Today we were set our first practical project. Before we could begin coming up with ideas, we had to understand the different crew roles. The four main crew roles are: Director, Producer, Camera Operator and Boom Operator. Since we were in groups of four, each of us were able to have one of these roles. In the group I was in, I got to be the producer/ director (as the person who was the director was also acting, so I had to help out with directing here).
Our brief was to come up with a poem of our choice and film it however we wanted. Our group didn't really have that much knowledge on poetry, so we searched for some on the internet. First we searched for "poems about life" however this didn't really inspire us, so we decided to first think about options we had for locations. We all really liked the idea of filming something outside, so we thought we should look up poems about nature. We found a really useful website (http://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poems/famous/nature/) which had loads of really lovely poems about nature. We looked at various poems on the site including one about spring, and one about birch trees, however they just weren't quite what we wanted. Then we came across one called "The Minor Bird" which I will post below.
Our brief was to come up with a poem of our choice and film it however we wanted. Our group didn't really have that much knowledge on poetry, so we searched for some on the internet. First we searched for "poems about life" however this didn't really inspire us, so we decided to first think about options we had for locations. We all really liked the idea of filming something outside, so we thought we should look up poems about nature. We found a really useful website (http://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poems/famous/nature/) which had loads of really lovely poems about nature. We looked at various poems on the site including one about spring, and one about birch trees, however they just weren't quite what we wanted. Then we came across one called "The Minor Bird" which I will post below.
I have wished a bird would fly away,
And not sing by my house all day;
Have clapped my hands at him from the door
When it seemed as if I could bear no more.
The fault must partly have been in me.
The bird was not to blame for his key.
And of course there must be something wrong
In wanting to silence any song.
While the poem is very short, it flows really nicely, and instantly started giving us ideas about filming some really nice scenes of birds in the grounds of the cathedral. We thought that the poem was quite melancholic and so we thought that we could have an actor read the poem in a very distant and sad way to further emphasize the melancholy in the poem. Before we just went out and started filming, we thought that we had better check what limitations the cathedral had on filming, and we came across this note on their site:
As we only had around 2 and a half hours to get our footage, we didn't think we would have time to get permission to film and get some decent footage. We then decided that maybe Bitts Park might be a better location, and we also felt that we might have more of a chance of seeing more birds at the park, so it was maybe a better idea after all to go to the park.
When we got there, straight away we saw a little grey squirrel rushing about, and we knew that we had chosen a good location to film.
When we got there, straight away we saw a little grey squirrel rushing about, and we knew that we had chosen a good location to film.
We wanted to film by the Weeping Willow trees as we thought that these would create a really good background for our filming. We set up all our equipment on the flat tarmac area as the grass was very damp and we didn't want to damage anything. Once we were all set up, we realized that we had a problem: there was a large slope between the flat tarmac area and the trees where our actor was sat. The tripod wasn't very stable on the slope, so this meant that we'd have to have the tripod on the tarmac which was a fair bit away from the trees and the camera wouldn't zoom in far enough. So, we decided to find a flatter area closer to the trees so that we could get a better image on the camera. |
We quickly spotted a nice flat area away from the slope which instantly solved our problem with the tripod. What I personally liked best about this area was the shadows cast by the trees on our actor/director's face, it looked extremely effective and I can't wait to start editing it. Due to him being sat down, it allowed our boom operator to get nice and close to him without being in shot, which meant that we could pick up his voice well. However due to the parks location being near to a busy road there was a fair bit of traffic noise in the background which I think may have ruined some of the audio. However we can easily solve this problem with ADR in the recording studio. |
After we had got some nice shots of Michael under the tree, we went to get some different camera angles of him walking and such. While we were setting up to film him walking around the camera, we spotted the squirrel from before and we desperately wanted some footage of it so we hurriedly moved the tripod to try and catch it. Due to it moving so fast, we're not sure if we managed to get it in shot or not, as we haven't had chance to properly look over the footage. I have added a picture to the right which has a ring around the squirrel, as you can see from the photo its very hard to see due to it's size and colouring, so I think that sadly, it's unlikely that we'll have gotten a decent shot of it, but it was fun trying! |
To finish off filming, we wanted to get some b-roll footage. There were lots of mushrooms growing around the park, so we thought that these would be effective for b-roll, so we changed the camera lens to a close up one, so that we could get all the detail of the mushrooms in. Another idea that we had for b-roll was falling leaves. First we tried to shake a small tree and make leaves fall that way, however this didn't work due to Jeremy being in the shot, and also because only one or two leaves fell. We then tried collecting fallen leaves and dropping them in front of the camera, however this was very difficult, as we couldn't get the leaves to focus and fall how we wanted them to, and because we were running out of time, we had to abandon this idea. I think we did manage to get some really nice shots for b-roll. One of my favourite shots was of the camera panning down the trunk of the tree to Michael who was sitting beneath it. Overall, I'd say that our filming was fairly successful, as although we didn't get all the shots, I still think we had enough to go back and edit them into the video.
After looking through the footage during editing, I discovered that we had some really lovely shots. Even though a few of them are a little out of focus, they still work well for what we need them for. The audio that we recorded however wasn't very good due to all the traffic noise in the background, so I'm going to use audacity to record myself reading the poem and then I'll import it into iMovie and add some music and sound effects. While looking through the footage, I also found that Jeremy had managed to get some really great shots of the squirrel in the tree, below I have added the recording of the squirrel- as you can hear we all got really excited about it.
I thought that a nice ambient soundtrack would be good for the film, as it is a poem about nature. I didn't want to use a track that was copyrighted, so I decided to use a website called dl-sounds as this is a free website for downloading sound effects and music for personal and commercial use. I didn't need to download any sound effects, as iMovie had a decent forest sound effect, so all I downloaded was a track called: "Minimalism" which is very calming and matches the tone of the poem.
Here is the final film:
Here is the final film:
Evaluation:
I think that our film is good because the music and footage match the poem well. I think I got a bit too hung up on the squirrel footage as that takes up the majority of the film. I think if we had chance to do this again we could do with a few more close ups of leaves and grass, and possibly some shots of birds as the poem is about birds.
I think that our film is good because the music and footage match the poem well. I think I got a bit too hung up on the squirrel footage as that takes up the majority of the film. I think if we had chance to do this again we could do with a few more close ups of leaves and grass, and possibly some shots of birds as the poem is about birds.
Sources:
http://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/a-minor-bird-by-robert-frost
http://www.dl-sounds.com/
http://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/a-minor-bird-by-robert-frost
http://www.dl-sounds.com/