Introduction


My name is Gabriel Meytanis (candidate number 8560). I completed Brief 1:Music Industry, working in Group 2 with Georgina Harper-Dennett (8720) and Phoebe Hung (8017). Our group photo can be seen on the right of the page. To access my portfolio evidence, please click on the labels to the right named A2 Research and Planning, A2 Construction and A2 Evaluation.


GiGi - Sit Still, Look Pretty (Group 2 Music Video)

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Tuesday 2 February 2016

R & P Post 20: Reflections so far/looking ahead

Having completed the research and planning stage, I have expressed my thoughts in a video (please access below) on our progress so far as well as looking ahead to construction...


Positives :)  
On the whole, the R&P process went relatively well and we have a clear understanding as a group of how well we did and why, plus where we need to improve moving forwards.

-We worked efficiently as a team and to a good standard, coordinating jobs well and discussing important research or completing relevant shoot documents.

-Our reference cache was also large, which enabled us to refer confidently to similar ideas which inspired our own film and why.


Improvements
There are, however, still some issues which we need to rectify going forwards...

-Organisation certainly needs improvement. We failed to make our main actress available for the test shoot, and also didn't include props such as the moodboard & photos as originally planned.

-Representation was done well to an extent, but we could have included slightly more when researching on exactly how clothing & make-up; dialogue & tone and other aspects influence characters in TV and film.

R & P Post 19: Our rough cut

Essentially, the purpose of a rough cut was to edit the rushes from our test shoot into a 'test version' of our final piece. We felt this would, of course, be extremely useful in order for us (as well as our teachers & peers) to assess for the first time in film whether or not our story ideas would work or were able to be conveyed, whether the location & props worked well and were practical, and also if the sequence was able to meet the brief in providing continuity throughout.

To edit the sequence, our group used the linear editing software Adobe Premiere Pro. I have detailed the benefits of using this particular tool below: (please click to access) 


Part of our updated shot list



Although the group put in as much time and effort as possible, as the test week was set up in order to mimic and help with the main shooting & editing process, in hindsight we acknowledged that we should have spent more time not only when shooting, as most props and our main actress were missing, but also when editing, because there were still noticeable continuity errors.

As a result, we took our teacher's advice and re-planned the opening's storyline & location - producing new documents and an updated shot list due to the story's lack of plausibility and errors with practicality and continuity. Despite this being a huge extra workload and a burden in terms of timing and planning, upon reflection I feel that this was extremely useful as it ensured that we could improve the project outcome and tailored our final piece to audience feedback, as opposed to continuing without thought.

Our test shoot can be accessed by clicking the YouTube video below...



R & P Post 18: Our test shoot

The main purpose of completing a test shoot was in order for our group to shoot the first rushes of our idea before editing them in rough to understand in film (rather than with still images or on paper) whether or not our ideas would work to provide continuity and a decent storyline. Unfortunately, however, I had an unavoidable clash between the test shoot & rough edit week and my AS German exchange. As a result I ensured that before I left the group, I helped to complete as many of the preparation documents for the shoot as possible and that once I'd left made sure to stay in contact with the group via our Facebook Messenger group. Moreover, once I returned to the group I noted the group's observations and reflections from the test shoot as soon as possible.

Luckily, we were able to plan around the problem well in advance so I could still work to
do as much as possible before I left and also keep in contact with when I had the chance.

I have produced a presentation detailing the reflections I had from the group and from audience/teacher feedback on our test shoot...


 (Please use the arrow keys to navigate and click fullscreen to enlarge slides ^)

R & P Post 17: Our planned costumes, hair and make-up

With costume and make-up, our group produced a hair, make-up & costume list for our actors/actresses and their characters in order to clearly indicate how we wanted the characters to appear in the opening, and what their clothing would connote about their personality.

Our costume list was a big help with characterisation, and also detailed our
references, which not only helped establish why we chose a certain look, but
also exactly how we wanted the characters to come across.
We set about with our main task of representing our main character, and looked at other shows which had represented the teenage archetype. When researching, our main references which we noted were Skins and The Inbetweeners – two British TV shows with teenaged characters. Therefore, Katie from Skins was, in our view, a good reference for Ella, as she is represented as a teen character aspiring for popularity – including through her clothing & make-up, whilst characters such as Simon & Carly from The Inbetweeners were also chosen as good inspiration for typical teenage clothing & make-up.

We felt that other British productions with characters of a similar age
would help with our decisions on clothing, hair and make-up
Upon reflection, I believe that whilst we collected decent reference points and took these into account well, I feel that having learned the importance of connotation – even with small decisions; we could have perhaps improved the sequence's characterisation by making decisions such as hairstyle more clear not only visually in our opening, but by detailing it more carefully on our cast list.

