After coming up with our idea, we decided to test out what our footage would look like in real life. These are only some rough shots but it has allowed us to see what the crosscuts will look like throughout our opening sequences and how effective it will look in real life.
Thursday, 17 December 2015
Wednesday, 16 December 2015
Thinking of a Concept/Final Idea: Lonely This Christmas
After having two attempts at filming the material we needed for our final idea, we have decided to reconsider and come up with a totally new concept. We have ruled out our last idea because the footage we could get was not of a high enough quality and therefore would not have gotten us the grade my group and I are aiming for.
So, our new idea for an opening sequence is a Christmas themed coming of age film called "Lonely This Christmas"
This plot is about a lady protagonist who is organising her Christmas party for family and friends and one by one the people she has invited call her to make excuses why they can't make it. In relation to the main narrative, the opening sequence will only show the part that I have just mentioned, and the reason for this is that she made a terrible mistake in her childhood which caused her to fall out with everyone, and has left her with no friends now. The film itself will show the audience the mistakes she has made in her childhood which leave her in this situation she is in now, and how she deals with the errors she makes and leads to her isolation from society.
Some of our inspirations for this opening title sequence are Home Alone and Almost Famous, which are both very famous and successful coming of age films. The style of the sequence is what we liked from the latter film, and the Christmas theme and typography from the Home Alone film will also influence our decisions when it comes to production.
The opening sequence will be composed of a collection of cross-cuts to lots of different things associated with Christmas such as:
~ Candles
~ Christmas tags
~ Napkins
~ Baubles
~ Stockings
~ Bucks Fizz
~ Radio Times Christmas Edition
~ Christmas tree
~ Tables settings
~ Presents
However in between these momentary cuts will be close ups of the protagonist writing Christmas cards quite formally, so to people she isn't very close to, and also snippets of phone conversations where you can only see the bottom half of her face and hear her half of the phone calls with the people who are cancelling.
The credits will be placed among the ambient shots of Christmas things, and we will edit royalty free Christmas music lightly over the top of the scenes, along with a narrative of dialogue for the phone conversations.
Furthermore, the opening sequence will end with a bit of footage of her writing a diary entry with notes such as " I regret it all " and " I wish I hadn't done that " and then end with a clip that starts to go into a flashback, indicating to the audience that the opening sequence will then be explained.
Learning Comment:
After a discussion with the rest of my group, classmates and teacher, we have decided to come up with a new idea for our opening sequence. The planning we have now done for this new idea appeals to me, and I hope will appeal to our audience a lot more. This piece of planning is just a guide as to how we are going to put our opening titles together, and has made me realise where we were going wrong in our last idea. For example, unrealistic shots and camera angles, and also the themes that would be highlighted in the sequence are quite bleak rather than intriguing.
Target Audience = Demographic E
Secondary Audience = Demographic D & E
Produced by Vertigo films (UK)
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
So, our new idea for an opening sequence is a Christmas themed coming of age film called "Lonely This Christmas"
This plot is about a lady protagonist who is organising her Christmas party for family and friends and one by one the people she has invited call her to make excuses why they can't make it. In relation to the main narrative, the opening sequence will only show the part that I have just mentioned, and the reason for this is that she made a terrible mistake in her childhood which caused her to fall out with everyone, and has left her with no friends now. The film itself will show the audience the mistakes she has made in her childhood which leave her in this situation she is in now, and how she deals with the errors she makes and leads to her isolation from society.
Some of our inspirations for this opening title sequence are Home Alone and Almost Famous, which are both very famous and successful coming of age films. The style of the sequence is what we liked from the latter film, and the Christmas theme and typography from the Home Alone film will also influence our decisions when it comes to production.
The opening sequence will be composed of a collection of cross-cuts to lots of different things associated with Christmas such as:
~ Candles
~ Christmas tags
~ Napkins
~ Baubles
~ Stockings
~ Bucks Fizz
~ Radio Times Christmas Edition
~ Christmas tree
~ Tables settings
~ Presents
However in between these momentary cuts will be close ups of the protagonist writing Christmas cards quite formally, so to people she isn't very close to, and also snippets of phone conversations where you can only see the bottom half of her face and hear her half of the phone calls with the people who are cancelling.
