Animatic

Here is the animatic I completed during filming using scanned-in versions of the storyboards, later augmented with the lyrics version of our soundtrack. It took a rather long time to cut away individual panels from each board using Photoshop, and some of them ended up in Bitmap format as opposed to a normal image, but this would have taken too long to amend, considering the imminence of the deadline. The entire process did, however, allow me to re-familiarise myself with this older version of the software.

It's interesting to see that, even while allowing only around 2 seconds for each shot, if we had stuck to our storyboard our film still would have been at least half a minute longer than the time limit. In the end, there are several shots (such as the point of view one with the tail of the hat obscuring half the screen) which I'm sad we had to get rid of, but, compared to the final product, it's obvious that these were necessary to remove, as the overall fluency of our work improved greatly as a result.

DY

Web 2.0

Web 2.0 refers to the “second” version of the internet which, due to its greater technical capabilities, allows its users to enjoy a higher level of interactivity with the services available online (thus users can now both create content and distribute it to others). Before Web 2.0, the levels of user-inclusion within the internet were comparatively low; there were few pictures, almost no videos, and the very idea of forums was not yet conceived. The gradual emergence of this new web model meant we, as consumers, could ourselves post videos, pictures, opinions and other things, becoming at least partially self-sufficient in terms of our entertainment. Websites that best utilise 2.0 include modern online giants such as Facebook, YouTube, Spotify, Twitter and Tumblr.

These sites now greatly affect the film industry, mostly through their capacity to either increase or lessen the monetary value of movie releases depending on the situation. For instance, films can now be advertised easier if the company, for example, puts up official teasers and trailers on popular sites, not only building up the audience’s enthusiasm in advance (and thus consequently increasing sales), but also opening the floor for pre-emptive discussion about the upcoming picture. No matter which of the above sites information about the film is posted on, it lends to greater exposure of the piece. Furthermore, users themselves become a form of free advertising when they begin to talk about and analyse the content of the film (whether it's using screenshots, short clips or looking at the whole thing after its initial distribution). However, the existence of sites such as YouTube undoubtedly also increases competition for traditional film-makers in the sense that non-professional users are churning out new content all the time, regardless of quality. This has even caused some new filming talents to emerge, although increasingly less so than simply allowing the pirating of already-existing products to flourish.  

This of course is outstandingly useful to film audiences who don’t want to pay more than necessary (or pay at all) for products. Not only that, but the emergence of Web 2.0 means that users feel more like part of a community when it comes to the internet – a fact that poses great problems for companies when a subject like net neutrality is brought up. Net neutrality refers to the fact that, currently, there is a largely similar internet connection speed for everyone, and yet in most recent years big cable companies are effectively attempting to overturn this. The fact that web users feel an increasing sense of togetherness in regards to their personal internet space means that some laws (such as the one attempting to take away net neutrality to allow companies to make even more money), are more vehemently resisted by the public than if the internet had remained the largely impersonal space it initially was. The chance to voice one’s opinion on the internet and be a part of online groups that have similar interests – in regards to film or otherwise – is thus exceptionally beneficial to web users all over the world, be it psychologically or commercially.       

DY

The Rise and Fall of Myspace

At its peak in 2008, MySpace had 75.9 million visitors a month and represented the most diverse social networking site of its time. Indeed, it was the pioneer in the new era of online information sharing, as in its ever-expanding scope it included not only pictures and messaging, but moving stickers and, perhaps most importantly, music. As a consequence of these features, MySpace very quickly gained popularity amongst the younger generation; the majority of its users were between 16 and 25, which is considered the key demographic to reach when it comes to online media. The initial popularity of this site is owed to not only the sheer fact of the ease of communication which it presented, but also the trend of discussing one’s interests using forum posts and the eventual decision of unsigned upcoming artists to post their music on the site (such as the Arctic Monkeys in 2005). The platform allowed its users to buy music using PayPal, which also greatly boosted its user base. As a result of the extensive amount of facilities available as part of MySpace, it soared to popularity quickly and yet almost just as quickly lost its users, causing the number of visitors per month to drop to just 3.3 million by 2010.

