Photgraphy Part 1

A Silhouette of Trees: Taken on an evening around the Savannah, truly a beautiful scenery.

Of course part of getting to know how to film, is understanding the camera and how it functions. As an editor I still had that curiosity about the camera that made me conflicted between choosing either being an editor or camera person for my group. So on my own I went out and took a few pictures, choosing this as the best. I tried to understand framing of shot.

The picture shown above was later used as one of the backgrounds for the poster I created for the short film called "The Cut". I borrowed the Fujifilm Finepix S1000 and scouted various places beforehand. I could not resist this sunset.

I went scouting for a place to give our film a home when originally our class lecturer told us specifically that the editor, since we were such a small group, would also become the location/scout person. I wrote it down this was how it went originally.

Four Person Team
Producer
Director
Editor/ Location/Sound
Camera Person/ Lighting
Actors (2 outsider)
Grip / PA (1 outsider)

Originally our lecturer was led to believe that there were nineteen of us in class altogether, so she made us form into groups of six each. Group assignments allow you to understand the value of team work, as each responsibility is split and you cover a greater range of things together. In the process I allocated my fine teammates earlier on so we could get a head start, but something was not adding up because there were only four of us sourced and another group of seven, beyond the limit set out originally. So where were the other group members to give our group some "body"?

We later discovered that nineteen became a class of seventeen and there was one group of six, one group of seven and another of four. As much I saw the deliberate unfairness of this situation, I kept thinking we needed at least an additional member, to remove the burden of the assignment from four. I mean, this is a full scale film production, short but a lot of work. Surely I believed miss would see it our way as well.

This minor class dispute left us in the end with four people in one group agreed by our lecturer. I still kept thinking we needed more people. So she agreed that we sourced people outside for the group, but sometimes you require your members to do a little more than their share, especially being beginners, we needed all the help we can get. I still didn't see the point to arguing, we worked it out and later on one person came and made our group five, which became a relief.

Sometimes there are situations like this that really stress you out in the field, and I didn't want my job to suffer because we just didn't have enough people while other groups had a fair advantage. They really wanted to stick to it and that was that. My concern was making sure our group met regularly, as I was certain our already chosen producer believed that as well.

I end off just as I began, with as beautiful picture. In the end you still manage to pull off what you didn't think was possible. It all takes a little effort and sacrifice to get there and I admired how much my group members sacrificed to produce a beautiful product, I would share with you later on.

Cavielle

Editing is Easy?

So of course I thought editing was just to show up on the day and edit a video depending on what clips were decided. I did not once think about the exact work I had to put forward. It is just as much of a task as any other gig, and I felt comfortable about putting my best forward for my group. For this part, the editor took on other roles that brought the group uniformed on the day. So what was miss thinking giving the editor the role of the grip or in my case sound engineer. I had enough things to piece together miss beforehand, believe me I had a lot more work to do. While for some others it seemed like a breeze, but I knew they had their work cut out for them.

...but I didn't complain, in fact sound completed the technical aspect of my expertise. I might have had to do it regardless, but all the sound effects would be collected together prior so I would know what sound went with which clip and where to place what. It's a strategy in your head as to where to place things in each cut.

Imagine one of those complicated puzzles, with several pieces. You have the picture on the box as to what all those pieces represent, but it becomes a pain when one too many many doesn't work when you place them in the right spot, which is what editing becomes. You the picture, or in this case the story, but you must fit those small clips together into a movie. Hey that's a lot of work.

I remember the

In my role as editor I had to envision the idea of the film.

Cavielle

The First Idea

So I had this idea for a plot to present to my group of four. I guess I would let you know the four to five story in a later post.

Still this idea I thought was brilliant, I mean if we pulled it off, it would not only be unique, but I think we could have the Film Festival give us a toast for effort. Depending, I could not calculate the camera work and other factors for the day.

The Story:
Imagine a day that went wrong, from the moment you got up to the point where it got so crazy you wanted out. You find yourself in a world where walking backwards is normal, people peeing in the streets instead of in their homes and children are now the parent. Nothing is as it supposed to be. When after a period of trying to get out of this day, you somehow grow accustomed to the change and you decide to stay even when you see a way out.

Some of the things you see wrong in the day ironically represents a bit of what is presently seen in society, that inevitably becomes a part of life. The problem for me was getting the group to see the vision.

