Havoc - Research

Havoc was a music video produced by Andre Chocron for the band 'While You Slept'. Chocron is a director from Oslo, Norway. He set up this video with his video production company called Frokost Film.

Havoc 

When shooting at high speed there is a lot of things that need to be taken into consideration. The photograph or the footage may be taken in a way to appear to freeze the motion this is so it especially reduces motion blur when it comes to editing. This therefore requires sensor with a good sensitivity and very good shuttering system or fast strobe light. In slow motion photograph again may be taken at a high sampling frequency or frame rate this was then require some means of capturing successive framers, this is done with either a mechanical device or moving data off electronic sensors very quickly. However in high speed there is also other considerations which include record length, reciprocity breakdown and spatial resolution.

When Andre Chocron did this there would have been a lot of things he would have had to take into consideration other than those that I have mentioned. Due to them shooting in a very large room which was relatively dark the use of lots of lights would have been very important, without plenty of light the slow motion would have looked dark and gloomy and therefore not the effect he was going for. Although as a professional this wouldn't have affected Chocron but the type of camera used is very important when it comes to shooting in slow motion. This is because some cameras are only made to shoot in 24-30 frames per second and therefore it will look fake that not even the best editing software can fix, which is why it is also vital that the right frame rate is chosen. With slow motion there will be a lot of extra footage than needed, this is due to the speed of the shots, therefore this means that there also won't be a soundtrack therefore I soundtrack on top of this footage will have been done separately.

Making Of Havoc 

In order for the production be successful a lot of things will need to be practised, the lighting will have to be practised to make sure that the room is bright enough on camera, so it gives off an amazing effect. The most important thing that needs to be practised is the actors knowing their call which will involve each of them knowing their positions and timings. Along with the lights it is important to practise with all of the electrical equipment this is in order to make sure that it is all working which will make the slow motion work. Finally the synchronisation between the actors will need to rehearsed hundred of times because without them all being together it will all go terribly wrong.

There was between 40 and 50 people in this shoot and therefore in order to make sure that everyone was in it he would have had to listen to the soundtrack loads of times to make sure he had all of the timings correct and then choreograph it so that everyone would fit it in. This is very important in a shoot like this because every move is vital and one mistake or one person missing out could mean a failure for the production.

The percentage that Andre Chocron had to slow it down by was 8.3% the reason for this being the percentage of being slowed down is because 25 is the normal speed which will then be divided by 300 which is the high speed which is 0.083 which is then times by 100 to get the correct percentage.

The seconds of live action that were actually filmed and the length of the resulting music video were 216 seconds. This again was is done by 300 the high speed times by 18 which is the approx number of seconds which gives you 5,4000 frames which then is 25 which then gives you 216 seconds of footage.

Havoc - Behind the scenes. 

Review of Havoc 

I think that this music video has some of the best lighting I have ever seen in a music video. I think this is to do with the fact that there is also a white background. This really helps with the lighting, however I like the fact that there is a shadow on her face it makes the screen not to bright. As I previously explained the lighting is important because too much or too less can easily ruin it.

I like that fact that in this the main focus is on the woman, although there is dancers in the background they aren't the main focus. instead for the majority of the music video they are out of focus as they are just seen as little figures in the background. Each of the dancers are wearing grey, I think that this compliments the white background and the white dress the woman is wearing really well. In this I think it is a very subtle colour and instead of using something like black which can be seen as overpowering.

I really like the way the directors use the fire in the background when the woman stands up, it shows the amount of power that she has. I think that also because the fire isn't bright orange it goes really well with the theme of the colouring which I expect is what the directors wanted to happen. Finally right at the end it is blurred out before 'HAVOC' is written and I really like this.

Personally I loved it, I thought that the way all of the actors were in synch which each other was amazing and so different to anything that I had seen before. I think that the dancing and movement that were done were superb and therefore it meant that it turned out very well. I think that the lighting in this was also incredible as you could see every person very clearly which meant that was the correct amount of lighting and nothing too overpowering.

http://gizmodo.com/5164508/tips-for-shooting-the-best-slow-motion-video - 29th April 

Zombie Shoot

For the first day back at college we were assigned with a class zombie shoot, outside on the hoe. The idea behind this was that half of us would be dressed up as zombies while the others would be the victims. The end project had to be a 2 minute zombie film keeping with the soundtrack that Neil had given us.

