The Hunger Games: Finished Film and Evaluation

Finished film:

Evaluation:

Some of the footage is not of the best quality, so if I we had more time, I would re-shoot some of the sequences, and ensure that the camera was in focus. I would also make sure that the boom was not visible in any shots, not even in a shadow, as it currently is in one shot.

To improve the montage in the opening sequence, I would add some music that emphasises the speed of James packing away and the comparative slowness of Andrew packing away. This would probably improve the comedic effect of the opening and also make it more interesting.

It would have been nice to try and attempt a graphic match or hidden cut, so next time I would plan shots that are suitable for these editing techniques and then be able to see what it is like to edit them in.

I would definitely cut the bannister scene as I think it looks poor and amateur, and it is basically pointless. I think most of the rest of the film adds some value and I was quite pleased with my parallel editing of James and Andrew walking down the corridor individually and I don’t think those clips were too long.

In conclusion, we managed to film all the shots to make a clear and logical film and we had a good variety of shot types to work with. However, some of the footage needed to be re-shot and we could have tried getting in a few more editing techniques and spent less time on the humour.

The Hunger Games: Editing

We were given two lessons to complete post-production and edit our films using as many editing techniques as possible (see the blog post Adventures in Editing).

My first step was to synchronise the sound recordings with the filmed footage, but unfortunately, we forgot to say what scene and take it was at the start of each recording, so it was difficult to match up the correct audio to the footage. Therefore, I eventually gave up on this, as I felt the audio from the camera footage was actually fairly decent, and I wanted to spend more time focusing on the editing techniques.

I put all the raw footage into the timeline and began to cut away the unnecessary parts. Also important was adding in sound effects to make the film seem more realistic; for example, the sound of the school bell and thuds when James was hit by Jay.

During the process of cutting away excess footage, I tried to experiment with where to put the various editing techniques and mostly worked chronologically through the footage, fitting them in wherever possible. This was made easier by the fact we had planned some of our footage so that it would work for a specific editing technique; for example, the opening sequence was made with a montage in mind.

One technique I found hard to do was the L-cut, because the audio recording of James’ yell was not long enough to use it raw, therefore I had to play around with the speed settings and also ended up duplicate the sound and trying to edit so it sounded like one continuous noise. Unfortunately, I think the end result sounds quite amateur and fake at this point, so in the future I would try recording the yell as a voice-over or use a sound effect instead.

Another difficulty was the out of focus footage. Often we only had one-take of a shot, so I was forced to use some dodgy footage, which I would definitely have re-shot if we had the time. The sliding down the bannister was also difficult to edit together, because we used Jay as a ‘stunt-man’ for Andrew, but the clips do not match up very well, so it would have perhaps looked better if I cut this section out entirely.

The parallel editing was fairly easy to do, as all that was required was interspersing footage of Andrew and James at the correct points, so it looked like Andrew was always ahead in the race. I did have to be careful with the ordering, though, so there were no moments when James was further along in the corridor than Andrew, and there could also be no point when the two would meet, so the final section I made sure to have more footage of James coming down the corridor before he reached the canteen, so he didn’t arrive immediately after Andrew.

None of our footage was suitable for a graphic match or hidden cut, so I didn’t manage to get them in, but I did manage to get most other editing techniques into my final edit. The greatest challenge I faced during editing was bad quality footage, which could only have been improved during the filming process, so there was nothing I could do about it. To improve the film, I would add music over the opening sequence to make it more of a montage and I also would try altering the light conditions and maybe add some effects to alter the atmosphere.

The Hunger Games: Filming

For our production, I acted as the camera operator, Jay was the director and Olly the sound technician. Additionally, James was the leading actor and Andrew was a supporting actor, whilst Jay made some cameos as various characters.

We started filming in Room 26, to have our opening shots of James and Andrew packing up. In order to get the ideal shots, we had to position the camera on the tables, with the boom positioned over the actors. It took a rather long time to film all of this scene, as we had to get shots of both of them together, and solo shots from in front and behind. As we were filming during lesson time, there was no bell ring, so the actors had to pretend and we all added in a bell sound effect in post-production.

The next shots we filmed were the ones coming down the library stairs. This was fairly straightforward and we only did one take of each actor, although it might have been useful to re-do James’, as he lands on the floor in the wrong position for his encounter with Jay, therefore in editing, I had to cut out the end section of him on the stairs.