The credits will be placed among the ambient shots of Christmas things, and we will edit royalty free Christmas music lightly over the top of the scenes, along with a narrative of dialogue for the phone conversations.
Furthermore, the opening sequence will end with a bit of footage of her writing a diary entry with notes such as " I regret it all " and " I wish I hadn't done that " and then end with a clip that starts to go into a flashback, indicating to the audience that the opening sequence will then be explained.
Learning Comment:
After a discussion with the rest of my group, classmates and teacher, we have decided to come up with a new idea for our opening sequence. The planning we have now done for this new idea appeals to me, and I hope will appeal to our audience a lot more. This piece of planning is just a guide as to how we are going to put our opening titles together, and has made me realise where we were going wrong in our last idea. For example, unrealistic shots and camera angles, and also the themes that would be highlighted in the sequence are quite bleak rather than intriguing.
Target Audience = Demographic E
Secondary Audience = Demographic D & E
Produced by Vertigo films (UK)
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Tuesday, 15 December 2015
Frayed Ends Filming Part 2
This lot of filming proved very very difficult to organise because no one was available on the same days, and also different people had the camera and the props so it meant that we really needed everyone there. However, that was impossible so in the end Emily and I went to film with an actress who was different to the person we had planned to film with originally because she became really ill the day before. Even though Ella had the storyboard and most of the props, we made the most of what we could from using the script and the props which were available at the actress' house. By this point in the organisation process it was now about 4 o'clock in December, therefore it was starting to get dark outside already which proved a few problems with natural lighting when filming, as you can see in the few clips below.
This is one of the earliest bits that we filmed in the afternoon so the lighting here isn't so much of a problem, but the smears on the mirror were extremely noticeable, which wouldn't be there if we had planned better before, and also the setting is not as we had planned. As the bedroom wasn't able to be used, we had to try and make do in a living room and make it appear similar to a bedroom, which in my opinion wasn't very convincing.
As you can see from this bit of footage, the lighting started to become a problem around this time. The lack of natural light has made the footage really grainy and low quality, and so the it was completely unusable. However when we turned on the artificial lighting, it made the shot look really yellow and therefore it looked very wrong in the sequence with the other clips we already had. So, despite trying to fix the problem, we still ended up with a shot that had either too much high key lighting or too much low key lighting and so this would have meant that we would need to re-shoot this footage too.
These next few shots would have worked okay together but would have required a lot of editing to get the timings right, and also to get the match on action perfect would have been very difficult too. However the lighting was good and the body language and sophisticated atmosphere we were hoping to get from the clips came through too.
Had we chosen to use this clip, it would have had to have been massively cropped but this series of events would have been great for creating a contrast between our wealthier protagonist compared to Jodie, our other. The reason the lighting in these was slightly better is because we had moved to another area of the house to film this scene. Filming indoors was always going to be an issue for us, especially in winter because it means that the lighting was always going to be worse, and make our lives harder in terms of the quality of the recording. These few shots are still a little grainy, but not as much as before and so they would have been usable if we'd wanted.
In this shot below, the angling is quite good, but the camera work was pretty shaky. Although the actress hesitates and looks towards camera at the end, this would have been easily cropped at 5 seconds. This however is still too long for a shot in our storyboard, and so if we had carried on with this idea, I believe we would have had real difficulty trying to fit all of our footage into two minutes, even with leeway.
This final clip that we got from filming was good quality except not very well planned. The boxes in the background would not be something you would see in the setting of such an upper class, luxurious house, and so again takes away from the effectiveness it would have had in the narrative. Also, it is a bit slow and so would probably have needed re-filming if we decided to use these bits of footage anyway.
