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19/5 - 1000 Word Evaluation and Critical Review

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19/5 - 1000 Word Evaluation and Critical Review

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Link to Critical Review Document:

I have learnt a lot of things during the 10 weeks I have spent on my Final Major Project.

Throughout the project I did have to adapt my proposal slightly, changing my initial idea of a film narrative with multiple timelines, with colours depicting the emotions, to a film following the change in emotions following only one timeline.

The idea of using colours to tell a story didn't change for the duration of the project, and I continued to research into relating themes and filmmakers.

During the 10 weeks, I researched multiple shows and movies to gather inspiration for my own, including The Lion King, Mystery Train, The Addams Family, and Standby. Standby in particular was the show that inspired me most, as it gave me the idea to create a film following a narrative where the camera stays in one place. From that idea I then discovered other shows like Gogglebox, and The Royale Family, etc.

Researching different filmmakers and looking at their work was also interesting, as it gave me an insight into their own cinematic style. Wes Anderson was a big inspiration in this project for me, as he uses colour in his films to represent different emotions well. I used this research to implement ideas into my own work.

My research was wide-ranging, using primary and secondary research, and multiple sources such as websites, videos, books, and films. This helped me to discover new ideas and develop my knowledge.

The first problem I came across in this project, was the realisation I won't be able to follow through with my original idea, so to overcome that I slightly changed what I planned to do. As the thought of using colours to tell a story didn't change, my main idea wasn't altered too much.

Another big problem I came across was when I started to colour grade. I didn't like how my film looked and I was not happy handing in the work I had produced. To overcome this, I finished my project a couple days earlier than planned, which left me with a few days to practise grading other footage, to build my confidence in my own abilities, and have another try at editing. Even though in the end this didn't improve my film, and I was still disappointed, practising on good footage helped me to identify what was going wrong, and why I couldn't make it look the way I wanted it to.

Feedback is also a way I have problem solved, as getting feedback from my peers and tutors have helped me to see my work from different perspectives. This has ultimately helped me to improve my work and gather new ideas.

All my processes have been posted on my blog throughout this whole project, showing feedback, research, idea creation, experimentations, and my journey as a whole. My padlet is also an area in which I have regularly updated my work.

I learnt how to use a new software, DaVinci Resolve, while working on this project, which is something I am proud of, as I took a risk choosing to use it rather than Premiere, which I have used to edit films on previous projects. I think this shows my versatility and ability to learn new things, and I have learnt new skills by doing this. It is a software used by people in the colour grading industry itself, so by testing my ability, I think it shows my professional development well.

Evaluation is something I think has been successful compared to previous work I have done. Throughout my Stage 1 and 2 work I didn't do weekly evaluations, instead just did one big final evaluation. Because of this, evaluating my work every week was something new to me, but it has definitely helped me stay accountable. Referring back to my timeline each week and comparing how much work I had completed to what I had expected to have accomplished helped me to stay on track and not fall behind too much.

In previous projects my time management was questionable, so to be able to finish my project a few days earlier than hoped (which was still a lot earlier than previous projects) was a great feeling. This meant I wasn't stressing or rushing work in the last couple days, which is something I am guilty of in the past.

Another thing I think was successful in this project was my research. I spent a lot of time throughout these 10 weeks researching and creating in-depth blog posts about different films and shows I had watched. I also used this research and implemented ideas into my own work.

Looking back on my project, something I would improve on would be to test out lighting better. I have shared that I don't know much about lighting; because it is not an area of film that I am particularly interested in, but looking back, that should have been all the more reason to research it and test out a lot more before I started filming.

I did spend an entire day working with the lights in the location of my film, but I didn't test out filming in log, nor did I test out the lighting with only the TV light, which a couple of the scenes in my film did involve. This caused some scenes in my films to be poorly lit and created so much noise in my film that I couldn't get rid of. It also meant I couldn't grade in the way I wanted, as the lighting wasn't bright enough/caused my image to be distorted.

As well as my own critical evaluation, feedback from my peers and tutors also helped me to improve and develop my work further.

Overall, my Final Major Project has been a learning experience. The independence I had throughout the project allowed me to explore my own ideas and do what I felt like doing. There are things that I think I have improved on from last projects, but also things I still need to work on, if I was to do this again.

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19/5 - 1000 Word Final Evaluation and Critical Review

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Link to 1000 Word Evaluation Document: Link to Critical Review Document: FINAL EVALUATION: I have learnt a lot of things during the 10 weeks I have spent on my Final Major Project.

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https://2004946.wixsite.com/lucy/post/19-5-stage-3-portfolio

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https://2004946.wixsite.com/lucy/post/19-5-stage-3-portfolio

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As I am getting ready for hand-in, each project I use a notebook to write down ideas, draw mind maps, keep loose paperwork in, etc. so I need to label it.

I just used cut up sticky notes to label each section in the notebook, so it's easier for my examiners to know where to find things.

Below shows the work I did:

Images of annotated notebook.

As I am getting ready for hand-in, each project I use a notebook to write down ideas, draw mind maps, keep loose paperwork in, etc. so I need to label it.

I just used cut up sticky notes to label each section in the notebook, so it's easier for my examiners to know where to find things.

Below shows the work I did:

Images of annotated notebook.

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As I am getting ready for hand-in, each project I use a notebook to write down ideas, draw mind maps, keep loose paperwork in, etc. so I need to label it. I just used cut up sticky notes to label each section in the notebook, so it's easier for my examiners to know where to find things.

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I spend today planning and writing my 1000 word evaluation. In my timetable since the very start I have had an idea to write a final evaluation. I like the idea of writing one last 'essay' to conclude my project.

This evaluation follows and answers similar questions mentioned in the critical review, but this is a separate document I am handing in.

Image showing plan for evaluation.

The evaluation is something I have done separately to my critical review, and I will complete the critical review form tomorrow, however my evaluation will help with filling it in so it shouldn't take too long. There are however questions in the critical evaluation that I haven't talked about in this 1000 word.

Above shows the list I made before writing my evaluation, showing the different topics I wanted to cover. The evaluation is more of a story of this project as a whole, talking about things that were successful/not, and things I am proud of/have learnt

I have managed to finish my evaluation today, but I will post it in it's own blog post along with my critical review tomorrow.

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I spend today planning and writing my 1000 word evaluation. In my timetable since the very start I have had an idea to write a final evaluation. I like the idea of writing one last 'essay' to conclude my project.

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Today I have been uploading all my documents onto One Drive, and all I now need to do is my evaluation/critical review.

I just thought it would be a good idea to make a separate blog posts for my final film, and my final film poster, so that all my final work is on one blog post.

So below is my final work.

The Split:

Final film, The Split.

Final film poster.

Today I have been uploading all my documents onto One Drive, and all I now need to do is my evaluation/critical review.

I just thought it would be a good idea to make a separate blog posts for my final film, and my final film poster, so that all my final work is on one blog post.

So below is my final work.

The Split:

Final film, The Split.

Final film poster.

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Today I have been uploading all my documents onto One Drive, and all I now need to do is my evaluation/critical review. I just thought it would be a good idea to make a separate blog posts for my final film, and my final film poster, so that all my final work is on one blog post.

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Today, after watching Joker yesterday, I wanted to have a go at editing my own footage in the grading style of the Joker.

And by 'my own footage' I mean log footage found online, uploaded specifically for people to practice colour grading.

To do this I used stills from the movie, and used a split screen in DaVinci to compare my own footage to them.

In the bottom right corner of the screen there are scopes, which have a split down the middle showing how the grading in the screenshot looks compared to your own footage. This made editing the footage easier, as I could edit and adjust based off of what the scopes looked like.

Joker is known for its strong teal and orange colour scheme at points during the film, so I wanted to have a go recreating that in my own footage.

I thought I was screen recording my process but it didn't work, so for the first video I edited below shows the before and after of the editing I did.

The scopes in the bottom right are a lot more aligned afterwards, showing that both my video and the screenshots I used for reference match up quite similarly.

Screenshot showing before and after grading.

Log video before editing.

Final video after editing.

I personally don't like how this one turned out, I think the video I made was too dark, and although that is an accurate representation of Gotham, I don't think it matched the video very well. There are also people in this clip, so all the grading I applied to the clip affected the peoples skin tones and clothes which isn't what I wanted.

So I decided to try again with a different clip.

I tried again with a different video, following the exact same process, and I think it turned out pretty well.

This video was easier to edit, as there were no people in shot, and it's the same kind of angle as the reference image I used.

Time-lapse of editing process.

Video showing before and after.

In the video above it shows down how I broke down each node, and what the video looks like at each stage when editing the video.

Overall, I think this experimentation was interesting and definitely fun to try out. There are so many other films with unique colour grades, so there are so many more options to try out if I ever wanted to try this again in the future (I definitely will).

Playlist of log footage:

Amara, A (2021), YouTube, Colorgrading Practice Footage, Available at: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3FmF-b5bDOYlPiK2KrmJn5OfXYjkhjEQ (Accessed 16/4/22)

Separate video links:

Amara, A (2021), YouTube, Fujifilm GFX 100, 4k F-Log | Ungraded log footage Free Download link | Practice colorgrading, Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_V6n9i83wqk&list=PL3FmF-b5bDOYlPiK2KrmJn5OfXYjkhjEQ&index=5 (Accessed 16/4/22)

Amara, A (2021) YouTube, Sony A6600 4K S-Log 3 | Ungraded log footage Free Download link | Practice colorgrading, Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLO7Wv732D0&list=PL3FmF-b5bDOYlPiK2KrmJn5OfXYjkhjEQ&index=43 (Accessed 16/4/22)

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Today, after watching Joker yesterday, I wanted to have a go at editing my own footage in the grading style of the Joker. And by 'my own footage' I mean log footage found online, uploaded specifically for people to practice colour grading.

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This week Joel mentioned creating a gantt chart, to show how our project will look like throughout the 10 weeks, and which weeks will be busiest, not so busy, etc.

Earlier this week I quickly drew one in my notebook, but I thought I would make an online one, so it looks a bit more professional. I also felt like I needed to update it.

Image of gantt chart in notebook.

I will used this gantt chart alongside my timeline in my proposal to see where I am sitting in this project and prepare myself for future weeks.

Screenshot of final Gantt chart

This week Joel mentioned creating a gantt chart, to show how our project will look like throughout the 10 weeks, and which weeks will be busiest, not so busy, etc.

Earlier this week I quickly drew one in my notebook, but I thought I would make an online one, so it looks a bit more professional. I also felt like I needed to update it.

Image of gantt chart in notebook.

I will used this gantt chart alongside my timeline in my proposal to see where I am sitting in this project and prepare myself for future weeks.

Screenshot of final Gantt chart

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This week Joel mentioned creating a gantt chart, to show how our project will look like throughout the 10 weeks, and which weeks will be busiest, not so busy, etc. Earlier this week I quickly drew one in my notebook, but I thought I would make an online one, so it looks a bit more professional.

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Today I decided to get on with developing a storyline for my film, which is something I struggle with to come up with quickly.

I made a bubble map with different ideas that I could make for the plot of my film, and then annotated with red and green pen, positives/ideas and negatives/things to consider with each idea that I had.

Bubble map showing ideas for possible plots.

Joel and Penny both helped me to come up with idea sand also gave me references for more films I might be interested in. They make me realise that experimentation is the main way I am going to find to if an idea works, so I will definitely start to test out these ideas that I have.

We also had a peer review session where we all showed our work and we went round with post-it notes and made comments on our peers work.

I decided to just put my blog up, as that way people could go on any post they liked and look through my work.

Below is the feedback I got:

Post-it notes with feedback from peers.

I am really happy reading all the comments about my work. Most of the post-its say that my work is well structured and I included a lot of images and references, and I am really glad about that. I will now take on board the feedback I have got and implement that into future work.

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Today I decided to get on with developing a storyline for my film, which is something I struggle with to come up with quickly. I made a bubble map with different ideas that I could make for the plot of my film, and then annotated with red and green pen, positives/ideas and negatives/things to consider with each idea that I had.

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14/5 - Practising grading ‘The Split’ again

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14/5 - Practising grading ‘The Split’ again

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Now that I spent yesterday practising on log footage, and it turned out pretty well, I thought I would spend the day editing my film again.

I deleted all of the grading nodes (I kept the correction, since there was no way I could edit the whole film again), but this time I tried with a fresh mind

Time-lapse of grading film again.

Some differences I made this time when editing was that I tried not to make the colour so saturated, and fake. The gels I used on the lighting throughout making the film did most of the job in terms of colour, so I think less is more with grading in this specific project.

The previous work I make felt a bit too artificial so I tried with this version to make it feel a bit more realistic.

Some feedback I got from my mum earlier this week was the fact it cut between scenes in my old version, so I decided to used a full clip of Take 2, even though I prefer the start of Take 1.

I think the lights were too dark during this scene, as my dads shadow when he stands up is really harsh on the wall in the background.

However, I'm glad I made this change as it was also something that bugged me when editing. It looks a lot smoother now and I'm glad.

Overall, the grading I have done today I think looks a little bit better than the previous work I have completed, however I'm still not satisfied with how it looks. Maybe I just have too high of an expectation for this but looking back on the grading I did yesterday, compared to that I did today, it shows that the problem was created before I even filmed.

The lighting is the thing that caused my footage to look odd, and therefore interfered with how I edited it.

This is shown best when comparing the scenes taken during the day, to the scenes taken at night. The quality of the footage is so much better during the day, because I had the natural light from the window to help me out.

The night scenes have a lot of noise, and the lighting isn't particularly very good.

Screenshots showing day scenes.

Screenshots showing night scenes.

If I was to do this project again, I would definitely make sure I have enough knowledge on lighting to be able to make my film the best possible quality it could be.

Filming on my phone as well was probably an idea I will skip next time, and actually use a film camera to get the best settings and quality I can. However it was definitely fun to try and test the boundaries of film making.

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14/5 - Practising grading 'The Split' again

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Now that I spent yesterday practising on log footage, and it turned out pretty well, I thought I would spend the day editing my film again. I deleted all of the grading nodes (I kept the correction, since there was no way I could edit the whole film again), but this time I tried with a fresh mind Editing Process: Time-lapse of grading film again.

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16/5 - Exhibition Set Up Briefing + Checklist

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16/5 - Exhibition Set Up Briefing + Checklist

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16/5 - Exhibition Set Up Briefing + Checklist

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Today Rebecca gave a lecture about the plans for the next couple of weeks, and gave us a sheet to fill too, outlining ideas for how we want to present our work in the show coming up next month. Exhibition Set Up: I spent today thinking about how I want to present my work in the show, and I think I w…

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This week I am really proud of my progress. Compared to previous projects, I have really improved with time management, and although things haven’t exactly gone to plan, the time management is something I should be happy with. Hand in is next week and I have finished all of my work, I just need to w…

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10/5 - Colour Grading + Audience Response

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10/5 - Colour Grading + Audience Response

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My mum and Joel gave me some feedback on my final film, shown at the bottom of this blog post.

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Both today and yesterday I have spend my time trying to colour grade all my footage, as I managed to finish colour correction on Sunday. Yesterday I talked about how I’m feeling about the work I have done so far, and even though I have ‘finished’ colour grading today, I am still feeling disappointed…

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Using the ideas I had drawn yesterday, I went into Photoshop and started to create my ideas.

I don't have time to set up my own photoshoot, and my parents won't be home until next week so I am not able to photograph them. I don't want to spend next week making work, as the hand-in date is on the 20th, and I want to spend next week only focusing on checking my work, and writing my final evaluation.

As I don't have any actual photos to use for my movie poster, I have had to use screenshots from my film, which is okay, as my ideas for this movie poster are just a concept, which (if my film was to be actually released), I would properly make.

I used my previous drawings of movie poster ideas as inspiration, and just tried to recreate them in photoshop. I also just experimented with different ideas.

Time-lapse of movie poster creation.

I experimented with using different screen shots from the film, and editing them with different text options/different image placements and experimenting with gradient maps/solid colour.

Images of different film poster ideas.

The images above show posters I made inspired by the drawings I created yesterday. They use a physical line in the poster, separating my characters.

I feel like these posters are a good explanation of the film visually, as the separation between the characters is shown physically through the use of lines.

Gradient maps is also something I tried in my experimentation with poster ideas, as I had used them in my Picture House project. I don't really know how to use them, but I just ran through different colours and saw how they looked with the images I used.

Examples of testing gradient map ideas.

I think they came out okay, some better than others but it was definitely interesting and fun to try out different things.

Time-lapse of editing process.

Overall, my favourite design I have made today was this one:

Obviously the idea i have created today aren't finished, and more of just a tester to see what I can produce and ideas for if this movie was actually released. They are more of a concept, but they are concepts I am proud of and I like how this one in particular shows different scenes of the film ,and uses a collage-type effect to separate different images.

Image of chosen movie poster.

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Today I started to make the movie poster for my film 'The Split'. Using the ideas I had drawn yesterday, I went into Photoshop and started to create my ideas. I don't have time to set up my own photoshoot, and my parents won't be home until next week so I am not able to photograph them.

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10/5 - Colour Grading + Audience Response

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10/5 - Colour Grading + Audience Response

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Both today and yesterday I have spend my time trying to colour grade all my footage, as I managed to finish colour correction on Sunday. Yesterday I talked about how I’m feeling about the work I have done so far, and even though I have ‘finished’ colour grading today, I am still feeling disappointed…

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Today I started to think about promotional work, as I haven't even thought of a name for my film yet.

So I created a mind map thinking about possible titles for my film.

Mind map showing idea creation for title of film.

My favourite idea that was created from the mind map was 'The Split', but I still think it's a bit bland, and it also spoils the ending of my film. I'm not sure whether I want the audience to know that the characters split in the end.

Even so, it was the best idea I had, so I thought I'd create some movie poster ideas, exploring the possibilities of different fonts/text placements/imagery, etc.

Image of initial movie poster ideas.

Above shows the initial ideas I had, but I was stuck as to how I could create more, so I thought I would look up some inspirations to get more ideas flowing.

