Technical Contribution – Video Production

In my video production we have been filming short videos along the theme of ‘Guess The Student’. We were put into groups of five, of which we all had a special role to play in contributing technically to the production of the film. I was in the role of continuity, and in this specific role I had to check over the storyboards while filming to ensure that we were filming in the right locations, the actors were in the right places, and had the right props on them. To do this, I worked closely with the director and we both checked through the storyboards. A few changes were made to our initial ideas, but we worked through them.

Also, another responsibility as continuity was that I had to make sure that the actors were wearing the same clothes each day we filmed, so it didn’t appear that the actors were changing clothes half way through the video.

The role of continuity revealed to be quite challenging as while we were filming around the busy college grounds, students would be in the background, and if we were to shoot our video at a different angle the bystanders in the background would suddenly change. This is something that couldn’t have been helped that much, but if we were to film again I would ensure that we would film in a location that isn’t full of people.

Storyboards – Video Production

Ideas Development – Photography

For our photography lesson, we are taking a trip up to Hertfordshire to shoot a fashion shoot in Old Gorhambury House. In my group, we discussed various things we could do in our photos, for instance what type of shots we would take, how to do them, and also talked about the general health and safety points necessary.

Here is a mind map we drew out with our ideas;

We initially plan to have a levitation shot, with a model standing on a chair and Photoshopping out the chair. Also, we’d like to shoot a mirror image which we’d again do on Photoshop once back at the college. These shots are under our subheading of ‘Eccentric shots’ as we’d like individual unique style of photos, yet still keeping to the set theme of 1960s fashion. This would mean us directing models to wear 1960s inspired attire, and also a few 1960s props such as umbrellas.

For our health and safety, we have said no climbing on the building as this could inevitably cause injury to a crew member, or even damage any equipment we have set out. Also, no drinking while near equipment as the SLR cameras could easily be damaged if someone were to spill liquid on them. Another thing is no running, as again an injury could be caused by someone tripping over uneven ground, or damage equipment by dropping them.

Rough T-Shirt Design

 

Video Health & Safety and Shooting Schedule

Evaluation Questions – Print

In print production, I have made a t-shirt with a designed logo with the subheading of ‘Lights, Camera, Action!’ and Level 2 with class members names imprinted on it. I printed the logo on my t-shirt by using the print method of manual screen printing, with a squeegee and a screen.

I have got members of my class to evaluate my final product, seeking out advantages and disadvantages with the t-shirt. Out of the three people who evaluated the shirt, they all mentioned how the positioning of the logo design placed on the front of the shirt looks good and effective. Also, everyone commented on, for a disadvantage, how my name printing outcome didn’t go so well as it looks as though it has been faded.

I’m really happy with my final product, as this is the first time I have printed a t-shirt so considering this, it looks really good. I’m happy how the ink came out on the back of the shirt, it looks really bold and effective. I enjoyed learning the methods of various screen printing processes, and liked the experience of participating in the screen printing process.
Although I’m happy with the outcome of my t-shirt, it could have gone slightly better. If I could do it over again, I would change how much pressure I applied onto my squeegee while printing onto my t-shirt because the ink looks slightly faded, and by applying more pressure the ink would have seeped through the screen more, giving the ink a more professional look. This is the part of my t-shirt I don’t like so much.

If I were to compare my t-shit to a commercially made t-shirt, inevitably the commercially made t-shirt prints would have come out slightly better as they would have most likely used machinery to create and print the design onto the t-shirt. Considering this, they would have added more specific detailing to the t-shirts print design giving it a more professional look. If businesses did use the manual method of screen printing to create their t-shirts, the person creating the t-shirts would have a lot more experience in printing than I myself do, therefore theirs inevitably would come out better. But considering this t-shirt was my first screen print, I’m satisfied with the final product.

Evaluation of the Filming Process

In my video production class, we have been working in groups of five to shoot a video along the set brief theme of ‘Guess The Student’. We each had different individual important roles to play during the filming process, such as cameraman, director, actors and continuity.
Firstly, as a group we sat and came up with various ideas on what topic to focus our short film on, drawn up onto a mind-map. After discussing each topic, and how we could clearly portray it in a video, we finally decided on ‘Crime’. From this, we chose to focus theft onto the base of our topic, and came up with the idea of a young man stealing a young woman’s handbag.
Following our decision, we drawn up each individual shot onto our story boards and described exactly how we were to shoot that individual shot, such as panning, framing, lighting, props, actors place and so on.
Once the storyboards were all complete, we collected our equipment (tripod, camera, props) then set out and proceeded to film our video.