We only did one-take for the shot when Jay mugs James, but we managed to get two different angles so we could insert match-on-action of Jay kicking James. The only slight difficulty for this part was the other nearby group who were making some noise, but this could be easily cut in editing.

As Andrew was unable to slide down the bannister, we thought it would be entertaining for Jay to act as a stuntman and fill in for Andrew. To do this, we had Andrew begin to sit on the bannister, then filmed from the same angle Jay actually sliding down. The second bannister was slightly harder and didn’t edit together very well, so in hindsight, I would probably leave it out altogether.

The shot of Jay coming out and attacking James for the second time was also done fairly quickly, and James got on the leg support whilst we set up for the next shots further down the corridor. First we filmed Andrew casually walking down the corridor and lifting his head up to look around, so we could edit in the continued sound of James’ screams from the previous shot, making an L-cut. Then we did a similar shot of James limping down the corridor.

After we moved the camera again, we filmed the third Jay-James encounter, but we had to do two takes of this due to a timing issue on the actors’ part. The next shot was of James standing up and shaking himself off, which was done from the essentially the same camera position, just more zoomed in.

The remaining shots were relatively simple, as we only had to film both James and Andrew walking down to reach the canteen and their individual interactions with Jay as the canteen-lady. Unfortunately, we were in a bit of a rush at this stage, so all shots were a single take, evident by the fact that the boom can be seen in the shot where Andrew reaches the canteen and it is also rather blurry.

Overall, I would say we were fairly efficient as a team and managed to film all our required shots, although it would have been better if we had been able to do more re-takes. The actors performed well and we all carried out our assigned tasks to a degree of success.

The Hunger Games: Screenplay

The Hunger Games: Location Scout and Storyboard

See below pictures of the locations that will be used at various points in our film. They will feature in the order below, providing a rough photographic storyboard:

The classroom used for our first scene

The staircase James and Andrew run down

The stairwell where James meets Jay for the first time

The corridor before the canteen

The canteen entrance

Also the canteen entrance

(excuse the quality of the photos, they were taken on an Android camera – not mine – so the blurriness is to be expected)

The Hunger Games: Introduction and Treatment

Introduction:

The brief we were given was to show some characters leaving an art lesson and racing to get to the canteen first, without running, but ultimately being disappointed in the end. The challenge was to include as many different editing techniques as possible (according to the list on the Adventures in Editing post), so we had to think about where these techniques could be placed during post-production whilst we filmed the footage.

Treatment:

James and Andrew are sat working in a classroom, when the bell for lunchtime rings. Both are keen to get to the canteen first, but where James rushes to pack his stationary away as quickly as he can, Andrew takes a bit more time and carefully packs away.

They both rush to the door, with James being hit as it swings open, and go down the stairs; however, James bumps into a ‘mugger’, who threatens him, takes his phone and leaves him injured on the floor. Meanwhile, Andrew slides down the bannister of the next set of stairs, and continues calmly walking down the corridor. James makes his way down the stairs, but then bumps into someone again, and is knocked to the floor. His screams of pain are heard by Andrew, who is further along in the corridor.

Once James gets up again, and is further covered in bandages and has a leg support on, he hobbles down the corridor, only to run into a character who head-butts him to the floor. James shakes off the pain and battles on.

Andrew walks along, getting ever closer to the canteen, whilst James has another injury-causing encounter; he is punched to the floor. Andrew keeps going, eventually reaching the canteen, where he is granted access by the dinner-lady. When James finally arrives, he is told that “there is not more food” and is head-butted to the floor for the last time, ending his sorry journey.

Adventures in Editing

Parallel editing: Two scenes in different locations play out simultaneously, with the camera cutting between them

J cuts: The audio of a scene starts playing before the picture of that same scene starts

L cuts: The audio of a scene continues to play after the picture of that scene has finished

Hidden cuts: Two shots are edited together, but the join (the cut) cannot be visibly seen

Graphic match: When the overall movement in two consecutive scenes is similar, smoothing the transition

Jump cut: Maintaining a similar shot of the same subject, but implying a change in time through slight alterations

Match on action: Showing the same movement but using two different shots, in which the second shot continues on from the initial movement

Montage: A series of rapid shots that convey multiple events in a short space of time

Kitchen Sink Drink: Mop-Up

The finished version of my ‘Kitchen Sink Drink’ project is featured below.

Editing was done in the way of iMovie on my iPhone. I found this easy to use as it is a programme I have used a few times before; however, it is harder to get the precision that is possible on a computer.

