Problems when filming:
One of our main problems was, because we had switched filming our first night scene to the second night, the weather forecast was much worse on the Tuesday. This meant we had to film earlier on in the day, around 6pm instead of the initial 9pm start we wanted. Furthermore, because of this last minute decision, we wanted to film straight away before the weather turned, and therefore had to film in the woods behind the hostel, not Bellever, that we did our first scene, as it was quicker and more accessible than Bellever. Therefore, this resulted in a big continuity error that quite a lot of viewers noticed, as the setting was clearly different. However, this problem wasn’t anyone’s fault, it was just unlucky.
Another problem we faced in terms of location was with the bedroom shots. The room we were in was very small, and could barely fit anyone in anyway, let alone all of us. This meant that the director had to stand outside while the camera operator, the sound producer and I had to stay in to film with the actors in certain shots. However, we did have the director to come in a review shots etc, but I felt like I directed a lot of shots and had to become AD. Lack of room was also a problem in the bathroom shot, as we were trying to not get all the bunk beds and multiple sinks in the shots to make it look more like a home. However, getting multiple cubicles in the shot did ruin the illusion, but not many viewers seemed to notice.
Another problem I found was that our producer wasn’t very present for our shoots. When filming the bathroom/outside bathroom shots in the hostel, we didn’t even know where he’d gone, but because of the time limit we had to carry on. Also, on set he didn’t take control or try and organise like a producer would. Looking back, if I didn’t want to edit so much I probably would’ve taken the role of producer. Also, his production schedule wasn’t very helpful, as we all used our personal action plans and the filming schedule to know what we were doing and when. Also, he failed to communicate very well before and after production, even after we tried to encourage it.
Another problem encountered when filming was, when we were in the hostel there was actors, other groups and teachers still there who weren’t out shooting. This meant we had to find quiet areas and make sure nobody came through whilst filming. Also, it was difficult to get ambience for the hostel as we wanted it to seem empty but you could hear voices or footsteps around the building.
Another problem was the second day, as we had so much time to do the day shots, everyone seemed to lose a bit of motivation, especially the actors. As we were quite productive and got a lot of shots done quickly, nobody wanted the break to end quickly, as they just thought that we had all day. However, for myself and the sound producer this wasn’t good as we wanted to check the footage and audio files as we had done the night before, to make sure nothing needed to be reshot. I also found that with this lack of concentration I had to take part in the directing the second day. I feel I became assistant director that day, as I was telling the camera operator where to go for shots, and checking on sound etc. This really built my confidence in directing, even telling the actors how they could improve.
Problems when editing
One problem we had when editing was that we decided that we’d cut all the clips first, then add the tascam audio in afterwards. This made it easier cutting the clips, but then our sound producer had to do the audio afterwards, which took quite a while. I think if we had done this at the same time it would’ve been much easier for both of us. Also, as she was doing sound it meant we couldn’t both do editing at the same time.
Another factor that made editing harder was the continuity of our actors. For example, in one take of the last scene, she had her hand up from the start, but in the next shot her hand wasn’t up until halfway through. This meant we had to precisely cut it up so it flowed better. Also, with a lot of their lines they would speak too fast and we couldn’t go to the shot we wanted to. This may have been a result of our rehearsals not being as detailed as they should’ve been, or the actors being nervous and not remembering their cues. However, for things like the hand in or out of the shots this may be because of our directing not being explained well enough or at all. However, this has made me understand the importance of directing actors to do the same things at the same time every shot.
Another thing that we found to be difficult when editing was we had a lot of camera shots. Our camera operator had not done editing before so it was understable, but there was a lot of panning as the actors were halfway through talking or not even moving. Although panning shots can be very effective at times, there just appeared to be too many for the scene to look good, as it would be so common. Thankfully, after reviewing our footage from our first scene while we were still on Dartmoor, I could tell him to not pan as much as it can interrupt.
A final thing that made editing quite hard was how many takes we did from the same angle. When we were filming we thought this was a good idea as we thought that if there were more take there’d be a higher chance of one of them looking and sounding perfect. However, when it came to actually editing the film, we realised it had just made it more confusing to try and pick a clip, as they were all so similar and we didn’t know which was the best without watching them all. Also, if we wanted to go back to use a different part of the clip we may have gotten the wrong one.
