Grading Research - How to Grade

To learn how to do proper grading, for a cinematic feel we watched a few videos on how to grade and did some research on the internet.

First you can use the Fast Colour Corrector and drag and drop this effect onto the timeline. You can then adjust the tonality of the clip. If your image is too dark you can add some whites, and vice versa. Then to adjust the greys and midtones you can lighten or darken the midtone areas of the video.

Once the levels in the image have been adjusted and look good, you can move on to the 3-way colour corrector. This then has to be dragged onto the timeline. This will show up in the Effects Panel. With this we can adjust the colour of shadows in the image  and the midtones of the image to give the image a cinematic, film look. Adding blues to the shadows and orange to the midtones gives the footage a much more cinematic feel. There are 3 different colour wheels that appear; the let for shadow, the middle for midtones and the right for highlights. Play around with these settings until you are happy.

After this go to the Tonal Range Definiton option in the effects panel. Drop down this option and drag the triangles towards the centre because this will blend the blue and orange effects together and therefoer making it look moer natural.
The last effect to add is tint. Drag and drop this onto your clip. Then change Map Black to a very dark blue and Map White to a very light orange. Then tint 20% or 30%. This adds more blue and yellow to the imae, whilst desaturating other colours. You may need to readjust levels in Fast Colour Corrector.

 

 

This is some of the grading advice we are going to use to give our film a cinematic film and also to add blues and more colour to the opening party scene, to give it a better party feel. 

FreeSFX

FreeSFX is a site similar to freeplaymusic which you can sign up to in order to download free sound effects with the following conditions:

"You MUST credit freesfx.co.uk if you use our sound effects or music in your project. How you do this is up to you but please make sure that you include our website URL in your credit as follows:

http://www.freesfx.co.uk

If your project doesn't have a website or blog associated with it the credit back can be printed on any artwork for your project, added to the final credits for a film, added to your YouTube video description etc."

And in the following projects:

"You can use our sound effects and music in any commercial, non-commercial project including those that will be broadcast, including:

> Films, television programmes and radio programmes.

> YouTube videos.
> Websites, blogs and podcasts.
> Games and apps (including iPhone, Android apps etc).
> Exhibitions, conferences, museums etc.
> In your school or college project."

We are finding it incredibly useful for creating a realistic background noise in our project.

Weather

Weather was not a major concern of ours because the majority of our shots were inside. However the last shot is the protagonist coming out the front door of a house, and we had to use our lighting and other equipment outside. We also wanted the last shot to be at night in the dark, so we had to check the sunset time in the UK.

The sunset time was around 6pm, so we got our equipment set up in preparation to shoot around this time. We also did a weather check for the evening when we were shooting the last shot to make sure it would not be raining or snowing.

Our First Shoot

On the day of the shoot, our group all arrived at Alice's house for 10am, so we could prepare the lighting, the camera and make sure everything was ready for the actors arriving at 11am and the shoot to start at 12pm. Once the actors arrived, the priority was costume and make up and handing out scripts to make sure they could rehearse their lines and make sure they knew what they were doing.

We took a few photos of our different actors as evidence:



These first pictures show Rakhi, the girl who overdoses in our opening sequence. Her make up was the most difficult, as we had to make her look like she had taken drugs and was looking rough due to them. We used talcum powder to make her look pale and brushed it over her face and shoulders. We then also smudged her make up - eyeshadow and lipstick - to show that she was a bit 'out of it,' and also bought some contacts with dilated pupils for the effect of someone on drugs and to make it look more realistic. We also roughed her hair a bit, so she looked a little more messy and like she really had been at a party.


The top picture below is of our main character. Ella plays the main character and her make up was dark and shadowy to reflect her personality and role in our film/opening sequence. The dark lace dress also represents her personality as quite dark and mysterious, but still feminine.


 The other pictures below, on the right, are of other actors, all part of the party with their make up and general look. Everyone dresses slightly differently and has a different style in order to have a realistic representation of the different types of people who would be at a party.