Along with the zombie shoot we had to come up with a zombie plan of survival. My ideas on my survival list were all very funny and not very serious. Although however I think some of them would work pretty well if there was a zombie attack. I think that this was a good idea because it made us get more into character and what to do if an attack actually happened, however unrealistic.

Zombie Survival Plan

Once we came up with our plans some of us had to get into character, myself included. I put on black eye make up and made myself have really pale skin to look like a snowman. I then put on a plain white top and covered it in fake blood. I would say that just under half of us were covered in zombie make up and fake blood. All of us then had to walk through town to get to the hoe.

Once we got to the hoe we were put into 6 groups in my group was Olivia Searle, Chloe Binding, Matt Jury, Simon Childe, Abi Cannings, Jess Mitchell-Fowle and Tyler Sinclair. In my group myself, Chloe and Simon were the zombies, while Olivia, Abi, Tyler and Jess were the victims. We were given a camera, tripod and a newspaper. The reason for being given the newspaper was because we were all told that we needed the same opening shot of the newspaper rolling away in the wind. Matt was the director and he told us all of our positioning and asked us for our advice on the best shots which I think was really good.

The first shot was of the newspaper flying away in the wind; this was actually incredibly hard to film because there was very little wind when we were shooting this shot. The next was the shot of Chloe walking through the shot, Simon and Abi fighting and myself lying on the bench and then walking off camera, the third shot was of Olivia been eaten by myself and Chloe. That was all of the main shots done, after that we got shots of Jess and Tyler on the bench being scared, then as the victim they had to go down to the bottom of the hill and be trapped in this little space, this was the same for every group.

After that had been done we did shoots of all the zombies together there was about 20 of us who had to walk towards the camera in the correct time. Each of our movement was important because if someone was out of time then it would be very noticeable. We did this shot about 4 times to make sure that everyone was in time after that had been done we did two shots with the Go Pro. One of the shoots was of Matt running through us and getting out the other side and then the second shot was of Matt running through the middle and all of us capturing him and bringing him down. This was really fun to shoot.

I think that this shot was incredibly fun and a little different, however I think that it was quite hard because we had 2 and a half hours to film everything which wasn't very long at all considering how much we had to film. Also the weather kept changing which meant that the lighting kept going from dark to light which was a little bit annoying but other than that it was really great.

This was our edit 

Evaluation Assignment Three - Looking Back

'The creative treatment of ACTUALITY is one of the greatest gifts a Filmmaker can have' 

Evaluate how you have grown and developed as a practitioner, during this first assignment? 

I think that I have grown because I am now able to work on my own, I am confident in using all of the camera equipment by myself. In this project I think that my editing has also improved a lot, this is because in my last assessment I didn't think my editing was that good therefore I think that it was important that I focused a lot on it. 

 What two things were you most proud of?

I think one thing that I was most proud of was my final documentary, this was biggest it was my first major project and I was able to work on my won and do things how I wanted to do them. I also really enjoyed mine and Olivia's Pandora advert, I really liked this was because it was a really simple idea that worked out really well. 

 What two things do you think you could improve in the future?

I still think that I could improve on my editing, although I think I am better at it now, I still believe that I have a lot to improve on and work towards. Another thing I think that I need to work on is the quality of sound that I produce, I think I am confident with filming but I think the sound side of it is something that I am not that confident with and therefore I want to improve on it. 

Write down some future targets you would like to achieve?

I think that working in smaller groups and on my own more often will help me to improve some more. 

Final Documentary - Filming and Editing

This documentary was done by myself therefore all the filming and editing was down to me. I decided that my filming days would be Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Although I had a schedule I didn't follow it exactly. I followed it to a point.

On the Monday I decided that I would start by getting a 10 minute clip of people walking around town but only showing their lower body. I got to 8 minutes and both of the camera batteries died. I was really disappointed at this because I wanted to get a large portion of it done on Monday. However I took all of my equipment home and decided to do the majority of the voice over that night. I had to plan what I was going to say in my voice over because it would be spoken throughout my video. I wrote it all down what I was going to say and recorded it into my voice recorder. It took me a couple of times to get the clips and to make them sound right, however I felt as though I said everything that needed to be said. 

