Unit 6: Investigating visual production and technology & Unit 7: Investigating interactive production and technology -Oscars Rundown

Research

I researched the different job roles on set for magazine shows. The two main roles that I researched was director of photography and floor manager. The director of photography (DOP) overlooks all the camera and light on a magazine show to make sure everything is consistent and perfect. Their job is to make artistic and technical decisions related to the image to make it look the best it could possibly be. The second job I researched was floor manager, their job is to oversee everything when filming. They make sure everything is running smoothly and correctly throughout the filming process.  

Furthermore, after the first day of shooting I learnt how to fix the white balance on the camera. As on the first show of the Oscars rundown the white balance was completely different to the others. Furthermore, if I was ever DOP again, I will overlook all the camera angles and make sure the white balance is perfect and all the camera are level.  

I then research everything that I would be discussing when presenting. I first researched the Best picture nominations. I looked at the directors and what other films the directors made. After this I thought the best bit of research that I could do was watch all the movies, so I had my own opinion on the winner and if they deserved to win. So, I spoke to my partner Sam and we tried watching all the nominations for the Oscars. I watched about half the nominees, but Sam watched them all which meant Sam would be the expert on the topic and I would lead the conversation. Furthermore, I looked at the favourites to win this category which was ‘1917’ however a fan favourite was ‘Parasite’ to win and many people thought this would be the underdog winner. I also researched if the other award shows and would compare if they were like the Oscars. This is shown with ‘1917 winning a lot of awards at the Golden Globes. So many people thought they would win this ward at the Oscars. 

Production

Monday 3rd February 2020

This was the first shooting day of the Oscars rundown for ‘Best Director’. This was presented by Ollie and Conrad and they discussed the best director nominations. I was director of photography for the first show. This shooting day didn’t go to plan as the white balance on camera 2 was off and on camera 1 the camera was not level. As director of photography I should have checked each camera to make sure it was perfect instead of just focussing on the master camera. I haven't had much experience with camera so I should have done research or asked how to fic the white balance and I already knew how to level a camera. On camera 2 the shot was very yellow, and it didn’t match the same colour of the other cameras. However, the presenting was perfect for this show as it was humorous and gave us all the knowledge we need for the nominations of best director.  

After this I filled in for James on camera 1 for ‘Best Supporting Actors’. This was presented by Eden, Laura and Mathew and they were discussing all the nominations. I had to make sure the sound was perfect as this was the sound, they would be using for all three cameras as we would be using the multiple camera set up. This went a lot better as I made sure my camera was perfectly lit so the white balance would match the other cameras. I also made sure the camera was level and got both Matty and Laura in shot as there was three people presenting. This went well as Matty did a great job in edit and made it look smooth and very professional. 

Tuesday 4th February 2020

I was also on camera 1 for the nominations for ‘Best Cinematography’ were Amiliyah, Thomas and Ollie were discussing all the nominations. Being on camera 1 I had to do pretty much the same job as before. I had to make sure the sound was prefect and made sure there was no background noise or anyone walking down the corridor when filming as we would hear the doors slam. I had to make sure I listened out for things like that so the whole filming process would run smoothly and effectively. I also made sure the white balance was perfect and matched the other cameras and made sure the camera was level and both Amiliyah and Thomas are in shot. This went well as the shots all matched up with the colour and the sound which made it look very professional.  

Monday 10th February 2020

The morning after the Oscars me and Sam had to present the ‘Best Picture’ for week 2. This was very difficult as me and Sam didn’t know what to discuss we didn’t know the winner until we woke up in the morning. We had a meeting before the Oscars to discuss a bit of what we could talk about even though we don’t know the winner. We discussed that we should obviously talk about the winner and if we thought it was a worthy winner. We also discussed talking about our personal favourite movies and the other nominations and if we enjoyed them. We also were going to discuss the favourite to win. After we discussed this over the weekend, we both said we would try and watch as many of the best picture nominations as we could have our own opinions and have more knowledge. I saw 5/9 nominations as I struggled to watch them all with me working on the weekends. However, Sam was able to watch all 9 movies nominated meaning he had a better understanding of the nominations. After this we discussed, and we decided that I would lead the conversation and ask more questions as Sam has the most knowledge on the movies it would be easier for me to ask questions. Furthermore, the night of the Oscars I did some research for who was favourite to win and the movie everyone thought would win was ‘1917’. However, most articles were saying that many people wanted to see ‘Parasite’ win best picture as it would deserve it more and be a ‘game changer’. 

  

After the Oscars me and Sam spoke over the phone and discussed the winner which was ‘Parasite’ there was a lot to discuss. Such as it was the first foreign film to win Best Picture and we could discuss if the Oscars did this as a political statement. There was a lot to discuss. Furthermore, I wanted to have a framed picture of the Best Picture winner, which was Parasite on the desk in front of us whilst we discussed the Oscars. This is subtle but makes our show look different and makes it look like we prepared well. 

