The film has been captured, and our collective genius surely now realized. Going in to the shoot I was extremely nervous, since I was not a proper actor and that. However, once we got to the lift and started talking about shots and things, I began to feel a little more comfortable. Uri managed to get us an actress who was more or less perfect for the role, so I can now retract my accusation of him being a socially inept hermit.
One of the main complications for the shoot was that people on other floors kept attempting to steal our set away from us. We also had to keep blocking the door from crushing our crew and equipment, whilst fobbing off complaining staff members. We alleviated this by only doing the final shoot in the lift, and rehearsing the entire thing outside in the hallway. We could have gone a step further in preparation for the shoot by filming at an absurd hour, at which no one would need the lift. Plus, our group is full of socially inept night-owls so that would not have been a problem.
When it came to actually acting in the film, I feel I did a pretty alright job. The film is a short comedy, and, since I had written most of it, it was my sense of humor, so I didn't really feel I was trying to make anyone else laugh except myself. Another complication we ran in to was lighting. Looking in to the camera we knew what we were capturing was going to be quite dark. Uri tackled this by getting a lamp from his room. However, we found the light was much too sharp against the reflective walls ofthe lift, and made it far too obvious we had used a lamp. We thought for a while (I tried shining the lamp backwards against a white piece of card and aiming that towards the lift, but the lamp was not powerful enough) before Uri attached a white piece of paper to lamp (bending it and using clips, to prevent a fire hazard) which softened the light up quite a lot. I thought that was pretty smart.
In my head, I had imagined the film being shot simply head on, a simple medium-shot. This caused a problem, since the entrance to the lift was quite narrow, and with the camera directly in the middle of the door the actress would have a tough time exiting naturally. Ben created a really interesting shot by making use of the mirrors on the walls of the lift, and fixed the maneuverability issue.
We recently went into edit of the film and Uri did a fantastic job in my opinion. In things I've filmed for the benefit of me and my friends before (short comedies and what-not) I've always, always used fade in. I suggested we use that, and Uri was against it from the start. I'm definitely glad he was, he has made the film look great. The film now uses what appears to be a very basic style, however I think it looks fantastic, the quick cuts and things, and the basic font. It looks like not much effort has been put into it, but it maintains the style and format throughout, so I think it really works well. Also, everyone knows it's just a group of first-years' first attempt at creating a short, zero-budget one-shot film, so the fact that we aren't pretending we are anything we're not makes it pretty classy stuff I think. For instance, there were ideas flying around like adding 'alpha-group productions' at the beginning, and something like 'fin' at the end, which Uri and I were definitely against, and I'm glad they didn't go in. We aren't a production company. Like I say, we don't need to pretend we are anything we aren't. What we've created is good enough without it, in my opinion. I'm really proud of it. All that's left to do is add the voice-overs and sound effects, which will more or less explain the film's plot.
One of our lecturers, Simon, took a peep at our film and said I'd done a good performance. Perfect times.
Despite being really proud of the film we've done, I would definitely, if it's possible, like to work with the guys again to produce another film, or maybe two other films. I just want to make as much use of the time we have on my favourite area as possible. I have had a few other ideas, such as a time lapse film. Well, that idea just popped in my head when I was writing the last paragraph, and I text Ben about it. All I said was "Ben, idea:time lapse" Not sure he will follow. I've no idea for a plot just yet, but I'd love to do it. In fact, I'll go away now and have a good think, then I'll make another post with ideas. For now, I'll leave this video. This is one of my favorite bands and possibly my favourite music video ever. It is a little like the video I posted before for 'how soon is now', with the short shots of the band on stage mixed in with other footage, and interesting colours/lights.
One of the main complications for the shoot was that people on other floors kept attempting to steal our set away from us. We also had to keep blocking the door from crushing our crew and equipment, whilst fobbing off complaining staff members. We alleviated this by only doing the final shoot in the lift, and rehearsing the entire thing outside in the hallway. We could have gone a step further in preparation for the shoot by filming at an absurd hour, at which no one would need the lift. Plus, our group is full of socially inept night-owls so that would not have been a problem.
When it came to actually acting in the film, I feel I did a pretty alright job. The film is a short comedy, and, since I had written most of it, it was my sense of humor, so I didn't really feel I was trying to make anyone else laugh except myself. Another complication we ran in to was lighting. Looking in to the camera we knew what we were capturing was going to be quite dark. Uri tackled this by getting a lamp from his room. However, we found the light was much too sharp against the reflective walls ofthe lift, and made it far too obvious we had used a lamp. We thought for a while (I tried shining the lamp backwards against a white piece of card and aiming that towards the lift, but the lamp was not powerful enough) before Uri attached a white piece of paper to lamp (bending it and using clips, to prevent a fire hazard) which softened the light up quite a lot. I thought that was pretty smart.
In my head, I had imagined the film being shot simply head on, a simple medium-shot. This caused a problem, since the entrance to the lift was quite narrow, and with the camera directly in the middle of the door the actress would have a tough time exiting naturally. Ben created a really interesting shot by making use of the mirrors on the walls of the lift, and fixed the maneuverability issue.
We recently went into edit of the film and Uri did a fantastic job in my opinion. In things I've filmed for the benefit of me and my friends before (short comedies and what-not) I've always, always used fade in. I suggested we use that, and Uri was against it from the start. I'm definitely glad he was, he has made the film look great. The film now uses what appears to be a very basic style, however I think it looks fantastic, the quick cuts and things, and the basic font. It looks like not much effort has been put into it, but it maintains the style and format throughout, so I think it really works well. Also, everyone knows it's just a group of first-years' first attempt at creating a short, zero-budget one-shot film, so the fact that we aren't pretending we are anything we're not makes it pretty classy stuff I think. For instance, there were ideas flying around like adding 'alpha-group productions' at the beginning, and something like 'fin' at the end, which Uri and I were definitely against, and I'm glad they didn't go in. We aren't a production company. Like I say, we don't need to pretend we are anything we aren't. What we've created is good enough without it, in my opinion. I'm really proud of it. All that's left to do is add the voice-overs and sound effects, which will more or less explain the film's plot.
One of our lecturers, Simon, took a peep at our film and said I'd done a good performance. Perfect times.
Despite being really proud of the film we've done, I would definitely, if it's possible, like to work with the guys again to produce another film, or maybe two other films. I just want to make as much use of the time we have on my favourite area as possible. I have had a few other ideas, such as a time lapse film. Well, that idea just popped in my head when I was writing the last paragraph, and I text Ben about it. All I said was "Ben, idea:time lapse" Not sure he will follow. I've no idea for a plot just yet, but I'd love to do it. In fact, I'll go away now and have a good think, then I'll make another post with ideas. For now, I'll leave this video. This is one of my favorite bands and possibly my favourite music video ever. It is a little like the video I posted before for 'how soon is now', with the short shots of the band on stage mixed in with other footage, and interesting colours/lights.
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