Editing Workshop 3: Fairly Legal

For our third edit workshop we began to look at editing clips that had dialogue. We used clips from a piece called Fairly Legal. The tools we had looked at previously were to be used as part of this process. I began by looking through the shots to listen to the dialogue, look at the angles and shot sizes and to get a general idea of the storyline. Next I put the wide two shot into the timeline to...

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Story-Telling: First & Second Draft

Now that I had finalised all the main points and moments for my idea, I began writing the script. I started by writing all the scenes I had already thought the most about, these were my moments. I then added other scenes in around those and hoped it made up 10 pages. Lucky for me it did. This was the first draft, it was awful as you would expect a first draft to be. Most of the dialogue didn't make...

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Camera Workshop 4: Crossing The Line

For our fourth camera workshop we were back in Studio 5. This was our last camera workshop so it was time to use all of our new skills and create one final piece. We were given a script and a brief which said we had to create a sequence about the 180 degree rule. This sequence had to include at least 3 or 4 different shots and of course, we could not break the rule. Before shooting anything I looked...

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Camera Workshop 3: Sound & Shooting on Location

For our third camera workshop we looked at sound and shooting on location. We began by going back over the kit and what comes in the bag just to double check everyone knows. Ferg then showed us some of the sound equipment that is available to us, this includes: Rode NTG Mics Lavalier Mics (Clip-on mics) Blimps (boom mic housing) Dead Cats & Dead Wombats (wind protection) Boom poles There is...

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Editing Workshop 2: Delicious Piece

For our second editing workshop we began looking at some of the tools that Premiere Pro has and how they can help ease the editing process. We used footage from a short documentary type piece about fair trade coffee beans called Delicious Piece. During the workshop we looked at a number of the tools...

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Story-Telling: Storyboards & Trailers

STORYBOARDS For this session we spent some time learning about storyboards and trailers. We began by looking at storyboards and how we can include them in our work. We looked at some detailed examples from big hollywood movies like this one: Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark Looking...

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Story-Telling: Idea Changes

Before starting on the writing process I wanted to change a few elements of my idea and the overall flow of the story. The changes I have made involve the opening sequence. I decided that it needed to be a moment that people would remember and a moment that kicked the story off. The initial idea involved the main character, Dylan, rushing across the hospital grounds and into the hospital. I have...

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Story-Telling: Research for my Story

Because my entire story is based in and around a hospital and about young parents I thought it best I do some background research before I began writing the script. I began by doing some research on the hospital environment itself. I looked into what a hospital sounds and feels like. I even visited...

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Story-Telling: The Most Beautiful Thing (Short Film)

I recently discovered this heartwarming short film on YouTube and I'm so happy I found it because it gave me some inspiration for my own story. The short film is question is called The Most Beautiful Thing: It's about a shy young guy who falls in love with a deaf girl. He struggles to find a way to ask her to prom and after witnessing her being kissed by another guy, he thinks he has no chance....

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Story-Telling: Screenwriting using Final Draft

In the industry professional screenwriters use a piece of software called Final Draft to write their scripts. As part of our course we spent some time learning how to use this software. We first spent some time with Simon who showed us how to format certain aspects (of which Final Draft does a lot of...

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Editing Workshop 1: I Think

I personally have only had a little bit of experience working with Premiere Pro, so this editing workshop was very uselful. For editing I normally use Sony Vegas Pro and I was relieved to find that the two programs do have some similarities. Also I have used After Effects a lot before and some of the keyboard shortcuts are similar. For the workshop we had to edit together a collection of footage...

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Camera Workshop 2: Creating a Sequence

We recently spent the day on the set of Later with Jools Holland (Studio 5 @ Maidstone Studios) carrying out our second camera workshop. For this workshop we were asked to create a sequence based around someone walking to a chair and sitting on it. We used the Sony XDCAM PMW-200 to shoot our footage....

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Camera Workshop 1: Rack Focus & Framing

For this session we spent the day in studio 2 learning how to use the Sony cameras. The cameras we used were the Sony XDCAM PMW-100 and the Sony XDCAM PMW-200. Sony XDCAM PMW-100 Sony XDCAM PMW-200 For the first activity we practiced setting up focus. We used a "Rack Focus", which is when...

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Story-Telling: The Pitch

Title: "The Meeting" or "Due date" or something like that. Genre: Drama After finally coming up with an idea I was able to develop it and come up with this 25 word pitch: "An expectant father rushes to be at his fiancée's side, but will recent conflicts destroy hopes of this being the happiest...

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