RETRIBUTION - FINAL FILM

Retribution from Alexander Barker on Vimeo.

REFLECTION: UNIT 2

Directions: Blast Off

                         

So thats the second unit done and dusted and I have to say it was challenging and a great learning experience. The final piece I produced is almost what I wanted, but because of a few time constraints when filming, the 3rd part of my film is not as strong as I would have liked.

The great thing about this whole unit is that I have learned a huge amount first of all from Steve Finn who was a great help and gave me so much advice and secondly from going through the process of trying to direct a film myself. Throughout the process of production I garnered so much to take on for the rest of my life in terms of this industry. 

The big things I learned:

1. Rehearsals are vital and should be of prime importance prior to the filming process beginning.
2. See if I can explore a location before filming there find out the logistics and situation in terms of how it will be lit and how it will sound.
3. Make use of the frame more, so don't just place my actor in the centre and be done with it. 
4. A Master shot is a key part of filming a conversation (at least for me), it was something I learned from Steve and is something I will never forget.

The Script

Looking back at this unit I spent most of it complaining about how bad the script was we were provided with. What I should have been doing instead was making sure I used the script to the best of my ability by having rehearsals with my actors. I did rewrite the it slightly, but even this didn't really help in the long run. In retrospect I have to look at the script as something I shouldn't have worried about as much and look at the directing itself as the area I didn't focus on enough.

Winding-Refn and his wall of notes

Filming and Editing

Once I went through my Pre-Production process I arrived at filming where everything ran smoothly until the man in charge of the nightclub decided to cut us of short with hardly anytime to film my conversation. I only managed to do the 3 shots of the conversation that were the most basic, if I had had more time I would have been much more adventurous. The other two days of shooting consisted of a prison and a house where we shot one day fully and then did re-shoots on another. All in all it would have been nicer to have found some more interesting locations in the budget, but it was not to be.
Then I got into the editing suite and I have to say have found it very smooth and without much in terms of issues except for re-shooting a couple of shots which were relatively simple. The main thing I learned and had to work on was Sound design which I have not really had to do much of before. 

So To Conclude I have had a pretty great time and have produced a film which I can be fairly proud of for a first effort at directing i.e. not touching the camera which I have to say was surprisingly ok with. I have to give a special mention to Plamen for that as he was great as my Cinematographer and new very well what I had in mind for most shots. 
So its on to Documentary and to change up the way I think to Factual and away from the surreal and dark nature of Nicolas Winding-Refn, Its been great!!

   

NICOLAS WINDING-REFN CONTINUED RESEARCH AND UNDERSTANDING

A regular thing that seems to come up in all the interviews I have seen with Refn is that violence not necessarily on screen is a big part of the way he makes and thinks about films.

"Well, art is an act of violence. It is about penetration, about speaking to our subconscious and our moods at different levels." Nicolas Winding-Refn

This video is very poetic in a way and shows graphically the violence portrayed in all of his films.

Refn also has a tendency to compare violence to sex, which he says in this clip from the upcoming documentary 'My Life Directed by Nicolas Winding-Refn' due to come out this year:

I feel that in my film I have done enough to suggest violence through the use of blood, and the end of my film which I would like to be seen as ending just prior to extreme and graphic violence.

Another thing to point out which I have probably already made clear is the Power of silence in a Refn film. I found this Q&A from The film Society of Lincoln Centre which outlines perfectly what I feel about my film and also what I feel some of film lacks:

The more I discover the more I love about this incredible artist in the medium of film and I will continue to follow his work after finishing this project as I am eager to see what he does next.
I do know that he is in the process of making a horror film at the moment called 'Neon Demons' set for release next year so I will wait with baited breath.

CONTINUATION OF THE EDIT: POST FINAL CUT DEADLINE

Taking on the advice and pointers of my tutor during the final cut deadline, I have been focussed on the sound editing and design of my final edit.

One of the main things brought up was the sound during the conversation in part 3. It was recommended that I put a sound over the spoken word to make sure it flows together. What I did was to take a piece of non dialogue sound and copy it enough times to encompass the length of the conversation section.