To gather some inspiration I looked up different break-up movies and saved their movie posters to create a mood board of possible ideas for my own.

Mood board of break-up movies posters.

In the posters, a sense of division/separation is clear, whether that's through a change in colour, or a physical line, the two characters are split.

From the drawing I created, showed above, that's definitely the vibe I was going for, and since my film is going to be called 'The Split' I think it makes sense for there to be a physical split in the poster as well.

However, looking up different films definitely gave me some further inspirations I could explore.

Drawings of possible movie posters.

Overall, I have now got multiple ideas for my film poster, and I will get on with creating the poster later on this week.

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Today I started to think about promotional work, as I haven't even thought of a name for my film yet. So I created a mind map thinking about possible titles for my film. Mind map showing idea creation for title of film.

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9/5 - Starting to colour grade + Feelings

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9/5 - Starting to colour grade + Feelings

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Today I have started to colour grade my footage, but if I'm being honest, I'm really not happy with how it looks. I've been trying to edit the footage to make it fit the image I have in my head.

I'm trying to edit the colours to make it look brighter/more saturated, using all the techniques I have learnt since January, including HSL colour pickers, vignettes, adjusting primaries and colour wheels etc. but nothing looks right.

I would blame it on the quality of my video, but really it's just because I am not good enough at this.

Here's a time-lapse of my work anyway:

Time-lapse of work, nothing looks good.

As you can see in the video, I'm trying so many different skills to try and make the video look right, but my dad's skin is red so whenever I edit it, he looks like he's glowing, and if I use the HSL colour picker to mask out his face from the corrections I'm making, his face looks too desaturated.

Another problem is that the last scene in my film I have had to cut, as I prefer Take 1 (which was a practice), to Take 2, but there is no end to Take 1, as it was a just a practice. So I have had to merge the first half of Take 1 with the end of Take 2, and the videos don't match. This means I have to try and match the look of both of the videos.

I wish I had more time to expand my skills and get a lot better at it, to show my best work for this FMP, but considering hand in is next week, I don't think I can.

I'm just a bit disappointed because I thought my work was going to turn out a lot better, but I think I, and other people, have too high of an expectation for my work.

However, I will pick up and start again tomorrow to see whether I can create anything better. I hope to finish this grading by Wednesday, but I'm not sure whether it will be.

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9/5 - Starting to colour grade + Feelings

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Today I have started to colour grade my footage, but if I'm being honest, I'm really not happy with how it looks. I've been trying to edit the footage to make it fit the image I have in my head.

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8/5 - Colour Correction and Noise Reduction

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8/5 - Colour Correction and Noise Reduction

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It is the end of the day and I have managed to finish all of the colour corrections for my film.

I followed the same processes mentioned in my last blog post, using different nodes to edit different things.

Time lapse of colour correcting scenes.

A problem that I came across while editing was the amount of noise in my clips. As most of my clips were filmed in low light, at night while my subjects are watching TV, it means that there is quite a lot of noise in my clips.

'Video noise is typically a result of digital gain and appears as unwanted grain or artefacts in the video image.'

-Apple (2022), Reduce video noise in Final Cut Pro, Available at: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/final-cut-pro/ver7d031487b/mac#:~:text=Video%20noise%20is%20a%20common,artifacts%20in%20the%20video%20image (Accessed 8/5/22)

I didn't know how to sort it out since I am new to Resolve, so I watched a YouTube video on how to fix it.

Using the things I picked up on in the YouTube videos I watched, I wanted to try and reduce the noise in my clips.

This was before I realised I needed to pay for the studio version of resolve to access these features.

I thought I'd share the process I went through anyway, since it was interesting learn about new features.

First I added a new node, before the previous three mentioned in my previous blog post, and then went into the motion effects panel in resolve.

There are three different sections: Temporal NR, Spatial NR, and Motion Blur.

Screenshot showing motion effects panel in Resolve.

Temporal noise reduction analyses the clips across frames to separate noise from detail. (It tracks moving objects to exclude them from the noise reduction).

Spatial noise reduction reduced fine grain, high frequency noise that temporal NR can miss.

And motion blur has nothing to do with noise reduction, it just blurs moving objects.

Below shows the settings I used to help reduce the NR in my shot.

Screenshot of settings chosen.

The number of frames is which the noise is going to be averaged. A higher number is more accurate, but can take longer and it can produce artefacts in the image.

Motion estimation type is for moving objects. 'Better' takes more processing time but it is.. better, and since there is movement in my clip, it's the best option to use.

Motion range = speed of objects in the video. I chose large because there is quite a lot of movement in the clip.

Increasing Luma and Chroma values makes the NR more aggressive, but this is when I realised I couldn't actually use that effect.

I then had to search for more videos to see whether it was possible to remove the noise without having to pay for the studio features, and I came across a few videos.

This method didn't use the colour correction panel in Resolve but instead the Fusion Panel which I haven't used much of, but the video I watched explained the process pretty well.

First I selected the clip I wanted to edit, and by pressing Shift+Space Bar, added a Remove Noise effect onto the clip.

When you click on the clip in the viewer, and press R, G or B, it will cycle through the different RGB channels to see where the noise is most.

Screenshot showing noise in the red channel.

Screenshot showing noise in the green channel.

Screenshot showing noise in the blue channel.

Screen recording showing me playing the video and seeing the noise in each of the channels.

The above screen recording shows that there was most noise in the blue channel. There was a lot of noise in all of the channels (but we already knew that), but blue was significantly the worst.

So first off I went to the features on the side of screen (Softness red, green, blue), which are used to soften the grain in the actual channel, and then bring back the details using the detail red, green, blue sliders.

It is a balancing act trying to remove as much grain as possible while also keeping the detail of the image and that is something I couldn't manage to do.

Screenshot showing sliders in Resolve

Time-lapse of the process of removing noise from footage.

As you can probably see from the video, as I was sliding the softness sliders all the way to the right, but even at the maximum point I could still see the grain. This meant I had to make it even softer than the maximum point, and therefore leaving the image lacking all of its detail.

You have to balance removing grain with having enough detail, because the more detail you add back into the image, the more grain you're adding back in as well.

I think my shots were just so poorly lit (completely my fault), that there is no way I can remove all the noise from the image without sacrificing the detail.

At the end of the screen recording you can see me turn off and on the Remove Noise Effect, and the before and after in terms of grain look exactly the same, the after shot is just more blurry.

However, below shows the final film after correcting the colour in all the scenes.

Final film with colour corrections, no NR.

Overall, I am going to have to think about other ways to deal with this problem, as I think the grain in the film does look horrible, but I don't want to sacrifice detail to get rid of it.

Ripple Training (2021), Noise Reduction in DaVinci Resolve 17, Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyad5n1hKUU (Accessed 8/5/22)

CB Super (2021), Remove Noise in DaVinci Resolve (Free), Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUX0baWDbZ0 (Accessed 8/5/22)

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8/5 - Colour Correction and Noise Reduction

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It is the end of the day and I have managed to finish all of the colour corrections for my film. I followed the same processes mentioned in my last blog post, using different nodes to edit different things. Time lapse of colour correcting scenes.

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This week I have spent my time editing my film, I had plans to finish everything apart from the colour grading by Thursday, but due to a problem stated below I have now finished all of the work by Friday instead. I am still glad of process.

Today I started to assemble my film, as I hope to finish everything apart from the colour work by tomorrow evening.

Assembling the film is pretty easy as essentially all I have to do is slot the scenes into place in the order drawn on my storyboard.

I am editing the film in DaVinci Resolve, which is new for me compared to previous projects but assembling the scene was pretty easy, as I had a storyboard to refer back to.

Screenshot showing assembled film.

I don't want any extra music or audio in my film, as each scene is a snippet from real life, so I want to use the original audio from the shots.

This makes my life editing a lot easier, as I don't have to look for any music of soundtracks to use, however I will consider finding sound effects or creating my own (like a door slamming, or sound of the TV in the background), I think it will enhance or support the scene in question.

There is one thing I needed to redo though, which was the arguing scenes. There was nothing wrong with the audio in terms of volume, but I thought that the dialogue sounded a bit staged and I wanted to redo it so that the scenes seemed as real as possible. I understand that it's awkward for my parents to act out these scenes but I just wanted to see how it would turn out.

Original shots of off-camera argument.

I planned on recording the audio today, so I could be finished with everything by tonight, but my dad is not here to film the audio, so I will have to wait until tomorrow.

I understand that this is not ideal, but I still have next week to finish my colour grading, and I think that that should be plenty of time.

Today I managed to get the new audio I needed for the scene, and I think it definitely does sound better that the original.

Because the actors are not physically in shot, and the arguments are happening in the background of each scene, it means that I didn't have to set the camera and all the lighting equipment back up and reshoot the whole thing, but instead I recorded the new audio on my phones note app.

I didn't want them to follow a script and instead just make it up as they went along, but be more shouty towards each other so it sounded more realistic rather than a speech. I didn't need for the arguments to necessarily flow, because I could cut and edit the dialogue.

Screenshot of new audio captured on iPhone.

To edit this new audio in the film I just muted the original videos audio, imported the audio from my phone, and arranged it in a way I think fit the scene best.

Screenshot of editing audio process.

I have exported the video and here is what the final assembly of the film looked like. I just need to focus on the colour work now.

Overall, I have finished assembling my film a day later than originally hoped, but it was due to things I couldn't control, so to have finished it all by the end of Friday is still great, and I hope to have the finished film all completed by this time next week.

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This week I have spent my time editing my film, I had plans to finish everything apart from the colour grading by Thursday, but due to a problem stated below I have now finished all of the work by Friday instead. I am still glad of process.

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This week I have achieve everything I wanted to. Colour grading and the promotional work is the only thing left to do, however I will still continue my research throughout.

Screenshot of timetable showing Weeks 7 & 8.

Referring back to my timetable, I have managed to finish the assembly of my film, and I have been working on the colour correction of my film yesterday and today. I'm hoping the grading will be finished in the next couple of days.

I haven't however, taken photos for my promotional film poster, but this is something I am going to do next week.

Next week I need to finish everything, as I don't want to be creating any work in the final week. I want to finish all of the grading for my film by Tuesday, and spend the rest of my week working on the promotional aspect of my film.

There is a lot to do when I say it like that, but I have confidence that I will be able to finish it, as I have been a lot more prepared for this project compared to previous ones, and according to my timetable, I am in line with my aims so I feel a lot more at ease compared to if I was behind.

This way, Week 9 I only have to focus on my final evaluation, and making sure all of my work is perfect.

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This week I have achieve everything I wanted to. Colour grading and the promotional work is the only thing left to do, however I will still continue my research throughout. Screenshot of timetable showing Weeks 7 & 8.

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Ideally I wanted to start colour correcting yesterday, but due to being behind with my audio work, I have had to start today instead. But it is okay because I am not worried about my progress.

Colour correcting comes before grading, so I hope to finish all of the correction work by the end of this week, so I can move onto adjusting the grading next week.

Essentially all colour correction is, is to make the colours look like how they look in the human eye. Because I have filmed the scenes in a log profile, the colours have been altered, and 'taken out', so colour correction is 'adding them back in', to make them look normal again.

It is a process some people might not realise is necessary in the editing of films, but in mine at least, it is definitely necessary.

I have talked about my process for colour correction in a lot of blog posts before but I will still share what I am planning on doing over the next couple days. To the left shows the original nodes I use for my correction process.

Correction Nodes in DaVinci.

The first node, WB, is for adjusting the white balance, taking out any added tint or usual colour in the scene. In the example I have shown below the video had

I have attached a video below, but it doesn't really show much as I am just checking the levels of the scopes (bottom right corner), to make sure that the RGB are all in line with each other.

Adjusting the white balance.

Below shows the before and after of white balance changes. The door and wall in my living room is white, and in the after, the colours are a lot more realistic.

Before (left) and after (right), after adjusting white balance

The second is the primaries node, where I use the primaries wheels (shown in the time-lapse below) to adjust things like contrast, saturation, and make sure the colours look like what they're supposed look like.

Adjusting the contrast means making sure the whites are white and the blacks are black. Because of the log setting I applied to my shots, the colours have been squished more into the middle of the scope, rather than the top and bottom. This is to preserve the details in the shot so I can add it in later.

Below shows the difference in the scopes with contrast. The left shows my footage straight out of log, with little contrast and the whole shot having a greyish tone to it, as the whites don't appear white, and the blacks don't appear black. The right image shows the opposite, with a ridiculously high contrast, the whites being stretched to the very top of the scope, and the blacks to the very bottom.

Scopes demonstrating contrast.

The perfect amount of contrast, along with adjusting saturation and white balance, should show the contrast somewhere in between the two examples above. Some shots are different to others, as certain directors might purposefully create a high contrast effect in their scenes, but in terms of contrast looking realistic, the scopes should lay somewhere between the two above, like show below.

Scopes showing the 'perfect level' of contrast in a scene, after colour correction.

Again I have attached a video below but it just shows me running through the video, watching the scopes and adjusting the primaries of the scene based off of what I see; trying to make the scene look as normal as possible.

Adjusting contrast etc, using the primaries wheel in Resolve.

Below shows the before and after of primaries changes. There wasn't much I needed to change, as sometimes less is more, but the slight contrast adjustments I made definitely made the scene look a lot more 'together'. If you focus on the sofa you can see the changes.

Before and After, Primaries changes,

The third node I have created, that doesn't have a name, is for any additional adjustments I might make that might require masks. I might not need to use it in some of the scenes, but I thought I would add one just incase, as some videos need more adjustments than others (especially if they are longer scenes).

In my specific example, I thought I did need to use it, as I still wasn't happy with how my scene looked even after adjusting the WB and primaries.

I thought that the reds in my mums shirt were too bright, so I thought I would reduce the saturation of it. However, when I did reduce the saturation I thought it took away from the message I wanted to create with the colours used.

So I decided to keep it the way it was, but I've still attached the video of me working on it below.

Editing saturation in shot.

The fourth node under the first three, is my grade node, where I can change the mood of the film by adjusting the colours even more to my liking. The grading process is where professionals get to be creative with the mood of the film they want to produce.

I am not grading today so I will move onto using that node next week.

I have started the correction for my film today, and if I keep up this pace I should be on track to completing it tomorrow, which means I only have to grade before my final film is complete.

Due to how I have lighted my scenes, and based off of the scene I have corrected so fat, I don't think there will be much I need to do in terms of grading next week, which I am thankful to myself for, as I have definitely made it easier for myself.

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Ideally I wanted to start colour correcting yesterday, but due to being behind with my audio work, I have had to start today instead. But it is okay because I am not worried about my progress.

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Today I thought I would practise colour grading some raw footage filmed on my phone from Filmic Pro, so I could see how well it edits.

I realise now that I should have done this before I filmed my whole film in the app, as now I can't go back on the decision I have made, but I thought I would try it now anyways, also as a way to prepare I guess.

I just used a clip of my mum sitting on the sofa, which was filmed in log.

Before of the clip I used.

First I did my basic colour correction. First correcting the white balance using the white balance key in the primaries tab.

After that I adjusted the contrast of the image, decreasing the lift and increasing the gain in the image.

Process of colour correcting.

I then wanted to bring back more colour into the shot, as I felt the image still looked a bit flat, but when I increased the saturation of the image, the colour of the book in the shot was abnormally bright and almost glowing, her skin also didn't look natural.

So instead I created a circle window, and inverted it so it only effected the outside of the circle window.

Process of creating circle window.

After I had the colours looking 'normal' I wanted to start adding more additional colour into the scene. This specific scene is when Dave and Stacey are still getting to know each other, but obviously like each other, so I want there to be a pink tone in the scene, referring back to the rom com colour palette I made at the end of March.

The choice of having a pink scene rather than red is because of the growing connection; just like the colour pink can gradually fade to red, I want the saturation and pigment of the colour to increasethroughout. The red in the scene is represented through the book she is holding anyway.

First I moved the onset of the image towards pink, along with the lift and gain (meaning the shadows and highlights will now be tinted pink). I only want the effect to be subtle, so I only moved it slightly so the scene had a pink hue to it.

After that I still thought something was missing so I added a vignette to the border of the clip, to bring the scene together.

Process of grading clip.

Below shows the final changes made to the clip.

Screen recording showing before and after editing.

Overall, I understand that I definitely should have tested all this out before I shot the whole thing in log, but after editing the scene, it works, and in fact I am pretty happy with how the whole thing turned out.

I am now exited to move on with the editing of my film, and to colour grade all the footage to make the film look how I want it to.

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Today I thought I would practise colour grading some raw footage filmed on my phone from Filmic Pro, so I could see how well it edits. I realise now that I should have done this before I filmed my whole film in the app, as now I can't go back on the decision I have made, but I thought I would try it now anyways, also as a way to prepare I guess.

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Today we did another peer review task on our work, this time following a marking criteria, and we had to mark our next door neighbour based on the work we saw. We had to be quite critical of each others work, so that we knew what to improve on.

Yasmin marked my work, and I showed her my blog and she looked through a few of my posts.

Below shows the feedback she gave me:

Peer feedback of my work.

I am really happy with the feedback I received on my work so far, and I will take into consideration her comments and try to apply them to my own work.

Today we did another peer review task on our work, this time following a marking criteria, and we had to mark our next door neighbour based on the work we saw. We had to be quite critical of each others work, so that we knew what to improve on.

Yasmin marked my work, and I showed her my blog and she looked through a few of my posts.

Below shows the feedback she gave me:

Peer feedback of my work.

I am really happy with the feedback I received on my work so far, and I will take into consideration her comments and try to apply them to my own work.

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Today we did another peer review task on our work, this time following a marking criteria, and we had to mark our next door neighbour based on the work we saw. We had to be quite critical of each others work, so that we knew what to improve on.

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Today we did another peer review task on our work, this time following a marking criteria, and we had to mark our next door neighbour based on the work we saw. We had to be quite critical of each others work, so that we knew what to improve on.

Yasmin marked my work, and I showed her my blog and she looked through a few of my posts.

Below shows the feedback she gave me:

Peer feedback of my work.

