It's Christmas Time!!!!!!!!!! :)

So our blog is now closed for two weeks so we can all have a nice relaxing break

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE

...and we will see you in 2009 for lots and lots more blogging!
xx

Music

At the moment Tom and I are searching freeplaymusic.com to find a suitable soundtrack for our opening sequence. We have so far found three songs that seem to fit to mood we are trying to create, once we find a song we enjoy we have created a folder and are saving them on the M-drive. This way we can all sit down and as a team decided on an appropriate soundtrack.
:)

What are you talking about guys? We've already captured more or less everything.
We need to really concentrate on finding a track for the sequence. So we could just all do that.
And editing...
See you tomorow.

:-)

Yeah defo, thats a good idea, we'll get work a lot quicker all doing separate jobs :-)

i know that freeplaymusic.com is a site we could use to find music, as other groups have said that there is suitable stuff on there. If a two of us have a look online for other websites and ideas and stuff should be good - yeah will hopefully all be ok

xx

It's going to be a very busy week, i think we should have one or two of us looking on the internet for some inspiration on song choice whilst someone else captures out shoot 3 footage. Then atleast we are trying to do two things at once. Ah so much to do in suchhh little time. But im sure we'll be fine & everything will get sorted:]

xxxxx

Priorities this week

Hi
Ms B just gave me a sheet called priorities this week, as we're not going to have a lesson with the teachers until friday because we have a half day on tuesday because of the awards ceremony so miss our tripple lesson and neither of the teachers are going to be in on wednesday.

On the sheet it says that music and sound effects need to be added this week
- 'There will be a lot to do after the holidays so if you have not sorted your soundrack this term and added it in, you will be very behind'
AH!

We talked about soundstrack breifly before, but we need to think seriously now.
Any ideas guys? Because we need to put all the new footage in order, add all sound effects and decided on and add music within the next 4 days :-S
It's going to be a busy week...
xx

Re-Shoot Re-Shoot (Shoot 3)

On sunday 14/12/08 we did yet another shoot, to get our footage the best it could be. We shot from 9am-2pm, and hour more than we hoped for. It was hard to stay enthusiastic about the project as this was our fourth shoot on it now, (including test), and members of the groups were ill so our energy levels were down. However we still had fun, got it all done and hopfully the footage will turn out good :)

We re-shot almost all of the shed scene due to the lighting not being right and being differnt on the different shoots. This took time as we had to set up the shed again, covering all the windows to stop the light coming in. It also meant we had to make the fake blood again to get Sian looking as bad and scary as possible. Additionally after the actors had left, we spent another half an hour re-filming the TV scene where the hostage video is on screen and the camera zooms in, as we needed to do this with our new footage.

The pictures from the day should be up on the blog soon...

sounds good to me :)

Final Shooting Time

Ok, so Sunday 9am - 1pm it is...
All agreed?
=)

(Ill update this if the time changes)

1. Tom you're lazy.
2. ok yer so sunday i suppose ill cancel with loren :(
but just out of interest roughly what timings will we be filming??
sorry i got in at break & now in a lesson. (checking blogger blates!)
so i guess we will be looking at spotting out for eachother during lunchtime, ill probally be in cafeee/common room if you need me.

xxx

Meetings and Shoots Message

Well I only have periodss 7+8 today, so Ive just woken up (and checked Blogger of course) and couldnt make these meetings. But I do think we really need a reshoot, and it cant be any other time than the week before the holidays. Because we could capture and edit in time for the deadline otherwise. Ill be in at lunch today if you need to talk to me, and im free period 6.
See you guys then. (or whenever)
Tom
=)

This weekend?

Well shall we do sunday then? i do think we need to do it, and it should be now because after the xmas hols we only have like 2 weeks so i think it will be too late.
i think we need a group meeting to discuss it, i can't do lunch but maybe break today - let me know if you guys get this in time.

Hannah xx

I can't do saturday :( Because im working 9-5. & i've already had to take time out of work for the two other shoots. Also with xmas im not hoping to get sacked. Hmm.. i am really stuck with what to do??
xxx

Final Story Board

This is a more finalized version of our Story Board, and It has been added to quite substantially. As you can see the beginning has changed the most. I think that this update does ressolve lots of the issues but also creates new ones. There will be another, new version of this coming as soon as we decide on a few issues and I get the time to scan it in and post it, in a busy editing time for all of us.
That's all Folks.
=)

The Re-shoot Re-shoot

Hi guys
Are we going to film this weekend then?
I do think we need to, because our lighting isn't good in some places, and ceratin scenes could be so much better with a re-shoot. But i know everyone (including our actors) are quite busy at the moment. :-S
Saturday would be best for me if we do it, what about you two?
Hannah xx

The Best Takes

Aafter caputring, the first thing we did when looking at our newly shot footage was to decided which take we liked best, which one we would use. Here is an extract from our list of the best takes of all the shots we took last weekend;

