Over all i am happy with the out come of my Cookery video, and feel i achieved what i set out to create. The main things i liked and thought worked were:
-The Cook
Toots was really good and even though she had never done anything like this before she was better than i could have asked for, after a brief discussion about what she had to do and how, she took to the role wonderfully and keeps the audience interested even adding in little unrehearsed tips.
-The Location
Charlton Court turned out to be an ideal place to shoot it, with a good layout to accommodate for the variety of shots i planned and wanted to get.
-The Music
I think it's the perfect type to have used as its a good tempo to be talked over and to fill the image when theres no dialogue, it also helps to make the film feel as though its progressing.
The main things i think could be improved are:
-The Lighting
i think if i had lit the scene myself and had a more even/brighter lighting it would have made the overall image better. If i had used a Three point lighting technique i would have been able to achieve this, but due to lack of availability and time i wasnt able to sort this out.
-The Camera 4JbyS4eYLIaRsAb_6bTeCw
Using a higher quality camera would have benifited my end pictures, such as a Z1, But then again this would only have had real effect if the lighting was too improved.
if i was to do this project again the main thing i would change is: The menu, i would have picked something with little less ingredients as i dint have much time to show each one, and some of the more intricate details that went in to the prep, although they weren't vital, it would have been nice. As my first finished edit for this film (and the one i was most happy with) was 11 mins long.
Overall i am happy with the finished edit and think it is an interesting, and easy to follow recipe. i think that anyone who watches it will be capable of following it and giving cooking a go, regardless of their skill/knowledge of cooking.
Here is my Finished cookery video:
Monday 17 May 2010
Group Cookery Video.
For this assignment we were asked to make a short (3 min) video for students on how to make something healthy and affordable. We were put in to small groups of 3 or 4 and i was put with Ant, Kirsty, and Simon. We decided to go with a pasta dish as its something fairly cheap, and nothing to challenging for any new comer student cooks out there. Ant handily remembered that Sainsburys do hand outs for meals, with step by step instructions. So we decided to go with the menu for 'Go Green Pasta' and our aim was to try and present in in a visually clear, easy to follow, and understandable way.
We decided to shoot in Ants Kitchen at Waterside court as it was one of the easiest places for everyone to get to and find, and because Ants house mates were nice enough to let us film there! We used Ants JVC camera and a hired monopod as we didn't feel a tripod was necessary for the shots we wanted to get. We shot in chronological order as this would make the editing process easier later on. Kirsty filled the role of cook, and Simon, Myself and Ant took it in turns to film, and direct, whilst all having in puts when we thought of something.
Ant was pretty happy about editing it as he had access to final cut on his lap top, and it was more a case of putting the footage in order rather than creating edits, and as we had filmed in chronological order we figured it wouldn't take him to long. i would have been happy to edit, but as ant owned final cut it seemed logical to let him. The music we wanted to use originally was Green Onions by Booker T. & The MG's but as we didnt have the right we couldn't keep it in the final edit. So we had some music from a Friend of James Harris's who had gotten the rights for Ant. It doesn't fit the film as well as our original idea but it works.
We decided to shoot in Ants Kitchen at Waterside court as it was one of the easiest places for everyone to get to and find, and because Ants house mates were nice enough to let us film there! We used Ants JVC camera and a hired monopod as we didn't feel a tripod was necessary for the shots we wanted to get. We shot in chronological order as this would make the editing process easier later on. Kirsty filled the role of cook, and Simon, Myself and Ant took it in turns to film, and direct, whilst all having in puts when we thought of something.
Ant was pretty happy about editing it as he had access to final cut on his lap top, and it was more a case of putting the footage in order rather than creating edits, and as we had filmed in chronological order we figured it wouldn't take him to long. i would have been happy to edit, but as ant owned final cut it seemed logical to let him. The music we wanted to use originally was Green Onions by Booker T. & The MG's but as we didnt have the right we couldn't keep it in the final edit. So we had some music from a Friend of James Harris's who had gotten the rights for Ant. It doesn't fit the film as well as our original idea but it works.
Wednesday 5 May 2010
Group Project Evaluation
Yesterday we finished editing our group project. Im glad that weve got it finished but i wasnt too pleased with the end result. The main thing that let our film down was the planning, along with a lot of things that were out of our control, and to be honest alot of bad luck.