All in all, I think we have made the right decision in quitting the production of this opening sequence and starting in the development of another because we would have had trouble in fitting all of our footage into two minutes, even after editing, and due to the fact that filming was rushed, the video that we got from both attempts at filming was not good enough to get the grade that we hoped to achieve as an end result. What I have learnt from the production of this project, is that much more time, consideration and planning needs to go into filming sessions. This means that we should use a shot list effectively to ensure that the right parts are filmed at the right times and to a good enough standard, which would mean that we don't have to re-film, although I think that this is almost inevitable because the footage can always be improved. It also means that we should give ourselves enough time to film, and maybe split it up into more sessions so that it gives us all an equal opportunity to do our fair share of camera work.
This is one of the earliest bits that we filmed in the afternoon so the lighting here isn't so much of a problem, but the smears on the mirror were extremely noticeable, which wouldn't be there if we had planned better before, and also the setting is not as we had planned. As the bedroom wasn't able to be used, we had to try and make do in a living room and make it appear similar to a bedroom, which in my opinion wasn't very convincing.
As you can see from this bit of footage, the lighting started to become a problem around this time. The lack of natural light has made the footage really grainy and low quality, and so the it was completely unusable. However when we turned on the artificial lighting, it made the shot look really yellow and therefore it looked very wrong in the sequence with the other clips we already had. So, despite trying to fix the problem, we still ended up with a shot that had either too much high key lighting or too much low key lighting and so this would have meant that we would need to re-shoot this footage too.
These next few shots would have worked okay together but would have required a lot of editing to get the timings right, and also to get the match on action perfect would have been very difficult too. However the lighting was good and the body language and sophisticated atmosphere we were hoping to get from the clips came through too.
Had we chosen to use this clip, it would have had to have been massively cropped but this series of events would have been great for creating a contrast between our wealthier protagonist compared to Jodie, our other. The reason the lighting in these was slightly better is because we had moved to another area of the house to film this scene. Filming indoors was always going to be an issue for us, especially in winter because it means that the lighting was always going to be worse, and make our lives harder in terms of the quality of the recording. These few shots are still a little grainy, but not as much as before and so they would have been usable if we'd wanted.
In this shot below, the angling is quite good, but the camera work was pretty shaky. Although the actress hesitates and looks towards camera at the end, this would have been easily cropped at 5 seconds. This however is still too long for a shot in our storyboard, and so if we had carried on with this idea, I believe we would have had real difficulty trying to fit all of our footage into two minutes, even with leeway.
This final clip that we got from filming was good quality except not very well planned. The boxes in the background would not be something you would see in the setting of such an upper class, luxurious house, and so again takes away from the effectiveness it would have had in the narrative. Also, it is a bit slow and so would probably have needed re-filming if we decided to use these bits of footage anyway.
All in all, I think we have made the right decision in quitting the production of this opening sequence and starting in the development of another because we would have had trouble in fitting all of our footage into two minutes, even after editing, and due to the fact that filming was rushed, the video that we got from both attempts at filming was not good enough to get the grade that we hoped to achieve as an end result. What I have learnt from the production of this project, is that much more time, consideration and planning needs to go into filming sessions. This means that we should use a shot list effectively to ensure that the right parts are filmed at the right times and to a good enough standard, which would mean that we don't have to re-film, although I think that this is almost inevitable because the footage can always be improved. It also means that we should give ourselves enough time to film, and maybe split it up into more sessions so that it gives us all an equal opportunity to do our fair share of camera work.
Monday, 14 December 2015
Frayed Ends Filming Part 1
These are some of the clips of footage we have got from our first filming shoot. This was when we tried shooting the clips to use for Jodie, the less wealthy of our two protagonists.
As you can see in the video below, this shot is very wonky and that Jaimie, our actress, makes eye contact with the camera for the first second or so of filming. You cannot tell in this piece of film but in the other shots like this, Ella's hand was visible in the corner of the mirror, which no-one noticed during filming, but it made the bits of film unusable already.
This one here was my favourite shot as i felt that the positioning within the frame worked really well, the angle was different to others and it was straight, so it was a shame that we didn't get to use this.
Although the door was left open at the end of this clip, it was the best of the shots that we had. Also as you can see the windy conditions outside meant that the camera work was wobbly, especially towards the end. If we had stuck to this idea, I would have suggested redoing it anyway, even though it would have taken even more time, because I realise now that the match on action we could have done with this shot would have been really effective, and also the fact that the door stays open at the end of the shot doesn't make the scene very realistic.