The reasons for this loss of popularity are numerous, but in the end MySpace was crippled mostly by two things; the rise of its greatest competition, Facebook, and by the naturally-occurring shift in its age demographic. Every website inevitably ages unless it adapts to attract the next generation, and MySpace failed to do just that, surrendering the majority of its users to the more advanced and newer social networking site, Facebook, which started up in 2008. This also clearly correlates with the steady decline in its user base since its aforementioned peak year. MySpace simply did not have the vision or funds to keep up with Facebook, which already had the advantage of being drawing the public eye just by being new. However, when most of the younger population of MySpace left for a more advanced platform, they were also leaving due to the fact that MySpace had become mundane enough to society to draw middle-aged users. As a rule, younger people refuse to share their space with those who are of the same age demographic as their parents, and the fact that MySpace had become so integrated meant that the younger users were even more eager to leave.

DY

The Problem with Prints

For film companies, there are many benefits to the development of D-List cinema. For instance, the production of digital prints rather than physical reels is ten times cheaper. This also means less money is spent on transport; the reels require a significant amount of space, whereas simple discs do not. The lessened cost additionally means that independent companies will be able to show their work on significantly more screens, heightening their revenue and thus increasing the incentive to film more independent pieces. Similarly, less money has to be spent on storage, as even maintaining reels in working order is strenuous, whilst discs need little to no care. For cinemas, the consequent availability of newer equipment may allow other things to take place in the auditoriums when screenings are not scheduled, including musical or sports events. All this is likely to earn them more money and expand the variety of their audience.

Equally, D-List cinema is also advantageous for consumers. The increased availability of copies of films released by smaller-scale companies means there will be a much greater variety of entertainment for the audience. Additionally, D-List discs afford a much higher picture quality, as well as having a much longer lifespan than a reel, as physical film is prone to wearing down over time no matter how well it’s looked after.

However, there are also significant disadvantages to this new technology. The lowered cost of distribution means that film-makers may feel encouraged to further cut corners to decrease their expenses and heighten their profit, causing the overall quality of released films to go down. Furthermore, as the storing of the films becomes largely digitalised, recently released films become significantly easier to pirate, whether via stealing them in their physical form or via hacking.

DY

Convergence and Synergy

Convergence refers to both the utilisation of several types of media within a company or project and to the combination of more than one type of technology within a single product. This phenomenon presents the proverbial double-edged sword for the film industry for a variety of reasons. The pros of convergence are that it allows the economic development of the world of film; for instance, creating a video game based on a well-received movie is sure to earn the company significantly more money. It also causes the film’s fanbase to widen, encompassing different generations of viewers with varied interests. Thus, for instance, the official website for “Edge of Tomorrow” includes three different types of games in an attempt to appeal to the target audience of the film; teenagers. On a more basic level, the fact that movies can now be streamed online means that they are easier to sell – thanks to outlets such as Netflix, consumers don’t even have to leave their house in order to enjoy a movie that has just been released on DVD. It also means that films can be sold internationally much easier; physical copies don’t have to be shipped or flown over in order to be sold, as they can simply be distributed via the internet. Conversely, convergence has greatly furthered the problem of film piracy and copyright. Piracy in particular is an increasingly huge problem, especially for independent titles which already have less money behind them to begin with. For such films, convergence and consequent illegal downloading essentially increases the possibility of any future financing being taken away.      

The effects of convergence on the film audience of the UK is much the same as on the rest of the world. Convergence is incredibly convenient for consumers, for the reasons mentioned above, but also presents a temptation in the form of illegal downloading or streaming. Additionally, despite giving an opportunity to reach a wider world audience, it leads to certain challenges in terms of financing models, as well as problems with increasing the quality of broadband across the UK in order to ensure the ever-growing needs of the internet age can be met. 

Synergy signifies the collaboration of more than one company when working on a particular media-related venture. This is good for film institutions mainly due to the fact that, if several companies pool their money into a particular movie, it is possible to create a better overall product and thus ensure a greater revenue. The increased competition roused by finer creative pieces being made can also become a catalyst for the overall improvement of the quality of films the industry releases. On the other hand, if a lot of money is invested in a certain picture and yet the movie fails to at least earn it back, any small companies involved in the venture are likely to crumble, and large companies will feel their reputation has been marred and possibly refuse to collaborate with those particular companies in the future. Finally, even if the film is well-received, the involvement of too many people means the percentage each party involved gets is cut down the more companies are involved, which, again, is cause for concern especially for smaller companies.  

