MediaFix

A Knight’s Aim

 Hello, welcome back to MediaFix! As the cinematographer I have extensive knowledge of the film and the meaning behind it. Helping the editor decide what we should incorporate through their skills is an important part of my job.  I assisted the editor in choosing which areas of the film we should speed up and what to take out. If we cut the wrong piece of film, the story would not make sense.  One problem we came across was in one of the shots of the chess piece, fingers were showing. We decided to fix this by adding a common cinematic element from cowboy movies. This was the squint, we shortened the border on the top and bottom of the screen around the clip with the issue to make a cowboy stand-off. In the scene both characters were already having a stare-off so adding in the border effect helped the film portray our idea. Stare-off from final film, by MediaFix

 Welcome back to MediaFix! After production we needed to begin editing. In order to do this I, the cinematographer had to transfer the film to our editor. Originally, this was being done through email, but was not working. After being informed by our instructor that we needed to use a proper transferring website, we found WeTransfer. Uploading and sending film through the website was much smoother after.   Uploading files for editor, Nov 28 2023, by MediaFix

 Hello! Welcome back to MediaFix. Production day 3, filming most of our shots on the storyboard would be difficult but necessary. One of these shots was where the chess piece attack the top hat man from behind. This is an important part of the film because it is what makes the fight begin. We were challenged at this point in filming because we needed to play with sizing of the chess piece and have our actor preform. The chess piece would not actually touch our actor in this shot, so telling the actor when to fall was difficult.  We originally decided to have our other crew member signal to our actor when to fall, however this did not work because the timing was not correct.  Our new solution was to yell to the actor when the chess piece was about to launch toward him so in the second when the chess piece moves, the actor will react. After trial and error with this solution, it finally worked and we had our first move shot. The first move solution, Nov 14 2023, by MediaFix...

 Welcome back to MediaFix! Due to issues on the other two production days, most of our film would have to be filmed on our last day, production day 3. It was necessary every crew member would come and all materials were available. Upon arrival at our filming location, our actor and other crew members prepared for filming. There were not many challenges throughout filming this day except restricted time. Due to this challenge, we were not able to film all 30 shots. However, most shots were filmed and all necessary story telling shots were taken.  Still from taken shot, Nov 14 2023, by MediaFix

Hi and welcome back to MediaFix! Filming our chess piece was difficult for many reasons, and here is why continued. In addition to the difficulty determining distance and location, an issue we struggled with was moving the chess piece. Our shots required most to all of the chess piece in frame so we had to be creative when moving our character around. One example of this is in the shot where the chess piece is shaking and about to grow. Finding a way to move the chess piece without ourselves in frame was very difficult, we were restricted from using string because that would take too much work of the editor to cut out and hands in the shot is also not ideal.                                        Our original solution for growing, Nov 9 2023, by MediaFix The original solution was to spin the chess piece like a dime, we thought if we spin the character it would continue spinning into our s...

 Welcome back to MediaFix! Production day 2 was reserved for filming our chess piece, and throughout this process there were many challenges. One of these challenges was determining how high we would need to film the chess piece in order to be the same height as the top hat man. Because we were using an actual chess piece, many calculations throughout our film had to be done to ensure consistency. And since it was not two real people fighting, location of our characters was harder to determine. We had to look through our film and our storyboard to see where our top hat man would be standing, and then how far from there we should put our chess piece.  Another challenge was controlling sizing with our chess piece. Again, since we were using an actual chess piece, we needed to make it appear human sized through camera angle and distance. Where we place the chess piece in front of our camera determined how big it would be. We also had to capture emotions of this chess piece throug...

 Hello! Welcome back to media fix, production day 2 we began filming. With our supplies finally here, our group could now begin filming. However, our actor/director was not here so we could only film our chess piece shots. Another issue that occurred was it rained halfway through our scheduled time, so we were deprived of valuable filming time. Even with these issues, we were still able to take some satisfactory shots of our chess piece. For example, dodging the cane and the chess piece shaking, since the actor was not in these. After this day we were left with having to film most of our film on our last production day. So we made sure to plan ahead that everyone in our crew would be on time and have the supplies we needed to film. Otherwise we would not have a film. Shot of our chess piece, Nov 9 2023, by MediaFix

 Welcome back to MediaFix! As mentioned previously, on our first day in production we were under supplied so instead of beginning production, we filmed test shots for the next production days. Through these test shots we learned that executing our shots would require consideration for many different aspects. One of the shots we struggled with was our tracking shot.  Executing a tracking shot requires smooth movement and keeping the camera properly aligned with the subject. It was challenging keeping the camera level, and still, while practicing this shot. We decided to ensure our subject stays on the left rule of thirds line by pacing the actor’s steps, and mine together. And with help from our instructor we were informed different ways we can adjust the tripod to walk with more ease. These improved our tracking shots drastically.   Nov 6 2023, by MediaFix Above is our first attempt at this shot. As you can see, the subject filling in for our top hat man is walking m...

