Final Filming Update

Filming Update

We have finally finished! Only two and a half weeks late, we have finished (at last) our ending scenes, leaving us with a lot of footage to choose from for the long editing process that awaits us. As time passed and we got more of our filming done, I think we can all agree that each time the process was less stressful and more enjoyable as we knew what to expect. Now it is done, we are all very pleased because, looking back, we let filming become a slight burden due to the lack of motivation we suffered from which meant we were slow to organise things, unfortunately taking away from the overall enjoyment.

As time went on, and as you can hopefully see from our previous filming updates, each time went better and better for us, which took away from the pressure the time limit put us under. Luckily, we were very fortunate to have our time extended over the Christmas holidays which helped us massively as it gave us more time to film in the daylight without rushing. I think as a group, we were more hesitant than we should have been and worried about minor details which other groups did not; however now it is done we are mostly pleased with how it went, and hope to get the best possible grade we can.

Despite everything we had said before in our previous filming updates about needing to do more planning, we went into our final scenes with a considerable lack of planning. Usually, this would mean that filming would be a nightmare and there would be a lot of time wasted which added to our lack of excitement; however this time wasn’t too bad. We started by attempting to make Christie’s supposed bedroom more ‘girly’ in order to follow the stereotypes of teenage girls in the hope to make the plot easier to follow for the audience. We had talked about this before but not in much detail and so we ended up using anything remotely feminine we could find, such as clothes, make-up and pictures. After we had done this, we decided it would be best to start filming chronologically to make sure we didn’t miss anything out (a mistake we may have made whilst filming scene 2). In spite of this, we didn’t particularly want to go outside so we began to film chronologically, missing out Adam's entrance into the house.

Due to the many times we have had to re-film, we found that we now feel more experienced, and know what will work and what won’t without having to watch it over in the editing process only to find it is not good enough. Despite not really knowing what we were going to do, we filmed Adam walking up the stairs and down to Christie’s room relatively quickly in a few different ways so we would have alternatives to choose from. After this, even though we had decided to do it chronologically, we were forced to film Adam’s entrance as it was getting very dark, however it had begun to rain and we hadn’t realised. Unfortunately for Adam, we had to film during the rain, which wasn’t close to ideal as it hadn’t been raining in any of the previous scenes however it was only light and so hopefully when it comes to editing, we won’t be able to see it. We will only know how well it went/find out if we have to re-film when it comes to editing, which won't be for a while as we have decided to do it chronologically, however we are hopeful it all fits together suitably and look forward to finalising our film.

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Final Video Diary

Soundtrack Research #4

Non-copyright

 

Not only do we wish to use an orchestral, deep and meaningful piece of music, we would also like to integrate a fun and upbeat type of music for when our protagonist is running and the prevalence is focused on her. This is because we would like to side-track the audience’s thoughts away from the expectations of a scary scene, and make the mood more content and at ease. Despite this, our idea will prove difficult due to the copy right rules, and unfortunately none of us play a suitable instrument to make our own music, so we will need to try and search for some decent, non-copy right music, suitable for our purpose. 

We have looked at a few  different non-copyright music  websites and yoututbe, and there is not a great deal available which we feel will be suitable. However, Carousel - Lets go Home could be a possibility due to its upbeat nature and high pitched feel about it. It combines an electronic vibe which could help to attract a larger audience due to the modernistic/contemporary theme it portrays, which is stereotypically something the younger audience - our target audience, would listen to.  It would definitely help enlighten the mood when watching the film, however our main problem is that usually high profited films include music which is well known and that people would be aware of so they can relate to and enjoy it. In spite of this, as we have a limited choice of music due to the copyright rules, it is highly unlikely that we would be able to find some non-copyright music which is well known and so it may not fit the purpose as well as we would like. Even though the name of the song does not have a large relevance as typically it goes unnoticed, it is still ironic how it is named 'Lets go Home', as it links well with our plot, and could help to produce enigmas due to the hidden meanings it may connote.  

