And we're done!

Today was our final shoot on the swimming doc we have been making over the last few weeks.

I have learned a great deal on the documentary, not only about sound, camera and producing but also about swimming and how it can be a life skill but more importantly the effects it can have on people in all walks of life.

The sound recording has been challenging, working in swimming pools with a lot of echo and reverberation to try to deal with was at times very hard. To try and overcome some of the sound issues I have used personal mic's where possible and EQ'd the sound in Pro Tools.
The production side has been equally challenging with the various permissions needed to be able to film this type of documentary.

As the shoot has progressed I have heard many different peoples opinions about swimming and it has made me more aware of why we are making a doc on this subject. This has only fueled me further to make this the best that we possible can and to look into editing into a longer piece that could be used by swimming authorities.

AVID

Week by week I have been doing the AVID tutorials to learn how to use the editing software correctly, Avid unlike Final cut pro or Premiere doesn't really have a compatible system that makes it easy to switch between so it has been a frustrating, at times, and steep learning curve!

Below is the last link to output settings which is a great help for exporting all your hard work....

http://www.avid.com/US/avid-tv/MC5BuildingtheFinalOutput?elq_mid=4064&elq_cid=6845073

The Hardest Interview Yet

The short documentary that we are making at the moment really hinged on a contributor that had first hand experience of what the repercussion of not being able to swim could be.

On Sunday we interviewed Julie Sammels who lost her brother and mother to drowning on a Cornish beach 27 years ago. We had a difficult task on our hands as we had very little experience of interviewing somebody who had been through such a traumatic time in their life.

Thankfully the interview went very well and full credit goes to Alice for being very patient and caring in the way she asked the questions.
The sound went well and was understandably easier than in the swimming pool environment but still challenging. Visually we didnt want to use personal mic's so rifle mic's were used, Julie's voice was very quiet and due to the emotion of recalling her experience it was just something I had to work with.
 I also had to concentrate on not getting the boom pole in shot!

Swimming pool shoot!

One of the key parts to our 3 minute wonder we are shooting is the starting sequence, it features a swimmer shooting of the blocks and swimming quickly down the pool with multiple shot angles.
Today was filming day but we only had one hour to film the entire scene, the pressure was on! To help the situation it was decided that I would take on some of the filming and do the crane/jib work whilst Michaela filmed underwater.

Below are some screen shots of the results.

The filming of this was an incredible learning curve and I had to react quickly to the situation, I had practised with the equipment within a studio but nothing prepares you for working in a humid pool side location and trying to follow a semi- professional swimmer. 

Jibs, Cranes and Wolly Dolly's

The 3 minute wonder im working on as Producer and sound engineer is based around swimming education within the United Kingdom, I came up with an opening sequence that has a very visual content and will lead up to the opening titles and hopefully suck the audience in.

Problem is it requires the use of multiple camera angles and the ability to follow a professional swimmer in a pool.

No pressure then!

To help us achieve this Michaela (camera) and myself, booked out the Jibs and cranes and practised in the television studio on saturday. Working through the shot lists and recreating swimmers by pushing ourselves along on a chair!

The JVC 700 Attached to the jib, this was the final setup that we decided to use for the filming in the coming weeks.

If you look closely in the screen of the JVC you can see myself on the chair pretending to be a swimmer!

AVID!

Every week I continue to work on AVID to build a better understanding of this editing platform.
Its beginning to come together and the website has proved to be a valuable resource for tips and tricks to get the best out of the software.

Below is a couple more useful links for editing regarding camera shake and motion freeze!

http://www.avid.com/US/avid-tv/MC5StabilizingShakyFootage?elq_mid=4062&elq_cid=6845073


http://www.avid.com/US/avid-tv/MC5CreatingFreezeFramesMotionClips?elq_mid=4062&elq_cid=6845073

I will be continuing to post these through the coming weeks so please check them out!

Green Screen

As part of our training sessions we got the chance to work with green screens today!

It was great fun and I learned a great deal about the process. For the documentary element of Unit 130 it will not really be used but as we move into Drama in the new year it will become a very useful tool!

Early set up of the green screen with two blonde lights to evenly light the cloth.

Vicky, standing in front of the green screen lit separately by a softbox and pretending to be a weather girl!

A good tip for correct lighting of the green screen is to use the cameras metering system to insure you don't have more than a 10% variation in the levels of light across the green screen.

