Tom Pearson's Multimedia

Ok so ive pretty much done my pilot edit. What I mean by this is that I've got everything where I want it and how i want it to look before I start tweaking it. However I think some more oppinions would help. I know that most people have already done thier edit a while ago. The only reason for me finishing it now was that I had been so pro-paperwork after last term. Ive been compiling my production file for the past few days and its looking really good. So yeah, watch it, and comment, would be helpful. Its basically the first 50 seconds of the first scene so don't expect huge story line plots and twists. Enjoy.

note: I shot and edited in HDV. Vimeo is currently converting it but here is a DV version, hence why it's slightly squished (sorry i'll change it soon)


In Excess Pilot (Offline Edit) from Tom Pearson on Vimeo.

Debs' lecture a few days ago got me thinking a lot more about title credits in film. Of what I originally thought not much of, I now have a big respect for.

We watched the intro to the film The Number 23. The title sequence for this film had been heavily designed. We watched it multiple times to see all the layers that had been put into it.

Things that I picked up on were:

-> The progression of music types from historical to more modern sounds
-> Selective vision. The creator gives you just enough time to see relevant information
-> Historical information in regards to the film
-> Blood and the movement of the blood was carefully thought about

All these factors are all ready inbuilt in the film's narrative. But what was most interesting is that although I hadn't seen the film (well I have but can't remember it too well) I felt like I knew what it was about and had a good impression for what I should be expecting.

Time to take these thoughts and project them onto my own work.

So as for my title credits, I had a think and it’s quite hard to get to grips with ideas. My film is about lack of control and being trapped in this lack of control. I felt this was the way I could go about designing my title sequence. Things that could represent this:

-> Powerless
-> Weak
-> Confused
-> Chaos
-> Anxiety

After brainstorming some of these points, I had to come up with ways that I could put this into my titles. Currently I don't have many ideas as to how I can go about this or what exactly expresses "chaos" or "anxiety, but Debs gave me a few ideas, Such as colouring outside of the lines.

I need to think of some more ideas and choose my best options to reflect my film during the opening title sequence before I go full steam ahead and start designing. Sorry for that lack of example by means of video. I've been searching whilst writing this and can't find it anywhere. I'll have another look harder later and see if it’s about.

Well, things are going well. I feel a lot more comfortable with my work now that I know I’ve done it a lot better than I did the first time. However, I was just thinking about my 3rd and final term of this academic year.

This term we are required to give in a 1 minute pilot of our film. This should be absolutely fine for me. The thing I’m concerned about is the next term project which is to give in the full 6 minute feature film that we have been working on this whole time. The only thing I am a bit worried about is my actors. I personally am not happy with the final result. And at the end of the day as Debs was saying if you’re working in the real world and something is not right, you will have no production at the end of the day because it will not be shown at all! So, if I’m not happy with it, then I think it’s time for a rethink.

I also didn't like my ending, it was a bit... how I put it.... LAME. This along with the acting made the overall piece a bit weak. However I did shoot it well and have been told my technical skills and composition are good. Time to work on the narrative again.

My plan of action, since I have until the end of May to actually hand this in. Is to

A) Research some new actors, professional ones instead of just friends
B) Re-work the script to fine tune it
C) Re-shoot at the beginning of third term with A and B ready to go

So yeah, hopefully I'll have time to get this done, I'll be a lot more pleased with myself if I do. I need to make sure I don't overburden myself with work in the third term as I do of course have to do my DVD authoring. Time to get to work ^_^
Oh yeah and here’s a screen shot of my film:

After filming my script and looking through some of the footage it is clear that there are some minor problems. These problems which I am about to talk to you about is that of the whole actor / friend issue.

I have realised that whilst filming, it was hard to control my actors. I say actors but really I mean my friends. I ended up using two friends here from Nottingham who I know from the university. They are not trained actors and I have little knowledge of their past experiences of acting. Yes, I know, big mistake on my behalf. But at the time it was just ... well.... a lot simpler and easier.