Sountrack Research #3

Non-Copyright

This song by Robokids called Kids is another catchy tune which we could intertwine with the running scenes. We were thinking about portraying the use of music we use as coming through Christie's headphones while she is running for two different purposes. Firstly it is very stereotypical for teenagers to be associated with music and headphones, suggesting they are either rude and unsociable or in a world of their own. As mentioned previously, following the stereotypes is something we aim to do as we know it has been successful in the past. Secondly, it will help add to the plot and build the tension, helping the audience to understand as it provides a sense of realism, as well as suggesting that something bad may happen due to Christie's obliviousness. This song although non-copyright, it may be recognisable to the audience which would help to get them involved, and possibly increase their enjoyment.  Not only does it start upbeat (which is something we wanted as it is the typical type of music listened to while running due to the motivation/feel good factor) it also eventually decreases, which could be a good indicator of the following plot and act as a transition into the next scene. The idea of the fun, upbeat music is still up in the air at the moment because we are undecided whether it would work successfully and aid the audience with their understanding in the way we would like, or just look like we have incorporated music when it is unnecessary. We understand that the typical viewer - aged 15-24 will most probably not take media studies and so not recognise the themes and ideas we are trying to project through the subtle clues which is why we are unsure. Despite this we have gained some ideas from these two compositions and will definitely consider them if we decide to include that sort of music. 

Soundtrack Research #2

Taken

Even though Taken differs from our storyline, from researching the different types of music that exists within our genre it has become useful for us when deciding what type of soundtrack we would like because the music has taught us what different effects it can have on a film, such as the way it can add, and constantly increase the amount of tension felt within the audience. Most crime and action films use soundtracks which involve a type of piano; this is partly because of the availability and wariation within different types of pianos, which can create such exasperating sounds which fit within their criteria.

 

An example of this in Taken is the movie credits song The Dragster Wave by Ghinzu, the composition of the wind fits perfectly with the mood the producers of Taken want to portray. This is what we need to take into consideration, because our main aim is to increase the tension, and using realistic sounds from a piano can easily make the tension escalate. However, finding a pianist who is willing to give up their time and compose a successful piece of dramatic music is proving difficult for us. Another problem we are facing when it comes down to decision making, is that we do not think having a piano-style soundtrack would be suitable just for an opening scene, especially with a minimal duration time of 2 minutes. Taken 2 uses an interesting sound clip called Tick of the Clock which presents an apprehensive vibe through the beats. This sort of sound would generally be used when someone in the film is running out of time/is against time. In our opening two minutes we could use something similar for our antagonist because it promotes the creepy and nostalgic feeling, however we do not reveal too much action which results in whether using a soundtrack similar to this track would be relevant or not. The sound is very effective due to the simplicity of the composition, the sound doesn’t keep the same tempo, it fades in and out through different speeds which would help create enigmas and psych the audience up.

 

This sort of music sways towards the orchestral category which is something we are taking a favour too. The benefit of using an orchestral sort of music is that the tone and pace changes throughout the music, meaning it would be able to fit into different scenes and still work as well as what we would want it too, not only does it do that but it also adds more dimension to the clip. We have been thinking about adding the sound of a heartbeat over the top of one of our soundtracks when suitable, this is because it adds additional tension, still making the film seem very contemporary and realistic. The heartbeat allows the audience to empathise with the characters because it gives them the opportunity to look at situations from the characters perspective. However, our main concern is the positioning of the music, because we would like to use different soundtracks suited to different scenes, this results into more research and deliberation.

Soundtrack Research #1

Luther

We believe the choice of music/soundtrack is the most important component to a successful film, especially in the opening two minutes because it reveals all and introduces the characters. The music helps tell the story and allows the audience to empathise with the characters, without the music, there would be a lack of feelings or emotions linking the characters together with the audience. A soundtrack can eventually turn into a sound motif, which, with high ranking films, has helped to make them even more successful in the past. 

Our choices are varied and open as we are able to get hold of non-copyright music and place that over our film, or if we can get hold of a composer, we are able to create our own music so we have maximum control over what is produced. The composer should be able to adjust the music we provide for him and suit it accurately according to the scenes. However the negatives with getting a composer to do this for us means that it is very time consuming for him himself, and it is all dependent on the management of our time. Either way, we have started to look at different soundtracks which we find may be suitable for our opening two minutes.

