Rough cut

Here's our rough cut that Ram edited in Final Cut. We still need to add sound: some music, and the argument in the background of the first 2 scenes. We still need to add credits and our ident at the beginning.

Permision Slips from Josh and Aaron

Filming again

As a group, we decided our footage wasn't good enough. The protagonist looked too 'middle class' with his scarf and expensive looking coat.
We also realised there were a lot of props in the shots that were totally unrelated and distracted the audience from what was happening.

Another problem we encountered was that when we filmed it was quite dark.
We thought we could lighten it quite easily on 'Final Cut' but when it came to it, the footage was quite grainy.
Therefore we decided to film again.

I (Harriet) took some photographs of us filming which are on the left.

This time we put a lot of effort into the framing, props and the costumes used.
We got our main Actor to wear a plain blue sweater with a plain white T-shirt underneath. We also made sure there were no unnecessary props in the shots. For example last time there was a television in the background and the very top of the Sofa.

Having said that, we did still encounter some problems while filming. For example: The camcorder didn't have the shoe to attach it onto the tripod, so we attached it with sellotape.
The battery and the spare battery were also very low which meant we had to turn the camcorder off between each shot and we couldn't watch very much of our footage back while on set.

However we got the footage we wanted for in the first place and hopefully it will turn out well!

Location for our footage

The location for our footage is Danielle's house. 42 Whitegate Close in Swavesey.
We'll use two rooms for the sequence. This will be the kitchen where our protagonist sits drinking his beer. The second room is the living room, where we will see our protagonist wake up. Ideally we would have liked to film in a more working class looking home and neighborhood.

Test Footage

Here is our test footage, we've played around with the editing of the party scene. We've decided not to use this footage, as our protagonist looks too middle class. We also tested out the music, and how we're going to introduce it.

Shot descriptions

Here is our first shot; which shoes our protagonist a teenage male sitting at his kitchen table with a beer beside him. In the background his parents are arguing about his fathers job loss, not including the protagonist.

Almost in the same shot our character takes a sip from his beer. This will be a very slow movement. Both of these shots will be long duration as this is a typical convention for social realist films.

From there it cuts straight to the party scene where our protagonist is drunk and disorientated. To emphasise his state of mind we'll lost likely use a fish eye lens to create a warped view. There'll be loud unrecognisable music in the background, and people around him. This type of shot is unconventional for a social realist, but we feel it gives more of a unique feel to our sequence.

From the party scene it cuts to black to indicate our protagonist passing out from intoxication. This shot is also unconventional for a social realist film.

Next, we cut to the morning after (which we had to change to during the same night, as it had gotten dark by the time we started filming) Our protagoist wakes up in an unknown place.

He sits up and stumbles out of the room surrounded by people he doesnt know.

We then see a close up of his confused, disorientated expression. (We're still not sure about this shot, as we dont think it fits as well with our overall piece... it's still being debated!)

We then cut to outside the house. Sharp cuts are also a convention of social realist films. It's very quiet and empty creating an eerie atmosphere. Again, this will be a long duration shot.

Then we see our protagonist walk out of the door onto the path. This will be a very slow movement to catch the confused look on our characters face.

The shot is then changed to a mid shot of our protagonist on the path.

From there it cuts to seeing him run down the street. When editing, we'll freeze the shot to emphasise the speed in which he's running and his loss of self control.

As our sequnce is a pre title sequence, we'd next show the titles.

Filming

This is where we began filming our first 2 shots. This was very easy to film, as the action of drinking beer from a bottle was very natural for our actor. (The camera bag was moved, and Rams reflection wasnt in the window)

After the first 2 shots we did the party scene inside using the fish eye lens. We got Josh; our actor to hold the camera facing him, and to walk around in a drunken manner. This shot was very successful.

From there we went outside to film the "morning after" As it went dark we were unable to make it the morning after, so we changed it to part way through the night when the party's over the protagonist leaves the party house. This is where we set up for that scene. There were safety issues, as we had to stand partly on the road to get the whole door in. Whilst Ram and Danielle shot, Harriet looked out for passing cars.

After that shot we moved onto the path to do the clip where our character runs down the street. This was difficult to achieve, as it was so dark we couldnt see him runnig very far. We later edited this on final cut to brighten the sequence.

Here's us all filming that shot!

The filming was very successful even though we were having a problem with how dark it had gotten. Later we realised that our worries were for nothing, as we were able to edit the brightness using the colour corrector in Final Cut.

Storyboard

This is our storyboard. We used this for our animatic, and for reference when we were filming. (Please excuse the drawings, they're only rough and Ram is no artist.)

Snow day!!

It's another day with lots of snow, so unfortunately i am the only one from my group in!
Ram did come in for a bit but she had to leave half way through otherwise she wouldn't be able to get home!
We do not have anything to do until we film and i can't do that on my own, so i have decided to use my time effectively and watch some social realist opening sequences.

Inspiration

This is the type of shot we need for the first scene. (Obviously not an overweight woman eating a cake) This is just an example of the type of shot we need.
The way we're planning on shooting it, it'll be a lot stronger than this, and have more of a social realist feel.







For the party scene, we want to show the disorientation and confusion of our protagonist. By having a close up, and maybe using a fish eye lens, it'll be uncomfortable for the audience to be so close. They'll show the discomfort of the protagonist.

Update on filming

This lesson we have decided to film during media and after school next Monday.
Obviously if it is still snowing we will have to postpone.

Class Feedback

In class today we went around the classroom in our groups to analyze other groups blogs. Individually we had to suggest one positive and one improvement each which we should make to the blogs.

This is the feedback we got from the other groups, about our blog-

POSITIVES

• Good descriptive writing
• Nice animatic
• '"I like the production company, but 'Twin' and 'Production' should be in different places"
• Shows development of ideas well
• Lots of information
• Good research
• Good mood boards

IMPROVEMENTS

• Not enough pictures
• Mixed up, not in order
• Random videos with no comments
• Work not spread out amongst group members
• Terrible logo needs attention... (This comes from a group that doesn't even have an ident)
• Requires more comprehensive notes...Try to put some feelings into them-Too impersonal.
• Lack of images

We understand it is essential to receive feedback as it shows us how well we are doing and gives us constructive criticism which is really useful to improve our blog. Later this lesson or in the near future we are going to put these improvements into action and hopefully overall improve our blog.
Our new group is formed out of two thriller groups. Me (Harriet) and Danielle are from thriller group p2-38 and Ram is from P2-40. I like to think that because this is our second project and blog, we will have made significant improvements and learned from our mistakes since last time, therefore i hope this blog is better than our last thriller blog.

Sound ideas

This is a clip from "Brick" 2005 Rian Johnson.
The sound from this clip, is similar to what we're trying to achieve, as we want minimal sound, and to have the main focus on the very acute, unnecessary sounds we wouldn't normally hear if music was put over it. The emphasis from this clip is of the ambient noise in the background, and on the vital dialogue between Brendan & Emily.



This is another clip from "Brick." Although this clip isn't from the actual film, the music is, which is very melodic and calm. If we decide to put music in our final piece, it'll be very similar to this, but probably less noticeable; more in the background.

In our pitch I mentioned how our sequence would have some generic conventions of neo noir in it. This is the type of thing i was referring to.

Filming problems

Due to the heavy snow, we were unable to shoot for our opening today, as college was closed and we couldn't collect the camera and appropriate equipment. College is also closed tomorrow, so we'll decide when to shoot at our next lesson which will be wednesday. We definetly want to get the footage shot sooner rather than later.