Critical Reflection by

Location looking

lellam2 — 2023-10-22 02:23:54 UTC

When it came to looking for the filming location, I thought of using the actual location these stories have come to life, my work place. This was a long shot and was very shocked when they allowed it. This location has multiple areas in which I can use. like the staff room and smoking shelter. Two problems however with this location which is that it requires a 40min drive from university. The v1 does go straight from the uni to the location which makes it a lot better. Additionally, since it is a business, there are only certain hours we can film which is after its mostly closed at half 9/10. The bandit/arcade machines are still used but thats only in 2 of the sections.

The Bingo Job (My concept/idea)

lellam2 — 2023-10-22 02:33:49 UTC

lellam2 — 2023-10-23 12:11:41 UTC

Producer Documents

lellam2 — 2023-10-23 12:12:32 UTC

From being the producer for the first short film we did in Year 1, I wasn't looking forward to it. The only thing I enjoyed about it was coming up with Taylor Swift Easter eggs. which there is 1 in this. (That's kind of my trademark. Got to have a Taylor Swift reference). Doing paperwork has never been my cup of tea. I think its because I'm an organised person and that typically doesn't make sense to others, but it works for me. And I do understand that's why we do the documents. Just don't particularly like typing/writing/drawing. I did however enjoy getting my location forms. It felt so official. 'I've sent you an email. Could you sign it and send it me back'. Made me feel professional.

lellam2 — 2023-10-23 12:20:11 UTC

Firstly, my idea for 'The Bingo Job' has stemmed from my work experience (I work at a Bingo company). I find some of the stories to be very funny and had always said they would make a great series. So i've decide to put this idea into practice. I have taken a lot of inspiration from the office, which fits the tone of style I want. And since it is a mockumentary my short film is also a mockumentary.

Comedy

lellam2 — 2023-10-23 12:27:45 UTC

I have chosen comedy as it is something I have never explored. So picking it will be a challenge but i'm ready to take it on.

Trailer

lellam2 — 2023-10-23 12:30:40 UTC

Music

lellam2 — 2023-10-23 12:43:59 UTC

Material girl by Madonna.

Trying to decide what music to use was really hard. I wanted one where the story of the song fit the story of my film. Meaning Taylor Swift was out of the question (very unfortunate). I also wanted an 'old' song due to the main consumer of Bingo being older people.

I do also think the song is fitting due to the retail/working class standards. Being paid minimum for loads of work. 'Material Girl' in the sense that you put in a lot of effort for not great pay and you do that to just barely survive.

Pre-production

lellam2 — 2023-10-23 13:10:03 UTC

I feel really confident with the pre-production. I love coming up with ideas and 'skits', its honestly the best bit as these ideas can stem from nothing. You could see the way someones walks and be like 'Im using that'. And I find that so interesting. Also when the ideas are on paper/ in your head, they are at their peak and when you have to come to film it, it may not look how you expected it to. I Spent nights just coming up with ideas and I couldn't sleep due to them. The creativeness was just spilling out of me and I couldn't stop.

Target Audience (16 - 22)

lellam2 — 2023-10-23 13:39:15 UTC

The Target audience for this short film is young people, specifically young workers.Since bingo customers are primarily older people, the advertisement is focused on getting them to come to play bingo(this is what my company does anyway). But I want to flip this formula by having this short film, sort of advertise to the young (obviously over 18 when I say young, as it is gambling). Additionally, The story is about a young person, starting their first job. This is another specific target audience. It's very stressful starting your first job, and even your first day of your 7th job. And I want to bring light to the job scene, by completely ignoring the job (because typically the job is stressful,when it comes to retail anway) and focusing on the funny moments.

lellam2 — 2023-10-23 13:42:40 UTC

Due to the fact that bingo is mainly for older people, having the target audience not be them can be risky. It could shine a bad light on bingo companies. And would be received differently due to the comedy being out of date or the style may not be work for them. For example, swearing or using words like 'Cum'.

