Friday, March 25, 2011
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
All footage and sound captured and uploaded
Yesterday Blaine and I went on a long bike ride into the wilderness with some newly purchased sound recording equipment purchased by the school (A boom). we wanted to re-capture some of the ambient sound made by the birds within the graveyard. This was due to the fact that on the day of filming, maintenance was taking place and this intercepted the sound quality that we wanted and the over all feel and atmosphere we wanted to create of segregation. We decided to film the birds again and it was very good quality and we are happy that we decided to re-capture the sound.

We also used the boom to capture the voice over of the main antagonist, we wanted his voice to be very clear and dominant within the film so we recorded this sound separately to the film and within a quite location to enable the voice over to be raised specifiably to the decibel level that we desire without any ambient sounds also being increased.
We have been editing some of the scenes as we have gone along the course and now we have a large quantity of the film to the standard that we desire. We will try to finish editing the footage today and then we can also add the voiceover and re-captured ambient sounds to have our final short film finished and to a high standard that we want, before we recieve feedback from potential consumers.
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Qualitative feedback poster and Review
Magazine and poster feedback 1 from Tom palmer on Vimeo.
Magazine and Poster feedback 3 from Tom palmer on Vimeo.
The questions we asked we both about the content of the subsidiary products but we also asked questions about the what would be the best place to exhibit both of them. Obviously our magazine review page was already going to be exhibited within empire magazine, but we had an empire magazine there which enabled us to ask questions involving the layout and tone of the review to find out if we had done our job and both written in the style that empire use as well as making our page look like an empire feature.
Friday, March 11, 2011
Credits
I decided to create a mock up of some credits that we could potenially use. I say potentially use but the thought never crossed my mind that we would use them because I was trying to create them to look fancy and play around with the effects on sony vegas which is the editing software I have at home.
Half way through I decided I would use them as a DO NOT video in the creation of credits.
I made them look good so they could be used in the creation of other certian products with different requirments. But i also include some mistakes and left out some actors names.
Although I did leave out some names, consumers of the product would be unaware of this (unless it was a very well known main actor) but it is not the consumer that it would seem unprofeshinal to but the actors or technitions ...etc that were forgoten and worked hard aswell as giving their time to create the film.
Below is the video of the credits that we will not be using, because they do not fit the conventions of a steryotypical short film or feature length films credits as well as the mistakes they have within them and absence of actors.
Penumbra credits from Tom palmer on Vimeo.
After creating this video I created a list of everyone that featured within the film that we need to credit as well as a special thanks to Joel for letting us use his soundtrack. These will be the people that are credited within our film:
Starring:Toby Barrett
George Frost
Eloise Fitt
Supported by:
Martin Palmer
Anne Palmer
Lewis Surridge
Jonny Brown
Victoria Moore
Jamie Reeves
Alex Smith
Conor Murry
Libby O'leary
Daniel knights
Martin Cambell
Jordan Bezants
Lydia Earl
Ben Goulder
Jessica Mills
With special thanks to:
Joel Neilsen
James Wigger
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Short presesntation documenting our progress
It was kindly uploaded by Richard our technition and to view the video click play below:
PRESENTATION 3 FEB 2011 from fLIX.TV on Vimeo.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Penumbra, Short review construction



Monday, February 14, 2011
Short flashback/dream sequence edit
Creating sound effects from Tom palmer on Vimeo.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Poster production Blaine's blog
To view the post follow the link below:http://blainekenneallya2media.blogspot.com/2011/02/poster-production.html
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Quantitative feedback analysis Blaine's blog
To view Blaine's post follow the link below:http://blainekenneallya2media.blogspot.com/2011/02/quantitative-audience-research-analysis.html
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Animatic for the first two scenes
Short Film Animatic from Blaine Kenneally on Vimeo.
This animatic can not only act as a visual aid for ourselves it can act as a supplement for the active consumer of our film. They will watch this animatic but it could act as a short teaser trailer enticing them to want to find out more and watch the finished product.Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Scene one, take one, and action!!
