Film Coversheet: Production Portfolio
Submit to: Art of Video Arrival Date 19 April Session: Yr. 2011School Code
0 | 0 | 9 | 4 | 0 | 6 | 6 |
School Name Capuchino High School
Name of the Film: Heart Rate subject: Film Level: Advanced
Candidate’s Name: Elizabeth Ramirez Grade: 10
Technology Used: Camera: VIXIA HFM300, Final Cut Pro: Version 2001-2009, Computer: Mac 2010 |
DETAILS OF PRODUCTION
Production
Crew Position/Role: Director and Editor | Date of Production March 2011 Completed April 11, 2011 |
Candidate Contribution to the film production I worked in this film principally as Director, but also as Cinematographer, Editor, and Writer. My role involved from writing the story up to editing the final product. I looked for the actors, organized the crew, settled up the shots, directed the scenes, filmed and edited the project. I also added the sound effcts along with the music and the opening and credits. |
Production Portfolio
Film-Advanced Level
Session: May 2011
Completed For
HEART RATE
Candidate Name: Elizabeth Ramirez
Grade: 10
Page
Individual Rational For the Film 2 Individual Written Commentary 3
Appendix: Works Used/ Cited 8
Individual Rational For Heart Rate
My film Heart Rate is based on the character Bruno (played by Kyle Nelson) who suffers from heart problems and faces his first day of job. The main idea was to introduce Bruno as a silly and nervous character throughout the first scenes. And the plan was to shoot the video in two days in order to log and capture as soon as possible, with the purpose to obtain more time to edit. On the other side; I wanted to make a drama film because it was something new for me, but personally a challenge. I was convince this drama film was a good idea because the story was perfect for intense scenes and audio effects. Besides I thought it was interesting to produce such film because it would attract young adult audience who enjoyed dramatic stories, but with a delicate touch given by the audio.Written Commentary for Heart Rate
The areas I was primarily responsible for were scene direction and editing. However, I also had a major participation in the story development, cinematography, opening and credits, costume, props, audio effects, the set-up of shots.
There were some conflicts with these areas, for example; as the director I had to double check everything was the same, meaning there wasn’t anything different from the last scene in order to provide the scene continuity. But given that it was shot in a public place such as Never Too Late (right pic.), people came in and out throughout the entire production and in some shots the viewers would notice different people in one scene. Another problem I faced occurred during the editing; some scenes with good acting didn’t match the action and one could clearly see a jump cut or miss match. In addition to this there was one scene between Bruno and a 3rd waiter about his personality, but it expanded too much the entire film (in duration). About the audio effects, I had a hard time finding them and adding them into the right time along with the correct speed and duration. And lastly setting-up the shots was a problem because everyone who participated in this film was very funny and we were having such a good time that it was difficult to make them be serious and work hard. As for challenges, the story development was a big one because I had to improvise and not do some scenes that couldn’t be shot given the circumstances and lack of time. The cinematography was another challenge because even though I’m not responsible for the entire work, but at least I wanted my part to be “pretty good” and in order to obtain that, many factors were involved.
My solution to the problem with the people from Never Too Late was to shoot in spots of this place with almost no or few people, so the audience wouldn’t notice a change in the scene. As for the scene with a 3rd waiter; I decided to cut off this scene and not included it because it was unnecessary in order to comprehend the story, actually it would have been more like an extra scene. As I mentioned before setting-up the shots was being difficult, so I looked for help with my partner, but she wasn’t too much help; she wasn’t being serious, she was more like having too much fun and it was getting harder to control them so I did something radical about it. I stopped telling them to stop their jokes and get to work; instead I united the group and forget about the project (I know it sounds irresponsible, but it actually worked), once it was getting darker and they realized we hadn’t advanced with the project they stopped fooling around and got to work because they didn’t wanted to come back the next day. In terms of audio effects, it took me a long time to find them and adapt them to the film. I looked for them in YouTube (left pic.) as well as in the sound programs of the computer. Once they were in Final Cut, the heartbeat sound for example was used a lot, and in the beginning its speed was normal, but in scenes full of tensions I speed it the heartbeat sound in a faster way, and at the end I changed it again into a slower speed. However, this was only one example of modification I did; there were much more in the following effects: crowded place, zipping and unzipping a bag, pills container, dishes and plates, etc. On the other hand, the story development was fine and this challenge was overcome. When I was shooting, some scenes couldn’t be done because the actors in it weren’t there or they had to leave early. So I decided to modify the script (without changing dramatically the story) to justify the absence of some scenes and those arrangements solved the problem. Finally, the cinematography was carefully done, and I intentionally included some good shots highlighting the emotions transmitted. For example (below pic.), when Bruno is having the heart attack, and he has no more pills left, the audience can feel is fear to die, and they realize he could have died there.
