I stuck to my idea pretty well throughout the process. I found making the dream catcher was not as hard as I had previously thought, however adding the photos proved to be a very difficult task that I spent a very long time on. Each photo had to be glued precisely to very thing string and then left to dry before moving on to the next ones. The strings would often get tangled and it was very easy to get confused and lost while doing this. I really enjoyed using the polaroid camera as an alternative to my normal dslr and I had a lot more fun with experimenting with it. My final photos could be better, however I think the simplisticness to them makes them seem more realistic and relatable which is the style I wanted to go for. I intended to add more of life in through the photographs, but this proved hard for me to re-create and I should have timed myself more accordingly for this. Overall I enjoyed the design of the set up and making it into kind of a 3D art piece was a lot of fun and something I didn't really think I would get to do again during my degree.  To me the polaroid style makes it a bit more unique and original and it's a style I would like to delve deeper into the future possibly.

From the pitch, I was never very confident about what direction my film would go in and to be honest I never really thought I'd get chosen to actually make my project. However the experience has taught me a lot and being a first time director, as I tend to lean more towards editing, made me learn a lot of new skills. I adapted a lot better than I thought to the role, as I'm not a very outspoken person generally. I think I would definitely consider going down a directing path in future.

Key skills that I learnt from being director:

• Listen to others ideas and not just focus on how you want the film to look
• Be understanding to the others in the group
• Be more assertive to ensure everyone is doing their jobs properly
• Remain positive and keep the other member's spirits high - an unhappy crew could ruin the final outcome
• How to work with interviewees and get my ideas across to them so as they understand the project

I really enjoyed working with Shahid, Lydia and Josh and together we had a lot of fun during the whole process. Of course as always, there were stressful times and moments where we got a bit confused about where to take the film, but we worked through this together.  I feel we worked very well as a group, Josh and Shahid present at all times when asked and Lydia being there when she could understandably to us all and I feel we bonded very well. I learnt to appreciate any hard work done by my group and seeing them help to bring my project to life, whenever it was not their own, made me recognise and value their effort and skills that they brought. Special acknowledgement to the extras that helped us, such as Thomas Doukinitsas, Rosie Coutier-Dutton, Harry Clarke and Rob Campion, who stayed around even when they didn't have to, and this taught me even more about team work. My favourite part of being in the team was seeing them light up when Anne and Leah said positive things about the rough edit, as we were all very nervous, and seeing them become more confident made me happy. 

The Film

The final version didn't really come out anything like I originally imagined when pitching, however I do think we created an interesting piece. I intended it to be a little more experimental, particularly with sound as it was meant to be remixed into more of a musical piece. In the end we chose a different route as we felt it worked better with the footage we got. I feel the strongest part visually of the film are the moments when the photos are held to the camera, as you can view the emotions in the people before their memories appear and this kind of sets a tone for what is to come. The sound was a little grainy in the interviews and little could be done to improve it as much as we tried, but I am looking at this as a learning curve to improve on this for future reference. Being present with Josh the entire way through the edit, I saw the amount of effort he put in to get it the way we wanted and this made me appreciate the editing a lot more throughout it, as I understand how hard it was to get it finalised as there were so many ways we could go and it wasn't always a clear end. Overall I am happy with what we produced, even though there are definitely areas to improve and ways to move forward with our skills. If I had to do the film again I would make sure everything was a little more organised and that I was more strict about what had to be done for when. I thoroughly enjoyed working on the project however and it has been a lot of fun. 

When watching the rough edit I noticed there were problems with sound: there was a lot of grain and not everyone's interview voice was at the same level making some stand out more than others which I found to be distracting. I asked Josh if he could level out the loudness so that this wasn't so distinct and we got it down so they were all of a similar tone. We played around with trying to remove the background noise but we found that it muted down a lot of the voices to a point where they weren't easily understandable. This resulted is us coming to a midpoint that muted down the sound a bit but left the voices clear to listen, which meant we had to sacrifice the cleaness of the audio slightly. I also advised Josh try out another filter for the footage as the current one seemed to make the shots look lesser quality rather than vintage old. A few more sound pieces were added here and there where we felt there was too long of a pause between the voices. 

Final Project

My final film consists of two screens showing a variety of found footage clips of the effects and factors that cause Global Warming. A hurricane can be seen at one point, representing the dramatic increase.  The middle screen is of the Earth slowly deteriorating from this. 

