, a high-school janitor doing his cleaning duties who embarasses himself by dancing in front of a student. Kushal took on the role of director, with all of us offering our own ideas and input, Sean on camera, Esther assisting both of them and Hayley also going in front of the camera. The shoot went well, and we were in and out in just under 2 hours.

Reflection: Overall I really enjoyed this project. It was difficult without being able to cut or have any dialogue but I believe we created a short piece which was enjoyable and well received by the rest of the class.

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(An example shot taken from a recent lighting workshop.)

Three-Point Lighting

“In film, we sculpt time, we sculpt behaviour and we sculpt light.” - David Fincher

The still pictured above may look good, however there is more that could be done to enhance the image. Only one light has been used so far, which exposes the subject, but fails to create detail or depth.

KEY LIGHT:

The only light used so far in this still, the key light is the primary light source for a scene. It is placed in front of the subject and at an angle, thus illuminating the subject but not overpowering them completely. The key light is then also used to colour match any further lights used, whether it be daylight or tungsten, as to create one continuous look in the shot. The camera is normally placed at the side of the subject opposite to the key light.

FILL LIGHT:

This is the second light in a scene, filling the side of the subject which the key does not reach - hence the name. It is again placed in front of the subject and at an angle, but on the opposite side to the key light - whilst providing a less intense light as to not dominate the key light. It allows details on the dark side of the subject to be brought to light (number 1, hehe), whilst also creating depth in the image.

BACKLIGHT/KICKER:

As the name suggests again, the back light is placed behind the subject, shining onto their back. It is placed at an angle, creating a subtle highlight along the figure, creating depth in a shot which would otherwise look flat due to the full-frontal lighting.

OTHER LIGHTING TERMS:

Obviously this list is not exhaustive however it includes a number of phrases frequently heard on sets.

Catch Light - a light source that causes a specific highlight in the pupil of an eye. This adds shape to the eye, and can either come from an existing light or an extra light added solely for this effect.

Side Lighting - lights placed at a 90° angle to the subject, creates a high contrast look.

Practical Lights - a light source seen in the scene (number 2) which is not strong enough to light the shot but adds to the mise-en-scène e.g. candles or lamps

Hard lighting - a specific look which involves harsh shadows for dramatic effect.

Soft lighting - a specific look which conversely creates no harsh shadows, often hinting towards a dream-like atmosphere.

Natural lighting - the use of light which is naturally available on set, such as sunlight.

Bouncing and Diffusing - Both techniques spread and soften light, with bouncing using light with a bounce board to take light omitted from one source, and redirect it back toward the subject. Diffusing involves placing a material in front of a light source to spread the light as it leaves the source for the same effect.