tommintyblog-blog

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GUIDE TO FINAL MAJOR PROJECT ON BLOG

Pre Production - http://tommintyblog.tumblr.com/tagged/prefmp

Production - http://tommintyblog.tumblr.com/tagged/prodfmp

Post Production - http://tommintyblog.tumblr.com/tagged/postfmp

Evaluation - http://tommintyblog.tumblr.com/tagged/evalfmp

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

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EVALUATION QUESTION 2 -  END-USER CONTEXT

The intended audience for my film is university students and young adults between the ages of 16-21. This is because they have the second highest chances of catching Meningitis and the ACWY vaccination that my film is based on is specially targeted at them. Unfortunately, in the past two years only 30% of students going to university got the free vaccination which is very low. Therefore, ensuring they see the film to convince them to get the vaccination is very important. To do this I intend to reach them through social media (YouTube, Twitter and Facebook) as students use these websites frequently. The charity has also stated that they would like to post the final film on their social media accounts. As they have a big following, this will also help in distribution because people will hopefully share the film. There is also a specific festival that I will submit my film into and that is the Charity Film Awards. This is a charity specific festival that I believe my film will fit into. I also hope to submit my films into film festivals using Film Freeway. This will help in distribution of my film and hopefully allow more students to see the message it conveys.

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EVALUATION QUESTION 1 - CRITICAL REVIEW

The initial goal of my final film was to produce a documentary based on the charity Meningitis Now. I wanted to show how the charity helps and how they are making a real difference. I also aimed for my documentary to be focused on the ACWY vaccination and hopefully persuade university students and young adults who watch my film to get the vaccine. I believe that I have accomplished what I set out to make and that my film successfully gets across the message I wanted. Having shown my film to my target audience it has either made them check to see if they have got the ACWY vaccination or has made them want to get it. A strength of my film that helps get is message across is the interview with the young ambassador Ross. Having him talk about his experience with the disease and how it has affected his brother shows how important it is to get vaccinated. He also mentions how his family have had secondary affects from the disease affecting his brother. This shows how disruptive Meningitis can be, even to those who haven’t personally had the disease. I also believe that another strength of my film is the interview with the founder of the charity Steve Dayman, having him talk about how the charity began and how he would like it to end provided me with a beginning and end of my film.

I was very pleased with how the shoot at the London marathon went and the footage fits well into my film. However, looking back I think that filming interviews with the runners after the race to find out why they were running for the charity would have improved my film. Another part of my film that I feel could have been improved was the exposure and lighting for my interviews with staff. Looking back at the footage, I believe it would have been better to use less lighting. To do this the settings on the LED lights should have been lower or maybe just one light should have been used. Behind the camera was also a large window that was letting in natural light, this was problematic because throughout the shoot the light from outside changed and this meant that the shot became overexposed. I also should have taken more time setting up camera B as when it came to post production I had to alter the colour to make it match with A cam.

Overall the project has improved me as a filmmaker as it has taught me that taking care when setting up your cameras and not rushing is extremely important. Therefore, if possible turning up early to your shoot and setting up correctly is crucial. This will help save time in post production and improve your film. I also believe it has improved my skills in colour correction as before I wasn’t confident in doing it and learning from my mistakes has taught me valuable information in colour correcting.

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FINAL FILM - NOW AND BEYOND

Here is my final film ‘Now and Beyond’. 

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FINAL EDITING

Today I finished the edit to my film. One of the main parts I had to fix was the audio of the film. Unfortunately through the microphone and settings I used there was a hiss sound throughout. To fix this I had to enter the Audio Track Mixer and add a ‘DeNoiser’ effect to three of my tracks. Today I also had to decide if I was going to add crop lines to my film to give it a more cinematic look. After some thought I decided to use them and after moving the position of some shots I was happy with it. I also finished the colour correction of my film and with help from the Lynda tutorial I used, I was able to create an even look throughout my film. After many hours of editing I am extremely pleased with how my film has turned out. 

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ROUGH CUT

Here is my first export and rough cut of my final major project. There are still sections I hope to cut out and my aim is to make it tidier. Overall I am pleased with how it is turning out although I know there is more work to be done on it. 

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REFLECTION 30/4/17

During my final week of my project I wanted to get close finishing my film. As my hand in is on the 3rd of May I wanted to get as close as finished as possible. Therefore, this is what I have spent the majority of my time on. I began with my rough cut (which was around 10 minutes) and then began cutting out weaker parts to get the film down to 8 minutes 30. This involved editing down the interviews and removing parts that repeated themselves. I found this happened a lot in the second half of my film where the staff talk about the ACWY vaccination. Because they were repeating themselves I found that the film became dull and meant that the viewers lost concentration.

I also focused on colour correction this week and making sure that my film looks good. As colour correction is a weak part of my filmmaking I made sure to take my take and make sure I was happy with it. I wanted to give a warm feeling to the film so one correction I did was to increase the temperature. Also making the A cam and B cam match was an important correction but from editing it I have learned to take more care when setting up both cameras in the future. I may even look to purchase a light meter to make sure that the settings on my cameras are correct and that the lighting is evenly lit.

Overall I have enjoyed this week as editing is one of my favorite aspects of filmmaking and I am a strong believer that the edit of a film can help make it or break it. Next week I only have three days before my hand in on Wednesday and during those three days I aim to finish my film and make sure that all of my coursework is completed and up to date.

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EDITING LONDON FOOTAGE

Today I began to edit the second half of my film. My aim for the second half is to get across the importance of getting the ACWY vaccination and to do this I have used the interviews from Helen and Hannah, Ross and Steve. However to differ from the first half of the film I wanted to add a slight narrative to the film and so have used my footage from the London marathon on top. Overall I was pleased with how the footage turned out and feel the narrative works well over the message from the Meningitis Now staff. 