I am really happy with the feedback I received on my work so far, and I will take into consideration her comments and try to apply them to my own work.

Today we did another peer review task on our work, this time following a marking criteria, and we had to mark our next door neighbour based on the work we saw. We had to be quite critical of each others work, so that we knew what to improve on.

Yasmin marked my work, and I showed her my blog and she looked through a few of my posts.

Below shows the feedback she gave me:

Peer feedback of my work.

I am really happy with the feedback I received on my work so far, and I will take into consideration her comments and try to apply them to my own work.

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Today we did another peer review task on our work, this time following a marking criteria, and we had to mark our next door neighbour based on the work we saw. We had to be quite critical of each others work, so that we knew what to improve on.

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One of the suggestions brought up in my group seminar last Thursday was the thought that my film reminded them of Gogglebox, a British TV show.

Gogglebox is a reality TV show showing ordinary people watching the TV, sharing their thoughts, reactions and opinions of the week's biggest shows.

Scenes from Gogglebox (2013-)

The show is filmed with two camera which are set up in the stars' houses, one used for the wide shot of both (or multiple) people, and the other for the close ups.

The close up shot camera is used mainly to capture a facial expression or an eye-roll. Both shots are edited together to add comedic punctuation to the show.

The use of a static camera in the show means some scenes are off camera, meaning we as an audience can only hear what is going on. This effect makes us feel like an object in the scene, listening in on other peoples lives.

Scenes from Gogglebox, showing static camera.

The way the show uses a static camera to film a specific spot, and the subjects moving around it, follows the same idea as my film.

The fact it is a sofa as well, with the people through out the show watching TV, follows the same sort of plot line as my own film.

I had not originally used this TV show as an inspiration for my film, but looking at it now I have watched the show before and might have subconsciously related my idea to the show.

Heart (2020), How is Gogglebox filmed?, Available at: https://www.heart.co.uk/showbiz/tv-movies/gogglebox/how-filmed-behind-scenes-secrets/ (Accessed 2/5/22)

Gogglebox (2013-), Created by Stephen Lambert, Available at: channel4.com (Accessed 2/5/22)

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One of the suggestions brought up in my group seminar last Thursday was the thought that my film reminded them of Gogglebox, a British TV show. Gogglebox is a reality TV show showing ordinary people watching the TV, sharing their thoughts, reactions and opinions of the week's biggest shows.

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Today I finally started filming! I managed to get all of the scenes shot today and I'm really happy that I managed to finish it all. I ideally wanted to finish filming by the end of this week, so to have finished on Wednesday is a great feeling.

I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders for now, as all I really need to focus on is editing the film. For the rest of the week I'm going to finish sorting out my blog posts, and then start editing starting next week.

Using the lighting ideas I had tested out and tried yesterday, I positioned the lights as shown below. I was so wrapped up in filming the shots and making sure it looked good, that I forgot to take some behind the scenes shots, but I did manage to get this on my mums phone.

Behind the scenes shot showing the position of lights

Below is a diagram showing the lighting I used that might be a bit easier to see and understand.

Diagram of the lighting used for my film.

Also drawn on the diagram (which isn't shown in the picture), is an additional light I added in front of the TV, as some of the darker scenes which relied on the TV for light weren't bright enough for my liking, so I added a basic white light in front of the screen just to help it out a bit.

The location of my film is the living room in my house, as I have shown and mentioned in my previous blog posts.

I created a list of props I would need for my film in my 23/4 blog post, which included: red coffee cups, a bowl of popcorn, red/pink flowers, wine glasses, a blanket and phone.

These props weren't anything too extravagant and most I already had in my house, so they were easy to gather.

As my whole project is based off of colour, and how it effects the mood of a scene, I wanted these emotions to be shown through the use of clothing as well.

So I got both of my actors to wear pink/red clothing towards the start of my film, and change into blue/grey/black clothing at the end of the film. I didn't make them buy any new clothes, just to utilise the ones they already own.

As I have mentioned and drawn in my storyboards, there is only one shot type throughout the film; a wide shot of the sofa showing the couples relationship progress.

This made filming a lot easier, as I didn't have to worry about camera movements or angles, I only had to keep the tripod steady and in the same position throughout the whole filming process.

When filming, I used Filmic Pro, as I wanted to film in a log profile, so I can be more flexible with my colour choices in post.

This was a bit scary, and still is, as I'm not sure how well it is going to grade when I come round to doing it.

Below shows the difference of filming on my iPhones normal camera vs Filmic Pros log setting.

Scene shot with iPhone camera

Scene shot with Filmic Pro log setting.

The difference is obvious, as the second video is a lot more washed out, but I'm hoping that when I am colouring, it will make it a lot easier.

There were a few things I tested out before I filmed, one being the starting scene, as it is the first scene I wanted it to look good.

My dad was getting ready and my mum was waiting so I asked her if we could run through the scene, and I explained my ideas for the scene to her.

This is shot on my iPhone camera by the way, which is why the colours are bright and vibrant.

Me and my mum running through the shot.

I think it turned out pretty well, apart from the fact the flowers weren't in shot (I asked him to hold them down a bit more in the real thing), so I thought we'd run through it one more time with both of them instead.

My mum and dad running through the shot.

This was their first scene filming together so I think they were a bit nervous but they did really well. The only other bit of advice I gave them after this video ended was to make sure they introduce each other when they meet.

I think it was odd for them to pretend that they don't know each other but they did really well. After this we went straight into the first shot.

Overall, I'm really glad that I have finished filming now, and I can move on with editing next week.

I am a bit worried about the colour grading, as I'm not sure how the log footage turned out, and I don't know whether the lighting was as good as it good have been.

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Today I finally started filming! I managed to get all of the scenes shot today and I'm really happy that I managed to finish it all. I ideally wanted to finish filming by the end of this week, so to have finished on Wednesday is a great feeling.

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Today at UCA we had an interim show, where students from different areas of the pre degree floor looked at each others work.

In our group there were two of us from MIP, 2 from Fine Art, and one from Fashion, and it was really interesting looking at other peoples work.

The Fashion student who was in my group is doing a project inspired by Alice in Wonderland, in specific Alice's dress, and she's researching into different designs and fabrics so she can recreate one herself by the end of the project.

Emily, who is also in MIP is doing a project inspired by foundations of life and what brings us together/human DNA. She's done research into the Bauhaus movement, and has drawn initial sketches using thumbprints/blocks/primary colours, as she feels they represent the foundations of life best. At the end of the project she hopes to make an animation.

The first Fine Art Student is doing a project into War Horse, and she's inspired by the mechanics of the theatre props, and how they move to look realistic. She has drawn sketches of horses, and their movement, and has also created a prototype leg. By the end of the project she hopes to make a replica of one, that actually moves and people can interact with.

Image of the War Horse project.

The second Fine Art student's project is inspired by dreams. She has created paintings inspired by the notion of dreams, using brush strokes to represent the notion of moving through your dreams. She uses black and white in her drawings but has started to incorporate colour (especially red). She hopes to create a final painting by the end of her project.

Listening to other peoples project ideas as well as walking round the rooms full of ongoing projects was an eye opener to see how much work other people have done, and how different creative minds work.

There were so many unique ideas created by other people and I especially liked looking through peoples sketchbooks as there was so many amazing drawings and mood boards and materials.

I also missed my group seminar on Tuesday, so we had one today instead where we all explained our ideas to the group (and Gabi), and took suggestions/questions about it.

Again it was interesting to hear other peoples ideas for their projects/and to give feedback. In the seminar group I was in, there were people doing very different things: one creating a VR game environment, two creating character designs for a game concept, one who has created personal images about his family living in both UK and Ukraine, and another creating a music video style film about love and loss.

I shared my ideas for my project with the group, and received a lot of feedback and recommendations about different shows/directors/films to look into that might relate to my project.

Feedback I got from Gabi, via email.

It was definitely good to hear other peoples perspectives and own ideas on my project, as sometimes you get too wrapped up in the project you need to step away and listen to other peoples ideas.

Some recommendations were: a show called The Royal Family which uses similar shots of the sofa and showing the life of a family, the ongoing real life TV show Gogglebox showing families watching TV, music videos by Alessia Cara using colours for different sounds, and also to research into synesthesia, which is when a person experiences one of their senses through another (for example seeing colours through sound).

Overall I'm really grateful to the people in my group who gave me feedback and ideas as I would have never thought about researching things such as synesthesia. I will definitely take their feedback on board and do some further research into the ideas suggested to me.

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Today at UCA we had an interim show, where students from different areas of the pre degree floor looked at each others work. In our group there were two of us from MIP, 2 from Fine Art, and one from Fashion, and it was really interesting looking at other peoples work.

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Today at UCA we had an interim show, where students from different areas of the pre degree floor looked at each others work.

In our group there were two of us from MIP, 2 from Fine Art, and one from Fashion, and it was really interesting looking at other peoples work.

The Fashion student who was in my group is doing a project inspired by Alice in Wonderland, in specific Alice's dress, and she's researching into different designs and fabrics so she can recreate one herself by the end of the project.

Emily, who is also in MIP is doing a project inspired by foundations of life and what brings us together/human DNA. She's done research into the Bauhaus movement, and has drawn initial sketches using thumbprints/blocks/primary colours, as she feels they represent the foundations of life best. At the end of the project she hopes to make an animation.

The first Fine Art Student is doing a project into War Horse, and she's inspired by the mechanics of the theatre props, and how they move to look realistic. She has drawn sketches of horses, and their movement, and has also created a prototype leg. By the end of the project she hopes to make a replica of one, that actually moves and people can interact with.

Image of the War Horse project.

The second Fine Art student's project is inspired by dreams. She has created paintings inspired by the notion of dreams, using brush strokes to represent the notion of moving through your dreams. She uses black and white in her drawings but has started to incorporate colour (especially red). She hopes to create a final painting by the end of her project.

Listening to other peoples project ideas as well as walking round the rooms full of ongoing projects was an eye opener to see how much work other people have done, and how different creative minds work.

There were so many unique ideas created by other people and I especially liked looking through peoples sketchbooks as there was so many amazing drawings and mood boards and materials.

I also missed my group seminar on Tuesday, so we had one today instead where we all explained our ideas to the group (and Gabi), and took suggestions/questions about it.

Again it was interesting to hear other peoples ideas for their projects/and to give feedback. In the seminar group I was in, there were people doing very different things: one creating a VR game environment, two creating character designs for a game concept, one who has created personal images about his family living in both UK and Ukraine, and another creating a music video style film about love and loss.

I shared my ideas for my project with the group, and received a lot of feedback and recommendations about different shows/directors/films to look into that might relate to my project.

Feedback I got from Gabi, via email.

It was definitely good to hear other peoples perspectives and own ideas on my project, as sometimes you get too wrapped up in the project you need to step away and listen to other peoples ideas.

Some recommendations were: a show called The Royal Family which uses similar shots of the sofa and showing the life of a family, the ongoing real life TV show Gogglebox showing families watching TV, music videos by Alessia Cara using colours for different sounds, and also to research into synesthesia, which is when a person experiences one of their senses through another (for example seeing colours through sound).

Overall I'm really grateful to the people in my group who gave me feedback and ideas as I would have never thought about researching things such as synesthesia. I will definitely take their feedback on board and do some further research into the ideas suggested to me.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Today at UCA we had an interim show, where students from different areas of the pre degree floor looked at each others work. In our group there were two of us from MIP, 2 from Fine Art, and one from Fashion, and it was really interesting looking at other peoples work.

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Today I booked out 3 constant LED lights with stands, as well as a tripod and 3 different coloured gels, to get ready for filming.

I ideally want to finish filming this week (next week at the very latest), so I can move onto the editing and the promotional part of my project.

The editing will take the longest so I want to allocate a couple weeks to do it, learning from my previous mistakes from my last projects.

I wanted to test out how the light will look against the sofa, in the location I am shooting my film.

If I'm being honest, I really have no experience or idea what I'm doing when it comes to lighting, so I needed today just to test out different settings/colours/positions of lighting.

I set my camera on my tripod using a tripod connector (pictured to the left), that I bought myself, and placed it at the angle I wanted it. Using the tripod gave me a much better angle that I was looking for, rather than the test angles I tried out last week.

Image of the tripod adapter used to mount my phone to the tripod.

I sat at both ends of the sofa and also stood up in front of the camera when testing these different lights, as I wanted to see how the light specifically affected my face and clothes. These are the positions my characters are shown in my film so hopefully that explains why I'm doing the same pose in every test.

I first tested out seeing how it looked on the camera, only using natural light from the window, coming in from the right hand side

Test #1, only using windows natural light.

I then placed a light to the left side of the camera, a bit more forward and tested out how it looked at different intensities. I still had the curtains open with the light coming through the window. The LED had a clear sheet over the top, have I haven't incorporated any coloured gels.

Something to mention as well is that the TV was on, so some artificial light potentially might have affected how the scenes looked. The below diagram shows how the lights looked in this specific test.

Diagram of lighting positions.

Test #2, using a LED, and natural light.

I kept the light in the same position, and kept the curtains open, but put a red sheet over the top of the LED, to try and make the colour warmer and less harsh.

Test #3, using a red sheet on the LED.

I then took away the natural light from the window, as most of the shots are at night so I needed to test out how the lighting looked without the day light.

Test #4, using a red sheet on the LED, without natural light.

I then turned on two lights in my living room, and lowered the LED, to try and make the light look more comfortable and not light I was in a studio space.

Test #5, reducing LED % and using living room lighting.

I then added an additional light behind the camera, hoping to brighten up the subjects face a bit more. I turned light #1 off, and kept the TV on.

Diagram showing placement of additional light.

Test #6, adding additional light behind camera, 20%.

Increasing height of light, and reducing to 10%.

I then added a red sheet over the top of the light.

Diagram showing changes in lighting effects.

Test #7, red sheet added to light #2, 20%.

I then turned back on light #1, so now both lights have a muted red effect.

Diagram showing changes in lighting effects.

Test #8, both lights with a red sheet, light 1 30%, light 2 20%.

I then turned off the TV, to see what the lights look like without any added artificial colours from the TV.

Same lights, working with the camera angle.

Problem solving, moving camera backwards.

I then added a red colour gel to light #1, to add more red into the scene, and seeing how it looked on my skin.

Test #10, coloured gel on light #1.

I then shut the door, as there will be scenes where the door is slammed shut, so I needed to see how the lights affected the scene when the environment changed a bit.

However, you could see the reflection of the red light in the door frame, so decided to move the light forwards a bit more to try and hide it.

Diagram showing changes in lighting.

Test #11, moving light forwards.

However, my skin was way too red, so I moved the light back again and tried to think of another way to hide the red reflection in the door frame. I don't own any black or white boards used in actual lighting photography to block out light, so I use the next best thing I had, which was a white throw.

Looking back now I know I should have used something black, to absorb the light rather than reflect it, but at the time it was the only thing I had.

Using a white throw to try and reflect light away from the door.

This didn't really work, as I didn't have anywhere to hold up the blanket, but when I was holding it up myself, there as a point where it did successfully block out the light.

Instead I decided to lower the camera, hoping to maybe cut out the door from frame, only capturing the sofa.

This didn't work, so in the end I decided to open the door slightly to hide the reflection.

Lowering the camera tripod.

I didn't light the way the colour was affecting the scene at an angle, so I then changed the lights so light #2 had the coloured gel, and light #1 had a red sheet instead.

Test #12, light 2 coloured gel 20%, light 1 red sheet 30%.

However I soon realised you could see the reflection from light #1 in the door frame, just this time it was white rather than red.

I then moved light #1 back to the wall, and it definitely reduced the impact of the reflection. I also had to keep the door slightly open though, so you couldn't see it.

Diagram of lighting changes.

Test #13, Moving light to the wall to try and hide door reflection.

I then added a yellow coloured gel onto light #1, as I wanted there to be a warmth to the scene, as well as red for love.

Diagram of lighting changes.

Test #14, adding yellow gel to light #1.

I found that the front of my face was too bright red though os reduced light #2 from 30% to 20%.

I really liked this effect.

I then reintroduced the natural light form the window to see how it effected the scene.

Test #15, reintroducing 7pm window light.

My final test of today was just to see how the light looked without any LEDs, but with my living rooms lighting, and with he natural light.

Test #16, natural light + living room light.

Overall, I think I have definitely learnt a lot from my lighting experimentation today. It has definitely made me a lot more confident going into filming tomorrow, and I now now how strong each light should be/where they should be placed.

There are some things I am looking back on that I think I should have changed but I will tackle them tomorrow when I film.

I am looking forward to trying out these different effects for real.

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Today I booked out 3 constant LED lights with stands, as well as a tripod and 3 different coloured gels, to get ready for filming. I ideally want to finish filming this week (next week at the very latest), so I can move onto the editing and the promotional part of my project.

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There's not much I can do now until I borrow equipment form UCA in a couple days, so I thought I'd do a few last minute preparations for filming

First I wrote a list of props I'm going to need for my film, so I can be prepared and have them all collected so I don't waste time when it comes to actually shooting.

There isn't anything particularly difficult I need for this film.

List of props needed for my film.

I also photocopied my storyboard again and made some notes on how I'm going to colour the scenes.

The films purpose is to show the progression of the couple, so I need the colour to progress throughout the film as well.

Storyboard with ideas for post production.

There are three main points of my film; a beginning, middle and end in a way.

From the beginning to the middle (the first argument between them), the colours will be warm and cheerful, using the colours of outfits and props to emphasise that.

The middle scene acts as a turning point for the film, and where everything goes downhill for the couple.

From the middle scene to the end of the film, I want to add a cooler, more isolated feeling by using blue tones and darker colours.

These ideas will become more clear when I actually come to the point of editing the film, but for now these are just rough ideas that I will use as a starting point for my post production editing.

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There's not much I can do now until I borrow equipment form UCA in a couple days, so I thought I'd do a few last minute preparations for filming List of props: First I wrote a list of props I'm going to need for my film, so I can be prepared and have them all collected so I don't waste time when it comes to actually shooting.