For example: Actors reliability / availability. On many occasions we were let down by actors, the best example of this being the actor that we had cast as adrian pulled out 2 days before filming, after being confirmed for over 3 weeks. This meant we had to use Carlinas boyfriend instead, so we could only film when he was down which limited us to a day or 2 a week at the most, and as he was the main character he was in ever scene. So whenever we were filming we were rushed to try and get each scene done asap so we could move to the next, which resulted in us missing shots, and some dialogue, which was a nightmare in the edit.
Another factor that made editing harder was the fact that most of our cast wernt actually actors, so when shooting they did things dramatically different in different shots, body positions being the main one. Examples of this were in the first scene, Matt(Aidrian) changes body position several times between shots, so the continuity wasn't always good, and often poor. Another example was in the pub scene, Carlina(Cheryl) was sat upright for the whole of her over the shoulder shot, then when we filmed Matts(Aidrians) she had her head rested on her hand. so it made cutting between the 2 imposible. Although these are all things im sure i would have noticed during filming had it not been for the rush we were in to get the scenes filmed.
Timing was another big issue, because on the first day of filming we started late morning filming the first scene, and then moved on to film the third and fourth afterwards, so they were all filmed in the same sort of light (sunny, day time) We got cut short of filming scene 4 because we filmed at chloes house, and one of her house mates wasnt happy with it, so we were asked to leave before we had a chance to shoot some crutial shots at the end of the scene. Which posed another problem in the edit. The next chance we then had to film with Matt and Chris both available was the following week at 8 in the evening, and as this was the last oppurtunity to film with Matt we had no other option. So myself and tom came up with a way of writing Aidrian out of the script so we wouldnt need to use him/film with him again. Our idea was to have Jonny and Aidrian split up while being chased, and to then carry on filming Jonny until he gets away, and then have him recieve a phone call from Aidrian sounding paniced, where we hear him through Jonnys phone say 'ive got away but the police saw me running and chased me' and ofcourse he still has the drugs on him. So we then hear him get arrested through the phone, and we end on a shot of Jonny looking distraught.
The were a lot lessons learnt over the process of making this film, and ones that i will defiantly keep in mid for future productions. The first is not to be too ambitious, and too keep to as few locations, and as little actors as possible. Our Film had a lot of both of these so by the time we got to filming everything was a bit manic and rushed, which hurt the overall outcome of the film. The second is timing. To plan and shoot way before the deadline, this way you have time to keep re-editing and asses the possibilities, and different ways around potential errors. this is something we prayed for during editing, and if wed had time to re shoot certain sequences/shots the continuity of our film could have been greatly improved. The third is to never rely on anyone that isn't in the production team, always have back up equipment/locations/actors because normally people aren't to inclined to do something for nothing (especially actors).
The main positive i took from this film was the idea of getting on with what you've got. Even though we didn't have anywhere near all the shots we needed for the originally planned edit, we still managed to put together a film that flows (mostly) and has a gripping story line. At first the task of editing this film seemed too much to do in the time we had, but once Tom and i got on with it and just thought, this is the only footage we have got so were going to have to make do with it, it went well. Im not happy with the final edit, but i am happy we managed to finish it, as it took a lot of work and was a real group effort. The main thing i would change about this production is the planning. We proved in the later part of the production we could do it, and if we had worked that hard all the way through the film would look a lot more like our original idea.
Here is the finished Film:
And the Bloopers:
For example: Actors reliability / availability. On many occasions we were let down by actors, the best example of this being the actor that we had cast as adrian pulled out 2 days before filming, after being confirmed for over 3 weeks. This meant we had to use Carlinas boyfriend instead, so we could only film when he was down which limited us to a day or 2 a week at the most, and as he was the main character he was in ever scene. So whenever we were filming we were rushed to try and get each scene done asap so we could move to the next, which resulted in us missing shots, and some dialogue, which was a nightmare in the edit.
