Category Archives: Film and TV

Stress and uncertainty

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Oh LAWD. I’m in a deep, musk smelling pit of despair. What do you do when you’ve seen your film so many times that you’re unable to see whether it is good or bad, which changes that could improve it, and what works and what doesn’t?

While waiting for our final Korsakow film to finish snuing, I went down to the editing suites to see if I could make our film a little more attractive to look at. Based on the feedback we have gotten so far, I think it’s already pretty good; however, after seeing the amazing progress that other groups have made, I’m starting to get nervous about how our film will look in comparison to the others.

HOLD IT RIGHT THERE SUNNIVA!

I’ve been trying to teach myself how to avoid comparison to others; this applies to every aspect of my life, in film, assignments, popularity, sport, appearance etc. My mother always told me that nothing good comes out of this: I can only be myself, do my own things, and that is good enough. While I assume this is what all mothers are told to tell their kids as soon as the baby pops out at the hospital (or in the elevator for that matter), there is definitely some truth in it; if I constantly compare my things to what others make, how can I ever make something original and daring? And how can I ever imagine a career in such a competitive field if I don’t have faith in my own skills and work?

On the other hand, comparison can be extremely useful. It brings about ideas, and most importantly, it pushes you to improve something you had settled with because it was just about “good enough”. When I saw what some of the other students had managed to do in the editing suites I were blown away, it was absolutely shocking to see how good some of the films looked.

Has our film really changed that much since we did our first rough cut? Well of course it has. What I’m wondering is whether we’ve experimented enough, tried enough options to know that what we’ve settled for is actually the best option.

We have lowered the saturation, darkened the blacks and mids (and at instances we’ve lightened the highlights even further), added 8-point garbage matte on the clips, and it does look good. However, comparative demons are lurking in the back of my head; should we have desaturated the entire film completely, and maybe having red as the only visible colour? Did we try all the different structures to tell the story the best way?

Luckily there are still some days left where we can tighten it up and polish it even more. I really want to be able to feel confident when we show it at the screening, knowing that no matter what the reception is, I’ll be happy with the result and the process.

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Ediediediiiiting Piaff

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It’s gotten to the point where I’m unable to see if the film is good or not. I’ve stared at the screen fro hours, played it over and over, and I’m just so familiar with it that I feel like I can’t do anything to make it better.

However, I must say that adding the final track that we’re going to used helped.

I can’t get enough of it, it is magical. I haven’t personally checked the licensing of it, but Ian said he was sure that it could be used, and he’s normally right in most things. I’ll make sure that it is clear tomorrow.

There is something really amazing that happens when you add music to footage; there is a beat, a pace, and when those two match up it is alluringly beautiful. I have tried to keep this in mind when I’ve edited the film, and hopefully it will look match better than the last music we used (Robin mentioned when we got feedback on our fine cut that the music and the footage was just put together, and that it didn’t work together) last time.

I love editing, especially if it is a compilation where only footage and music is required; it is fun and easy to match the cuts to the beat. However, if you manage to match the movement within the frame to the beat as well, the result is so much better. In this film we’re also dealing with a voiceover, so there are four audio elements that is at play at all time; music, atmos, foley, and voiceover. When the music is at it’s most intense I’ve attempted to move the voiceover around it, so it wont be difficult to hear what is being said.

One of my favorite shows is the “A Game of Thrones” series; after seeing the first season (I think I finished it in 4 days) I read all the books (which took me about 3 months), and I’m completely lost in that universe. When the release of the second season slowly approached I started biting nails again, and then this short trailer came out:

YVYØGHVPODAÆP^KDAKB^K^FSKBPPFÅSBK

How good is it??

The editing in this clip combines all those four layers of audio, and it is completely breathtaking. Notice how the clips are matching the beat? And pay attention to the first shot of Arya; she looks up at the exact same time as the beat, which gives me chills all the way down to my toes.