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This week I feel like I have been quite productive, and I am quite proud of the progress I have made.

All I need to do now is borrow equipment from UCA and actually start making.

Screenshot from timetable showing Week 8 and 9

Referring back to my timeline, all I haven't done is to physically start filming, which I will do as soon as possible, after I have got myself a tripod and lighting.

I have put in my request to borrow equipment, which I will pick up tomorrow at 3pm. I have done my blog posts, met with my actors, and done this mini evaluation. So I am feeling a bit better about where I am currently sitting in this project.

I still can't help but feel behind, but I think after I have confidently filmed my scenes, I will feel a lot more confident in my ability to finish the project in the way I want to.

I ideally want to finish filming next week, so I can move onto the editing and the promotional part of my project, but if my lighting experimentation and tests don't go to plan I might have to allocate more time for filming.

I know that the editing will take longest, based off of experience from previous projects, so I need to make sure I save enough time to do that, as the last thing I need is for me to run out of time and not get it done.

Moving forward into next week I want to have experimented a bit more with real lights, to make me a bit more confident before filming. However I also want to film all the shots for my film, and have all of the scenes ready to start editing.

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This week I feel like I have been quite productive, and I am quite proud of the progress I have made. All I need to do now is borrow equipment from UCA and actually start making.

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Today I thought I would work on what the positioning of the camera is going to be for my film. It's important for me to get this right because the film only has one shot; a wide shot of the sofa.

Below shows a diagram I drew of my living room, the location in which I am shooting my film.

Diagram of my living room.

It shows the light sources (that aren't controlled by me) I am going to need to take into consideration when filming. Most of the scenes in my film will be filmed in the evening/night, so the curtains will be shut and I won't need to worry about the natural window light so much.

I will make a separate post talking about lighting when I actually get to borrow the equipment from UCA.

The main thing right now is for me to figure out how I'm going to set up my phone. Because I am not using a camera to film my scenes, I can't use the tripod in the same way as if I was, so instead, I thought about leaning my phone up against something, as there is a cabinet right where I need the camera to be.

I practised different positions for my phone to be, but I found it was difficult to keep the camera upright without it slowly tilting up or down without me touching it, and as I am filming this film with only one camera shot, I need it to stay at the same level the whole time, and I can't afford for it to slip or change its angle.

I recorded all of my tests for camera angles and positions, but none of them fit the look I want.

The first camera position I tried was on a lower shelf of the cabinet. I think that the position itself was good, but maybe a bit lower than I would have wanted and it needs to be pushed forward more, as I only want to capture the sofa, not everything else around it.

Camera position #1, not zoomed in enough.

The next attempt I did was on the top of the cabinet, so the camera was higher, but the object I was learning against kept slipping, so the camera ended up pointing down and not capturing much at all.

This was my least favourite I tried.

Camera position #2, higher, but tilting down

I tried again on the top of the cabinet, but using a different object, but it got in the way so it didn't work out as the object was blocking my phones lens.

Camera position #3, object blocking lens.

After I removed the object from the lens, the angle didn't really work either. Not only was the camera slipping, but it also wasn't close enough to the sofa, and captures even more of the surrounding than position #1.

Camera position #4, not zoomed enough

Overall, out of all the shots I captured today, shot #1 ended up being my favourite. However none of them are good enough for me, as I need the camera to be closer to the sofa, to be able to capture only the sofa and nothing else.

Because of this I can't use the cabinet and will need to use a tripod in front of it.

I am going to take out one from UCA when we go back next week, and invest in a tripod phone adapter, to see if that makes any difference in the camera position.

This will also be useful as I can just keep the tripod in place, and not move it, allowing me to be able to film all my scenes hopefully with the shot in the same position. This also means my phone won't slip as I'm not leaning it against anything.

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Today I thought I would work on what the positioning of the camera is going to be for my film. It's important for me to get this right because the film only has one shot; a wide shot of the sofa.

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I have decided I am going to stick to my original storyline idea following the decline of a couples relationship.

Now that I've decided the timeline I'm using, I decided to write a script for the dialogue in my film. There isn't much, but I thought even if I don't use it, it would be good practise to try.

I have written scripts before in the past, and recently when I went to Maidstone Studios for my applicant day, I showed the programme director one of my old scripts and he gave me some feedback on it.

He said that the overall layout and composition of the script was professional, however there were gaps between the characters names and the dialogue, which was unnecessary as each page of a script represents 1 minute of dialogue and having too many gaps wastes space and doesn't make the dialogue match the time allocated.

Taking his feedback on board I used all the things I know about writing scripts and wrote my dialogue, using my storyboard to reference the scenes I needed to add dialogue to.

Screenshots from final screenplay.

Link to word document of script:

Following the 1 minute per page rule, my film should be just over 4 minutes, if I have done it correctly. This will also be interesting to see.

Overall, even if my actors don't follow the script word by word when it comes to filming, it was good practise for me just to try out different areas of film production.

Making this script has also helped me to establish which shots are going to be shot a night, and which ones during the day.

I also now have a good idea of how to edit the film, and what it might look like when it's done.

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I have decided I am going to stick to my original storyline idea following the decline of a couples relationship. Now that I've decided the timeline I'm using, I decided to write a script for the dialogue in my film. There isn't much, but I thought even if I don't use it, it would be good practise to try.

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Today I worked on adjusting my project proposal, as now my ideas have changed for my film, I need to change my proposal to match my new plan.

There wasn't too much to change I just needed to reword the aims for my project.

Looking at my proposal again, I realised I need to think about the title for my project, but I am going to wait until I have filmed it to think about that, as I'm still not sure what timeline I am going to follow, and that may change the title of my film.

Screenshot of updated project proposal.

Now that I have changed my proposal I can start to work on my film.

Today I worked on adjusting my project proposal, as now my ideas have changed for my film, I need to change my proposal to match my new plan.

There wasn't too much to change I just needed to reword the aims for my project.

Looking at my proposal again, I realised I need to think about the title for my project, but I am going to wait until I have filmed it to think about that, as I'm still not sure what timeline I am going to follow, and that may change the title of my film.

Screenshot of updated project proposal.

Now that I have changed my proposal I can start to work on my film.

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Today I worked on adjusting my project proposal, as now my ideas have changed for my film, I need to change my proposal to match my new plan. There wasn't too much to change I just needed to reword the aims for my project.

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17/4 - Easter Break Week 2 Mini Evaluation

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17/4 - Easter Break Week 2 Mini Evaluation

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This week I have finally got my ideas done. I feel like I have accomplished quite a lot this week and I am definitely proud of the progress I have made. Image of timeline showing weeks 7 and 8. Referring back to the timeline in my project proposal, I have managed to do nearly everything I need to fo…

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A couple days ago I drew the storyboard for my film idea, but today I wanted to work on trying different narratives.

Like previous projects I photocopied the storyboard I had drawn, and then cut the scenes up, and created different orders for the film to follow. Being able to physically move the different scenes around made me think of narratives I hadn't considered before.

The original idea I had was the follow the story of a couple meeting for the first time, and showing the gradual decline in feelings towards each other , until their final breakup.

Idea #1, non-linear narrative.

This narrative is the opposite of the original plot, with a couple breaking up and a new one forming.

Idea #2, non-linear narrative.

This narrative follows a similar one to the original, but at the end it shows the man offering the woman a coffee, leaving the story on a cliffhanger to see whether the couple could get back together or not.

Idea #3, non-linear narrative.

This narrative follows a couple breaking up, but at the end, the woman meets another man.

Overall, working with different narratives has definitely given me ideas that I wouldn't have necessarily thought of before. I will consider these when it comes to filming and editing in the next few weeks.

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A couple days ago I drew the storyboard for my film idea, but today I wanted to work on trying different narratives. Like previous projects I photocopied the storyboard I had drawn, and then cut the scenes up, and created different orders for the film to follow.

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Today I managed to finish storyboarding my ideas, using the thoughts from my conversation with my mum on Tuesday. I am happy with the ideas I have created, and the drawings I have produced.

Below are my final ideas for the plot so far, and storyboard drawings created today.

The narrative I am now going to follow in my film shows a couples relationship develop/progress, using colour grading to gradually show the change in emotions felt throughout. All scenes will be filmed in the same place, just on different days and showing different scenarios throughout the couples relationship.

The idea to record in the same space has been inspired by the film Standby (2016), where the two characters interact with each other in a small space, but in my film I want to use a sofa instead of the front seats of a car.

My mum and dad have both agreed to be actors in my film, but I am still looking for actors that might want to be in the film instead.

The plan at the moment is to use the sofa in my own living room, as that way I can keep either a tripod, or a mark so I can keep the camera in the same spot even if I'm recording on different days. That way I also don't have to worry about the setting changing too much, as it's in my own house.

I have decided I'm going to record this film on my phone, to challenge the boundaries of video making.

Below is the storyboard drawing I have created today, I will work on different narratives later in a future blog posts, but these are the drawings I have created so far, and in the order I have drawn them today.

Storyboard of original narrative idea.

Now that I have a storyboard drawn, I can start working on different narratives and test shots, as well as working out different lighting positions, camera work, and finalising actor arrangements.

I feel a weight lifted off my shoulders as I am now finally happy with the story I have created for my film and no longer feel confused and lost as to what I want to create.

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Today I managed to finish storyboarding my ideas, using the thoughts from my conversation with my mum on Tuesday. I am happy with the ideas I have created, and the drawings I have produced. Below are my final ideas for the plot so far, and storyboard drawings created today.

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Today I wanted to start storyboarding the ideas I had created yesterday, but even though I had created different ideas for my film, I was sitting in front of printed storyboard templates and still couldn't draw anything. My ideas weren't solid enough to actually draw them down on paper as a narrative.

So I spoke to my mum because I was really stuck and felt like I was running out of time to do things. We talked for nearly half an hour about the ideas i had, and where I could take my ideas from there, and to turn it into a film. I recorded the audio of the conversation, and by the end I was happy with an idea that we had created together.

Below shows 5 minutes of the conversation we had.

Audio Diary of final idea creation

The final idea is inspired by a film that was shown at Ravensbourne open day for film production which we visited last year.

It's called Standby and it's a film showing the evolving relationship of two colleagues in the police, filmed in the front of a car, showing each day and the patrols they go on/things they get up to.

The film follows a similar idea I had in mind for my film, so I watched it again to refresh my memory.

Scenes from Standby (2016), Available at: https://vimeo.com/207630463

Below shows a couple minutes at the end of me and my mum's conversation, when we were finally discussing the final plot of the film I have in mind. In the video I also discuss the potential camera placements, lighting ideas, etc.

The audio is a bit muffled at the start but it goes away after a couple of seconds.

Audio Diary, discussing plot/camera placements/lighting ideas.

The narrative I now want to follow in my own film is showing a couples relationship, all filmed in the same spot, just on different days and showing different scenarios.

The idea is definitely inspired by Standby, in the fact that the same space is used, and the two characters interact with each other, but in my film I want to use a sofa instead of the front seats of a car.

I know that this idea is slightly different to the plan I had initially when writing my brief, but I think I can still use the skills I have been practising in terms of colour grading to show the change in emotions throughout the film, rather than in separate timelines.

Having multiple timelines I think is what has stressed me out a bit throughout this idea creation process, because I had the thought that I would need to create multiple storyboards/scripts/ and think about lighting, etc. for all of the the different timelines. Instead, now that I have an idea where I am following only one, but showing the progression throughout, I feel more relaxed in knowing I think I can produce a better film rather than trying to do a lot, and it end up being low quality because of that.

My mum and dad have both said it is fine to use them as actors, but I will still be looking out of for other people to use.

Because of this change of idea, I know I will need to edit and adjust my proposal brief. I will go into more detail in my next few blog posts, when I will start to actually draw my storyboard.

Standby (2016), Directed by Charlotte Regan, Available at: Vimeo (Accessed 12/4/22)

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Today I wanted to start storyboarding the ideas I had created yesterday, but even though I had created different ideas for my film, I was sitting in front of printed storyboard templates and still couldn't draw anything. My ideas weren't solid enough to actually draw them down on paper as a narrative.

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The other day I rewatched The Joker, as it has recently been added to Netflix, and I thought I'd make a post about it, as it is well known to be one of the greatest uses of colour grading in any film.

The film follows a very strong teal and orange colour scheme, with a lot of scenes in the film having vivid teal and orange hues throughout.

Images of The Joker (2019).

Primary colours are used through Joker, each signifying a very distinct aspect of the story.

Blue is the colour of Gotham, the city that he lives in, and the society in which alienates him for being different. The teenagers who steal his advertising sign and beat him up, the woman on the bus who gets angry at him for playing with her son, the therapist who never listens to him, as well as the three who beat him on the train, are all wearing blue.

All outdoor shots are tinted blue, and the hospital room in which his mother ends up in is also blue. Blue in the film represents sadness, isolation and suffocation almost.

Scenes from Joker (2019), showing the use of blue.

Red is the opposite, as his love interest is often seen wearing red, the little boy on the bus is wearing red too, before his mother intervenes. Murray's TV show is also dominated by red when Arthur is enjoying watching it. He is wearing red when he does his first stand up performance, in a room filled with red lamps, but the same performance is tinted blue when Murray uses it in his TV show to mock him.

Scenes from Joker (2019), showing the use of red.

And finally, yellow is used to represent Arthur losing grip on reality, but also his strength and resistance. He wears a yellow hoodie in difficult times, the walls of his apartment and the mental ward inside the hospital, as well as the bathroom in which he meets Thomas Wayne are yellow. The kids also bash him over the head with his own yellow sign.

Scenes from Joker (2019), showing the use of yellow.

When he gets beat up on the subway, the shot quickly turns from blue to yellow to show him gaining power. The yellow is used to eradicate the blue and emphasise him taking back control. This is also shown in the subway when the police are chasing him but lose him in the crowd of protesters.

Subway scene from Joker (2019), colour changes from blue tint to yellow tint.

By the end of the film, when Arthur becomes „The Joker", he wears a red suit with a yellow vest underneath, and a green shirt. This shows he's accepted who he is, and doesn't try and change himself

Scenes from Joker (2019), showing his final Joker look.

At the start of the film, Arthur is shown as a small character, using wide shots and long lens' to make the audience witness him as other people see him. At this point in the movie we haven't been invited into his world yet, to see him any closer.

Wide shots used at the start of Joker (2019)

But as the movie continues, we get to know Arthur more, and more close up shots are used, to get to connect with him on a more intimate and emotional level.

Close up shots from Joker (2019)

The camera movement is also a massive technique used well in the film, and one example is the difference in feeling of emotion when Arthur is climbing the stairs towards the start of the film, compared to when he is Joker and accepting of his true self.

When he is climbing up the stairs at the start, there is a slow use of camerawork, emphasising the boring and forced repetitive nature of having to climb the stairs everyday. A wide shot is also used to make Arthur look small in frame.

Scene from Joker (2019), Arthur climbing the stairs.

However when he is Joker, the use of low angles and fluid camera movements creates energy and emphasises the power he now feels.

Scene from Joker (2019), Arthur finding power and freedom from becoming Joker.

Höhnel, P (2019), Mooncube, The Significance of colour in Joker (2019), Available at: https://www.mooncube.space/blog/the-significance-of-colour-in-joker.html (Accessed 14/4/22)

Filmmakers Academy (2019), YouTube, JOKER | The Look Of... (Episode 1), Available at: https://youtu.be/f_Pfc4oLLic (Accessed 14/4/22)

Joker (2019), Directed by Todd Phillips, Available at: Netflix, (Accessed 12/4/22)

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The other day I rewatched The Joker, as it has recently been added to Netflix, and I thought I'd make a post about it, as it is well known to be one of the greatest uses of colour grading in any film.

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Today I wanted to focus on getting a solid idea for my film done, so to get some ideas flowing in my brain I started off by creating some mind maps.

As my original idea was to follow multiple timelines (multiple people), I think that is what has stressed me out a bit. So I have changed my idea for the film slightly. Instead of following multiple narratives, I have decided to follow the narrative of one person and show how their emotions change throughout.

I can still change the colours throughout the film, as peoples emotions change and I can show that throughout the film.

Image of mind map creation.

By following the narrative of only one person this will also allow me to spend more time making the storyboard, as I won't need to spend time thinking of more than one story.

Following on from the timeline experimentation I did, I like the idea of showing the progression of feelings throughout a story. Whether that is changing the storyline from happy->sad or the other way round, or showing how someone's feelings change when they meet another person.

I think by creating mind maps it has definitely helped to come up with ideas, as it helps to break down the ideas into sections and focus on them one by one, and develop them further.

On top of creating mind maps, I also recorded an audio diary that also helped to talk about my ideas without worrying about having to express it in correct words.

It also helps me to expand my ideas as when I'm talking more ideas end up forming.

Audio diary of idea creation.

When I create these audio diaries, which is basically me talking to myself, I come up with more ideas the more I talk.

Overall, this process of coming up with a solid plot idea has taken a lot longer than I intended for it to, but I know now that idea creation might not be my strong point. Now I hope to move on and tomorrow I will get on with creating the storyboard, and from that I will experiment with different shots for the film.

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Today I wanted to focus on getting a solid idea for my film done, so to get some ideas flowing in my brain I started off by creating some mind maps. Change in idea: As my original idea was to follow multiple timelines (multiple people), I think that is what has stressed me out a bit.

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My student finance has been approved.

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10/4 - Easter Break Week 1 Mini Evaluation

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10/4 - Easter Break Week 1 Mini Evaluation

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This week I have spent my time catching up on work I needed to still upload to my blog, so I am all ready to start a fresh tomorrow.

I have also spent time editing some blog posts of mine as I didn't proof read them when I uploaded them and there were a few spelling and grammar mistakes I found.

Timetable showing Week 5, Week 6, and Week 7.

From my last weekly evaluation for Week 5, it was clear that I was behind on work, so I tried my best to spend this week catching up on the work I needed to, while also enjoying my holiday in Norfolk.

