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.