Post 16: Production Report

Our first day of filming was on Wednesday 7th March. We started with scene six, a classroom scene. We knew that there would be a class in the classroom at the time we needed to use it and so we went over before they came to allow ourselves time to set the camera up in the correct position and make sure we could get the shots we needed. We all then went through our responsibilities and what each of us had to do. When the class arrived we briefed them about what was going on and we talked to our actors and our director Lauren told them what they would need to be doing when we were filming. We had a few practice runs so our actors could get a feel for what would happen and where they had to be or what they had to say. We then started filming. We did a couple of takes to make sure we got the best shot possible. From doing this one scene I have learnt how we all need to work as a team and together to get the best shot, each of us have our own responsibilities and it helped us get a feel for how we will shoot the rest of our film. From looking back at the footage we have seen that one of the shots that we took of the teacher the lighting is quite bright and the teacher looks quite dark so we will have to decide whether we can change it to use or if it will fit in to our film.


Also on Wednesday 7th March we filmed after school. This time we filmed scene 1,5 and 8 and so we had to decide what differences we were going to make on Billy's costume, for example blazer on or off to show different times of the day. I had the roll of camera and we noticed that where we were filming the light was shining through onto where our actor was sitting and so we had to use the reflector in order to hide the light and not interfere with our footage. There was also some after schools clubs going on around us and people walking around and so we had to be careful when we were shooting. 

On Friday 9th March we went down to the local primary school and used the alleyway and houses next to it. We received permission from our actors parents and teachers to take him out of school to film these scenes. Unfortunately we did not consider the times of the primary school and once we had got down there they were out in the playground on their lunch break and so there was a lot of background noise from the children. We faced some problems with lighting and sound. The lighting turned out to be quite bright in the frame and so this did not work out too well. We also had trouble trying to get the sound boom in distance with our actor and also out of the shot. We managed to get around this problem but when we came to edit however we noticed the sound was quite loud and cut out a few times and also Chloe appeared in the frame towards the end and so we may need to re-shoot this scene. 

On Monday 12th March we used one of our media lessons to film the scene of the mum in the car. We used the car park at the back of the school to try and make it look more like a work place than an actual school. We faced problems with lighting as well here as the car we was using was white and the sun light was reflecting on it and so it made the car look illuminous and so we had to change the filters on the camera and managed to get the lighting how we wanted it. We also didn't realise how small the car was and so filming in the back was slightly harder than we imagined. 

Also on Monday 12th March we filmed after school. We chose to film these scenes after school as our actor was running about down corridors and we wanted to avoid other students passing through. Here we also had to use the filters on the camera as the lighting didn't look how we had hoped. We also used a set of dolly wheels to film the running down the corridor to track our actor. This was the first time we had used a piece of equipment like this and we were very pleased with the result. 

On Tuesday 20th March we filmed all the exterior shots that we had left to shoot. The first scene we shot was Billy running from the staff room down towards the science block. We had a bit of trouble at first as where we had originally planned for the camera to be positioned didn't work as the sun was directly facing the camera, so we had to move around to find a better position. Filming the high angle shots worked quite well, we had our director downstairs with our actors and we communicated well and we were happy with the shots. We then filmed the shot reverse shot conversation scene between the teacher and Billy. This again was a bit hard to film as the sun was shining on the actors but we managed to get around it and get the shots we wanted. We then filmed the scene of Billy running out the door and across the field, we had to film this using the car to get the tracking shot we wanted. We had to do this a few times as the field was quite bumpy and so when we were holding the camera it was moving around and the shot looked unsteady. We then had to film the close up on Billy but we didn't have a tripod so we had to do it a couple of times to get the right position. 


On Wednesday 21st March we decided to re-film our scenes of Billy coming out his house and walking up to school as the first shots were too bright and a little bit tilted. We also had quite a lot of background noise as we was filming by a primary school. When we re-filmed we went at a different time so we wouldn't get the background noise. It was also less sunny and so it didn't look as bright and we managed to get the camera and tripod in a better position so our shots were a lot better than the first time we shot. 

Post 15: Ancillary Task 2- Film Reviews

In class we have looked at many different film reviews from different film magazines. Here are some examples of what we have done in class. 

This review is from Sight and Sound magazine. I read through their review of the film Frozen. I have highlighted bits which I have found to be a common factor of film reviews. For example the title is in bold and is followed by information about the film itself. It also talks about locations and gives a synopsis of the film. And at the end there is the critique. All of these were common codes and conventions I have found for many film reviews. 

This review is from Screen International. Again, there is the title followed by film information, including running time, and cast and crew. It also gives a synopsis of the film and critique throughout. It also ends on a verdict and gives it a rating out of five stars. 

This review is from Total Film. This one also followed the majority of the codes and conventions in which I have found throughout. This review however, has more of a humourous tone as we can see from the captions on the two pictures. The picture for Beastly has a caption which reads 'She didn't have the heart to tell him his pen had leaked', which is taking the mick. It still gives film information, a verdict and a rating out of five stars.

For my own review I think I will choose a similar style to Sight and Sound magazine. I have chosen this one as I feel the writing style is easier to understand. The writing in Total Film is quite whitty and I think for my first film review it would be quite difficult to try and write in a similar style to them. In my film review I will include information about the film, for example the location and year it was released, running time and cast and crew information. I will also try and include a synopsis of our film in the review as this is similar to the style of Sight and Sound.

