Idea:
For my unit 9 film project, I chose to make an action crime thriller called, ‘Richie’s Lost & Found’. The film, itself, centered around a stolen item and a team of characters who set out to retrieve it and claim the reward money for its revival. Having wrote the full script, I was then set with the task of sectioning out a scene to make for my proof of concept. This, of course, would last two to three minutes at most. I chose one of the final fight scenes in the film to challenge my directing of such a fast paced sequence.
Research & Planning:
For research, I turned to the two films which I referenced countless times in previous posts. These, of course, being the Kingsman series and Edgar Wright’s, ‘Baby Driver’. In my spare time, I reviewed the several action scenes and how they are executed during both production and post-production.
Here is an example of one of the scenes I referred to and analysed:
When reviewing this sequence you will realize a number of features which were heavily integrated into my proof of concept. For example, the bullet traces which are seen during shots with multiple gun fire. Having used bullet traces before in past projects, I had awareness of how to create them and how they should behave, on-screen. However, I believe that these were an aspect of my proof of concept I should have avoided as they appeared thicker and blatantly unrealistic.
Here is a scene from ‘Baby Driver’ which I re-visited in great detail. Again, there are a number of details you will see which had great influence over my proof of concept. For example, the use of hand held shots tracking characters and creating rough movements within shots. Also, the use of blood impacts on characters when they are shot. This is also present in Matthew Vaughn’s work, including the scene from, ‘Kingsman : The Secret Service’ above.
Another aspect which influenced my proof of concept as well as my overall idea was the wardrobe choices of Jamie Foxx’s character, ‘Bats’. The red checked shirt was an element featured in both ‘Baby Driver’ and my proof of concept. I used this as I believe it contributed to the aesthetics of the scene; bright colours and contrasting tones. The wardrobe choice for the main characters was that they would all be wearing checked shirts in different colours.
Also, during a day at college, I booked the audio room and all the relevant equipment for an experimentation. For this experimentation, I used two LED large panel lights to explore the different looks I could achieve for the proof of concept. I used filters over the lights and photographed them for documenting and referring to when choosing the two filters for the proof of concept. Come day one of filming the proof of concept, I settled with a blue filter and a red filter. The two contrasting colours worked perfectly in creating the comic book aesthetic and gave the scene even more of an edge. That paired with the gun fire and fight choreography made for a proof of concept which I was extremely proud of.
Camera work & Lighting
A great majority of the camera work involved hand held shots, excluding the opening shot where the camera was on a tripod and set up further away from actors. This was to accentuate the fact that it was an opening shot and mark the beginning of the sequence as well as make it more noticeable when the characters emerged and began fighting. No other equipment was used to enhance the effectiveness of the hand held approach; instead, I had the operators use only their hands and the strap, connected to the DSLR, rested on the back of their neck. This did not majorly disrupt the fluid look of each shot. Instead, it appeared to inject more life into the sequence and contribute to the fast paced, energetic mood I wanted to create.
The lighting was one of my particular favorite features during making my proof of concept. The use of red and blue filters gifted each shot with a very comic book inspired aesthetic. There were two LED large panel lights, stationed at both the left and right side of set and two long metal light light kits on the floor. One colored red and the other colored blue. As mentioned endlessly in previous posts, I enjoy colorful films with very little use of negative or oppressive mixtures. These could range from blue and green filters to a basic decrease in saturation either during production or in post-production. At first, I considered the fact that the scene was set in an underground car park with absolutely no natural lighting visible. Then, when choosing red and blue filters, I grew confident in my decision as I was able to incorporate the colors I wanted in an environment which would often lack such detail.
At times lighting proved to be a problem, in relation to character visibility on camera. Often, characters would be difficult to see unless the settings on the camera were changed. Of course, it was the settings which proved to be the solution to this problem and I was soon back to working on directing the scene and deciding on how to execute each shot. Another problem with the lighting was that it tended to appear in the shots no matter where they were placed before and after each take. However, very early on in the filming stages, I was aware of this and continued to shoot with the lights visible. I believed that this added to the aesthetics and arguably would be something you would see in an underground car park.
Audio:
The audio in the proof of concept was extremely important when selling the genre of action to my audience. During the sequence, there is a lot of gun fire involved and so creating a constant flow of noise and commotion became first priority. To do so, I recorded a number of sudden loud noises such as closing my glasses case or dropping a heavy object. These sounds were recorded, directly into Audacity, from home. I then decreased the pitch and speed to give the illusion that they were actual gun fire sound effects. Also, the scene required reactions from the men involved in the cross fire, so I took to recording myself performing a range of different screams of pain. These recordings were then manipulated to different pitches and volumes in the hopes that they would depict different individuals as opposed to all sounding as though they were from one character.
