Remaking the Monkey!

the day is the 14th of May 2012.
After nearly an hours waiting for Kyle to get his arse out of bed, and down to college (even almost having to come up with a new idea) he finally came down, so we could go off and shoot our funny in 15. we only had to shoot one more scene but it included each of us bringing in a toy that would cause the motion. I forgot mine, so I improvised with Kyle pulling out a pen and pad and saying 'I'm writing a script, do ya mind?'. Kyle brought in a Power ball. Joe brought in a chicken and Cameron brought a phone. we did this so we would all have different endings therefore different edits.

I have now edited it though I have exported it the wrong way. the negative thing is seeing as Kyle didn't have the original clips on his computer I said he could do his on my map pack so by the time i realised my mistake Kyle had changed the clips over so sadly I will not be able to do it right and will have to remember to do it right the next time I export a project.

New version.

We have seen our video, and due to the feedback we received we have decided to reshoot out 'spanking the monkey' piece, but include a different ending to the original idea. The original idea was he was caught spanking the monkey but in actual fact this time he is playing with some sort of toy thats causing him to do the motion (this toy is unspecified at the present time).

At the moment we are waiting for Kyle to complete the storyboard

Kyle has finished it and it's very cool.

Evaluation

Funny In 15 Evaluation

Original Idea

The original idea was to film something funny in 15 seconds. The two Ideas’ my group picked was ‘Spanking the monkey’ and ‘Ken Barlow’s Dance’. It the latter’s case it was simply a guy (Joe) dancing whilst wearing a Ken Barlow mask whilst another guy (Cameron) wearing a Deirdre mask begs him to stop and cry’s. in the other idea a Lad (Cameron) catch’s his brother doing the deed of spanking the monkey.

Camerawork

The camera work for both projects was decent in my opinion. I was the cameraman for the spanking the monkey project, however Joe did the shot of Cameron going back down the stairs cause it was from a risky vantage point as seen in picture 1. I also like how my camera positions showed the journey up the stairs the the eventual pan shot (pictures 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6)

                                                                                                      

For the Ken Barlow Dance the camerawork was simple and just involved a stationary camera, so there was very little to do for Kyle.

However this is by no means a criticism of the camera work; it was what was intended for the production of ‘Ken Barlow’s Dance’ to work.

Editing

The editing process was a quick and simple one, being it needed to be only 15 seconds it wasn’t hard but, as pictures 2, 3 and 4 should demonstrate, Continuality was essential for the ‘Spanking the Monkey’ sketch. No effects were needed for the editing stages.

All the shots for the Ken Barlow one were quick cuts from one character to the other with no need for continuality checks. See pictures 7 and 8.

Audio/Dialogue

The audio and dialogue for the spanking the monkey one was spot on, but sadly the same cannot be said for the Ken Barlow one. This is for a few reasons the main one being the wind. The wind in the background made the dialogue of ‘No Ken, stop dancing’ barely distinguishable. It also took some of the humour from Ken’s (Joe) random dancing.

Characters

The characters in both projects, in my opinion, are clear on who they are and what role they play. The two lads from the ‘Spanking the monkey’ one was obviously a brother and the other was clearly (thanks to an illusion created under the duvet) was committing the act of spanking the monkey. The two characters from Ken Barlow’s dance were clearly supposed to be Ken and Deirdre hence the masks, but it would help if the viewer watches Coronation Street.

Overall Conclusion

In my opinion I think the better one is definitely ‘Spanking the Monkey’ because the gag was easy to guess, and was easy to understand. I just did not get the Ken Barlow gag, but I’m guessing that its randomness was supposed to be the funny bit. The filming of the first one was definitely the more fun and more organised, whilst the latter was rushed and done to quick. Also we were all laughing whilst filming the first one unlike in the latter where we just did it and went. This shows that they funnier (at least to us that made it) were the first one. Overall I think both came out good but the ‘Spanking the Monkey is definitely the better funny in 15.

Areas of Improvement

Improvement’s can definitely be made for the ‘Ken Barlow’s Dance’ because the gag was unclear, and we could have got a female role to play the part of Deirdre so as not to confuse the audience with what was going on. As for the ‘Spanking the Monkey’ I think it was very impressive and there is virtually nothing I can see that needs improving. 

Production Report.

Pre- Production

I was put into a group with Cameron, Joe and Kyle. This is the third time I have worked with Joe (anti littering and VKTRS) and Cameron (Zero to Hero and Anti Littering) this is the first time I have worked with Kyle I believe. The two ideas chosen were 'Spanking the monkey' in which a lad catches his brother in the act of spanking the monkey. 'Ken Barlow' Dance' was Ken Barlow (guy in a mask) dancing whilst Deirdre (also someone in a mask) begged him to stop and crying. It was decided that Kyle's house and the park were suitable places to film due to closeness to college. 

Production

production was fairly straight forward.  We walked down to kyle's and shot the Spanking the monkey scenes within an hour, whilst taking production stills that can be viewed below. I was the Cameraman for this one, and the director. Joe was the log sheet person. from past experiences with the focus of the camera, I made 100% sure i adjusted the focus to fit the picture in detail.  In a way me and joe were both the kind of directors because Joe was always up for throwing some of his ideas into the general mix of things. Joe took the production stills for this one.

 For the Ken Barlow dance one my role was to log the footage as well as take the production stills which can be seen below. the filming of this one was more straight forward and was done in around 15 minutes because the story board was: short, straightforward and simple.
 Kyle was the director for this one because the Ken Barlow idea was his so it was the obvious choice as only he could bring out his vision. I thought this was done very well.

Post Production
for post production each member of the group was required to do a single edit but I decided to make an edit of both projects. the editing was quick simple and effective. Some shots I cut out completely because they wouldn't fit the 15 seconds; they would have made other clips to short.

Overall I think this was a fun project to do.

Funny in 15 completion

Finally I have got a blog up and running for this project. the task was to be funny in 15. The class got split into groups of four, and each group was to pick two ideas in which to carry out. I was put into a group with Kyle, Joe and Cameron. We ended up choosing between three ideas: Cameron's 'spanking the monkey' Kyle's 'Ken Barlow dance' and my 'Chips'. we ended up ditching mine cause Joe and Cameron did not get it.

We filmed the Spanking the monkey one at kyle's house and The Ken Barlow one at Park opposite college.

All filming was done in around 3-4 hours. maybe even less than that. I have now edited both project and spanking the monkey was the funniest of the two projects we filmed.