Pre-production:
EPK:
Pitch:
Final product:
Learning Journal -
AC1, Introduction:
Purpose of the product:
For this project, my crew and I are creating a short film which is a sort of sequel to a short film the director of my crew had already made called “A cup of coffee and a spoonful of mistakes”. Both that film and this one are/will be comical, crude, and action packed, with interesting dialogue and camera movement / shots.
The goal(s) for this project is to create something that people can laugh at and enjoy, as well as for everyone involved in the production to polish their skills in their respective roll / department and to gather further experience and brand-new skills.
As a camera operator on this project, I will be able to experiment with shooting a very different style of film to what I’m used to. I’m bound to learn something new when filming this project and my technical skills will improve.
Brief & Client
The brief for this project was to have an industry client that your project is being made for, and though we didn’t have a client in the traditional sense, we instead chose to make this film with the intention of submitting it to a film festival(s), the first option being Birmingham Film Festival.
As for our client being Birmingham Film Festival, we aren’t communicating with them as we may have been if we had a more traditional client, and so we haven’t been given any sort of preferences from them, however we do have the BFF category rules and guidelines that we must follow in order for our short film to be eligible for submission.
Other than that, we were given a substantial amount of creative liberty, and could create essentially anything we wanted, from an advert to a documentary, a short film, or even a music video, so long as we had an industry client.
Target Audience
Our short film, much like the one before it, focuses heavily on a crude sense of humour, including violence and quite a heavy use of profanities. I believe this style of film to be akin to the works of Quentin Tarantino, and this is reflected in the target audiences for both our short film and the vast majority of Tarantino’s filmography. We’re aiming to appeal to teen boys, aged 16+, and more broadly, teens of any sex and gender; this is because, statistically, boys/men tend to enjoy these themes of violence, crime and crude humour more than women.
Another notable film that features heavy themes of violence is Fight Club. “The gender mix of audiences for Fight Club was 61% male and 39% female; 58% of audiences were below the age of 21.” - Hayes, Dade (October 18, 1999) "'Jeopardy' just barely". These stats show us quite a lopsided audience mix, and highlights my point.
One more example of this is the MCU’s fan base. “Marvel's female fanbase adds up to 47%, meaning women aren't significantly outnumbered by male MCU fans (53%).” - MELANIE MCFARLAND. The MCU has a heavy fixation on fighting, and violence, so this further proves my point.
The type of violence in our short film should ensure that we reach our intended audience of young men who enjoy crime, violence and crude humour and language in their media.
Representation
The casting for this short film was very much open to all types of people, however a large majority of the cast was already casted from the previous short film of this series. Due to the nature of the film, we had to cast people with the specific skills to act with a certain demeanour and accent, so our options for casting new actors was quite narrow.
We found it much easier to cast friends of our director’s, since our film features very heavy themes of violence, heavy profanity usage etc, so it was important to us that we had actors that would be comfortable and able to perform at such an audacious and exaggerated level in front of the entire crew.
Our film represents the gangster life, portrayed through Frank, Vin, Sug and everything they get up to, and this representation will appeal to our target audience of people who enjoy the crime and gangster lifestyle in their films.
One of the new people casted for this film plays “Sug”, He’s a hugely important black character in the narrative and he adds to the variety of ethnicity within our film.
Formats
Our short film takes the form of a crime thriller, as opposed to the original crime/comedy tone that was planned, and we decided on this because of the personal enjoyment my crew and I get out of this type of film. We thought it best to make a film that we would enjoy the most. Furthermore, this genre/format is eligible for the Birmingham Film Festival submission, and they’re our client so it was imperative that we made something suitable for submission. The film will still be humorous, but there will be more of a focus on other themes.
One product that I researched in preparation for this project is the first episode of this short film series ‘A Cup of Coffee and a Spoonful of Mistakes’. I analysed all the different aspects of the film, picking out things that we may want to keep, change, develop or scrap for this project.
One key decision we made after reviewing the first film was the choice to remove the
4 : 3 aspect ratio in favor of a more modern aspect ratio, like 16 : 9, to bring out the cinematic prowess of our short film. As a camera op, this will allow me to display just how much my skills have improved during my time at BOA.