1) Adam Walks = Take 5

2) POV Adam = Take 1

3) House pan (est, shot) = Take 4

4) Wiping Eyes = Take 2

5) Bra in window = Take 2

6) Sian's POV = Take 1

7) Bekah's POV = Take 1

Teacher Feedback

After looking at all the footage from our shoot, we needed a second opinion on some of the shots, and how to make it better as a whole. Here is the teacher feedback we got:

*Mother scream/ sharp intake of breath/Drops mug - Cut to black
*Music over the top?
*Shot of House - Long distance ESTABLISHING SHOT of street- fade down, then fade up inside house
*Coffee cup - stiring
*Ding Dong/ Knock knock - put down milk
*OR just coming down stairs, hand on banisters
*Adam unknown character, walks into shot, along the road, up the driveway, knock, delivers tape
*Shot POV through blurred window?
*Put tape through door - walk away quickly, looking over his shoulder
* Puts mug down, picks up tape
*Adult pose - dressing gown, slippers
*Record Sound of; intake of breath, clanking mug, smashed mug

Group Meeting

Things to do for/ on the next shoot:
* Get lead
* No Ugg boots - black boots needed
*Change bag and purse - to black
* Change photo, something more grown up
*Remote Shot - forogot to film it
*Living room scene NEED establishing shot
*Change over tv - shed need establishing shot
*Grunt shot

Shooting Script

Here is the shooting script from our shoot. We decided the order that we shot in because one of our actors was going to be at our location and hour or so before the other, therefore we did all most of Bekah's Shots first. It was really useful to have during the shoot, as it kept us organised and on track, and was a clear indication of what we had left to do and roughly how long it would take us.

Contra Zoom Experimentation

This is me experimenting with the Contra Zoom technique while Hannah and Danni made blood. It's a shot which I have always been interested since I saw it in use in Films. So I searched for tutorials online and found one. Then this is the footage of me trying to carry the shot out. I think that at points the shot worked, but its difficult to track and zoom evenly. I'm not yet sure whether or where the shot could fit into the sequence but I would like to include it.

Another Re-Shoot?

After looking through the footage we have relaised that we definitely need to do another shoot. This is because our lighting has been different on our test shoot, shoot, and re-shoot. This ruins the continuity because in one shot the lighting will be good, then in the next it will be all grainy and have a yellow tint to it. We have agreed that the best lighting was definitely the test shoot, so we will try to recreate this as best we can. We need to re-shoot the hostage video, as we did not decided on a line where we would stop zooming in, in the living room, and start zooming out in the shed. Therefore the seamless affect we were aiming for has not worked. We also want to re-shoot Bekah's line "You know you had this coming bitch", and make sure we get it from all different angles so we have a variety of shots to choose from when it comes to editing.Some of the camera work could also do with some work, as many of our pans are not as smooth as they could be, and we want to make it more intersting and so i would like to find a way to incorporate the contra zoom that Tom has been practicing. We need to add some extra shots as well, as we won't have enough to make the fasted paced montage that we are picturing.

again...

oh nooo, i dont think i can do another long shoot this weekend... :/
when i get there later we will have to discuss it i guess.
What shots dont work???
xxx

Reply to Note

Hey Danni.
We are trying to edit, but the footage has been a bit of a letdown. We are thinking that we need another big shoot (not a short 4 hour one). We will keep trying to work with what we've got but it's going to be hard to piece it together. The first sequence is fine though. Hannah approves.
See you soon!

A note from me to you!

Heyyyy guyss, im bored at the moment so i thought i'd send you a little post :)
hows the editinggg going??
Me & Tom did quite a bit so i hope you've finished it now! Gooood!
what you doing at the moment?

:D
Dannniiiii,
x x x

Editing

Yesterday I had a session editing on my own guys, it was weird not having anyone there to work with but nonetheless i managed to try out a split screen.
I spoke to Sir about it and ihe mentioned it may have been a bit easier if we were to have shot the whole 'making tea' from further away. This would only help because when trying to the put two shots on the screen, some of them will end up being rather squashed and looks very unproffesional.
Firstly, i tried it vertically but it seemed to cut out the majority of the shot, for example the mug, i had to cut out the handle. Therefore, i tried to do it horizontally, this seemed to have worked slightly better but however not much of a difference.
I spoke to sir and he said if we were to re-shoot then perhaps we should frame it so there is an empty space on the left and the main object is on the right. NOTE- Try using the camera
long ways (to add more footage) and at different angles.

I looked at a video from Reqiuem for a dream, and the montage in it is shot extremely well. Their split screen looks amazing too.
Check it out guys.. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=vdSRG5HVlao

:)

Pictures of Latest Shoot

These are the photographs from behind the scenes at our Second Shoot, and of the outdoor filming. Just to give an idea on location and look of our opening shots.

We love Media This much...
There were perfect filming conditions in terms of lighting and ambience, sadly it was FREEZING.

Our chosen location brought to you in canted angle.

This is what our opening shot will probably end up looking like.