What I've Learned

Feelings

I had a hard time with the project as I found getting to grips with After Effects to be very challenging. As a beginner, even learning the effects proved to be stressful and left me very confused at many times. However I feel that the whole process has been a learning curve and I can now use AE to a certain extent. I'm happy with the effects that I have learned to use and hopefully this will be a good start to continuing with my learning of the software in the future. I've enjoyed seeing the Earth (screen two) come together, as it was a lot of work and I think it turned out to look semi-decent. If I had've managed my time better, I would have preferred to add some text showing some facts based around Global Warming. I feel the hurricane doesn't make sense without it. 

If I had to re-do the project, I would probably use a less after - effected route and try and make the project more simple. I think I was too ambitious with what I wanted to achieve through it based on my lack of knowledge of AE before the project started. I also think I would narrow my theme down to something more limited that Global Warming, and while I am interested in the topic, I feel like it was too broad and I got confused as to what I should include. 

http://www.freesound.org/people/dsp9000/sounds/76405/

http://www.freesound.org/people/cormi/sounds/104112/

http://www.freesound.org/people/ninebilly/sounds/173010/

http://www.freesound.org/people/andrew1280/sounds/42893/

http://www.freesound.org/people/Gzmo/sounds/140256/

http://www.freesound.org/people/ekzem/sounds/178882/

I felt like the beginning was too plain and didn't have much depth, but I was advised by friends who reviewed it before being finalised and exported that it was better to keep things simple rather than over complicate with many noises. I am a little worried that it doesn't sound 'religious' enough but I'm hoping the bells and the priest's voice will make it obvious as to the setting. I am pleased with the middle section of the piece as I think it is pretty close to what I wanted the chaotic atmosphere to sound like. Towards the start the church bells are relatively slow and spread apart but the tempo of them is increased when the action begins in order for it to fit in with the pace at this point. I like how this turned out and I feel it was necessary to remind the audience of the church setting and the religious background. I was also relatively pleased with how the scratching noises sound at the end as think it gathers a real feel to the look of the actual painting, as well as contributing to the story. I was disappointed that I wasn't able to follow my initial thoughts of having some kind of musical rhythm as I was looking forward to composing it, but I feel like the narrative was a lot more sensible to represent the picture on a bigger scale and perhaps a more musical approach may have been too repetitive or boring.

I am not sure if all these ideas will definitely get transferred into the final project, as it is taking me awhile to get my head around the software, but this is the rough plan for the layout and I aim to try and get as much into the piece as possible. 

I chose to look at Native American Indian art forms for my GCSE Art and since then I've always had a fascination with the design and background of it. The dreamcatcher obviously originated from Native Americans and were used to protect sleepers from negative dreams. They believed that the night air was filled with both good and bad dreams and that as the individual was sleeping the dreamcatcher would swing and catch positive ones, passing them down the feathers and to the person below. Negative ones would get trapped and perish with the first light of day.

Structure

Dream catchers traditionally consist of a hoop, leather, string, beads and feathers. Native Americans thought highly of the symbol of hoops, because to them it represented strength and unity and this then flowed into the deign of their dreamcatchers. String used to create the web in the centre was often white, light brown or clear, while the leather surrounding was typically brown like a lot of Native American fabric/ clothing. 

Modern day times have seen the dreamcatcher develop into a variety of different shapes other than a hoop and become much more colourful and stylistic. 

Traditional Style Examples

An inspiration for the fast paced sound editing

Inspiration for final sound

We've also began editing in after effects, putting the memories behind the interviewees with the green screen. We have a lot of archive to go through, but I'm confident that as long as we are organised we can carry through successfully with the editing. 

I still would like to stick with the polaroid style for the photographs, as I feel it makes the piece feel a lot more raw and represents memories in a stylistic way.  I've played around with taking my own polaroids.

I've been looking more into the meanings behind the painting and trying to find out the different feelings and moods that are given off. Here I have highlighted and noted anything relevant or helpful for me that I have found: 

"Bacon’s popes depart even further from their source, often replacing the pontiff’s head with the equally recognisable screaming face of the wounded nurse mown down by the soldiers’ gunfire in the Odessa steps sequence of Eisenstein’s film Battleship Potemkin." 