Of course, Florence and the Machine deserves a medal for this wonderful piece of music. The editors have done a great job of fading the music down when something is being said, it goes almost unnoticed. We have been experimenting with changing the sound levels as the protagonist moves into different rooms, but it became a bit jumpy; we decided to play with keeping the music both diegetic and non diegetic. In “the real world” the rooms are on different levels in the house, but this won’t be evident for anyone watching it.

We are doing what we hope will be the final edit tomorrow, and I will be genuinely sorry about leaving the editing suites for the library; essays seems so pointless when there is so much magic that can be done.

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Action in the editing suites

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Oh la la. Ready for action.
Before the tute on Tuesday, Ian and I organised our project. We named all the shots, made bins and sequences for the different scenes, made bins for the sound effects and the foley, etc.
Next time i’m in the suites I’m going to take a picture of it. My mum will never believe I created a system that organised.

Oh and BY THE WAY! It was Norway day yesterday! Here’s some pictures

Happy Norway day, juhuuu!

CONT’D
So when Sunniva, Ian and Ed sat down in the editing suites to pimp up our movie, everything was laid out perfectly. While Ed did some radiostuff Ian and I edited the sequences separately. We decided to give the nested sequences a go, and for a while it looked like it would work; it is clean and easy. It was good to look at every single sequence separately, finding the pace and the right length, and this part of the editing was indeed very clever. I feel like each individual scene has more to give now then when I smashed everything together in the rough cut.

However, when we put it all into the nested sequence it became messy. Yeah sure, it looks like a control freak has gone all in and left no room for mess and loose bits, but unfortunately my head isn’t put together that way. In the end we copied all the different shots in a sequence, and pasted it in a master sequence (so not the whole sequence as one chunk, but all the small bits). It is harder to edit this way because you have to keep all the small bits in mind when you move things around, but that’s the way I have to do it.

When we had structured it the way we wanted, we decided to add the voiceover. Ed, our scriptwriter, was in charge of placing the voiceover in the right spots; after trying out different approaches we settled on something all three were happy with.

For me it was important that not only did the voiceover sound good, but it also had to be paced right. If the pause was too short, it sounded rushed, and our assassin might appear nervous. If the pause was too long, the voiceover didn’t feel like a continuous piece; it becomes disturbing when it suddenly comes in after a long break of silence.

Ed made sure that the monologue matched the clips; for example, when Bryden says “It is possible to kill a man with bare hands”, you see “the marks” hands in a closeup, buttoning up his shirt. When he says “Hell, I’ve killed a man with a sharpened toothbrush”, the toothbrush is being placed in a cup.

When we were happy with the placement of the voiceover, we took on a most daunting task: Colour grading.

The amount of work I’ve done in this field so far has been minimal. I’m able to change the colours with the 3 point Colour Correction tool, but I rarely use it. I’ve also worked a little bit with Brightness and Contrast, but again, it is on very rare occasions.
However, in the lecture Paul showed some very useful tips on how to use Final Cut to its full (for second year students anyways) potential.

EIGHT POINT GARBAGE MATTE LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!
I feel invincible! I can conquer the world with this tool!

It was pretty awesome. BUT! It did become a bit more complicated when we added it to shots where the camera is moving. It feels a bit like you’re looking through a telescope; the edges are rounded, feathered (like your peripheral vision would be if you were looking through binoculars). It could work against or for our purpose. After all, our protagonist is being watched, so it could function as a subliminal message about this. However, it might also just look disturbing and weird..

As soon as we started working with the colour correction I fell into an editing coma; I just couldn’t stop. Seeing the extreme transformation on our film was breathtaking; I suddenly saw the shot I had visualised in my head when we made the storyboard (okay, this isn’t completely true. I saw the shot in Se7en, a film by David Fincher. My point is, it looked so much more like it now!)
Dark and menacing, just like our voiceover.

We lowered the saturation, made the black range even darker, the mid tones became darker as well, and in some instances we pumped the whites up a bit.
In the lecture Paul talked about shot matching, at this became essential here; one type of colour grading might look amazing on one shot, but it has to match the other shots we have.

It is a tedious process. I’m as patient as I am organized. The redering is probably going to make me crazy. Which might be exactly what I need to become a successful film maker; after all, they’re all a bit crazy.

