That's a wrap.

Well, after many many projects and mishaps I've come to the end of Level 4. Overall I feel like I have refined a lot of my technical and problem solving skills as well as added to my portfolio of work.

Tyrannosaur

Warp films' name has been synonymous with quality and gritty realism. Tyrannosaur is no exception to that rule, painting a grim and true to life picture of the lives of two people and the people they encounter on a rundown council estate in the Midlands.

The story centres on a widowed man who in a drunken rage accidentally kills his dog, grieving he befriends a woman working at a charity shop, from there it leads to friendship, sadness and shocking revelations.

As per tradition with Warp films the tone of the film is very grim, not holding back on any front, some of the events depicted are rather shocking and gory, including rape, a child being mauled by a dog and our main character decapitating the said dog. These scenes while unsettling successfully depict the harsh and unforgiving world in which the characters live, which while at times can be exaggerated is very believable   and all the characters feel as if they could exist in real life. I also think it was an interesting role reversal to make the male lead a widow as this isn't done often, while the main character tries to act masculine and stereotypically tough his human side eventually shines through

The acting in the film is also top notch, all the main characters and even the side characters and extras give engaging and believable performances that characterise them.

Whilst this type of story has been done in this style many times it's still done very well here, which isn't really something which can be faulted.

Editing screenshots

Here are some more screenshots of the editing process. I've successfully compiled a rough cut together, however it's WAY over time, currently running at about 7 minutes long. Whilst I have started to cut it back the director (who was absent) needs to view the rough edit before I can do anything too drastic that removes meaning from the story. I need to get the fine cut finished today so that the sound designer can work on the soundtrack.

Filming Complete

Okay, so yesterday after borrowing a suit from the fire museum we successfully completed principal photography for the drama project. Now we can finally use the footage and finish editing the film, ready for the sound designer to do his work. As I type this I'm waiting for the files to render in Final Cut Pro (which is one of the obstacles in the way at the moment.

Hopefully I'll be able to finish most of the picture editing today, giving us time to work on the sound and make any alterations, should they be required.

Hope for the best!

Drama Project Update 06/05/2012

To say we're running a bit behind schedule is an understatement, we still have footage to shoot and editing to complete, we also need a reshoot of scenes containing a cosmonaught (since the costume doesn't look very convincing).

On the editing front I think I'm working well with the limited footage I have available. Challenges I have encountered include:
- Converting DSLR footage in Compressor to make it editable.
- Chroma keying on green screens with differing lighting.
- File size limiting the transfer of footage.
- Having to edit without the director present, which can cause misunderstandings at times.

Here are a couple of screenshots of the editing process:

I have had positive feedback from the group, several other students and my tutor, so I'm confident that despite being pressed for time, if all other production elements go to plan that we should be able to get the project finished on time.

Drama viewing materials

http://www.gboyle.co.uk/aag%20qt.HTM

Whilst this film is well shot and edited it suffers from an unlikeable main character and a story that doesn't really answer a lot of questions that are brought up. The main character is a teenage girl from a northern council estate as she explains why she's unhappy and frustrated with her life, with her divorced parents, unpleasant surroundings and little to no opportunities. This character, although unlikable and "chavvy" with her vocabulary and accent does have a motivation: To get into the music business and move away from her current surroundings, she sings Britney Spears songs both alone and with her friends. However at the end of the film the girl drops a stillborn baby into the canal before leaving in a saddened state, the meaning of this is mostly left ambiguous though it may be implied that she herself had the baby and it was born dead.

Personally I disliked the main character due to the previously mentioned aspects and found her aspirations a little delusional, I also didn't like the ambiguity of the ending and its relative suddenness. That being said I think the film did depict life in these areas relatively accurately and I think a lot of people could sympathise and understand the main character a little better than I did.

Sign Language

"Sign Language" is an enjoyable short concerning people with one of the most mundane jobs in Britain; standing around with advertising signs. Told in the style of a documentary it follows a man who claims to be "an advertising technician", the man is very upbeat and optimistic about his extremely boring job and keeps his spirit higher than anyone in his position in real life might do. The whole film has a tongue in check style, from the man describing his "co-workers" with terms that certainly seem very misguided. The penultimate scene where the advertisers turn round is a rather amusing twist to the story as it goes someway to confirm the man's claims of his co-workers being nice after he himself has started to lose hope in them.

I enjoyed this film and how different it was filmed, and the main character was very likable with his optimism and upbeat attitude.

Audiotour

This film again has a very tongue in cheek value to it and made me wonder what it would be like if machines had thoughts and a personality. While the audio tour starts off normal enough it soon becomes clear that this will have a humorous tone to it when the machine starts describing a man stood by the woman who is listening. From then on the device starts to describe a lot of the aspects of life, objects and behaviour that the woman encounters, eventually accumulating with a small character study of herself, making her realise that she is a flawed character. The audio tour recording is an interesting character in his own right, acting very cynical with a lot of dry humour and despite his obvious limitations of being a machine he does seem very human and is the only character in the film with any dialogue as such.