 "The insertion subverts the encapsulation of power and self-assurance projected by Velázquez. The screaming mouth, isolated from other facial features and divorced from any narrative context, suggests existential agony. The pathos of human vulnerability and loss of faith or conviction are accentuated by the precisely rendered space frames in many Bacon images of popes"

"Bacon's obsessive reworking of the papal theme suggests that it may have possessed further significance and perhaps psychological charge for the artist in relation to his sexuality"

"Francis Bacon, the artist, paints provocative and disturbing images that carry a raw sense of anxiety and alienation. They reflect that existential fear, loathing and incomprehension at the atrocities of the Holocaust that came to light at the end of World War Two"

"If Velazquez's 'Portrait of Pope Innocent X' portrays the public face of power while hinting at the private flaws of the man behind it, then Bacon’s ‘Study after Velazquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X’ broadcasts his inner psychoses."

Opinions

I've found to be a lot of relation to anxiety and fear mentioned around the picture through my searches online. I even found quite a few suggestions that his paintings may 'encapsulate Bacon's traumatic feelings' about his father who rejected him when he found out his son's 'homosexual inclinations.' The encapsulation of power also seemed to be a keen interest of Bacon. 

I feel a real sense of the how he has distorted the original image and it seems to me like the one powerful image of the Pope by Velazquez has been re-made to show that the Pope isn't perfect. Bacon once said 'We are all carcasses' hinting in a belief that no man should be better than another resulting in this 'The Pope is flawed like any other human' theory. The colours create a kind of monstrous and frightening vibe and despite the purple giving off a haunting presence it is also meant to be a royal colour, hinting towards his status in the Catholic church. The vibrant colours make the painting stand out with it's weird, twisted mood. The Pope's face reminds me of agony, something that appears to be associated quite a bit online with the painting. 

Sound

From my research I have learnt that I want to show some kind of agony or terror and relate it back to the church and more religious scenes. This could be done with mixing screams and scratches with the sound of church bells, sermon, choir etc. I want to reflect back to the painting with the sounds and perhaps scratches could represent the stylistic nature of the paint and how it looks like the image has been dragged. 

We had booked room G27, a green screen area, from 9am - 8pm to film RAM in. We arrived on time and immediately set up the equipment so that we were ready to shoot as soon as the interviewees showed up. A lot of time was spent testing out different lighting techniques until we found one that we agreed worked, without casting shadows.

The shoot went very smoothly and because we had the studio for such a long time we didn't feel under pressure or rushed at all, even when some interviewees were late or if we ran into small problems.  A few extra sets of hands were offered to help when needed which was appreciated as some of the interviewees were intrigued and wanted to see more into what the film was going to be about. 

Background

My idea for the film is that it will be about how people change and develop as they move away from home, such as to university.  This is a very significant period in a lot of young people's lives and I feel it could make an interesting piece to look at their emotions and feelings on the subject. Moving from Northern Ireland to England for me was personally a very big change that has effected me in many different ways and I've had to learn to do a lot of growing up in such a fast period of time. Generally in NI not many people leave and having about 98% of my friends stay back home has created a whole new reality for me. Personally I know that I am a very different person to what I was like before I moved and I'm sure I'm not the only one to feel like this. I have an interest into how others have coped with this transition and whether or not they feel they have changed at all during the process. 

Film

The film will consist of many different interviews from our fellow students and friends, about how they have grown and developed in their time away from home (if they have at all).  The interviewees, one at a time, will hold a photo up to the camera. Behind them a clip of their memories (footage they have donated) will be playing. This will then cut to more memories without them standing in front of the camera, creating a nostalgic feel. We will create a soundtrack for it out of their voices : the plan is to cut out keywords from their interviews and only put these into the film. For example if someone answered with 'I feel I have become more confident over the past few weeks' we would use only the 'more confident' part. I'm hoping this will highlight the main emotions more and make the piece more interesting than if we simply placed the entire interview over the clips. I got inspiration from this from one of the screenings when we were shown the short BBC2 documentary Blight which featured a collaboration between a director John Smith and a composer Jocelyn Pook.

The Screaming Pope

• Painted in 1953

• Bacon worked from reproductions and never saw the original painting by Velazquez. 

• He painted about forty five variations based around the subject of the Pope - The Screaming Pope being one.

• Possibly inspired by Picasso for producing variations on a work from the past.

Idea

My film is going to be about human wastefulness and how it is effecting the planet. It will target issues such as global warming, climate change and environmental degradation,  showing what may happen to the Earth if we continue being not resourceful. Having some concerns about the well being of the planet, my aim is to get across to others the severity of the issues that we may have to deal in the future if not careful. 