During day one of filming, we encountered an issue with the audio equipment. Though the microphone and headphones were plugged into the recording kit, there was no audio feeding through and showing up on the sound levels. Whilst the crew attempted to figure out the issue, I continued to set up the scene for the first few shots. After a short while, they managed to identify the issue as a change in the settings in the recording kit. After seeing how this problem affected the sound, I will be able to suggest whether or not this is the result of any future problems with audio and either help myself or others to avoid it consuming valuable time in production.
Another extremely important factor of the audio was, of course, the backing track. The tracks which featured in the proof of concept were made months in advance. These were also created from home and in a piece of software titled, ‘FL Studio’. There were a number of influences with regards to what the final scores sounded like; Henry Jackman’s work on both Kingsman: The Secret Service and X-Men: First Class heavily encouraged the use of string instruments and piano. I felt that this worked well when trying to establish a more professional sounding piece of music. As well as this, it added to the pacing of the scene and made the project stand out in terms of creativity and planning.
Editing:
The editing was one of the most important factors of the overall proof of concept. Being that it is an action sequence, a considerable amount of thought has to be invested into the lining up of shots and the effects added, where necessary. When first approaching editing, I had to make sure the effect was sold that there were a number of masked, armed agents surrounding the four protagonists. With only two actors portraying these agents, as well at the protagonists, I knew from the beginning that there would be a lot of consideration and pre-meditation required. To try and make this idea work, I edited together all shots with the protagonists first and then began placing shots between with the agents involved to try and create a dialogue between the two sides even though, in reality, there was only ever one.
From feedback given, many commented on how the entire sequence was fluid and ran smoothly, with no apparent breaks in the pacing. This was very positive feedback as it reassured me that I had achieved one of my many targets which was to avoid establishing a pace and then breaking it. To do this, I consecutively edited together each shot and, along the way, made sure I left a few extra seconds before cutting to the next shot. This gave the audience more time to absorb what was happening as well as understand what the character’s intentions were, say if they were chasing another character. I would also make sure that the cuts sometimes coincided with the score in the background. This would give the audience ease as they would have two factors of the sequence to follow and if they were not particularly focused on the visuals, they would have the music, in sync with the visuals, to refer to.
However, beyond all the positive outcomes throughout editing and creating the proof of concept, I was confronted with an issue during the later days of post-production. This involved losing footage in the heat of confusion over what was still needed for editing and what was not. Being that during the first day of filming, the crew and I had ran out of time we had to film the proof of concept in two halves. Both the first and second half had been edited together and all that was left to do was add in a small amount of shots from day two of filming, to fill in continuity errors. However, the previous day I had mistaken the second collection of footage for the first half which was no longer needed and taking up space. With no knowledge of these shots being from the second day, I proceeded to delete them and realized the following day of editing that the continuity shots were missing.
To avoid this becoming any more of an issue, I used what shots were still available to fill in the errors and being that these errors were minimal, the number of shots needed were low. I simply added in shots from the first and second half of the exported sequence and proceeded on with audio. For future reference, I will remember to back up the footage on both the shared student resources and on my own personal hard drive. This was something I had forgotten to do through a number of complications regarding day two of filming.
Other Features:
The props used in the proof of concept proved to be extremely helpful in selling the scene as well as their own realism. When on-camera they appeared realistic and only required a small amount of visual effects to further their on-screen presence. Even when I photographed the props and animated them for the shot where they are thrown towards the camera, they still appeared to be high quality and realistic. Many applauded this area of the sequence. Personally, I saw this effect as a great success; the colour grading matched up with the scene, the motion blur brought the two realities together. Those being the practical reality where the event was filmed, on-set and the computer integrated reality where I manipulated the images of the props and animated their movement.
Gun elements for animating:
The final look:
Feedback:
Given feedback on my proof of concept, I received overall positive responses. Many commented on how the soundtrack was of a cinematic standard and worked well with the pacing of the scene. One commented on how it may have sounded a little too up-beat for what events were taking place in the scene but continued to say how they were aware I wanted to maintain a positive atmosphere in the scene.
Another commented on the lighting and how, though at times it appeared dark, it worked for the atmosphere I was creating. They also commented on how the audio was, at times, ‘low’ but was ‘timed correctly’. This was something I had picked up on and something which I will take into great consideration for my final film. This could be through stationing the microphone closer to the actors or simply enhancing the audio in software better suited for audio editing. During editing, I only referred to Premiere and After Effects which, of course, are better suited for editing and manipulating the visuals of my proof of concept.
