Second day of filming

Today we filmed at the college and in angel. We did the establishing shot again with the actress. We then did various medium shots, long shots, and over the shoulder shots. In the end we got over 5 minutes worth of footage which we began editing down when we came back. It was had filming because we had the rain and the amount of passersby constantly against us. We also had to wait for the roads to be clear each time we did a shot. When we want back to college to edit, we started to combine the scenes with cutting in and out at different places. Like in the first scene we gradually cut so it looked like we were zooming in a bit more each time. At the end of the lesson we planned what we would be filming next week. Filming is going well . 

First day of filming

The first day of filming didn’t go exactly to plan. Our actor wasn’t in so we couldn’t do all the filming of the beginning. We did film inside the college from a window, which will be a nice establishing shot. We also shot outside but didn’t get much footage because of police disruption. We did get a good shot of Nick in front of a street sign. While we was filming we also took pictures of each shot, which will make a nice storyboard. On Wednesday we will go further into angel and continue filming.

First day of filming

Our first day of filming didn't go completely as planned - we had hoped to be able to use the time to film various shots around the local area, but were disrupted by police activity. Eventually, filming was pretty much out of the question, so we took a few small shots, then went back to the classroom to decide exactly what needed to be done in our next session.

Whilst obviously the circumstances weren't ideal, I feel that, as a group, we were able to efficiently adapt to the issues that arose, and still make the most of our time.

Making a pitch- futher planning

Today we continued discussing our thriller opening. Then we watched some openings that had been made by other students. Many of these were made interesting by the use of lighting, mise en scene and editing. This gave us more ideas and ways to make what we had better. We realised that our idea was simple and needed a twist in the plot to make it more interesting. We then came up with changing the story from being a stalker, to it being a secret investigator who looked like a stalker. As part of the opening involves filming in an underground station we need to get permission. This will not be possible to get by Monday so we are going to concentrate on filming the bits on the college site and near it. Our straight forward planning of one shot type needs to be edited so that we are using a range of shots in each scene. It’s important that we remember to film each scene at least twice to give room for editing later. Finally we presented the pitch to the class. This outlined the story, some of the shot types, and what affect we wanted to create. After this we want back to planning and should be ready to start on Monday.

Pitch

In todays lesson we pitched our idea for our opening of a thriller to the class, we done this by presenting an a3 sheet of paper with all our ideas on it to the class, and talking through it. During our pitch we explained to the class what type of music we would be using, what camera techniques we are going to be use, the different places we are setting our opening in, and the basic story-line of our thriller.

We have decided the story-line of our opening of a thriller is going to be, a girl is on her way home and is being followed, she gets on the train and is still unaware she is being followed untill she gets off the train and sences somebody behind her as she is walking down the street, she quickly turns around and see's noone there, we then cut to the man who was following her entering an office building on a mobile phone, after this we cut to a shot of the man in an office, the man takes off his 'hoody' he was wearing whilst following the girl and reveals he's wearing a smart suit, we then see an 'over the shoulder shot' of the man typing into an email on his laptop..'WE FOUND HER'

The only thing we are worrying about is being able to get permission from a tube station nearby to film inside the station, but hopefully there will be no problem with getting permission.

Group pitch

Today, we started the planning process for our thriller. After brainstorming, we were able to agree upon a solid story line, and sequence of events with which we will film. Next, we jotted everything out into a short list, and edited a few concepts that we felt needed altering. Once we were happy with the layout, we put it into the form of a storyboard; this really helped us see what would work, and what might be a bit out of place, after some small edits, everything seemed to look like it would run smooth. Next, we looked at each 'scene' in further detail (deciding on shot types/distances/whether conditions we would need etc.) And after agreeing on our decisions, added our choices to the storyboard.

To sum up, I would say we had an extremely productive planning session, we were able to use our time constructively, and make a solid plan for how we would later film our scenes, something I am confident will help us greatly in the weeks to come.

Group Pitch

In todays lesson we had to plan our thriller on a story board ready to present to the class for next lesson, we also brain stormed the different ideas and conventions we are going to use in our opening of a thriller, we also wrote down the different camera techniques we are going to use, and what affect they would have on the audience.

Group Pitch

In this lesson we had to plan our ideas for our opening to our thriller film. We came up with a narrative which we wrote out in stages and also drew on a storyboard. Our opening is about a young girl who is getting followed by a mysterious man, the man is dressed all in black and you can not see his eyes as they are covered by his hood.
We planned out our shots and scenes on a story board. We also made a brainstorm which showed the different conventions of our film. As a group we decided that we wanted to use a fast drum beat, this was to build up tension in the scene. The audience for our film after young women, this is so they know the dangers of the street.
We decided that the lighting was going to be a dark gloomy day and will also be naturalistic. although we wanted it to be dark it wasn't convenient for ny of us to film in the night so we decided on filming in the day.
The settings and locations of our piece is firstly at the train station then moves from the street to into her house. This is to keep it simple yet effective.
We also had to plan out how we were going to present it to the class in a persuasive manner, which made the film look and seem interesting.

