Location and Actors.

Location


We have changed our minds on where we are going to film our project. We are no longer using the pathway shown on our film pitch as it doesn't lead to a house very well and it will be poorly lit. Furthermore, it is a fairly popular public area and we don't want loads of people getting in the way.

Our new location is going to be a park surrounded by trees that is right next to Liam's house. This is much more convenient and we can use the house as well for the clips where the characters are inside. As the park is next to the house, it will make the film flow more as there shouldn't be any continuity errors moving from one location to another.

The park
This is not the most popular park for the public and is usually fairly quiet. We will probably want to film when it is quite dark so if we need extra lighting it shouldn't be a problem due to Liam's house being very close. There really aren't many problems at all with this location which is why it's a much better choice than our original one.

The house
As it is Liam's house it will obviously not be a problem getting permission to film there. As previously mentioned, it is next to the park we are filming at, which is helpful if we need any lighting/equipment being brought out.

There have been a few difficulties uploading the photos, but they will hopefully be up shortly.


Actors


The main character in our film will be played by our friend Sophie Lowe. She is doing AS Drama at the college and we get on well with her, which makes her perfect for the part. Her character will be wearing just normal teenage clothing, so we do not need any test shots for costume/make up.

Here is a picture of Sophie:

We have an idea for who will play the 'boyfriend' character but it is not yet confirmed so we will blog again when we know for definite.

J&L.

Deadline Change

Due to the snow days we have been having recently, the deadline for our planning has been moved to Thursday 13th January.

J&L.

Marking of Previous Students' Work

1st Video
I would give this project 20 marks. The camera is not very steady at all and the shots don't flow together well. It seems that they have spent more time on the make-up than actually planning out the shots as the composition and continuity aren't great. The beginning is fuzzy and the voice-over isn't very effective. The mise-en-scene is good though, and they have used a number of shot types, although they have occasionally tried to cover them up with editing.

2nd Video
I believe this video should get around 35 marks out of 60. I don't feel it deserves a level 4 as the shots don't really flow into each other very well, making it difficult to follow the story. Also, the lighting isn't great in most of the shots. On the other hand, the camera is very steady during panning and tilting, and there are a variety of different shot types. They also have used props and costumes effectively to indicate the character is a 'tramp'.

3rd Video
I would probably give this video a level 4, but a low one, probably 45-50. I like the opening as it looks professional and has a nice effect on it. The camera work is pretty good, but occasionally the continuity is poor, e.g when the girl runs away. The mise-en-scene is good, as it is well lit and the setting is appropriate. They also have clearly put time into the costumes and make up. The composition of the camera is good as well as they have given the characters head room and lead room when running away. I think they could have included a few transitions to make the shots flow more efficiently.

4th Video
I would give this project a level 3, around 40 marks. I think the sound and editing is excellent as it really creates the right atmosphere. Furthermore, the make-up is very good and they have clearly put a lot of thought into it. The main reason I wouldn't give this a level 4 is that the lighting was poor and in some shots I couldn't tell what was happening. Also, there wasn't a great range of shot types.

Josh&Liam.

Pitch feedback

We have recently done our pitches, putting forth our ideas for our horror film. Once we had spoken to the group, we were asked to leave the room, so our teacher could gather feedback about our ideas and our overall presentation. After looking at the feedback, there are afew issues with our idea that we are looking to correct.

For example, one particular group stated that it will be hard for us to film at night in the woods, and this is something we had not yet thought about, which could affect how we have to have our film.
Another point made that afew of the groups agreed with was that they coulden't exactly see what made our film a pyschological thriller. This is a very pressing matter for us as our target genre is pyschological.
Most people seemed to like all of the detail which we did include in our pitch, but they thought our film had the potential to be quite short. This is also something we need to address.
The rest of the feedback was generally about our pitch, and how we delivered it. We dont consider this to be such a serious matter, aslong as we have the feedback about our actual film.
This was all the feedback we gathered from our class.

We feel that this information we got really helped us when looking back at our film, and deciding on what we should change in the future, to enchance our horror film.




Josh&Liam.

Homework - Marking of previous students work

- Firstly read all the Levels of the mark scheme to get an idea of each one.

- (Level 1 - 1-15, 2 - 16-30, 3 - 31-45, 4 - 36-60

- Then watch all 4 videos

- Mark each one out of 60 and explain why.

Purple Folders

Today we was given our purple folders, which we will be working on in the next few weeks.
We also came up with afew ideas for our main horror film the past week, which is productive.

In this lesson we researched afew titles and opening sequences, which included Blade 2, Trueblood and dawn of the dead.


J&L

Evaluation of clip from 'Pendant' - Liam

In our preliminary assessment, I feel I contributed fairly well to all areas. Although Josh did most of the actual filming, I positioned the camera for the upcoming shots, for example at the beginning of our clip, the character is on the 'golden mean' and has plenty of lead and head room. I also took up the role of 'director' as I had to explain to our actor what we wanted him to do. Although we didn't use that many shot types, there wasn't many in the original so we wanted to just stick with the ones we were supposed to and not try to make it too complicated.

I think that we applied the rules of continuity well in our clip. We edited them to fit together nicely which made the clip flow more smoothly. I believe this was helped as we filmed the majority of our clip in one shot, and then when it came to editing, we cut it into smaller clips with other shots in between. We didn't use many transitions as our clip didn't really need any, but we put in a fade in and out at the end to help determine that the clip has ended. It also added a mysterious effect as the final shot is a point-of-view shot, so the fade out makes you feel that you have missed something that is about to happen.