So I painted the idea of the plot beginning with a young boy of 12 with an afro, sitting on a pavement looking lost and dirty. He then picks up a five cent piece and as he stands he is now seen as a twenty year old fair skinned boy with the same afro, so we presume this is the same boy. While he notices the change it doesn't affect him until he walks and sees signs on walls that don't make sense; "walk through the wall", "trip on the pavement here", "Buy a dollar with five cents". When he reaches for the five cents it has changed into a dollar, soon turns into a black boy around the same age.
The aim was to gradually make small changes to give the illusion of chaos and add to the sense of humor to this weird world this person was facing. The idea was to end this chaos with the boy now an old man who finally sees the way out with a hundred dollar bill in his hands, but has grown so accustomed to this world that he chooses to buy a bicycle and revert back to his youthful days.

I thought this was cool, but it sounded complicated for a one day assignment and my group members watch me in a bit of bewilderment.

"The boy turns into and old man in a space of a day" I said to clarify, but it was up to the producer and if she couldn't see or understand it, she could not do a good job producing it.

So I still put the copyright sign © on this idea, because I believe I would make it into something greater in the future.

For now, I am happy I had a simpler back up idea in the cutlas man. I would elaborate more on the concept when I discuss the details of the production as an editor. Still my initial idea had the guy with the cutlas in the film cutting roses for his romantic interest. The producer suggested to have at the end *woow* I would give that up just yet.

Cavielle

Stages of Production

What happens in these stages of production. I can compare them to how you would go about writing an essay or a paper report for college or to even going out and investigate a research project and make a report. They all carry the same basic principle; Plan, Create and Edit. In all approaches you begin with an idea or a concept, you formulate the idea into a constructive plan and you execute, then you re-examine the final product for presentation or submission. These are all executed with the exception that these cases create written reports as the final product, instead for a film production picture a visual report.

The stages involved in production takes place in three stages:
1) Pre-Production
2) Production
3) Post-Production

They all carry the similar approach to executing any plan with the exception of an incredible amount of paperwork being done in the Pre-Production stage.

The film production is a challenging responsibility for anyone during pre-production. You have to create a film so what would you need on the day:
A Story
A Cast (Characters to fill the story)
Props for the characters if needed

Did you know you also need to source the right location. You can not just decide that you would shoot the movie in the parking lot outside. You have to source a location close to decent toilet facilities, because you would have your actors on set for a specified period of time. You cannot just tell them to hold it.

So for pre-production you need to:
Develop the story's beginning, middle and end
Write a script for the story
Develop the qualities of the characters in detail
Hire a crew with those desired qualities
Build the location for the story
Scout for appropriate location (with adequate toilet facilities for cast)
Get consent to use those locations
Develop contact list, equipment list and shooting schedule
Line the script
Develop storyboard

Once you get all the paperwork out of the way, filming should be an easy process, with no problems. Actually it's not and you tend to think that your problem ends after the paperwork is completed, but you have to also ensure that your crew hired on the day could actually make it. It would not make any sense to role your cameras and have no one there to film.

So even in production you would have your trials and you have to monitor the weather condition, especially if you are filming the majority of the film outdoors. Collecting appropriate sound beforehand, would save the crew a lot of trouble on the day and even practicing the routine for the script in real form could help the team improve when the actual project needs to be accomplished.

As a first time production team, each task would be overwhelming, especially in post production which involves editing the footage collected for the finished piece. This is where the producer's and director vision is translated into a finished piece.

Sounds simply enough right? Well I would discuss the role of editing in greater detail since I have a fair idea into this process.

Cavielle

The Beginning: A Production Film? - What !

The "Team" Project

Imagine trying to figure out how to not only work as a team, but to produce a major short film production. Where was I going to begin, I began picturing the task while our lecturer explained every last detail. Was she expecting us to be like a real life Hollywood Film Production Team?

I was also intrigued. We were going to make an actual movie, with scripts, characters and cameras. The only trick being was the filming and editing of the short film was to be done in one day. That threw out a lot of ideas I already had in my mind, but it was a challenge I knew was not impossible to do.

I have a strong passion for writing. I imagine a lot of perspectives from many different views, worlds ('science fiction' what did you think I meant?),societies and even cultures. Nothing is as we know it in life. So I make a living out of writing my thoughts and putting those pieces together.

The roles for this production were:
Producer
Director
Camera Person
Sound Operator
Editor/Grip
Gaffer/Lighting Technician
Actors

So which role was I going to fit into, given my creative writing skills.

I directed once before in a prior project with a lot of team members. I would say I did my best, but I could have been a greater help being the Editor. That is because I also had a passion for putting various pieces together to make a whole constructive narrative. It is like writing in a digital form. I also loved photography and dealing with a camera. The ability for a camera to pick up moving pictures still amazes me and there are so many tricks you can do to make a scene beautiful. So at the end of the session I had already constructed in my mind that camera person and editor would be the best choice for whatever group I was in. I did also love acting, but I guess I would leave that up for whoever wanted the gig.

Cavielle