R & P Post 16: Casting

When casting for the role of Grace, we had two main criteria in mind for our chosen actress:

-The first and main objective was to choose someone who would be a confident and experienced actress capable of portraying a villainous figure who could give the audience a real sense of unease and powerful emotion.

-The second was to introduce a feel of racial diversity into our production, and also to give our opening a USP against other similar films of the stalker genre such as Single White Female.

For these reasons, we chose our friend Celine as our main actress, as we felt that she would be a perfect fit due to her contribution to the film's racial diversity and especially the fact that, as an A-Level Drama student, she had proven acting credibility which would keep our end product plausible and professional. With regards to the other actors & actresses within the production, we felt that as a group it would be far more practical and easier logistically if we kept smaller roles to within the group, mainly because this would save time and effort for people possibly giving up their free time to play a small part. As a result, Josh played Grace's brother Anthony and Ella & Alex (another Media student) played "Ella Smith" and "Daniel Cooper" – the victim and her boyfriend. We then created a cast list to compare our chosen cast with the characters they were assigned and to help them get in role.
In order to plan exactly who we wanted to play the roles, and how we wanted their
characters to come across, we created a cast list. This included actor/actress details as well as a
 small character backstory to enable them to gain some knowledge of their character and get in role.
On the whole, I feel that casting was a task that as a group we performed very well, and we kept a clear mind-set throughout the project as to what kind of personality and skills the actress and her character had to possess. I believe that this was a factor in what, in my opinion, resulted in a convincing acting performance. If I were to improve on casting I would perhaps make more of an effort to ask others about minor roles, as though there was no problem with our crew's acting itself, it added an extra role which meant slightly less time in production and planning than originally planned. This was, however, an extremely small issue and I still feel that our casting and acting were strong points of the project.

R & P Post 15: Our planned filming location, set design and props

This post was updated having made major changes regarding our decisions on location, set design and storyline after the test shoot.

Location/set design:
When planning the location of our opening sequence, we admittedly ran into major difficulties, which resulted in emergency group discussions to resolve them. Initially, we chose Ella’s house as our filming location, as it was in an easily-accessible location for the group members, and offered a room which had aesthetics which would clearly connote a teenage or young adult female to the audience. Nonetheless, we soon noticed that the space was far too tight to practically fit a film crew and actress, and also didn’t offer adequate light, leading to noticeable continuity errors when the group attempted to rectify this. As a result, we held group meetings and eventually decided on my house, as the loft offered a large enough space to shoot in, a simple mise-en-scene which required minimal adjustment besides adding props and plenty of natural light through two large windows, which we could also use within the sequence to cut to outside shots.


(please click to enlarge for analysis)
Our new location provided far better options
when shooting to adjust the set (for instance
with lighting and décor), as well as far more
space to work in.
Our original planned location was far too
small to shoot our main opening sequence in,
As a result, we felt we needed to change our setting.


















Props:
When preparing for the test shoot, our initial ideas were to have our actress assume the role of an obsessive stalker whose main desire, as in Single White Female, was to mirror the life of her victim – in which case our original props were mainly to do with her appearance, including such props as makeup, coloured contact lenses and identical clothes. Having received feedback that our story didn’t convey the stalking element enough, and lacked a cutting edge, we altered the storyline and thus changed the props – reverting to far more sinister implements such as a knife, an extensive moodboard and (whilst not necessarily being a prop) updated social media accounts for the victim, as we felt this was a great means to add plausibility to the storyline.

We originally produced a costume ans prop list (right), however this
was replaced by two separate documents: a set & prop list (left), and
a new, more detailed costume, hair & make-up list - please see shot 17
Having eventually settled on a new setting, an adjusted storyline and updated props, we certainly now realise the importance of planning such decisions in advance so there is less to tweak, and the importance of group meetings in enabling us to come to group decisions to resolve the issues. We also learnt not to rush when choosing locations and how to dress the set, as each prop and the space they will be in ultimately influences the audience’s perception of the film. If we were to redo the project, more thorough organisation would definitely be a priority, as we wasted valuable time toying over choices for a possible replacement location.

R & P Post 14: Our Call Sheet

The call sheet which we produced for our main
shoot. We ensured that we had a clear schedule,
and divided timings between the crew and our 
actress to help her prepare separately.

Before each shoot, we created a call sheet. The purpose of the call sheet is to outline when we required crew members and actors to be on set, to detail contact details in case any problems arose and to include a risk assessment to ensure the safety and wellbeing of everyone on set. We, therefore, felt that this was another very important document to help organise the shoot, as it clearly broke down the day’s itinerary into timings to ensure efficiency, and explained to our actress what was to happen during the day’s filming – thus preventing awkwardness or the need to explain why they were giving up their time before we were due to film.


