10 MInute film first shoot

We have a must clearer picture of the script now and the part that we are going to definately keep is the scene at the park so we have used this downtime to shoot that part and get it out of the way. I got a copy of the shot list from the director and then used this to storyboard every shot at the park in the same was I storyboarded the two minute film. We turned up on set and got started almost right away moving chronoligically down the shot list and then experimenting with a few different shots on the day because the lighting from the sun was so good that day that we got some really nice silhouettes and long shots.This film was hard to make at times because I had to get quite hands on around the swing to get a wide variety of shots, a hightlight of this is being stood on the swing next to the protagonist and filming them swinging back and forth from a slightly high angle (It becomes level with the actress as she swings backwards) We also got a shot from on the roundabout to cut between when using flashbacks and I found that this was a really nice shot as the depth of field was so small the background seemed to spiral so quickly behind the actress and created a sense her not being able to see what is going on around her, ended up working well as a metaphor. This shoot will make up quite a big part of our ten minute film and was effortless to shoot in the end as everything went according to plan and we even had time at the end to experiment with a few ideas and get a few random shots that we could choose to include or not include. Once again the actress was very helpful and patient with us which really helps us to get exactly what we want from every shoot that we do. We now have to finish off doing the script for this film and get the rest of the film shot but it is nice to have a big chunk of it done and out of the way.

Final Film/Critical Analysis

I was personally quite happy with our final film as it created the emotion that we had intended and also managed to fool the audience (Chris - being the only person who did not hear our proposal) into thinking that the actress was in fact a child. Unfortunately for us the emotion we created was not dramatic enough and from the critique we recieved it would appear that a darker tone that suggested an underlying danger or unhappiness would have been more appropriate and also a little bit less predictable. We used a soft acoustic music such as the music used on childrens TV shows in the background of the film as we thought it was very fitting to the film as a whole and worked really well with the footage we had but unfortunately this was also a bad decision as it was considered a safe option and once again a little bit predictable. The music does indeed work really well for this film but is quite overused by film makers in order to create this kind of mood and this meant that we were not really pushing ourselves to make something new and exciting that nobody had seen before. A different mood that was a little darker and more ominous would have most likely improved the film as it was the least conventional approach to take as I believe we got a bit blinded by the intention of making a happy sanctuary for the protagonist and forgotten entirely to add any suggestion of danger for her or suggesting anything about the seriousness of her condition. In conclusion the film seemed to be a bit too light hearted and easy, it was good technically but did not appear to push us in any way. We stayed well in our comfort zone in making this film and did not really try anything new. That said I was happy with how good the film looked visually and it appeared to work well as a short film, being coherant and aesthetically pleasing.

Filming

On the day of the shoot we arrived quite early with all the equipment we needed, props and storyboards. We decided to film backwards meaning that we could use the time before the actress arrived to construct the den and then shoot the film backwards shot by shot decontructing the den rather than building it as we filmed, this saved a lot on time especially as by the end of the shoot... we had already put everything away. The actress had to take some time to get into character as she had a lot of tattoos and piercings so they had to be hidden well with long sleeves and removing all of the piercings. We took plenty of pictures so that the den could easily be recontructed if we needed to get a shot again and this was in order to keep the continuity, I think we did this quite well and doubt that anybody would realise we took the den down rather than put it up during the film. I really liked how the lighting worked on set and the spotlight created some great shadows and silhouettes, exactly what I had hoped for. We used mostly handheld for this film as it creates a much closer bond between the audience and the protagonist, being literally close to the actress can make you feel more emotionally close to them. We stuck to the storyboard (backwards but still stuck to it) and occasionally added a few more shots on the day just to make sure we definately had coverage of every action. One of my favourite shots was the silhouette from behind the den of the actress hugging her teddy as I thought it showed the emotion that we were going for really well, the character was clearly feeling safe and content with herself at that time. While filming we had issues with the camera as we had been filming all day and the battery died when we still had 4-5 shots to get and this added a large amount of time to the shoot, in future we will be bringing a spare fully charged battery with us as that was massively time consuming and ruined a really good shot when the camera died half way through a take. We also ran out of space on the 16GB memory card because of shooting in such high definition but realised that I had not been deleting the bad takes of every shot so managed to make enough space that way, we will also need to take a spare SD card to the next shoot aswell. I mostly worked with the director on the day of the shoot as we both discussed every shot in great detail and I would make sure the director was happy with everything that I had filmed before moving on, luckily I believe we had a very similar idea as to what the vision was for this film so this made the shooting run very smoothly and I could be left to my own devices for a few of the shot, which saves a lot of time. The actress we got was also very helpful and patient with us which was a very big help, she would help us to get shots even if it was taking ages such as the ones in a confined space and give friendly suggestions if we could not figure out how best to get a shot such as the extreme close ups and POV shots. By the time we got to the end of shooting it had become dark and we had to use a big fill light to replicate a bit of sunlight so it was lucky we came with so much lighting equipment as we had not expected to be shooting for such a long time. We were also lucky to use Hannah's house as it does not appear to look very much like a student house at all and ended up being a perfect location for our film although the sofas were not suitable to build a den with as I had been banking on using them as part of the set. Luckily we managed to improvise and make something very similar to what I had planned anyway. (It was a very nice nostalgic trip back into our childhood building that den) and in fact it was probably an improvement as we decided that a young girl would struggle to move big sofas about and this would confuse the audience if they were to pick up on it.