Post 14: Ancillary Task 1- Postcards

Hollywood films use a range of advertising to help advertise their film to the widest possible audience as possible. They usually use conventions like a big dominating picture which is usually a still from the film, it uses star power by presenting the main actors names usually at the top, some use slogans, they usually have the release date, some awards along the bottom and sometimes they have the directors name. All of these factors join together and draw in a wide audience. 

This is an example of a Hollywood film poster. As we can see the picture and the title of the film dominate the poster as well as the main actors name Tom Hanks. This will immediately catch the audiences eyes and get them wondering what this film is about. It also shows the release date in the bottom right hand corner and along the bottom we can see the awards it has one along with the names of the production companies and directors names. 













This is a poster of the film Twilight, which I have annotated to show the different techniques it uses to grab it's audience.

 

However, short films aren't usually as widely spread as hollywood films and so instead of creating film posters they use postcards. Postcards are a more direct way of addressing with the audience. In class we have been looking at some postcards of short films and been analysing them so when we come to make our own they fit the codes and conventions for typical short film postcards. As we found commonly the front of the postcard had a dominant photo from the film, the title and a slogan. The back of the postcard tended to contain slightly more information, telling us names of crew members, who produced it, filmed it and the distribution company. It also normally contains a website for the film so the audience member can find out more. 


This postcard is from the short film 'Divine'. This picture shows my annotations of what the postcard shows using most of the codes and conventions. 

This postcard tended to follow the majority of the codes and conventions. for example, the front of the postcard contains a dominant still image from the film, with just the title of the film and the slogan around it. The back of the postcard then gives slightly more information, it tells us the production company and some cast and crew information, for example who the producers and directors are and who stars in the film.

This postcard is from the short film 'On Life's Edge'. 

This also follows the majority of the codes and coventions I found. The front of the postcard is different to the one from Divine as it still has a dominant picutre, however it does not cover the entire front, and there are three smaller still images from the film on the left hand side. It also contains the film title, but we also see the production company name on the front. The back is also quite similar to others I have looked at, including the title and a synopsis of the film, a cast and crew list and names or production companies and other companies who are part of the film. This one also uses more bolder colours such as the yellow. Whereas the Divine postcard uses black and white which doesn't make it stand out as much.

For my own postcard for our short film I think I would like to try and stick to quite darkish colours such as black or white or grey. This is because our film is about Billy feeling lonely and isolated and so I feel using dark colours on the postcard will help portray the theme of the film, I think it would be inappropriate to use bright colours which stand out. On the front of the postcard I want my main picture to be very dominant and be the whole front of the postcard. Also on the front I only want to have the title of the film and the slogan, nothing else. On the back of the postcard I will have a synopsis of our film and a cast and crew list. I also want to put a website on there so our audience could go on and find out more about the film. In class we have also been talking about QR codes which are quite modern and useful and so I want to put one on my postcard so the audience could scan it and find the informtaion.

These are two ideas I came up with for the front of my postcard.

This one is showing Billy sitting under the stairs huddled up, holding his legs. Showing only Billy, the title and the slogan, 'What do you do when there's nowhere else to run?'.








This one is a close up of Billy and I would try and get a still image from part of footage we shot so it would be seen in the film. Again only displaying Billy, the title Dumped and our slogan.

Post 13: Pre-Production Documentation

This is all of our group's pre-production work for our short film. We each took on different roles in order to get all the documents completed for filming and some of the documentation we divdided between the group.

I made our equipment list, it shows all the equipment we will need whilst we are filming.

Lauren made these, and they show what each of our characters will be wearing.

Location Recces

Lauren also created all of our location recces. For each one we have looked at lighting, accessbility and any changes we may need to make.

This is our first location recce and this is for under the stairs, where Billy continuously visits.

This is our second location recce, this is for where Billy walks from his house to school.

This location recce is for outside the canteen, where Billy runs past to go to the stairs.

This is our location recce for the classroom.

This is our location recce for the quad, it is taken from inside the three storey block where we plan to film this scene.

This location recce is for the field, for the last scene in our film when Billy runs to the end.

This is the location recce for the bottom of the stairs, for when Billy runs in from outside and up the stairs.

This is the location recce for the science corridor.

This is the location recce for the stairs that Billy runs down before he goes out the door. 

 

Shot List

Chloe created our shot list. This gives us a description of what is happening in each scene and what shot sizes the camera will need to make in order to get the shots we need.

Treatment

Chloe created our treatment, which tells us what is going on in each scene both visually and auditory.

Script

Here is our final script, we all came up with the main ideas and the dialogue and I wrote it out.



Storyboard

This is our storyboard, we divided this up between the group and each took a sheet to draw. We felt this was an easier and faster way to help speed along our pre-production documentation.

Technical Recce
For this we also divided it up between our group and each took different parts to draw the location recces. We discussed most of the scenes together and helped each other out.




This technical recce is for scenes 1, 5 and 8.





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This technical recce is for scene 3.







This technical recce is for scene 4.

Post 12: Script Drafts and Feedback

This is part of one of our first drafts of our script. This particular part is not in the correct format that a script should be in. The scene numbers and descriptions are not correctly allined and the scene needs to be bold and underlined. Also the dialogue needs to be changed slightly, we don't need to repeat Billy's name every time he talks, instead we just need to insert a pause. The dialogue will also need to be justified and allined to the correct margins.


A producer called Becky Knapp, came into our class and discussed each of our scripts with us and gave us feedback on how we needed to improve. She looked at our first draft and told us it would be too short to create our film. We had a page and a half and she told us a script should be a page a minute. She also helped us realise that our story was quite undeveloped, we didn't have a clear beginning, middle or end, there was no journey. This is part of the script which she helped us annotate to improve.