The weight of the world

Task-1

There are many important elements that go into a short film more importantly a simplistic story that can be carried away through visual elements especially if you want to reach a certain time frame such as ten minutes or less making as many well framed shots as you can helps you in terms of time and story. Its easier to carry a story through visuals in a short story then it is with dialogue as this dialogue could make your film run a lot shorter or longer then you want it too.

Lighting-

Lighting is a key aspect in short story or feature length pictures to convey emotion and represent what the characters are feeling within the film. Lighting and colour palette can set the tone of the film alongside the writing.

Lighting doesn't always have to convey emotion in the scene  it can be used as a spectacle as we see this beautiful silhouette shot similar to some shots in Roger Deakins  cinematography which brings me on to camera work.

Framing

Framing is a key part of a directors visual style one of my personal favourites is the framing used in Mr Robot, in Mr Robot they use isolation framing along with quadrant framing this helps the scene as it can give the character a sense of isolation. 

Another one of my favourites for framing is spike lee especially in do the right thing his framing and choice of camera moves such as zooms Dutch angles high or low angles in conversation instead of the typical ots back and forth is really interesting 

Location

I Would say location will be really key part in our film we had to sell the idea of our camp it had to feel warm like they had been living there for a while we are thinking of using the Hilton hotel as our location this will work well and really suite the camp. i would say for this location we drew a lot of inspiration from Wes Andersons Moonrise Kingdom the camp they had established there works really well for the characters.

Location will also really important for our final scene we had to make it grand which is why we will opened the scene with a big wide of the room 

This helps immerse the audience in our setting and also helps show the scale of the challenge he is about to face.

Importance of techniques

Framing is particular important as it is key do a directors vision and what they want to focus on in the film, they're are all different types of framing in film such as quadrant framing and the well known rule of thirds typical movie composition, isolation framing is important as it can help a character feel isolated these are all key important elements that are used to build a story and character, Lighting is also a key element to the emotion the director wants you to feel lighting can also impact based upon the landscape or perspective. For example Denis Villeneuve used blaring warm light in dune to make it feel like "no place on earth" which helped immerse the audience tarantino also used light to pay homage to other classic films he enjoys 

this is from samuria fiction.

and this is from kill bill.

 

 Another key element is location, location can represent a character and who they are or the world they live in and the world we are brought too. You can learn a lot from a characters location especially if its they're bedroom, also location has to be the same as the world the characters are in and the characters have to be used to this world.

Task 2- research

For the visual style of our film, i was inspired heavily by spike lee and how he uses the camera in certain situations constant low angles Dutch angles high angles. There's also an interesting technique he uses in many of his films where the actors constantly look into the camera this is a fun idea one i think we will like to use.

Spike lee constantly uses Dutch angles especially in arguments playing with the cameras orientation the film can create a visual code to mark characters positions in the argument.

I also looked at how other directors use the camera such as David Fincher, David Fincher manages to put you in his reality by using the camera as a part of the audience, he matches the movement and velocity of his characters with the camera which makes the experience totally immersive whether its this shot in fight club where the camera tracks forward and tilts up just as Edward Norton does.

Or in girl with the dragon tattoo where Danial Craig's character ever so slightly moves his head forward the camera has to match that overall it creates an immersive world where Finchers reality becomes our own and it is very effective 

Me and Kenz spoke a lot together about colour and the look and feel of the film going into we knew there would be a lot of warm vibrant light as it is a triumphant film and the character never hit any real low lows the film will be a sense of community using the warm light helps the characters and the mood of the full story its not harsh dark like something in the likes of prisoners. 

Its very much supposed to be a happy and uplifting story something you would see the likes of little miss sunshine were the colours are not harsh they are stable. Its very much are calming colour palette were as in prisoners its way harsher for the light to break through and when it does its cold blaring light.