Some changes that were made
One change that was my area was the costume. If you look at the costume list of ‘unknown’ she isn’t wearing that in the film. This is because we made the decision to change the character’s costume after we handed in the pre-production. When doing our final rehearsal, we spoke to the actors and asked what they had off the list. It turned out ‘Unknown’ thought she was meant to wear the same as Faith was. After a discussion, as a group we decided that it would be better if they were wearing similar outfits anyway, as it would symbolise that they were the same person even more. However, we couldn’t change this on the pre-production, as we had already gone past the deadline. Overall, I think that this was a better choice than what we had previously had and don’t regret having it this way.
Another change already discussed was we had to change our night shot to an evening shots. I think this made it easier for the lighting and practicality of the scene as it would’ve been quite unsafe to travel to Bellever and shoot there at night as it was not a very risk-free environment even during the day, especially with such bad weather and the equipment too. I think this changed the atmosphere of this scene in the final film, but in terms of shooting it was by far the better option.
Some more changes that we made were with the script. When we were rehearsing, having the actors read what we wrote out loud made us realise how unnatural a lot of it was. Therefore, we let our actors make changes to their script, under our supervision, and let me make suggestions on what dialogue we could change. Although this made it a bit harder to direct for us, it made the film a lot more real than it would’ve been before they said anything about it.
A final big change that I decided to do was add the flashback sequence at the end. I had this idea for a few reasons. My first reason was because I felt the film didn’t have a part that made it stood out. During my research I found an article (https://jonnyelwyn.co.uk/film-and-video-editing/tips-on-editing-short-films/), and it says to make your film stand out ‘You need to have at least one shot or moment which makes the whole theatre say WOW or EW, or HAHAHA!’. I think that the flashback was our ‘wow’ moment, and it made the audience understand the film, or it was just at the moment when they caught on. Another reason I wanted this part was honestly because I felt like not much happened during our film, it was a lot of dialogue and walking and there wasn’t anything powerful, visually, apart from what was said. This may have been because of the scripting or the shots we had but either way it didn’t feel enough for me to be proud of the edit. Coming from this point, another reason I wanted to do the flashback was because I felt I hadn’t showed my editing capabilities very well, and I hadn’t yet challenged myself. All we’d done was cut clips up and add in some ambience. I did the flashback to learn more and see how far I could go with it. I exported the whole film and chopped it up and added in different shots/audio, all in a diffrent Premiere project, so I could really experiment and do it myself, and ended up being very proud of the sequence.
Feedback of our film
We showed our film to a group of 23 and gave them a questionnaire afterwards to see what they thought. Our first question was if they enjoyed the film or not, with everyone saying yes, but 2 people said they didn’t really enjoy the first scene as it was too loud. Someone also said they ‘liked how it was sequenced together’ and someone else described it as ‘gripping’ and ‘unique’. Another question was if they understood the story, with most saying yes, but if they didn’t, it all ‘tied up at the end’. This was really positive for me as, as editor I felt like I made the transitions work and flow, and even the dialogue which was quite challenging to edit. Also, 13/23 got the main theme (memory loss), but almost everyone else got at least one of our themes.
Another question was ‘do you think the editing was up to a good standard’ and everyone said yes, but a few said it could’ve been improved as there ‘were a few bits that didn’t flow’, which I agree with. However, one transition that a lot of people brought up was when Unknown fell on the floor and it clearly wasn’t the same location in the first to second scene. We understood that this was visible when editing and just accepted that people would notice. Another question that we asked was were there any specific parts that people liked, 10 out of 23 people said that the flashback, and 8 others saying ‘the ending’. This made me really proud as the last part of the film is what I spent the most amount of time on.
However, some negatives that various people had was that the first scene was too loud. I agree, I think the beat should’ve been louder, and the beeping noise should’ve been much quieter. Although I didn’t do the audio for this scene, I really should’ve checked over it myself. I showed it to the others in my group to see what they thought, but I should’ve checked myself being editor. But, when we were editing we were using earphones, but when we showed it to the class it was through loudspeakers, which I think affected the volume, as it even distorted some of the voices. Another problem someone had was it went on for a while and ‘could’ve been a bit quicker’ which is true. I think a lot of our dialogue wasn’t essential for the narrative to be understandable, however we never realised this until we were editing.