Vimeo

As we start to move into working on unit 120 and 130 I have uploaded the main films that I worked on for unit 110

Please check them out and comment on what you think!

http://vimeo.com/user7102010

Chris Williams - Self Shooting Director.

On Friday Chris Williams was a guest lecturer and spoke to us about working as a self shooting Director.  This was a great insight for me being the area I’m most keen to work within. He spoke at large about his recent work which includes Blind Football, part of the best of british series that is rolling out on Channel four throughout the coming months as we run up to the Olympics

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After the guest lecture he was hurried out of the uni bar and into the T.V studio to be bombarded by questions. Im not sure he quite knew what to make of it as he walked in, five expectant student, four lights and two cameras all pointing his way! With all that said though it was a great interview and the answers were very insightful and I learned a lot from his visit.

For more information on the best of British see the link below.

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/best-of-british

Britain in a day at Land's End!

Morgan matthews Britain in a day project seemed too good an opportunity to miss, so my friends and I took a little drive out to Land’s end to film ourselves answering various questions, posted on the website, under the now infamous mileage sign!

Michaela filmed the journey and we were very fortunate that the guy who runs the photographing post changed the name to ‘Britain in a Day’ and was seemingly happy to let us fool around answering questions whilst trying to look as natural as possible. Epic Fail at the beginning!

A big thank you to Michaela, Alice and Vicky for a great day and hopefully our hard work will be rewarded with a small snippet on BBC2!

The end of Unit 110

First hand in!

Yesterday marked the first hand in and the end of Unit 110.

 Overall I think Group C did a great job over the last five weeks, we have all worked very well together and produced some great work.  Looking back over the footage as we checked the DVD content on Thursday evening I think you can see the team improving throughout the filming and editing process film by film.

Our last piece of work was, in my opinion, our best piece and showed our progression throughout the last five weeks.

I hope we all get a chance to work together again in this year of our Masters because the group dynamic was very positive and supportive.

Guinness in a cake!

Actuality was the order of the day for our final piece and we decided to film about baking a cake. This wasn’t just any cake though this was our Friend El’s Guinness and chocolate cake. 

To help with some nerves from our contributor Michaela stepped up to help with the baking and it was soon clear that this was going to make for some great on camera moments between themselves. Imagine every scenario that can go wrong when you’re baking and there is a good chance we encountered it!

I was really pleased with the camera work, which we filmed on Digital SLR’s, and Christine did a very good job of sound in difficult conditions. There were five people in a small kitchen all trying NOT to get in shots or block the cooks from baking so all in all I think it was a success.

All that remains is to try the cake……

AVID!

As the weeks progress I find myself becoming a little more competent with AVID. I’m beginning to, easily, find my way around the functions and having fun with editing again.  We are shooting a lot of footage for each piece, which is a good thing because it is always better to have overshot than have the nightmare of being without key shots. That said it is taking us a long time within the edit to trawl through all the footage and to try and cut down to the key shots that we need.

It’s certainly better to be in this position, just something that we will have to think about in the coming weeks.

Below Is a couple of links from the avid website which help with uploading footage!

http://www.avid.com/US/products/Avid-Media-Access?elq_mid=4057&elq_cid=6845073

http://www.avid.com/US/avid-tv/MC5-LinkingtoMediaUsingAMA?elq_mid=4057&elq_cid=6845073

Filming Interviews

This week we focused on the skills to capture different interview styles, we worked much more concisely as a team and this shows in the final edits. I directed one of these films, which was a first for me, I enjoyed the process and it gave me a better understanding of shooting for the edit. Something that my work has lacked in the past. The team is beginning to show a more cohesive working style and the roles that we are all bringing to the group are very positive.

Had a slight issue with sound recording from one of our interviews, which was a little disappointing, but after some corrective work within Pro Tools it is far better and will be useable for our final submission!  

This week we shot earlier and were able to spend more time in the edit which gave me more time to build my skills with avid. I’m slowly beginning to learn my way around this program and understand its layout more as the weeks progress.

Last few weeks

This was our first attempt at working within the group and filming together. The shoots went well but there were times when our inexperience as a group showed. We just needed to define the roles a little more succinctly.

That said we managed to film all three pieces within the timeframe we had set out on Friday and that left us Saturday to edit the pieces together.

Editing took longer than expected on Saturday and we have decided to move filming, in the coming weeks, forward so as to give us more time in the edit on future projects.

Avid is proving to be very frustrating and time consuming; I think it is a mixture of being competent on Final Cut Pro and Premiere Pro alongside the little Idiosyncrasy of the operating system.