Main Shoot Thoughts

• Our main shoot was very successful. We were much more aware of what a shooting day consisted of and the need to work really hard to achieve a really good finished product.
• We also had an actor outside our group: Alex Thomas, (see in the post 'Amendments to casting'). Consequently we wanted to be really professional and use his time efficiently. In order to do this we held a meeting with him on the Friday before the shooting weekend just so he could do a walk through of what was going to happen. We also showed him the story board and our rough edit so he could get an idea of the character and the role he was playing. He was confidence about his role and ready to take it on.
• We had a really good time on the shoot. Our group all get on really well and work well together so we had a lot of fun and hopefully achieved a lot of good footage at the same time!

Shoot day

Main Shoot: Schedual

Ammendments To Casting

• 
  
  Since our test shoot, we have decided to make an ammendment to the cast, as James' performance on camera was not up to scratch, we have drafted in someone from the school Drama Department.
• 
  
  Alex, the new lead role, has partaken in Drama lessons at school since the young age of 10.He also has over 10 years of drama experience in extra curricula clubs both inside and outside school.
• 
  
  He is currently sitting his AS Drama Exam, and hopes to continue this specialist subject for at least another year and get a full A-Level in the subject. His current predicted grade is an A, which shows he has supreme acting abilities.
• 
  
  I have personally briefed alex on the task, and he seems perfectly comfortable with the role he will be playing. I have also shown him our groups rough edit and OCD symptons video, that we gained inspiration from.
• 
  
  He has agreed to the shooting time and we consider him a reliable and valued member of the team.

Rough Cut of our Opening Sequence

Due to this only being a rough edit, there is no need for titles to be added.
However, the lack of title shots means that there a cuts that look really jumpy as they are supposed to be split by a title shot.
Our Thoughts

• We think that overall we made good progress however by doing our rough cut we have seen vital errors and mistakes and missing shots which we need to improve on in order to make our final sequence better
• We think both actors and actress worked well however some shots can still be improved
• We need to sort out missing shots and make sure they are included next time
• We need to look at finer details-eg OCD actor should have shirt tucked in at all times, shoes on at all times, same pen in each shot
• We like the music choice we have made at the start of the sequence
• We need to change the POV shot from the toaster to the fridge as its not a good shot
• Props need to checked through-pen, toast same colour, butter needs to be soft, 4 keys

Teacher Feedback

•  Like the shed door scene but need to think quite carefully about make up- need to look at fake blood- doesn't look realistic
• OCD- they would know when the news would be on therfore play the news as soon as radio turned on then music plays after when he goes to turn off the radio
• Calender shot-already have the 24th circled? do crosses?
• He needs to switch of the radio

Round up of Editing Week 1

This week we were in the editing room, capturing the footage we got from our practice shoot on the weekend. It was the first time we had done some editing since we edited for the preliminary task, This time we were with different people, and in a different group.

We were pretty confident that we would do well with the editing this week, as we all knew what to do due to the experience we gained from our preliminary task and other media projects where we needed to use editing.

We got straight to work capturing all the footage we took, and straight away we realised that we were missing some of the shots we intended to shoot. However it was just a practice shoot and that is the purpose of a practice shoot, to learn from your mistakes so you don't make them again for the real thing.

As we were editing for the practice shoot it wasn't as important so we just editing during lessons, this is my timetable for the week, we edited in the periods highlighted in red, this periods are 40minutes long, so 7 x 40, is 280 minutes, so we spent 4 hours and 40 minutes editing.

We sat down as a group on friday lunchtime to discuss the weeks events and to talk about anything we might need to improve or remeber for next time we shoot.

We came up with a list of problems we had to solve and things we have decided to change for the main shoot:

• We have to keep the storyboard with us at all times to ensure that we know exactly what we want in each shot
• We need to shoot in chronological order so we dont forget any shots, this will be ok as we  only shoot in two different locations
• We need to keep up to date with the shot log so when it comes to capturing we know exactly where the shot we want is on the tape
• We need to make sure that when shooting we do more then just one take, as in a number of cases on the practice shoot we moved on to the next shot instead of checking that the footage we had got was good enough
• We have to make sure that we keep using the clapperboard so we know what take we want to use

Music

The music that is featured in our sequence is from one of the tracks on the free play music website.
The track is called Abandoned Infirmary (click link for music sample). The track creates an eerie atmosphere and builds up suspense towards the end.
However, the track has been cut and copied across so it fits the desired time while watching the sequence. I have tried my best to edit out the cuts between tracks, and they are barely noticeable, but if you listen closely the track skips a bit in two or three places.