One viewer commented on how the narrative was ‘unclear’ and that the voice overs added for the villains was detectable as a pre-recorded audio file. Taking this into consideration, for future reference I will make sure that during any voice overs there is ambiance from the scene to build a bridge between the days of production. Also, in terms of the narrative, there was very little which could have been done to make the narrative clear to the audience as I had chosen an action scene as my proof of concept. I had set out to show that I could carry out shooting an action scene as opposed to delivering a clear narrative. I believe this is more of a concern for the final film. However, all the same, I will take this into consideration and make sure that it is less of an issue when approaching the full product.
Many commented on how the cuts were, ‘seamless’ and that there was a lack of continuity errors. I am particularly pleased with this feedback given that with the issue regarding the files being deleted, I believed that there would be points raised about continuity errors. However, with a fast-paced action sequence, continuity is often forgiven if only slightly incorrect. Many also applauded the effects and how they were, ‘realistic’. When approaching using effects I made sure that all of them were made by myself and not taken from any online stock footage providers. I tend to enjoy making as much of the film as possible and so creating the blood effects and the muzzle flashes, seen during the action sequence, was all but a set back for me, personally.
Selected Padlet comments:
Summary:
Reflecting on the proof of concept, I am confident that despite the set backs towards the end of post production, the overall product was of a high standard. Also, I believe that it delivered to the audiences the excitement I aimed to create when writing the script. During pre-production, all documents including shot lists and shooting scripts were produced to the best of my ability. Also, in making them I avoided over-complicating the directions such as shot sizes and, more specifically, camera movements. When adding in camera movements, I was rather ambitious as they often involved one single shot capturing a number of different movements from actors. However, during production, I approached these camera movements with confidence and walked the camera operator through the movements I needed. This was to achieve what was written down during pre-production. In the end, the shots appeared to run smoothly when edited together and captured the emotion and pacing I aimed to capture.
The audio was extremely well delivered to the audience and applauded by many. Though dialogue was, at times, unclear during screening the proof of concept, the greatest majority of the audio including Foley and additional sound effects performed well. Feedback stated that they were both audible and in-sync with the sequence. As a whole, I took an alternate approach towards recording Foley, as opposed to the previous year. In this instance, I recorded additional sound effects at home and into a different piece of software. From there, it was simply a matter of lining up the files with the relevant visuals. Originally, I had wondered if a lack of the college’s audio equipment would cost me quality of the final sound work. However, this did not present all that much a problem besides the fact that some of the viewers believed the voice overs were a little too noticeable as externally recorded content.
In terms of editing, overall I was extremely pleased with the outcome of the proof of concept. From both a personal perspective and from the feedback given, the proof of concept ran smoothly with no shots disrupting the pacing or confusing the viewers. Having left an extra few seconds, at the end of every shot, before cutting to the next I allowed the audience more time to establish what was happening and prepare for a fast cut to another character or another area on-set. As well as the pacing performing well, there was the issue of the pick up shots being lost near the end of post-production. At first, I believed this would become more of an issue than what it resulted in being. In the end, it was simply a matter of using two to three shots from the exported video to fill in the continuity errors. Overcoming this problem has helped me develop my effective thinking and now, when approaching the final film, I will make sure I do not have to use this thinking by backing up all footage and assessing what I should do in the unlikelihood of them being lost, again.
The music for my proof of concept was an aspect I was particularly passionate about. Having planned the idea of, ‘Richie’s Lost & Found’ back in late June, early July, I had began creating a number of scores for when production began. Given the positive feedback from the audience about the scores sounding, ‘cinematic’ and ‘dramatic’ I was reassured that taking it upon myself to create my own scores and convey the moods I wanted them to proved successful. It was rewarding to receive such praise for the work and the music was something I had surprised myself with, in the early stages of making it. Everything seemed to write itself, in my head and from there I was inspired to formulate the ideas for my proof of concept. With such a broad selection of scores to choose from, I could focus on the other aspects of my proof of concept and final film.
Finally, directing my proof of concept has been another success as everyone was confident with what they were told to do and at all times I was making sure that the scene played out as I had dictated in the pre-production documents. The actors performed to the best of their abilities and in return reassured me that I was clearly instructing them and carrying forward my idea with all the effort I could. However, day one of shooting involved losing an hour to setting up all equipment. This lead to day one, which I had intended to be the only day of filming, being split in half with another shooting day having to be arranged. With evaluations drawing closer, this did seem a major issue to us all at first. However, during day one I managed to guide the actors through a good three quarters of the shot list, leaving only a small amount of shots left to complete. When watching back the proof of concept, I am now constantly reminded of three things; that my instructions were clear and helpful, that the actors felt comfortable in my presence and that, overall, I have proven I can achieve the approach I proposed for my final film in shooting a fast paced action scene with all the necessary equipment and props.
Brandon Hobson 
Leave a comment