Task 2 – Campaign Film

TASK :

To create a two-minute film for a campaign (societal/communal movement) that is applicable in the UAE (United Arab Emirates).

 

PRE-PRODUCTION

Once again, I got to work with people I haven’t with before during this year, which was motivating. Each person in the class has one area of strength compared to the rest and as projects are tackled one after the other, our special skills gradually become more refined.

The team and I sat inside our favourite place to be: The Film Lab. Here, we had a brainstorming session, sharing our ideas and thoughts about what campaign we should choose and promote awareness for. I had pitched my idea in relation to mental health, inspired by an old Facebook post (a version of it below) that had been viral at its time:

Immediately, the team was on board with the idea of using this post concept for a campaign film on mental health. We then set out to pick out ones from the post’s list which would be applicable in UAE culture the most and altered them accordingly. We included: Self-consciousness with appearance, work stress, high expectations from parents and domestic violence.

HOWEVER, when the pitching day came along, the team’s entire world was turned upside down… it literally felt like that because we had to rethink our entire concept. What’s worse is that we completely exhausted ourselves with stress regarding actors and locations since after the pitch we were ready to start production. So when we had to rethink our idea, we apologised to the actors and didn’t collect the equipment. Instead, we sat once again in the film lab and brainstormed… talk about Déjà vu.

But being creative people, an idea sparked in our heads.

We decided to star one character and their life during four different days. We would show the exact same schedule and shots of waking up to eating breakfast to traveling to uni to working and so on, but as every day would go by, the character’s health and motivation would change and reduce. The people around her would be negatively impacting her mental state, whether it is her parents arguing continuously, classmates ignoring her or gaining unwanted attention from strangers.

And with a version 2 of our idea intact, we set out once again to find the actors, locations and rent the equipment accordingly.

Equipment used: 1 BlackMagic Pocket Cinema Camera, 1 Canon Lens, 1 Tripod, 1 ZOOM Microphone, 1 GlideCam (we tried using a GoPro but we couldn’t get the proper body harness we were hoping for)

 

PRODUCTION

Production went reasonably well! We finished everything in our planned three days without any issues. The only constraint we had to work around was that the actress had to leave for a bus before 5:30 PM to her home.

We filmed the scenes outside block 16 and inside the food court on Day 1, the classroom and tram scenes on Day 2 and all the house scenes on Day 3. Our production had quite a few extras but the lack of dialogues balanced out how hectic it was to film the scenes. Each shot had to be done four times, with a change of clothes each time. It seemed to be hectic but the actor was enthusiastic during all three days of production, which the entire team is so thankful for.

We did not actually face any problems during production, only time constraints where we then had to hurry with completing shots.

 

POST-PRODUCTION

I wasn’t the editor for this project so I do not have a full account of the ups and downs, BUT I did make some changes after the class screening session.

The Professor had given us some pointers that we could adjust before submitting our work before the deadline later that day. These points included stabilization of the footage and the audio levels. We divided the two tasks amongst two group members. I did the audio correction, boosting the decibels of all the audio effects and dialogues a little bit since when the video was screened with the projector, the audio levels were completely off, lower than desirable.

Hopefully, in the end, my audio knowledge pays off and the levels are corrected (although in actuality, I still think it’s low :))

 

FINAL VIDEO:

Baby Driver, Opening Scene Recreated – 

 

 

Task 1 – Advertisement

TASK :

To create a thirty-second advertisement for a product, service or place.

 

PRE-PRODUCTION

The project began with assigning our teams. I finally got to work with three people that I did not get the opportunity to work with for the rest of the projects and I was looking forward to it. Although at first, we had a differentiation in our ideas for an advertisement, in the end, we settled on the concept of doing an advertisement for our course. It would be completely vintage, in the form of a 1960s film, then transition gradually to a modern cinematic look. Going home after the day of discussion, we were all satisfied.