Notes on editing

Guys, while you left for Hollywood I went through out final practise shoot edited sequence and have noted down major elements we left out that makes our piece not make sense and flow properly. I also got feedback from ms dymioti:

• Missing shot
• Turning of the radio and looking at the shed then leaving- he doesn't actually turn of the radio it just stops after the news announcement
• Shot of the camera leaving the shed and sliding across the floor
• Need more CU of in shed -eyes-cut between each look
• Polaroids!
• Reaction shot of toast popping
• CU of eyes looking at shed

Suggestions

Say news date at the start of the radio announcement- because he is OCD wouldn't he know exactly when the news would be on and let music play after as he walked to turn off the radio

Group Meeting: Editing

• Lots of mistakes
• Continuity errors
• Some good shots
• Need more reaction shots
• Broken continuity techniques
• Background sound
• Burnt toast then the next shot doesn't have burnt toast
• lots of takes-need to cut that down in order to save time

Time:1 hour

Practice Shoot

Shed Scene

James' spraying the numbers on the shed

We used photos however we want to use polaroids for the final shoot

India setting up the camera

Spencer filming an outside shot

Just about to film one shot

James in our main location

James and Spencer attempting a point of view shot

India filming an over the shoulder shot

Kitchen location

Spencer filming and India on sound

James acting

Ciara filming and Spencer on sound

Setting up the camera

India with shoot board

Practice Shoot: Thoughts

We think the practice shoot went well. The shooting schedule and story board proved really useful. We did have a few hiccups along the way but we managed to work through these and come up with alternatives.
For our main shoot we need to work hard to pull off an even smoother shooting day. We worked hard on our practice shoot and it gave us a clear outline of what a shooting day involves - a lot of hard work! We need to take into account that setting up the location took a lot longer than first anticipated and work this into our schedule. hopefully everything will be easier for our main shoot because we carried out this one.
Overall we all had a really fun time and hopefully our film is good enough to pull off a good rough draft sequence.

Practice Shoot: Shot Log

This again kept all our shots in order and we knew exactly what shot to capture for the editing process. We all took turns recording down capture times and what shots we were using and what shots went wrong so we were not going to capture

Practice Shoot: Capture List

This is our practise shoot shot log. This helped us to know the time codes of each shot and take allowing the editing proces to be quick and easy.

Timeline

Storyboard

Here are some photos of our storyboard:

We began storyboarding a week before our shoot. We initially did a timeline which we used to then add further detail and it made us think about where we would place titles etc. We used different colours for different types of shot eg-yellow was close ups. This allowed us to see if we were using variation of shots as this criteriria would make our opening sequence exciting and interesting.

We split up the jobs of the storyboarding to make it quicker

-India and James did the drawings

-I did the writing underneath identifying each shot

-Spencer sorted out the order generally helped with all jobs

The process of storyboarding was very long however without doing this I don't think we would have a set idea of the opening sequence. It made us actually walk through our sequence and try and overcome problems

Planning: Shooting Schedual

This is the shooting schedual we produced for the practise shoot. This allowed us to plan each shot and know what we needed to do on the day. We wrote down each shot that was needed and then planned that way in which the shot order would go. Therefore we can now follow this shooting schedule ensuring we get the right shots.

