Eleven: Sound

Sound has been a very complicated part of our film. When deciding roles we were unsure about who would be the sound-man. If me or Jacob were to do sound, we couldn't focus fully on the overall look and organisation of shooting. Thankfully our good friend Harvey Steele was prepared to come along to our five day shoot and be in charge of sound. This has been extremely useful for us preparing ourselves on shoot and communicating with our actors.

We used a sound-boom and sound recorder in our film. This made our sound very clear which was brilliant in the edit suite. We also had a rode microphone on set just incase our sound didn't come out clearly whilst editing. It was essential to have backup on set because there was no chance of re-shooting due to the amount of actors we had on set. Recording dialogue was a lot easier than expected. The clarity of the sound recorder made every sound coming from the room tone and the actors stand out. We also recorded separate wild-tracks which we could add in the edit suite if it worked in the scene. 

Eleven: Researching Titles

The visual style of the film was one of most important aspects. We are now at the later stages of the edit of the film so we are putting the final pieces of the piece together and one of these pieces are titles. Titles are a very important piece of a Short Film, they allow the main contributors to the project to gain credit within the actually piece and they allow for producers and the titles of the film to be included. We are currently researching titles that we want for our film. The style we’re going for has to reflect the mood of our film. 

Editing: Rough Cut

We have finished our rough cut of our film. We have put together all our favourite footage and their is a positive outcome. We're pleased with our shots and the acting which was our biggest fear when finishing our shoot. We wanted to rough edit our film as soon as possible so we have enough time to spend more time on sound, colour grading and other components. Now we've put together a final rough edit we're ready to put sound in. The next stage is our final edit which will decide whether our film will come out the way we want it to. 

Beginning our edit

We have began editing Eleven. The majority of our time will now be spent in the editing suite. We are using premiere pro which is a very good software. I am not an experienced with editing so my partner Jacob's expertise will come into play in post-production side of the film. Having a partner who can edit is a huge bonus with creating a visual and visceral style for our short. The colour correction, grade and sound will also be a big part of the post for our so that it can be the best it can be. We have already decided the scheme for the colours and how it will reflect our characters and setting. Fortunately we have a good amount of time to edit, meaning we'll be able to discuss a lot of issues that will present themselves.

Eleven: Editing Decisions

Eleven is a film that has very specific intent in the ways that its edited and the ways that we have paced the story from script to screen. As we shot the first scene to be able to intercut it with titles, we in turn subliminally created a collage or collection of footage that we were able to give a montage feel to, this was able to set the scene and the mood for the whole film. When we first began editing on film we started to notice that the pacing of the film was quite slow. The original reasoning for this was because of the long takes that I had kept in the edit. Jacob, the director, likes leaving shots longer than expected, this really allows for the audience to grasp the characters emotions and thoughts during the scene. Although this was a directorial choice that he made we had to slim down some of the takes because it was eating into the pacing of the film, which we wanted to be quite fluid.

Eleven: Good and Bad Takes

The planning and organising on set has been crucial towards making our film. With so many actors and crew on set we had to make sure we didn't get carried away with the shots and start to note down what shots were working. As co director I was responsible for telling Jacob, the director, how each shot looked from certain angles, how dialogue sounded and if the acting was good. I carried a notebook on every shoot ticking or crossing each shot. In between takes me and Jacob would discuss the good and bad aspects of each take. Having this information throughout the shoot made our jobs a lot easier as we were not relying on instinct to judge weather or not a shot was successful. However obvious this was, it was vitally important when going into the editing suite. We knew exactly what shots to delete and make a shortlist of our best shots.

Third and final shoot: Eleven

Our final shoot was all set in the park. Organising an exterior shoot turned out to be very stressful. Relying on the weather was our biggest problem. We changed the opening football scene to a basketball scene due to the complications of direction. The actors were all hopeless at football so to make it easier we directed them to improvise a conventional father and son basketball scene. Despite the terrible wind the actors were brilliant at making sure it didn't phase them. Recording sound with the public and wind was a very difficult task. We were very nervous between each shot because we were not aware how clear the sound would be. Unfortunately the rain finally arrived and we were forced to cover up and delay the shoot for a few hours. This left us with no option but to keep out actors inside and hold onto them for as many hours as we needed them. Eventually the sun came out and we were ready to continue shooting. Our actors were extremely patient which made it a lot easier to shoot for a longer period of time. Overall it was a very enjoyable shoot. This was our most pressurised and important shoot because it was our beginning and ending of the film.

Second Shoot: Eleven

Saturday

A week later we shot all the footage with Blake and Sophie (The piano teacher). Once again we arrived at our location two hours early to set up and discuss shots. When our actors arrived we sat down and talked about their intentions and style that we wanted in their performance. We shot at my house to contrast from the family home at last weeks shot. We wanted Sophie's house to have a less modern feel to it. Most of our shots were Blake and Sophie at the piano making it easier for us to have a variety of artistic shots.

Blake at the piano

Sunday

On sunday we filmed exterior shots for the whole day. Fortunately the weather was very good which was brilliant for our shoot. We shot all the car shots with Blake and his father and the trampoline shots with Blake and Tom. It was a very cold day which meant we wanted to finish as early as possible. We started early and aimed to pack up before the light started to fade. Overall it was a successful weekend shoot. We now have one day left of Eleven which will also be an exterior shoot. 

Jacob on camera