As for the other elements that needed attention I have found new and more appropriate music for the parts of my film that needed it.

I have now done that and will see if it is what was in mind for the final product.

RE-SHOOTS/PICK-UPS

Having needed to do some re-shoots on a couple of things in Part 1 and 2 of my film I set out today to film the shots which didn't take very long.

I had some issues determining wether or not my actor wore a hat or not in the previous shoots.

Apart from this however the shoot went well and I got some great inputs from my cameraman Plamen, on one particular part of a shot we did.

Now that I have taken the footage into the already existent edit, I am pretty pleased as the continuity error is in my opinion solved by virtue of my directors style and the way I cut it.

So as for shooting That is a Wrap!! (At least I bloody well hope so)

DIRECTIONS UNIT: WEBSITE

As part of the unit I have been instructed to create a website. Now I have never done this, but realistically it was a very easy process and quite enjoyable I have to say. I was essentially doing a homage to my director Nicolas Winding-Refn's work.

I used the website creator MoonFruit, I don't know if this is the best one or what it is, but it seemed to suit me pretty well.

Here is the link: http://windingretribution.moonfruit.com/

SOUND EDITING

I have never done any sound editing before, but using Adobe Audition with some help from Youtube I have managed to do some very successful things with my problematic sound files. I first had a look at Audition yesterday and it all seemed very daunting and confusing at first (not helped by looking at the wrong video's for what my issues needed).

I had another crack at it today and have made a huge breakthrough, starting to understand how it all works and what is required for my particular issue. I discovered that I would have to work on the noise reduction area for my sound files. So I watched the appropriate youtube videos:

Identifying separate noises in the file


Removing background noise


So after learning about the process I got onto it myself using Adobe Audition which I now have on my mac.

I put the original file in and had a look to see which sounds were which, picking out the voice of David my main actor in this close up slip sound file:

Once I did that I set about with the noise reduction effect managing to get rid of extra background noise:

 Clear that all the sound visible between the lines in the original file is now gone.

I will now take these adjusted audio files and put them into my edit on Premiere to solve my problems in part 3 of my film.

I will be re-shooting the other bits possibly on Wednesday, but hopefully this week at least so that I can be ready for the deadline on the 20th.

ROUGH CUT FEEDBACK

After discussion and feedback today I have some things to work on in the edit and possibly do some pickup shots.

Feedback:

Part 1 -

1. Actor looking at camera - Solution: Re-Shooting/Pickup shots of this location
2. Panning shot out of focus and catching up with actor - Solution: Re-shoot 
3. Thinking about Sound Design

Part 2 -

1. Entrance into house very "domestic" (not like east enders) - Solution: Re-shoot

Part 3 -

1. Opening dissolve plus colour doesn't work - Solution: Adding titles between each part, and colour correction
2. Sound on conversation voices needs to be re-addressed - Solution: ADR sound recording using David and Harry (substitute voice for Callum)

ISSUES AFTER EDIT

As is probably expected there were certain things about the footage I put into the edit that wasn't quite right and really just didn't feel like my director Nicolas Winding-Refn's style:

• The biggest and most prominent problem is the sound from the conversation scene. What happened was that I was put under a lot of pressure for time when the manager of the nightclub told me (half way through my shoot) that he would have to leave early and therefore leaving me with an hour and a half less time than promised. So as a result I have sound issues where the buzzing of the mirror ball and lighting above the actors. What I didn't realise was that you could still have all the other lights in the club on without the buzzing going. This really frustrates me because it could have been much more succesfull in terms of sound.

• Sound was the major problem, but as well as the sound I feel that I didn't quite get the pacing and performance out of my actors. I have discussed it with my main actor and he says he would be up for re-shooting the scene however he is not sure if his nephew will be. The reason I believe that it would be worth re-shooting is that this conversation section is such a contrast to the rest of the footage. I really thought that this scene would be like Only God Forgives which it is in terms of how it looks, but again it is sound and what they say that is my quandary. 

• The last thing I think I could improve on is a more interesting and insightful opening sequence to introduce my main character. Looking back through the footage there is a clear lack of options as well as ways of introducing this character to my audience. This was also due to my lack of a good location, as I was hoping to use a real prison gate to symbolise the leaving of prison. At the moment I have had to use a sound effect combined with a make shift prison door alternative. 

