This is a fun scene. Many people think it is their favorite. Once you edit this scene, I think you will find it very funny.
The location
This story takes place on a space station which is named after the first major city on Earth.
The characters
The lady is in charge of the operation of the space station and the man is in charge of security for the space station.
The story
This scene is not important. It has nothing to do with the story of the episode. Instead, this scene sets the mood for the episode. So you can have fun when you edit this scene.
In this scene, the man comes to give the woman a message from the Captain. Even before he tells her the message, she tells him that an important visitor is arriving at the space station.
The man gives the message from the captain to the lady. The captain wants to have a meeting this afternoon. The lady is happy that she received the message early so that she knows what is happening in advance.
Then the lady orders the communications person to telephone the captain and tell him about the arriving spaceship. This makes the man worried and he immediately offers to pass on the message to the captain.
This makes the woman suspicious. Finally the man tells her that the captain has gone for a walk outside the space station. The woman goes to the window and looks out. She becomes angry and frustrated when she sees the captain in a space suit walking on the wing of the space station. This should make the audience laugh.
In the last shot once you have edited the scene, the audience will see the woman inside the space station looking out as the camera moves away from the space station until the audience sees a man walking in a space suit. That is the difficult part of this scene.
The challenge - Matte painting
The story is simple but the last shot of the scene is a challenge. The scene ends with an exterior shot (a shot from outside the space station) of the woman looking out to the window of a space station.
The problem is there is no movie set for the exterior of the space station. It was never built. (It would have been too big.) Except for the window looking into the control center, everything else is missing. You will have to create the rest of the space station yourself with a painting. This is called a "matte painting". See the lesson in matte painting. This shot is the example in the lesson.
Also the final animation has another challenge. During this shot, the camera must dolly out a thousand feet from the woman, eventually moving passed an animation of the Captain who is walking in a space suit on the exterior of the space station. That means multiple images must be combined together. This is called "compositing".
All the pieces of the final shot
To complete last shot of the scene, you must create a matte painting of the exterior space station (minus the control center window.) Then you must composite the video clip of the woman looking out the window into your painting of the space station. Finally you must add an animation of the captain in a space suit walking on the exterior of the space station.
A simple matte painting created in Tux Paint which is a free paint program for kids.
Go to the lesson in matte painting and create our own matte painting. Creating a matte painting in Tux Paint is great fun!
Edit this scene
Loan only
This disk is available from your instructor for a one month loan.
The Overview Movie
Start by looking at the overview movie for "Out for a Walk". (This QuickTime movie file is in a different folder than the film dailies. Don't get the two folders confused.)
The overview movie shows you the important parts of the film dailies in chronological order.
Transfer the dailies
Once you have studied the overview movie, look at the film dailies.
Copy all the film dailies (not the overview movie) to your hard drive. If necessary, convert the dailies to whatever format your editing program prefers. Start your editing program and import all these clips into your editing program.
Edit the scene
Editing the conversation is easy. Always start by looking for the best audio of the people talking. Once the audio (along with whatever pictures come with the audio) is edited, you will lock the audio and roll the picture edits to find the best visual transition for each edit of the conversation thereby creating "L-Cuts". (You learned about this in the previous lesson.)
Create the matte painting
The last shot of the movie needs a matte painting. You can practice creating this matte painting at the lesson for creating a matte painting which uses "Tux Paint". Tux Paint is a fun painting program for kids that is free.
Create the animation
During the shot, the woman sees the captain walking on the forward cargo stabalizer. Therefore, you need animation of someone walking in a space suit.
Composite the images
Finally, you need to composite the three images with your editing program or with a special program designed for compositing such as Adobe AfterEffects. That means you must combine the exterior shot of the woman looking out of the screen, the matte painting of the exterior of the space station, and the animation of the captain walking.
Submit your finished scene
This edited scene is worth 10 points without the last shot and 40 points for the completed last shot with matte painting, animation and compositing. (Total possible points is 50.) Email me when you are finished.
Analyze the Dailies
Working on a movie set
Listen to the actors before each shot. Professional actors can have fun!
As you can hear, the actors enjoy filming this scene. But that does not mean that they are not professional.
A television series like this one was filmed for many years. During this time, the actors bond together into a family. That is why the actors have a good time during their grueling filming schedule.
Listen to all the giggling of the actors off camera before each take. This makes the humor of the scene more realistic because they really are having fun.
Variations (good and bad)
When filming a scene, you do not want the actors to try variations because that makes editing more difficult. However, in this scene, the woman says her lines in many different ways because she is confident that the camera crew will capture all her action perfectly.
Never assume this for a motion picture with a new crew and inexperienced actors. When you are filming a low budget movie with limited rehearsal time, most of the mistakes will be camera movement and camera aiming problems. In that case, you need the actors to repeat their line perfectly each time with exactly the same tone. That is the only way the scene will edit together.
But with a TV series with extremely talented actors are crew, you have the luxury of trying variations.
Look at the overview movie
"Hey, We do Windows!"
The first thing you see is the film crew washing the windows in outer space. This is funny but also informative. In the windows, you see reflections which will not match the lighting from outer space. For the actual filming, the windows are removed and must be added with composting. (Even more than is mentioned above.)
Note that the lady in first shot is a "stand-in". This means a member of the crew who stands in front of the camera while the crew adjusts the lights.
Two directors
Notice that there are two different directors. The assistant director directs the "extras" or "background characters". These are the actors who pretend to be members of the crews who are running the space ship. When the assistant director yells "background", she means that the extras should begin moving.
When the other director yells "action", that is for the two principle actors.
Only one microphone
Notice that there is only one microphone and it is pointed at the actor who is seen on the screen. Therefore, at times, the other actor cannot be heard. This is the way most movies are filmed. Sound is so important, only the best possible microphone methods are used (an overhead microphone on a boom). With a moving boom microphone, only one fits on a movie set.
In the last shots of the scene which show only the close up of the woman, the microphone is pointed at her. The only reason for this is to record her snorting in anger. Listen for this.
A boring job
Filmmaking is very boring because you have to wait so much of the time.
So watch the last few seconds of the overview movie to see how the woman amuses herself while she waits.
The next scene
This scene ("Out for a Walk") is simple to edit (except for the last shot). Now look a scene which is extremely complex.