lellam2 — 2023-10-23 13:48:12 UTC

lellam2 — 2023-10-23 13:50:25 UTC

lellam2 — 2023-10-23 13:51:54 UTC

lellam2 — 2023-10-23 13:52:24 UTC

lellam2 — 2023-10-23 13:52:53 UTC

lellam2 — 2023-10-23 13:56:17 UTC

Post-Production

lellam2 — 2023-10-23 14:18:49 UTC

Editing Trailer #1

lellam2 — 2023-10-23 14:19:20 UTC

So the main focus on the trailer proof of concept, is the editing so being able to navigate and learn Premier Pro is ideal. I have never edited a trailer before so I thought id give myself the challenge. Additionally, I really enjoyed editing in the first year. So I was nervous but also really excited. To begin editing was lining up the audio with the clips. Once that was out the way its a case of dragging clip around into an order you like. This was the worst part of the edit. not enjoyable as its not creative decisions, just yet. but when it came to putting the music it and having things line up with the music, not sure how noticeable that is but I can, all the creativeness just flows out of me. I've fiddled with the edit so much until it was up to standards with what I want. From the way the writing matches the vibe of the short film from positioning or exact timings when letter appear. You may notice an odd choice for the 'I stepped in shit line'. This shot was inspired by the office with their separate commentate but I wanted to add a 'funny' transition to it to, 1. separate it from the office and 2. to make the editing fun as it is a comedy. The second Trailer or as I'm calling it, a teaser, will delve into more of the comedy element with a lot more time with the other actors. This trailer is to establish the vibe, the location and the characters. Not focusing on the comedy that much.

lellam2 — 2023-10-23 14:34:45 UTC

'Use voice-over'

lellam2 — 2023-10-23 14:35:44 UTC

I am going to use some voice over to add some intrigue to the viewer. 'Whose this character that's speaking, I want to know what they look like, I'm going to watch it'. Also to keep the pace good. no long, pure dialogue scenes. cuts to other relevant shots. For example, when the bandit room is mentioned, theres a shot of the bandit room.

'Choose music that sets the tone'

lellam2 — 2023-10-23 14:36:30 UTC

Practice Filming

lellam2 — 2023-10-23 15:00:37 UTC

Monday 13th November is when we had our director practice. It was very nerve racking but 1 miniute in all the nerves went. It was fun directing people and all the actors did a great job. I feel a lot more comfortable directing for the short film now. And the performances, since it was improvisation, have given me some ideas to use for my short film.

lellam2 — 2023-10-23 15:03:31 UTC

lellam2 — 2023-11-13 23:22:30 UTC

Cast and crew

lellam2 — 2023-11-13 23:53:21 UTC

Since my cast is quite a large one, I would say for a short film, it has been quite difficult to get cast. During the week off for assessment prep week, I had put casting calls on our course groupchat's and also messaged people who I would like in my short film. By the time of writing this, Monday 13th November, I still want 2 actors. And I already have 7 people. Its been hard to find actors due to the location of filming, being so far away from Salford, and the time of filming, that being earliest 8:30pm. While not filming Bella will be Sound and Liv will be lighting and Tia will be camera. I could shorten the number of characters needed but I feel like that the point of the short film is that there is an arrange of characters that anyone can relate to or just enjoy. I think thats why the office is so popular is because they have loads of different characters with different characteristics. Update- I didn't manage to get 2 more actors so I put my thinking cap on and repeated characters. I think this move would be better overall than the original plan as I don't want characters ending up being too similar.

Location Release

lellam2 — 2023-11-14 00:53:07 UTC

Production 21st Nov

lellam2 — 2023-11-24 00:29:56 UTC

This shooting day started terrible. We planned to meet at the new adelphi at half 7 and the bus was due at 15 to. This would get us into the filming location for half 8. Which was perfect. However, the bus didn't decide to show and on the bus tracking was saying there wasn't another one till half 8. We are screwed. We had to order and uber. This made us 10mins behind schedule. However. Filming went swimmingly. No faults with equipment apart from the camera dying once. Only very few interruptions from staff slamming doors/doing their job. Nothing that we couldn't control. I did forget to shoot 1 small section but I have rescheduled it for the 28th. I was nervous to begin with as I perviously had helped joe with his filming and things where not going his way and I was nervous that it would happen to me. But once we started setting the equipment up, all the nerves went away.

lellam2 — 2023-11-24 00:30:54 UTC

It felt good to talk to the actors about the characters and their feelings. I enjoyed listening and taking on their own thoughts for their character. For example, since the bingo hall is decorated for winter, bella thought it would be very strange to have her character wear an hawai shirt which matched perfectly with her character. In the image linked to this I have screenshotted feedback I asked from alex after fully wrapping.