I’ve come to realise that I had to do 90% of the work of telling them what to do, rather than fine tuning their performance. We recently had some seminars on how we should interact with actors and how to get the best from them. Being able to give them emotive actions without actually demonstrating what it is we want. This allows actors to bring more then just what you tell them to the table.

I do slightly regret using friends at this point, although they were brilliant about helping me with the project, they were just not up to acting standards and what I was looking for in my film. It was all very casual and this affected my scheduling. So, my fault indeed.

I think I chose not to use actors due to my confidence in working with them. The easy way out is to get someone you know who you can already talk to like a friend. This was a big mistake. I realise now that I should have used actors and done my research for them. But because I didn't have all the knowledge and confidence I didn't think it would work out as well. I think this will show in my final edit.

From now on I will be using actors for each piece of work I do. It is very important to get the right person for the right job. You don’t get a carpenter to do open heart surgery (but I guess you can try in my case), you will get a shoddy result and that is something I’m trying to steer clear of.

I've just had a surgery with Deb which was very informative and eye opening to say the least. Well usually when I talk to any tutor is generally helps (although I don't always like it because I usually feel like I’m being told off, but all in the name of progression and learning I guess).

We talked about the briefs so I could get a better understanding of exactly what was going on. I do have a very good picture of what is required but it was mainly just to seal it into my brain.

Many of us (if not all) missed our proposal presentation on week 29. This unfortunately was completely all of the student's fault and I take the entirety of my blame as we were given fair warning. Obviously this asks the question, what the hell were we doing?!?! I don't know what came over me at this point in time and I really regret not turning up. After talking to Deb, it is clear that we are going to get a bollocking about this, but her suggestion was to take the blow, move on, and improve upon the criticism. This is the best way to overcome this disaster.

I’m being totally honest here and I can probably say that at the time I just couldn’t be bothered, or that I hadn't done enough work and was too scared to turn up with nothing. But I have to realise that I'm here for 1 reason: To get myself a Job in this industry. There is no point flouncing about with the projects if I’m not going to learn anything relevant for the working world of AV production, I may as well quit. But I don't want to do that because this is something I'd really like to get into because I do enjoy it.

I think it's very important to remember that they are assessing us on how professional our work is and how assimilated to the real world of work it is. To go above and beyond the simple briefs that the uni set and produce something that can be recognised as professional work rather than just "uni work". So yes I regret not going to my proposal presentation because I realise that this is a key factor in AV production. Asking for funding to produce a piece of work may not be relevant for the work I’m producing now but will be for when I leave and I have to start thinking like this always when it comes to uni work: To treat it like professional work, as if I’m being paid to do it.

Although this is quite a depressing rant and it feels like I’ve been lazy, it’s all true. I should be doing more work and learning as much as possible to excel my career and prospects. I think the best plan of action is that I have realised this and have turned it into a blogging post. This not only puts it down on paper, it seals it into my brain and is something I won’t be forgetting about. I have to be able to look at the big picture from now on by seeing where my work is able to take me for the future and not where it will take me for now.

One last comment which is completely different to this issue is that I always like to have some form of picture or video in each post, makes it less boring and the big scary wall of text won’t scare people away so much, so here’s something a little random.

The last few weeks have been quite hectic. I've been to America, finished pre-production ready for production, filmed my production alongside another project for my society all in the space of two weeks. And thought it was about time I posted something.

So far work has been going ok, the filming is now done and all is digitized. There are a few problems with some audio with some of the shots but since I took so many I'll hopefully be able to work around this. I'm yet to start editing due to the fact I’m working on another project for my society. In all fairness my course work should come first but I’m just enjoying this other one so much since it wasn't something I was asked to do.

My production file for my uni work is coming along nicely and is much better than first term. I have learnt a lot during my time here and especially in my second year. I was told by Deb we are marked on where we are at the end of the year and not how well we do during the year. This makes sense because surely if you do an outstanding piece of work during the first few months when you are still learning the basics then you will certainly improve upon this to keep the same standard or better. So hopefully my work will be significantly better, I can already feel it becoming a much better rounded project.

Anywho, that’s what I've been up to. More posts to come after I've done a bit more work.