That night I also decided to do some more filming, I filmed my 'online shopping segment.' In this segment I got my brother to scroll up and down on the 'Topman' website to show him looking at clothes, as this is a big part of online shopping. I then got him to go onto 'Ebay' and 'Amazon', who are two of the biggest online retailers sites. These two sites have had a major impact on high street stores because especially on 'Ebay' you can get the same quality goods but for much cheaper and everyone likes a bargain. I did an over the shoulder shot for this part because I felt as though it would give the best view of the sites. 

On Tuesday I made sure that both of my batteries were charged right up and therefore wouldn't die on me again. I took all of my equipment back into town, however it decided to start raining really had. This was my problem and solution. I came up with a solution and that was to cover up the camera as much as possible therefore it didn't get damaged while filming. Despite the weather I managed to film a lot. I started off with filming a lot of shops down the bottom of town that had been closed and abandoned, this was easy to film because there wasn't many people about. I then decided to move and film a bit more in the other parts of town that was a lot busier. I filmed outside shops such as House of Fraser, Blacks, Miss Selfridges and others. In these shots I just got them open and people walking in and out of the shops to show that they were still busy. After I had down that I filmed some other abandoned shops, ones which were a lot bigger before they went down. The shops that these were Entertainment for less, JJB sport and Derry's. 

After I had done a lot of these shots coming from different angles, I decided to do a big shot from outside of House of Fraser it was one where I filmed people going in and out of the shop; this shot worked well because at this time House of Fraser was really busy and therefore people kept walking in and out. The idea behind this shot was that I was going to speed it up while editing. After that I went back down to the quieter end of town and shoot outside the charity shops. Charity shops have been one of the only shops that haven't been affected by the online shopping and therefore I felt like it was important that  I included them in my footage. Finally the last shot that I got of the day was outside of Drake Circus mall, this was by far the busiest part of town and I filmed people going in and out of the mall. Due to it being this busy I decided that this was a good place to get my wild track and there was a lot of voices. 

To complete a documentary, you will always need to interview people, therefore on Wednesday that is what I did, to start with an interview of Olivia who is one of my friends from college, I was going to interview people in Plymouth City Centre, but due to the weather I wasn't able to do this. The second interviewer I got was Lynne Marker who works for Soft Soles which is a beauty salon in the middle of town, I asked each of them the same three questions. Do you think online shopping has affected the high street? Do you prefer online shopping to high street shopping? Who do you think online shopping is aimed at? There answers were a bit different because Lynne was coming from a professional background while Olivia was stating her own opinion. I felt that both of their opinions were great and incredibly lengthy which was amazing for my documentary. 

Editing 

On Tuesday I started my filming, to start with I had to get all of my footage from my laptop to the college computer which was a bit of a hard task as I had a lot of footage and my memory stick wasn't big enough to fit it all on. 

After I had done that I started my edit, I went through all of my clips and deleted the ones that I didn't need. I had a lot of extra voice overs that I didn't need so I rid of them. I then put all of the footage into Adobe Premiere Pro. I selected all of the footage and cut each of the clips down as I had to make sure that my documentary was under 6 minutes. I thought that selecting the footage and putting them into order was a lot easier than I thought it would be. I think the reason for this was because of the amount of practice I have had with editing since September. 

After I had put all of the clips in, I matched the sound up from Olivia's interview to the actual clip. This was then I realised that I didn't have very good sound quality from Lynne's interview. The best thing that I could do was to turn the sound right up from the audio tune to make sure that it was as clear as it could be. I managed to save the sound and I was really impressed with the way it turned out. Due to the sound not being amazing this meant I had to turn the sound down from Olivia's interview so it wasn't too loud as else it would have sounded really strange. 

Once the sound from the interview was sorted, I needed to put in the voice overs, this was important where I stuck the voice overs because it needed to make sense with the clips, therefore the voice over where I was talking about charity shops I put with the footage of the charity shops. I did the same when it came to online shopping, out of everything in the edit this most certainly took the longest because I had over 30 voice overs and I had to select the ones I felt were the most suitable, this took me about an hour to work this out. 