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Ooops. Delayed again..

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EDITING! Yes! My second most favorite thing when it comes to making movies.

I love the fact that I can make our movie into 10 different movies in the editing suites. I could simply change the order, and the story would be completely different. In this film we are sticking with the script, but there are still a lot of playing to be done. Here’s the notes from this weeks lecture. I’ve got a million excuses for being late, but none that will be considered valid.

 

Audio and colour correction is definitely going to improve your film.

My boss at the local tv station in Norway went to sound school (directly translated from Norwegian. I know it probably has another name, but you get the idea), and although he started working with TV, audio has always been closest to his heart. “Good sound can fix bad footage, good footage can’t save bad audio” is something I’ve heard him say numerous times. And oh what a pain it was. I had to be extremely picky with everything I made, and he would always find something that wasn’t right, and I would have to fix it.

Such a pain. But what a valuable lesson! Now I’m starting to realise the importance, and I’m not looking forward to making the soundscape in our film; it’s going to be a big job.

A useful trick! Just as it is helpful to look at how the visual edit works by turning the sound of and just looking, try listening to your edit with eyes closed. I bet 50 dollars that you’ll hear “bad” sounds that you didn’t notice before.

Important to look at the film as it is shown infront of an audience. You get technically nervous, hyperconscious of everything.
Screening is a preview. Then go to the edit suites, recut it after getting comments, then try to submit it to a festival.

Reflection is key to your work, informing and improving your work as a filmmaker. 
Yihaa. I guess that is what I’m supposed to do now. I’ll do it soon. After I finished this. I promise.

Sound editing
Choose a scene:
- whose listening
- whose talking
- analyse the rhythm
- the space
- the pauses
- the talking over (interrupting)
- the atmos
- sound fx
- the music

AHA! Here’s a free layout on HOW to do a reflection. Gah we’re so spoiled.

Look at other work an see how the audio is put together.

Here’s something I didn’t know: If you want to elongate on time – don’t cut in action. A wide shot would take less time than a lof of close ups.

Complex sound scape that you don’t notice. Atmos, foley, cars, fridge noises.
Audio needs to peak at -6 to -10.
Use Audio Mixer in Final Cut to change the different sounds separately

freemusicarchive.org

Look at all your shots, and make sure they match. Of course, light changes from different location, but unless it is the purpose of the film, you don’t want the light and the colours to change dramatically.

Second level is make the image more punchy, larger than life, filmic, less video.

Yes. Yep. Ja. Jepp. That’s exactly what our film has been missing. It is a cool story, well shot and well lit, but it is very.. normal. If we want the footage to match the dark, dramatic story, we have to do some changes.

Many ways to do this: blacken the blacks. Saturate the colours or de saturare. Make it cooler, warmer.

Do it in small bursts. Don’t spend too much time on it.
Set up a separate sequence.
Don’t apply to all till the end.
Paste attributes.

Use vignette to spot out actors? Contradicts the resistance of use of shallow depth of field
Eight Point Garbage Matte… Click on the points and drag them where you want them.

Copy clip that has the setttings you want. Then go into next sequence, mark the clips you want to ass the attributes to. Then go Edit, then Paste attributes, and choose the attributes you want.

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HERPDERP!

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Before I even start this post I’d like to take a moment to appreciate what this lovely meme lady is holding in her hands; the horror series Goosebumps. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the first multilinear narrative (boyah Integrated Media!) I ever encountered. In one of the books I read you were able to choose different solutions to a problem, for example: You’re trapped in a hole filled with vicious man eating rats. What do you want to do? 1. Climb into the sewer and hope they don’t follow you. 2. Eat the rats. 3. Push your friend so the rats will be busy eating him while you escape.
You would then, after choosing, get a page number to go to, and the story continued from there.
Of course, it didn’t last forever. I went back and tried all the different solutions, and after 5 or 6 goes I had tried every possible outcome. However, it was a completely new way of reading for me. I was part of it!

