Directions Unit- Reflection

In this unit I produced a one min sound piece, a directors statement and a four min film.

The one min sound piece could be improved as the ending seems a bit unfinished, as if rushed, it could be smoother but that is an issue with my editing that can also be seen in the four min film as the cuts between scenes do not seem to flow as well as they could do. Some of the sounds in the sound design piece could be more apt to the piece if I had taken the time to record them myself but as I did not they are sounds found from the internet/ final cut pro, they are not original and in a way don't fit the piece.

My directors statement is a document that is meant to reflect my creative decisions as a director in directing the four min film. I don't think that I managed to use this document to its full potential, I think that the directors statement that I have produced is written in an informal manner which is not what is required. Unfortunately in places of the directors statement I don't think that I could of worded it in any other way. I think that my directors statement made me research more into how to be a director but I don't think I managed to figure out what kind of director I am, and my statement is now lacking due to me not being able to decide on what kind of director I am. I think that I was able to get the right photographs for what I needed in the directors statement and if not I took my own photo's to provide an insight into what I was trying to convey in the document. I looked into many different text books for my statement and although I didn't refer to them in the document they helped me learn a lot about pre-production, and some even how to handle actors. The books not mentioned in the directors statement are mentioned on this blog, however the notes I made on the books may not be on the blog. The theories I used in the directors statement were from text books, mostly from the reading list provided by my tutor. Although not a lot of theory is used and I could have produced more detailed theoretical perspective, I wanted to keep it simple as I only wanted to write what I understood to have related to my work and what I believed to be relevant.

My four min film, it is exactly 4 mins as required in the specifications given to me at the beginning of the project. After going through the script and making the relevant changes I produced some preproduction work, that is on this blog. The work lead me to a story board, shot list and script break downs, I used text books that could tell me about the work of a director and how they should do the preproduction work. I did auditions in which I took on board other readings from other text books, these auditions were recorded and most can be found on this blog. After the auditions I gave myself a week to decide if I wanted the actors and for what roles would they be playing, I then looked into producing a call sheet, I found an example in a text book and then came up with a shorter version of the one I found. On the day of the shoot it rained so I felt rushed, but with the patients of my crew and cast I managed to get all of the filming done in the first day of shoot. I failed on creating a buzz track and therefore had to have help off Andy Cox who was creating his own buzz track at the same time I was doing mine. In editing I believe that some of the work is a bit jumpy and could do with being smoothed out but I am not good at that and need more practice. I believe that I managed to get enough coverage over all in the four min film. The audio was an issue in editing but by using the same piece of audio over and over I made the audio almost work, I think that it is a bit patchy in areas and could do with some work by someone who is good with audio. After watching my piece over again I think that the story line is portrayed nicely but I am unsure if the feeling of "Sorrow" comes off strong enough.

Directions Unit- A Journey Through Sorrow

Directions Unit- Intro

After have a meeting with Mike Hoad, Sophie Marriott, Aimee Saunders and Chris.

We asked Mike to go out with his Canon and look what he could come up with after we gave him some ideas, these included-

• Fog
• Puddle
• Dripping 
• Trees 
• Looking of cold/frost 

The video is what Mike came up with and he added some titles for us, we decided to use the first one with a different font. 

Directions Unit- Directors statement

Directors Statement

Directions Unit- Research

This book is an insight into how to help actors produce the best performance. Including how they can be affected by the location that is being used and how performances can be changed due to how organised the shoot in on the day. As if you are peppered then the actor will feel that they can take it more seriously, if the director is running around without a clue then the actors can be come frustrated and not give the best performance possible. 

Directions Unit-Research

I have chosen these books to do research for my directors statement, the book used previously did not seem to apply in the theory areas, hopefully I will have more luck with these. 

Directions Unit-Editing

I started with over 5 mins of footage and had to cut down.

I added a shot of black for the beginning just after the titles.

I then had to add sound to the clips with no sound present

Directions Unit-Production stills

These are a group of photos taken on my set on Saturday the 9th February, they feature Aimee Saunders on camera, Jason Baker and Richard Battrum as actors. I am directing, the photos were kindly taken by Danny Hewitt. 

Directions Unit- Cross Cutting

Cross-cutting is an editing technique most often used in films to establish action occurring at the same time in two different locations. In a cross-cut, the camera will cut away from one action to another action, which can suggest the simultaneity of these two actions but this is not always the case.

Suspense may be added by cross-cutting. It is built through the expectations that it creates and in the hopes that it will be explained with time. Cross-cutting also forms parallels; it illustrates a narrative action that happens in several places at approximately the same time

Often, this contrast is used for strong emotional effect, and frequently at the climax of a film. The rhythm of, or length of time between, cross-cuts can also set the rhythm of a scene. Increasing the rapidity between two different actions may add tension to a scene, much in the same manner of using short, declarative sentences in a work of literature. 

This is a scene from Inception where cross cutting is used. 

Directions Unit- Editing 2

Soviet film makers of the 1920s like Kuleshov, Pudovkin and Sergei Eisenstein all were founding fathers of montage, although it is argued that Eisenstein defined lent status to what he called "intellectual montage".