As mentioned earlier on we have two main influences over our production and these are Taken and Luther, both of which incorporate their music skilfully into their productions. Even though each production has a different storyline, the soundtracks are similar to what we desire. The well-know sound motif of Luther is called “Paradise Circus,” by Massive Attack, it presents a mood of dread over Luther, people who have viewed Luther would understand that this mood is portrayed not only through the soundtrack but also Elba’s haunted face, which is why I believe the soundtrack works incredibly well for Luther. The melody of Paradise City used for the titles of Luther is very melancholy and captures the aims of Luther. The bass in the background adds to the city feel as it’s based in London but the soft seductive side is similar to his personality. Luther is well known for choosing different songs to oversee the end credits; the aim for this idea was to lift the high energy after the last frame, also giving an aspirational look towards the next episode. This is what made Luther become one of our biggest influences, it has aspects which truly link with our film, due to the high impact of their short series, and it has rubbed off on us to make sure we create a high impact film. However after long hours of deliberation we have decided that something similar to “Paradise Circus,” is not what we would use for our opening two minutes, simply because it is too upbeat to fit in with any of our scenes. We are planning to use a slow and derelict type of music for the scenes with our antagonist in, helping to increase the tension.

However Luther doesn’t only feature “Paradise City” as a soundtrack. Series 3 Episode 2 is the most influential episode upon our production. This is because not only has the soundtrack helped us come up with a few ideas, but also the actions of the antagonist assisted us with the type of actions our antagonist will be completing. Although we will not be copying the actions at all, the ideology of the creepiness of the antagonist is what we aim to portray, the way he touches the girl’s belongings. Unfortunately I am not able to get an example of the track but it is very slow paced, yet delirious with the sense that it changes tempo suited to the actions of the antagonist. While the antagonist enters the house of the protagonist the music is incredibly fast paced, because it allows the audience to think something will go wrong, however as soon as he enters and starts snooping around the music deepens and slows down to a point where the audience struggle to hear the music. This is because it portrays how the antagonist is calm and fitted with his situation. That is the sort of music we wish to convey because it fits perfectly with the antagonist and his “ways.”

Sound In Our Opening Scene

Different types of sound in our opening scene

 

Ambient Sound - sound which is not the focus of attention, but is crucial in the film

 

Asynchronous Sound - sounds which are not matched with actions being displayed

- indicates what is next to come
- adds realism

Diegetic Sound - sound which is present by the actor (which both the audience and the actors can hear)

- voice of characters
- sounds made by objects in the story
- the weather

Non-diegetic Sound - sound where the source is not visible (for the audience's benefit)

- soundtrack played over the top of the action

Sound Bridge - the use of sound to transport the audience from one scene to another, introduction of the next scene before cutting to it - the transition.

Sound Motif - sound or music which signifies a reoccurring mood, action or character

- sound motif in Jaws to represent the shark approaching

Synchronous Sound - sounds which are synchronised with the actions being displayed

- if someone is filmed playing the piano - the keys played are in sync with the notes
- it adds to the realism of the film to create a particular atmosphere

Voiceover - any spoken language not coming from the images on screen - a narrative

Diegetic sound will be used throughout our opening two minutes, mostly by our protagonist Christie. It will be an important part of our film as there is little dialogue, so it will help to set the scene, and allow the audience to determine and understand what is going on. It will also help aid the continuity of the film as it will fit with the actions, and so make sense to the audience. An example of when diegetic sound will be used is the sound of Christie's footsteps when she is running or when she closes the front door before leaving her house. Although these sounds are all natural and go unnoticed for the majority of the time, without them it would be obvious that something was missing, and so would not give our film the professional feel we are aiming to achieve.

Non-diegetic sound will also be a large feature in our opening scene for the same reason as the importance of diegetic sound - there is little dialogue. This means we will need to feature non-diegetic sound effectively, such as music, in order to keep hold of the audience's attention. Music will also play a large role due to its ability to set the scene and conform to stereotypes which will then aid the audience with their understanding. Due to our inability to use copy-right music, we are going to need to research non copy-right music in detail so that we are able to find/create some effective music of our own.

We have thought about creating a sound motif for the antagonist as we have seen it done effectively in films such as James Bond with the iconic, reoccurring sound motif; however we are unsure if we would be able to produce one that would both successfully and effectively work in a professional way. Similarly, we have thought about producing a sound bridge for the opening scene, one that would introduce/set the scene as the production credits are finishing so the audience is aware of what is happening before it happens. This would involve using the diegetic sound of our protagonist's footsteps on the gravel as she is leaving the house. As a group, we have decided to experiment by trying the production credits finishing with and without a sound bridge to see which is most effective in producing a professional feel.