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Comparison to proposal
One thing I said in my proposal was ‘I plan to make a challenging and successful edit’. I think I did make a challenging edit, especially the flashback, and I would consider it successful, in regards to it being easy to understand for people, and everyone enjoying most of the film. Something else I said was I wanted to ‘edit in a way that keeps the audience interested and engaged’. I think we kept the audience engaged for the most part, but the heavy amount of dialogue might’ve lost some people at points, but overall, as people understood I don’t think it was too bad.
I also said ‘I want our ‘clues’ along the way to be noticeable for the viewers’ – the clues being the book and the photo. At first we wanted to put these shots to be in the film, not the flashback, but there wasn’t any way we could incorporate them and keep the flow of the sequence. However, in the flashback I used the shot of the photo, but couldn’t use the book shot as it was a bit blurry when we zoomed in and was a panning shot again. I also said we could make a tense atmosphere by ‘adding in voices and sound effects at the start’. We were also going to have voices at the end, but scrapped this idea as, at the start we decided to make the audio ourselves and didn’t want voices as we first wanted (which would’ve been her parents). We also didn’t want them at the end as we decided a flashback would be more effective.
What skills I developed
One skill I think I massively improved on, considering I’d never even tried before, was my directing skills. As said before I think I did well on helping directing on the second say and it’s made me realise I really enjoy it. Before I wouldn’t have been able to tell actors how to act, as I felt it wasn’t my place, but after Dartmoor, I now understand – it’s to make sure your film looks the way you envisioned it. Also, I now can see shots more in my head and imagine what it would look like.
Another skill I developed was my confidence to show my work. Normally, I wouldn’t want to show my edits even to people in my group let alone a whole class and actors. However, this project built my confidence enough to ask for help and get criticism for my work, which is very important to me. This means in the future I won’t be as shy to show my work.
What I learnt in editing
Overall, I developed my speed in Premiere. Throughout the year I edited a few things, but because they were so far apart and would only take me one or two days, I would forget how to do things. But because I did this edit for a few weeks and edited at home, I feel I now have things that I’ll remember to do for much longer as I did it so many times.
Something else I learnt was the basics of After Effects. I began this project thinking I’d just use Premiere, but for the credits I thought it would be much easier on After Effects. It took me a while to get used to it but I think our credits look good and were a good way to end the film. I watched this tutorial (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBqm2pjSUv0) to learn how to do it, which was very useful. Doing this in After Effects instead of Premiere has made me more keen to use it again.
Influenced from research
I got inspiration from Memory 2.0, the short film I researched, when she glitched and was delayed (3:30-3:36). I looked up a tutorial on how to do this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0zy6VnjGPw&t=79s). I didn’t use the ‘glitching’ part as I didn’t like how it looked on our footage. However, I did use the tip on opacity and moving round the clips as I thought it looked really good.
Somewhere else I used inspiration from research was during the flashback. After looking at Art2Day, I saw that blue was commonly used for art to do with ‘memory’. From this, I decided to colour grade her flashback slightly blue, to indicate to the audience that it was her memories. I think this was successful as everyone in the survey called it a flashback.
What I could do to improve on
One area I’d like to improve on is my scriptwriting. Looking back, I don’t think we should’ve written so much dialogue, as it really made the film go on a bit at times. Even in my research I found out it’s more effective ‘to show than say’, which I should’ve followed. However, I now know that we should’ve critically looked at our script and cut it down.
Something else I wish we did was get a larger variety of shots, of B-roll or of our actors. I think if we had done this I would’ve been able to edit in a much more challenging way, but as we had quite similar shots I was rather limited to what I could do. Also, if we got more B-roll I could’ve practised more interesting transitions. Maybe we could’ve have more shots that are challenging, such as tracking with a ronin or a really low or really high angle – it could’ve mixed it up visually a bit more.
Something else I would do is explore audio more, as I left it to our sound producer to do. I let her choose the music and sounds effects etc, but it might’ve been better if I helped her choose or did it myself, as there were some comments about how loud it was, or was a bit off at times. However, this is due to the tascam audio not being the greatest to work with as it was quite quiet.
The final thing I’d like to do to improve next time would be to explore directing or being a producer more. Before this project I didn’t think I’d want to or could direct, but after experiencing what it might be like, it looks really intriguing to me. Or even being a producer, as I’m naturally a very organised person, and like helping people if they’re struggling. I’d really like to do directing more in the future.
Eve Chester SDC 