Title Possibilities, Themes

We have created a picture & wordle inspiration to come up with our film title which is currently unnamed. To create the wordle we entered our blog URL into wordle and it sourced all the words in our blog, coming up with these key words. After much deliberation I came up with the idea of PaperWeight - the phrase references several moments in the film and the relationship that is the centre of it. A paperweight holds down and restricts what it rests upon as Amelie does with Emma it also refers to the hectic lifestyle Emma leads and Amelie's obsession with tidiness and neatness. 

We also looked at this article that seemed particularly relevant to our film and character, I enjoyed it and found it helpful in understanding. http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2013/dec/10/child-fussy-eater-what-not-to-say-dinner-table

Thus the film was called

PAPERWEIGHT

7 | So Far

The way we've chosen to edit is that we will work separately, Theo is doing the first rough cut and shaping it into a 5 and a half minute piece, I will then take over and edit it to a close cut, we will then together work on the final cut with advice from audiences and colleagues.

Our reasons for doing this are that we want to give as much fresh attention as possible, always when editing a film you notice and pick up things that a first time-viewer might not realise or appreciate. We plan to utilise the fact that we're a pair by not jointly editing, we feel it may also be less time efficient, trying to edit together and possibly having contrasting opinions would mean we spend longer debating on what would be the right decision when in fact by editing separately we can build on each other's ideas more effectively.

6| So Far

We've been working solidly now for over 2 months on the short film and have finally filmed, we're working on a rough cit, film titling, graphics and sound at the moment, combining everything we've learnt in the last year to create a good post-production plan. We've set a deadline of the 13th December to have all planning & research done as well as a rough cut. So far, the footage we've watched is good but there are a few shots we could do with spending longer on.

Saturday 16th November | On Set

We are filming on Saturday 16th November, we have hired out:

• 2x Panasonic HD Cameras
• 2x Tripods
• 1x Dolly Wheels
• 1x Boom Pole
• 1x Stereo Mic
• 1x Directional Mic
• 1x Microtrack
• 1x Headphones
• 2x Kaiser Mains Lights
• 2x Light Filters - Day Blue Colour
• 1x Clapperboard 
• 1x Light Stand 
• 1x Nikon SLR 

We plan to use all the equipment and get the actors to help us during the production, we will both film as much as possible to try and get a range of shots, as we are using a child actor we want to capture as much as possible of what she does incase there is anything unexpected we want to use. One camera will film the shot list and the other will travel with one of us, filming form angles and compositions we can improvise at points along the way. It's not a necessity that we film with two cameras but we feel hopefully it will add any fillers we need. 

The lights will create an added effect specifically to the scene in the kitchen when we want to feel white around Amelie, the lights also provide the cold white colour we want, especially if the weather is overly dark on the day of filming, although the weather forecast is set to be clear.

We will try to take stills throughout the shooting day in attempt to capture a cover/poster photo that might be suitable. 

Filming Schedule

We are filming from 9am - 3pm on Saturday 16th November at Theo's house. We are setting up shots and props from 7.30am so that when our actors arrive at 9 we will be ready to film.
We plan to spend roughly 2-3minutes per shot. We divided 5 hours (our filming time) by the 140 shots we have and have produced an average 2minutes per shot. Although this is very tight we have planned meticulously and by sticking to the schedule we should be able to get some shots done in only a minute and others in a longer time.

9am - 12am
The Build up to and Fit from Shot 60 - 117

12am - 12.30pm
The End of the Film from Shot 118 - 139
(whilst Amelie has Lunch) 

12.30pm - 1.55pm
Opening Stair Shots from Shot 1 - 11
(whilst Rachael has Lunch) 

1pm - 1.30pm 
Beginning of Act 2 from Shot 46 - 59

1.30pm - 3pm
Act 1 from Shot 12 - 44 

Props

For our film, we need

• a completed Rubik's cube
• remote control
• dressing gown
• house phone
• cereal bowls/cereal/milk
• coffee machine

Sound Design

http://www.askaudiomag.com/articles/complete-beginners-guide-apple-logic-9-part-1

Over the last few days I've been exploring Logic music software and learning basic sound development techniques so that when we come to complete our sound we will be able to edit sufficiently and won't be held back by our technical knowledge/limitations.
The program allows you to combine recorded sound with computer generated sound which is what we were hoping to do. It also gives us full control of the sound that we record.

We have also decided that we need to be clearer about how we want our sound to be in advance of recording with Cameron. We will still take some blind recordings from him but after a few takes we will show him some examples, samples and information about the kind of sound we want. In the next few days I'm analysing film music and mainly cross diegetic music which is a kind of enhanced diegetic sound, aided by non-diegetic SFX.

This source is a research & experience essay on sound in film, it analyses several examples and adds tips to the examples. There is also some tips on technique that could come in very useful for our filming in the next week.

   http://www.filmmusicnotes.com/diegetic-music-non-diegetic-music-and-source-scoring/

Introduction to Non-Diegetic Sound

Sound whose source is neither visible on the screen nor has been implied to be present in the action: 

• narrator's commentary
• sound effects which is added for the dramatic effect
• mood music

Non-diegetic sound is represented as coming from the a source outside story space. 