Here is our greenlight pitch- greenlight pitch

Focus group

Before we started shooting we held a focus group with the actors to see how they would respond and feel towards a somewhat sensitive topic about the story taking place within a weight loss camp overall we gained not much feedback except that people where going to get offended about the topic even though we had completed the script and there are no jokes centred towards a certain group of people and there is no poking fun at anyone, the weight loss camp was used as a backdrop for our story to build the community and the people in it we needed the campers as Doug's main motive and to why he has to go forward with this challenge.

Location research

For our locations we had to heavily research and see what would be the most viable option for a camp and a eating competition first we looked into the Hilton hotel as we know they have let the college use the location before, fortunately they let us use the space and also let us use a room which was perfect for a campers room ideally we would of had a room where we had bunk beds either side to make it feel more like a camp but the fact we were able to use a hotels room for free was more then good enough for our short film, we scheduled and organised using the Eaglescliffe hall as our final eating competition 

this was perfect for the eating competition as the huge room helps set the scale and the stakes for Doug also the stage was perfect for our table.

We also wanted to include a montage during Dougs arc to facing the eating competition luckily next to our college there is a gym that they let us use this was perfect for this montage scene and was a very fun scene to film.

Soundtrack research

Our soundtrack was key part of this film as it follows more visual aspects then anything else the music was key to building the triumph using the music the music also had to fit the tone we had followed throughout the film our song choices were:

Stan Bush-The touch-opening credits 

David Bowie-Space oddity-Doug finds the flyer to save his camp 

Blondie-Call me-Doug and Ralphie training montage 

Blood, sweat and tears-I cant quite her- Doug enters the eating competition 

Van Morrison-Brown eyed girl-end credits 

Our music choice was all very similar to our style and tone we spent a lot of time discovering songs that we could use and did use for example another pick for the end credits scene was summer holiday.

Task3-planning

here is all of our planning

Task4-Production

Monday 8th May 2023

on the 8th of may we helped out Robert and Alfie on their noir detective film story set in a basement,  i was so glad to help them out with some camera work and shots in the earlier stages of the film, the film is in black and white so i understood what to do with the lighting and how to make it look good making it harsh for the black and white filter to make the shadows pop,  and translate it to black and white me and Kenz helped , the shoot went on for a couple of hours and then that was a wrap on one of their shoot.

Tuesday 9th May 2023

initially, we started filming a couple of days prior to the first day, on the 9th, we filmed the office scene, and the shoot went well, we got it done in a good and sufficient amount of time and by the end I was left feeling accomplished and excited as this was the start of production and nothing was gonna get in our way, however, once Kenz put it in the edit i realised i wasn't happy and i wanted to re-shoot however with a different location, as i couldn't get passed the thought that it was filmed in the college while watching , so ultimately we scrapped it and reworked it and set to reshoot on the 11th May.

Thursday 11th May 2023

production had officially started, we started off the day by going in and printing out the props for the such as the destruction notice papers, and we booked a room in the college to use for the scene, the room was close to the library so we were careful about the sound and how it would affect the filming process. after the notice of destruction was printed off we made our way to the camera room, and we made sure we had all the equipment necessary, we used a camera, a tripod, two lights, a camera battery and two light batteries, a shotgun microphone, an SD card and some headphones, once we had all of our equipment sorted we went and got the actors and got them  costume, we had asked Aiden to wear a blue shirt and some joggers as that was his outfit for the film, we asked Connor to wear a suit as he played a lawyer in the film, me and Kenz spoke about different shots we could use for the entrance of mike Schwipps i we worked together and the shots went very well  and going through the scene,  and then we moved into the room and set up we called for a break just so we could run it through, we ran it through a million times before we could start shooting and tat that point we had a limited time frame of when to get out. eventually, we got the ball rolling and we finished the scene with 10 minutes to spare. For the first shooting day, it went well as we found our comfort zone and realised the tone almost immediately,, we learned how to work through the actors more and we got it done within the timeframe we were given, all in all, it went really well and we were happy with the scene when I put it in the edit.

we had a week spare for our next shoot we spent that time planning shots while waiting for our campers to get their outfit we had arranged for them to wear yellow t shirts all together to show they were apart of Doug's camp.