These were the most important part of the video, due to the amount of voice overs that I had I felt like I didn't need the wild track. Finally I sped up some of the clips to 800% to make it look more like a news documentary and then added some fades and dissolves, I felt as though this made it look a lot more professional and I was really pleased with the outcome. Finally the last thing I did was blur ending, I did this with the help of Matt Jury as I wasn't entirely sure but he showed me what to do and I was incredibly happy with the outcome. 

I really loved this documentary and it turned out fantastic  I am glad that I worked on my own because it made me realise that I can work on my own and it can turn out successful. I really enjoyed working on documentaries as I find them so interesting.

This is my documentary. 

Final Documentary - Planning

The big final project was to do a documentary in under 6 minutes in three weeks. The first week we had to plan, the second week to film and the third week to edit.

As soon as I had heard that we could do a documentary on anything we wanted, I had a pretty good idea. My idea was High Street Shopping Vs Online Shopping' to see which one did better. My idea was easy to come up with because I felt as though it was something that nobody else would of done and it was really interesting. I did a presentation on Prezi which had to last 2 minutes. I think that my documentary last about 2 minutes, although I had to go through it quite quickly due to the length of it.

I had to do a lot of research in looking up what happened in high street shopping and online shopping. I found out a lot of facts about online shopping. I found out that a majority of people preferred to shop online to avoid queuing in shops. I surveyed people and I asked them seven questions. The type of questions I asked was; Where do you shop? Do you think online shopping has affected the high street? Do you prefer online shopping to high street shopping? The age I asked was a bit of a variety. The age was ranging from 16 + under to 75+. I felt as though it was important to get a say from everyone because then it was more fair and not as bias to those who have a better understanding of the internet. I got a good number of results back, as are shown on the data above. I think this was important because I got a real understanding for my subject and how much online had affected the high street. 

 To start with my intentions were to show that even though online shopping is taking over it's not affecting the high street market a much as people make it out to be. The high street is eking a lot of money still and many people still prefer the high street over online. I had set out the aspects that I needed to capture. I needed to have some sort of time lapse that I would be able to speed up in editing. I also decided that I need a voice over, interviews from members of the public, shots of different areas of shopping online and the high street. Finally I need to include different shots of town to show off the busyness and the popular streets. It was important to me that I had a plan to follow because this way I could see what I was doing each day which would cause for me to not fall behind. 

I thought that it would be best if I took a side of this argument. I felt as though it was best to do this so that I could focus on one aspect more and people could see the side in which I was coming from. The side in which I was coming from was that I felt that although online shopping had gotten incredibly popular it hadn't actually taken over from high street shopping as it was still very popular. In my planning for my voice over I thought to mention this so that it was very clear to what side I was coming from. This was important because in a normal documentary that would have been the case, with the interviewer coming from a side instead of staying neutral as it makes it far more interesting to watch. 

This was the release for that I used, it was important to have this because it showed that these people were allowing me to put them into my film. 

For this project in particular it was important to have a risk assessment for this, all the filming that I did was offsite therefore I needed this because during college time I wasn't actually there meaning that I need to be careful of my whereabouts and if there were any heath and safety precautions that I need to take into consideration. In fact there was some considerations that I to be careful of as there was the possibility of it raining and therefore the ground becoming slippery. This was important because I was on my own with a lot of equipment. 

My storyboard was quite easy to come up with, I knew what order my shots were going to be in and therefore it was pretty easy to come up with the storyboard, although this was a very vague idea to what I was going to do I felt that this storyboard is very detailed and something that would be relatively easy to follow. 

I felt as though this was the easiest part of the documentary was the planning because I did an incredibly detailed plan which helped me when it came to starting the filming. I am thankful that I put so much time and effort into the planning because it definitely helped me. 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/10537640/Shoppers-shun-the-high-street-to-spend-their-money-on-internet-sales.html - 25th March

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2255677/Booming-internet-sales-close-5-000-High-Street-stores-cost-50-000-jobs.html - 25th March

Critique of a Docudrama - The Social Network

The Social Network was directed by David Fincher and written by Aaron Sorkin, it was released on October 1st 2010. The film was released by Columbia Pictures. The story behind it is how Mark Zuckerberg launched Facebook while still in college. Jesse Eisenberg plays Mark Zuckerberg. The docudrama shows the struggles that Mark went through but also what made him so successful.