Montage means to assemble. Although Lev Kuleshov was the first to experiment with Montage, Eisenstein argued that the collision between two adjoining images creates a third meaning. He said editing should make people think, not just what they see. Eisenstein classified montage into metric, rhythmic tonal and over tonal methods.
Metric montage. In metric montage, shots are joined together according to their length, with absolute length of the piece already determined. Thus, tension is created by shortening each shot while preserving the original proportions of the formula. This can be seen in chase sequences. 

Rhythmic montage. While in metric montage, the content is determined by the absolute length of the sequence, in rhythmic montage, the action within the frame is given as much weight as the actual physical length of each shot. The rhythm of the montage can therefore conflict with the rhythm of the movement within the frame, thus generating tension.  

Tonal montage. The emotional tone of a sequence directs this montage. Consider the example of a city that has just been bombarded by a series of missiles. This sequence of rapid cutting is in total contrast to the montage that follows of smoke from houses, a baby crying, a collapsed part of a heritage building, a women wailing, volunteers helping relative identify bodies etc. With it's slower pace, a tonal montage acts as a bridge that functions not only to cool the violence of the preceding missile attacks but also prepare for retaliation.  

Over-tonal montage. It is a combination of all the three types of montage discussed above. Over-tonal montage required that more than one type of montage occur simultaneously, thus creating a montage construction in which the methods exist in a relationship and may conflict with one another.

In this film they give some background to the Montage theory, they use different terms to the ones I have used above such as "Rhythmic" refers to "Hollywood" in this film.

Directions Unit- Editing

For my editing I have decided to continuity editing, this follows a classic film narrative. Many films follow continuity editing such as The Kings Speech, this is a drama following the over coming of a speech impediment.

There are other types of editing such as in the film of Memento that was edited so that the film starts at the end.


Another type of editing is Linear and Non Linear. Linear editing is when a film project is put together in an ordered fashion, from beginning to end.  It's typical used when working with video tape, because digital video can't be cut and spliced. Non-Linear editing means that a project can be altered and arranged in any order.

Film editing traditionally was non-linear, because pieces of film could be cut and spliced into whatever order an editor chose, which was a slow process. Today's non-linear editing world is a digital one, with all images digitised and manipulated with computer. Non-linear editing on computers first began with systems like AVID in the early 1990's, and not film and video material can be organised into a timeline, where the editor can add transitions, effects and audio, then transfer and edited version to DVD or the internet.

This is an example from final cut pro, with a time line, event library and a series of effects that can be added. You can take the clips and arrange them in the time line and use the inspector to adjust audio and video.

Here is a short video from YouTube talking about French and American New Wave editing.

Directions Unit-Home Location

Today I got my home location keys, I got in a brought my props with me. I put a white bed sheet on the bed and a duvet with no cover. I put bottles on the floor, shelves and on the desk along with some newspapers. I also took the red curtains off the rail and put up netting.

Directions Unit- Call Sheet

Today I produced and sent out my call sheet to all the actors that I will need on set, for the different scenes.

Directions Unit- Script Break down Sheets

Directions Unit- Pre Production

I found a very helpful Preproduction chart for directors.

In a text book I borrowed from the University Library, I found sections on producers and directors. This is a flow chart that gives an idea on what the director needs to do for pre-production. 

Directions Unit- Script Break Down Sheet

Each scene from a script gets a breakdown sheet. The breakdown sheets contain all of the relevant information taken from the script. 

Directions Unit-Home location

I have had some trouble to find away to film in a home location without using a lived in room. I emailed the accommodation office for the UCA, they replied and I got a empty room in one of the flats. Now I have a home location all I have to do is litter it with bottles and use some white sheets. I will be removing the red curtains from the room as well.

Directions Unit- Stills for Film Noir exercise

Using the barn doors on the lights to try and get different effects I took photographs as to see what they would look like on a camera. I also use "scrims" that change the amount of light being let out by the camera. 

Directions Unit- Costume

I have had some ideas on costume so I did some small sketches to put my ideas on to paper. I will be contacting my actors giving them a list of items I would like them to wear and if they do not already own the items then I will be looking in shops to find the items needed.

Directions Unit-Directing Actors

Judith Weston the writer of "Directing actors" giving a brief talk on directing actors.

Directions Unit- Judith Weston

This is a shot video with Judith Weston talking about how to direct a scene to make it more interesting.

Directions Unit- Film Noir

Film Maker IQ is a website with short films such as this, this helped me understand film noir lighting and how to do it.

Directions Unit- Lighting workshop

I was part of a lighting workshop in which we tried to use the lighting to get the film noir effect. The first few clips of Danny and Aimee I filmed, changing the stops on the aperture to make it darker to show the effects of each stop. The next few were lit an filmed by Aimee and Danny. The last was filmed by Aimee and lit by myself.

We used these pictures as examples:

Directions Unit- Casting

After going through the interviews I have chosen my characters.

James will be played by Jason Baker.

Taz will be played by Rebecca Seaman.

The extra that James make eye contact with will be Emily Husk.

An extra that I will have on set as to walk around is Richard Buttrum.