DY

Audience Fragmentation

New forms of media have allowed the film industry to attract more audiences in a variety of ways. The most important of these is, of course, the internet. Via the menagerie of different websites, it has become possible to reach a significantly more diverse set of people than previously. The online traffic from a social media site will consist of different people to that of a newspaper webpage or a TV streaming service, meaning the film industry (and, of course, others) now know exactly when and where to advertise. Not only does this increase their revenue, but it also increases the income of advertising companies, as well as the websites themselves (as the so-called “Cost of Free” is at least partially covered by money earned from people clicking on ads).

The internet and television also collaborate in this case to form not only increasingly more niche audiences but also as a unifier for more intimate consumer communities, such as through forums and blogging platforms dedicated to certain works. Film makers now attempt to create so-called cult cinema; films and franchises thereof that inspire a solid, unwavering fan base. This technique usually works best if the film being released is based off another medium (as with movies centred around Marvel and DC comics) or when the plot of the film revolves around a separate world (fantastical or otherwise) that especially avid consumers can get lost in. One of the most successful and innovative marketing  campaigns of all time, prior to the release of “The Dark Knight”, thus caused the film to earn the most in the entire industry that year by launching a viral online marketing campaign that encouraged fans to get involved both online and in the real world.

This creates a completely different environment than before, not only for film-makers but for other mediums such as newspapers. The companies of the world now have to greatly struggle for the audience’s attention, not only because the film industry continues to release more and more content each day (including amateur productions), but because audience fragmentation has created a climate in which the viewers can pick and choose what truly interests them. Therefore, despite being undoubtedly useful to the film and other industries, new forms of media and audience fragmentation have also created a new type of more critical, discerning viewer who is harder to interest and please.

DY

Coursework Rough Cut 2

After several sessions of rigorous editing and shuffling, we've reduced our product to around 3 minutes. In retrospect, this is honestly amazing, considering the amount of time we managed to delete without detrimentally affecting the flow of the narrative (we think, anyway). Some of my personal favourite shots have had to be deleted, such as the one with the lens flare, but these have been necessary sacrifices in maintaining a semblance of pace to the footage. The remaining work we have to do in terms of graphics and sound will hopefully be completed in the next couple of weeks after our final cut in terms of filming is finished. As we move onto doing our evaluation and film industry work in class, these things will have to be taken care of during the rest of our week, which means we should make use of our final sessions to get second opinions on our work.

AF & DY

Coursework Rough Cut 1

This cut marks the beginning of our editing process, in which we've only cut out the superfluous instructions and count-ins from the shots we chose. It was honestly quite surprising how many versions of each shot we had when we went back over them at the beginning, but in the end I'm satisfied that we picked the most effective of our options. It's somewhat annoying that some of the shots in our principle scene where the title will appear are skewed (a fact I mentioned before but which especially stands out from the thumbnail of the above video). I must concede this is my own fault for not checking how the ground looked in the frame as opposed to simply trusting the indicator on the camera stand. I'd like to consider reshooting this scene, but this is impossible due to the academic pressure our actresses are facing and the amount of concessions they've already had to make for us. I suppose we'll simply have to put this blunder down to experience.

The order of shots in this version remains somewhat confused as we have not yet cut everything together according to our storyboard. Aside from that, we clearly have a lot of deleting and shaving to do, as the present time of our work is over twice the length it should be. We also need to find a time to record our soundtrack so we can sync it up to the footage and seek alternatives if we decide it doesn't work. Personally, I'm not looking forward to the prospect of removing some of the more scenic shots we took, although I recognise this will probably be necessary. The synchronisation of the sound that we managed to seemingly magically achieve in the final scene is probably our collective proudest moment in terms of this first cut, and I'm pleased with the level of skill we've managed to exhibit in terms of matching the audio patterns up despite our previous failures to do anything of even remotely similar quality. It seems practice does, in fact, make (nearly) perfect.

AF & DY

Filming: Session 3

This final session went significantly smoother than the previous one. At 11:00, we met at Piccadilly Circus underground station; a journey which took me and Clara about 20 mins because we live so close to a tube station. Everyone arrived promptly, Adam ready with the equipment and directions and me with the storyboards and props. Our organisation, I'd venture, had improved vastly through the trials and errors of the previous weeks.