Planning: Props

Shed

• Rope
• Tea towel for gag

• Polaroids
• Red paint for the numbers
• Wooden Chair
• Chains
• Cork Noticeboard; divided into 4, with 4 separate pictures on it, one of which being the girl in the shed at the moment. 
• Fake Blood

House

• Radio
• Calendar with dates circled
• Toast (bread)
• Butter
• Food for inside the fridge 
• Cutlery; a knife 
• A chopping board 
• Plastic See Though Bags
• Cups,plates etc
• Briefcase
• Keys 

Things to remember

On the day we noted down some points to remember for the next shoot as this was a practise shoot so we were able to learn from it:

• Make Up Wipes
• Black out sheets
• Polaroids
• Cork Board
• Soft Butter
• Butter and Toast needs to be in fours
• No butter on knife before
• Loaf of bread
• Full fridge
• Tuck in shirt
• Pull up trousers

• Overall we soon realised on the shooting day that we needed more time to prepare costume and setting. The shed we were using was full therefore this took us time to clear out and empty. The costume choices were made that morning therfore it took us more time then expected.
• We have now planned that on the next shooting weekend we will all come the night before and prepare all costumes and settings. Therefore clean the kitchen compltely and get the shed prepared. This will allow us to start shooting as soon as we arrive and we will save time therfore we can spend that on making all shots accurate.

Final Idea: Moodboard

I have decided to gather pictures from our overall final idea to visualise what we intend to do and what we hope to achieve in the opening sequence.

Target Audience-22-30, primary-males,like socialising and horror film, well educated.

Actors- Ciara and James-James will be OCD and Ciara will be distressed kidnapped girl

Kitchen-OCD,neat,tidy,clean

Characterisation-Geeky,tidy,gelled back hair,suits,looks very ordinary

Shed-number four,ECU of girls hands etc,polaroids

Camerawork-close ups, Extreme close ups, medium close ups,Long shots, disorientation

Proposal: Second Idea

Our initial proposal was not signed off by Ms. Blackborow. Therefore, we have to create a new proposal with a new idea.

We will try to keep the sequence the same but tweeking few minor aspects to create an overall much better sequence.
Second Proposal - Final Idea

The sequence starts with a steadi-cam shot towards the shed, snaking around the hedge and through a key hole or hole in the door into the shed.

Once inside the shed the camera will sharply drop down and snake along the floor. As the camera snakes through it runs into her feet. There is then an extreme CU of her bound hands and then her eyes. We see her eyes dis-orientatedly rushing round the room looking at photos stuck onto the walls.
The camera cuts away to close ups of some of the photos, as if from her eyes, to reveal more detail of the photos. We can see that they are photos of other girls in her situation. The shots won't be held long, and the cuts will be very tight, in-order to help dis-orientate the audience and bring them in to the same feeling as the girl.

We then play the clip again but in rewind, to take us back through the hole, and down the garden towards the house, but all moving backwards as the shot is being rewound. The shot ends up back through the garden door and into the kitchen. In the kitchen we are introduced to the second, main character.

As we first see him, he will be staring down the garden to the shed at the end of the garden, as if he was in a pyschotic trance. The toaster will then pop, as this happens his mind set and mood will change into a more ordinary everyday character. The camera pans around the entire kitchen and we get a sense of the neatness of everything. However, the room isn't just tidy its obsessively neat. We finally see the guys clothing, which is also pristine.
The man turns and opens the fridge, we get an over the shoulder shot of the fridge as he bends down to reach for the butter, and all we can see is the fridge perfectly organised. Once the toast has been made he sits down to listen to the radio and eat his toast.

As the radio is turned on a song comes to a close, and a news announcment comes on. It describes how the third mystery dissapearance of a third girl took place the day before.

The man walks to his calender, circles a third date. The two dates already circled are representative of when the other two girls were kidnapped. We then get a cut away to a close up of the clock, which strikes eight. The man picks up his keys and walks back through the house to the front door, and leaves. As if any other normal day.
The screen cuts away to the Title of the film then the sequence ends.

Final Idea: Location

Here are some stills from our new location (my house)

As you can see the kitchen is much tidier than the previous location, it is more minimalistic and more realistic for an OCD person to live in.

The shed is small and cosy, it will really make the audience feel closed in on, and costraphobic. It will not look like a nice place to be in at all.

The garden is quite long and there is an easy route from the shed to the house.

 

 

As you an see there is able to be a good shot of the door from the hallway as the man enters the house. you can even have a shot of the door from the stairs.