Making Progress

I'm back from the holidays and work has hit me in the way that one would hit a baseball with a bat.

Hard.

But it's been good in a way because it means that things have been progressing really rather nicely. The whole team seems confident and I think we're on track to making something great happen.

The downside to being so busy is that I've got a bit left behind on this blog. So let me bring you up to date.

Monday 9th April

Today was scheduled to be our Pre-Production Set Up time. As our actual production isn't until the 30th April I thought this was a bit odd, but any time in the studio is valuable so I wasn't about to complain.

We started off the session with a half an hour chat about the progress of the production and the tutorials on Thursday. Progress is going well and we're going to be able to get some feedback for the Reflection module which is excellent.

We then all piled into the studio space to get to work. Ed has said that it's going to be a 'blank room' set up – so all the tables, boxes and ladders that are currently taking up space will be removed – hooray! This gives us a lot more space to play with – although we're unlikely to get this extra space until the day.

The first thing I decided to do was to review the tasks that had been left over from Easter.

• Inserts – these are currently in progress, and we're due to have first drafts (at least) by the end of the week. Great job, Calum!

• Titles – these are also in the works and Isaac is really putting in the work to get these done, which is fantastic

• Voiceover script – Phoebe and Mia are going to work on a script for Insert 2 once they've seen the initial draft from Calum so we at least have an idea of what the flow of the footage will be

• Voiceover actor – Mia is on the hunt amongst her contacts

• Micromedia player – Emily has agreed to create a collage of our bird images to be displayed on the TV screen

Great work, everyone!

We then saw that the exhibition boards had finally arrived! We've been waiting to get our hands on these for ages so we can see how they look in the space. Joe and Calum got to work setting these up whilst Phoebe and I supervised. I sent Emily and Mia to go and measure up the furniture in reception so that we can mark up the sizes on the studio floor. Once they came back, Mia and I headed down to the workshop to get an update on the set building and to measure up the crates we'll be using for a coffee table.

Setting Up - E. Lake

We found Alison and asked how things were coming along. She said that they weren't and that she would need some help with construction, which is fine by us. I agreed to come in the next day to help her out – you can read all about that in my next blog. We grabbed the measurements for the crates and headed back upstairs. Once in the studio we set to work setting out where we'd want the furniture in relation to the exhibition boards. Not everything went particularly smoothly because Finn came in to tell us off for health and safety as Calum and Joe had decided to prop up the exhibition boards using a floor light and a book. Finn gave us the correct brackets for the boards and left satisfied that we wouldn't try anything that stupid again.

Once the markings were in place we took a step back to see how everything looked. And actually... the space looked great. The boards look very smart within the space, they just need some decoration. We've decided that this will be prints of some of the collage images, which will look nice and hit home the theme of the programme. I need to go to reprographics to get some quotes for this.

Mark Ups - E. Lake

Lequane joined us to that we could work on some sound stuff. You see, in previous productions that we've made you can hear a lot of movement from the floor when inserts are playing – in particular during the Storytime production. I've asked Joe to ensure that the mics are muted when our VTs play so that this doesn't occur during the final thing. He had a play with the equipment and is satisfied that this is achievable.

I finished the day with a visit to Finn to ask about recording. He recommended that we use the proper recording studio so I popped down to see Brian Brooks to book in a recording session. That's now booked in for 19th March at 10am, so that we can have a copy of that combined with the footage in time for the rehearsal on 20th April. He's going to have to record it for us as we haven't been inducted on the equipment, but that's a bonus for us because it means it will be recorded to a high standard. Win win!

Feedback

Thursday was our feedback session with Ed to get some quotes for our Reflection/Review module. Only 3 of us were able to attend this session, but we were able to get some feedback for the entire group which we were able to share around.

Ed was very happy with how we'd been progressing over the course of this module. He was pleased with the results of our tasks and very impressed with how we'd worked as a team. He also had some great ideas about how we could improve, which is always extremely helpful. One suggestion he gave for our Dancing Queen piece was that we could have varied our shots a bit more, as pretty much all of them were middle distance 2-shots. Not particularly interesting viewing. I think this is something we should definitely consider for our final piece.

Isaac also took the opportunity to get some feedback from Ed about the first draft of the titles, which leads me nicely onto the next section.

Titles

I'll readily confess that when I saw the first draft of Isaac's titles I was taken aback. It totally wasn't what I expected – the music was a complete surprise and the colouring was a bit too much. Ed, however, seemed very interested in them, and suggested that we have an experiment with the titles and see how far we could push them in either direction, and then see where the middle ground was.

Mia, Isaac and I went up to AV immediately to have a play on Premiere Pro and see what we could come up with. Isaac was to go full Isaac, I'd make something more traditional and Mia would come up with something halfway, then we'd share the videos to the group chat and get everyone else to vote on their favourites.

Editing on Thursday - R. Owen

This was a very successful session, even if my programme crashed at the 11th hour and I lost all my progress. I then came up with the idea of editing the footage so that the birds appeared to fly back and forth – almost like the visual equivalent of a record being scratched. Mia put something together really quickly using the footage we had, and it ended up working really well – especially with the drum and bass track we'd kept from Isaac's original draft. I collected the 3 versions and shared them to the group chat for voting.

The 'record-scratching' version ended up being the most popular, so that's the one we've gone with! It needed a bit of refinement, because we decided we didn't want any of the false colouring. Mia, Kelsie, Isaac and I spent a bit of time after the lecture on Friday putting the finishing touches to this which was so worth it.

Editing on Friday - R. Owen

We replaced the false colour buzzard with the original footage, but we couldn't locate the original chaffinch footage. Isaac did come up trumps with his extensive collection of bird footage and we used a great shot he had of a redpoll on his bird feeder, which just had to go in. We also took some of Joe's blue tit footage, and some of Mia's red kite footage, and added the record scratch effect to them to make that more of a prominent theme within the titles.

We sent this to the group chat, and got some really positive feedback. Some of us also sent a copy to other friends not involved in the project and got some really great feedback off them too.

Inserts

Calum was extremely busy over the Easter holidays and we now have one completed insert – Riverside Falconry – and an initial draft of the other.

The Riverside Falconry inset has a really good flow and vibe, which is really enhanced by the choice of music. John, the interviewee in this segment, did a really good job and it's great to hear him talk with such passion.

The second insert is inching closer to completion. Calum went back to Bellymack Hill Farm just to get some B-roll for this insert, which is really dedicated of him. The effort has really paid off, and the footage makes a great addition to the piece. Once again, the choice of music is brilliant, and between the group we managed to collect some great red kite footage on our visit to Bellymack last semester.

Mia has also been hard at work and has secured us a voice actor in the form of Bradley Williams! We'll be recording with him at 10am on Thursday morning in the recording studio. I'm really, really excited. Mia is also going to produce a voiceover script by Monday, which is just fantastic.

I can't believe what such a wonderful team I have – I'm really so lucky to be working with them. This production is shaping up so nicely!!