The pan we have used here is quite effective, but as with the previous shot it is a little bit wobbly. This would have been usable but we would have had to cut off the end because she stops running before the shot ends.
These next couple of shots were successful and we enjoyed filming them. Of the two filming sessions we did, this one was definitely the most successful and was the one that we got the most footage from.
I liked this clip, except for some reason her face and the background are slightly blurry, so again we would have had to have re-shot this one.
This one we have of the bus has a lot of unnecessary footage at the beginning where there is a lot of talking in the background because when we could hear the bus coming we didn't want to miss the footage for it. This is really really wobbly but it would have been cut so that didn't matter, but then when it did finally go pass Jaimie, the camera had stopped recording before it got fully out of shot anyway so that would have had to be re-done too. These were the best shots that we got out of this day, and we couldn't do the ones with her and Kathryn because the other actress wasn't available on this day. These could have been much better, so we would have had to re-shoot most of them in the end anyway, therefore we would have ended up doing at least another two days of filming, probably three if we had kept with this idea.
As you can see in the video below, this shot is very wonky and that Jaimie, our actress, makes eye contact with the camera for the first second or so of filming. You cannot tell in this piece of film but in the other shots like this, Ella's hand was visible in the corner of the mirror, which no-one noticed during filming, but it made the bits of film unusable already.
This one here was my favourite shot as i felt that the positioning within the frame worked really well, the angle was different to others and it was straight, so it was a shame that we didn't get to use this.
Although the door was left open at the end of this clip, it was the best of the shots that we had. Also as you can see the windy conditions outside meant that the camera work was wobbly, especially towards the end. If we had stuck to this idea, I would have suggested redoing it anyway, even though it would have taken even more time, because I realise now that the match on action we could have done with this shot would have been really effective, and also the fact that the door stays open at the end of the shot doesn't make the scene very realistic.
The pan we have used here is quite effective, but as with the previous shot it is a little bit wobbly. This would have been usable but we would have had to cut off the end because she stops running before the shot ends.
These next couple of shots were successful and we enjoyed filming them. Of the two filming sessions we did, this one was definitely the most successful and was the one that we got the most footage from.
I liked this clip, except for some reason her face and the background are slightly blurry, so again we would have had to have re-shot this one.
This one we have of the bus has a lot of unnecessary footage at the beginning where there is a lot of talking in the background because when we could hear the bus coming we didn't want to miss the footage for it. This is really really wobbly but it would have been cut so that didn't matter, but then when it did finally go pass Jaimie, the camera had stopped recording before it got fully out of shot anyway so that would have had to be re-done too. These were the best shots that we got out of this day, and we couldn't do the ones with her and Kathryn because the other actress wasn't available on this day. These could have been much better, so we would have had to re-shoot most of them in the end anyway, therefore we would have ended up doing at least another two days of filming, probably three if we had kept with this idea.
Sunday, 13 December 2015
Filming Diaries
Frayed Ends: Filming Day 1 (05/12/15)
In my opinion, filming for the first time was very productive because it gave us an idea as to what filming was going to be like, and proved more of a challenge than we had once thought. We used Emily's bedroom as the location for our filming and did it in the morning next to a large window, so that the quality of our footage wasn't affected by the poor lighting that comes which is usually an issue with filming inside.
What we filmed today were the shots of Jodie (played by Jaimie Hampton) in her house, getting ready for school. We managed to film all footage of Jodi before she gets on the bus, and so the filming was influential to the task and gave us an insight as to what the final footage would look like with those pieces of film we gathered.
To improve, I think we should have had much steadier camera work throughout as we had quite a few wobbly shots and the ones that were wobbly were probably wonky. Therefore, next time we film we will need to use a tripod from school. As a group and with feedback we had from the class and teacher, we decided that what we have filmed won't be good enough to use in our opening sequence as it is wonky and the camera work is quite poor with grainy image quality, which we kind of expected from our first proper time filming. On top of this, we didn't capture a broad enough variation of camera angles and therefore when we edit it, it would not have enough on-screen movement to engage the interests of our audience.