I have now done some lighting experimentation, and thought more about the plot for my film. Storyboarding is at the top of my priority list as I understand I really need an idea for my film now, before I can scout actors, or even start practising taking practise video shots.

Moving forward into next week, I need to start working on test shots, referring back to my storyboard (which I will also create).

By the end of next week my storyboard needs to be finished and I need to have started contacting actors/scouting locations/generally getting ready to start filming.

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This week I have spent my time catching up on work I needed to still upload to my blog, so I am all ready to start a fresh tomorrow. I have also spent time editing some blog posts of mine as I didn't proof read them when I uploaded them and there were a few spelling and grammar mistakes I found.

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To create different colour effects in film, it doesn't all have to be done in post; and coloured gels in lighting are one of the main ways to create lighting effects before you even shoot anything.

In fashion photography in particular, coloured gels are popular to use to enhance the mood of the images, and to draw attention to the clothing being shown.

Images taken using coloured gels.

These professional colour gels used are big rolls, that are usually taped to the studio lights, and sometimes doubled up to create a more vivid effect.

Coloured gels can also be used to aid colour correction without having to leave it until post production.

Modern cameras have pretty accurate built-in white balance settings, but there might be problems if you're using multiple light sources. For example, using the tungsten white balance setting will be enough to correct the orange lighting that tungsten produces. However, if you add in flash, an overly cold and blue image might be produced as the flash fights with the tungsten lighting.

By adding an orange colour correction gel over your flash, will ensure that all your lighting is producing a tungsten cast and, using the tungsten white balance setting, you'll be able to produce a neutrally balanced image.

Coloured gels are most popularly used for live events, art projects, photography, colour correcting LED light sources, but also in film.

They are using the same way, but most of the time in a more subtle way, so it affects the viewer psychologically to help tell a story.

However colour is subjective to the viewer, based off of peoples backgrounds, so how a certain colour makes you feel might not make someone else feel the same way.

Example of colour gels in film - how the mood can change.

Images of the materials I used.

I don't have any big studio lights, or coloured gels, or even a studio at this current moment in time, but I still wanted to try and test different lighting with the things I had.

To experiment, I used my phone to take the photos, my mums flashlight on her phone, a torch I found and some quality street wrappers.

I found that the quality street wrappers acted in the same way as colour gels do, as when I placed the wrapper over the light I was using, it created the effect I wanted.

Some colours showed up a lot more vividly than others, so I experimented with different colour schemes, seeing which effects I could create with the colours I had.

I also found that the flashlight was a lot brighter than my mums phone light, so I had to move it further back so I didn't create the effect of a spotlight almost.

Because I was holding the lights, I couldn't take a photo of the set up, as I was also constantly changing the position of the light depending on whether or not the colour was bright/dark/vivid enough. Below shows two diagrams of the general set up I used.

Diagrams showing the set up of lighting.

I took a lot of photos, all in the same pose but using different lights to see whether it really did create different effects/moods.

For these photos I used the phone flashlight.

One colour lighting work, from top to bottom: pink, blue, green, yellow, orange, red.

Each row shows a different colour of light, and as you can see, different colours were more vivid than others, and in my opinion the orange and pink light looked best.

As my subject is a character from The Lion King (which I have previously researched), the orange worked best as it emphasised Simba's character and fits him best.

I then wanted to experiment with more than one colour, creating two tone colour effects, using some of the knowledge I have about colour theory and how different colours work well together but also just playing around with different colours I thought might look good.

Two colour lighting work.

Through experimentation, I would that there were some colour combinations that worked, and some that didn't. My favourite was the orange/purple combination shown in image 6 and 8. I think if the blue gel was more vibrant, the classic teal/orange complimentary colour scheme would have worked really well too.

Overall, I would definitely like to experiment with studio lights and actual subjects, to create stories using light, and to do this I do want to expand my knowledge on the subject and try to experiment more, finding different cinematographers to gain inspiration from. I think also practising with photography would be a way to get more experimental with this.

Something else I would also take into consideration if I was to do this again is to not place my subject next to a window/source of natural light, as I think the effect of the colour was hindered due to the fact I had natural light affecting my image.

Noel, J (2017), The Beat, 6 Creative Ways To Enhance Your Next Film with Gels, Available at: https://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/6-creative-ways-use-gels/ (Accessed 6/4/22)

Plumridge, J, Photzy, Mastering the Art of Gelled Lighting in Color Photography, Avaiable at: https://photzy.com/mastering-the-art-of-gelled-lighting-in-color-photography/ (Accessed 6/4/22)

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To create different colour effects in film, it doesn't all have to be done in post; and coloured gels in lighting are one of the main ways to create lighting effects before you even shoot anything.

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Now that is is the Easter holiday, I am currently in Norfolk so not able to borrow any equipment from UCA, and I don't own a camera to test out filming things with. So instead I found an app called Filmic Pro, which basically gives your phone film camera qualities and allows you to shoot cinematic footage on your phone, and change the settings too.

The Pro option allows you to film in either a flat or log profile (something which I have been looking to try out, especially as it is essential for colour grading), as well as other effects like being able to change the cameras 'focus ring', and steadying the camera to give it a controlled shot, as if you're using a Gimble.

Other features include being able to change the temperature of the videos before you even film it, changing the frame rate settings, the resolution, the saturation, and other effects too.

Screen recording just after downloading, testing out the apps different features.

The effect that has interested me most has definitely been the cinematic camera stabiliser, as I can now shoot footage on my phone, without having to even borrow a Gimble from UCA. This gives me the freedom to film whatever I want, whenever I want.

Testing out the camera stabiliser effect, to shoot panning shots of landscapes.

Overall, I still need to spend some time getting used to the features of the app, but once I do it will allow me to create footage wherever and whenever I want.

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Now that is is the Easter holiday, I am currently in Norfolk so not able to borrow any equipment from UCA, and I don't own a camera to test out filming things with. So instead I found an app called Filmic Pro, which basically gives your phone film camera qualities and allows you to shoot cinematic footage on your phone, and change the settings too.

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31/3 - Using paint samples for idea creation

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31/3 - Using paint samples for idea creation

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Today I went to B&Q and went to their paint samples section and took nearly every single colour they had.

Colour samples taken from B&Q

I need to get more creative with my ideas and I think that this is definitely a way I can get a bit hands on with idea creation.

By changing the format of my work and doing something physical and arty rather than technical and all online, might be a way that I can come up with different ideas.

I put all of the colours out in front of me and then chose a genre of film, grabbed the colours I thought would suit the genre best, and then stuck them all onto a piece of paper, along with annotations of why I chose the specific colours, and reasonings behind it.

Time-lapse of the collage making process

By doing this I created multiple different collages showing different genres of films and the colour schemes I chose for each one.

The process helped me to think more in depth about the colours used in films, as if I were actually colour grading, designing or storyboarding for my own. When I finally start to storyboard my ideas for my film, I will definitely refer back to these collages I have made and use them for inspiration.

Final collages of possible colour schemes for my film.

Overall, getting hands on with a different format of work definitely helped to become more creative. The task itself was fun to do and I will take into consideration getting a bit more physical and arty when it comes to work, as only using my laptop to work can get a bit tiring and boring after a while.

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31/3 - Using paint samples for idea creation

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Today I went to B&Q and went to their paint samples section and took nearly every single colour they had. Colour samples taken from B&Q I need to get more creative with my ideas and I think that this is definitely a way I can get a bit hands on with idea creation.

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This week to be honest hasn't been very good in terms of getting things done. Just trying to come up with ideas has been really difficult for me and I feel the pressure now that Easter break has come along. However, I also know that I have next week off in my timeline, and I am going to spend that week catching up on the work I have fallen behind on.

This week I set myself a target of creating a finished storyboard with my whole plot structure on, so I can move forward with filming, however that hasn't happened.

Screenshot from Project Proposal

From the screenshot above it shows what I wanted to have achieved, and out of the things listed, I have only managed to keep up with my blog posts, and do this mini evaluation.

Next week:

Moving forward into next week, I have luckily set up a week for me to relax, however due to the fact I haven't achieved the tasks I set myself I am going to spend next week hopefully finishing my storyboard, and also doing some lighting experiments too.

This week to be honest hasn't been very good in terms of getting things done. Just trying to come up with ideas has been really difficult for me and I feel the pressure now that Easter break has come along. However, I also know that I have next week off in my timeline, and I am going to spend that week catching up on the work I have fallen behind on.

This week I set myself a target of creating a finished storyboard with my whole plot structure on, so I can move forward with filming, however that hasn't happened.

Screenshot from Project Proposal

From the screenshot above it shows what I wanted to have achieved, and out of the things listed, I have only managed to keep up with my blog posts, and do this mini evaluation.

Next week:

Moving forward into next week, I have luckily set up a week for me to relax, however due to the fact I haven't achieved the tasks I set myself I am going to spend next week hopefully finishing my storyboard, and also doing some lighting experiments too.

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This week to be honest hasn't been very good in terms of getting things done. Just trying to come up with ideas has been really difficult for me and I feel the pressure now that Easter break has come along.

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Today we had a lecture by Rebecca outlining the plans for Easter break, she tasked about how Easter break should be used for researching, exploring and experimenting with different ideas we might like to carry forward into our Final Major Project.

Photo of lecture screen

The talk itself has definitely made me realise I need to start experimenting more with ideas and I know that the 3 week Easter break coming up will be the perfect opportunity for me to showcase different ideas and experimentations.

I will also have to reflect on this work, and plan forward for my final project.

She said that we shouldn't actually be creating our final piece during the breaks but instead just finalising ideas and being able to feel confident in the plans we have.

She also emphasised the thought that experimentation doesn't always go well, and it's from experimentations that we find out whether an idea is good or not.

I think I am definitely a perfectionist that is scared of failure, and I don't want my work to look bad, as when it does, I feel like my work isn't good and I begin to doubt my own ability but Rebecca's talk has made me realise in order for me to realise what I'm good at, I need to find out what I'm bad at.

We have 3 weeks off for Easter break starting next week, and I am going to spend these 3 weeks coming up with my final ideas and experimenting a lot with different techniques, idea sand processes, and I am definitely excited see how my work turns out.

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Today we had a lecture by Rebecca outlining the plans for Easter break, she tasked about how Easter break should be used for researching, exploring and experimenting with different ideas we might like to carry forward into our Final Major Project.

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Today I wasn't planning on doing any work, to try and give my mind a rest and get back into the flow of work tomorrow, but it just happened that I was watching 'The Addams Family' for fun and caught a few inspirations from it.

The use of colour throughout the film obviously was the thing that originally intrigued me, as it's almost selective when showing scenes inside their house.

Everything is black and white, or at least very desaturated apart from Morticia's bright red lipstick and nails, and other red objects throughout their house.

Scenes from The Addams Family (1991)

The contrast between the bright red and desaturated interior makes the colour stick out a lot throughout the film.

The colour when used in scenes between Morticia and Gomez, is used to represent the passion and romance they feel for each other. These feelings are obvious through their actions and words to each other, but the colour helps to visually enhance these emotions.

When red is used in scenes with Wednesday and Pugsley however, it evokes a sense of danger because of their actions (sword fighting, electrocuting each other, shooting a cross bow). These actions are never really a worry as the film turns it into a comedic tone.

When we see scenes of the Addams family in the 'real world' among other parents and children the use of colour really exaggerates how eccentric the family is, and how different they are to societies norms, especially shown in the films sequel Addams Family Values.

Scenes from The Addams Family (1991) and Addams Family Values (1993)

The scene in particular where Wednesday's teacher pulls Morticia to talk, shows the contrast of her outfit compared to the rest of the school and helps to visually show the difference in characters.

When Pugsley and Wednesday perform their sword fighting scene, they use fake blood that ends up covering the front row of the audience. The use of colour obviously represents the danger and gore of their peformance, but their families reaction to the show juxtaposes that, as they get up and start cheering.

Sword Fight play scene from The Addams Family (1991)

I was researching about the movie and I came across this article that shows how the set of the original Addams Family TV show was actually pink, but they shot it in black and white.

I thought it was interesting, as it really does show how colour can change the mood of a film.

Before and after shot of the original Addams family house from the TV show.

There was also a particular transition that caught my eye while I was watching.

Waltz scene from The Addams Family (1991)

In the scene, Morticia and Gomez are dancing and when she pulls an old sheet off of a chair, the scene transitions seamlessly to the party. I thought it was really cool and I would also like to get creative with transition ideas like that one in my own film.

The Addams Family (1991), Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, Available at: Netflix, (Accessed 30/3/22)

Sluss, J (2021), Highdefdiscnews, The Addams Family - 4K UHU BLU-RAY SCREENSHOTS, Available at: https://highdefdiscnews.com/2021/11/23/the-addams-family-4k-uhd-blu-ray-screenshots/ (Accessed 30/3/22)

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Today I wasn't planning on doing any work, to try and give my mind a rest and get back into the flow of work tomorrow, but it just happened that I was watching 'The Addams Family' for fun and caught a few inspirations from it.

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To be honest, today I planned on starting to create my storyboard, but my creativity levels have not been great and I'm really struggling to come up with a good idea, even though I have watched a few films now to get inspiration.

Instead of storyboarding I spent today making a mind map of possible ideas, but every idea I have I am just thinking of how difficult it's going to be to film it.

For example, if I have an idea that involves an outside location I am thinking about lighting and how I'm going to achieve the effects I need.

I guess I still need more time to come up with an idea, and with Easter coming up I will definitely spend that time focusing on my narrative, if I still haven't come up with anything by the end of this week.

Mind map of narrative ideas

Overall I haven't done much work today and it is a shame because I really need to get moving with this project, but I hope I will get more inspiration throughout the week.

To be honest, today I planned on starting to create my storyboard, but my creativity levels have not been great and I'm really struggling to come up with a good idea, even though I have watched a few films now to get inspiration.

Instead of storyboarding I spent today making a mind map of possible ideas, but every idea I have I am just thinking of how difficult it's going to be to film it.

For example, if I have an idea that involves an outside location I am thinking about lighting and how I'm going to achieve the effects I need.

I guess I still need more time to come up with an idea, and with Easter coming up I will definitely spend that time focusing on my narrative, if I still haven't come up with anything by the end of this week.

Mind map of narrative ideas

Overall I haven't done much work today and it is a shame because I really need to get moving with this project, but I hope I will get more inspiration throughout the week.

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To be honest, today I planned on starting to create my storyboard, but my creativity levels have not been great and I'm really struggling to come up with a good idea, even though I have watched a few films now to get inspiration.

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Today i finished my student finance details, after having problems putting the course through. Now i just need to wait for it to be accepted

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Today Brighton gave me an offer for their course. Although I am 99% sure i'm not going to accept it, it is still nice to know.

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Following on the from the experimentation I did into different transitions and timelines, I decided to watch the film Joel recommended called Mystery Train. Watching the film also is a way I could get some ideas for the plot of my film, as I am struggling a bit to come up with a plan at the moment.

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It has come to the end of week 4 and I think my progress throughout the week has been good. I have started experimenting with colour grading, and I am finally starting to feel comfortable using DaVinci. I will continue to keep practising on different clips to improve further.

Screenshot of timeline from Project Proposal.

Referring back to the timeline I made in my project proposal, it looks like I am a bit behind on the idea creation for the plot of my film, but this is something I am definitely going to focus on moving forward into next week.

I think the experimentation I have done throughout this week has been helpful to get my ideas flowing, and because of that I'm glad I prioritised experimentation before finalising anything.

I have handed in my project proposal, started making mind maps for ideas, and also drew out a couple of rough storyboards to show different timeline structures.

Next week I will solidify/finalise my ideas for the plot of my film, as well as scout locations and actors once I know what it is I want to make.

By the end of the week, before Easter Break begins, I should have a storyboard finished with the final ideas (or at least strong ones) for the plot of my final film.

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It has come to the end of week 4 and I think my progress throughout the week has been good. I have started experimenting with colour grading, and I am finally starting to feel comfortable using DaVinci. I will continue to keep practising on different clips to improve further.

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25/3 - Transition Experiments + Timeline Ideas

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25/3 - Transition Experiments + Timeline Ideas

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Yesterday I made a mind map of the ideas I have for the plot of my film, but I've realised that a lot of the ideas I have depend on how I edit the colour throughout the film.

I'm not sure whether I want the colour to suddenly change (like the use of a flashback - suddenly cutting the scenes), or if I want the colour to gradually change throughout the film.

I like the idea of the colour slowly either fading, or filtering to a different scheme throughout the film, but I understand that that takes a lot of planning to be able to pull it off and make it look as good as possible, so I thought I would experiment now, so I can start to actually plan the plot for my film and start my final work.

I used previous clips I have already shot, so I didn't have to spend more time gathering the shots.

For the sharp cut I just used two clips and created a 'flashback' type effect, adding a flash transition between the two clips.

I graded the first clip of a countryside walkway with a moody, desolate vibe; and to make the biggest contrast, added the flashback as a bright joyful clip of some daffodils.

Below shows the process of grading the first clip. I work in a non destructive way, using different nodes (same as layers in photoshop) for different things.

Process of grading moody clip.

This is the final product:

Sharp cut (flashback) transition between colours:

Overall, I like the effect that is created through the use of a flashback transition, as there is a lot of freedom to grade the clips however you want to, as essentially they are two clips joined together by a single transition. This way, they don't need to be graded in the same way as each other.

This will make my work easier to show direct contrasts between colour usage.

However, if I wanted the transition to be more subtle and affect the viewer more psychologically, I could use a soft transition, using colour that slowly shifts throughout the film.

This way, the viewer won't necessarily notice that the colour is changing, but there might be psychological effects to how the audience reacts to the film.

And at the end, if you was to compare the first frame of the film to the last, there would be a very strong difference between the two, but while you're watching you wouldn't notice.

The first experiment I did was like the sharp cut, where I used a moody and a bright mood in the same film, and I transitioned between the two.

Final version of Soft Transition Experiment #1.

Overall, this isn't my best work I've ever done since I had to colour grade the whole sequence pretty quickly, as I was just testing it out. But i like it.