The distinction between diegetic or non-diegetic sound depends on our understanding of the conventions of film viewing and listening.  We know of that certain sounds are represented as coming from the story world, while others are  represented as coming from outside the space of the story events.  A play with diegetic and non-diegetic conventions can be used to create ambiguity (horror), or to surprise the audience (comedy). 

Another term for non-diegetic sound is commentary sound. 

RESEARCH NON-DIEGETIC SOUNDTRACK
In common film music and soundtrack - a producer and director will hire a composer and sound producer to create sound based on information and research that the director/producer provides for inspiration and style. They will attach a storyboard and give clear structure to the sound and when its needed. It's important that if the sound is being created before the film is made that the story and style is very clear so that the wanted effect is created.

With our film we feel it's important that the non-diegetic sound doesn't add all the emotion to the film but that it's an aid. You should be able to watch the film and understand it the same way you would with non-diegetic sound.

Good examples of non-diegetic sound being used and natural sound being enhanced are in my studied short films such as White & Apricot, the sound is very much an aid rather than leading the film where as in Future Proof for example the sound is leading, more like a music video.

Introduction to Diegetic Sound

Taken from FilmSound.org 

Sound whose source is visible on the screen or whose source is implied to be present by the action of the film: 

• voices of characters 
• sounds made by objects in the story 
• music represented as coming from instruments in the story space ( = source music)

Diegetic sound is any sound presented as originated from source within the film's world 

Digetic sound can be either on screen or off screen depending on whatever its source is within the frame or outside the frame. 

Another term for diegetic sound is actual sound  

Diegesis is a Greek word for "recounted story"
The film's diegesis is the total world of the story action   

RESEARCH DIEGETIC SOUND
This article on Sound in Film has helped me learn more about how people use sound and tips from experts. http://www.freestockmusic.com/2011/article/diegetic-non-diegetic/

This website and article gives some really interesting tips and DIY ways of enhancing sound with foley and other enhancements that can be created through Logic/GarageBand or Final Cut Pro. This article emphasises the importance of sound in film and how it aids the storyline, no film is complete without relevant sound, even if it is abstract. http://www.videomaker.com/article/15797-diegetic-sound

Shot List & Storyboard Audience Feedback

We interviewed the same pair to get feedback on our final narrative that was derived through the shot-list and clarifying the storyline shot-by-shot. We asked them what they thought of the completed narrative and also what they thought of the storyboard animatic.

They thought;

"I love the completed narrative, it makes a lot more sense, the motifs we talked about are clearer and it  will let the audience, umm, feel more towards the child rather than confused I think"

"The drawings and use of the story video [animatic] are great, it makes it clear, if you stick to that I'm sure the film will turn out great"

"When you're filming make sure you stick to that storyboard, it looks really clear, and they're only stick characters!"

"The shot list is good, all the columns with the different things should make the filming pretty easy for you. The new narrative as well is pretty good, it makes more sense and is clearer"

From this we are far more pleased with our final choice of narrative and motifs, they felt that we had taken on their advice and got a clearer vision. We now want to confront the filming day itself and how we go about scheduling that day and working out the equipment we need. 

Soundtrack Plan

THE PLAN: NON-DIEGETIC SOUNDTRACK
A close friend of mine - Cameron Jacobs is an incredible classical pianist but can improvise easily to certain moods or atmospheres. For our film soundtrack, we don't want to set anything in stone until we have filmed and produced our rough edit. It's important to us that the non-diegetic sound enhances the diegetic and aids the film in its purpose.

With recording Cameron - we plan to tell him nothing about the film and then when we are ready to record, link a keyboard to recording equipment which is available in our school music department and show him the film raw, simply allowing him to play what he feels appropriate.

We will then tell Cameron specifics that he needs to play and look out for, moments lasting a certain amount of time that we have pre-decided to fit with the film. He can then adhere to our requirements, neither of us are able to write music for him to play but I have experience in music and can clearly show Cameron our intentions, after the initial viewing and recording we will also show him example pieces and short film examples for him to take inspiration from.

We will repeat this process seven times, obviously during the repetition of the process he will create something that he feels suits the mood and by the last times should be able to pre-empt what happens on screen and show this in his playing.

We realise this is a lot to ask a pianist in only an hour or two but Cameron is incredibly accomplished and has been playing most of his life. He also plays violin and guitar to a high standard and has experience in computer generated sound.

Once we have recorded material we feel is sufficient we plan to mix together parts of the seven tracks and create a master track that will accompany the film. There will be moments of silence within the film such as the blackout in-between the acts but apart from this we want to leave ourselves open to Cameron's interpretation, it would be a shame to waste such musical talent and intuition. Obviously if we don't feel it's appropriate we will cut it finely to change things around.

Once we have the master track we will add foley sounds such as swipes using Logic Pro & Final Cut Pro. It's important that the non-diegetic sound accompanies the film well. The reason we plan to film in the next two weeks is so that we have plenty of time to edit and add effects we feel appropriate to the sound.

HH

Storyboard Animatic

TB & HH

Shot List