Another awkward thing about iMovie, is the display of media in a consecutive line, meaning you have to scroll from left to right to view the footage you are working with. In this case, I preferred the side bar where your footage is stored on the computer program we use at school.

I enjoyed using techniques, such as match on action, to keep the editing exciting, but as mentioned above, complete accuracy was sightly difficult. I tried to do a bit of framing, like having the poison label showing through the handle of the mug.

I had 10 minutes worth of raw footage (having already narrowed it down to the best takes) and I found it a challenge to cut down on so much. I knew that showing extensive amounts of my mum making a cup of tea was not the most exciting thing, so I attempted a sort of montage, where I sped up the footage and played some music over the top. This helped me cut down the footage and made it more fun to watch, in my opinion.

I struggled with cutting out footage from the middle of a shot where my actors were completing an action, because I wasn’t sure it would make sense to the viewer or would make the editing look harsh and jolting. On the other hand, I knew I couldn’t keep all of it in, so I was brutal in my decisions and tried to cut out all the useless parts that didn’t have any effect.

I am rather happy with the finished product, although I would have liked to spend more time searching for the right music and sound effects to add in; finding a way to add ‘Chelsea Dagger’ was hard enough and I picked the few sound effects I used from iMovie’s selection as it was the easiest option. If I knew where to find good sound effects for free, I would definitely have taken advantage of this to round off my project more completely, as I am not sure I am happy with just the sound I have added.

I enjoyed the project, but may have been able to finesse it better for an improved final product.

Kitchen Sink Drink: Filming

First, I had my actors (my mum and dad) read their scripts to learn their lines, although I knew we would need to keep the scripts on hand during filming. Then, I started filming with the first shot of the project, the outside door one. I instructed my dad how to walk in the door and did a couple of takes from outside then inside. With that completed fairly quickly, we moved on to the kitchen scenes involving both my mum and dad.

I decided to shoot the shots generally in the right order, to save myself time when it came to editing, and this was definitely useful in post-production but was slightly awkward during filming. I often did allow my actors to complete an action and then re-shot from a different angle if I wanted; this gave me various option whilst editing so I didn’t just have a series of long single shots. I already had in mind where I wanted to use match on action and other editing techniques so I made sure to film accordingly so this was possible.

Another rule I had to be very aware of whilst filming was the 180º rule. I found it difficult to keep track of where the line would be and when it came a shot reverse shot sequence, I was very careful to make sure I filmed the correct side of each person so it would not break the rule.

Throughout filming, I tried to give my actors directions on how to improve a shot on the next take. We had occasional moments of laughter that meant we had to re-shoot, especially when my dad was fake-dying.

Overall, the process was quite long, as my story was much lengthy than I thought, and my parents got a bit tired and grumpy towards the end (understandably so). However, it was fun to experiment with shots and have complete control over the camera, as before this task, I had not entirely filmed a practical project myself. I also felt more relaxed being in my home environment with my parents acting; I knew I had plenty of time to film and felt comfortable directing them. Using my iPhone to film took away the stress of using unfamiliar equipment and having to set up a camera on a tripod, although, obviously, a camera would have produced better quality and more stability.

In general, not too many takes were required and I got most shots to my satisfaction. In an ideal world, I would have had time, and the willingness of my parents, to do some re-shoots after I had viewed and started editing the footage, but I still had plenty of footage to work with and practicalities, such as lighting, meant any re-shots would not have looked quite right anyway. Natural lighting was a key element I had to take into consideration: the skylight in my kitchen meant that there was no way to escape or hide roughly what time of day it was.

Kitchen Sink Drink: Location Scout and Floor Plan

I drew a floor plan of my kitchen (/diner/living space) and then took photos of each main area, so it was clear where each was. Below is the floor plan and photos taken.

Entrance

Pantry door and bins

Kitchen area

Dining table

Sofas

Close-up of chosen sofa

I also did a storyboard, but it was really messy and rough so I have chosen not to feature it here. I did not stick to my storyboard all the way through, as I preferred seeing what shots looked good at the time. This was rather time-consuming, so if I were to do another project like this, I would definitely do a complete and relatively neat storyboard to follow during the filming process.

I think I underestimated the value of a storyboard on this task, and as a consequence, I feel that some of my shot types are a bit repetitive; however, this does achieve the effect of reinforcing the Wife’s struggle to successfully poison the Husband and gives a Groundhog Day feel. Not following a storyboard exactly did allow me to experiment more with shot types and this was useful for my first completely independent practical project.