Filmmaking 101

Hello everyone,

After yesterday's visit at the Yorkshire Museum, we are now back to filmmaking. We started the day by learning more about Windows Movie Maker and Audacity, as we had the chance to ask questions to Simon Davis. These are the two main tools we are using for our film, so it was really helpful to learn some of the more advanced settings, and also the limitations of the programs. We discovered that some of the elements we wanted to add were impossible, but we believe we can work around them. We have learned that in filmmaking it is important to be able to improvise, so this is good practice.

We also continued with the planning process, including preparing the interviews we will do with people associated with Star Carr. We discussed who will be responsible for the different tasks, and started to think of backup plans in case something goes wrong on the day of filming. In addition to this, we also worked on the narrative of our storyboard, in order to help us prepare interview questions. We do not want our film to be simply a factual report on flint, so we need to ask questions that will prompt a more emotional response, and show how amazing archaeology can be when it is told by enthusiastic people.

Following this, Lizzie kept working on the drawings, trying to add some animation. Very basic animation turned out to be possible even with the limitations of Movie Maker, and we think that even a small amount of motion makes a difference.

This is a new version of the video from the first blog post, with animated light effects

Lizzie using a drawing tablet to make the illustrations

While Lizzie was working on the animations, Astrid recorded a test of what our introduction might end up like. The video will be replaced with footage that includes people, as one of our goals was to show how people interact with the exhibits today. As we are aiming for a general audience, we wanted to make an introduction that engages people. We decided that the best approach would be something between dramatic and factual. Hopefully people will find this entertaining, while also actually learning things about the Mesolithic. 

A test introduction for our film, showing the artefacts in the museum, and explaining the concept for the video 

Over the weekend Lizzie will continue with the animations and drawings, and Astrid will continue with the storyboard narrative. With that as a starting point, we will both make questions that we can use in our interviews on Monday. It will be nice to have some actual footage to work with, and to see our film starting to come together.