Anyways. The reason I chose to start this post with that picture is because I’m pretty sure thats what I looked like as I walked out of the cinema today. At least I felt like that.
The movie that made me this excited is King of Devils Island.  
ERMERGERD!
I know I might be slightly biased and blow this movie out of proportions since it is from Norway, but so be it. It is without a doubt one of the best films I’ve seen this year (I’m guessing I’ve seen at least 40 movies so far), on every level.
The way the characters are built is one of the most impressive elements; We have Erling, a newly arrived inmate of the island, who appears to be a dumb, violent brute. As the story unfolds, we realise that he is indeed a violent boy, but his heart is in the right place; he pushes the other boys to stand up against the unfair treatment they receive.
The governor, played by the amazing Stellan Skarsgård, is also a bit of a puzzle; we keep thinking that he has a good side, that he will eventually see the situation from the boys point of view.

The story itself is quite extraordinary. Knowing that it is based on real events (from 1915), it becomes even more absorbing.

The cinematography is stunning. Again, it might be a common thing for homesick Norwegians to get such a kick out of slow pans showing the frozen landscape of mid winter Norway. Belen and I both agreed that we could almost smell the season as we watched.
The frequent use of depth of field is also a bonus. I know some people don’t like this (Paul), but I think it really brings out the object the cinematographer wants us to focus on.

They have managed to create a mood and feel of “the old days” by the use of lighting (and probably some decent colour grading). Why is it that this type of light connotate the past?

Perhaps it has something to do with how we are able to see the actual past today; low saturated images, or even black and white.
The whole movie is very blue, from the landscape to the uniforms the boys are wearing.

I really wouldn’t mind writing more about this movie, but I’m beaten and I’m going to bed. Definitely watching this one again.

 

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More inspiration

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One of our inspiration sources has, like I’ve mentioned before, been the movies of David Fincher. Of course, this wasn’t the only one.

Breaking Bad, a series by AMC, seems to be a common interest for everyone in the group. The story, the actors, and the cinematography is amazing. Ed was the first one to propose that we should use some shots similar to the series in our film, and it didn’t take long before we all agreed.
This is actually where the idea of having a glass table came in. Breaking Bad has several shots where we see the protagonists through the POV of inanimate objects; for example, a shot from underneath a glass table, covered in blood, as they wipe it clean.

I found a compilation on youtube that show the huge variety of these types of shots:

And here is the shot we used in the film. I lay on my back, facing the camera upwards, while Lyall cleaned the table.

I love the fact that we managed to get a huge variety of shots. A film containing only wide and mid shots, shot on straight angle, will be extremely uninteresting to watch. At least for me. Our film contains mostly close ups, and some mid and wide shots.

Another thing that makes Breaking Bad interesting to watch is the use of editing; by transitioning between two similar movements (although different actions) we are intrigued by the juxtaposition and try to make out a pattern of why this is done.

In order to achieve this, you have to plan out the edit in pre-production. We aimed towards getting two of these transitions, but I’m not sure how successful they are; One is when Lyall swipes the cloth sideways on the glass table, then cuts to him shaving. I don’t think this worked very well.

At the end of the shaving sequence he drags the shaver upwards under his chin, and it cuts to him peeling a grapefruit upwards. We have to be really careful when we edit this, and if we do a good job it might look really good.

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Pics of some lighting set ups and blood recipe

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I figured I should share some pictures from our rehearsal. It was really useful, and I personally learned a lot about lighting. Bouncing lights of the white walls worked quite well: it diffused the light so we avoided hard lighting and ugly shadows. Because of the blue filters we maintained the colour temperature and avoided the look of a studio.

We also got to play around with the frame and different angles, which would have been very time consuming if we were to do it on the actual shoot.

Over the shoulder shot, lounge. Imagine that the table is really made of glass…

Kitchen shot

Hallway shot

Bedroom/closet shot

Pretend the box is a record player..

If anyone ever needs blood for a movie, here’s the ingredients you need.

