Evaluation of 'The Prisoner'

Evaluation of 'The Prisoner'

I am proud of the way my 'The Prisoner' video turned out and there are a few things that I particularly liked about it but there also things I would change and wished I had noticed and thought about before and during filming.

The Prisoner: Zoe Crick

Strengths of 'The Prisoner'

• 00:00 - I used an estabolishing shot as my opening to set the scene of my video.
• 00:03 - The use of titles at the begining of my video is effective 

• 00:14 - I used a tracking shot by getting the actors to walk along the road whilst my mam drove beside us and Bethany shot it
• 00:57 - I think this shot is particularly effective of Bethany walking through the woods

• 01:17 - This over head shot is also effective as it indicates that the 'Number Six' is voulnerable

• 01:50 - The way I have edited the car coming into the yard works and flows really well
• 02:24 - effective over the shoulder shot puts you right in the centre of what is happening.

• 02:59 - I really like this shot

Weaknesses of 'The Prisoner'

• 00:19 - tracking shot becomes a bit jerky
• 00:40 - The fade between the titles and the main film is too short
• 01:09 - the shot appears to be blurry but the day I shot the footage it was raining and there was condensation on the lens that remained after I tried to remove it

• 01:27 - Fade is too fast
• 01:29 - first few seconds of this shot are out of focus
• 02:24 - I made a mistake in this shot by leaving my bag on the work bench

• 02:28 - In the background of this shot there is a gap in the mise-en-scene as there is a notice about holidays

The Prisoner

The Prisoner

After a three week process of planning, shooting and editing I have finally completed my video for 'The Prisoner'. As I included a lot more people in this video than I have in the past there was more of a pressure on me to complete it as they all wanted to see the final edit. Of course they are unaware of how long it takes to edit and thought I would have had it done after one lesson of editing. I'm actually really pleased with how it turned out even though there are little things I wish I had noticed or thought about when filming. There are a few issues with continuity and filming was rushed towards the end as I was aware that it could have started to get dark especially as it was just a cloudy and rainy day. The Prisoner was our first task that included narrative and the camera's microphone isn't that good at picking up sound unless it is background noise which affected the quality of the valuable audio.

i had issues trying to upload in lesson so Sir posted it to his Vimeo page. 

Here is the link to my 'The Prisoner' attempt! Hope you enjoy it :)

The Prisoner: Zoe Crick



Editing My Fingers To The Bone

Editing My Fingers To The Bone

Today there was a teachers strike which caused the school to close. The school was open for sixth formers which meant this afternoon I could go in and edit. This was good as I managed to pretty much get finished although it was creepily quiet sat in a class room on my own and the school was silent. The plan was to upload the rough copy of my video but as I stayed until the end of the school day I was warned that if I stayed much longer I would get locked inside the school so I didn't have the chance to upload it and I will do that on Monday instead. 

When I first got logged on to the computer there was a problem with the computer's audio so I decided to do some editing that didn't involve sound. I added a black and white effect to each of my individual clips. This really set the scene as the brief requested it to be dark. I wanted to film in the light as the camera becomes grainy when you film in the dark so by adding a black and white effect the quality is still to a high standard but it still has a sinister effect to it. 

I then added in titles to my clips. I selected the typography as I thought it reflected the theme of the video and it just worked well.

Here is a screenshot of the start of my video where I took inspiration from the film Reservoir Dogs.

Editing 'The Prisoner'

Editing 'The Prisoner'

Today was the first day of editing. I restarted my project about 5 times and I am still not completely happy with the way I have began editing my footage together which is disappointing as I feel like I have wasted an hour of precious editing time. I think I was put off by how amazing my classmates work looks. I'm excited to see what they produce and their final edit. Hopefully I will be back on track in Wednesday's lesson to get a good chunk of the editing done so I don't fall behind.

The Day of the Shoot

The Day of the Shoot

Today was the day I shot, starred and directed in our latest project 'The Prisoner'. We had a good time on set and everything ran smoothly although it did rain heavily and we were drenched through by lunchtime. I am proud of all of my friends and family who got involved with my project even if it was out of their comfort zone and there are many giggly outtakes. They were all amazing and I'm looking forward to start editing it all together. Some shots were very effective and I hope everyone enjoys watching it as much as we had shooting it.

