Produce and edit footage in line with the production plan applying any final effects
Final Product
Importing footage
Editing my film sequence
Adding audio into my film sequence
Offline Edit
Audience feedback - Myself- I think that at the moment because Im not done it doesn't completely work, I need to still add audio into the shot being diegetic noise from the ships and the lasers and also incidental music to build with the action to keep the audience on the edge of their sits wondering if the Millenium falcon will survive. Hannah - " I'd say just add in the explosions at the end, to go along with the lasers as well as the diegetic sounds of the explosions and lasers them selves, overall pretty good" Chessie - "So just add in some explosions at the end so it flows nicely, make sure to add in sound effects like actual Star Wars films so it fits nicely, and star wars twist maybe the theme?"
Export the final edit
Justifying my product
Strengths Here are the strengths of my product in my opinion:
The script was easy to write and explain because my film sequence is only about a space battle
I already had the space ship models at my disposal so I didn’t have to spend any money on them. Along with this had the lighting, editing, green screen, camera etc. at college already available to me.
I didn’t have to cast any actors or actresses in my film sequence because I used on the models. Therefore another strength is the fact I could film and edit in times that could work for me instead of planning it around someone else as well.
I was able to get filming done early, because it was easy to get the studio booked out for my production.
I filmed over a three day span meaning it was a easy and quick process but did prove to be hard in the editing stages.
I set up one spot light to be the sun in the film sequence which gave the film a realistic aspect. It also looked good in editing as it gave the ships a slight shadow as if it was actually in space.
Another strength is the fact that I improvised a makeshift prop of a pencil for the millennium falcon so we could get a shot of the falcon flying and actually moving with the space.
I think the shot i’m most proud of is the shot of the camera moving and tracking the ships in a speedy chase because I think the hand held effect adds to the dramatics of the chase and action.
Weaknesses Here are the weaknesses of my product in my opinion:
I struggled with time management behind my film sequence because it me longer than I thought with planning and post production.
My script isn’t complete the same as my film sequence because shots didn’t go to plan.
I found finding products and prices for the budget plan was hard then I expected because I had never done it before.
Some of the shots were hard so I had to bring in a gorilla pod to help get more accurate shot of the falcon.
When filming the Falcon moving on a pencil it took a long time to record and also to think of a strategic way of making it all come together.
The lasers didn’t look like I wanted them to because they came out too sharp so I would have liked to have softened in but I lost track of time.
The lighting didn’t go to plan because I did light the ships and green screen enough so the shadows made it impossible to edit out the green.
In production I made a mistake with the green screen where i put the ships too close to the green screen causing a grain effect on the models
Quality of finished piece I was pretty proud of my finish piece. Mainly I was proud of the editing I had done on the piece because I think it made it have more action and fun then just ships flying through space. However in saying that I do think that my production could have gone better in the sense that I had hoped that I would have been able to filmed all my shots to the best of my ability and had a longer sequence then I had.
Conventions of a visual and special effect sequence I have listed some conventions of a visual and special effect sequence below. These were important to remember while filming as without these my sequence wouldn't look like a visual and special effect sequence.
The sequence must look realistic - obviously it hards to make a visual and special effect sequence look realistic but i mean the effects fit in and don't look awkward. With my film sequence i think that because its a Sci-Fi sequence it hard to make it look realistic however i think the effects work well with my piece. Although i think the effects could have been improved as it looked edited as there was a few mistakes but overall i think i had this convention within my piece even though it looked somewhat odd.
Adventure/action/quest - this kind of fits with my sequence as my sequence is a chase which is action so i did this.
Primary colours - I used the colour red as i know its the colour of the laser of the falcon and its a convention.
Comparison to original idea I had – How is it different? My final piece is different to my original idea because I planned on having a longer sequence than I had with more shots. In my original idea i had the plan to have the ship do a flip over the top of the tie fighter in an epic swift movement but the filming didn’t go as smooth. Instead I had to film a shot of the ship braking of the top of the tie fighting instead which i thought went well in production but in post I came to discover that the lighting was all off and the shadows made it impossible to key a green screen therefore I had to cut the whole end part out thats why the sequence ends in such an awkward place where they’re still in a chase.
