Filming Schedule:

We will have to film over the course of 3 days, as we have three sections to film; the bedroom scene, the church/wedding scene and the car scene.

Filming Schedule for part 1 - Sunday 1st February 2015

10:30 - 12:00 

 Our actress arrives at my house, where I will show her the test shoot so she has an idea of what our visions are. She will also have the time to style her 1920's hair and makeup.

12:00-12:30

Lunch

12:30

Issy and Bella arrive

12:45-1:45

Set up the room (mis-en-scene)

1:45-2:00

Shots of our actress with clothes/hair/makeup done

Shots of the room and props

2:00-3:00

Filming begins

3:00-3:15

Break

3:15-4:00

Carry on Filming

4:00-4:30

Contingency time

4:30-5:00

Tidy up room

Model Release Form:

We will have to get all our actress/actors parents to sign a 'model release form' because if their child is under 18, the parents consent is required, especially if the footage will be placed on the internet.

Iconic Sounds for our genre - 1920's horror/crime investigation

Bella kindly put together a compilation of sounds you would expect to hear in a 1920's horror/crime investigation movie; including a gun shot, screaming and a 1920's car horn.

Editing the Test Shoot:

The Ring:

This is the ring Bella bought to use in our actual filming.

The Test Shoot:

During the Christmas holidays, Issy and I filmed the test shoot. As we had not casted our female protagonist, we asked my sister to be in the test shoot, however she wasn't able to make it, so my mum stood in at the very last minute.

The purpose of our test shoot was to practice using the camera and mastering the angles. It was like a first draft of our film opening; also to communicate our ideas and visions to the final actress/actor's.

We are really pleased we did the test shoot as it acted like a rehearsal and pinpointed the small errors we wouldn't have noticed before filming, like the missing shots which broke the continuity flow. 

In post production we were able to notice that we need more powerful artificial lighting, as it got dark outside quickly and cut off the natural light. However, we took turns in holding a phone torch really still to help brighten up the shots.

From completing the test shoot we feel confident and prepared to set up the bedroom scene, as are film is set in the 1920's and the mis-en-scene is crucial. This involved disguising plugs and wires with fur shawls and hiding the radio and lamp under the bed and pillows. We also think we will reduce the filming time because we know where all the shots are and we have previous knowledge from the test shoot.

Whilst filming the test shoot, we changed some of the shot angles, purely because we found alternative, more effective shots, and also some of the frames we drew on the storyboard were incorrect when it came to panning. You can see the comparison shots on the 'emaze' we completed.

Colour Splash:

Our film will be in black and white, however in post production we are going to edit a few of the objects to make them red, using colour splash. The ruby ring and the blood-red lipstick will be the only objects in red; with an aim to draw attention and symbolise blood, consequently foreshadowing the female protagonist's death.

 This idea was inspired by the 1993 film, Schindler's List, where there is only four colour images during the three-hour black and white cinematic picture. The girl in the red coat is the most obvious symbol in the film, with her red coat representing the innocence of the Jews.

Bella has been experimenting colour splash using a special software on her laptop. In the meantime, I used the app 'Video Star' on my phone to demonstrate our idea. However because it only picks up blue pigments, it wouldn't show anything red, so I used a bracelet with blue charms.

Test Shoot VS. Storyboard Analysis:

After filming the test shoot a month ago, and recently editing it, Issy and I decided to create an 'emaze' to compare our original frames from the storyboard to the test shoot frames. Our purpose behind this was to see if our visions were correctly drawn and to analyse why we changed some of the shots whilst filming.

Foley Sound Experiment:

What is foley?

'Foley effects are sound effects added to the film during post production (after the shooting stops). They include sounds such as footsteps, clothes rustling, crockery clinking, paper folding, doors opening and slamming, punches hitting, glass breaking, etc. etc. In other words, many of the sounds that the sound recordists on set did their best to avoid recording during the shoot.'*

We created two sound effects: knocking on a wooden door and spraying perfume.

To achieve the sound of a knock at the door, we recorded one of us knocking on a glass window. Although the sound was loud and effective, the glass made it echo so the sound wasn't deep enough to create the effect of a knock at a wooden door.