Production 28th November

lellam2 — 2023-12-03 23:00:39 UTC

This was the last shooting day. This day was a lot better than the 21st. The only issue was is that one of the actors couldn't make it to the shoot and with me being told on the day, I couldn't find anyone to cover the role, so I covered it myself. Something I didn't want to do but had to. Shooting wise, everything was smooth and we was ahead of schedule. This was due to us setting of sooner as last time it was a nightmare.

I wasn't nervous shooting on this day and felt really confident in what i was doing. I usually feel quite bad asking people to do things or telling them what they did it is wrong. As it can come across as being rude. But I felt like I did it calmly, decently and respectfully. And all actors where the same towards me. If they didn't quite understand the feedback, I'd try to use 'universal language' (Cohn2021, p.6-7) to get my point across.

lellam2 — 2023-12-07 14:24:48 UTC

lellam2 — 2023-12-07 14:29:01 UTC

I followed tutorials from Youtube and TikTok to help smoothen the edit. To make it more professional. This link is to the channel where I found the tutorials. The main one i used is the 'Text Animation'. Once watching this video I began to understand how to time things to appear and disappear.

lellam2 — 2023-12-07 14:34:14 UTC

I would like to add that the editing process was long. I had an idea on what I wanted to make, where I wanted things to come, the arc of the edit. But when it came to editing, I didn't realize how long the time wise the final edit will be. that's why I've decided to do 2. as a 4-5 min trailer can be long and boring, and if the trailer had multiple levels, as in half of it is comedy half, of it is establishing. It would be better separate them.

The ending section with the letters on the bingo card.

lellam2 — 2023-12-07 14:41:08 UTC

The idea behind that is for the letters to be a dabber and someone is dabbing the card as 'numbers' are called. Like a game of bingo(It also is in beat to the music). And have them letters morph into the 'coming to YouTube'. This effect was not going my way. The morph in particular, would not work. I wanted it to kind of look like the Monster Inc beginning and ending credits. I think with the amount of letters the morph would never be smooth unless I did it 1 by 1 but that would take to much time for the edit and reduce the speed of the trailer. which would be bad as the music is fast paced. Also the letter 'G' would not work. when rendering, and analysing the morph effect, it just wouldn't work. so I changed the letters position to have it closer to its final position but that still wouldn't work. So put it in the closest position I could and not have the effect there but still looks like it morphs slightly.

lellam2 — 2023-12-07 14:42:26 UTC

Editing Trailer #2

lellam2 — 2023-12-12 17:03:20 UTC

I would call this trailer more of a teaser. With this teaser I wanted to explore more of the vibe and comedy side to the film. Which the 1st only dabbles in. I would say quite a unique teaser I created. It talks to the viewer, in a cheesy way.

The reviews I used, where from 'The Office' reviews, as this short is inspired by it. And one of the reviews was 'I want more' so I've incorporated that in there but I placed it at the 'end' but the teaser doesn't actually end because it says you want more.

The interviews take up the majority of the teaser as it allows the viewer to spend time with the characters but also because I only use 2 snippets of the interviews for the 1st trailer.

lellam2 — 2023-12-12 17:08:47 UTC

I had a creative slump when editing this one. Since it wasn't apart of my original plan I had no idea how I was going to make it comedy focused. So after editing clips together to match the sound. I went home and watched some trailers to get ideas. and it worked. I came up with the idea to put the 'trailer dums' in there as every trailer had them. Then the idea for making the beginning dramatic came to mind and so on and so on. Then once I started editing the ideas I had come up with, the creative juice was back. Got a bit stuck with the music choice, as again I only planned to use 'material girl'. but once I thought of using a casino track. The ending of the editing, like the timings and clean cutting to the music came to me like fresh air.