Making a pitch

Today in class we got into our group and planned the opening of our thriller opening. We began by discussing our different ideas. Then we decided what would work best and started planning the shots. We choose a shot type for example close up, and thought about the effect it would have. This is an important part of planning because it helps build tension. This will help us stick to the traditional conventions of a thriller film. We also used a storyboard to plan each shot, and next to that an illustration. This helps us visualise what each shot will look like. While planning we decided to use two main locations, overground station and a house. This helped us to plan when we was going to film and at what time of day. I think that having this planning lesson was crucial as everyone know knows what we are going to do over the next few weeks. It also gives us mini targets so we can meet the final deadline.

Adding Soundtrack

In this lesson we had to add a soundtrack to our preliminary film. We chose a menacing piece of music that was fast pace so it suited our film. We also added a fast drum beat to it to create and portray suspense, this drumbeat got slower as the dialogue occurred. The menacing music stopped when the dialogue started, as we did not want it to over power what the characters were saying.
I learnt that choosing the right soundtrack was important as it sets the scene and classifies what genre the piece is. If we picked the wrong soundtrack it would change the whole feel and the over all atmosphere of the produce.
I found adding soundtrack hard, as I got confused when adding it to the film, at first it didn’t tie in properly. This meant that the dialogue was echoed. When I got the hang of making the sound track I corrected what I had done wrong before hand so that the final piece could be perfect.

Preliminary Film

As a second filming task, we had to film and edit a preliminary film. We had to film someone walking into a room and having a short dialogue with another character. As our first filming wasn’t interesting and didn’t have enough elements of suspense in it, we decided to make a strong narrative which meant that it would be easier create suspense as we knew what we were doing clearly.
The second practice of filming went very well, we were given two hours to film and we finished filming early. At first, I found it hard to put our piece together whilst filming, but we came together as a group. We knew we had to film the different bits of the piece several times to get the best shots, we decided to film things over 3 times so that when it came to editing we could make the final film perfect.
Between the first filming task and this filming task I have learnt a lot, such as not filming in order, match cutting and filming each clip more then once. You can clearly see this in our final produce of the film, as this time it does not look amateur. There are strong filming conventions and a wide range of camera shots unlike the first filming we did.
I think we used strong conventions of thriller films as the camera shots were very sharp and snappy which built up a lot of suspense. We used many different camera shots for example over the shoulder shots, looking at the other character from different points of view, not filming the whole body. Because we used a range of different shot types, it created anticipation within the scene and made the pace of it fast so it was not boring at any point. The lighting in the scene was naturalistic, which did not really create suspense but kept it natural. The mise en scene followed usual thriller films. Our piece was about a girl locked away and tied up in a room that was messy, this helped create suspense and build up the tension in the audience. This was very unlike our first attempt at filming! The narrative was strong so it was clear what the two characters were doing and created a strong storyline, which could possibly be an idea for our final filming piece.
This practice film portrays women as strong and dominant which goes against usual stereotypes of women. Usually the men have the power in the scene but this time it was different, this made our film interesting as this went against usual conventions of real film. In addition, it would have been better if it was a male tied up, as it would have really created the sense of women being more dominant. Our practice film also has a strong element of status as you could clearly tell who was in charge.
I feel that this filming task went very well, the end produce was very strong unlike our first weak attempt at filming before hand. We also worked very well as a group, as we got straight into filming which meant we finished quickly and was able to start editing sooner then we thought. One thing I personally found hard was the dialogue, as I found it hard to stay in role and not bursting into laughter, but this is not very relevant, as we do not have to use dialogue in our final thriller piece.