Myself and Blaine met up with Toby Barret (who we chose to take upon the role of the main protagonist) to shoot the first scene of our film as a second installment to our pre-production testing. unlike the images that we took in my post Scene 1 location and potential camera shots
this pre-production test depicts many of the camera angles, shots and sound that we want to include within the first scene of our short film. We have not added the voice over of the protagonist for this test but i came up with the idea that if we add the voice over, then we could select people to watch the first scene and receive consumer feedback to then be analysed which could outline many different types of consumers that we could then categorize under the effects model theory and work out a marketing strategy based upon the results.
This test footage was edited to depict what we want our first scene to look like and the time we will allocate for the first scene within our five minute short film.
To view the edited first scene watch the video below:
Scene one graveyard test from Tom palmer on Vimeo.
Like any filming process we filmed around twenty one minutes of footage for a one minute section of our film to then be cut down, but it is better to have to much footage than not enough as re-capturing footage will waste time, money and may not fit within continuity.Some of the footage was static camera shots trying to capture the ambient sound of birds tweeting as this is will be a prominent sound effect that we will use within our film.
To view the un-edited footage which we uploaded to give evidence of the time, effort and organisation that went into testing feel free to watch the video below:
Friday, December 24, 2010
Production log 3, Presenting our Final cut express effects
Production Log 3 (Experience in Editing) from Blaine Kenneally on Vimeo.
We do only have access to Final cut express and we were informed that their will be certain limitations between using the express version and this can be seen within the video. We created a mask over myself to turn me black and white but within the express version we could only create a box/square mask around me and then bevel the edges which looked good but not to the professional standard that we desire our film to be, so in order to achieve this standard we may use a different editing program to achieve this one effect known as the 'Sin city' effect.
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Editing techniques

In order to make our short film professional we wanted to learn how to use Final cut, this is not saying that it wouldn't look professional if this editing software was not used but this is the software that is widely used within the movie production industry and to learn a new skill that could be applied in any future job is a great step in moving from school work towards potential products that may be consumed and bought by the general public. we set about arranging a short session with the new technician at school because has experience in using the software and could talk us both through the basics that we need to know and he may possibly know how to apply some specific after effects that we would like to include as well as some composition changes.
When we met up with the technician there where some specific elements that we wanted to learn.
We wanted to work out how to change the huge and saturation, as the composition change will create an explicit distinction to the change of chronological order as the flashback and his quick childhood/symbolic memory will be in Black and white.
This is a very easy effect to create as there is a pre-set colour manipulation tool which can be used to automatically change the shots to black and white but if we wanted to sharpen up the contrast or add a tinted colour then this can easily be done within the colour manipulation settings.
We also wanted to know if we needed to create a mask over a certain object to change the colour of this object and this object only. We want to use this after effect to put emphasis on a red rose when a finger is pricked in the main protagonists quick symbolic memory that occurs each time he absorbs the pain of others.
After filming some quick test footage that we could try and manipulate we played around with the editing tools and found that you can put emphasis upon a certain object by just changing the contrasts of the colour's, the huge and saturation and the colour corrector tool that is within the software this can give of a good effect that we may want to use.

Another way could achieve what is known as the 'Sin city effect' when the certain colour's are emphasised and brought into the viewers focus. Within the extras of the Sin city DVD some of the editing techniques are included and the way that they achieve this effect was by using a green screen which we could try and do. To view a short segment of sin city to see the well renowned Sin city effect in action watch the video below:
The final effect that we want to include is the layering of clips. We want to use this effect to represent a young girls channel of thinking as she stares out of a window, deep in focus. We want to have a the shot of the girl as the main clip but then we want to layer multiple clips over the top of her parents arguing to represent the troubles she may have at home and how this is effecting her. This can be done in two ways:
The first way can achieve this effect by using simple transitions of the multiple clips. If you change the opacity of the clips, feather the edges and possible add some motion blur the quick transitions will create the effect of the girls thoughts and this will be emphasized by the dominant static shot of the girl after we have slowly zoomed in on her head as a signifier to the audience that what follows are her thoughts.
