Music video idea 2

Music video idea 2

Titus Andronicus shooting schedule

This is the shooting schedule that we produced for our days of filming, this allowed us to organize all of the actors on the two days of filming and also gave us guidance on how much we needed to shoot on each day.

Shakespeare Through A Lens Project Brief

 The Brief

You have been commissioned by the Lambeth City Learning Centre, the Royal Shakespeare Company, the BFI and the management at Glenthorne High School to gain a deeper understanding of Titus Andronicus by filming a scene from the play from a range of different perspectives. You will edit the film to produce a high-quality 3-7 minute segment of film to be screened on a 400 seated cinema screen at the BFI for family and other guests. The films will then have an online life on a variety of platforms including RSC, CLC and BFI websites.

Background of the brief

The brief was formal as it stated what we were required to do to fulfill the brief and we had to stick within relatively rigid guidelines. The essential elements of the brief we had to follow were that we produced a film with a duration of roughly 3-7 minutes based upon a scene from Titus Andronicus that was chosen for us by the RSC using the original texts. There were some aspects of the brief that we could negotiate as with these texts we could could cut certain parts however we could not change any of the original texts which meant that we kept the language the same and worked within the layout of the scene provided to us. Also, we will be using the drama academy to perform for the project rather than acting ourselves which is a requirement we must meet. However, the ways in which we interpreted the texts were very flexible, meaning that we have a large amount of control over the props, costumes and locations used within the piece allowing us to give a slightly modern twist to the original story.

My Role

My role within the brief will be the secondary camera man on the first day of filming, I will be filming the majority of shots from alternative angles to the primary camera to produce cutaways within the final piece. I will also film some additional shots of different areas to establish the scene and area that the actors are working within. Also, I will be contributing ideas to the group based upon the brief so that we can decide what we will be doing during the project. My second main role will be the main editor in the post production phase, this means that I will have to select the best possible shots to use to maintain the narrative aspect of the piece while additionally looking for areas to incorporate a more creative flare within the piece while maintaining continuity and fluidity. This will allow the film to fulfill its roll of telling the narrative of the scene we were given but also making it aesthetically pleasing for the audience to watch and giving it a sense of personality.

Some skills I may need to acquire for the project are an extensive knowledge of some filming techniques and technologies such as a DSLR camera. This will allow me to work with the cinematography and consistantly develop through the varied use of camera angles and framing which I had to adapt to fit the scenes. This will also allow me to work efficiently on the day of filming and be able to use all functionalities of the camera to produce footage of the highest standard. I will also need to be proficient in digital editing software such as Adobe After Effects, Premiere Pro and Photoshop.Subsequently, I will then be able to incorporate my knowledge of editing techniques and software alongside the footage to create the final product. Additionally, I will need to be hard working and possess excellent communication skills during the pre-production and production stages due to the large group of people who I will be working alongside. It is important that I can clearly present my ideas to both the media and drama groups so that all possibilities can be discussed to achieve the best final product. I will also require an in-depth knowledge of Titus Andronicus and the language used within it, allowing me to have an enhanced judgement on the types of shots and editing styles needed during each individual key moment within the film. This will extend the performance of the actors and emphasise the emotions their characters are portraying through the lense.

Additionally, due to the play itself being very traditional I had to consider the balance between the traditional methods of storytelling through the text and also the more modern special effects in the post production stage. Because of this, I will try to implement a natural blend of the special effects and the raw performance of the drama academy. This will help to emphasize the performance of the cast while remaining subtle to make the whole film easier for the audience to watch and understand. 

Titus Andronicus, Filming Review

 Titus Andronicus, Filming Review

The filming of the drama academy went well, we managed to get the majority of shots filmed and within a reasonable time period. To continue from here we will need to film the additional shots we did not cover and also to re-shoot some of our previous shots. The reason we are doing this is because we believe that including more various angles and shot types will create a more effective film piece.

The main part we will need to re-shoot is the main part between Titus and Tamora. This because we would like to include some more close up shots to show the detailed expressions on the faces of the actors as well as being able to use some eye line matches to help link the different shots together. Another issue was that a vast majority of the actors were coming in and out of the frame and it did not seem very natural. To prevent this we can use a mixture of wider establishing shots showing everyone within  the frame as well as close up shots focusing primarily on a smaller group of characters to prevent additional ones coming in and out of the frames.

Titus Andronicus Evaluation

This is our production of Titus Andronicus

    
 Over the last few weeks we have been working on the production of Titus Andronicus, I was very pleased with the outcome as it worked out as we had planned and we all worked together to develop the final piece. The main thing that i felt went particularly well was the overall composition and flow of the piece as the shots were filmed in different orders on separate locations on different days but all the clips came together to make one fluid piece.

