Production 6: Winter News

News story pitch (Josh's idea): Interview a local police officer about his experiences working during the holiday season. It can feature a funny or strange holiday call, or be more general if we can't get a specific story.

 

For our contribution to the 'winter edition' of BBA News, I worked with Henry and Josh to make this news story. It features our interview with Corporal Chris Mason, one of the highest ranking officers at the Manchester Police Department. Josh had the idea to interview a police officer because he knows one from a different part of the state and how crazy it is for him during the holiday season. We figured that interviewing a local cop about his experiences would be easier, and if we could get a funny or strange story, that would be all the more interesting!

 

We called the police department and the lady who picks up the phone passed us to a different guy, who in turn told that Officer Mason would be glad to do an interview, and we should come after school on Wednesday. This was somewhat of an issue because it meant we would only have two or three days to edit together our story before it was due. However, Henry and I did go to the police station to meet with Officer Mason at the time he could (Josh couldn't make it, unfortunately) and did the interview. We went to the cinema room beforehand and got all the equipment we needed; we did not forget anything! The interview went well; in total it was about ten minutes and Henry and I both asked Officer Mason a few questions. I asked the first questions, and Henry set up the camera; when Henry took his turn and I looked at the camera, I immediately noticed it looked a bit off -- Officer Mason was just a bit too far away from the third lines, and his hair was so close to the top of the frame. Worse, by that point, I couldn't change it or else the visuals would be inconsistent. I can't really blame Henry, it is a small screen on the T5i, but I wish we had set up the camera just slightly better by zooming out or moving Officer Mason closer to the phone. It's not perfect, but oh, well, it is what it is. Also, having experienced audio capture issues in our projects previously, we made sure to record the audio twice: once in the T5i lav mic, and once in a phone voice recorder app.

 

The next day, after a brief discussion of where we should take this story, Josh and Henry went out to get some B-roll (of the speed naughty/nice signs, the main Manchester roundabout, some hams at Shaw's, etc.) while I started the editing process. I spent most of this figuring out the audio. Unfortunately, there was a lot of noise in the lav mic audio, and it was hard to get rid of because the frequency of the noise overlapped with the frequency range of Officer Mason's voice; I could remove the noise completely, but then Officer Mason would sound weird. Beyond normal noise reduction, I tried all sorts of audio effects from the FCPX audio effects menu, such as an EQ, but I couldn't get it the way I wanted it to be. I switched to using the phone-recorded audio, thankful that we captured that, and although there was less noise, Officer Mason sounded too robotic because it recorded in mono for some reason. I thought the phone audio was more promising, but Josh wanted to work with the lav mic audio, so we went with that. If I had time, I probably could've done more to heal the bad audio in Mr. Freebern's class, but I didn't; again, it's not perfect, but it is what it is.

 

From here on out, I had little to do with the editing process. Josh took care of splicing, B-roll, colors, and the end credits. On Friday, Henry and I went and filmed the stand-up. Josh stayed after school to finish editing before the project was due, and he sent us the video. It was pretty good, but we realized the audio levels were too quiet and color correction was needed over the stand-up. We fixed that on Monday!

 

Pre-production

- Came up with the idea and called the police department; they said to come on Wednesday to talk to Officer Mason

 

Day 1 /// Wednesday, December 13

- In class: came up with questions to ask Officer Mason

- After school: Henry and I got all the equipment and went over to the police department

- Officer Mason just responded to a call, so we waited for 20 min, while we came up with more to say

- Interviewed Officer Mason

 

Day 2 /// Thursday, December 14

- Brought back the equipment in the morning

- Filmed B-roll

- Started editing, recognized audio problems and tried to correct that, but we couldn't get it perfect

- Color correction

 

Day 3 /// Friday, December 15

- Continued editing

- Cut up the clips

- Filmed stand up

- After school: Josh stayed after and cut the package, sent it out to Henry and I

 

Day 4 /// Monday, December 16

- A bit more editing to clean it up; project finished

 

I know half the class is probably writing their reviews on this movie, but I've already seen "It's A Wonderful Life" and "Dr. Strangelove" several times, and I didn't have a strong inclination to watch any particular black and white film I haven't seen, so I watched "Psycho" at my teacher's suggestion. Before watching this movie, I had no idea what the plot would be; I only knew two things:

1. The famous shower scene...
2. It was apparently one of the only movies in history where people could not be admitted late into the theater, lest they miss the first twenty minutes...

I also saw that "Psycho" was directed by a famous director, Alfred Hitchcock, although since I haven't seen any of his other works, this didn't help me in forming my expectations. Let's get into the movie...

 

Briefly, "Psycho" is the story of a woman, Marion Crane, who steals $40,000 from her employer to achieve financial freedom and, accordingly, marry her debtor boyfriend. On the way to California to meet him, she is seen by her boss and a police officer, and stops at the roadside Bates Motel, owned by Norman Bates, a handsome man in his 20s/30s. After talking with Norman about his mentally-ill mother, however, our presumed main character is suddenly stabbed in the shower the next morning, only a third of the way through the movie. From this point further, the movie follows Norman's plot, despite us as the audience only learning who Norman's character really is one gruesome piece at a time.

 

The sudden and almost-offensive death of Marion is as surprising as it is unsurprising. Anyone with any grasp of popular culture knows the "Psycho" shower scene, but I was somehow not expecting the woman being murdered to be a main character that we as the audience have only just become invested into. Moreover, despite the scene's surface simplicity, it really is scary. As everyone knows, there is no wound, there is barely any blood, the knife is not shown to come into contact with Marion's body, and the killer's and Marion's bodies aren't ever in the same shot together; despite the scene depending on the audience's imagination to complete the arc of action, everyone watching will know exactly what just happened. Additionally, the thoughtful cinematography used during this scene makes the audience feel like they are the innocent person being stabbed.

 

The consideration of camera angles is actually used again and again to beguile the audience into adopting a certain perspective. As the plot thickens, Norman feels the need to clean up the murder scene and dispose of the evidence, to clear his name. During this sequence, the cinematography as well as Norman's actor's meticulous skills makes us feel sympathetic for him. When Norman pushes Marion's car into the swamp, it almost doesn't sink all the way, and for a brief moment, you and I as well as Norman want that car to disappear. Most sensationally, much later on, an inspector is also murdered, and as the camera tracks the attack and the body down the stairs, we feel like we've just stabbed the guy.

 

I won't spoil the ending and reveal the identity of the murderer or how he was found. It's more complicated than you might be thinking, and "Psycho" is overall a really enthralling film that I really recommend watching. I didn't like the speech at the very end too much, though.

 

To clarify, I'm not a fan of horror movies, not because I get scared, but because the genre isn't as interesting to me, and I've only seen a handful in my lifetime. "Psycho", however, was interesting to me, and as a student of cinematography, I enjoyed watching it to see all that it did right; as a psychological thriller, it is certainly more artful and intelligent than cliche modern jump scares, although certain scenes are riveting nonetheless. "Psycho" is, as you might guess, given that it's a movie from 1960, not shot with the amenities available to modern filmmakers, but Alfred Hitchcock made it work regardless. In this way and others, I've found "Psycho" to be similar to "Citizen Kane", the last film I wrote a Review on for this class. Other similarities between the two include the impeccable acting of both casts, the mastery of creative camera angles, the mastery of shadows, and timely music. Given the different plot style and genre of "Psycho" to "Citizen Kane", those last two characteristics are notably used to a much higher degree in the former (in terms of quantity and quality). Overall, "Psycho" was a scary, yet fun film to watch.

 

I went to the 6pm Winter Showcase!