Filming Schedule For December

To help with our organisation we created a quick filming schedule for December, to help ensure we get all the necessary filming done for the deadline.

Feedback from first showing to our audience

We showed the first 1 minute and 40 seconds of our short film to are class to gain feedback on what our audience think about our piece, and how they think we could improve.

The feedback was incredibly positive with people really liking our idea. The consistent lighting was praised, and people thought the animation looked professional. People also liked how we kept a regular filming style and used a range of shots, despite it being an animation. The narrative and characterisation was well liked, with people immediately engaging with the lead character of the orange, and the narrative was also said to be clear and enjoyable, even despite the current lack of sound.

However, to improve our short film even further it was suggested to us that we could try and feminise the apple to a greater extent, to ensure it was clearly a love interest. Conversely, one person did say they liked the concept of us challenging the heterosexual normality. In addition, with regards to sound, it was suggested to us to add some form of narration or voice sounds to the fruit, to add another layer of depth and push the quality of our short film to an even higher level. 

Our short film so far

This is our short film so far, showing just under the first couple of minutes of our film. Some sections are just black clips, which represent sections of footage we have not yet filmed. Furthermore, we intend to add establishing shots - thing's like pans and tracking shots - at the beginning of the film.

From this we can see certain areas that need amending, the most significant of which being that some of the lighting equipment is visible in a couple of the shots, however this can be easily fixed by simply trimming the shots. In addition it was suggested to us that the shot's out and through the window are slightly too blue, and so in post production we could look to tone this down in the editing, possibly through Premiere Pro.

Setting up the Lighting

The vast majority of our filming takes place indoors, however we wanted it lit as naturally as possible. This is difficult due to how long filming an animation takes, and the inconsistency of natural light. To overcome this we used two large white studio lights, which emulated the impression of natural light, and the light was a constant for the entire time of shooting.

We used two lights, one several feet behind the camera, to act as an overall light source, and one slightly of to the right of the camera near where the window is, this to give the impression the light is natural and coming from the window.

Location Shots

Here is the living room in which we intend to do the majority of the filming. In these photos the setting is very cluttered and unorganised, however, before we film there we will ensure we tidy the set properly and ensure the only things in shot are relevant to our short film. It's important the setting is not cluttered with irrelevant items as it can distract the viewers attention away from the focus characters and the narrative.

We chose this as a setting as it represents a simplistic and common representation of a living room, one in which you may expect to see a fruit bowl with apples in it. I also think the use of lightwood furniture is a pleasing aesthetic to use as the backdrop for the events taking place around the fruit characters, it is also quite discreet so it should not be distracting to the audience. 

Dressing the Characters and Facial Expressions

As we were using fruit as our actors we had to consider how, and what we were going to use to create the facial expressions. After gaining feedback from our audience we decided to stick the facial expressions to the fruit - almost in the style of Mr Potato Head from the Toy Story film franchise.

I think this worked quite well, as it amplified the madness to the concept of living fruit, but also gave it a look that made it quirky, which should hopefully allow for the audience to really connect with it on an emotional level.

By attaching the facial expressions to the fruit, it allowed for easy changes to be made to the expressions when animating it. Furthermore, we created other facial expressions that we can switch between quite easily when necessary, which I think will really add to the overall quality of our animation.