CPR Evaluation

Evaluation

The aim of this project was to explore the theme 'uncanny' and produce a set and the use special and visual effects to create a one minute piece. Our idea resembles Alice and Wonderland as it is about a tea party and plays with the idea of scaling and having people being different sizes in the same setting, creating an uneasy and unusual feeling for the viewer. 

After researching the uncanny and coming up with a lot of results that reminded me of horror films, my initial idea of what the uncanny was, was that it had to be dark and scary. I liked the idea of using the same person but as different people or as a mirror image that comes to life as I found the scene from the Shining with the twin girls very unnerving and would allow us to experiment with green screen and overlapping shots with the same person filmed on their own separately and then interacting with 'themselves'. I also liked the idea of having one of them completely normal and the other (possibly their reflection coming out of a mirror) being really unusual and behaving weirdly and having makeup on their face that was really weird, and would make the viewer uncomfortable. I had this idea after researching make up on Instagram and following some people such as Stephanie Fernadez and 'luvkat' who I have followed for a while and realised that they provided inspiration for this project. I love that they have a theme and then just over exaggerate their makeup and use special effects such as prosthetics so they can create a stitched effect and using contacts to make their eyes a different colour. This was something I wanted to use in the project, and would cover the special effect requirement.

After creating a group and sharing ideas, we decided to go with Amy's idea of a tea party with someone trapped inside a teapot and climbing out as Susannah was keen for us to experiment with scaling, and we as a group were keen to stray from the obvious idea of creating a dark and dingy set and this idea gave us the chance to create something pristine yet still fitting the uncanny brief. We initially tried to blend as many ideas we each had as possible (Dani wanted blood down the walls, I wanted to use makeup) but this changed along the way. We set about creating a Facebook group to share our ideas and thoughts about the set and possible props we could use, here are some of the screenshots I sent in of things I had researched;

This was my thought for the set after we first had a meeting and discussed that we wanted it to be very bright and colourful;

I liked the idea of using lots of clocks to confuse the viewer more, and painting a big one on one walk, on top of wallpaper as we had to combine both elements in the set design. I also thought we should make it look really girly and quaint but in a sickly-sweet kind of way to make the viewer feet weird.

The group liked the idea and we did end up creating something fairly similar, we incorporated the clocks and the stripes on one wall, and for the wallpaper I thought it would look good if we created the effect that whoever lived there got bored easily and changed things but was also very erratic and not completely sane, so they would wallpaper over and then Chang ether mind and rip patches off revealing old wallpaper underneath, and with the stripes we wanted to use lots of colour and have them different sizes again playing on the indecisiveness of the character who lived there and the changing behaviours they have. We incorporated the classic idea of a tea party with the cups and saucers but made sure we got ones that didn't match and weren't put together properly with their matching pair, and we bought fake flowers to attach to the walls to make it busy and we painted the clocks different colours and patterns as well as more saucers that were plain white and then hung them along with bird cages to create one big cluttered set that didn't have a focus point for the viewer so they were constantly looking around at the different elements of the set. 

We did want to add pictures of our own the the frames on the walls but found that we just ran out of time. I wanted to use the makeup side of things to add another thing for the viewer to look at and spent time practicing on myself and my friend and too. Pictures which Chris then edited in Photoshop to make they brighter and the colours more intense but we just didn't have the time in the end to use them in the set which was a shame. We also didn't get to do the makeup for the shoot properly which was annoying as I had done a lot of research into it and bought some face paint to use and we didn't get to make the most of it, and it would of improved the final film.

The process of filming went fairly smoothly, as did finishing off our set. We all worked together on different parts of the project so we all got to try the different elements of Art Direction which was good because none of us had tried it before and I feel like because we worked well as a team we were able to do this and not have specific roles. We also worked well together on the project because we were all behind the idea and liked working on it which is definitely important in creating something that is good in the end - if you don't like the project itself you won't put as much effort into the process. 

Dani ended up volunteering to actually be on camera in the film, we sort of failed to communicate as a group who was actually going to be in the film which was annoying! But it worked out in the end as Dani didn't mind being in it. Amy and I were behind the camera setting up the shots and directing Dani while Harry set up the lighting for the shots. We only got a few angles of the set itself with Dani in it which we probably should of made more use of as we took it down afterwards; we didn't actually storyboard the piece which was of detriment to us as we just made it up on the day what shots we would get, and we could have done with more cutaways to use in the edit. 

For the greenscreen shoot, we managed (with Susannah's help) to recreate the 'spout' of the teapot for Dani to climb up, and we got the right shots to use, the only problem in the edit was that her legs moved rather than being straight as she was supposed to be sliding out and so it made it difficult to mask in the edit, and we didn't have a shot of her falling into the cup - although i'm not sure how we would have actually got this in the greenscreen room, but we should have planned for this and come up with an alternative option. Another issue was with the GoPro, the first time we were meant to use it to film in the teapot it had no charge, and then when we charged it and used it we didn't cover up a red flashing light it had on the front so it was visable on the ceramic and showed up in the footage; we would have seen this if the app for it was working on my phone but for some reason the camera wouldn't sync. We did, however film it again and we were able to use the footage as we covered up the light with bluetac and made sure we got a few shots to choose between.

Editing was difficult as none of us (apart form Chris) was familiar with editing greenscreen footage and that whole process, but Harry seemed to pick it up pretty quick, and although we all got to try it in the session with Susannah, Harry seemed the most competent so he took over that technical side of things while we all sat around and told him what we wanted to achieve.

Overall, I am happy with the project because we were all so new to the whole process of set building and editing on after effects and none of us had tried to do scaling etc so based on that I thought we did really well and worked well as a team. There are things I would change such as make-up, and the edit could have been smoother and we could have got better greenscreen footage, but considering the level we are at with the software, I think we did the best we could and I am proud of our groups efforts and final project.