Storyboards

I have used the script to draw out Storyboards for the 2 minute drama. To do this I have broken down every scene into individual shots and working with the director we decided what shots we wanted meaning I only had to draw them out, draw out the location plan and then a description of what is happening in the scene as will be visible when I attach pictures of the storyboards. The process of drawing storyboards is very time consuming but also allows you to have a picture of what the finished film should look like, it aids in realising the vision of the director. The storyboarding also helps a lot in trying to schedule a shoot because if you allow an average of ten minutes to set up each shot in the two minute film and then multiply the amount of shots by ten you should have a rough estimate of how long the shoot is going to take. I have also planned the lighting for some of these shots as when thinking of making a den as a form of sanctuary for a childs mind I thought of the film "A series of Unfortunate Events" and the scene where a den made of a sheet is lit from behind making a very warm silhouette of the children in the den was very effective. I was attempting to replicate this kind of mood with the way the shots will be lit in the two minute film as I think it will help make the character seem safe in their own little world. The storyboarding is especially important for this shoot as we will not be using any conventional shots in the entire film, opting to purposely avoid showing the actresses face at any time in the film so that you do not get any incling as to how old she actually is. This is to be done by only showing her in small doses and not in enough detail to get an accurate picture of what she really looks like. I have also had to plan out the POV shots quite accurately as the den will be a very confined space and we will have to stick as closely to the plan as possible otherwise the POV shots will fail due to the space being too cramped to actually film in without contorting myself horribly to achieve the shot.

influences

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20tWDFxQq5A

The Prodigy music video

This video has a similar principle to the one that we are creating as we are hiding the true identity of our protagonist for the most part of the film and letting the social expectations of the audience create a picture of what the protagonist will look like and then at the end revealing that the expectations do not meet the reality. In this video the whole thing is point of view which we have not opted for, instead we are getting lots of extreme close ups and shots that hide the face of our character. I want the audience to be straining in order to try and catch a glimpse of the protagonist but never letting them see until the end as it will make the film more engaging as they try to figure out why they cannot see the character and what we are hiding.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-xJ15AN9ts

500 days of Summer - Expectations vs Reality scene

This is also an influence in a way because watching this clip in one of our first seminars made me want to do something that challenges peoples expectations and I like the idea of showing the difference between expectations and the actual reality. The expectations in this case will be the expectations of the viewer but the expectations, like in this film.. will be wrong.

Drama - Camera

For this drama project I will be the camera operator/cinematographer. To be succesful in this role I will have to work closely with the Director in order to realise their vision so a lot of communication is vital. For the 2 minute part of the drama the filming will be handheld and very close up as we want the full appearance of the protagonist to be a shock reveal to the audience towards the end of the film. Also this technique literally makes the audience closer to the character as they are in fact physically closer to them. I would like the shots to be from a low angle where possible to show how the character is in awe of the city around them and attempt to full immerse the audience in the feelings that the protagonist is having. The low angles and objects that the camera shows will suggest that the protagonist is in fact a child and as is stated in my first post, the audience will then find out that the protagonist is in fact an adult.

For this film we will be using a Canon 550D and as I am doing camera it is important that I know how to use this device. I have added new software called Magic Lantern to this camera to give a whole array of new settings such as white balance, light temperature and a measure that shows the distance that you are focusing at, which will be very useful for doing focus pulls. This sortware will allow me to use the DSLR in the same way that you would use a professional filming camera so I believe that should improve the quality of the footage we can record. Also another group member has the same camera so we will be able to use this to not only get twice the footage but much better coverage of things that could be hard to reshoot.

In my role as cinematographer I will mainly be working with the director but in small parts I will have to work with everybody on the set as they will have opinions on how different shots will work and how they will compliment their roles.

First assignment - 2 minute film

In the first week of Seminars the whole group was given an assignment to find somebody interesting in the street that they did not know and analyse them without the person in question noticing. After noting down traits and quirks of these people we had to write an in depth back story for the person that we had selected. I found the person I wrote a story about in the train station drowned in an oversized red coat, with matching suitcase. This woman was clearly around thirty years old but was wearing the typical attire of an eight year old girl, she was also talking to herself having a very in depth conversation. My first thoughts were to give her an imaginary friend and make her genuinely believe that and the influence for that was watching Drop Dead Fred when I was younger.

I decided that this woman should have a slightly simpler back story whereby something quite dramatic had happened in her childhood and she had reverted to the mental state of her eight year old self in order to block out this event. A lot of different shocking events occurred to me but the necessity to decide on one has not arrived yet. I imagined that this woman would live a very sheltered lifestyle with little or no freedom extended to her therefore her biggest dream and ambition in life would be to break free and be able to live independently without feeling trapped by those who are trying to take care of her. The oppressive people in this story would technically be the antagonists although I do not believe that the audience would necessarily dislike them as they are trying to do the right thing but the only issue with that is the fact that they are opposing the protagonist’s ambitions.

I thought that the woman in the train station as a part of this story could be her lost in Sheffield and trying to get back home as she has been entrusted with the freedom to go into the city, perhaps with a care worker but has somehow found herself in trouble. I think that the audience will be able to sympathise with this character very easily if they can make a strong enough connection with her. The audience should realise how the protagonist lacks all of the daily freedoms that we all take for granted and feel empathy when they put themselves in the protagonists shoes and realise what this would be like, I would like to maybe use a bit of Point of View filming to help the audience make this connection. I think we will need to start early if we are to get suitable actors for the roles in this film as it could rely on quite strong performances to really pull of this character and the others in the story.

The first film we will be doing about this character is a short two minute character profile of sorts where you get to know the character but we do not tell the ten minute story, it will be sort of like a trailer but will concentrate on the main character. We are not allowed to use speech to tell the story at any point so this will make the whole thing a lot more difficult, especially building a relationship between the viewer and the protagonist.