We originally wanted to include a vintage look to the film, as well as some sort of grain or noise, in an attempt to push the feeling of 80’s Film and TV, but instead we decided to conform to the modern norm, which is clean, high-quality footage. We’ve done this, as well as moving away from the 4 : 3 aspect ratio, to be more accessible for more people.
Brainstorming
During idea generation we originally wanted to focus a little more on the comedy aspects of the film, and it was going to be a crime/comedy. The reason we planned it this was to subvert the codes and conventions of the crime genre and inject humour into the core of our film. Ultimately, our director decided that due to his own personal life, he would prefer to take a more serious tone with the film, which we were all happy to adjust to.
This adjustment doesn’t change much in terms of our target audience and/or the overall plot of the film, but it does change the tone of the film in a more serious direction, which our target audience should enjoy. Our final idea was chosen because it means something deeper to our director than just a short film. It talks about bottling up emotions, loss, and more heavy topics that many people will be able to relate to, to an extent.
Research
I mostly researched two pieces of media while preparing for this short film, The first of course being ‘A Cup of Coffee and a Spoonful of Mistakes’, and the second being pulp fiction. A Cup of Coffee and a Spoonful of Mistakes is the perfect film to analyse as is literally precedes this film and holds many of the same characters, themes, cinematography and tone as we intend for this one.
Pulp fiction is one of the most well-known and renowned gangster films of all time, so it’s only natural that we take inspiration from it. Things such as the nuance of the dialogue, the character types, the language used, all of these things were spotted by us and incorporated into our own product in one way or another. Furthermore, Pulp Fiction’s (and Quentin Tarantino’s whole filmography as an extension) has the same themes and target audience as our short film, so he may be the best person for us to learn from in this situation.
Feedback
The feedback we received regarding our pitch was to expand the secondary research, this is to gain a broader understanding of the themes we are going to include in our film. Expanding the secondary research also meant including our inspiration from other pieces of media in more depth, and what elements of the inspiration we may include in our final project. From this guidance, I have researched some of the inspirations for the short film, such as pulp fiction, and taken note of the characteristics I want to introduce into the project. Another piece of feedback received from the pitch presentation was to include more specific details on the lenses I want to use to film the short film. From this, I will decide which lenses to include based on the shooting range and the distance, as well as the overall desired look for the project. As we are using a two-camera setup with another camera operator and I filming, I will have to take this into consideration when choosing equipment and lenses. The last piece of feedback given for the pitch was to ensure that our mood board and initial inspirations were clear. We only included inspiration from the first previous film, and from this feedback we are going to ensure that our other inspirations for colour, theme, edits and cinematography are clear on the mood board to show our initial idea generation for the project.
AC2, Problem solving:
Risks
When preparing to film for this project we made a mute mistake, neglecting to rent our equipment out until only a few days before half term, and we had planned to film over said half term. By the time we had tried to rent our equipment there wasn’t any left for us to use, so we had to postpone and reschedule all of our filming days to some time after half term. This was a huge risk due to the fact that the deadline would be soon approaching after half term and we wouldn’t have much time to get through everything we needed to. The way we overcame this risk / problem was by using the half term to iron out pre-production and really buckle down on our planning and schedules. We worked on making our shot list, shooting schedule and call sheets crystal clear, containing every bit of detail, so that when we were finally able to film we would be able to follow our plan as closely as possible and streamline everything, as to make up for all of the missing time.
This experience taught us all a hard lesson in preparedness, and showed us that keeping on-top of everything was the most important thing when working on a production, because underprepared, overlooked pre-production will severely hinder production no matter what. A way to avoid a problem like this in the future would be to write an expansive list, including a timeline, of everything that needs to be done during the pre-production phase along with the department/person that is responsible for doing it. This way, people would be hyper-aware of their responsibilities within their department as well as a timeline for when these things should be completed. Booking equipment, for example, would be high up on a list of responsibilities for the camera, lighting and sound departments, which would prevent such a severe mistake from happen again.