'The Prisoner' Soundtrack

'The Prisoner' Soundtrack

I took a lot of inspiration from Reservoir Dogs so I thought it was perfect to include Little Green Bag as the music for my video. Should be good fun watching my friends reenact the iconic scene when they walk down the street in their black suits and sunglasses. 

Story Boards

Story Boards

I start filming tomorrow and I'm looking forward to it. Hoping the weather stays dry or that could cause some issues with filming externally and also with audio as I am filming in a depot and the sound of the rain hitting the roof will be picked up on the camera. I am using a selection of friend and family and will also appear in my video for the first time. I have already started shooting some footage from inside the depot when I went down to check the location on Thursday evening. I plan to head out to find a better place to shoot my external scene later as I am not 100% happy. I will also shoot some POV footage while I'm there.

Location, Location, Location

Location, Location, Location

I am still on the lookout for possible locations. Location scouting is a lot more difficult than I expected. I have had a few places in mind but each have their limitations.

One idea that popped into my head was the idea of shooting the indoors scene in the back of a white van. I have access to a white van so this is a possibility. The idea was to have the van parked up in a secluded area and have Number Six in the back of the van. The issue being that when it comes to filming I would be limited in terms of space which means the use of different camera angles will also be limited.

Another place I liked the look of was a derelict building behind Usher College. The setting adds a sense of fear to the scene. The thing is it is so creepy I think I would be too scared to film there.

Here are some images

Another possible place would be a depot. A family member who has their own business has a depot I could use. If I was to use this location I would have to film the external footage elsewhere.

 







Script

Script

In today's lesson we got briefed on our next task. It involves something I was dreading... a script. I am going to stick to directing once again on this one as I cringe at the sound of my own voice on tape. I have a couple of actors in mind but I am trying to brainstorm ideas for a location and so far I'm not succeeding. I am going to ask around for idea's and inspiration from my friends tomorrow. I will blog any idea's I may get back. This should be interesting.

Evaluation of Camera Movement Video

Evaluation of Camera Movement Video

My camera movement video I published in the previous post was a lot of fun to make but slightly more technical than our first shots video. There were a few issues that I wasn't happy with.

• At the end of my video after it fades to black the video continues to run. This is obviously an error made by me but I'm not too sure how it happened.
• When shooting the scene where I track and follow my friend Bethany through several doors we used a office chair on wheels which I sat on and filmed. If I was to do it again I would place the tripod directly onto the chair and push the chair down the corridor for even more of a smooth and professional finish.
• I would also think about timings better at 0:22 of my video Bethany has to pause to keep the door held open so I and the people pushing me along could get through easily. This looks under rehearsed and not very slick.
• Next time I would consider using another tripod as that one didn't turn smoothly and tended to stick which ruined a few of my clips.

Strengths of my video would be:

• My video cuts between two clips. The follow and the point of view clips. I was just experimenting with editing and just trying to see what worked and what didn't. Personally I like the way it cuts between the two.
• By adding tiny snippits of outtakes to my final video makes the video fun and when I watch it back it makes me smile.
• This is a weakness and strength. My over head pan clip I really like as it is smooth. I actually used my grans stair lift to ascend smoothly down the stairs. The downside to this clip is the bad lighting. I actually filmed this scene around five times this was the only one in which the light was poor as this was the first take one. Unfortunately, this was the best quality video apart from the light so I had no choice but to use this clip regardless.
• Considering the cameras the school provides don't tend to change focus and usually just capture the whole scene as the lens sees it. I got lucky when filming the scene where I had to tilt and focus on a building as the focus change and made the clip look quite effective.

Watch my video and let me know what you think.

Camera Movement Video

 

Camera Movement Video

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have finally finished editing my camera movement video! In today's lesson I shortened some of my clips so that my video had more flow. I then added titles to show what camera movements I have done. I included a lot of my friends in this video so it was a lot of fun to make. I used the transition cross fade on both the end of my video and the end of the audio.
 



Here it is! Hope you enjoy it :)