Filming Update Day 3

Filming Update

 

Despite already having ideas prior to our third day of filming, when we arrived at the location – Charlotte’s cabin, we found we had to change our ideas for 2 different reasons. Firstly, the cabin was not quite how we expected so we were forced to work around the differences/incorporate them into our plot and secondly, we were inspired by the location which helped us produce different ideas that we had not thought of before, but helped to more add quality to our opening scene. As per usual, it took a lot longer than we had expected because it was difficult to get the correct lighting and positioning of our props, and we also had more props to set up than usual – the pin board and dart board covered in pictures of teenage girls. Despite this, it wasn’t a huge problem because we weren’t filming outside so we weren’t freezing, and we had slightly more control over the light as we did not have to rely entirely on natural lighting which was to our advantage.

As mentioned before, we initially hadn’t planned to show our antagonist’s face in our opening because we believed it would take away from the realism due to our young age, and so we had incorporated this into our plot as a use of building tension and creating enigmas due to the element of the unknown. Due to our change of  plot, we were forced to show our antagonist’s face and so in turn, we were also forced to find another antagonist as we had previously only planned to show their hands and feet and so we were just going to use any available male. We believed Adam, our friend was the best fitting candidate for the role, however unfortunately on the day of filming there were some slight difficulties. Due to a Christmas charity day at school, Adam had completely covered his hair and beard in a white spray in an attempt to look like Father Christmas, in which he did very successfully. Despite the funny nature to his costume, it did not fit at all with our plot and he was unable to go home and change due to the lack of light hours in the day. We had to incorporate this into our plot through the use of lighting and camera angles, in which we made dark and avoided filming his face in light where it was most prominent. Although the situation was not ideal and produced some strong altercations, we managed to work around it.

As we were all inside we were in a much better mood than usual because we were not so cold! This meant that we produced a better quality of shots because we were more motivated to get the correct/best fitting type of shots, and we filmed them many more times than usual because we were not as desperate to finish quickly. Unfortunately when we went to edit the footage we discovered that we were unable to use any of it because it was so dark. This is something which we could not have avoided as we were unaware that when looking back at the footage on the camera, and then on the editing software the footage it is shown in a completely different light, which meant that we were unable to see hardly any of it. Despite this being slightly impractical and annoying because it means we need to find a suitable time to re-film because it takes so long to set up, and because we are running out of time due to the deadline being February half term, in the long term it will probably benefit our opening two minutes. This is because, as usual, the footage almost always appears better the second time round because we are more experienced and it has already been pre-planned in detail so it is much easier and quicker. Similarly, we are also able to learn from our mistakes and avoid anything if necessary, and hopefully, it will be easier and produce footage of a better quality this time because our antagonist will not be dressed as Father Christmas so we will be able to film much more easily as we will have to take less precautions.



Video Diary Day 3 Of Filming

Filming Update Day 2

 Filming Update

 

After deliberation over which type of field/green area would be best, we travelled to another one of our chosen locations after coming to the conclusion that Ashtead Common would be most suitable. This is because it contains appropriate pathways with trees towering over them, which instantly helps to create an eerie scenario because of the small trails our protagonist will also be following. Our aim for this shoot was to compose different types of shots, because we figured that using the same old match on action technique would make the running scenes look repetitive and boring, and would also allow allowing the audience to know what to expect, which is not what we are aiming for as we want to create tension and suspense. However, one aspect of filming at this location which we had not expected was the result of the bad weather which had occurred during that day. This made the ground very muddy and wet, making it difficult for our protagonist to run on. However after we had set up in the position we wanted to film from we realised that the weather made the scenery look effective because it added to the daunting vibe. Despite this, we are not sure of how well it will fit with our other running scenes as we want to ensure there is continuity, however the other scenes had not experiences the same type of bad weathering but hopefully, this will go unnoticed.

We began to film Christie using match on action from different points of view, we are hoping that the change of location will match up with the previous running scenes and it will become aware to the audience that while the opening scene focuses on the antagonist, Christie will still be running. We made sure as we were filming Christie running using the match on action technique, we still kept inside the conditions of the 180 degree rule, which is something we had not always done. After we had filmed along the long pathway we decided to compose a shot through the trees as we have seen this been conducted in previous viewings successfully, and have felt it works effectively especially in a crime or thriller film so wanted to try it in order to keep to the stereotypes. Throughout the difficulty which arose with setting the camera up in the trees, the actual composition of the shot worked well, even though it will only be a snippet when edited together because it helps differentiate the shots from one another. Having this shot through the trees helps to add dimension to our opening scene, as well as suggesting that someone overlooking our protagonist, following the crime codes and conventions, we felt this was a reasonably easy shot to conduct as there was no movement of the camera. After we finished a few attempts at this shot we moved on to another part of Ashtead Common which looks like a more open spaced area. Reasoning’s for choosing this area to shoot in is because it helps distinguish separate locations from one another. At this part we decided to film Christie running for a longer period of time because our aim towards the ending of the opening two minutes is to stop cutting so much and have longer paced shots, this is because the tension is gradually increasing.