Limitations and issues
Our short film was quite ambitious, including many intense and sometimes difficult to film scenes, considering what we could and couldn’t show on screen due to practical limitations or otherwise. One thing that comes to mind is a scene in our film during which a character is murdered with a machete, and he’s dismembered. The two huge reasons this was an issue for us are the fact that showing such a gruesome scene on screen wasn’t in our best interest, and also the fact that we lacked the budget, skills , crew etc to make that happen on screen in the first place, so we had to settle. We kept the scene since it was so integral to the narrative, but we were able to maneuverer around both of these roadblocks by not showing the scene, but instead filming around it. We filmed shadows on the wall, the reactions of other characters witnessing it happen, and audio of the entire scene. This way we could strongly imply what was happening, and paint a picture in the mind of the audience all while avoiding the two problems I mentioned earlier.
We were limited in choice for this scene due to the aforementioned roadblocks, but by being smart and resourceful we were able to execute the scene, perhaps even with more creativity and Intrigue than we would have done if we were able to film the scene explicitly. In the future it’s likely best to try our best to consider what is and isn’t possible for us to make happen at this stage in our careers and write in a way that we’re certain we can bring a scene to life without feeling too limited, or as if we’re settling for an option we don’t prefer.
Experimentation
As a camera operator on this project my job was to help bring the director’s creative vision to life, doing everything I can to capture the action in the best, most interesting and compelling way possible. It’s for this reason that I shot the widest variety of shots I ever had while working this project. We had many scenes that required different things from a visual standpoint, scenes that needed the help of the visuals to completely tell their stories. I experimented by using low shots, high shots, cowboy shots and extreme close-ups. None of these shots are particularly crazy or out of the ordinary in general, but for me personally, I hadn’t used many of these types of shots, or at least not to the great effect that they were being used here. Almost every angle chosen has a purpose beyond the visuals. Using low shots to look upwards at characters, giving them an overwhelming presence in the scene and indicating either power or the lack there of. Cowboy shots, intended to show the majority of a character without being from a far distance, allowing for both optimal body language coverage and facial expression coverage of multiple characters at the same time during intense scenes.
By moving out of my comfort zone and selecting shots that I wouldn’t necessarily default to, the film was enriched greatly. It meant that the visuals carried much more weight to them than usual. They’re able to carry emotion with them, tone and implied information, all through angles, composition and blocking. Furthermore, the wider variety of shots likely benefited the watching experience, giving the audience unique and sometimes fun shots to look at.
Feedback
As I previously mentioned, our short film was pretty intense, and along with that came a level of seriousness in its tone. It was explicit and at times crude, usually in dialogue/humour. All these things are a staple of this film, the one before it and to an extent, the entire future cinematic universe that these films exist within, so it’s not as though we would / could change that for this project. With that being said, teachers who had read draft scrips during the pre-production phase advised us to perhaps tone down the profanity or violence present in certain parts of the script, since the aim wasn’t to make an entirely inappropriate piece of cinema. We needed to balance the crude, violent and explicit nature of this project with the rules and regulations of BOA Stage and Screen Academy, as well as Birmingham Film Festival, which we plan on submitting our film to.
Considering this feedback, we did just that. We cut out a lot of unnecessary profanities, monitored the violent scenes so that they weren’t too violent, etc. we did it in such a way that we could keep everything integral to the film’s core while also keeping it’s class and dignity in tact. Following this feedback likely made our film
More accessible for more people and slightly lightened it’s original tone.
I believe that the audiences perception of r-rated films is one of maturity and belonging. I feel as though adults may feel a sense of community and belonging when watching an r-rated film, as they're specifically for people aged 18+, excluding children. This fact allows for feelings of "this piece of media was created for adults, like myself, to enjoy" as opposed to the feelings of "this PG rated film is made for children, which I am not". I believe that older audiences have a preference for r-rated cinema, or a distaste for PG rated films due to these reasons. Considering this, I believe that it was the right call to make our film more mature by nature, since more people seem to prefer r-rated content over PG content.
AC3, Technical skills:
Equipment and set-up
As I spoke about previously, I experimented with the camera through the types of shots I selected and by letting the narrative help determine how we placed the camera within a scene. Additional ways in which we creatively used equipment was during a scene that takes place in a small room lit by a purple LED. We were shooting a close up shot, and due to the dark purple light and the shadows the light casted, it was difficult to see the subject’s face clearly. To combat this we used another light, white in colour, from the opposite side of the subject, equalising the shadows on the subject’s face. The problem with this set up, though, was the fact that the room was quite small and due to the blocking of the scene, we couldn’t have the white light shine directly onto the subject from the side that we needed it to, rendering it useless. To fix this problem we innovated and used the reflector we had booked out just in case we needed it. We then pointed to light towards the camera, out of frame, and I held the reflector up, bouncing the light off and onto the subject which fixed the problem we had with low visibility.