As a result, next time we film will be using a wider range of camera angles so that we can have a more varies set of angles to choose from when it comes to editing the sequence together.
Ella, Megan & Emily at filming
Frayed Ends: Filming Day 2 (12/12/15)
Today we were able to film the footage for the other protagonist in the sequence, Kathryn (played by Chloe Kemp). I felt that the filming today was quite rushed as we were struggling to get all of our recording done in the light, as we started filming later in the day. However, we did get a good outcome from the shooting today.
We managed to shoot all of the sections of Kathryn before she leaves the house. The unavailability of Jaimie meant that we couldn't film the parts we planned in front of the school building because they both had to be in the scene. I am happy with the filming that came out of today's session, but the low key lighting in the house was an issue for me because I think some of the shots are too dark for us to use and therefore could be a much higher quality.
I would personally like to re-film some aspects of today's footage if we have the time to do so before deadline. If not, and we can't fix it in editing, i'm not sure if a third time trying to film the same shots will be worth it, and we may have to consider a new idea as there are too many flaws in what we have, and I think it may be of too low a quality and too complicated to ever achieve to the standard we are aiming for.
Megan & Emily at filming
In my opinion, filming for the first time was very productive because it gave us an idea as to what filming was going to be like, and proved more of a challenge than we had once thought. We used Emily's bedroom as the location for our filming and did it in the morning next to a large window, so that the quality of our footage wasn't affected by the poor lighting that comes which is usually an issue with filming inside.
What we filmed today were the shots of Jodie (played by Jaimie Hampton) in her house, getting ready for school. We managed to film all footage of Jodi before she gets on the bus, and so the filming was influential to the task and gave us an insight as to what the final footage would look like with those pieces of film we gathered.
To improve, I think we should have had much steadier camera work throughout as we had quite a few wobbly shots and the ones that were wobbly were probably wonky. Therefore, next time we film we will need to use a tripod from school. As a group and with feedback we had from the class and teacher, we decided that what we have filmed won't be good enough to use in our opening sequence as it is wonky and the camera work is quite poor with grainy image quality, which we kind of expected from our first proper time filming. On top of this, we didn't capture a broad enough variation of camera angles and therefore when we edit it, it would not have enough on-screen movement to engage the interests of our audience.
As a result, next time we film will be using a wider range of camera angles so that we can have a more varies set of angles to choose from when it comes to editing the sequence together.
Ella, Megan & Emily at filming
Frayed Ends: Filming Day 2 (12/12/15)
Today we were able to film the footage for the other protagonist in the sequence, Kathryn (played by Chloe Kemp). I felt that the filming today was quite rushed as we were struggling to get all of our recording done in the light, as we started filming later in the day. However, we did get a good outcome from the shooting today.
We managed to shoot all of the sections of Kathryn before she leaves the house. The unavailability of Jaimie meant that we couldn't film the parts we planned in front of the school building because they both had to be in the scene. I am happy with the filming that came out of today's session, but the low key lighting in the house was an issue for me because I think some of the shots are too dark for us to use and therefore could be a much higher quality.
I would personally like to re-film some aspects of today's footage if we have the time to do so before deadline. If not, and we can't fix it in editing, i'm not sure if a third time trying to film the same shots will be worth it, and we may have to consider a new idea as there are too many flaws in what we have, and I think it may be of too low a quality and too complicated to ever achieve to the standard we are aiming for.
Megan & Emily at filming
Wednesday, 9 December 2015
Draft and Final Script
In this task, we came together to write the final script for our opening sequence. We have come up with the title "Frayed Ends" in this production task and it has allowed us to plan out what we will require from our actresses and how we are going to film. We have decided to not use any form of dialogue, but only to include the effective use of camera angles and editing to engage our target audience and set the scene for what would make up the rest of our film.