To do it I first colour corrected the clips, and then went back in to change the tint and saturations of certain colours in the shots. At the start I added a warm tint, and towards the end it was a cool tint instead. I also slowly added a vignette effect onto the clips, to gradually make the scene darker.

The first and last frame in the short clip.

Experiment 2 was inspired by something Joel told me yesterday about another students work from the past. He said that they created a comic strip which slowly reduced the colour from the scenes, so the first frame is in full colour and the last frame is black and white.

This inspired me to do the same thing using the same sequence from the previous video.

Final version of Soft Transition Experiment #2.

To do this effect all I did was reduce the saturation by 5 every clip, until it became 0. I also think that this effect is quite cool, and it has opened my mind to different ideas I can incorporate into my final work.

Showing saturation change in clips.

Two storylines happening at the same time:

Another option is to of course have two timelines happening at the same time, with the cuts in the editing of the film moving between the two either one after the other, or even simultaneously using a split screen.

I had no practice footage to test this on, as I think it would work better with people in the shot, and I don't have any footage of people at the moment; so instead I drew out two diagrams showing my ideas for possible timeline sequences.

Drawing of Timeline Ideas.

The first idea is inspired by Memento (2000), as I have previously talked about how I like the way Christopher Nolan uses timelines in the film to tell the story. The idea that there are two timelines that we are watching, and the cuts between each timeline slowly gets more frequent throughout the film, until they end up merging towards the end.

The second idea is to have each timeline (however many there are), slowly merge from one to another. The best example I can think of to explain it is to start the film following person 1, then have person 1 meet person 2, have a couple scenes when they're both together, but instead of following on with person 1's narrative, we follow the person 2 instead, then they meet person 3, and the same thing continues.

Both of these are ideas that I would have to plan out and really think about if I was to follow through with them, but I like both of the ideas.

I have never tried to do a split screen before, so I thought I would have a go and try to create a scene using two narratives happening at the same time.

Process of making the split screen.

I did it by going into the effects panel in DaVinci, and layering two videos on top of each other, and then adding a plain black background on top. To the plain background layer I added the video collage effect, and adjusted the position of the videos underneath.

I also had to crop to fit, and change the settings of the collage so I had two columns and one row.

Final Split Screen Effect.

I think the effect turned out really cool actually, as it shows the videos side by side so you can see a direct comparison in the mood of the two clips. Even more split screens are able to be done, so I could create a 4x4 split screen with 16 different clips if I wanted to.

However, I also know that if I was to choose to do this effect, it would be difficult for the audience to watch both sides of the screen at the same time, especially is there are details in each shot that are important to be seen.

Overall, experimenting and testing out different ideas that I have never tried before has given me insight to how I could possibly edit my film, there are many options I could choose to follow.

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25/3 - Transition Experiments + Timeline Ideas

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Yesterday I made a mind map of the ideas I have for the plot of my film, but I've realised that a lot of the ideas I have depend on how I edit the colour throughout the film.

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22/3 - Capstone Filming + Colour Reactions

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22/3 - Capstone Filming + Colour Reactions

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22/3 - Capstone Filming + Colour Reactions

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Today I borrowed a camera form UCA and decided to film a few things at Capstone. I have been watching a lot of videos to expand my knowledge on cameras and how to shoot videos using DSLR’s, and what are the best setting for then having to colour grade the footage later on. Shooting in a flat profile…

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Today I decided to get on with developing a storyline for my film, which is something I struggle with to come up with quickly.

I made a bubble map with different ideas that I could make for the plot of my film, and then annotated with red and green pen, positives/ideas and negatives/things to consider with each idea that I had.

Bubble map showing ideas for possible plots.

Joel and Penny both helped me to come up with idea sand also gave me references for more films I might be interested in. They make me realise that experimentation is the main way I am going to find to if an idea works, so I will definitely start to test out these ideas that I have.

We also had a peer review session where we all showed our work and we went round with post-it notes and made comments on our peers work.

I decided to just put my blog up, as that way people could go on any post they liked and look through my work.

Below is the feedback I got:

Post-it notes with feedback from peers.

I am really happy reading all the comments about my work. Most of the post-its say that my work is well structured and I included a lot of images and references, and I am really glad about that. I will now take on board the feedback I have got and implement that into future work.

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Today I decided to get on with developing a storyline for my film, which is something I struggle with to come up with quickly. I made a bubble map with different ideas that I could make for the plot of my film, and then annotated with red and green pen, positives/ideas and negatives/things to consider with each idea that I had.

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Today I had my Maidstone Studios Applicant Day, where I had to show them my portfolio, and they said they were going to continue on with my offer after looking at it. It was just me, the tutor, and a student and they walked me round into many of the rooms in the studios, and it gave me an opportunit…

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Today I had my Maidstone Studios Applicant Day, where I had to show them my portfolio, and they said they were going to continue on with my offer after looking at it.

It was just me, the tutor, and a student and they walked me round into many of the rooms in the studios, and it gave me an opportunity to ask lots of questions.

My mind is definitely made up about going there, and I think it’s a shame that I didn’t go through D2D, as I won’t get the perks the they offer, but then again if I had, I wouldn’t have taken the risk and would have always been left wondering “what if…”, so in a way, I’m glad I went through UCAS because now I am solid on my choice.

There is amazing opportunities studying at Maidstone and if it means sacrificing 3 years of partying and having fun, for 3 years getting ahead in the field I want to go into and having a solid opportunity of work afterwards, that’s what I am going to do. Of course I will still have so much fun at Maidstone Studios but it’s not the ‘away experience’ I was looking for.

Overall I’m happy and confident in my choices, and I just need to talk to my tutors about signing up for student financing as it won’t let me select Maidstone Studios as an option.

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Last week I was supposed to have my applicant day for Maidstone Studios but I was working so I couldn’t make it, but luckily they rescheduled my date and I now have it tomorrow at 4.

I have already made a Stage 1 & 2 portfolio, and I also have my blog and Padlet which shows my professional practice, but I thought I would make another portfolio showcasing every bit of my work.

The PDF of it is linked.

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Today is the deadline for the final draft of our project proposal, and I have spent today finishing it. Using the feedback I got from both my peers and lecturers I managed to finish my final draft. As my research will be ongoing throughout this project, I will probably have to add to my reference li…

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Today I decided to download DaVinci Resolve for free to try and practise using professional equipment used by real colourists in the film industry.

I could just play it safe and use Premiere Pro to colour grade my footage, as that is the software I am familiar with but I really want to push myself and my ability to learn new software and techniques.

I have never used DaVinci resolve before, nor have I ever seen someone use DaVinci Resolve, so I spent all day watching YouTube videos to just learn the basics. It is slightly similar to Premiere Pro, as essentially they use the same features, but it is a lot more advanced and complicated.

An overview of how DaVinci Resolve looks.

Watching these YouTube videos has also made me realise how much my editing process in itself needs improving, as I don't use as many layers as I should, and there are a lot of things I need to learn. It is very different to Premiere Pro and a lot more complicated, so I will spend the next couple days/weeks experimenting with different clips, and trying to get used to using it.

Here's some shortcuts and things I have learnt from watching them that will be useful for future projects:

B (Blade Tool)

Command + B (Cut Footage)

Shift + Delete (Ripple delete - delete footage and gap left at the same time)

Command + Shift + ] (Ripple edit right)

Command + Shift + [ (Ripple edit left)

Option + S (New Serial Node)

^To pre-cut footage in the preview panel

HD (Restrict to 40000Kb/s)

4K (Restrict to 80000Kb/s)

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Today I decided to download DaVinci Resolve for free to try and practise using professional equipment used by real colourists in the film industry. I could just play it safe and use Premiere Pro to colour grade my footage, as that is the software I am familiar with but I really want to push myself and my ability to learn new software and techniques.

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Today marks the end of week 3 and to be completely honest I feel like I haven’t done as much work as I should have this week. After Rebecca showed us examples of peoples blogs from last year I can see that they’ve posted a lot more posts than me in a week, but I spoke to Joel about it during my semi…

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Today I had to swap my proposal with a peer and get their feedback on what they think is successful and what I could do to improve. Feedback from Yasmin Having a fresh set of eyes read through my proposal has helped me to evaluate what I can do to improve my proposal. I also had a 1-1 seminar with J…

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Today I had to swap my proposal with a peer and get their feedback on what they think is successful and what I could do to improve. Feedback from Yasmin Having a fresh set of eyes read through my proposal has helped me to evaluate what I can do to improve my proposal. I also had a 1-1 seminar with J…

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Week 2 has finished and I think that my project tis going well. I need to do some more experimentations with work, as I think I have done enough research for now. The research has been really interest

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As part of preparing the presentation for my FMP ideas, i had to collect 10 images (either visual/ written/ contextual/ material/ technical/ process/reference, etc.) that relates to my ideas and things that I might be interested pursuing into my project.

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9/3 - Project Proposal Development - Draft 1

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9/3 - Project Proposal Development - Draft 1

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I have been working on completing my Project Proposal Draft 1, and this is what I have so far:

Project Proposal Draft #1

I am aware that I need to put in my Harvard referencing notes, however my research is going to continue throughout this project and I thought I would add all of my references at the end.

I have a separate word document that I am adding to every time I use a new reference:

Full list of references for my FMP so far

I have tried to use a range of different references (websites, YouTube videos, books, films, etc.), however I do need to be aware that I am using a lot of online resources for my research. I also know my list of referencing is already 2 pages long, which I don't know whether it will be a problem but I will ask when I have my tutorial next week.

I have been working on completing my Project Proposal Draft 1, and this is what I have so far:

Project Proposal Draft #1

I am aware that I need to put in my Harvard referencing notes, however my research is going to continue throughout this project and I thought I would add all of my references at the end.

I have a separate word document that I am adding to every time I use a new reference:

Full list of references for my FMP so far

I have tried to use a range of different references (websites, YouTube videos, books, films, etc.), however I do need to be aware that I am using a lot of online resources for my research. I also know my list of referencing is already 2 pages long, which I don't know whether it will be a problem but I will ask when I have my tutorial next week.

Week 2 has finished and I think that my project tis going well. I need to do some more experimentations with work, as I think I have done enough research for now. The research has been really interest

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9/3 - Project Proposal Development - Draft 1

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I have been working on completing my Project Proposal Draft 1, and this is what I have so far: Project Proposal Draft #1 I am aware that I need to put in my Harvard referencing notes, however my research is going to continue throughout this project and I thought I would add all of my references at the end.

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Following on from the colour theory research I did, I thought I would research into Wes Anderson's films, as he uses colour in his films really well.

To do this I watched quite a few of his films and made different notes on his use of colour throughout.

Filmmakers understand colour theory, and know that you use saturated bright colours in happy scenes, and dark and desaturated for something more grounded. However Wes Anderson blurs the lines between joy and darkness.

Scene from The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

Anderson covers quite dark themes throughout his films, but he uses colour as a way to explore adult concepts in a childlike and fantastical way. This helps to lighten the mood and make the audience feel more comfortable listening to the topics mentioned, as they are covered with a comedic undertone.

His worlds are bright and colourful, but that's just the facade. They are coloured in a storybook way to give it a childlike perspective. This is a signature aspect to Anderson's work.

Scenes from Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Grand Budapest Hotel and The Royal Tenenbaums.

As well as blurring the lines between joy and darkness, his colours also blur the lines between fantasy and reality.

In Moonrise Kingdom topics such as death, mental health problems and suicide are mentioned but his use of warm colours help to lighten the mood of the film.

Scene from Moonrise Kingdom (2012), dog gets shot and boy gets stabbed.

Wes Anderson uses an analogous colour scheme of muted shades of yellows, greens and browns throughout Moonrise Kingdom to emphasise feelings of innocence, youthfulness and nostalgia. This colour palette creates a heightened sense of reality that perfectly accents Sam and Suzy's story.

Scenes from Moonrise Kingdom (2012).

At the start of the film light, bright, plain colours were used. And only extremely dark ones were used towards the end of the film - when Sam and Suzy were at the top of the bell tower and almost attempted suicide.

Throughout the film the colour palette slowly darkens, probably to show how reality is catching up with the characters, and their idea to runaway might not have been as perfect as first thought.

The full colour palette of Moonrise Kingdom (2012), contact sheet with my favourite scenes circled.

The Grand Budapest Hotel follows separate timelines with their own aspect ratios and colour palettes.

The first and main timeline of the film follows Museo Gustav and his lobby boy Zero, in his hotel. The colours in The Grand Budapest Hotel are very highly saturated, so that the primary colours used throughout really pop. There are an assortment of colours used throughout (Red yellow, blue, pink, purple etc.), and it makes every frame feel like a storybook picture.

Scenes from The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014).

With such vivid saturation and hues, Anderson created a movie that doesn't quite feel real. With his colour palette being greatly exaggerated, it allows him to exaggerate other aspects of the film.

S cenes from The Grand Budapest Hotel, Gustav escapes from prison (2014).

The majority of the timeline however isn't so bright due to the nature of war happening at the time of the film, but the hotel scenes have vibrant hues that give it a vibe of beauty and comfort, despite the challenges they have outside of it. It's like the Grand Budapest Hotel is a disguise to hide the cruelty of war for the rich at least.

S cene from The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014).

The second timeline is about the old Zero Mustafa in a used and old version of the Grand Budapest Hotel and the younger self of an author who later on writes a book about it. In this timeline the outside scenes showcase a low saturated green and the interiors are in matte and mid-saturated oranges; a colour palette that shows warmth but also tells us about the apathy about the hotel.

Scenes from The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

There is another timeline which shows us a later period of time in the author's graveyard where colours are drained out to picture a cold world; and there is a young girl interested in learning about the glorious days of The Grand Budapest Hotel by reading his book.

Scenes from The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) has a brighter, more highly saturated colour palette, which makes sense since it is a cartoon based off of a children's book.

S cenes from Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

In Isle of Dogs (2018), instead of having a yellow saturation like in Moonrise Kingdom, his scenes are more prone to red. It's a colour associated Wirth love and passion, and it's an appropriate choice to make considering the plot is about a boy travelling to an island to rescue his dog. His love for his dog drives the entire plot, so a red saturation is appropriate.

Scenes from Isle of Dogs (2018)

Overall, it is interesting to learn about how Wes Anderson uses colour in his films to break ideal 'norms' of how to use it, and I will definitely be taking on board different ideas of how to include colour in my films. As well as films, Wes Anderson's filming style in particular is interesting and something I will be looking to try out by myself.

I really like his use of long tracking shots, extreme zoom shots and quick fast camera movements.

Mindling, M (2017), Tongal, Color and Film: Learn the Rules of Color Theory (and How to Break Them), Available at: https://tongal.com/blog/tongal-taught-me/color-and-film-learn-the-rules-of-color-theory-and-how-to-break-them#:~:text=In%20Moonrise%20Kingdom%2C%20Anderson%20deftly,this%20charming%20runaway%20couple's%20story (Accessed 14/3/22)

Bedard, M (2020), StudioBinder, The Wes Anderson Colour Palette: Bright Colours Meet Dark Subjects, https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/wes-anderson-color-palette/ (Accessed 14/3/22)

Moonrise Kingdom (2012), Directed by Wes Anderson, Available at: Netflix (Accessed 14/3/22)

Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009), Directed by Wes Anderson, Available at: Netflix (Accessed 14/3/22)

Isle of Dogs (2018), Directed by Wes Anderson, Available at: Soap2day (Accessed 14/3/22)

The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), Directed by Wes Anderson, Available at: Soap2day (Accessed 14/3/22)

Postpace (2020), YouTube, The Grand Budapest Hotel Color Analysis | Wes Anderson Color & Storytelling, Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFKkk_JvQR8 (Accessed 14/3/22)

For all film screenshots:

Film Grab, Available at: https://film-grab.com/ (Accessed 14/3/22)

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Following on from the colour theory research I did, I thought I would research into Wes Anderson's films, as he uses colour in his films really well. To do this I watched quite a few of his films and made different notes on his use of colour throughout.

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Week 2 has finished and I think that my project tis going well. I need to do some more experimentations with work, as I think I have done enough research for now. The research has been really interest

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During our time off we had to do a questionnaire answering questions evaluating our work from Stage 2, and it has been really useful to me. The questionnaire has helped me to view the work I have done so far from an outer perspective, and has made me realise the important things I need to focus on, moving forward into my FMP.

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After doing some research into types of Focus used in film, I thought I would experiment with a camera and try a couple of them out myself.

Obviously I knew I wouldn't be able to do the split diopter focus and a tilt shift focus, as they require specialised lenses, and I was only using a basic DSLR lens.

The first shot I wanted to try was the rack focus, as this was one of my favourite techniques used in The Lion King. I wanted to experiment with both big racks and subtle ones. A rack focus involves transitioning a shallow depth of field between different points of focus within a shot.

The first attempt I tried at a rack shot was embarrassing because it didn't work at all. I shot it outside, using my hands to hold up the camera as I had no tripod. Due to this, the shot is a bit shaky and I forgot which way to turn the lens so it didn't even change focus throughout the shot.

The shot is a good example of a Shallow Focus though.

Shot #1, No tripod, Forgot which way to turn the ring, Fail.

Before I carried on taking videos, I decided to take photos to see which way I had to turn the focus ring to get the effect I wanted. Because the rack focus is a technique controlled by the camera operator/focus puller themselves, I switched my cameras focus settings from Auto to Manual.

These photos in itself show examples of different ways of using Shallow Focus .

Photos showing a Shallow focus, 1st with the background out of focus, 2nd with the foreground out of focus.

The second attempt I shot I just practiced moving the focus ring left and right to get the feel of changing the depth of field.

The camera is really shaky again, as I wasn't using a tripod but at least this shot actually created an effect I wanted it to.

Shot #2, No Tripod, Really shaky, Rack focus achieved.

Now that I had got the idea of how to actually do a rack shot, I decided to use a makeshift tripod to stop the shakiness of the camera, and capture an actual scene to be used in a film.

Rack focuses are most commonly used to direct the audience's attention to a certain detail with pin point precision. The effect also allows an entire sequence to play out without having to cut between scenes.