When comparing both my storyboard and my final piece I think it fits well together and i think it flows nicely. The storyboard is a good representation of the final piece as it all matches up. I think that the storyboard however is not very clear at showing where the visual effects are not clear. Also its not clear the shot transition and how the camera moves within the shots, especially with the last shot as there is a lot of movement. Also the end part is different from the end of the storyboard as the ships end up next to the camera flying out of shot. I think that when comparing these two a positive is that the shots are the same all though they are not completely clear the shots start the same and develop further. Also I think the ship placement with the shot is clear along with the shot names and the movement within. A difference is that the stars are not clear on the storyboard along with lasers but in my film sequence i use more lasers then shown to the left also the green screen being changed to stars.
Audience feedback - Audio
After this feedback I am pretty happy with my film sequence as the strengths I received were about the visual effects that I added which means that the audience thought that they were good making me feel proud of my production. The feedback has made me think about what I can do next time to improve on my film sequence. For example both of the weaknesses were to do with the green screen which I knew messed up on so now I know I will make sure that if I use a green screen again to be careful of how I use it making sure that the lighting is good and the distance between the green screen and the object being used so there is no shadows.
What could have been done differently in the planning, production and edit? I think that in my planning, production and editing I could have done things differently that would have made my production a lot better and higher quality. Within my planning I think that if i have adapted my script better and my storyboard this could have made my production better as in doing this I would have been able to follow both pieces of evidence better so the film sequence came out overall better. I feel as if the script could have been more detailed and more like the final product because i found during production the script had to be changed because it didn't work well together and we were not able to do some of the shots being the Millenium falcon flying over the top of the tie fighter then shooting it from behind. However we didn't have the right equipment to perform this flip. The storyboard was too vague and didn't give enough detail of how we were going to perform the shots making it had in production to real know what I was doing.
In production I think that I messed up a lot causing my production to fall so it wasn't as high quality as I had hoped. I definitely messed up on the lighting as after in post-production and editing even after effects you could see the shadows which obviously wouldn't happen in space making my production not as good quality as I had hoped. This connects with my green screen setup as the green screen was too close to the ships making it almost impossible for final cut to take the green screen away without getting parts reflected onto the ship by the lighting making final cut take out part of the ship. When in production I realised how hard it is to use a wheeled tripod on a carpet as it is not smooth at all and makes the shots jolt and mess up.
In editing I think that because all the other stages didn't go very well this stage was almost impossible to improve on. When adding the beams in it could have improved if I was knew how to smooth the edges because the laser doesn't look completely realistic as the it was cut awkwardly so it didn't work as a beam and just look weird. The explosions didn't always match up with the beam as I had to go frame by frame to get everything aligned which was hard and didn't completely work. I could have smoothed this out however I didn't have enough time. Some of the editing out of the green screen didn't go completely to plan and messed up the ships. This could have gone differently if I had of fixed the lighting and shadows in the production but also just taking more care in editing out the green screen being careful of the ships.
If you had to do something like this again in the future with a totally different brief - what would you do differently and why? If I received this again with a different brief I would change what I did as this production allowed me to find out things i never knew before and now with this information I would be able to do a bigger and better production with better planning and production techniques. Also if it was a high budget production It would change what i had done as my production low budget and free. Heres what I would have done if it was high budget:
I would hire out crew members for example, a cameraman to operating a camera and tripod who will obviously film the shots following a detailed storyboard and script. Also a lighting operator that is able to light a green screen properly with no shadows. Also a prop team that are able to either make props like the ships or hire out some that are big enough to film with. I would also hire an experienced editor capable of adding in visual effects like the CGI, the beams and the explosions. In hiring expert this will ensure that my production will be done well also it means that everyone knows what they are doing.
Ive i had a higher budget production I would have hired out higher quality equipment like cameras that are able to pick up the quality of the ships better making the overall quality better. Also maybe a higher quality editing suite where there could have been people focusing on the visuals and the audio separately making them better quality.
I would spend more time on my planning because without a plan its hard to work on something you haven't put thought into. This would also improve the script as if I had more time I would be able to think of a better story more exciting, different and new. Also in having more detail this means its easier to follow so my production flows a lot better and it has more of a narrative instead of just ships flying about aimlessly.