As for group problems; I would say that time was our biggest problem and actors gave us a hard time along with the location, meaning it wasn’t easy to find a place where we could shot this film until we luckily found Never Too Late. I thought that Millbrae Pancake House was a good place to shot this, so I contacted the manager and she told she wasn’t sure, but that she was going to think about it and let me know. Two days passed and she didn’t contacted me; I figured it was better to look for another place and I tried with Totto’s Pizza, but it there I couldn’t even contact the manager so moved on to Round Table Pizza and finally the manager said yes. Everything was ready to start shooting there, but my partner told me about Never Too Late and we voted for that Place for the following reasons: it was at San Bruno, my partner knew the manager, and he promised to let us come by as many times as we needed.
As for the Actors, they were a problem because they had busy schedule and they couldn’t all make it on one day. Our solution was to film the scenes by separate; the first day we shot scenes that only included Bruno, and the second day we did the scenes between Bruno and the waiter, and Bruno and the manager. Finally the third day we shot the final scene, where the climax happens with a table he has to serve. However, this was not the only conflict we had with the actors; many times they couldn’t act their lines and we had to redo it over and over. And unfortunately there is this shot (upper pic.) where Bruno is supposed to be surprise or even freaked out and our actor just couldn’t do it. He redoes the scene a lot of times, but he kept on smiling and because of the lack of time we decided to move on. The fact that we didn’t find soon a place for our project and that we had to shot in 3 days made time our biggest enemy. The way we deal with it was by cutting off some scenes and not redoing some scenes because we thought it was more important to finish the project and adjust all the alterations in the editing in order to create a good film.
The finished product came out pretty well given all the problems and challenges faced. The cinematography might be our stronger area because it contains shots with appropriate lighting, good angles, match action, ELS, LS, MS, WS, and really good Close-ups that show the character’s feelings (left pic.).An example is the boyfriend very upset with Bruno for touching his girlfriend. Also the audio had good quality, the dialogues were very clear, and the sound effects added were fundamental for the development of the story. The voice over was a nice idea that contributed to the film as a whole along with the scene from the hospital (right pic.). This scene demonstrates a part of our creativity; first because it was shot at the health office simulating to be in a hospital, and second because the cables attacked to his body are actually earphones and lastly because the props we used made it even more real. Definitely props and costume are little details that contribute a lot to the final product, and costume was carefully chosen and well respected (there were no changes or miss matches).
As for the editing, it came out fine, there were smooth cuts and the film had always continuity, but there were some jump cuts and changes during scenes. However, this never affected the story; it actually caused the audience to follow the film without noticing the changes of angles and action-reaction shot, or over the shoulders shots. In terms of the music; it’s a controversial topic because it helped the drama moments, but it also moved this drama film fall into comedy genre. In order to show Bruno as a silly character we thought that funny music would work, but it worked so well that ended up moving this product to another genre, However, I acknowledge it was not all the music’s fault; the story itself wasn’t completely drama and the acting along with the direction of scene was good enough to separate the film from comedy. If I had time I would have dedicated much more time into writing and developing the story and the casting as well. Now I realize how important these two are in order to prevent some problems and disappointment with the final product I would also say that some areas that need improvement are the music selection, acting, story, and editing. However, a part of me is satisfied with this film and the other part can’t wait for the next challenge (film) to apply these corrections. Treatment
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1__Mzz8VulVsmBg-AHaXQ1Bn6w0kRbynQHk-wdBjVu2o/edit?hl=en&authkey=CMLM2kY#
Script
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JIMdulM4pdACy7M6oIFGH8NIMS6Pl9XLCFfjrVsXNMw/edit?hl=en&authkey=CNSW7KoI#
2 Column Script
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LoaoX8jJdZ2d7RwuLAhl7TiFhwhgZ_i2zM-NNFv_Dcc/edit?hl=en&authkey=CJPytOoN#
Music
Time
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srrAm9Eiqcw&feature=related
Home
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjFaenf1T-Y