For an example of the overlaying effect watch the video bellow:
The second way is to change the opacity of the overlaid shots and to have them featured within the space situated within the shot of the girl. If feathering is added then this could stop the overall shot looking very regimental but depending on the content of the argument it may be too small and overall have this regimental look which would be very unprofessional as well as boring for the audience.
After learning all these skills we now feel very confident that we can make our short film to a very high standard.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Pre-poduction location testing
Pre-poduction testing from Tom palmer on Vimeo.
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Scene 1 location and potential camera shots
Myself and Blaine are very interested in very complex narrative based films which are predominantly character driven and this is to a certain extent what our short film will consist of. We have taken inspiration from many films that follow this style. Blaine's posts on sources of inspiration and Directorial techniques to consider as well my posts, Inspiration for our short film, True leaders of film and Three inspirational films from our teacher extensive DVD collection show our interest in this style and how we were inspired by these films and their unique styles.
Our film will strongly focus on the emotional development of the main protagonist and due to this being our main focus we want the cinematography to be very minimalistic, giving off a great sense of realism but also to accentuate that the main protagonist is just a real man in the real world, any over elaborate visual effects will digress from this sense of realism as well as the over attention to detail as it would then not portray the real world but an idealised version. This links with the postmodern theorists that we are learning about throughout the A2 course and how they believe the media portray an idealised world to us and this is another post-modern asset that our film includes, we want to portray the real world.
Both Blaine and myself have discussed the visual style of our film in great detail and my fellow director has written a post on cinematography: the look of our film which gives an overview of our discussions as well as some great examples for you to look at.

These four shots give you an example of the overall location that we want to use. The graveyard will be the opening location and because it is a very morbid but surreal place it will add to the ambiguity of why the main protagonist is their. The shots above are some examples of some establishing shots we could use before you see the protagonist on the floor, these establishing shots will set the mood of the film as well as providing a picture the audience can paint of the general surroundings that the main protagonist is in. Like myself and Blaine said the shots we used will still be thought about and look great making sure we portray the message that we want they will just not be overly visually stunning due to the realism we want to create.

Another idea that we had was to have a two shot of a couple of graves, one of them being rendered down a little and he other either relatively new with some flowers next to it. This shot will juxtapose the two types of graves showing that one is frequently visited with fresh flowers placed upon it and generally being clean, but this will then be emphasised by the rendered grave or grave with no flowers signifying the difference between them. we want to then use a close up shot of the rendered grave making sure that the name is in focus and centralised within the shot, this will mean nothing at the time but it will be referenced later within the film.
We also played around with the shadows around the graveyard which made the visual look of the shot very aesthetically pleasing, this part of the location could be used for the protagonist to walk through, he would also create a shadow and with the glare from the sun there would be minimal detail on him so he would look basically like a shadow. we wanted to uses this part of the grave yard because it has no path and this would be a great place to bring in the theory of semiotics that Blaine was deconstructing for one of our ancillary products. We want the protagonist to walk on the grass but respectfully not walk at the heads of the grave stones where many people would create a visual outline of where the body is. This would show and act as a sign of respect and would correspond to the protagonists selflessness nature. This would be a very simple way to incorporate semiotics within our short film but it would show that we are thinking about the production of our film in great detail.
This is a picture of the road just outside the graveyard. We managed to create a very good image on camera incorporating the light of the sun that beams down onto the road where the protagonist will walk. The darkness at the side will emphasise the beam of light that the protagonist appears to be walking towards. the outline of the protagonist will only be visible as he walks down the road to end the first scene. When taking this picture I thought about our underlying style that we wanted to include, film noir, which will also be portrayed within the flashbacks of the protagonist. This then meant that we had to think about the chiaroscuro within some shots to conform with the conventions of film noir.Within this picture I was trying to re-create the glare from the sun that blinds you if you look towards it, so I faced the camera towards the sun just over the trees to reconstructed the visual image of the protagonist opening his eyes to be blinded by the sun. This did work to a certain extent but the image is not bright enough to re-create the effect on screen but I think we will have to create some artificial light to help create this effect on camera or we could add an effect on within the post production process.