After setting up for filming on location, we turned on the camera and found it only had about 24 mins of battery time; Adam hadn't charged it correctly. However, this was only a minor setback, as we projected that we had enough time as long as we switched the camera off/put it to sleep in-between takes. The other downside was the weather, which metamorphosed from moderate gloom to spitting rain about two-thirds of the way through filming. However, despite this, we managed to shoot almost all our footage before the camera shut down right before us managing our last two takes. In the end, this didn't pose a real problem; we went into a coffee shop down the street and allowed our actress for Al to warm up while we charged the camera. It had been a problem making her run back and forth, putting on her coat between filming so she didn't freeze, so this was a welcome and timely respite from the weather and stress.

Adam was in charge of recording the sound in this section, as we have the bulk of our dialogue at the end of our sequence. He conducted this with an exceptional degree of professionalism and the result is, as you'll see, excellently clear sound; something we know groups in previous years have struggled to achieve in their work. I'm not sure how much enjoyment he got out of squatting on the ground out of shot of the camera for intermediate amounts of time, but at the very least his hard work paid off.

In the end, we shot the last few scenes within minutes and went home happy. Luckily, the rain we battled through didn't even show up on film; something we were all grateful for, I think. This session concluded our filming, and we could begin editing and other post-production at last. I did enjoy this part of the coursework, but I feel that it would have been easier if we were a professional team with no other responsibilities apart from getting it done. Some day, maybe.

AF & DY

Filming: Session 2

I've let blog updates fall by the wayside for the last few weeks due to the hectic pattern of filming and editing, but now that shooting is over I have time to retrospectively review the two other days on-set.

The session begun as if some higher power was purposefully working against us whilst loudly, obnoxiously laughing. We were scheduled to meet on Sunday morning at 10, outside of school. We had some problems with transportation (the actress for Mal, Kalyani, was coming from a different part of London and needed to go home to change into costume, whilst mine and Clara's lift was postponed due to her sister taking precedence). We could always have taken public transport, but I didn't cherish the thought, as I was the one in charge of all the equipment. In the end, we resolved to meet at 10:30. Clara and I were lifted to the nearby park for her mother's convenience, and I messaged Adam that we'd meet him and Kalyani straight at Lover's Walk. However, I made the fatal mistake of asking him to send me the postcode so we could walk there via Google Maps, since Clara and I aren't local to the area and therefore had little idea of where to go. After Adam sent us to the wrong location twice (and we at one point ironically walked straight through where we were supposed to go, not noticing because the gate we expected to see had been removed), I told Adam and Kalyani to come pick us up from a street corner. I then revoked Adam carry the equipment I'd been dragging from place to place for the better part of an hour as punishment for his inability to copy-paste an address line. Mostly, I'm just sorry for the pressure we put on our actresses, especially Clara who had requested we film as quickly as possible because she was having a bad week for homework... But I digress.

The rest of filming, fortunately, went about as smoothly as it could. The vital shots on that godforsaken side path were completed within about 20 mins, and we then took the bus to Clapham Common, where we filmed the rest of Al's scenes and finally allowed at least one of our put-upon actresses to go home. Mal's waking up shots didn't take long either and, in the end, we finished with a few hours of daylight to spare and the better part of the evening ahead of us.

The footage came out just fine. There were a few pieces of dialogue that we filmed but didn't use the sound equipment for, which was perhaps lazy of us, but I'm not sure it would have made a difference anyway as the microphones are very sensitive and there was both wind and an endless barrage of people surrounding us on location. The important thing is, the words are audible, and even if we do decide to dub it the process of recording will take two actors and five minutes. The only visual problem is that, at one point, the sloping angle of the satanic path we for some reason chose as our location makes it look like the camera is tilted. Hopefully, we won't have to go back there and re-shoot. If we do, I'm sending Adam alone.

DY

Lighting Practice

In preparation for filming, we did a small filming task to practice lighting techniques. The battery life of the lights was brought to our attention by the fact that the second group ran out of time to use them and had to re-charge. In all, the batteries only last around 20 minutes; a fact that I later carefully planned around on the first day of filming. However, in retrospect, this didn't matter much, as one of the lights quickly dimmed for some reason, and so, in the end, I hardly used the lights at all. As the rest of our film takes place outside, it seems that this task was the crux of our practical work with that side of film production.

DY

Shooting Schedule

This is the shooting schedule which Adam had to rewrite due to one of our actresses quitting on us (again). It seems, however, that we were third time lucky, as this time the person playing Mal seems determined and eager to help. We aren't sure which particular days of the above weekends we'll be filming on, but we know exactly which props and equipment we need, which should suffice. 

AF