To create the effect of spraying perfume we used a perfume bottle and sprayed into the recorder, however we found the noise was to quiet. Instead, we used a deodorant spray can, which created the desired effect we wanted.

*http://www.sound-ideas.com/what-is-foley.html

Non-Diegetic Sound

Over the christmas holidays Bella researched some ideas for 1920's music we could use. 

However, when it came to edit our test shoot, we felt it was too upbeat, even when it was slowed down. So we decided to use samples on iMovie for the time being. They sounded 1920's style, so we slowed it down on garage band, and then we duplicated a copy and edited the second copy so it would sound more haunted (to use in the second half of the filming). 

The Camera

This is the camera we will use for filming our final opening. 

We used Issy's camera for the test shots which was really good for experimenting and moving it around the room, however, when editing the test shoot the quality wasn't brilliant. 

When shooting our final opening, Bella's dad has kindly offered to lend us his brand new professional camera so hopefully our filming will be better quality and we will get better results.

Trip to the University of Kent:

On Wednesday 14th January our media class visited the University of Kent. 

- This involved a tour around the film, arts and drama building, where we were privileged enough to view the recording studios, the computers suites and the green screen room!

- We were very luck because we had an exclusive viewing of one of the students film, which will be shown on BBC 3 Fresh; which is a programme that allows film students the opportunity to have their films aired on national television.

- We also had a lecture on main character types in films and a study into anime films. 

- We had a session on screen play and shooting scripts, where we watched scenes from films and got to view the actual shooting script. After, we were set a task to team up with a partner and write our own shooting script then feed back to our friends, the lecturer and the film students.

- Finally, we were put into small groups and were given half an hour to create a film. We were also helped by two film students who showed us the quiet areas where we could film. Our brief was to include: a mysterious stranger, blinding light, a lost soul and a key to a lock. Because of the short time we had to film, we couldn't re-film anything or delete any clips, meaning it all had to flow continuously when we presented it to everyone at the end.

The trip was really insightful and I can take some skills I learnt from filming and creating a screen play, to put towards our final coursework opening.

Animatic:

Issy kindly put together an animatic, where she collated all the individual storyboard pictures and created a chronological cinematic picture of what our film will supposedly look like. Issy also used the shooting script to help her create it because it notes the accurate timings and angles. She added non-diegetic sound, which is 1920's style music, to reflect the mood of the film and also the similar kind of music we will use for the final opening.

Horror/Crime Investigation Genre Conventions:

Production Company Animation Ideas:

Issy and I have been experimenting on various software's how to animate the logo so it will end up as a production company animation shown before our film opening.

Some examples of production company animations:

An idea of how ours will look (but with the company name presented through the movement of the wings):

Health and Safety Risk Assessment

BBFC rating for 'The Wring'

We have decided to rate our film a 12, using the guidelines of the BBFC specification:

Throughout the film there will be scenes which contain:

- Mild violence

-Brief and discrete portrayals of sexual activity through distorted flashbacks

-Physical and psychological horror sequences

-Discrete references to imitable behaviour

However it will not include:

-Discrimination

-Drugs

-Bad language

Production Name Idea:

We came up with an idea to use an animal to represent our production company. So we chose a crow because of its horror/warning symbol; which relates to our horror genre. 

We have chosen to call our company 'New Heights Productions' because of the relevance to the crow flying.

A still mock-up of what our logo (and eventual animation) will look like:

Test Shoot

On Friday 2nd January, we shot half of the film opening. We are pleased we have done a practice shoot because we will know how to improve when we come to shooting the real thing. 
We set up the whole room at 2pm, so we could then start filming at 4pm. We finished filming around 7pm.

Things we noticed and will improve:
-The first half of our shots, you can see its still daylight, however we had to use artificial lighting for the rest of the shots because it was dark outside and we had no natural lighting- meaning when we edited it, it didn't flow as well.
-We have to add in a few extra shots of the character doing her makeup to improve continuity.
-We have to practice the dolly zoom.
-Finally we have decided to split up the long panning shot because it was over 10 seconds and it lacked a fast-paste mood.

Shooting Script

Storyboard Part 2:

Group meeting

On the 24th December our group met in the Finch House to finalise the storyboard and arrange a date for filming our test shoot.

Also Bella brought along samples of music she had mixed on Garage Band, which were 1920's style.