My final video is similar to my initial idea, although it has turned out different to how I once expected it too, though I am pleased with the end result.
We had to change a few ideas we had, for instance places of filming like in the canteen as at times it were busy, locations where we had filmed before weren’t suitable to film in again for instance outside when the weather was bad.
One technical error that we had was with the camera itself, the battery had run out during the filming process holding up the process on a whole. This was inevitably easy to work through, by just changing the battery.
Also, aesthetically speaking, the filiming wasn’t that great. The reason being that we filmed on two different days so the natural lighting while filming outside varied in specific clips.
The thing I have enjoyed most from the filming process is working as part of a close team. It was great to see how other people worked, and then work along side them putting our ideas together. Our group worked really well together, with everyone playing an individual role in the process, all putting our talents in and working to the best of our ability.
I’ve also thoroughly enjoyed the post-production editing process, as this is my first video I’ve ever edited and was suprised with the outcome and liked learning new skills.

In my video lesson, I got members of the class to review my video and give me feedback on the production of it.  One person commented that some of the transitions switching from each cut weren’t smooth, therefore the video looked slightly jumpy. I do agree with this, and I think the main reason for this would be the angles of the camera while filming. To ensure this doesn’t happened on our next video, we will carefully check that the framing is right.
Another person mentioned how the directing could be improved, as they could tell that the directing was “poor” by how the actors portrayed it in their acting.
Over this critical criticism, they also said how they enjoyed the idea of the plot line and the continuity was really good.

Misfits Presentation

Misfits Joe and Steph

Job Roles

I have been looking at the TV show appropriately named ‘Misfits‘, which is aired on channel E4.
To produce TV shows, inevitably a lot of work goes into it from a various range of people including costume designers, script writers, directors and camera operators, which is the same for Misfits. In this blog post I will be detailing three people who specifically worked on Misfits, what certain jobs they had, and any particular qualifications and work experience they have and needed to join the crew on Misfits, and also acquire the job they have.

Firstly, I looked at the Misfits crew director; Tom Green.
Green has previously been the director of four titles, including the TV series ‘Blackout’, two short films named ‘Kid’ and ‘Brixton 85’, and obviously the show I’m researching ‘Misfits’.
Tom Green is also a script writer, writing for ‘Brixton 85’ and ‘Kid’, which he also directed for.

Directors need to work closely with all crew members, including the script writers as they can develop and create ideas for the product together. The name of the job role says it all, as directors direct people on set and instruct them what exactly to do and when. Directors make the majority of important decisions made, in pro-production, production and even post-production. Through all of these filming processes, directors must motivate the whole cast and crew to work to the best of their ability throughout the production course.

To be a director, no qualifications aren’t exactly necessary although there are a wide range of various directing courses to partake in, just having clear knowledge of directing and practical experience in the industry can help you to require this job. The work experience necessary and appropriate for this job would be being a Runner on a film set, or even in a production office. These are all steps which Tom Green would have taken himself to work his way up in the directing job role.

Secondly I checked the script writers for Misfits on IMDB.com and found Howard Overman, who was the writer for 19 episodes.
Previously working on 13 titles such as; Merlin, Vexed, Dirk Gently, Misfits, Harley Street, Spook: Code 9, Dis/Connected, Hotel Babylon, Moving Wallpaper, Perfect Day, New Tricks, Hustle, and In The Bathroom. (All TV Series)

Overman has also been a director (Misfits and Dirk Gently) and a producer.
The scriptwriters hold a massive responsibility, as the initial story comes from their creative writing. In their script, they must ensure that they have included exciting plot lines, interesting characters, and write it on a topic that people will be interested in and what will sell in the industry. While script writing, they need to work closely with all of the cast crew members to develop the script and ensure it is an appropriate story line to sell.
Checking Howards job role on SkillSet.org I discovered that before he acquired his present job, he wouldn’t necessarily need any specific qualifications for the role, but must have a deep understanding of story plots, narrative descriptions and must also have a creative imaginative mind.