'Terrific entertainment - an unlikely thriller that makes business ethics, class distinctions and intellectual-property arguments sexy, that zips through two hours quicker than you can say "relationship status," and that'll likely fascinate pretty much anyone not named Zuckerberg.' - NPR- Bob Mondello

The Social Network is a docudrama because it attempts to recreate the events within the event. I think the way that they manage to recreate the events is done very well. I think that in this docudrama it was important that they managed to stay as close to the original concept as they could. Unlike a documentary a docudrama is a lot more dramatic. The reason for it being so much more dramatic is so that it keeps the audience interested. By making it more dramatic the audience is more likely to empathise with the characters which has been stimulated by a certain event. This is important so that it keeps to the original idea but keeps the audience wanting more. An example of making it more dramatic, is when Mark is dumped by his girlfriend and he blogs about right after after using some offensive language to describe her, I highly doubt it was exactly like this in real time, but in this type of docudrama it's important to use dramatic techniques to tell the story. 

In this film we see everything that Mark experienced during college and the hardships that he went to while he was discovering Facebook. In this film it shows how Mark had to overcome people thinking that he was stealing their idea. Also in this film it shows how Mark lost his best friend after he lost him while discovering Facebook, I think that this part of the film is important because it shows how his experiences made him the person he is today.

'The film comes down to a mesmerizing portrait of a man who in any other age would perhaps be deemed nuts or useless, but in the Internet age has this mental agility to transform an idea into an empire.' - The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

This film looks very slick and modern, although you can tell that this film is set in the past because of the technology that is used. The computers and network sites that are used in this film are very dated and about 10 years old. This is important because new technology wouldn't have been created when Mark was still in college. The fact that this is a documentary means that it is important that the equipment that is used in the film is what was used in the real time. At the Academy Awards the film won Best Picture and Best Editing, this is important in the way it looks because this shows that incredible care and detail was put into it.

The sound used in The Social Network is a lot of barroom chatter and shuffling feet these sounds were used to enhance important sounds than rather use a standard orchestral sounds which is used in a lot of films as a standard wild track. The sound department in The Social Network won Best Oscar for original score and nominated for best sound. The directer David Fincher oversaw Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross engineering of the films sound and score, he worked with the team to perfect the technological. Although a real world atmosphere he strove to attain. The most common source of sound that Fincher used was overlapping dialogue and real world sounds, although this technique was common and seen as repetitive.

The Social Network is told from a third person perspective, the story is told by an outsiders view, this is done through it being a docudrama. The way the in which the story was told it was very heavily criticised. Mark Zuckerberg said "I can promise you, this is my life so I know it’s not that dramatic. The last six years have been a lot of coding and focus and hard work, but maybe it would be fun to remember it as partying and all this crazy drama." This occurs a lot in docudramas because the story isn't fully the truth and always exaggerates what it actually is. 

The film does work really well for what it is, the concept is just to inform people of Mark Zuckerberg's life before Facebook and while he was inventing Facebook, the story does well in portraying Mark's character very similar to his personality traits. I think that there is nothing other that the director could have done to make it better for what it is. 

I think that this film doesn't really make you feel anything, the idea is to inform and that it does. I think this film definitely makes you think about how one person life can change over night. It is important to look at the situation and think that this could happen to anyone. Mark worked on Facebook for a period of time and in that he was successful. I think people will look at this film and think that if a 19 year old college student can make a website that successful from his college dorm, then it is possible for others to be able to achieve what they want. For me personally this is how it makes me feel, I think I look at this film as a motivation to achieve. This film exists because Mark Zuckerberg is an incredibly rich young man and people are interested in him and his story of how he got that much money and became so successful. 

This film got a lot of mix reviews, so people absolutely loved it, others despised it. I think that this film is about taste you either love it or hate it. 