We didn't really need a costume or make-up as the original character didn't have them. For the 'Pendant' we used a small gold chain, and our location was great as it had a bench right next to a pond, like the film we were recreating. Also, the surrounding area set a dim mood and, although it caused a few problems, the rain helped set this atmosphere.

For the planning, I believe we worked well as a team to come up with which clip we would recreate, where we would shoot it and who would be our actor. As I previously mentioned, Josh did the majority of the filming, but I feel that I contributed well to the directing of the clip. When it came to editing, I did most of the cutting and editing the clips together, aswell as putting the transitions in to make it all run smoothly, while Josh was in charge of finding the appropriate music.
I don't think there is much you could do to improve our final piece. We could have taken the time to find an actual pendant, and maybe have shot the clip from a few more different angles.
I don't think there is much I would change for our next piece. We worked well as a team and were very organised on the day. We could maybe do a little more planning as we only found our actor on the day of filming. We will probably shoot the clips from more angles and use a few more shot types aswell. Overall though, I think that we did well and there isn't much I would do differently in our final assessment.

L.

Evaluation of clip from 'Pendant' - Josh

I feel that this 40 seconds or so that was created from the film 'Pendant' showed many different skills that I possess, including ones like a a steady shot, for example in the beginning scene when our actor is walking into his lead space and the camera pans comfortably, also this shot is framed well, having him in good space at all times.
In our clip, I used a variety of different shot types, including a mid-shot, long shot, over the shoulder shot and a close-up. We used different composition skills such as various fades.

I feel that our final clips shots flow well together, and we apply the rules of continuity editing well, with all the shots making sense and following eachother. In editing we decided to add two fades, A fade in and a fade out which link with eachother, and I think this was a very appropriate transition to add into our peice, as it clearly shows when the story ends and the credits start.

My 40 second clip shows that I can select my content well, as appropriate costumes, props, locations and actors were used. The costume we used was very much what we would expect a 'normal' person to be wearing, and the prop we used was a gold necklace, much like the one in the film. The location was also good, as the water and trees around set the atmosphere. Our actor was appropriate in that he played his character and emotions well.

I personally feel that I contributed well to all areas of this film, including the planning, filiming and editing. I feel I contributed well in Planning because I found the appropriate actor, aswell as suggesting the location. Also, I mainly operated the camera when it came to filming, and found most of the appropriate angles. I contributed some to the editing, but most of the credit has to go to my partner, Liam.  
I dont think that that many improvments could have been made to our final film, as we did all the shots how we were meant to. We probably could have dressed our actor in all black, which is the clothes he is wearing in the film.
When it comes to our final coursework film, I dont think that we will do things majorly differently, as we were very organized when doing this peice. However, we could perhaps look at the weather forecast on our filming day, because it started to rain when we got to our location, which stalled us.


J

Planning - Recee Sheet.

These are our recee sheets from a location we could film at. We went to Wollaton Park as it was a convenient location for both of us and there are a number of different spots in the park at which we could  film our project.

J&L.

On the twenty-ninth day...

... the preliminary assessment was completed.


Here is the clip we recreated from the project 'Pendant'.

The first problem we faced was that when we went out to film, it started to rain heavily. This meant we had a limited amount of time to film, as we couldn't film in the rain, due to technological issues.
We didn't have any other major issues, apart from having to find a new actor at the last minute as our original one had other commitments.

On the positive side, once the rain passed, we managed to get all of our shots done quickly without the quality suffering. Also, our location was perfect for the shoot, as it was almost exactly the same as the original and it was fairly quiet with regards to passers by, probably due to the rain.

Overall, we are pleased with what we have produced as we feel that the piece flows smoothly due to careful filming and editing.

J&L.

On the twenty second day...

...we uploaded our visual composition video.


Here is the video of our 'Visual Composition' exercise. We story-boarded our ideas beforehand.

When editing the video our mac crashed so we didn't have time to edit it as much as we would like.

J&L.

Assessment Exercise Original

This is the original piece we have chosen to recreate 30/40 seconds from.

On the fifteenth day...

...we blogged twice.


We shot another scene today, trying to work on continuity. Here it is...

When we looked back at our video, there were a few continuity errors, which we managed to cut them out.

We did a number of different shots for example: an extreme close up or mid-shot.

All of our shots look how they are described, we stuck to the guidelines, and filmed the correct number of shots.

As we didn't have much time to edit, we didn't manage to create a particular atmosphere. We can improve our work next time by making sue we stick to the continuity rules.

J&L.

On the fifteenth day...

...the video was uploaded.


The highly anticipated 'Stalker' scene is now available for public viewing. So, sit back, relax and enjoy :)

J&L.

On the eighth day...

... a shooting exercise occurred.


Today we had to practice our shooting and editing skills by producing a quick 'stalker' sequence.
It will be uploaded soon, stay tuned folks :)

J&L

On the fifth day...

...there was more horror films.

20:08 - 28/09/10

Today I watched both The Sixth Sense and Paranormal Activity, which are both psychological horrors. From watching them, I have noticed that the key to a successful psychological movie is to make the viewer feel as if the events shown could occur in real life. Hopefully, I can use some of the techniques in these films in my own project.

L

On the fourth day...

...there was horror films.

20:48 - 27/09/10

Josh: Today I watched paranormal activity which is a pyschological horror. I feel that I have got experience now in this sub-genre, and I think this will help me when it comes to my coursework.

J

On the first day...

...the blog was created.


15:55, 24/09/10


Josh: In this lesson we chose or sub-genre for our assessment - Psychological.

Liam: We chose this because we both have an interest in this sub-genre. For inspiration we are going to watch various films including Paranormal Activity, which we will review on a later post.

J&L