Being creative in our equipment use here saved us as if not for this discovery we likely would have had to change the blocking of the scene or entirely changed the camera angle which would have then deviated from the original creative vision.
The camera settings that were used changed every so often to accommodate for different lighting environments, but other than the few times they were changed I was using the same settings. 24 FPS, 1/50 Shutter, f4.2 Iris, 320 ISO, 5150K White-balance and 8 tint. These settings were optimal for our situation and due to the fact that I was shooting one long scene on this day, in the same general area, the settings didn’t need to change often.
Editing
We’re editing the short film on premiere pro, which we’ve gathered experience with through our time at college so we’re very comfortable with navigating and using the software. Knowing we were confident with our editing skills to an extent, we planned and filmed scenes with post-production in mind. The first thing that comes to mind is a match-cut that we prepared and filmed, accompanied by layered audio.
The scenes we’re match cutting between are a scene where a character known as “Vin” is talking to another character known as “Frank”, and Frank is zoned out, staring into space, and another scene where Frank again is staring into space. The point of the scene is to show Frank lost in his own mind and then snapping back into reality. In order to bring the effect of the scene into play, we planned to layer the voice of Vin over itself a few times, giving the hazy effect that Frank is sort of hearing vin, but he certainly isn’t listening. Layering audio is an interesting editing technique that can achieve a wide variety of things and we’re experimenting with it here.
AC4, Professional practice:
Roles
My role for this project was that of the camera operator, so naturally my role had a huge impact on the project. The director and I would discuss what kind of shot was wanted and what the intent of the shot was, but I was instructed to “use my initiative” since the director trusted that I would get a good looking shot if left to my own devices. This shows the huge impact my role had on the visual identity of the film, which is a big deal because film is a visual medium.
I used and acquired a multitude of skills while working on this project. One set of skills that I massively improved on was setting up and down the camera quickly before and after filming which sped up the process quite a lot. I also became much more comfortable with the camera settings, so it was no problem for me to know what setting needed changing, how to change it and what to cha he it to if the situation ever called for it. Furthermore, the speed at which I was able to move and adjust the tripod improved. We used the tripod far more often than we didn’t on the days that I was filming, so it was super important for me to make those adjustments quickly but also to a high standard. If I rushed too much, I may have forgotten to align the spirt level of the tripod, leaving us with a wonky shot that we may not notice until post-production, for example.
Additionally I feel I grew majorly in my competency with composition while working on this project. After some time of just gaining more experience, I felt my eye for a good composition had come alive.
Responsibilities
As a camera operator on this project, I had many responsibilities during both pre-production and production. During pre-production I was responsible for completing the shooting schedule and equipment list. Typically I would also help with the shot list, but due to the fact that we had two camera operators on this project, we split the pre-production between us.
During production my responsibilities expanded. I was responsible for ensuring the camera equipment was being used correctly and handled with care. I was also entirely responsible for setting up and down the camera equipment, including the tripod, and it was up to me to keep a close eye on the batteries. I had to keep track of which ones were being rotated, ensuring they were being charged and also I had to remember to conserve as much battery life as possible at all times. I also was in charge of changing the clapper board, not because I was a camera operator but because it was most convenient that way, considering our small crew size.
The ultimate responsibility of mine was to do my best to bring the director’s creative vision and intent to life through my camera work.
Everything I listed here ensured the success of the project in one way or another. The pre-production work helped us streamline production and stay on track at all times, my taking care of the camera equipment kept production moving and prevented any costly accidents, setting up and down the equipment is necessary for production to take place, monitoring the batteries ensured that production continued as long as it needed to, changing the clapper board was necessary for smooth post-production and bringing the director’s vision to life is my ultimate goal. All my responsibilities are necessary for production to move forward, showing how important the role is.