'David Fincher's film has the rare quality of being not only as smart as its brilliant hero, but in the same way. It is cocksure, impatient, cold, exciting and instinctively perceptive.  - Chicago Sun Times Roger Ebert'

What people love about this film is the fact that it's a David Fincher film, an incredibly successful directer who is known for his smart and clever films. However people despise it due to the portrayal of Mark Zuckerberg's character. A lot of critiques complain that is isn't Mark's personality, it isn't nothing like Mark the way in which things are done. 

'But as a story about Facebook, it is deeply, deeply flawed. As I watched the film, and considered what it missed, it struck me that there was more than a hint of self-congratulatory contempt in the motives behind how this story was told. - New Republic'

I think that in conclusion that this docudrama was very successful, it portrayed the main aspects of Mark Zuckerberg's life, although some parts of it could have been more true to real life. However if this was the case it would mean that it wouldn't of been as successful when it came to audience response because it would have had a lack of dramatic techniques.

http://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-social-network/critic-reviews - 20th March

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/books-and-arts/78081/sorkin-zuckerberg-the-social-network  - 20th March

http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-social-network-2010  - 20th March

http://www.examiner.com/article/the-sounds-of-silence-analyzing-sound-the-social-network-and-citizen-kane-1  - 20th March

http://www.joblo.com/movie-news/what-does-facebook-founder-mark-zuckerberg-think-of-the-social-network  - 20th March

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Social_Network  - 20th March

'Real or not so Real'

In this production we had to create a story based on the picture. I based my idea on the fact that the girl looked rough and that she had a tough upbringing. I thought it was really fun creating the background for this character because all we have is a picture yet we are placing judgment and telling our own story to suit that persons looks. I think it is important to be able to make up your own story based on an imagine.

This idea came about learning about the difference between Mockumentaries and Docu-Drama's.

A Mockumentary is a made up story but the director still uses documentary techniques in order to make it look real. A Mockumentary will usually contain a description of the events, what happens; who was there, what was said, these are usually taken from their accounts or interviews. These interview happen at the time or months after the event. Along with this another thing that is included is techniques such as 'real life footage' this so conventionally catches the action. Two very well known Mocumentaries are 'The Office' and 'Parks and Recreation.'

While on the over hand a Docu-Drama takes a real life event and produces a fictional drama of the events. This is done by a re-enactment of what is happening using drama techniques. Sometimes these re-enactments can be slightly over-exaggerated in order for the audience to capture the concept. An example of where this happens the most is on 'Crimewatch' and on the Pride of Britain awards.

This production was called 'Real or not so Real.' There are so many reasons as to why this documentary is real but also not so real. This is because this documentary is about describing a person in a video diary, this way of doing it through a documentary is real. This could be real though because somebody out there, this is probably there life that I am describing yet I have no idea because what I believe that it is all what I have made up.

'My name is Diana Rose Green, I have been homeless for the past 9 years. This all started when I got kicked out of my home after overdosing on sleeping pills at a party. I left my home in London and moved across the ocean to San Francisco. For the past 5 years I have been the top drug dealer in Old San Fran. Every few weeks I have to move to a different part of San Francisco to make sure I don't get caught by the police. Recently along with being the top drug dealer I have also started become a prostitute, it's different from being a drug dealer but I still get the same thrill. Life isn't all that bad on the streets, people make it out to be worse than it actually is, I enjoy it.'

There are so many reasons as to why this documentary is real but also not so real. This documentary is real because it is about describing a person in a video diary, this way of doing it through a documentary is real. This could be real though because somebody out there, this is probably there life that I am describing yet I have no idea because what I believe that it is all what I have made up.

However on the other side this documentary it really isn't real. I don't know this women, I have absolutely no clue who she is. For all I know this women could be rich and famous, yet I am making a judgment about her. However I think this production is necessary, is it important that they are real or not? I think it's more important to get the idea behind learning about Mockumentaries and Docu-Drama's. I personally think that it isn't real, however I think that there are elements that are real, the description of her isn't accurate yet the concept behind it is and this is where the problem lies of it being 'Real or not so Real.'

Although this production was very simple and easy to make I enjoyed it a lot, I think that if I were to do it again I wouldn't pick the same women, I would want to do something a bit different and maybe base it on someone who is completely different to this 'Diana Rose Green' that I made up.

Here is my version of the production