I found that after I set the camera down, I could adjust the focus ring so much easier as I didn't have to focus on how steady my hand was. However I still feel like the focus at the start wasn't as good as it could have been.

Because the shot was pointing towards the light from outside, the shot was to bright outside but it's okay because I was focusing on making sure the rack shot worked

Shot #3, Makeshift tripod, no shakiness, and rack kind of worked but too bright.

I wanted to do a final shot pointing the camera away from the light so the brightness of the camera wouldn't be affected.

I also wanted to add a bit of discordance in the shot as well, to draw my audiences eyes to the apple in the scene. The rack focus also helped to do that.

Final shot, worked the best out of all shots.

I also wanted to attempt to try a soft focus shot, as I had never heard of it before I did research, let alone tried it, so I thought it would be fun to experiment. A soft focus shot is when no portion of the frame is 100% sharp, and is achieved by:

-imperfections built into the lens

-diffusion filters

-stretching a stocking over the lens

-smearing vaseline on the lens

I don't have a diffusion filter nor does the lens I was using have an imperfections built into it so I thought I would try to use vaseline.

I obviously couldn't smear it directly onto the lens, as I borrowed the camera from UCA, and the vaseline probably wouldn't wipe off. So instead I thought of using cling film wrapped over the top of the lens instead. That way it would still have the clear effect, but I would be able to smear vaseline over it as well.

The below time-lapse shows the process of me attaching the cling film to the lens and smearing vaseline on it.

Behind the scenes of applying the 'soft focus lens'

I decided to take some photos to test out how well the effect looked and I liked how it turned out. The only problem I found was the fact I couldn't zoom in or use the manual focus with the cling film wrapped around the lens, so I had to rely on auto focus which didn't really help. However, this did make the shot blurry at times, which I guess is the whole point of a soft focus, so it wasn't too much of a problem.

Photos taken using the 'soft focus lens'.

I decided to film the shots outside because I thought that this effect would look better in nature. I liked how the shot gave a feeling of being disorientated outside and trying to find the way through the trees and bushes.

Shot #1, My cat running down the garden

Shot #2, Shots of a plant. Disorientated, lost feeling.

Overall, it was really fun experimenting with different effects that I would have never tried if it wasn't for this research. The end products didn't turn out quite Hollywood standard but learning new technical processes was fun to do.

I will continue to try new things throughout this project, and implement research into practice.

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After doing some research into types of Focus used in film, I thought I would experiment with a camera and try a couple of them out myself. Obviously I knew I wouldn't be able to do the split diopter focus and a tilt shift focus, as they require specialised lenses, and I was only using a basic DSLR lens.

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Week 2 has finished and I think that my project tis going well. I need to do some more experimentations with work, as I think I have done enough research for now.

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Updated: Mar 14

Week 1 of my FMP has finished and I am feeling good about it. I am happy with the research I have done so far, and I think I have done a solid start to this project. Next week I hope to start experimenting with different ideas, so I can practise with cameras and new techniques.

The research I have done into The Lion King has been so fun and interesting especially as The Lion King is my favourite film ever. I has made me appreciate the scenes, character development, colour work, and just the general time and effort into creating it.

Moving forward, I need to research about colour theory in film in general so I can get more examples of different uses throughout films, and I also need to look for different books in the Library that could be relevant to this project.

This will keep my research broad and not just limited to Google searches and YouTube videos.

I think I am on track with my work and I am happy with where I am at this current moment in time.

Week 1 of my FMP has finished and I am feeling good about it. I am happy with the research I have done so far, and I think I have done a solid start to this project. Next week I hope to start experimenting with different ideas, so I can practise with cameras and new techniques.

The research I have done into The Lion King has been so fun and interesting especially as The Lion King is my favourite film ever. I has made me appreciate the scenes, character development, colour work, and just the general time and effort into creating it.

Moving forward, I need to research about colour theory in film in general so I can get more examples of different uses throughout films, and I also need to look for different books in the Library that could be relevant to this project.

This will keep my research broad and not just limited to Google searches and YouTube videos.

I think I am on track with my work and I am happy with where I am at this current moment in time.

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Week 1 of my FMP has finished and I am feeling good about it. I am happy with the research I have done so far, and I think I have done a solid start to this project. Next week I hope to start experimenting with different ideas, so I can practise with cameras and new techniques.

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I have already made posts about the psychology behind colour, and how different colours can effect people's mood, but I thought I would do more research into how it is used in films. And touch on how different directors implement colour techniques into their own.

Colour can affect us psychologically, emotionally and even physically, often without us being aware. Colour can be used to create harmony or tension within a scene, or to bring attention to a key visual theme.

Red seems to be the colour we have the strongest reaction to, but where one might use it as a depiction of hate and cruelty, another may use it to show passion and love

There are no set guidelines to say 'this is how you use colour', but understanding the cognitive effects of it does help.Ultimately the viewers reaction to a colour is how it's defined in a film.

There are three key elements to any colour:

Hue - the colour itself ( Yellow? Red? Green?)

Saturation - the intensity of the colour (It is vibrant or is it a faded paler colour)

-using desaturated colours give a gritty, cold and raw look, taking us back in time. The more desaturated something is the closer it is to grey

Value - how light or dark the colour is ('brightness')

A monochromatic colour scheme is when a single colour is used throughout, and is extended out using shades, tones, and tints.

As these scenes use only one colour, it is best for single subjects because it forces the viewer to focus on the details of the image.

For example: The Matrix uses a green monochromatic colour scheme, to represent events that happened inside the computer simulation, but also giving a sickly feeling to the film.

Scenes from The Matrix (1999)

Other examples of monochromatic colour schemes:

Left to right: The Grand Budapest Hotel, Three Colours: Red, Three Colours: White, Three Colours: Blue.

Two colours on opposite sides of the colour wheel make a complementary pair, and is the most commonly used pairing. (This is also the main colour scheme used in The Lion King).

Orange and blue/teal is the most common pairing, as using a warm colour with a cool colour produces a high contrast and vibrant result. Complimentary pairs are often quite naturally pleasing to the eye.

Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Amelie (2001), is a really good example of the use of a green and red complementary colour scheme:

Scenes from Amelie (2001)

Other examples of complementary colour schemes:

Left to Right: Mad Max: Fury Road, Spiderman: Homecoming, Superman, Temple of Doom, Kong: Skull Island, Death Becomes Her, Batman & Robin, Hocus Pocus.

Analogous colours neighbour each other on the colour wheel, and are usually found in nature. Which is why analogous colour schemes are easy on the eyes, and create a relaxing atmosphere in scenes.

For Example: Blade Runner 2049 uses an analogous colour scheme. Using orange yellow and red together to suggest mystery, exploration, but also danger and action

Scenes from Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

Wes Anderson is an example of a director that uses colour schemes in his work really well, he uses greens, browns and yellows in Moonrise Kingdom (2012) really well, so they don't contrast each other, so it's easier to look at. He uses an analogous colour scheme to create a calming effect, that matches the films nostalgic tone

Scenes from Moonrise Kingdom (2012)

Other examples of analogous colour schemes:

From Left to Right: American Hustle, Black Panther, Fantastic Mr Fox, Batman & Robin, Avatar, Alice in Wonderland, Traffic.

Triadic colour scheme means all the colours are equal distance on the colour wheel, making it appear that there is no clear colour scheme. This balance creates the atmosphere, making the rules of the world all the more believable

Scenes from Pierrot Le Fou (1965)

Other examples of triadic colour schemes:

Left to Right: Superman, Spiderman: Homecoming, And God Created A Woman.

When you throw in a colour that doesn't look like it's supposed to be, this creates discordance. Sometimes this means having one saturated colour that doesn't quite fit in. This can intentionally make the audience's eyes look towards something.

Introducing a new colour to a scene, can show that the mood of a film has been unsettled.

Examples of discordance in films:

Left to Right: 2001: Space Odyssey, Pleasantville, Sixth Sense, Batman Returns, Batman, Amelie, Tokyo Drifter.

It was interesting learning about different colour schemes used in films, and how they have an effect on how the film is presented. Moving forward, I would like to try and include some of these colour schemes into my own work, to make the audience react to my film in the way I want.

StudioBinder (2018), YouTube, Color Theory in Film - Color Psychology for Directors: Ep5, Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lINVnA3rVIE (Accessed 10/3/22)

Lackey, R (2015), Cine D, 5 Common Film Color Schemes - Learning Cinematic Color Design, Available at: https://www.cined.com/film-color-schemes-cinematic-color-design/ (Accessed 10/3/22)

Fusco, J (2016), No Film school, Available at: https://nofilmschool.com/2016/06/watch-psychology-color-film (Accessed 9/3/22)

CONEMATICJ (2017), YouTube, COLOR THEORY for Filmmakers, Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8X9TwaKxzM (Accessed 10/3/22)

The Cinema Cartography (2015), YouTube, Colour In Storytelling, Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXgFcNUWqX0&t=274s (Accessed 10/3/22)

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I have already made posts about the psychology behind colour, and how different colours can effect people's mood, but I thought I would do more research into how it is used in films. And touch on how different directors implement colour techniques into their own.

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After looking at the cinematic techniques used in The Lion King, the particular technique that stuck out to me the most was the use of rack focus. After learning about the different effects the rack focus creates, I was interested in other ways of using camera focus in films. Different focuses affec…

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Today I filmed the scenes for my short film, I will make another blog post about different elements and shots, as well as processes to my day. But I thought I would show some of the inspiration behind shots I filmed today. Kuleshov: In The Father, there are a few scenes of Anthony looking out the wi…

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21/2/22 - Altered States Part 2 Evaluation

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21/2/22 - Altered States Part 2 Evaluation

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21/1/22 - Altered States Part 2 Evaluation

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I have handed in my Altered States Part 2 film, and I thought I would write a short evaluation talking about what I thought went well/not so well. Colour editing is definitely something I have gained an interest for throughout this project, and I have found editing clips in my spare time really inte…

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Today we presented our ideas to other people in our group, it was interesting to see other peoples ideas for their projects but also helped to be able to share my ideas as well.

It made me realise that I haven't got a final idea for a film yet, just a general idea so in the upcoming weeks I need to narrow down my ideas and start experimenting with different ideas

Now that I have finished my powerpoint I am going to continue with my artist research, which I will share on other blog posts.

Today we presented our ideas to other people in our group, it was interesting to see other peoples ideas for their projects but also helped to be able to share my ideas as well.

It made me realise that I haven't got a final idea for a film yet, just a general idea so in the upcoming weeks I need to narrow down my ideas and start experimenting with different ideas

Now that I have finished my powerpoint I am going to continue with my artist research, which I will share on other blog posts.

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Today we presented our ideas to other people in our group, it was interesting to see other peoples ideas for their projects but also helped to be able to share my ideas as well.

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5/3 - The Lion King - Other Cinematic Techniques

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5/3 - The Lion King - Other Cinematic Techniques

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In my previous post I talked about the use of colours in The Lion King films, and how different colours have different effects, but while watching the films (especially the 2019 remake), I picked up on other cinematic techniques used throughout to create different effects.

I think where the remake lacks in bright saturated colours, it makes up for in different cinematic techniques compared to the original. The film itself is visually stunning but I wish it had a more vibrant colour palette.

But again I will be talking about the techniques used in both versions.

One of the first techniques I noticed were used in The Lion King is the use of a rack focus*. There are many examples of this in the film, and it is used specifically to draw the viewers eye to a certain detail, and/or to reveal something hidden in the frame.

*A rack focus is the filmmaking technique of changing the focus of the lens during a continuous shot. When a shot "racks," it moves the focal plane from one object in the frame to another.

Focus changing from mouse on plant, to reveal Scar in background, The Lion King (2019)

This technique is also used a lot to show detail to multiple things, as different times.

Focus changing from beetle to Simba (2019)

This may seem like a common feature in a lot of films, but I think the use of it particularly in this film is effective in doing its job. They are big eye-catching racks, not subtle ones that fly under the radar, so they are meant to create an effect and to show/reveal something.

Rack to reveal hyenas behind Sarabi patrolling the Pride (2019)

Rack to reveal hyenas behind Nala (2019)

Rack to reveal Scar appearing behind Simba and Mufasa (2019)

There are many examples of high and low shots used in the 2019 film, mainly in Scar's scenes. They are used to show hierarchy, and Scar's power over the other characters.

This is best and most emphasised in the scene where he climbs to the top of the mountain while singing 'Be Prepared', ultimately being the tallest character in the scene. This shows he wants to be at the top of the monarchy and will do anything to achieve it, but also shows his power and influence over the hyenas as well, as he's manages to get them on his sight to do his dirty work.

Scar in 'Be Prepared' 2019

Scar in 'Be Prepared' 1994

Nearly every shot with Scar in actually uses low angles to make him appear the bigger character, showing his power over Simba, and the other characters.

The scene where Simba and Scar are seen interacting for the first time I think shows this well. The scene starts with Scar at the top of the rock he is sitting on, where he talks to Simba. But as the scene progresses, Simba starts to climb up the rock to get on the same level as Scar, and stands in front of him.

The use of Simba being in the foreground and Scar now being in the background, shows how even though Simba is young, he royally has more power over Scar. This makes Scar go out of focus as Simba brags about one day being king, until the camera racks and reveals Scar's reaction.

I think the use of both high and low angles and the camera rack together, creates an effective way to tell the story subtly.

Scar and Simba's first interaction (2019)

And of course the main, best shot that shows Scar's power is ultimately the scene where he gains the royal power as well, when he kills Mufasa.

When Mufasa is climbing up the walls of the gorge to escape from the stampede, he asks Scar for help to pull him up. The use of extreme low angles shows how Scar is the most powerful character in the scene, as Mufasa helplessly looks up at him for help.

Slow motion is used in the film to exaggerate certain scenes, and I think these scenes are shown best in the original animation, because they are drawn characters and the slow motion adds to the cartoon effect.

However, this doesn't mean that the slow motion in the remake isn't good, I just think it creates a more dramatic effect than in the original. Because the animals look so real in the remake, the fight scene can be scene as a bit more scary than in the cartoon, especially if younger viewers are watching it expecting it to be a light-hearted movie.

Simba and Scar's final fight (1994)

Simba and Scar's final fight (2019)

Slowing down a movement or moment of action, adds emphasis and elevates its importance. Slow-motion has the ability to turn the mundane into the epic, and I think in The Lion King the slow motion scenes chosen are chosen well. They are the most important scenes, which have been elevated even more due to the use of slow-motion.

The scenes I picked up on (in the 2019 remake) that used slow motion were parts of the opening scene, the stampede scene, Nala chasing Pumbaa scene, Simba and Nala reunited (Can You feel The Love Tonight) scene, and Scar and Simba's final fight scene.

The opening scene (the best scene in the whole film in my opinion), uses slow motion to show the animals bowing down and jumping at the presentation of Simba, and I think that as an effect worked really well to emphasise the importance of the scene.

Opening scene, animals celebrating Simba (2019)

The use of slow motion in the film isn't over-done, to the point where it slows the pace of the film and loses it's impact, it is included just enough to create the effect needed to tell the story.

There are quite a few examples of POV shots throughout the remake of The Lion King, and they help to plant the audience inside the character's point of view. This adds to the suspense of what might happen next.

This is particularly effect in the stampede scene where Simba is looking for Mufasa. We then see him jump out from the crowd of wildebeest and start climbing the walls. Simba looks down and a POV shot is used as he tries to see his dad.

Stampede Scene, The Lion King (2019)

These POV shots are often accompanied with a Kuleshov effect, as we see the characters face, and then see what they are looking at.

Simba following Rafiki through the trees, to see his father (2019)

Dolly and zoom shots create different effects.

Using a dolly to push in, (to move the camera closer to a subject) gives the viewer a sense of being in the same space as the subject. Like the viewer is walking towards something. This can allow them to feel a certain intimacy with a character, or feel more present in the scene.*

Zoom shots compress the background and flatten the shot, it can cause the audience to feel claustrophobic or force them to fixate on a single subject.*

Zooming can also be used to give viewers a sense of paranoia.

Nala chasing Pumbaa scene (2019)

The scene of Nala chasing Pumbaa also shows the use of slow-motion mixed with normal speed, but my favourite part is the zoom in on Timon's face when he sees that they are headed straight towards him

In the cartoon the use of a dolly and a zoom shot at the same time when Simba notices the stampede is one of the most effective shots in the whole film in my opinion. The dolly towards him represents the movement of the wildebeest running his way, and the zoom effect helps to speed up this movement and also fixates on Simba's reaction.

Zooming in on his face makes the audience focus on his reaction and look of fear.

Simba notices the stampede (1994)

Another shot that uses both a zoom and a POV shot is when the eagles are about to eat Simba. We can see one of their heads pop up as they have seen something in the distance. We as an audience can't see what it is, and the shot of the birds face shows neither can they. Until eventually Pumbaa's silhouette can be seen emerging from the horizon.

Pumbaa and Timon save Simba (2019)

The use of the zoom effects in this film are to exaggerate and emphasise the effect of surprise on the character it is used on.

The final technique I picked up on while watching The Lion King was the use of transitional shots between scenes.

There is one scene in particular that helps to link two scenes together. That is the scene where Rafiki finds Simba's fur and finds out that he is alive, the scene itself is 2 minutes long, but the use of it is really effective in connecting two characters storylines together.

A piece of Simba's fur flies off into the air, and the shot follows it travelling through as river, landing on a tree, being eaten by a giraffe, rolled by a dung beetle, and carried by ants, until it turns up at Rafiki's tree.

It also helps to share the whole idea of the 'circle of life', which is the whole story of the film.

Overall, I really enjoyed watching both for the films again for the 100th time, but instead of enjoying it, really picking out different techniques used throughout.

It made me appreciate the animation and creative ideas that went into making the films, and it has honestly made me love the films even more.

The original will forever be my favourite, but the cinematic techniques used in the 2019 version are admirable.