Wednesday 17th May 2023

this was our second day of filming and our first on-location shoot  me and kenz  got into college early to get things ready, we grabbed our equipment, which was everything listed as of last time, plus wireless microphones, dolly tracks and the dolly mount itself, we got in my Rory Days  car (kenz dad) and arranged to meet everyone at the village hall at 9:30am as soon as we got there me and kenz started talking about the shots when suddenly i had a thought to stand on top of the table to do this high wide shot of Aiden entering the eating competition this was perfect as it set the scale and his grand challange , then we set up all the tables and chairs whilst we waited for everyone to get there, we arranged for jack Harrison to spray paint the logos on the t shirts the night before however, there was a complication and he couldn't do it. We soon encountered another error as we found out that the camera's SD port was dodgy and that meant we had to gold the card in in every shot, this made it incredibly frustrating to use as we kept on having to do takes over and over again because the card would move slightly, eventually we got the hang of it and crafted a scene I'm really proud of our shots were perfect for the scene we managed to get it all done in our time as well. After this we had agreed to be extras in Turnips Tweeds Tractors so i got in my farmer attire and was pretending to throw up for about 20 minutes but it was a great time on the set we all had fun and more importantly we got everything done. 

Thursday 18th May 2023

Today we set out with goals in mind, we had to film three full scenes, and we had to do it on location, mostly we were using the facilities at the Hampton by Hilton hotel and we filmed in Stockton high street for another scene, we had lots to do and little time to do it, so we got into college and gathered all the equipment up and arranged to meet at the hotel by 12:30, everyone arrived at different times which would be infuriating for staff we got a couple scenes done then they went on a lunch break which was annoying since the reason we were meeting at 12.30 was so they could grab lunch before however me and Kenz  just stayed in the room as I needed to figure out how to get the remaining shots done in a good amount of time i had an idea for a fish eye shot through the door which came out really well thanks to Kenz editing  after everyone had finished and came back up we were straight at it, we powered through the remaining shots and got it done I had an idea to pull back on the dolly to reveal the campers which came out really well and also just a dolly shot for Ralphie which me and Kenz spoke about before , we realised the sink wasn't working we asked on of the cast members to tell the front desk  no matter what I should've gone myself to tell them, I realise that the way we acted today was unprofessional and that we have learned from our mistakes and we will strive to do the right and professional thing when on set in future. 

After we finished in the hotel and said thank you and goodbye, the rest of the actors went back to college as the 3 of us crew members plus Aiden all headed off to Stockton high street to film Doug finding his flier I was happy with how this scene came out it definitely is packed with some of the best colour in the scene I had some spike lee inspiration for the shots during this scene which came out really well despite I'm proud of what we managed to get done on this day it went really well 

the main thing we needed to take away from this was to be professional on and off set, all the time when we're dealing with anywhere, professionalism marks respect and creates a good work flow and we will try our best to incorporate that more and more into our work in the future.

Tuesday 22th May 2023

Today was our last day of production we had 3 items to shoot: we had the gym scene, an insert of the flier, Doug papers, 

This day went well the montage was overall really fun came out really fun i spoke with Aiden and Elliot and ask them if there's anything fun they would like to add to the scene and they did it was great, me and Kenz filmed an insert that was missing from the Doug and Mike scene earlier we did that it fit in the scene perfectly, we also had to go back out to the Stockton streets and film and insert of Doug holding the flier which was no problem and that was a rap on weight of the world.

Evaluation

This film was great overall great experience I couldn't be more happy that this is my first directing job overall working close with the cheeky buggers has been fun as always maybe too fun at times as we need to focus more on professionalism as I feel that's the thing we lack especially when we are together because what we can make is good, In the shoot I worked extremely closely with Kenz telling him shots id like to do and he would do the same with me I'm happy with the visuals in the film i think they're really good it was enlightening being able to direct for the first time i cared more about the camera then anything else there wasn't much subtext for me to help out the actors with as there isn't much dialogue and the characters aren't developed that much. Overall it went really well next time we will be way more professional on and off set 

the weight of the world final film