One main thing that I would improve is some of the shots, as we were short of time we could not film enough shots from alternative angles so to improve this I would include better framed shots and maybe more angles to help emphasize the differences in power between the characters. For example, in one shot an actresses head did not fully fit into the frame, to fix this we could just tilt the camera upwards or to film from further away to produce a wider shot which would include the actresses head.

Another aspect we could of worked on was our positioning, from the image below you can see that the light source was behind us and cast a shadow of the boom mic on one of the actors. This is simple enough to fix as we would only have to move the boom to somewhere it is not seen and does not cast shadows.

My roles were the second unit and also an editor, as the second unit my job was to film the additional shots from other angles to act as cutaways from the main shots. This helps keep a nice pace to the film so the shots are not long and boring. What i liked about this role was that I could stray from the storyboard slightly and experiment more with the different shot types which we integrated into the main shots. As an editor my job was to put all of the shots into the correct order to fit the storyline as well as keeping a fast enough pace to stop the shots from dragging on and becoming boring. Another key part of the editing role was to make the soundtrack fit to create the right tone at the different parts of the film. 

Critical Comparison

 

In comparison to other pieces of worked I have copleted in BTEC Media I have found that this project made me considerate of the actions we took when actually producing the film as well as having a larger responsibility within the project. We had to put a lot more thought into the piece which meant that we spent a long time planning out the work, this was important as we were working within a relatively large group so we had to fully know everything we were going to do so that we could all work together efficiently.

Due to the scale of the project we had to take a much more mature approach as we had to work a alongside a large group of drama students as well as a media group, this meant we had to be very professional within our set roles and communicate our thoughts and ideas and fully discuss any decisions we were making so that we could work efficiently on the day of filming with little confusion to ultimately produce a better final piece. Working as a group allowed us to share the workload meaning that as individuals we could pay more attention to the fine details of our roles and then compose each element rather than working alone and having to consider each aspect of the film by yourself. 

Another significant difference to previous work was the level of editing required, because we were working to an actual brief we felt that the overall edit needed to look a lot more professional that our previous pieces of work so we spent a lot longer working on the finer details. Also, the duration of the final piece was considerably longer than anything we had ever edited before so the actual amount of editing required was a lot larger.

Titus Presentation

Titus Presentation

As part of our evaluation we produced presentations based upon our roles and what we were
asked to do, we then evaluated our individual contributions to the group and presented it to the rest of the class.

Evaluation based on the feedback from others

Evaluation based on the feedback from others

We used questionnaires to recieve some feedback on our rendition of Titus Andronicus, some consistent themes from the feedback was that the editing worked very well, with specific examples such as the clean transitions to the cutaways so that you did not miss much action and the shots did not last for too long. Another key aspect was that a lot of people enjoyed the very last shot where there is an overlay of Tamora speaking with her voice slightly echoed. Some commented that there was also an overall smooth flow of the edit.

 Shot of Tamoras face overlayed

Another aspect was the clean camera work consisting of steady shots and a wide range of angles. This is evident more within the first half of the film with the shots of the feet walking past the camera as well as the tracking shot during Tamoras speech. These work well as the different levels and also dynamic camera movements help bring more energy into the film.

 

Shot of feet walking across the frame 

  

Shot with top of head missing

Some also commented on how the soundtrack worked well to create the powerful mood and also distinguished between the two halves of the film because two different songs were used, the second song was much darker which related to the scene as it was purely based upon Tamoras revenge. Within the first soundtrack the footage was edited to the beat which gave the edit very clear cuts and also worked well with creating a powerful tone during the death scene when it cuts to black.

Some criticisms we received were about the costumes, and how they could of been improved to show a clearer contrast between the goths and romans, this would of made the film visually clearer. However this was partially a budget problem, ideally we would of had the cast dressed in traditional costume from the time period however we could not afford this so we decided to make it a modern rendition to compensate for this.

 

Shot showing costumes 

Alongside this the setting of the park was not clear enough to produce the modern interpretation, as the environment was very plain and green. We could of used a much more urban setting such as a car park however this would of been very difficult due to the public needing this space. Because of the costumes and the setting some audience members did find it difficult to understand alongside the original Shakespeare language.

Although comments on the soundtrack were generally positive some did say that the sound quality during certain parts of speeches was low and distorted, this was mainly due to the boom mic being further away during this speech so we had to increase the audio levels so people could hear it but in that process it became distorted.

In some of the shots the framing and headroom was not always fully considered due to a lack of time meaning we could not always properly frame the shots or film enough cutaways to alternatively use during the edit. A clear example of this is when the actress in thrown down onto the floor and the top of her head is not in the frame. Although this is true I do feel that the majority of framing for the shots worked well and was very consistent.




 

Risk Assessment

Risk assessment sheet

Risk Assessment