lellam2 — 2023-12-12 17:11:24 UTC

I do have to shoot 2 more lines as the questions in the interview cant be heard well, so I've still got to record them and place them in, I did leave spaces for them. (Didn't end up using the new ones)

Also editing went mostly smooth, I knew my way around premier pro this time so having to learn it didn't take up any time. I shall say the audio kept messing up, not sure if it was me, my headphones, premier pro, my computer. But the audio would have this like effect on it. I don't think I was changing it and it just would. Hopefully when I come back to add the question lines, it fixes or it goes back to normal. I tried watching videos on youtube, to see if it was my headset, but i honestly couldn't tell. It also could of been the audio when filming but others have worked from that shoot day.

The split screen effect

lellam2 — 2023-12-12 17:21:32 UTC

When I saw the 'three billboards' trailer, I knew I wanted to use that effect in some way. And I felt it fit the best with the interviews. I did want a black strip in the middle to put the reviews but I felt we just lost the characters too much. So i scrapped that. And just did it for the 4 quarters. The idea then bloomed with the freeze frames, also blurred to drive the attention of the viewer to the right section. You may notice that the line in the chair during the interviews don't follow a straight line, this was done intentionally to make sure the viewer doesn't get confused, as with it lined up it looks like they are sat next to each other, but they aren't.

lellam2 — 2023-12-12 17:33:46 UTC

lellam2 — 2023-12-12 17:35:05 UTC

Sound effects and Music source

lellam2 — 2023-12-12 17:36:13 UTC

lellam2 — 2023-12-12 17:41:20 UTC

lellam2 — 2023-12-12 17:47:57 UTC

lellam2 — 2023-12-12 17:51:04 UTC

Update

lellam2 — 2023-12-13 14:40:43 UTC

So, I am at a different computer and it seems to be not doing it anymore. No clue why. also noticed that everything was a bit loud on volume 50, so I've turned all of it down. Also, side note, all my text was a little bit to the left. not sure how but hopefully it doesn't do it again when exporting

lellam2 — 2023-12-13 14:57:58 UTC

I didn't capture any videos or pictures during filming, but I asked the cast and crew if they did.

lellam2 — 2023-12-13 14:59:07 UTC

This was me asking Ana to go through the choreography so I could make sure everyone was in frame and in focus.

lellam2 — 2023-12-13 14:59:47 UTC

Cast having a blast as I'm setting up angles and shot sizes. Got to have a fun, friendly set.

lellam2 — 2023-12-13 15:13:20 UTC

lellam2 — 2023-12-13 15:16:26 UTC

Me For Real

lellam2 — 2023-12-13 15:20:37 UTC

Me getting the equipment to location a day before shooting and prepping everything since we didn't have long to shoot. Enough time but quicker if half the set up is already done. (Picture was to make sure it was not touched)

First: 9 principles for Directing Actors (Cohn2021, p.5)

lellam2 — 2023-12-14 14:15:59 UTC

"An actor cannot perform a psychological or emotional state of being: “Any direction that asks the actor to portray a state of being will lead to self-consciousness and indicating”

Making sure the actors understand feedback that I'm giving them. Not just 'do this'. But how to do this and why. Using the 'As If' technique

First: 9 principles for Directing Actors (Cohn2021, p.6-7)

lellam2 — 2023-12-14 14:22:25 UTC

“It’s important to enter into each rehearsal with aspirit of openness and exploration, but the director must identifythe nature and conflict in the scene and have a clear idea of what each character wants...a clear agenda and an understanding of the mechanics of each scene”

Basically be prepared. I was so prepared that I felt over prepared. And since I didn't have too long to get the shots, I had to be extra prepared. Equipment was tested and ready to start shooting the day before. My head was working over-time.

Cohn’s “AS IF” (p.52-55)

lellam2 — 2023-12-14 14:24:43 UTC

From Week 6 slides

lellam2 — 2023-12-14 14:28:22 UTC

lellam2 — 2023-12-14 16:12:30 UTC