Pre Production

When we were given the brief for the super 16 project, I really wanted to make a meaningful and original film, as I didn't want to waste such a great opportunity to use super 16 film stock.
We made a group and started spit-balling ideas about what we wanted to base the film on.
Jared and I both had similar ideas in the sense that the film could be based around someone with a disability, that can see the beauty in the world with far more appreciation than a 'normal' person as a result of that disability.
We shared our ideas with each other, but were still unsure of what to do. Paul, Jared and I then got together to discuss and finalise a final, solid idea for the film. Jared had previously mentioned an idea about a blind man, so we worked on that idea, developing it into a thorough and workable story.
We eventually agreed on a film idea, revolving around a character who is blind, but is able to still see the world's beauty in his dreams. We sat and discussed this idea for a while, talking about how and why he could see these beautiful images. To me, this was a film about a man that had lost his sight, but still had the memories of all these scenic places. The filters were present to represent the subtle imperfections of the memory, as no memory can be recalled perfectly.
Jared wrote up a basic script which I then drew up storyboards for.

Once we had our idea, we started discussing how we'd go about doing it and different locations we could use. Jared mentioned showing the character falling asleep, we discussed different ways we could do it,, but we specifically wanted to visually create the feeling of falling asleep, so we decided upon having a black sheet, unraveling and being pulled across the camera.
Jared had some ideas of where he wanted some of the shots to take place, such as beaches and other scenic locations. Being from Cornwall, I had some ideas as to where could be ideal to film. I showed him some of the places I had in mind on Google maps and we agreed on some locations, checked the weather and set a date for filming.
Jared and I took out a 7D and some filters to look at the effects they have on an image. We knew we wanted to use filters for our film to create some sort of distortion, as it's a dream sequence and we wanted it to seem subtly disjointed from reality. We weren't sure which filters to use, so we went to the ERC and took out: Twilight grad 2, Blue grad 2, Blue 2, Green grad 2, Orange, Red and Sunset grad 2. We decided that the sunset grad and the Green grad would be a good choice, as the sunset filter bviously gave the sky a more interesting colouring, and the green gave the grass a nice, crisp colour and depth, and also we thought it may have an interesting effect on the sea.
Jared had some connections with some actors from the university and so advertised the role of the blind man via Facebook and managed to get a response the night before we'd planned to shoot, which we were all grateful for!

Production

On the day of the shoot we aimed to get in to college at around 8.30am to load the film, giving us time to make sure it was done correctly and so we didn't fall behind schedule if there were any complications.After I'd loaded the film, I joined Jared in the ERC to help collect and transport the equipment to the car.

We fell a little behind schedule, as we were late being picked up and so discussed and planned out how long and how much film stock we could use at each location in the car to help make up some of the time we had lost. When we got to our first location (the beach) we had to walk a fair way from the car to the beach over unsteady ground, which also contributed to the fall behind schedule. We had a extremely small crew for the shoot, as some members couldn't make it on the day. I blocked the shot with the actor, whilst Jared and Paul retrieved the remaining bits of kit from the car, and talked him through what it is we were trying to achieve.

The lack of crew also meant we had to all take responsibility for different jobs during the shoot and also meant setting up took a lot longer than what we had hope, such as dissembling and assembling the crane for example. Whilst on location, Paul and I discussed different shot ideas and angles and in which order to do them, trying to arrange them in the most efficient order in regards to time.

The crane shots were, by far, the hardest shots to achieve. We didn't have the largest weights for the crane, and so had to improvise by hanging a bucket of sand on the the end of the crane to help weigh it down, but it still wasn't enough. Jared had to push down on the end of the crane, whilst I stood way back and directed Paul in terms of what angle the camera should be at, as he couldn't see through the eye piece. I think the crane shots we did get were pretty decent considering the circumstances. 

To save time, we decided that we could get a shot of the bay by walking up the cliff path and shooting the same beach we'd already been on, rather than driving to the next town to get the shots. 

We hauled the equipment up the muddy, steep path and I blocked the scene with the actor whilst Paul and Jared prepared the camera. Jared and I were discussing different ways in which to shoot the scene, as we both had pictured it differently. We agreed upon the shot and quickly shot it, as it was by then becoming increasingly overcast. 

We had some trouble when we got to our last location because the grass was wet and our actor refused to lie down, which was crucial for the transition from moor to bay. You can see that this transition isn't as smooth as the others, but hopefully it's not too noticeable and doesn't have a negative impact on the film.

