Question 3 & 4 Advanced Portfolio

Q.3 How did your productions skills develop throughout this project?

Much like my ability to work on Adobe Photoshop, I followed a similar pattern in learning how to use Adobe Premiere Pro CS6. Honestly it wasn’t a walk in the park at all. At the beginning everything seemed to be so disorienting; the tools, the settings, the formats, basic stuff etc. I’ve had Premiere Pro for a while and never had used it before but some weeks prior to editing our film. The main thing was that it was inevitable. Sooner or later this project will have to be submitted and I don’t want to be working on it at the last minute as it will be futile. So I watched online tutorials, started from the very basics, clip placing, titles and adding music. And then moved onto more advanced editing techniques such as adding colour schemes/filters, crossfading sound and adding blur. 

Planning was the key. Everything needed to go accordingly as the timeline constructed as the schedule was rather tight. I needed at least two weeks for research before preparing the storyboard. The research mainly involved a lot of fieldwork that revolved around the living standards of those who can’t afford proper homes. It certainly was eye opening at some points where some people said they had lost their loves ones to drug addiction. I then used the internet to acquire more information about drug cases; mainly statistics. All the research before making a movie is crucial, it needs to be unbiased and accurate as possible otherwise it’s meaningless and hollow.

I had numerous tasks on the film we were making even though I had two friends who supported me. I was acting, directing and working on the camera at the same time. I placed a certain angle of the camera and set it on record and was then acting in some scenes. It was the first time I had experimented this way but it came in handy, after all, actors aren’t easy to find with a very low budget nor were people willing to take part during exams.

Music was my strong point. Often it has been said that I have an intriguing taste in music. And that is why I was also in charge of the soundtracks to be selected for the film. At first again it was just experimental, I could go either with some conventional tunes or try to add some more oomph to it. Music really makes the scenes more realistic and intense. It’s about finding something that will weave the entire picture together and not seem random.

All the props in the film were made or arranged accordingly to the storyboard; the clothes, the little details (can, hairnet, cigarettes etc.) Without them the film would just be empty. Since no dialogues were used, they convey the image and message a filmmaker is trying to symbolize.

Q.4 HOW DID U INTEGRATE TECH-SOFTWARE, HARDWARE AND ONLINE IN THIS PROJECT?

Technology is the very backbone of our film and highly relied on use of modern gadgets and information sources. The film was entirely shot on a Nikon D5100 DSLR camera with a basic 18-55 mm lens using a standard tripod. The scenes were taken in 1080p 25 frames per second. It was the first time we had worked on such a high quality resolution because our previous productions didn’t require much detail and relied mostly on storytelling and dialogues. However on ‘Worthless’ we tried to a completely different procedure. We were going to create a no dialogue movie which was going to save us the risk and burden of using a microphone and avoid the subtitles. And use Full HD to add some serene shots as we were going to experiment with cinematography and colours and with the use of props or mis’en scene to convey our story.

After the shooting was done, all the clips were then transferred to my HP ENVY laptop. From there the editing took place on Adobe Premiere Pro CS6. I had to watch several online tutorials in order to be able to build the movie the way I had planned it to be. This required learning step by steps of filter adding, sound crossfading, blurring and titles. Everything was going as planned till one day my laptop had been stolen. But fortunately most of it was already on backup in Hard Disk Drive. That was the day I was eternally grateful to a little, neglected black box which I thought would never come to use. After that that I cherished it closely.

The internet was also highly helpful before and after the shooting. First it was used to acquire information regarding drug cases, recent unemployment rates, the average drug user, poverty statistics and so on. Naturally a lot of field work was required but statistics and charts are better to be received from online sources. The internet was also used to obtain the fonts and soundtrack to be used in the editing. The basic fonts in Premiere Pro just aren’t adequate enough sometimes and the music was downloaded from iTunes. A website was to be made in order to promote the film. I was lucky to have found an advertisement of creating a website while I was scrolling on Facebook. It is quite difficult to believe that a pop up add for once was actually useful. The website I used was wix.com which allowed me to choose from many different type of structures. There was a film themed structure and also a play themed one. Strangely, the play themed structure seemed much more appealing because it allowed me to present my previous productions as well. It made the site look all the more realistic and very professional.

The postcard invitation of the film was made on Photoshop CS6. Whilst I was going through different types of textures and filters during the editing, I came across a film grain filter that made the image more cartoonish. I was quite impressed by the smudgy look of it, altered it a bit and stuck to this decision. The font for ‘Worthless’ was also made messy looking by adding a Drop Shadow to it.

The film was inspired from a short film by a professional animation director. He screened his film on a film festival I was attending. The story was about a man stranded on a tiny island for several months. Many boats and ships pass by but all for personal gain. For instance a ship stops on the island to colonise the island by placing a flag and leave without the stranded man. Another ship sets an anchor next to the island but extracts oil from it and leaves the man again. At the end the only who one who rescues the man from his peril is another man who was previously stranded on an island too and holding onto a large piece of wood or log floating in the ocean. And they both float away together towards the sunrise.

Also looking up A-level Media Studies students’ blogs was rather helpful. It showed what type of level our movie should be with. Amateur level of course but creativity and originality goes a long way. Which also helped with the construction of my storyboard. The main thing is even if the film is short, it must be gripping, touching and connects with the audience.