Hello and welcome back to MediaFix! Our first day of production we decided to take more test shots due to our lack of supplies. This was a great idea because we required help from our instructor to obtain certain shots.  One of the shots we needed this feedback on was achieving a high angle, hip level shot of our top hat man. We attempted it in our test shot thinking it would be simple, then realizing we needed to think about how to achieve it. One problem with this shot was that the angle made the actor's legs appear very short. We  tried to solve this problem by adjusting our tripod height and changing the camera position, however, this failed to work. Above is an attempt we made at this shot. Nov 6, 2023 The shot we were trying to achieve, Nov 2, 2023 Then we received assistance from our instructor who informed us that in order to have the legs remain long with the angle we wanted, we needed to approach the shot from higher ground. We would have to stand on either a picnic ...

 Hi and welcome back to MediaFix! With the greenlight on our pre-production proposal, we began production. However, our group was unprepared and did not bring the materials we required for filming on our first day. We failed to communicate who should bring which supplies and when we arrived at our filming location we were unable to shoot. We decided to take test shots in order to stay productive so production day 2 could move faster. This resulted as a good idea because we required feedback from our instructor on how to achieve multiple shots.  Preforming test shots helped us learn and practice various shots such as tracking, high angle, overhead, and more. We also were able to set locations for our characters in the film, for example, where the top hat man should stop walking.                                                          ...

Welcome back to MediaFix! In order to get the greenlight on our proposal, we would have to submit all of the required files. This included the storyboard, shot list, script, genre statement and more organizers that needed to be filled out according to ones role. As I am responsible for the storyboard and shot list a considerable amount of time would be needed to choose which shots I thought would convey our idea best. When we originally submitted the foundation portfolio, it was incomplete and the files were in the wrong format. Instead of as pictures the members uploaded on message, they would have to be converted into PDF or a different file format.  After more extensive research on camera angles, height, and shot size I completed the storyboard. The storyboard includes the scene, a brief description of the shot, the shot, the shot size, and a sketch of the shot. Below is one page of the completed storyboard:  Image by MediaFix, November 2, 2023 Next we needed the shot list....

 Hello! Welcome back to MediaFix. Before my group began creating our foundation portfolio, I decided it would be necessary to research more into my role as cinematographer. Learning how to utilize the filming app and reviewing camera angles/levels would make forming the storyboard simpler.      Black Magic Cam app- tutorial & Review for filmmaking on your  iPhone, YouTube I watched the videos supplied to our class and researched more articles that could answer any other questions I had. From the videos I learned how to properly use the app Black magic, this would help me when making the storyboard because I now knew which shots we could accomplish and how to make them come to life. Learning to use the app beforehand would also help our shooting days go smoother. With articles and videos from Studio Binder and other websites I was able to review camera angles, mise en scene, and more. This allowed me to help the director create the script and also made the fi...

 Welcome back to MediaFix! Through the selection of either director, cinematographer, editor, or sound designer, I was chosen as the cinematographer. I am responsible for the film’s visuals throughout the production along with creating the storyboard and shot list. After our roles were assigned we needed to begin researching genres. Our group already knew we wanted to create a film with the genre of action, however, we also knew to be able to execute this we would need to have sufficient research.  I first began researching generic conventions. These are what help the audience identify what genre the film is in. Some generic conventions for our production would include conflict, use of weapons, and power struggles.  Next our group discussed inspiration for our desired fight sequence. Everyone provided examples and from those we carefully pieced together different actions to include in our film. Some of these example films included Kingsman and Sherlock Holmes (2009). We...

 Hello, and welcome back to MediaFix!  Image by: Rafael Rex Felisilda, Unsplash When our group was tasked with creating the Chess Film there were multiple requirements to consider, such as: it must be between 30 seconds and one minute, there cannot be dialogue, and the film must include chess in a meaningful way. To create this production we would have to use our knowledge from our work so far in Media Studies to ensure a quality production.