 I know that I am just being pernickety, but I would really like to do better than what I have produced. I just feel that to keep up my grade I need to create a more professional piece of work. Also the piece doesn't fully reflect the fledgling style of my director Refn.  

EDITING - ROUGH CUT

I said in my posts about shooting, that I had already begun editing. So now I have what I would consider a rough cut for myself at least and probably enough to show on next Friday's deadline.

Currently my main issue is on-screen sound for the conversation scene filmed in the nightclub. This is due to the sound of the light fixtures above the dance floor, which made a constant buzzing sound and has consequently made the voices of the actors very difficult to hear. This is where the sudden adjustment in time really affected my final piece the most.

The good thing is that I have talked to Fergus and he says we may be able to drown out the sound of the buzzing using audio programs at the studios.

Apart from the sound I am very pleased with the look, and I feel like I have got all the shots I wanted. Just a few touch ups on certain edit points as well as some colour correcting and then I may have a final cut.

BLOOD

I have to admit Nicolas Winding-Refn is a big lover of the violence and brutality of movies. So I thought if I didn't have violence I should at least imply it or show it in another way. So I decided to try and make my own fake blood using tips from youtube.

I used Golden Syrup, Red Food Colouring, A drop of Black food colouring and some flour.

                                                 

Test: Half water bottle

So this was original testing, but when I got to the shoot (with help from Jordan) we used the blood where appropriate on Callum who was playing my second speaking character. 

The result was fairly succesfull and I am pretty pleased with mine and Jordan's handy work, considering I was looking to use a proper make-up artist through a contact with David. The biggest bit of luck was that we found some eye liner left on the bar, which was very useful for creating a bruise on his face.

 

SHOOTING: DAY 2 - HOUSE AND PRISON

So day 2 finished and subsequently my shooting for my film is complete, I Hope. Today was fairly improvised especially compared to yesterdays nightclub shoot. I did some shooting at my make shift prison location which went alright, I would've wanted a better prison exit scene, but the place I tried was locked. I did a few handheld shots in Dave's house, as a homage to my directors earlier work the Pusher trilogy. My last filming location was my flat in uni halls, I decided to use the corridor as we could light it in an interesting way despite it being midday. Today was a combination of general location shots and inserts for those shots.

Luckily for me Winding-Refn uses a lot of interiors for his work, so we missed the hail storm outside.

Today was all about the physical performance from David and thankfully for me he was very adept and did everything I asked him to do. Including standing outside in the cold in just a thin jumper for warmth so I can't express how much I appreciate his help.

Again after today I couldn't resist getting into the edit suite straight away and so I have already got myself a rough cut for myself. It obviously needs a lot of touching up even before it is presented next Friday, but I confident that I have a good starting point. I did do what was suggested and got all my footage into files for each part of the short film.

SHOOTING: DAY 1 - NIGHTCLUB

So, first of 2 days shooting done and dusted and despite having less time than originally promised I am ecstatic about the footage I got out of it. I was told by the manager who I contacted a couple of weeks ago that I would have from 11am until 4pm to shoot, but he came in at about 1pm to say that we could only stay until 2:30 as he had to go.

I really wasn't sure what kind of lighting and resources I would have for todays shoot, but John the manager was very kind and let me be free to use the lighting they had in the Club. As a result I was quite experimental and with more time I would have had plenty more things to try. Even so it was a great day overall.

There were a few things that were different to what I remember so I did have to make a few adjustments, but then again that is what improvising is for. 

The big advantage today was that I had a cinematographer in Plamen who knows my vision and has seen some of my directors films. He had some very good inputs especially when it came to lighting as he seems to be more adept than I am. I have to add a special mention for Jordan who did pretty much everything for me today. He was make-up, lighting, sound-man, electrician and pretty much anything you can think of for someone to do on a film set.

I have to give Plamen credit for this shot in particular.

So just a great experience today, I couldn't resist creating a rough cut of the conversation as soon as I got home.