First practice filming task – Reading a newspaper

As a practice task, we were given the task of filming someone reading a newspaper in an interesting way that creates suspense. We were set this to get us used to using the camera for our final thriller films.
The camera work was not particularly great, as it was often shaky and unclear. I was also unhappy with the fact that we did not leave space between the person on film and the environment, so when it came to editing it looked very squashed. This made our piece look unprofessional and amateur. The most successful camera technique we used was filming from behind the plant, this worked well as behind the plants we could see a bit of Daniella reading the newspaper. It also looked good as it created a tense atmosphere as we didn’t know exactly what Daniella was doing there and why she was there. Filming behind the plant created suspense as we wanted to know more about the scenario and it conveyed that someone was watching her or even spying on her. This really set the scene and created an interesting effect on the person in the scene.
After we were happy with all the shots we filmed, we then had to edit it. At first, the editing was hard to grasp and get the hang of. However, when I got used to it I found it interesting and fun playing around with the different editing techniques on the computer. Editing the film itself was hard, as some of it did not make sense, this was due to the narrative not being clear. Although most of it ran smoothly some of the shots were jumpy, so this highlighted the bad filming.
I learnt that the mise en scene was very important when it came to filming as it tells the audience where the character is and what they could be doing. The use of mise en scene in our short film made it very boring, as the person we filmed was not placed in an interesting setting so this made the film itself very slow and not at all interesting. The set and scene we chose to use was our own media class itself, so the audience could see desks and tables, which did not look at all exciting. It also did not help us when trying to create suspense. The element of suspense was very little due to where we chose to film it and also because we didn’t use a range of camera shots. The camera shots we used where very repetitive which didn’t help at all when trying to make it interesting. The only time we created an element of suspense was when filming from behind the plants as this created anticipation, but other then that it was a drag to watch.
We hadn’t used conventions from different thriller films, as we had not properly analysed one before this filming task.
Personally, I felt the filming went ok considering it was our first time working together as a group and also with the cameras. The only thing I would change for the next time was to come up with a wider range of settings. After our first time of practice, we all know how to film properly making it look professional rather then amateur.

Practice film

We were given a task to film a newspaper in an interesting way, by using different camera skills and techniques. I was not particularly happy with the camera work used in our filming, as most of the camera shots were quite shaky and unfocused, which made our filming look amatuer and unprofessional.The shots that were most successful in our peice were the 'over the shoulder shot' which showed the girls veiw of the newspaper as she was reading it. The reason why i think this was the most successful shot is because it was an interesting way of filming the newsapaper for the audience to watch. At first i found the editing confusing, as during our filming we had to retake quite a few of our shots, so it was difficult trying to remember which one we decided to use and what order they were supposed to go in, but after we had cut and organised all the shots into the right order it was fine. The continuity of our editing once all the shots were put together was quite smooth throughout, although some of the cuts were a bit too jumpy and didnt run as smoothly.Our short film didnt really make sence once it was put together. As the narrative we planned didnt really come together. Although you could tell that the girl in our short film was shocked about somthing she was reading in the newspaper by her facial expression., which is what we planned for our narrative. During our filming i learnt mise en scene is extremily important, as i beleive one of the reason's why i found our short film boring and dull is mainly due to the boring mise en scene. The scenery in our short film was in our media class room, whereas the other short films i have seen made by other students in our class that were filmed outside or around the college, i found alot more interesting to watch.We didnt have a lot of suspence in our short film, although there was a shot when the girl in our film was staring at a page in the newspaper she was reading with a shocked and suprised expression on her face, this created suspense and anticipation as we could not see the page in the newspaper the girl was staring at and wanted to know what she was so shocked and suprised at.We didnt forget to do any of the main, important things whilst filming, for example we always rememberd to film the extra 5 seconds before and after each shot.I dont think we used any conventions from real thriller films in our short film

Soundtrack Lesson 14/1/09

This lesson we added a soundtrack to our film clip. I learnt in the lesson that it is vital that the soundtrack is relevant to the type of filming and the soundtrack is very important. The sound track we used for our filming made our clip more dramatic and built up tension, as the music had quite a fast pace.

We also watched ours, and another groups final finished clip, in front of the whole class. After we watched the two clips we commented on good and bad points.

Premliminary film

Last week we had 2 hours to film. It was challenging at first as I had to put many lessons of learning and planning into practice. I found that filming each clip twice helped me improve the angles of the filming. Having alot of each clip also helped, because actors kept laughing and moving to fast to capture the action. After a while i started getting used to filming and not filming in order.
I have learned alot since the first filming. These are things such as not filming in order, filming each clip more then once and using match cuts. I think that the match cut was the most interesting because it really makes a scene look more realistic. It also can give a the audience a better view of the action. I have also found that you can't leave one person to do the filming as it doesn't always have the out come you want. The second time filming i found that i was getting more confident with the camera, and didn't panic when i got something wrong.
I do feel that we followed basic thriller film conventions to a certain extent. When i filmed sophies feet and she was walking slow i thought that it built tension and anticipation for the audience. This anticipation was satisfied when the audience saw the situation and that the out come could be dangerous. The camera work also built tension as we used close ups and medium shots to capture the action.
Our practice film represents women as powerful. Instead of the man being in the position of power we have a female gangster. It would have been better if she had a man tied up, showing that women can be in a position of power. One thing i need to remember is leaving 5 seconds before and after each clip to make space for editing. This was abit of a problem when it came to editing as sometimes we needed a clip to be slightly longer.