Unit

"Fiction Adaptation"

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Role in the production

With the development and work of this unit I have not been in any spesific group, as I knew what I wanted to film and achieve would be very doable on my own, as I was not going to reccord anything but atmos-sound on set. Therefore It was basically handeling the camera, and only one person can do that anyway. I was, for two of the shooting days, lucky to have my friend Sunny over, to help out as prod ass and cam ass, which was very helpful and nice. To have someone along with me, and not just traveling about on my own. The roles I have had for this unit has been, cameraop, director, producer, sound, and editor. The time we have had at our disposal, I have made good use of and been structured, organized and efficient. 

Actor(s) & Casting

As my chosen poem was about unity, I quickly got the idea that I wanted to involve a lot of different people in the film. In order to show off diversity as well as unity between all human beings, no matter where they are from and what they do. I put out an ad on casting call pro and got hold of an Mandal artist, as well as through Facebook I got in touch with a parkour society at UCLU in London. It took me quite a while to find a dancer, as the ones that came through on CCP, dropped out last minute - and I had to re-schedual for new shooting days and was lucky enough to find a dancer the day before the final shooting day. The graffiti artist was a guy I luckily got to film on the spot in London when asking him. And the girl in the bathroom it was my friend Sunny that got the honours of being, as I wanted to use a" normal" person (not necesserily actor) to portay the rawness and reality. I made the people involved sign consent forms, as to having permission to use the footage for the uni and myself.

Why I chose my poem

The reason I chose the poem "100% by Michael James Parker" was because of how it stood out to me when I read it. It made me feel, and visualise imagery already from the first lines, made me feel connected and engaged in the topic and theme brought up in it. It was also one of the poems I found to be more "normal" in the sense of it not being too abstract, as abstract poetry is not that much my cup of tea - not because I dont understand it, because I know it can all be connated or denotated to reveal meaning. - It is just that there is something that doesnt connect with me if it is to weird or too abstract, in the sense of being too strange.

The goal 

The goal with this unit was to research, develop, set up, shoot and edit our own original fiction adaptation film in response to a defined brief. The goal for the adaptation I made, was to fulfill the criteria, as to what an adaptation actually is and consists of. Adaptations are not easy to define, there are many forms - but the most important was for it to explore montage, allowed to be creatively free and able to create something fictional. I also wanted it to consist of different styles, in the sense of filming in both 24 fps and 25 fps, as well as trying out the matrix effect to see how that would turn out.

My experiences

I found this unit to be a lot of fun, and I got to meet a lot of different and inspiring people! It has definitley been a unit and time of term that has challenged and stressed not only me, but everyone out, however I do think we have all learned a lot about ourselves as well as production and time manageing wise. I feel that I have worked really well on this unit, there has been some challenges in terms of acotrs and finding people, but I was able to pull through in th end, and get everything done. I wish we had got more production time, in the sense of finishing with the first "digital news" unit with the critical analysis both st the same time. So that we could have focused only on the fiction adaptation and had that in focus. However, like I said, this stress has contributed to learning more about time management and planning.

Conclusion

When it comes to if the goal has been reached, I want to say that I am very pleased with my finished product and the prep, and research work. I have learned as long as you want something or work hard towards your goals it is definitley acheiveable. It has been a cool experience and I have truly loved working with this unit. I feel that the criteria for the unit have been reached, and that I have managed to contribute positively with this project, and that I have managed to reach the goals with the adaptation. Have definitely achieved the look and style I was going for, and I am very pleased with how it looks. All in all a product I mean answers the assignment, and shows understanding for research, technique, editing tools, writing as well as camera techniques. 

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//Image from behind the scenes on shooting day