Whilst we were walking around we came across an archway of trees which created a very mysterious walkway which we could try and use within our film. I thought about this later on in the day and I realised that if we did use this archway then it wouldn't be conforming to the minimalism that we want the cinematography to portray.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Production Log 2
In my opinion this is a very good way for us to track our progression throughout the course and it is working great so far. Our teachers also like the frequent updates to.
Bellow is a link to the critical/analytical/amusing second video:
http://blainekenneallya2media.blogspot.com/2010/11/production-log-2.html
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
My week of work experience at the 'Theatre Royal Norwich'
-putting up the lighting for the touring show.
-focusing it.
-Applying a rig check before each show.
-Placing various mics and speakers around the stage then connecting them to the sound board.
I then watched the first performance of 'Agatha Christies, witness for the prosecution' within the lighting gallery and 'Nick Monk' the lighting manager ran the first show, whilst explaining the process and what each button meant, I also had a pair of cans (headphones) which he was using to communicate with the touring manager back stage which enabled me to hear everything that was going on which was very fast paced and exciting.
The next day I got to do some of the ques, I would listen for the Lx cue and the number then I would reply by stating the cue and add standing by to show I was ready, unless it was a snap cue which then I had to complete upon the go ahead.
For the next three days I got to run the lighting for the whole show which was both very exciting as well as scary. The whole week was very exciting and I'm very excited about returning to help with the Christmas pantomime which they invited me back to.
Above is the lighting plan which we had to follow, in all honesty this is a pretty simple plan with minimal lighting but I got the chance to look at some extremely big productions such as a nine hour Greek play called Tantalus which was a touring show with over a million pounds of lighting to give multiple effects such as the ripple on the sea. Bellow is a picture of the lighting plan for this show it was very interesting learning about all the different lights they used and got to see most of them from the Theatre Royal's collection.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Production log
http://blainekenneallya2media.blogspot.com/2010/11/production-log-1.html
Monday, September 6, 2010
My 1 Minute 'Weapon of choice' music video remake
Weapon of choice 1 minute remake from Tom palmer on Vimeo.
This task to re-create the first minute of our chosen music video was a tricky task, in order for it to include continuity a similar location had to be found in order to re-create the camera shots, angles and movements that were present in the original video. Although the original was filmed in a closed down Hilton hotel I managed to find a location, AKA my friends house/conservatory which included parts of the video that needed to be included for example a chair to sit down in but then enough room in front of it so then the dance routine could take place, another is the corridor Christopher Walken dances down and the double door he then jumps in front of and they simultaneously open. All these features had to be included within the video and after some research and asking around my friends house seem to fit the narrative of the music video very well.When making the music video I had already made a short animatic so I was aware of the shots needed and the timing throughout the 1 minute extract.
When filming the video it went very smoothly the lighting looked good and the dancing after multiple takes and practice fit perfectly with the music and all was looking well.
Then was time to edit and make sure everything timed perfectly with the original, although this was a lengthy process I enjoyed it thoroughly but whilst editing there was some footage that didn't match the music so I had to substitute it for some re-worked footage that in the end looked quite good, although there is a mistake in the beginning of the video were there is one less jump-cut than in the original the video looks good and times well considering the rendering process made the soundtrack time ever so slightly different to the video in certain parts.
Overall for the first piece of live action for our A2 year, the summer continuity task went well and was defiantly a learning process.
A special thank you is in order to Blaine Kenneally who gave up his time and hospitality for me to film my music video and I wish him all the success in the future for his dancing carrier. Just stick to the cha cha slide yer.