Title Ideas

Here is our first brainstorm for our Film Title:
- The Hostage
- The Betrayal
- Miss Harris
- Miss Williams
-

Mid Re-Shoot Post

So we're halfway through our reshoot now and having shot all the new opening sequence shots we are now waiting for actors while doing some admin. Including shot logs, shooting schedules. We have the issue of rearranging the set to not disrupt continuity. Also we had poor lighting in the last shoot, and while we need to redo the lighting, we cannot change it so much so that there is a massive difference. We need to really concentrate on issues of continuity including make-up and costume. We purposely set this time aside in order to get organised as we have less time to shoot this weekend and we want to be more efficient than previous shoots.
I hope it all goes to plan.

Initial Storyboard

This is the initial storyboard for the opening sequence we are creating. It has been changed masses from this original, but this is the group's original vision. Knocked up in a short amount of time this storyboard has minimal annotations, but was drawn up to visualise the sequence; this was all in order to think about continuity and camerawork (framing and cutting points). This is why issues like realism in drawings took a back seat for this storyboard.
This is the first page which has a camera move which we are really excited about putting into the sequence, which is the camera zooming into a screen in one room and zooming out in another. Perhaps its already clear that this storyboard lacks a clear enough opening (where are we?), but we overlooked this originally. The sequence then becomes more conventional and the next few pages show how the sequence continues and finishes, but the aim of this storyboard was not to explain the sequences to an audience, instead it was purely for the use of the group.

We are plan to constantly change and update this storyboard from now till the end of editing. So revised versions will be posted.

Capturing

In today's lesson we captured our footage from the shoot from Saturday. We looked through it and noticed a few issues, such as lighting and continuity. We are happy with the first few takes of the opening sequence, but we feel that lighting got worse towards the end. The acting we felt was better on the test shoot, but this presents issues with continuity because our actress wore a slightly different top. The make-up didn't turn out as nicely as previously done at the test shoot but we had to carry on with how it was. We also felt that some shots were definitely not as good as we would have hoped, some shots had extension leads in and also very bad lighting. However, we were very happy this time with the smoking shots, with Hannah holding a lamp behind Bekah it really created the silhouette effect of the smoke that we were hoping for! We are hoping to do many different cut aways with all the montage shots we took, which we think will give the ending the feel we were eager for.
We said before that we were aiming for at least three takes for every shot we did, and this was definitely the right choice to make. In fact we ended up taking, for some shots, up to six takes! This was certainly the right thing to do, as in some cases there are takes where furniture/lighting is wrong but in the other takes they look much better. It really shows the importance of doing several takes.
Overall, we think the first opening shots were really good & were shot exactly how we pictured them. On the other hand, we may need to re-think what hostage video to use and also what we are going to do about the lighting issues we came across. We are definitely considering another shoot if only for an hour or so, but depending on when the actors and the group can make it. The things were learnt at the test shoot truely helped speed things up, it meant we were able to do certain camera movements ourselves without having to ask other members in our group to help (was very time consuming).


Plan for Next lesson:
We need to go through each shot and vote for the best takes.
We need to decided for definite the best take on each.
& then we need to start putting the sequence together, fitting in our initial ideas for effects and alternating them if necessary.

Final shoot

29th November 2008


Last Saturday was our final shoot to do everything and so for us it was a very important shooting. The plan:
Tom and Hannah would arrive at my house at 9:00 and we would finish off our written work until 12 when Bekah was due to arrive. Bekah was to arrive around 12-12.30 and Sian at 2:00.
The first three hours that the group had before actors started to arrive was used productively. We finished off our storyboard and did our shooting script; we had to make sure that the final shoot went a lot smoother than our test shot. We had already started the storyboarding in our lesson and so we didn’t have too much to finish. Near the end of our 3 hours we took time out to go and set up our locations. We decided on lighting and positioning in the shed and also the living room.
As Sian was unable to attend the start of the shooting due to prior arrangements we decided to use the time effectively and with the equipment and actors we had we started to shoot the living room scene. There were 4 shoots to be filmed here with at least 3 takes of each. These were done well but we did come across a continuity error when filming. We realised that if we were filming these shots in the morning then there will be natural light coming in but by the time we come to film the last shot of the actual hostage video, it would be dark. And so Tom suggested we cut off all sources of natural light and use artificial lighting instead, this way we could create the exact scene when we came to film later on. BUT during shooting our living room shots we came across something that could really affect our overall sequence… we realised we hadn’t used the headphones for the first shot and when we went to find them; we couldn’t. We knew we couldn’t go on shooting without them otherwise our sound would be awful but we also new it was too late to phone miss or even pop into school. After panicking for at least 5mins we called around to see whether anyone had any headphones worth using, eventually we called Sian and thankfully she knew someone who was willing to lend us them, and so she collected them on her way round.
We were lucky to have noticed it before we started filming any scene which included dialogue; we were also careless to have not checked our equipment thoroughly! After this issue was resolved and Sian turned up we started filming the shed sequence. We did Sian and Bekah’s make-up and blood. The shoot in the shed went well and we managed to shoot everything with lots of different takes to choose from.

Overall, the shoot went well and we managed to get everything done. Again, I think our group get along really well and there weren’t many disagreements on ideas and discussion : )