We also wanted to discuss some events that happened during the Oscars. After doing some research the director of Parasite, Bong Joon Ho, won best director and during this speech he gave his respect to the directors which were also nominated, Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino and many more. He discussed how he has always admired Martin Scorsese's work. We wanted to discuss this as well. So, I wrote down briefly what me and Sam would be talking about. We wrote it in short bullet points as I didn’t want it looking like we were reading from a piece of paper, so I just wrote in bullet points, so it flowed like a conversation. As we both felt confident that we had enough knowledge to talk about this topic without having all the facts in front of us. 

We both knew what we wanted to talk about, and we agreed that I would lead the conversation and Sam would be the expert as he has seen all the movies that were nominated. When we started filming, we made sure we clapped before we started talking as this would make it easier for me to sink up the sound with all the camera angles when editing. I also made sure we didn’t cut the cameras when filming as it would be easier to sink the sound up with all the footage if we didn’t cut the camera and we just kept it rolling. Overall, me and Sam did very well at presenting as the conversation was very informative and didn’t drag on. We talked about most of the nominees and our personal favourite movies on the list.  

We also needed to make our Oscars Rundown have some wort of interactive feature with the viewer. We did this by asking the viewer at the end who they wanted to win and told us to let us know on our social media accounts. I put a link to the social media accounts in the description, so the viewer knows how to contact us and make the interactive easier for the viewer. 

When editing I renamed each of the footage on Premiere Pro to ‘Tom Camera Angle’, ‘Sam Camera Angle’ and ‘Master’. This allowed it to be easier to cut in between as I knew what each camera angle was. After this I matched all the sound up, the reason we used multiple camera setup was so the sound would be the same throughout. Because if we had different audio it would sound different and the sound would change throughout meaning some bits could be louder or quieter than others. I matched up the sound with the clap that we did at the beginning of filming. This made it easy to match up all the footage perfectly and make it sound perfect. After this I cut in between all the footage to who was talking and when we changed the subject I cut back to the ‘Master’ angle.  After I did this, I added in the UFilms introduction at the beginning and the end of our Oscars Rundown. The intro is used in everyone's Oscars Rundown so it is all the same and so it looks very professional and shows that we work all together as one big group. Some people had a cold opening before the intro to add humour to the show. However, because it was the first show back after the Oscar's I decided to do a short 15 second montage of all the best picture nominations with the ‘Little Women’ trailer song in the background (‘Finder – Cyrus Reynolds ft. Folial’). After the montage it cut to the intro. Whenever we talked about a movie, I put clips from the movie on screen whilst we were talking over them. Then I had the UFilms banner slide in with the name of the movie and the director. Furthermore, when we discussed Bong Joon Ho’s speech after he won best director, about him praising the other directors. I inserted a clip of him thanking all directors at the Oscars as I felt this would be more entertaining for the audience, so it wasn’t just me and Sam speaking all the time. Overall, I feel like we did a really good job at making this look very professional and keep it informative and interesting to the audience. 

Tuesday 11th February 2020
After this I presented with Sam and Anya about the History of the Hosts. We researched the history and found out some interesting facts about the hosts and we understand how much the hosts have an impact on the show, some cases it makes the show better, some cases it made the show worse. We didn’t want it being too long, so we started talking about the 1990 Oscars host and went in order from there. I research Billy Crystal hosting the Oscars from 1990 to 1993, hosting it 4 consecutive times, Whoopie Goldberg dealing with high tensions after 9/11, Hugh Jackman, Chris Rock saying the Oscars are racist and Billy Crystal returning in 2012. Before we started filming, I wrote some bullet points of what I would be saying, and others would be saying to make sure we didn’t interrupt each other, and the presenting looked smooth and professional. After we discussed the Oscars hosts, we discussed if the Oscars do better without a host and for the audience to let us know what they think with our Facebook or Instagram account. This was different with my first presenting the show because now there was three people presenting. This meant it would be different camera angles and we had to make sure everyone knew what they were saying as it needed to flow like a conversation. 

Knives Out Homage

We wanted to do an Oscars homage to all the films that have been nominated for this amazing award throughout the years. Because this was year 2 main project the year ones decided to create their own film homage instead. After doing research and looking through all the Oscar nominations, we struggled to find a film that we all wanted to do. After lots of research we came to the conclusion that we would be able to make a funny skit out of the 2019 film ‘Knives Out’. This was nominated for best original screenplay at the 2020 Oscars. This meant the movie we chose was relevant and unique to do. We then watched the trailer and as a group we decided to do a skit of the trailer. We then looked at characters and which one of us would be playing each character. We had a discussion of what people wanted to play and if they fitted the role of the character. Some people in the class had not seen this movie so we had to create a family tree and try and explain wat happened in the movie without giving away to many spoilers.