Another factor that made editing harder was the fact that most of our cast wernt actually actors, so when shooting they did things dramatically different in different shots, body positions being the main one. Examples of this were in the first scene, Matt(Aidrian) changes body position several times between shots, so the continuity wasn't always good, and often poor. Another example was in the pub scene, Carlina(Cheryl) was sat upright for the whole of her over the shoulder shot, then when we filmed Matts(Aidrians) she had her head rested on her hand. so it made cutting between the 2 imposible. Although these are all things im sure i would have noticed during filming had it not been for the rush we were in to get the scenes filmed.
Timing was another big issue, because on the first day of filming we started late morning filming the first scene, and then moved on to film the third and fourth afterwards, so they were all filmed in the same sort of light (sunny, day time) We got cut short of filming scene 4 because we filmed at chloes house, and one of her house mates wasnt happy with it, so we were asked to leave before we had a chance to shoot some crutial shots at the end of the scene. Which posed another problem in the edit. The next chance we then had to film with Matt and Chris both available was the following week at 8 in the evening, and as this was the last oppurtunity to film with Matt we had no other option. So myself and tom came up with a way of writing Aidrian out of the script so we wouldnt need to use him/film with him again. Our idea was to have Jonny and Aidrian split up while being chased, and to then carry on filming Jonny until he gets away, and then have him recieve a phone call from Aidrian sounding paniced, where we hear him through Jonnys phone say 'ive got away but the police saw me running and chased me' and ofcourse he still has the drugs on him. So we then hear him get arrested through the phone, and we end on a shot of Jonny looking distraught.
The were a lot lessons learnt over the process of making this film, and ones that i will defiantly keep in mid for future productions. The first is not to be too ambitious, and too keep to as few locations, and as little actors as possible. Our Film had a lot of both of these so by the time we got to filming everything was a bit manic and rushed, which hurt the overall outcome of the film. The second is timing. To plan and shoot way before the deadline, this way you have time to keep re-editing and asses the possibilities, and different ways around potential errors. this is something we prayed for during editing, and if wed had time to re shoot certain sequences/shots the continuity of our film could have been greatly improved. The third is to never rely on anyone that isn't in the production team, always have back up equipment/locations/actors because normally people aren't to inclined to do something for nothing (especially actors).
The main positive i took from this film was the idea of getting on with what you've got. Even though we didn't have anywhere near all the shots we needed for the originally planned edit, we still managed to put together a film that flows (mostly) and has a gripping story line. At first the task of editing this film seemed too much to do in the time we had, but once Tom and i got on with it and just thought, this is the only footage we have got so were going to have to make do with it, it went well. Im not happy with the final edit, but i am happy we managed to finish it, as it took a lot of work and was a real group effort. The main thing i would change about this production is the planning. We proved in the later part of the production we could do it, and if we had worked that hard all the way through the film would look a lot more like our original idea.
Here is the finished Film:
And the Bloopers:
Personal Project
For my personal project i have decided to make a cookery video on how to cook a roast dinner:
I chose to make a cookery video because before uni i hadn't ever made, or thought about making a cookery viideo, an after doing it in a group i found it interesting. Ive chosen to do a roast because its a very Britsh meal, and i personally dont know how to make one. So it will be interesting to plan it out and learn myself. Im going to try and make an easy to follow video with a pleasing out come, so anyone that watches it wants, or feels they could do it by following the video.
Im going to have a student cook act in the video so hopefully it will appeal to a younger audience, or people who are new to cooking. Im also going to use a voice over, over the finished edit. My goal is to interest people in cooking, and want to give a seemingly hard meal, a go themselves.
Im currently emailing my cook about the video, and she is going to let me know ingredients etc soon so i can gather them. For location i am going to use my cooks kitchen which is in halls. It isnt ideal but she too has a busy schedule and after talking to her about it, it is the best option. I have been watching a wide range of cookery videos to try and grasp an understanding of the key elements that make up a generic cookery video:
Wide angle
A shot of the cheif stood over, or next to the ingredients, which can be cut too, and from through out the video as they progress.
Close ups
- Of the food as its being prepared / cooked
- Of the cooking implements, e.g. frying pans, pots etc
Panning Shot
Another common aspect of a cookery video, a shoulder/head level shot that slightly pans between the cheif and what hes doing, and also zooms in and out of the action
Here are some videos that show these types of shots:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)