However, when hearing the initial ideas from other teams, I felt unsatisfied all of a sudden with our film concept. It seemed to bland, to express openly, and I voiced my opinion to the team who all understood the point and wanted to really make this advertisement great.

Sitting in Professor Daniela’s class one day during an intermission after watching the Weekly screening, I started to look at slogans for various companies and brands. As I felt like my research was going nowhere, I came across KFC’s classic slogan of “It’s finger lickin’ good”. I found the idea amusing if we could actually depict people licking their fingers and-

“Why not actually make it for McDonald’s and put ‘It’s finger lickin’ good too’ at the end?”

Before class started I rushed to my team and pitched the idea. At first, a couple of them didn’t quite understand it but as I explained it further they got the concept and were immediately on board. As we refined our idea and made it much more surprising or perhaps entertaining to watch, keeping both KFC, McDonald’s and rivalry advertising in mind, we were ready to pitch for the first time it in front of our module Professor, a nerve-wracking but exciting experience.

 

Equipment used: 1 BlackMagic Pocket Cinema Camera, 1 Canon Lens, 1 Tripod, 2 ARRI Redhead Light and light stands

 

PRODUCTION

After collecting our equipment, we were looking forward to finishing of the production phase of our project. We had booked a room in block 19 in advance, gathered all the actors and appointed an assembly point: the film lab in block 16.

Since all acting were our classmates, casted for helping each other out and getting extra credits, they realised the possible hassles a team can go through during production. They were extremely cooperative, and in the end, they were getting a chance of eating free food!

As two members set up the lights, the other two helped the actors feel comfortable and get a little more acquainted with our concept and what they have to do without giving too much to the twist away. That was saved for screening day.

Each actor had to carry out a series of actions: Eat a sandwich wrap and fries, drink a fizzy drink, lick their fingers and whistle to ‘Don’t worry be happy’ by Bobby McFerrin.

We filmed each actor in one sitting so that we would not have continuity problems with their clothes, shot angles and light and shadows.

There were times when we were stressed about the lighting, there were moments when the backdrop didn’t seem to work and there were instances where the actors found it challenging to carry out of the actions. Nevertheless, there were a lot of laughs and tons of fun during production for this advertisement. While the actors enjoyed eating free food, the crew members had a great time filming.

It couldn’t have gone more smoothly.

 

 

POST-PRODUCTION

I was the editor for the project and since I have the editing software, DaVinci Resolve, at home, I stayed in the comfort of my house and edited the project.

Firstly, I made a rough cut and sent out a test video to the team to gain their feedback and opinions. I stayed in close contact with each of them, especially with the director, to make sure that I deliver a final product that the whole team is proud of and that it is what the director envisioned.

Although everything was going well and I was on the right track, in-sync with everyone’s visions, I worked closely on the colour to bring out the ‘red’ of the background and the brightness associated with the brands we were incorporating into the advertisement. Moreover, I scaled all the shots to make sure that all the subjects aligned in the centre.

Towards the end of the advertisement, there is a ‘text erasing’ sequence which consumed most of my time on this project and in this phase of production.

I used another editing software, Sony Vegas Pro, to create the animation since I felt more comfortable with it (having prior knowledge of it) and I did not want to waste time learning how to achieve the same result or even better in DaVinci Resolve.

It was a quiet post-production phase as I stayed in my bedroom for hours on end, clicking away on my computer and making everything satisfy the perfectionist inside me.

 

FINAL VIDEO:

McDonald’s vs. KFC – A Rivalry Advertisement – 

 

— C A T E G O R I E S —

Pick a module code OR an area of interest on the left-hand side to sort posts according to my projects or film analysis!

• Movie-Mix: Films I watched and analysed in my free time, for the fun of it
• FLM 1100 – Screen Storytelling & FLM 1200 – Screen Aesthetics: Films part of my Film degree module
• Practical projects (FLM 1300 & FLM 1301): Projects done as part of my practical work modules