I also looked at Misfits costume designer, Liza Bracey who designed the costumes for twenty-one episodes.
Bracey has been the costume designer for 9 titles, including: (from most recent, backdating) Ashes, Spike Island, Misfits, Thorne: Scardey Cat, FM (TV Series), and The Rain Horse (Short Film).
Before designing the costumes on these particular times, she was a costume supervisor on over 30 titles, including the popular teenage movie ‘Angus, Thongs, and Perfect Snogging‘, and the 2nd World War film ‘Boy in the Striped Pyjamas‘ and also ‘Love Actually‘.
Before any of these job roles, she firstly assisted in the wardrobe department for TV movie ‘Jane Eyre’ in 1997.

The role of a costume designer is very much a pre-production job, designing characters costumes, hiring certain attire for them, creating clothing and ensuring they fit all actors and extras. Throughout the process of these steps, they must keep to the financial budget set.

Qualifications required for this particular job are mainly in textiles, to have the general knowledge of designing and sewing, and generally have a creative mind.
Many costume designers will have studied fashion, costume design or performing arts and have a degree or a HND in them.
Following this, graduates will possibly get work experience in clothing shops dressing the mannequins in shop windows, working their way up from this career. Like Liza Bracey previously did, assist in wardrobe departments, working their way up building relationships in the industry and making contacts.

Photography Evaluation

This is my final image that I have chosen from my selection of photos which were shot at Old Gorhambury House on the 5th of October, 2012.
My photo does actually look somewhat similar to what I had initially imagined at the planning stages of this shoot, which I am pleased about. I knew I wanted something fairly simplistic and minimalistic, with obviously no distracting elements in the background. Through all of this I still needed to stick to the brief of 1960s fashion shoot for a Vogue cover, and I would say I have managed to achieve that along with my own ideas included.

Before planning this photo shoot, I watched a video on iconic fashion photography in the 1960s and viewed images from photographers such as David Bailey, Erwin Blumenfeld and Cecil Beaton. One of the photographers that particularly caught my attention was David Bailey, as I really liked the way he worked with his models and environment, his individual style of shooting fashion photography and just his images on a whole. I tried to interpret Baileys style in my chosen picture, by keeping the black and white theme which he has shot in many times, and also highlighting the femininity of the model by transporting some of the focus on to the models hair movement as well as the model herself. David Bailey caught the femininity of his models by also focusing on the hair, eyes or the women’s posture; you can see this in his images featuring Jean Shrimpton and Susan Murray.

To improve my photo shoot, and inevitably then improving the outcome of my images, I would have perhaps planned my timing for the shoot more carefully and planned out who in my group would do what job required, such as carrying equipment, directing the models, holding the light reflectors and so on.

I have received some feedback on my image from my peers, asking them questions on framing of the photo, any improvements which could be made, whether or not the subject is shown well, if the theme is represented well, and if the image is suitable for a Vogue cover…
Out of the three people I asked, all of them said that the image is framed really well as the model is central of the image and is the main focus, with no distracting elements.
One person mentioned that the hair movement of the model could have improvements, and I agree on this point. If I had the chance to shoot this particular image again, I would use a different tool to give the hair more of a ‘wind swept’ natural looking movement, and give it more of a lift. Despite this, I’m still quite pleased with how the hair looks in the image.
Two people thought that my image fits the theme of 1960s fashion really well, as they thought that the models attire looks as though shes dressed in the 60s, and the image itself is a traditional 60s looking shoot. Overlooking this, one person commented that there is nothing in the image that reminds them of 1960s style, so to improve on this next time I would perhaps have the model dressed more appropriately to fit the theme, and perhaps have a prop from the 60s.
When my peers were asked whether or not the image could be used for a Vogue cover, they all agreed that it could be as the theme of fashion is shown well, and because it is in black and white it shows more emotion therefore illustrating both fashion and interest together.

One aspect of my image that I am particularly pleased with is the background. The horizon is a clear cut straight horizontal line, making the image appear really well framed.
Something that I’m not that happy about with my image is that in my opinion, it could fit in with the theme better. For instance, the photo itself doesn’t look like it would be used in the 1960s, however it is interpreted now as though it could be shot back in that era.

Overall, to make any improvements on my final image I would try to achieve more of a 1960s feel to it by instructing the model to wear appropriate 1960s themed attire, and perhaps use an antique prop with it.  Other than this, I think that the picture looks great and enjoyed it.