Though our call sheet tried to strike a balance between a simple plan and a professional call sheet, in hindsight it perhaps would have been useful to integrate a costume and props list into the list, as this would have allowed a greater time period for our actress to pre-plan rather than once a separate costume and props list had been produced. However, once our call sheet (with all other relevant information) had been produced, this allowed us to progress one step further with shooting, as we had proven that we had a clear production schedule, with our location and safety precautions when conducting the shoot noted.

R & P Post 13: Our Shoot-board

Another vital preparation for the test shoot was to create a shoot-board. A shoot-board is a table containing information for every shot whilst shooting - including the shot’s number and framing, who was in each role (director, camera, etc.) for each shot, and a brief description of the action and dialogue within the shot. When shooting, the crew has to write how many takes each shot required, as well as the best take. They also have to adhere to the time allocation in which to film each shot – important to prevent the shoot from overrunning.

We felt that the shoot-board would be extremely useful when shooting, as it is the primary source of information when shooting and setting up, enabling the crew to have a clear idea of which actors & props need to be on set and what the actors need to say & do. It also allows the crew to easily keep to time – this is important not only as it is frustrating if a shoot overruns, but also because light may run out towards the very end of a shoot and cause continuity errors if there is different lighting between shots.
The shoot-board contained various columns detailing where the shot was to take place,
what time we were going to decide each shot was to go ahead, and a shot's description,
actors, props and framing. 
Looking back, however, whilst I still feel that it is a central piece of information when shooting, I also think it has certain drawbacks. For instance, whilst identifying good takes is useful for the editing stage, it doesn’t take long at all to do so when editing and is perhaps easier as there is not so much of a time constraint. It could waste time in the long-run if, when on set, the crew are unsure of which is best. Moreover, whilst dividing roles is useful to ensure that each member of the group has a fair share of responsibility in each role, it is much easier dividing this up on the day as opposed to having to plan in advance and remind ourselves of when we decided to swap over.

On the whole, though, I believe that the shoot-board is hugely important to keep track of the shoot, and to aid the crew in setting up each shot to its description. 

R & P Post 12: Our Animatic

After creating our storyboard, the next task was to visualise our ideas – this was achieved through an Animatic. An Animatic is a storyboard in the form of a video, with still photos replacing the action drawn on Post-it notes and put into a sequence on Premiere Pro along with music, a voiceover and basic titles. As such, our group felt that producing an Animatic was extremely useful to envisage our ideas much closer to real-life than drawings on paper, and helped us realise whether our sequence was not only within a sensible time frame, but also to see if it were practical to film, adhering to the brief and creating a sense of continuity between shots, for instance if the framing of certain shots was too jumpy or completely different from our initial ideas. It also enabled us to cut our shots to our chosen music track for the first time, which naturally is not possible with a paper storyboard.

We took photos of our planned shots and edited them
 into a basic sequence on Premiere Pro- an Animatic
In hindsight, creating an Animatic was certainly very helpful as it helped the group quickly spot the flaws in our original plans, for example with one of our master shots which we had to frame as an XLS, as opposed to shooting from a bird’s-eye view. Additionally some of the timings of shots were far too long, and the Animatic allowed us to adjust the length of shots accordingly. However, in my view one negative of the Animatic was perhaps that it didn't fully allow us to see exact timings of action, and had we produced simple videos blocking our action rather than still images we could have refined our sequence much more precisely. 


Our completed Animatic. Please click above to view,

R & P Post 11: Our Timeline and Storyboard

Our timeline:
Our timeline gave us a
rough idea of timings.
(please click to enlarge)
In order to plan our sequence’s order and structure, we produced a timeline outlining how we would arrange our opening sequence. We drew up timings and broke the timeline up into 20-second blocks, as this allowed us to see if the planned action would roughly fit into the beginning, middle or end of the opening as opposed to squeezing ideas into the whole time frame. We then divided the timeline into three sections of dialogue, audio & video and for each track pencilled in what the characters would say, which music and sound effects we planned on using, and which action and visuals the audience would see.

Our storyboard: 
Having created our timeline, we created a storyboard which indicated our individual shot choices, camera & physical movements (via arrows of different thickness drawn on the Post-it notes) and also our running order. We used different-coloured Post-it notes as we felt this would be useful to signify different shot types and titles (pink for titles, green for close-ups, orange for mid shots and yellow for long shots). The Post-it notes also enabled us to easily adjust which position the shots were on the timeline if need be, for instance if we wanted to reorder certain shots or if a new shot was added between two existing ones.

above - Our storyboard helped us plan the rough order of individual shots
below - colour-coding the shots helped to differentiate their framing/purpose 

The storyboard will also act as a valuable prequel to our Animatic, which will help us to visualise our ideas noted on paper, though more likely than not the ideas will be tweaked and will not match exactly with what we have produced on our storyboard, as we already made various changes due to jumpy shots & other continuity issues.