To keep everyone happy on the day and to make sure they kept focused, so we could get our shoot done within 5/6 hours, we supplied food (pizza, pasta, snacks, etc. ) and drinks to keep them happy so that they could eat when they were not acting.













When actors were not needed for a scene, or few, we let them go and watch T.V. and have a break in order to keep them happy so the day ran as smoothly as possible. We also ensured that for the long point of view shot at the beginning that we practiced it a number of times at the beginning in order to make sure everyone knew exactly what to do and exactly how it was going to work. To make our actors feel more at ease dancing, on top of the dark lighting and the strobe, we also put on some background music, so they felt comfortable dancing and so that the party looked as realistic as possible.

Our opening sequence used a wide representation of teenagers in order to break the stereotype of teenagers that are often in 'cliques' in films. Ours is a mix of different type of people, all at the same party - a much more realistic representation. For example, we had a bit of a tomboy - hair up, no make up, boots on. We also had a rave girl - disco pants, vans, colourful make up and so on.

Overall the day ran smoothly, and we did not have to do a re-shoot involving everybody. Just an extra shoot to shoot the shots of Ella that we had not had time for on the day. Success!

Our Animatic

Our Film Animatic

This is our film animatic. We did this in order to make sure consecutive shots had continuity and to make sure that we knew what order we wanted the shots in and the length we wanted them on screen for. It is a very basic version of our film which we hope will influence the final outcome of our film opening sequence, although the film sequence is likely to adapt and change alot based on our animatic, because it has shown us that we need to make many of the shots quicker. We also need to plan a few extra shots to make sure we have enough variety.

Filter Tests

We thought that using filters would add to the "trippy" look of our opening sequences. Below shows us testing them all out.



In the end we decided against using a filter. Whilst we liked the effects that some of them created, we decided that it added extra complication. We also realised that we could put in the effect of a filter in by grading or after effects. Instead we decided to use a strobe for the effects we wanted and it gave a slightly blue effect as well as making it feel more like a party.

Shot List

We made a shot list after our test shoot, planning out the order in which our sequence will go and making a list of what happens in each shot, the dialogue in each shot, the type of camera movement or shot used and any props that needed to be used.

After making the shot list we decided based on the different shots we were shooting the different lighting set ups and how many different of them we would need so that we could choose which order to film the different set ups in, and to make sure we will not have to continuously move all the lighting and equipment around. This is all in order to make sure the real shoot runs smoothly and quickly on the day.

Setting Up and Planning Location

We started our Pre-Test-Shoot by working out where all of our set, props and actors would go. This helped us to visualise, and to identify any problems that may arise. The photos below show tape marking out the set and actors. Actors are represented by a cross.



We measured out the dimensions of the sofa to work out how much space it would take up.



This shows the alcove in which the couple will be sitting.



The shows the whole room from where the first shot would start.

Evidence of Planning

Pictorial evidence of our planning processes:

We did a test shoot, in which we did more planning for the real shoot, and using our story board took pictures in order to make an animatic for the real thing. We also did light testing, as shown in a previous post. Based on our first storyboard using post-it notes and hand drawn pictures, following our test shoot we also made a new storyboard using photos we took for our animatic. This meant that for the real shoot we had a storyboard we could follow easily and it was easy to show the actors exactly what they were meant to do from the pictures we took at the test shoot, which saved time during the real shoot.

These photos show our old storyboard in the top right, and the one developed after the test shoot on the bottom left.

Location Set-up

We needed to plan the sequence of events in greater detail to identify any improvements that could be made or any errors there were. The diagram helped us to do this for our first shot. 

It is only a diagram for the first, perspective shot to show the path that Ella takes through the party, and where she ends up. The first shot is very important as it will establish the scene and last 30 seconds to 1 minute.  It helped to plan our sequence of events through the party and plan the shot.