Portrait of Place Evaluation

This evaluation will mainly cover the day of the shoot and the camerawork for I was the DOP, I did all the camera work and my partner did all the Editing, and we both contributed ideas to each other in both fields.

On the day of the shoot, a problem occurred with the camera we took out of stores. The batteries, which we charged all night, were faulty in the end. We double checked the batteries the night before the shoot and they seemed fine but when we started shooting, the battery went from full to a quarter after a 30 second shot. It then died shortly after and the reserve battery did not even work at all. Luckily we had a reserve camera, a small Samsung handy cam. We used that and when we took the camera from stores back, the person behind the counter said the batteries must have been faulty. Anyway, moving on, just had to state that because it explains the slightly poor quality of picture, compared to work produced by the cameras from stores.

Camera Work

The camera we now had to uses was fairly simple and I got to grips with it fairly quickly. The footage I believe fitted the requirements of what we needed for our idea. I got a large variety of different shots from Wide Angle’s of the landscape (mountains and trees) to Close Ups of wildlife such as a moth we found on a dead leaf. The POV shot I am very pleased with because the glare from the sun on parts of it really looked beautiful in the edit, especially walking under the branches of a tree looking up and having the sun shining through, flashing as the branches passed it. Of course using the handy cam was a bit of a drawback because we could not use some shots we intended such as a focus pull but we made the most of what we had and I am pleased, and almost surprised at the quality of some of the shots.

Editing

As I stated above my partner took care of the editing but even so, I think I should state that it went really well in my opinion and the use of the different effects to give that old school film style to the footage was very effective. I am very pleased with the final edit.

Working as a Team

I think me and Robbie worked really well together, we both had similar creative ideas in both the camera work and the editing and generally co-operated well as a working pair.

Conclusion

The loss of the camera from stores was quite a devastating blow but we made most of our materials and I am just so glad we had a spare camera! The main thing I would put a lot more energy and effort in to if we could re do this would be the research and pre production paperwork. Because we had never been to the location and could only look at images on the Internet, I think we planned the shots as best we could, but we were mainly going to let the environment influence us on the day. The research that I have done for this project though I believe is not enough and I should of put more effort and time into researching beforehand. I believe though, the project as a whole went really well and I am very pleased with the final outcome. Our piece I think does as we intended it to do, with the POV shots blended with the varied shots of the rural environment it documents in a subtle and experimental way.

Contact Sheet

Zach Atherton-Collins

Email: zach1993@live.co.uk

Mob: 07780 008150

Robbie Troth

Email: robbietroth@hotmail.com

Mob: 07805 430353

Debbie Ballin

Email: d.ballin@shu.ac.uk

Tel: 0114 225 2673

Dominic Green

Email: dominic.green@shu.ac.uk

Mob: 07769 845826

Rough Shot List

As we have never been to the location of filming before this, we were basing rough shots from what images we could find on the internet and from what we imagined and been told we would come across. This is not exactly a planned shot list, just a rough plan of what we want to shoot.

There fore everything written so far for the shot list is but a backbone, the supporting foundations for us to elaborate on whilst shooting.

Long Shots: The general landscape, hills, mountains, trees, fields and the sky

Mid Shots: Trees (branches), streams, rivers, stone walls, wildlife

Close Ups: Trees (leaves and bark), streams, rivers, rocks, wildlife

Extreme Close Ups: Leaves, bark, earth, interesting vegetation in general, stone wall, rocks, wildlife (particularly bugs)

POV Shots: A long POV shot of walking through the countryside and looking around.

Rough Storyboards

Proposal

Our idea is to create an experimental documentary, using the rural environment of our location too our advantage. We plan on capturing the natural beauty of Edale in a variety of different ways: The big epic landscapes to the minute natural wonders, and of course everything in between.

In this film there is going to be a very slight narrative. This is how it is going to ‘document’. Were going to have POV shots of someone walking through the countryside in Edale (possibly then sped up) and then cut this up with the shots of ‘natural beauty’ and try edit it in a way too keep the audience interested, because of course there is no sound. By doing this we are trying to show what someone would see if they were to walk through Edale, and look closer at things too.

Video Research

As it is the experimental route we wanted to go down with nature as its main theme I looked at some different videos to gain inspiration and see what other productions in this area were out there.

‘My Father’s Garden’ by Mirko Faienza which I found on Vimeo is a really stunning piece of work, the use of the really close up shots on wildlife and plants work beautifully and that’s what we want to incorporate into our piece. Obviously it wont be in such great detail and quality as this but it has been inspiring just the same.

http://vimeo.com/9519939

‘Timescapes Timelapse: Mountain Light’ by Tom Lowe is also on Vimeo, the awe striking landscape shots are just something else, and I really like the idea of having time lapse shots in our production. Yet again, we could never hope to have a picture of such high quality, but with a bit of luck we can try and accomplish the lighting on some.

http://vimeo.com/6686768

I think both elements out of these two films will work nicely with our idea, the macro shots along with the epic landscapes and mid shots of trees, rivers etc. blending them together.

Edale Research - Location

Edale Research – Location

I researched Edale on the internet, looking for imagery of the location that would give inspiration and so it could give us a grasp of the environment that we would be filming in. The website below proved helpful as it gave a us a general knowledge of Edale and provided images of the scenery.

http://www.edale-valley.co.uk/

With the knowledge that Edale, according to the images online, was home to beautiful scenery and was a rural environment, an idea started to form, using the beauty of nature to create a captivating piece, with a mix of big wide angled landscape shots and macro shots of leaves, cobwebs and then everything scalewise inbetween.

Daybreak Express by D.A. Pennebaker

The directors main aim in this film, as is the films main focus, I believe is to show how the city blooms in the morning, and to show how hectic it is, a god way to describe it is 'organised chaos'. The pace of the film does this, and it relates to that of a journey of a train, at the start its slow, but builds up speed until it hits a rapid pace.

I liked the film, because I liked the link Pennebaker made between the train and the city and the style in which the film is made. I appreciate the camerawork and the editing, they really make it. All the extreme, manic and low angled shots along with the rapidly paced editing exaggerate the daybreak of a city well.

I believe the film is successful in its subject matter, for reasons i have already stated above; it makes a great link with the blooming city and the train and takes the viewer with this idea with the brilliantly crazy camerawork and paced editing.

The element of the film that particularily stood out to me was the colour. The use of colour, in my opinion was brilliant, very vivid and striking and i like the fact that it changed as the pace of the film quickened.