Three Screens

Screen one and three will be a collection of found footage clips and photographs of the action of destroying the planet, such as sewage being piped into rivers etc. These will be most likely take from news reports and other such sources.  

Screen two is going to be a moving image of planet Earth. This will flicker between different periods of the Earth, beginning with the Ice Age and showing its development from there, eventually forming an image of what it will look like due to the problems we are currently creating. This screen will loop several times throughout before all screens reach an end and return to the beginning again.

At one point I would like all three screens to merge into one scene, showing a collection of stars and space. Also, I would like to incorporate text on to the screens as well, showing different statistics associated with the disasters and issues. 

Visual Inspirations

How will this be achieved

Everything will be done on After Effects using a variety of different methods to animate, distort and add visual effects to already existing images. The majority of tutorials to help me with this shall be found on Youtube, Lynda and Video Copilot.

Relevant tutorial links (so far)

http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/dead_planet/

http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/planet_explosion/

• Climate change — Global warming • Global dimming • Fossil fuels • Sea level rise • Greenhouse gas • Ocean acidification • Shutdown of thermohaline circulation • Environmental impact of the coal industry • Urban Heat Islands
• Conservation — Species extinction • Pollinator decline • Coral bleaching • Holocene extinction • Invasive species • Poaching • Endangered species
• Energy — Energy conservation • Renewable energy • Efficient energy use • Renewable energy commercialization • Environmental impact of the coal industry • Environmental impact of hydraulic fracturing
• Environmental degradation — Eutrophication • Habitat destruction • Invasive species • Soda lake
• Environmental health — Air quality • Asthma • Environmental impact of the coal industry • Electromagnetic fields • Electromagnetic radiation and health • Indoor air quality • Lead poisoning • Sick Building Syndrome • Environmental impact of hydraulic fracturing
• Genetic engineering — Genetic pollution • Genetically modified food controversies
• Intensive farming — Overgrazing • Irrigation • Monoculture • Environmental effects of meat production • Slash and burn • Pesticide drift • Plasticulture
• Land degradation — Land pollution • Desertification
• Soil — Soil conservation • Soil erosion • Soil contamination • Soil salination • Alkali soils * Residual Sodium Carbonate Index
• Land use — Urban sprawl • Habitat fragmentation • Habitat destruction
• Nanotechnology — Nanotoxicology • Nanopollution
• Nuclear issues — Nuclear fallout • Nuclear meltdown • Nuclear power • Nuclear weapons • Nuclear and radiation accidents • Nuclear safety • High-level radioactive waste management
• Overpopulation — Burial • Water crisis • Overpopulation in companion animals • Tragedy of the commons • Gender Imbalance in Developing Countries • Sub-replacement fertility levels in developed countries
• Ozone depletion — CFC • Biological effects of UV exposure
• Pollution — Environmental impact of the coal industry • Nonpoint source pollution • Point source pollution • Light pollution • Noise pollution • Visual pollution • Interplanetary contamination

• Reservoirs — Environmental impacts of reservoirs
• Resource depletion — Exploitation of natural resources • Overdrafting

• Toxins — Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) • DDT • Endocrine disruptors • Dioxin • Toxic heavy metals • Environmental impact of the coal industry • Herbicides • Pesticides • Toxic waste • PCB • Bioaccumulation • Biomagnification • Environmental impact of hydraulic fracturing
• Waste — Electronic waste • Litter • Waste disposal incidents • Marine debris • Medical waste • Landfill • Leachate • Environmental impact of the coal industry • Incineration • Great Pacific Garbage Patch • Exporting of hazardous waste• Environmental impact of hydraulic fracturing

Sir David Attenborough: The Truth About Climate Change (graph)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9ob9WdbXx0

Global Warming Facts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROZJmX73FF4

Global Warming The Signs and the Science

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVQnPytgwQ0

Man (animation on how humans are impacting the planet negatively)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfGMYdalClU

Effects of global warming and signs of end of the world (picture video for reference ideas)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=posHzYdSywI

Other useful websites

If the polar ice caps melted, how much would the oceans rise?

http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/earth/geophysics/question473.htm

11 facts about global warming

http://www.dosomething.org/actnow/tipsandtools/11-facts-about-global-warming

Global warming facts

http://news.nationalgeographic.co.uk/news/2004/12/1206_041206_global_warming.html

33 facts about global warming

http://globalwarming.sdsu.edu

Storyboard Outline (rough)