First Draft Review

Here is the first draft of our film intro. Before finishing the piece, we decided to ask people's opinions on the intro so that we didn't spend time finishing the work and then go back and change it all.

After filming our first draft, we made questionnaires and asked people to give us feedback on our film intro draft, here are the results of the questionnaires:

Final Filming

Today we started filming our final piece with the equipment we recently hired from camerarent.co.uk

We will try and finish filming today and then we will playback all our shots and make any improvements that we can make to the film tomorrow or sunday.

Practice Run & Schedule

Last week we filmed a practice film with one of the school cameras, so we were better prepared for the final piece. We decided not to spend time editing this as it would take a long time, however we have created a Time Management sheet with a schedule that we can now use for our final film.

Here is a copy of the schedule we have made:

Camera Booked & Weather Report

The camera has been booked for the 11th of February, and we will have it for 3 days. This is the camera we have selected, based on the reccomendation of Scott, as he is experienced with this equipment.

http://www.camerent.co.uk/video_camera_hire/consumer/Sony_PD170.html#specifications

The camera will cost us £150 each and we will recieve £125 back when we return it. The school have agreed to pay for half of the £75 hire fee so after the deposit is refunded we will only have spent £12 each.

We have also ordered the camera on a day that is forecasted to have the suitable climate for the film, between the 11th and 14th of February. Here is a link to the bbc weather site:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/weather/forecast/

Our initial plan was to film everything in one day, and then go back to specific scenes that need re-filming either the same day or in the three day period. The weather forecast indicates that the weather will be fairly consistent with dull dreary weather that fits our chosen genre and the feeling we're trying to convey.

We will try our best to film all the outdoor scenes we need in one day so that if the weather is inconsistent then it will not effect continuity.

Song Permission

Yesterday I emailed an artist about permission to use his cover of Coldplay's song, The Scientist, this was his response:

Original Shot List

This is our original shot list, we later decided to make changes to it which you can now see in our final piece, however this is where our ideas first started:


Shot Number 1 (Approx time- 10 seconds)
Establishing shot (ELS)
Description;
Father figure sitting on a bench in the distance (Across the lake). Sky at the top of the shot and clear view of the environment to set the scene.
Analysis;
Obviously, every first shot should set the scene and introduce at least one of the main characters to the audience. The choice of environment is very important as it is symbolic in our films direction as the final scene will end up with the father and daughter re-united on that same bench across a calm lake. The fathers facial expression will be out of sight to cause enigma and confusion to what this mans motives and emotions are.

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Shot Number 2 (Approx time- 20-30 seconds (To be confirmed)
Long shot (LS)
Description;
Shot behind male figure with full body and bench showing and a lot of sky in view. This shot will feature a time-lapse that lasts what the viewer presumes is about 2 hours long with the natural flow of people and dogs passing by the man, however, the shot will only last about 30minutes, and we will use lots of extras and costume changes to try and get as many 'passers by' as we can. The male figure will be stationary the whole time, and by using a special editing technique, we can take a shot of him lasting 2 minutes and combine it with the 30 minute shot to add to the effect. The shot will be sped up to show people passing by the man at great speed. The sky will also be changing from vibrant blue to an orangy hazy sunset.
Analysis;
Very influencial scene as it is symbolising that time is passing by the man very quickly, could either portray the idea of his life nearly being up and everything is at an advanced rate, or showing that he does not care about anything anymore.
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Shot Number 3 (Approx time- 5-8 seconds)
Close up
Description;
First insight on the male figures face and also shows his emotions. Balled up red eyes and deep sigh resulting in him looking from the sky down into his lap.
Analysis;
Shows the characters emotions which is obviously sadness. Creates enigma as viewer does not know why he is sad or why he is not moving from this bench. Maybe has a emotional connection with this location? Left to viewers imagination.

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Shot Number 4 (Approx time- 5-8 seconds)
Extreme close up (ECU)
Description;
Extreme close up of man's eyes. Red tear filled eyes which consequently leads to a singly tear running down the males face.
Analysis;
Eyes are the key to emotion so we are using this as a very strong shot as it will show his true feelings. The use of the tear also continues onto the next scene which creates continuity.