We filmed Christie running round a corner and following her movements straight ahead. This was a more difficult shot to do because we had trouble with the fluidity of the tripod, meaning it was not moving as smoothly as we desired, despite this minor setback we managed to fix the tripod and proceeded with the long shot. By this time Christie was starting to tire meaning that the risk of it showing in our footage was high. We decided to speed up with our filming and jumped to the scene where we plan to include a shot of Christie taking her pulse. We got to a suitable location to do so, and realised that we had not planned what type of shots we were going to use. We had to improvise and this may result in an unsuccessful shot, however we tried lots of different shots from a panning shot circling Christie to lots of different cuts. However to make this slightly more realistic we had to get Christie to become out of breath, so she started doing some static jumping jacks and running on the spot to sound out of breath; was very humorous to watch. Finally we had finished all the running scenes, trying to incorporate different shot types.

Video Diary Day 2 Of Filming

Equipment #3

Equipment

Adobe Premiere Elements – Adobe Premiere Elements is a video editing software application for nonlinear video editing, published by Adobe Systems. It is a scaled-down version of the professional level Adobe Premiere Pro, and is tailored to new editors. The entry screen offers clip organisation, editing and auto-movie generation options. Premiere Pro project files are not compatible with Premiere Pro projects.

As a group, the main purpose for using this technology is to enable us to cut and split different sections within our filming to allow us to edit scenes together. Although the technology offers a wide variety of features, such as the effects and transitions, we are unable to use a large proportion of them. This is both due to the extravagancy of many of the features which would take away from the realism, making our film seem amateur and our chosen genres – action, crime and thriller which from our research we have found do not use any obvious extras again, in order to enforce the realism. Despite being unable to use many features of the technology, we have found that there are also features in which we use significantly more than others, such as the cutting tool. As mentioned briefly before, this tool allows us to crop clips to a desirable length, in order to match them to the next clip. This helps to enforce the continuity of the scenes and allows us to build our scenes from smaller clips. We have found this beneficial as it gives us a wider variety of choice because we are able to experiment using different cuts from different clips in order to see which matches best, helping us to produce scenes of a better quality.

Equipment #2

Equipment

Camera

• 30x zoom lens
• Lens covers a 35mm equivalent focal range of 24-720mm
• Mechanical image stabilisation
• Twist-barrel manual zoom
• Focusing controls
• 10 megapixel back-illuminated sensor
• 3-inch tilting LCD monitor
• 1080p HD movie recording
• Stereo sounding
• Movie capture at 1000 fps
• High-speed continuous shooting at 10fps

This is the camera which we will be using to film our opening two minutes with. It is my personal camera which I use a lot of the time to capture different events and it has never disappointed me. I thought this camera will work well for our opening two minutes because I know roughly all of the settings available and how to monitor it. It films in full HD, which should make the image quality look decent. The zoom is very good, meaning we would be able to shoot from a distance and still have the picture at a good quality. Despite the camera being rather heavy, it is still manageable.

Equipment #1

Equipment

Tri-pod
We have decided to use a tri pod to help us make our film seem professional, as we discovered that when trying to do hand held camera work, none of our hands were steady enough which produced a very unrealistic and amateur looking product. Luckily, we were able to find a tri-pod that extended to 1.5m high which is beneficial as it is at a height which allows us to use a variety of shots, ranging from high angles to close ups to long shots without too much alteration. The camera is held in place on the top, but is able to swivel and tilt meaning we are able to easily maneuver the camera into many positions. A difficulty we have come across is that the lever in which moves the camera up and down and side to side can sometimes become quite stiff, meaning that in shots such as tracking shots the outcome can seem quite jerky which takes away from the realisms and continuity. This has limited us slightly to the variety of shots we can use, however we decided that using tracking shots in this way did not produce shots of a quality we were happy with, so we need to find an alternative method anyway. It has also meant that filming has sometimes taken longer than planned or expected as shots have had to be re-filmed or re-evaluated as we were unhappy with them. Despite the minor downfalls, we are pleased with what the tri-pod has enabled us to produce so far, and believe that using it produces films of a higher quality and standard than without.