Studio Binder (2020), The Rack Focus Creative Examples of Camera Movements & Angles, Available at: https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/rack-focus-shot-camera-movement-angles/#:~:text=A%20rack%20focus%20is%20the,or%20large%20changes%20of%20focus (Accessed 5/3/22)

Studio Binder (2021), Point of View Shots: Creative Camera Movements & Angles, Available at: https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/point-of-view-shot-camera-movement-angles/ (Accessed 5/3/22

Electric Egg (2017), Slow-Motion Cinematography, Available at; https://electricegg.co.uk/another-draft/#:~:text=Footage%20shot%20in%20slow%2Dmotion,emphasis%20and%20elevates%20its%20importance (Accessed 5/3/22)

*Renee, V (2017), No Film School, The Visual and Emotional Effects of Using Dolly and Zoom Shots in Your Film, Available at: https://nofilmschool.com/2017/02/visual-and-emotional-effects-using-dolly-and-zoom-shots-your-film#:~:text=Because%20a%20zoom%20compresses%20the,viewers%20a%20sense%20of%20paranoia (Accessed 5/3/22)

Amazing Trailer (2020), YouTube, Rafiki Finds Simba's Hair Scene | THE LION KING | Movie Scene (2019), Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKt8OPnjnsM (Accessed 6/3/22)

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5/3 - The Lion King - Other Cinematic Techniques

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In my previous post I talked about the use of colours in The Lion King films, and how different colours have different effects, but while watching the films (especially the 2019 remake), I picked up on other cinematic techniques used throughout to create different effects.

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4/3 - The Lion King - Colours & Lighting

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4/3 - The Lion King - Colours & Lighting

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When I think of cinematic masterpieces my mind instantly goes to my all time favourite film The Lion King. So I watched it again for the 100th time and picked up on different cinematic techniques used, specifically the use of colour and lighting to effect the mood of the film.

The Lion King is originally a 1994 Disney animation directed by Rob Minkoff and Roger Allers, following the story of Simba as he journeys from a cub to a king. In 2019, a new photorealistic computer-animated remake was released, directed by Jon Favreau. I'll be talking about both in this post.

Colours in the 2019 remake are lacking, as it is a realistic copy of the cadrtoon, so the colours are'nt as bright and vibrant as the original. However, the two main colours used throughout is orange and blue, two complementary colours often used in films to produce the strongest contrast while at the same time reinforcing each other.

Simba and Scar, (2019), showing the contrast between orange and blue in the scene.

In the 94 original, the colours are a lot brighter as it is a cartoon and not a realistic version, so more vibrant colours like green, purple and red are used alongside the main complementary colours, to emphasise certain scenes.

The use of lighting and colour in the film is to emphasise the change in characters personalities. The use of weather is also a main way the difference between good and evil in the film is shown, ultimately changing the colours shown in the scenes.

Mufasa's scenes often shown with him in the sun, highlighting his orange fur, with a bright blue sky in the background. Orange is a colour associated with wisdom, warmth and happiness, and blue with loyalty, calmness and trust. All of these attributes link to Mufasa's personality.

Mufasa in The Lion King (1994)

However, whenever Scar's scenes are shown, he is always in the dark, or in shadows, and when he does step out, the sky is usually cloudy and overcast. His scenes are shown with a deep blue colour, or otherwise dark and dull.

Scar in The Lion King (2019)

In the 94 original, Scar's look as a whole emphasises that he has an evil nature, as he has a black mane, and green and yellow eyes. During his song 'Be Prepared', secondary colours of green and purple are used to create a menacing feeling to the film.

Scar in The Lion King (1994)

Scar singing Be Prepared in The Lion King (1994)

The green used in 'Be Prepared' is to represent feelings of greed, sickness, envy- and ambition. All these properties are found in many villains, such as Green Goblin from Spider-Man. But specifically in Lion King, the song itself is about killing Mufasa and Scar's plan to become king. At the end of the song you can see Scar at the top of the mountain looking down on the hyenas and the colour changes to purple. All of this emphasises power, as the colour purple is best known for it's association with royalty- and therefore, power, and Scar is at the top.

The use of colour helps to emphasise him and his intentions as a character, especially for younger viewers. I also think that in Disney films as a whole, you can find a correlation between the dominant colour in character designs and how 'good' and 'evil' they are.

I think the importance of how colour is portrayed in films and characters is particularly clear in the difference in Zazu's look.

Zazu is a royal advisor to the monarchy, and looks out for Simba and Nala, so he is a good character in the film. In the 94 cartoon, he is a bright blue character, with hints of purple, which symbolises trustworthiness and royalty. He is a highly saturated colour to help give him a friendly aura.

However in the 2019 remake, he is a black and white bird, with dull, desaturated colours which makes him look more like a villain. He also has red on his beak which could symbolise danger, and as that is the only colour on his body, there's nothing to offset it, or anything to suggest he is a good character.

Zazu in the 1994 Lion King vs 2019 Lion King

'I Just Can't Wait To Be King' is a song used to distract Zazu, so Simba and Nala can sneak off to the 'elephant graveyard'.

In the cartoon the colours are very vibrant and bright, showing different animals and bright patterns, as Simba and the other animals dance together to distract Zazu. This is used to show Simba's childlike attitude and innocence, and it is heavily juxtaposed by the bleak colours shown in the elephant graveyard in the next scene.

These bright, overly saturated colours in the song won't be seen again for the remainder of the film. Showing how Simba is growing up and leaving his childhood behind. The bright colours help to visually tell the story.

In the 2019 version, there are no bright colours, as it is a realistic version (and hippos aren't actually pink in real life)

'I Just can't Wait to Be King' scene (1994)

I think because of this, the 1994 version is more visually engaging and captures your attention more.

Following this song, Nala and Simba sneak off to the hyena's home (the 'Elephant Graveyard'). The colours are bleak and grey, symbolising death, as there are multiple dead animal carcasses on the ground, and could perhaps foreshadow Simba and Nala's fate.

The juxtaposition between these colours shows the difference in the way the cubs may now view the world. In the previous scene they were happy/optimistic and looking forwards to being king as they are 'free to run around all day' and 'free to do it all (their) way'. Whereas when they visit the hyenas they're in a high risk scary situation, which Mufasa ends up saving them from. That may be the turning point in Simba's mind that being king is a lot more responsibility than he first thinks.

The Elephant Graveyard (2019)

The Elephant Graveyard (1994)

In the cartoon, red is also a main colour used towards the end of the scene, as Simba and Nala try to run away, while Zazu tries to help before Mufasa arrives. Red symbolises danger and violence, which matches the hyena's intentions as they chase them.

The difference in colour to show the difference in leadership of pride rock is extreme in the 94 Lion King. There are bright, saturated colours when Mufasa is the King of Pride Rock, but when Scar rules it is dark, gloomy and bleak. Pathetic fallacy also is used to help emphasise the feeling of death, after Mufasa's reign is over.

Pride Rock: Mufasa vs Scar (1994)

The 2019 version also does well to show the difference in feelings when Mufasa rules vs when Scar rules. Blues and greys are the main colours featured with Scar's reign, emphasising feelings of sadness that Mufasa is dead, and Simba has gone. The use of grey and black also links with death, which can also link to the fact that there isn't any food left, as Scar has killed them all off.

Pride Rock: Mufasa vs Scar (2019)

Overall, I prefer the 1994 original Lion King when it comes to use of colour, as they are more vibrant and highly saturated, emphasising certain characters personalities, and helping to tell the storyline.

As a visual learner I appreciate the use of colour to help to emphasise certain qualities in a character, and I think Disney as a company do a really good job at that.

It shows how important colour can be to a film, and even just saturating the colours more, or making sure a certain character is wearing a certain thing, it emphasises and symbolises different things. When looking forward to my FMP, colour with definitely be a main thing I focus on.

*All images and screen recording are taken by me*

Sapusek, S (2014), ColorMetrix, Why are oranges and blues so prevalent in the movie industry?, Available at: https://colormetrix.com/blog/oranges-blues-prevalent-movie-industry/#:~:text=Orange%20and%20blue%20being%20opposite,other%3B%20especially%20in%20graphic%20design (Accessed 4/3/22)

May, V, (2013), BlogSpot, Colour Theory, the Lion King and YOU, Available at: http://virginiainmay.blogspot.com/2013/08/color-theory-lion-king-and-you.html (Accessed 4/3/22)

Lion King Education (2019), Production Notes, Available at: https://www.lionkingeducation.co.uk/backend/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Disney_The-Lion-King_Production_Notes.pdf (Accessed 4/3/22)

MovieMation (2019), YouTube, Why The Lion King 2019 Looks Terrible, Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1S-amXBcZI (Accessed 4/3/22)

McGuire, S (2017), Venngage, What Disney Villains Can Tell Us About Color Psychology, Available at: https://venngage.com/blog/disney-villains/ (Accessed 4/3/22)

Isaak, J (2021), ScreenRant, Why So Many Comic Book Villains Wear Green and Purple, Available at: https://screenrant.com/comic-supervillains-green-purple-colors-joker-lex-luthor/#:~:text=The%20History%3A%20Greek%20Greed%2C%20Roman%20Royalty&text=Thus%2C%20the%20color%20green%20represents,Man's%20foe%20the%20Green%20Goblin (Accessed 4/3/22)

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4/3 - The Lion King - Colours & Lighting

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When I think of cinematic masterpieces my mind instantly goes to my all time favourite film The Lion King. So I watched it again for the 100th time and picked up on different cinematic techniques used, specifically the use of colour and lighting to effect the mood of the film.

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Today I finished off my PowerPoint, and started to properly think about ideas for my project. After completing my PowerPoint, I think it has become clear to me that working with the cinematography of films, and using colour in ways to tell stories is something I definitely want to research. I'm not sure where that is where my final piece will lead to, but it is definitely a start for my ideas.

Euphoria, the TV show, is a starting point for me because as well as cinematography, the camera movements used in the show is something which really interests me. I will make a separate blog post going into the research of Euphoria.

I made a mind map which also made it pretty clear to me that that is where my thoughts lie at this current moment in time.

Through creating the mind map, the thought of maybe using photography and film together is something which could be an idea; as photographing the train at the train station still remains the project which I am most proud of. This way I could show the cinematography of my film through stills as well as through the actual film.

Colour grading is where my last project went wrong, and I'm still really disappointed about how it turned out, so I want this project to try and improve my colour correction skills. I don't want to rush it, I want to do a really good job at it.

I had my feedback tutorial with Joel and he gave me my grades for Stage 2. I also told him about my ideas for this project and he said to make sure I don't create a too closed of an idea straight away, as I will be limited when it comes to progressing forward with the project. I'm really proud of the grade I got in Stage 2, so I don't want my grade to be affected by being too close minded with this project.

I will start my research on Thursday and try to discover new people and ideas for this project.

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Today I finished off my PowerPoint, and started to properly think about ideas for my project. After completing my PowerPoint, I think it has become clear to me that working with the cinematography of films, and using colour in ways to tell stories is something I definitely want to research.

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Today marks the start of my final major project. We had a lecture today talking about how the project is going to work, and what our timetable will look like. Over the past 2 weeks we had off I answered the questions on the Stage 2 questionnaire, and have started to work on my powerpoint. The questi…

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Honestly i'm a bit heartbroken as it was the University i really wanted to go to. I don't really know what to do now as Maidstone Studios is kind of my only option now. But i really don't want to stay where i am, i want to study away and go somewhere else. I still have Brighton, Ravensbourne and Solent but i don't know if they are the options for me.

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I spoke to someone at my work today and it has solidified my choices on where i want to go. My main goal is to go to Bristol because i really want the away experience and the course to me is something i really want to do. If i had really wanted Maidstone Studios i would have chosen the D2D route, so i am certain that Bristol is where i want to go.

I am planning on going there in a couple weeks to see what the town itself is like

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Link to the portfolio page on my blog: https://2004946.wixsite.com/lucy/about

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I found it difficult to write notes on this lecture, as i am rewatching the video which was uploaded on MyUCA, as the first half of the lecture is cut off.

However, the lecture was held by Erinn Hayhow who was talking about her work. She is a fine artist who works with fashion production and promotion. She uses natural dyes in her work to create some of the garments.

She also created a promotional video for her collection for London Fashion week.

She says it's important to reflect and be critical of your work.

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Contextual Studies Stage 2 - Lecture 4 (2)

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Contextual Studies Stage 2 - Lecture 4 (2)

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Contextual Studies Stage 2 - Lecture 4 (1)

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Contextual Studies Stage 2 - Lecture 4 (1)

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This lecture was held by David Auborn who talked about his work, research, processes, and ideas.

He made a lot of interesting points about being brave to experiment with different ideas, and although there is potential to be embarrassed by your work, by stepping out of your comfort zone, there is also potential to discover something that's definitely yours.

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Before i start this project i thought it would be a good idea to create a mood board of my ideas, so i can look back on, or add more images as the project moves on.

Memento Mood board

The main ideas shown on this mood board is photos of things/people/places/events, as to me a memento is a physical reminder of something/somewhere. A scrapbook to me is the perfect example of a memento, but other objects can also be considered memories, shown on my mood board.

I also included an old photo of my nan and grandad on their wedding day, as i am sure my grandad uses it as a memento to remind him of my nan.

I hope as this project moves forward i can learn more about what a memento is, and how memories might be portrayed in films.

Before i start this project i thought it would be a good idea to create a mood board of my ideas, so i can look back on, or add more images as the project moves on.

Memento Mood board

The main ideas shown on this mood board is photos of things/people/places/events, as to me a memento is a physical reminder of something/somewhere. A scrapbook to me is the perfect example of a memento, but other objects can also be considered memories, shown on my mood board.

I also included an old photo of my nan and grandad on their wedding day, as i am sure my grandad uses it as a memento to remind him of my nan.

I hope as this project moves forward i can learn more about what a memento is, and how memories might be portrayed in films.

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Before i start this project i thought it would be a good idea to create a mood board of my ideas, so i can look back on, or add more images as the project moves on. Memento Mood board The main ideas shown on this mood board is photos of things/people/places/events, as to me a memento is a physical reminder of something/somewhere.

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University of Brighton Applicant Day - 9/2/22

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University of Brighton Applicant Day - 9/2/22

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Today was my online applicant day for the University of Brighton, and I attended three online talks about different things.

The first one was talking about the Film course in general at Brighton, the second held by students talking about their experience working at Brighton, and the third an online meeting allowing us to ask questions about accomodation/financing/general uni life.

Joining today did give me an insight into what the course would be like at Brighton, and although it is not my first choice it was still interesting learning about the course and how students find studying there.

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I received a message from Brighton Uni, asking for my predicted grades, before they make a decision on my application.

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Updated: Feb 10

To promote my short film, I created a film poster to advertise it to different audiences.

I used a screenshot from the film for the poster, however if I had had more time to complete this project, I would have done a photoshoot and taken photos specifically for the poster. These photos would have been inspired by the dementia photography I have saved to my Pinterest board, and shown on one of my previous blog posts.

The grandfather promotional movie posters

As you can see above, I have created 3 different versions as I'm not sure which one I think looks the best. I think the black and white film posters look best, as they continue with the same theme as the film. The text used in the posters is plain, inspired by other similar films about dementia, shown below:

Overall I wish i had more time to make this poster, and create images specifically for the promotion of 'The Grandfather', but i think what i have created is effective enough in capturing peoples attention. Sometimes less is more and for this poster i think that is definitely accurate.

To promote my short film, I created a film poster to advertise it to different audiences.

I used a screenshot from the film for the poster, however if I had had more time to complete this project, I would have done a photoshoot and taken photos specifically for the poster. These photos would have been inspired by the dementia photography I have saved to my Pinterest board, and shown on one of my previous blog posts.

The grandfather promotional movie posters

As you can see above, I have created 3 different versions as I'm not sure which one I think looks the best. I think the black and white film posters look best, as they continue with the same theme as the film. The text used in the posters is plain, inspired by other similar films about dementia, shown below:

Overall I wish i had more time to make this poster, and create images specifically for the promotion of 'The Grandfather', but i think what i have created is effective enough in capturing peoples attention. Sometimes less is more and for this poster i think that is definitely accurate.

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To promote my short film, I created a film poster to advertise it to different audiences. I used a screenshot from the film for the poster, however if I had had more time to complete this project, I would have done a photoshoot and taken photos specifically for the poster.

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Today I managed to finish my film, and if i'm honest, i'm not as happy with the result as I would have wanted to be. I think in my mind I had a vision of how I wanted the film to turn out, but due to time limits I didn't have the time or skill to be able to complete it to that level.

However, considering I started filming my scenes on Monday, and have finished the film on Wednesday, I am quite proud of myself for getting it done.

I decided to name my film 'The Grandfather', as a take on 'The Father', and since my grandad is actually the main character, I thought it was fitting.

Below is the final film:

Today I managed to finish my film, and if i'm honest, i'm not as happy with the result as I would have wanted to be. I think in my mind I had a vision of how I wanted the film to turn out, but due to time limits I didn't have the time or skill to be able to complete it to that level.

However, considering I started filming my scenes on Monday, and have finished the film on Wednesday, I am quite proud of myself for getting it done.

I decided to name my film 'The Grandfather', as a take on 'The Father', and since my grandad is actually the main character, I thought it was fitting.

Below is the final film:

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Today I managed to finish my film, and if i'm honest, i'm not as happy with the result as I would have wanted to be. I think in my mind I had a vision of how I wanted the film to turn out, but due to time limits I didn't have the time or skill to be able to complete it to that level.

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Today I worked on the grading and colour correction for my film. This is the part I was most excited for, as I really enjoy doing this, changing the mood of the film just by altering which colours will stand out. I wanted blue to be the main colour, maybe featured mostly in the shadows, and then in…

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Assembly: Today I worked on editing my film, putting the scenes together in an order that I think works well, and also working on the audio. I will spend tomorrow correcting colour and grading work, but I want the assembly of clips and audio to be as good as it can be before I start doing that. Beca…

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Today I borrowed a camera from UCA, and started to film the scenes I had drawn on my storyboard. Although I had an idea to take photos instead of creating a film, I decided to go for my original idea, even though I know it will take longer and will be more difficult.