Take two big spoons of the glucose syrup and put it in a plastic container. Make sure you don’t spill on clothes: it is quite hard to wash off. Add half a bottle of food colouring and mix until you have a even liquid. You want it to be quite thick, but still have the dripping consistency as blood would. If you want it darker, add chocolate topping.
Looks pretty good huh?

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Vittorio Storaro

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I love that part of our course is to learn about things via watching movies; for me it is such a good way, especially if the movie is put together in a good way. The other day I watched Visions of Light: The Art of Cinematography and Vittorio Storaro: Writing with Light in the library after class, and I found it both entertaining and educational.

While Visions had a huge variety of approaches to cinematography (and a timeline, showing new techniques that approached as time went by), Writing with Light showed the ideas of Vittorio Storaro, a cinematographer who has received three Oscars for his work, and is regarded as one of the best within that field.

What an adorable man. A little quirky, but it shines through that he simply loves what he’s doing. The way he talks about cinematography (well, to be fair, he doesn’t talk so much about the actual use of the camera, it is mainly all about lights) is quite fascinating; he talks about all these complicated and often highly experimental ways to use light in such a matter of fact sense, like it is something everybody should know. I think it was Francis Ford Coppola (it might also have been Bernardo Bertolucci, I’m not sure) who said that Storaro is just as crazy as everybody else who devotes their life to film; he lives in his own little universe, where lights are the most essential thing.

Colours are light waves, different colours are defined by the speed of the waves. I found it interesting how he uses colour to evoke emotion in the audience. This is his description of the colour spectrum (on one occasion, he refers to it differently every time).

Black is the unconscious, where everything starts

The first step is red, the colour of the blood

Orange is the colour of the family

Yellow is the colour of the consciousness

Green in the colour of knowing, or knowledge

Blue is the intelligence as a human being

Indigo is your prime material power

Violet is the last stage in life

And assume all of these colours is the last one, it is the white, which means balance, equilibrium

 

I think that I can highly benefit from learning more about light if I’m going to get better within cinematography. During our shoot I learned a lot, but there wasn’t much room for experimenting. We did use elements of red, to foreshadow  the blood that would come later in the film, but in a simple way; we added extra props that were red. Perhaps it is possible to play around with this a bit more in the edit..
I’ll give it a go next week.

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An overnight change

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There is an abundance of things going on in my life right now; uni, quitting uni, applying for new uni’s, moving, packing, thinking, living.

And then, to add a final straw to the big pile of hay that is already in my way (which might qualify me for a position in the Ministry of Silly Walks,) comes a new worry.

In “True Lies; Documentary studies” we’ve been given our final assignment, and I’ve chosen to look at feminist documentary and its style. I haven’t put much thought into the subject of feminism before; of course, being a woman in the western world, you’re basically being taught about it as soon as you understands the difference between man and woman. I know about the issues of equality that women has been struggling to achieve for decades, but for some reason it has never really occurred to me that I would have to struggle here; after all, look how far we’ve come!

I want to become a cinematographer. I feel like I have a fair chance to achieve it as well.  However, in the last couple of weeks (coincidentally after we received the assignment for True Lies and I started looking at feminist films) several things happened that made me take a second look at the situation today.

First of all I read this blogpost by Mur Lafferty. I think every woman, feminist or not, can identify with this post, whether they are in the role as mother or daughter.

Lets continue. After you’ve read the post.

Alright! Two nights ago I stayed back at school, watching Visions of light: the art of cinematography and Vittorio Storaro: Writing With Light, trying to learn some new tricks and get some inspiration to how I can use lighting in film.
Both films were really good, but the blog post were still in the back of my mind, making me painfully aware of the fact that there were only two female cinematographers (in Visions of light), contrasted against the clear majority of males.

Is it going to make it harder for me to become a cinematographer because I am a woman? I’m perfectly capable of doing the same things as the guys in this course in terms of camera work, and I don’t think creativity can be defined in quality by gender. However, when a director looks at the different applicants for his film, will it matter for him that I am a woman? Probably not. At least I hope so. I’m thinking that we’ve come so far that as long as I have the qualifications and can confidently show the work I’ve done, gender doesn’t matter.