It took many attempts but here is what our original script was for only the first part of the sequence -
After creating this we realised that there was holes in it. This is because we managed to leave out small details and parts of the storyboard. After this, we made the tweaks it needed and added the small parts that we missed out, leading us to our second copy -
Finally, we did the last bit of editing and added the filming locations into the second half of the script -
Learning Comment:
It took many attempts but here is what our original script was for only the first part of the sequence -
After creating this we realised that there was holes in it. This is because we managed to leave out small details and parts of the storyboard. After this, we made the tweaks it needed and added the small parts that we missed out, leading us to our second copy -
Finally, we did the last bit of editing and added the filming locations into the second half of the script -
Learning Comment:
Wednesday, 2 December 2015
Props, Location and Fashion Planning - Risk Assessment
In this task, we had to plan out the props and clothes of our leading characters in order to give the audience a sense for what the character's personalities are like and to show what we need to use during filming to carry out the plot of the storyboard. We also had to think about what the locations we are going to use are because we had to consider lighting, timing and aspects of mies-en-scene that will make the opening sequence look more realistic. The planning we have done can be seen below: -
Props for Kathryn:
- Plain black hairbrush
- Designer make up powder
- Chanel perfume
- Designer Mulberry bag
- Neat school uniform
- Shiny black brogues
- Fruit salad breakfast (fancy cutlery and bowl etc)
Props for Jodie:
- Broken and scruffy white school shoes (converse)
- Scrunchie hairband
- Mascara
- Drug store spray
- Ruined scruffy school backpack
- School uniform with holes in
- Toaster and toast
Locations:
- Thornbury Castle (Kathryn's house)
- The outside of Jodie's house
- Thornbury bus stop
- Emily's bedroom (Inside Kathryn's room)
- Emily's sister's bedroom (Inside Jodie's room)
- CastleSixth Form (Outside school gates)
Fashion:
- School uniform
Jodie: tie (tied messily, half way down chest), shirt (shirt sleeves rolled up over blazer sleeves, buttons open at top), blazer (sleeves rolled up, dirty), skirt (short), tights (with holes in), shoes (creepers/converse - scruffy, broken, torn, untied).
Kathryn: tie (tied correctly, right up to neck), shirt (ironed, all buttons done up), blazer (spotless, decorated in badges such as prefect and mentor), skirt (knee length like the school rules, ironed), tights, shoes (brogues - polished, shiny, tied in perfect bows).
Risk Assessment:
Learning Comment:
In this piece of research we have made clear decisions as to how we are going to dress and set up our actors in order to achieve the look that best suits the characters' personality. For Kathryn we have decided to dress her in a very tidy school uniform, using a tie and a blazer, with many upper class designer brands such as Mulberry and Chanel featuring in her parts. However
Props for Kathryn:
- Plain black hairbrush
- Designer make up powder
- Chanel perfume
- Designer Mulberry bag
- Neat school uniform
- Shiny black brogues
- Fruit salad breakfast (fancy cutlery and bowl etc)
Props for Jodie:
- Broken and scruffy white school shoes (converse)
- Scrunchie hairband
- Mascara
- Drug store spray
- Ruined scruffy school backpack
- School uniform with holes in
- Toaster and toast
Locations:
- Thornbury Castle (Kathryn's house)
- The outside of Jodie's house
- Thornbury bus stop
- Emily's bedroom (Inside Kathryn's room)
- Emily's sister's bedroom (Inside Jodie's room)
- CastleSixth Form (Outside school gates)
Fashion:
- School uniform
Jodie: tie (tied messily, half way down chest), shirt (shirt sleeves rolled up over blazer sleeves, buttons open at top), blazer (sleeves rolled up, dirty), skirt (short), tights (with holes in), shoes (creepers/converse - scruffy, broken, torn, untied).
Kathryn: tie (tied correctly, right up to neck), shirt (ironed, all buttons done up), blazer (spotless, decorated in badges such as prefect and mentor), skirt (knee length like the school rules, ironed), tights, shoes (brogues - polished, shiny, tied in perfect bows).
Risk Assessment:
Learning Comment:
In this piece of research we have made clear decisions as to how we are going to dress and set up our actors in order to achieve the look that best suits the characters' personality. For Kathryn we have decided to dress her in a very tidy school uniform, using a tie and a blazer, with many upper class designer brands such as Mulberry and Chanel featuring in her parts. However
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