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Shot Number 5 (Approx time- 15-20 seconds)
Close up
Description;
Shot of picture of young girl crinkled at sides and worn. Single tear will run onto the photo which follows on from the previous scene. When tear hits the photo a slight shaking will begin in the males hand.
Analysis;
Worn photo symbolises he has had this photo for a long time and may be treasured as a favourite as it has obviously been handled numerous times. Gives you a small insight into the males personality, maybe OCD? Again, enigma is created. Hand shaking also gives the impression of fear as people shake when they are scared. Scared of loss? Scared of death? Unknown.

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Shot Number 6 (Approx time- 40-60 seconds dependant on many variables)
Medium long shot- Close up
Description;
Dark room shrouded by shadows and darkness. Back lighting showing the outline of a figure in the corner. As music intensifies the zoom gets increasingly closer to the figure until, (keeping with the horror/thriller codes and conventions), a bang occurs while a girls face appears with makeup down her face. This contrasts with the previous picture of her smiling with high key lighting showing her innocence. Wide eyes open and crooked forced smile directly into the camera. Key lighting from the left illuminating approximately three quarters of her face.
Analysis;
Very much symbolic and subliminal leaving the equations to the audience. Make up running down her face, why has she been crying? What are her motives in this scenario? Wide eyes opened and false smile, maybe drug abuse? Many questions left unanswered and left to the imagination. This idea of leaving many end loose and unanswered, is relevant to our previous audience research which told us that a successful horror movie should leave many aspects of the film to their imaginations. Also creates a sort of crime feel as the audience are already trying to piece things together like a detective and work out the twisting plot.

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Risk Assesment

Injury
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Incase of injury, we will all have mobile phones so that we can call family or emergency services if neccesary. None of our planned shots involve stunts etc. however if someone slips/falls then we will be prepared. The locations we plan to shoot our scenes are no more than 2minutes away from residential areas so if for any reason our phones are not working, we can quickly get assistance from people living nearby.


Severe weather
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Due to the cost of equipment and continuity of our scene we will have to postpone filming if we get any rain or snow during the day. Very light rain can be dealt with as we will carry several umbrellas with us to shield the camera from any water damage. Before we book a date to hire the camera, we will check weather forecasts to try and avoid any weather which will stop us from filming.
  

Camera Damage
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We will be purchasing basic insurance cover incase, for example, we drop the camera, as due to the cost of the equipment, we would not be able to afford to replace it (the camera costs approximately £2500). Better safe than sorry!


Illness
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As our intro involves hardly any dialogue, it shouldn't matter if our actors have a cold for example, aslong as they remain in the same physical state we need them to be. We have several backup actors who will be able to fill in incase the actor is incapable of attending filming, we also have recording equipment ready for post-production incase the young girl is incapable of singing on the day of filming.

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Dialogue

To add to the effect of the first scene of our movie intro, we will not be using any speech. We feel that the emotion within the scene will come across more effectively if only music and quiet sound effects are used. In the following scene, we plan to have a short piece of dialogue while a young girl is singing a nursery rhymne in the corner of a dark room.

We will include a few pieces of diagetic sound during the intro so that it doesn't look like a music video. And adds more depth to clips.

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Camera Hire

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As a team we are very passionate about films, and we are all very keen to get started making our own intro. This is a piece of work that we want to be proud of, however we feel that the quality of the cameras our school can provide are not of sufficient quality to make a professional looking piece.

We intend to hire out a camera for approximately 3 days and this will cost us around £60, including a £150 deposit. As we only have the professional camera available for 3 days, we must make sure that our production is planned down to every detail so that we can go to the locations, shoot as few takes as possible and then move on to the next location.

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Potential Actors

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We have been told by Scott that hiring actors from an agency would significantly boost our overall mark. Due to insufficient amount of time, we tried getting one of our fellow younger students from drama to hopefully participate in our production in hope it will aid their portfolio.

Continuing from this we went to see Mrs Micilock who is head of drama at this specific time. She said she will look further into this matter and get back to us.

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