Organization
Being prepared for the production period of a production is the most important thing during the pre-production phase, because that allows both the production and post-production phases move much quicker and with much more confidence, because you always have something to refer back to, a plan to always follow. We made a mistake early on, which was neglecting to book our equipment out until it was too late. This put us on an unexpected time crunch and was caused by our shortsightedness. we were tunnel visioned, focused intensely on completely any and all outstanding pre-production at the time. Preparing a list of tasks that need completely and an accompanying timeline could solve a problem like this in the future.
This misstep, though, gave us the time we needed to ensure that our pre-production was up to standard and that we were as prepared as we could be for when we were finally able to begin production. To keep our self as organized as possible we created in depth shot lists, shooting schedules and call sheets that we made extremely detailed and clear so that they were easy to stick to when the time came.
Professional Etiquette
Proper communication with cast and crew was integral to the success of this project, because we had so many different characters and scenes and locations, so we needed to communicate clearly and efficiently to get the project to work. One way we communicated professionally was through call sheets. Sending off the call sheets to the actors explaining where, when and who needs to be on set on any given filming day was very professional and effective at delivering important information to the correct parties.
Regarding communication between crew members, we had multiple team meetings where we would discuss which bits of pre-production needed to be done and by who, as well as communicating about which days we could potentially film on, comparing and considering everyone’s schedule. To get this information from cast members, our director sent out an email asking all cast members to inform us of their availability for the following 2 weeks or so, so that we could plan around everyone’s plans
AC5, Communication:
Meaning to the audience
As I’ve spoken about previously, as a camera operator one of the best things I can do to help support the narrative is employ visual storytelling. Moving the camera in a certain way or direction, panning up to reveal information, leaving negative space to imply emotion etc. these are all things that create meaning and emotion to the audience through my camera work. One shot specifically that comes to mind is during the machete scene, where I shoot from a low angle, looking directly up at the hostage begging for his life. The angle usually shows power in an individual, as shooting from a low angle makes the subject appear larger in size, but the context of the scene plays on that and instead portrays the hostage and immensely overwhelmed and powerless.
This project is about loss and tragedy. The entire piece is a commentary on suffering from the loss of people who were once close to us and how one moves on from such a thing. It also looks at the tragedy that can follow when one doesn’t find a safe way to move on from said loss.
The target demographic of this film is teen boys, with the psychographic being more specifically fans of action, comedy, explicit language and violence. We’ve created something that follows the codes and conventions of similar works before it while also putting our own spin on it. Everything people tend to like about the works of Tarantino or other filmmakers who make this genre of film is present in our film, which should entice our target audience.
Meeting intentions
We’ve shown the codes and conventions of the short film format as well as the genre we’ve chosen in many different. The way in which we’ve told the story is very typical of a short film, considering the runtime we had to work with. It’s paced fairly quickly and focuses on one concise plot like since short films typically don’t have time to focus on anymore. Shorts films also tend to be quite grounded in reality, due to the nature of them not having much time to expand into something deeper and more ambitious, but also because of the fact that most short film creators lack the budget and production value to create anything particularly mystical or overly dramatic with huge set pieces and explosions, for example.
The final product includes everything we had planned from the final script, and despite having to change some minor things here and there, it’s lived up entirely to our hopes and wishes for it.
Since our client is the Birmingham Film Festival and we’ve yet to submit our film to them, we haven’t received any feedback from them yet.
Platform and distribution
This short film was intended for YouTube and the Birmingham Film Festival, so we exported the final product as an MP4 file in h.264, 1080p. These are the optimal settings to export film in as they’re the most versatile and are of a high quality and standard. I think our short film fits the intended platforms perfectly. It’s exported in all of the right ways, and regarding its runtime, pacing and contents, I think we selected the most optimal platform (YouTube).
The final edit will be uploaded to our director's production company YouTube channel, as well as to my YouTube channel and likely the rest of the crew’s. Additionally, as I mentioned, we intend to submit our film to the Birmingham Film Festival, so if all goes well it shall be seen there too. Our decision to release the film on YouTube was guided by our knowledge of how young people, our target audience, use the internet. YouTube is home to many armature made short films because it's an accessible and highly used platform for that type of content.
I think that if we also posted the film, or perhaps a teaser / trailer for the film, on social media, it would potentially help the film gain more traction and encourage people who see it to go out of their way to watch the full film.
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