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REFLECTION 23/4/17

During this week of the project I continued to edit my film and put a rough cut together. So far it is about 6 minutes long but I have not yet added the ending to the film. So far I have concentrated on cutting down the interviews and picking out the parts that I want to include in the film. My paper edit so far is that the film begins with Steve the founder talking about how the charity began. Then after this we hear from Ross the young ambassador, who talks about how Meningitis Now helped him and his family after his brother caught the disease. After this I have included the interviews from the members of staff who talk about how they began working for the charity and what their job involves.

I then showed this rough cut to Mark who gave me really helpful feedback and told me what to change. One of the things to change was that some of the B-Roll footage was slightly out of focus for too long and needed to just be cut earlier. Another was that some of the interview audio needed to be tidied up which I will aim to do as soon as possible.

This week I also travelled to London to film the Marathon for extra footage to be included in my film. For this shoot I had to pick up equipment from the university that included a 50mm lens, a 55-200mm lens, a Rode Mic and a video tripod. Overall the shoot went really well and it was a great experience to film a live sporting event.

Next week my aim is to finish editing the final cut of my film which will include putting in the footage from the marathon and the ending to the film. After I have completed this I aim to colour correct the film as some of the shots I filmed were slightly too dark. This will then leave me a couple of days extra as the deadline for my project is the 3rd of May.

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LONDON MARATHON SHOOT

Today I was given the great opportunity to film at the London Marathon with the charity Meningitis Now. The aim for the day was to film B-Roll for my documentary but I went without a specific plan as I knew it could change at any time. For this reason, I decided to film cinema verite style and capture whatever I could. The shoot went extremely well and I was able to get lots of great footage. Because I was with the charity I had access to the grand stand area on the final straight. This meant I was able to film the runner’s during their last 200m of the race. For the shoot I mainly used my 55-200mm lens as this allowed me to zoom close into the runners and get some good detailed shots. After the race I headed back to the hotel where the post race reception was being held. There I filmed shots of the families together after the race and everyone celebrating. Overall I was pleased with how this shoot went and it was a great experience.

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MIND OVER MARATHON

This BBC documentary focuses on ten inspirational individuals who all suffer from mental heath issues and are all training to compete in the 2017 London marathon. The film begins in October of last year when all ten meet for the first time and begin their months of hard training and preparation. The charity behind the documentary is Heads Together and also with the help from the royal family they aim to ‘help people feel much more comfortable with their everyday mental wellbeing’.

The documentary itself is presented by Nick Knowles who travels to and from each of the participants to check on how they are coping and how their training is progressing. What I liked about this documentary is how it got us, the audience, to feel. The documentary talks on the participant’s mental disorders and how they came to be. One of the toughest stories is that of Rhian who lost her 1-year-old son due to pneumonia and then 5 days later also lost her husband as he committed suicide due to the grief. I felt that the edit of this film was extremely respectful to that of the participants and the way in which it documented their disability is one that I hope to use in my film. When discussing disability, I plan for my film to be serious and respectful, as I want to get the message across to my audience of how important the ACWY vaccination is. Similarly, to this film as its aim to promote awareness of mental health issues and get across that it is okay to talk about the problems you may have, even if they’re not visible.

Overall this documentary is painful, uplifting and effective in getting across a great message from a fantastic cause. I feel as if it has achieved everything it has set out to and I am looking forward to watching part two.

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RISK ASSESSMENT FOR LONDON MARATHON SHOOT

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REFLECTION 16/4/17

This week of my final project was mainly based on shooting my final film. I filmed on both the Monday and Tuesday and both shoots went extremely well. I filmed interviews with staff members on the Monday and then an interview with a young ambassador named Ross on the Tuesday as well as b-roll footage of the office and gardens outside. Having looked back at the footage I filmed I am pleased although there are a few things I would have changed. For example, I would have changed the camera settings for my b camera so that I would have matched my main camera.

This week I also began editing my film. The first stages of it has been cutting down the interviews. This has involved taking out filers and irrelevant points from the interviewees. I am also trying to give each member of staff an equal amount of time. So far it has been challenging but I have enjoyed it. I feel it is improving me as an editor and has taught me new techniques that I haven’t used before.

This week I have also organized to film at the London marathon with the charity for my final major film. This will be next week on the 23rd of April and I will be travelling with Meningitis Now from their headquarters. The aim so far for this shoot will be to interview their runners to find out why they are running for Meningitis Now and then also film the charity fundraising.

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SIGNED RELEASE FORMS

Here are the signed release forms of my interviewees. 

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PAPER EDIT

The paper edit for my film is as follows: 

Begging with Steve telling history of charity

Ross talks about his brother and how he became a young ambassador. 

Interview with Leah, talking about community fundraising.

Interview with Harry, talking about corporate fundraising.  

Interview with Rachel, talking about events management.

Interview with Hannah and Helen, talking about social media communication.

London Marathon footage.

Helen and Hannah talking about the disease and ACWY vaccination. 

Steve giving his view on getting the vaccination. 

Film ends with Steve talking about how he would like the charity to end. 

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LYNDA TUTORIAL ON COLOUR CORRECTION

Introduction to Video Color Correction by Ashley Kennedy

As I struggle with colour correction I wanted to improve my understanding using a Lynda tutorial. I found this course by Ashley Kennedy where she covers a wide range of colour correction topics. From the history of colour correction in movies, adjusting individual shots, establishing shot to shot consistency and common problems you may enocunter when colour correcting. One of the most helpful sections to me was when she covered shot to shot consistency. From looking back at my footage I noticed that my A camera and B camera were different and this made the film look unporfeshional. Therefore learning how to correct this using references and presets in Premier Pro was extremely helpful and after some time editing I am now happy with how they match.