When we'd got all the main footage recorded, Jared and I took out a Canon 7D to record the footage for the opening sequence. The idea behind it was to visually represent the feeling of falling asleep. We'd planned to drape black fabric over the camera, and create a  twisted tunnel from the camera over to a bright light. We'd then record the tunnel untwisting, reveling the bright light at the end. This was proving very difficult to create when It came down to doing it. I think with a bigger group of people to help out and under better controlled circumstances, we could have achieved what we'd wanted, but we improvised with it, trying different techniques and then pick the one with the coolest effect to use in the film. Watching it back, I quite like the opening shot. It's not what I'd initially pictured, but think it works quite well, regardless. 

Post Production

Jared and I sat in with Jemma whilst she edited for the most part, helping her understand how the transitions between locations were meant to happen. We all had different ideas on how we wanted it to be pieced together but, as editor, Jemma had the deciding vote on how it was done.
Whilst the final tweaking of the edit was going on, Jared went away and recorded a soundtrack for the film, which I thought was very fitting, and was very pleased with.
Jared also took over responsibility for the foley, recording it in the sound studio. He showed me what he'd done and asked my opinion. I was pleased with what he'd recorded, but the levels needed some major adjustments. I advised him to adjust them, and to also put in a bit of sound panning if he had time. I offered to take over the responsibility of the sound to make the appropriate changes (as I am quite fond of applying foley and playing with it as I'd had a bit of experience doing it for a project with Amanda where we re-recorded and designed the sound for a scene from Solaris), but Jared said he was happy to continue doing it.
The next time he showed me his progress, the sound was much better and he had put music to it, too. I was pleased with what he had done. There were just a few things that I wanted to adjust, such as some of the sounds placement as some of it seemed to be a little out of sync. When Jared asked me to watch the latest version of the film, I asked him if I could have a copy of all the files we'd been using. It was on the way to the edit suite that Jared dropped his hard drive. We lost all the sound files, latest edit and footage from the back-up camera. Luckily there was a fairly recent edit on the mac he'd been working on, with all the foley and music on. Unfortunately, this meant I could make the adjustments and final tweaks on the soundtrack that I had wanted to (I am a little too much of a perfectionist when it comes to sound) which was disappointing.
We still had the ending to finish and were finding it hard to agree on how it was going to happen. Other than that, it was just the titles we had to do, which we left until last as they seemed least important up against the rest.
I took responsibility over making the titles, as I'd had previous experience from when we did our re-title project. We agreed on how we wanted them to be as a group and I cracked on with it.

When Jared did his presentation and the latest version of the film was shown, some changes in the edit were suggested, and as Jemma was unavailable, I spent the evening trying to improve the film, but most importantly the ending. I had to re-download the original footage from vimeo and added in a shot (The close up of the cane) as we were told to shorten the shot of the man finding his way around the patio, but was having trouble doing so by just removing bits, as it looked weird because it jumped. I then had to take out some recording equipment to record foley for the newest shot, and also recorded some additional sound for the scene. The ending was proving difficult to adjust, because we only had the sound we'd used in the actual edit of the film available, having to copy parts of the film and paste the music, but hopefully it's not too noticeable. As it was only me editing, I only had my ideas and opinions to go by, and was running out of time. I would have liked to have had critical opinions from the rest of the crew on what I'd put together for the ending, as I was very unsure about it, and, in my opinion, endings are always important because it's the last image/sounds you leave with the audience.. But because they were last minute changes, I just had to settle for what I had done. It definitely still needs some work, and will take some experimentation to discover an interesting and ideal way to finish the film.

On Reflection

On reflection, I think this project has gone fairly well under the circumstances. I will definitely continue to work on it in the future and perfect it, as it's nice to have a film shot on the super 16 format as part of my portfolio. There's definitely room for improvement on this film. I will probably re-record some more additional foley and have a play with the levels as some of it is out of sink, such as the breathing. I may also have a go at making the titles look a little more professional and interesting, as After Effects is an area I am keen to develop anyway.
If I were to re-do this project, I'd make sure we had a very specific and calculated plan regarding shots and amount of footage we use for each shot. I think we spent too much time filming at the first location, resulting in us having too rush and get the shots we needed before it got dark. I'd also aim to film a little earlier than we had, giving us time to have maybe gone out for a secondary shoot and get any footage we felt we were missing or needed. We'll definitely be putting all the film related files on each of the crew members' hard drives' to avoid any loss of data!
I have thoroughly enjoyed this project and using the Super 16 format. It's given a great insight into how to professionally plan and go out on to a shoot, using the film in a sparing and thought out way, rather than just going out and shooting anything that you may think will just look good and then entering an edit suite with hours and hours of footage. I would quite like to shoot on film again at some point, when I feel I have come up with a worth and well enough thought out film idea in the future.