As a final straw, I’ve felt a bit left out at uni. Not in a social way; I have heaps of friends, both male and female, and as far as I can tell there is no trace of discrimination here.
However, sometimes in class I feel like some boys think it is okay to speak over me, although it is my particular field within that project that is being discussed. Before I get asked to help out with something, or to voice my opinion, there is almost always after a boy has been asked.

Perhaps this is all a coincidence. It might just be that I haven’t proved that I have the competence to give advice. Maybe I don’t even have it.
The point is that it has taken up a lot of space in my head lately, almost to the point that I’m becoming paranoid and aggressive about it.

So as I was getting towards the end of Visions of light, I was digging my hole of despair deeper and deeper. Why isn’t there any more females?

Then, right at the end, she turned up on screen. There I was, feeling desperately torn between being a sad, helpless girl who would always be judged for my gender, and feeling silly for being paranoid about something that probably is made up in my head, when suddenly Sandi Sissel showed up.

My brain was on a roller coaster ride without a stop button, and it suddenly occurred to me that I wanted to talk to her. At this point it seemed like the most natural thing to do; in hindsight I might have been a bit rushed. I found her email address and wrote a brief email on how I’m worrying about this issue, and how it is inspiring to see that she has filmed all these amazing pictures.

At no point did I expect her to write back. Seeing that she is a the head of cinematography at the New York University I imagine that she receives several emails from students every day, and my email got lost in the cluster. However, the next day I found this in my inbox:

Thank you Sandi, it made my day. And more importantly, I got a kick in the butt making me realise that complaining and whining isn’t going to get me anywhere; I have to work hard, and as long as my work is good I can get anywhere I want.

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Lecture 10

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THE EDIT. Post production.

Todays lecture was a combination of what Paul called “teaching old people to suck eggs” (god knows what that means), and some really interesting tips on making editing easier.
The most useful part was about nested sequences. I never thought about editing each sequence separately, and then adding them together.

I have made a rough cut, but I’ve just done it really briefly and made everything in the same sequence. Calling it organised would be an overstatement. A big overstatement.

Anyways, here’s the notes from the lecture.

Log sheets.

Diabolical complicated.
Scrupulous, you have to be it.  MAke sure you pay attention to everything: get the right take which has: focus, good light, whitebalance, nice movement.
Sound has to be perfect.

Be on top of all of those things. Apply yourself to every part of the process; sound, camera, editing.

Watch the movie “Cutting Edge” again, do some notes from it.

FCP -fyi

Based on Steenbeck
editing
roll a/b /
chequerboard
bind/ calico bins
Brings together
AVID
Media100
Adobe Premiere
Lightworks

Film cameras don’t have sound. Synced by the clapper. (In comes the function of the clapper board!!) Non linear editing.

Filing Hierarchy

Finder
Server
Scratch Disk
Folder
text files
Dvd work
Music
FCP Project

Save project on memory stick (backed up on sight)
Auto save vault.

shift q – sets your scratch disk. Absolutely crucial, set it every time you open your project. EVERY TIME. Set it to the server, final cut documents.

In your folder, filmtv12, will be your project, text files, etc. Actors, location.

DV PAL Anamorphic 1080 etc.
Log and transfer sets our footage to the optimal settings.

Have several sequences. Have a TIDY project, or you’ll fail.
Don’t do your whole film in one sequence, divide them up in different ones.
Separate sequences for different scenes.

Nested sequence: when you drag a sequence into another.
If you want to make alterations without loosing the project you had, create a copy (duplicate) so you can play around.

Scene comp: all scenes in different sequences, drag it into that sequence (it comes as one chunk instead of hundreds of small pieces.
Double click it in the nested sequence, and it will take you back to the small pieces. When you make changes in that sequence, it automatically updates in the nested sequence.

NEw sequence: not just fine cut, but fine cut, tuesday.

Mark your shots, name them.
It is crucial that you watch EVERY SHOT. There is some moment of magic that you forget. If you see it you can make a note.

Knock two frames of the following shot.

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