Recent Filming and Editing

During the last week we have faced various weather problems which have meant that we have not been able to film any empty shots of places outside. Due to the snow we could not film outside because the rest of the parts we have filmed have been in dry weather.

However we have managed to do some more editing and have thought about out titles and credits. I have looked at some thriller film openings and focused on looking at how the title and credits appear. From this I found that in most film openings the font of the titles is fairly small and the colour of the font is usually black. Therefore we decided to make our title and credits in a black font and the font we have chosen it quite scary which we feel suits our opening and movie. We are going to have the credits and title in the bottom corners of the film as we feel this looks professional and does not take too much of the focus away from the opening.
As well as editing we have been able to film a few more short empty shots. We have now filmed a few empty places. The places we have filmed are: the canteen, a classroom, roads, a field, a park, a forest area and an alleyway. We are going to make sure we film many more empty shots to make our opening believable and more realistic. We hope to also film in a church, a shop, more roads, a river, a highstreet and a babys room.

Problems We Have Faced

During filming we have began to have some different problems. Whilst trying to get shots of empty places we have often had to wait for people to go past. We also have had to make sure no moving cars are in the shots because our two minute piece is supposed to have no people in it other than Nancy. Also, we have had to delete some shots when uploading them to Pinnacle because we noticed people in the distance. Another problem we have had is the weather. We firstly started filming when it was sunny, but then decided that the bright weather did not suit our film. We then began filming when it was cold but not raining. We have had problems when we have planned to film but the weather isn't right. We had to cancel filming on sunday because it was raining and we need the weather to be about the same in all of our two minutes. Also, we have had problems making sure the shots are not shakey. We started to film using a flip camera but found it difficult to use and the shots were shakey therefore we decided to use HD Panasonic camera and a tripod to make it more clear and less shakey.

Filming Continued

This week we have contunued to film and upload parts of our two minute piece. We filmed some of our piece on tuesday afternoon. We firstly filmed a clip of Nancy walking through a forest typed area. We used a tripod for these shots and found it made it easier to film. The tripod also helped to make the shots more still and not shakey. Also on tuesday we filmed Nancy waking up in the road and used a close up shot of her waking up and then a long shot. Then we filmed some clips in a park of a swing which we felt when we added to our piece it would make it feel more creepy. Finally, we filmed Nancy twitching when she was asleep and her waking up in her bed which will be the clip we use at the end of our two minute piece. We filmed her twitching so that it gives the idea that she is twitching.

Once we uploaded these clips we saw that they were all of quite good quality compared to the other shots we have done. We found that the shots were not as shakey and were very clear. We then began to edit the clips but cutting them to the right time so that they looked professional. We now have about 1 minute of our piece complete. Now we need to plan to film again and film more empty shots of places to complete our piece. We also need to add sound  and edit it more.

Filming

In our film there are not many social groups and in the two minute opening there is only one girl. She is a teenage girl and we are representing her as a fairly scared and vunerable person. This means that we are showing teen girls to be vunerable and easily frightened.

So far, we have began to film some shots in school and around the school. We firstly filmed some pan shots of the playground and Nancy running into the school. However, once we had uploaded these to the computer, we realised that the lighting was too sunny. We decided that the bright weather did not suit the mood of our film because it is supposed to be fairly scary. Therefore we re-filmed these shots. I have found filming quite simple, however after re-filming the parts in school we realised that the shots were quite shakey at times. We decided that we would therefore have still shots and that we would use a tripod when filming. We filmed Nancy going through the woods and for this we used match on action. We felt this worked quite well however we are going to re-film this because it was quite shakey.

Filming Schedule

Before we started filming we planned out our filming schedule so that everyone in our group knew when and where we were going to film.

Monday 1st November: We filmed Nancy through the forest.

Wednesday 3rd November: We recorded class rooms and a close up of a clock.

Wednesday 10th November: We filmed more shots inside school. We also went out of school to film to film shots of roads and a park.

Friday 12th November: We will film the retake of Nancy through the forest because our original shot turned out to be shakey.

Sunday 14th November: We will be filming in Gillingham and Rainham starting at 12:30 in the afternoon. We will be filming most of our shots on this day.

Monday 15th November: We will take a few more shots of abandoned places.

Locations

We have had to think a lot about where we are going to film for our two minute opening because we needed to think about many different places that we could film that would be empty. We have considered filming in many different locations and areas because we need to get plenty of short clips of empty places. In our group we are going to try and film in Rainham, Chatham, Gillingham and Rochester because these places are easy to get to and we can all meet and film at the different areas. We also need to film inside a house for the scene when Nancy (our main character) wakes up at the end of the two minutes. When we go to the locations we are going to try and get short shots of different places such as shops, parks, roads, churches, rivers, the town and houses. We have decided to take a large amount of shots of many places so that when we upload them we can choose the best ones for our two minute piece.

Animatics

Before beginning our filming of our two minute film, we have had to make a storyboard. We then had to film the storyboard and edit it. I feel that this has helped us to think about the sounds in our piece and has also helped us to learn more about using Pinicle. During editing our Animatics we found that it was a little blurry at times, however we didnt feel this was too important because it was only our rough plan. This was also helpful as we chose a font size and type that we felt would suit our film. I think that making the Animatics was helpful as we got to understand more about editing and we got to plan the scenes which we will have in our movie. We also got to understand more about the time that we have which is two minutes.

Storyboard and Planning

We had to create a realistic storyboard of what we are going to include in our two minute clip. We had to draw pictures of scenes and write about what sounds and music we are going to use. Also, we had to include the title and credits. We decided to name our movie 'Extinct' because we feel that this is a suitable name for the movie and we think it will look good for our title. These are some pictures of parts of our storyboard.

 

Research on Movie Genre

We have agreed that our movie genre is a thriller and we felt it was important to research more into these types of films. We have looked at thrillers and horrors so that we can also understand the difference more clearly and therefore we can make sure that our film fits into the thriller genre more than the horror genre.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/28_Days_Later

We looked at the movie '28 Days Later' because we felt that the storyline is similar to that of our film. However, we found that 28 Days Later is actually a horror film. I think that this is because of the violence and gore in the film and this is what makes it fit into the horror category. Therefore, we need to make sure we do not make the opening of our film scary or violent. 

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Country_for_Old_Men_(film)
Also, we looked at the film No Country for Old Men which was released in 2008. We looked at this movie because it is a type of thriller and we wanted to see what sort of certificates thillers usually are. We found that the certificate for this movie is a 15 and we also looked at Inglorourious Basterds and the certificate for that film was an 18. This shows that movies in the thriller genre usually have quite high age certificates. This has showed us that we should make the certificate of our movie a 15.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Butterfly_Effect
We looked at the film 'The Butterly Effect' because it is a thriller film. From looking at this we saw how they used short snappy clips in the movie and decided to use this in our opening to create a mysterious feeling to the film.

Costume Choices

When creating a film, the costume choices are very important because they can tell you a lot about the type of film it is. They also can indicate what sort of person the character is. This is important because in a film usually the characters do not tell the viewers what sort of person they are. Therefore, the costume choice is important because it means the audience can make a good assumption as to who and what sort of person the character is.

In the opening two minutes of our movie, there will only be one character. This character is a teenage girl who has woken up in a road and cannot find any people. Also, the opening of the film is going to be the girl dreaming so we are going to try and create this sort of feeling. In the rest of our film, there will be more characters of a similar age and would be parents of the teenagers also. Our film is going to be set in modern times and therefore all characters will have costumes that are fairly modern.

In the opening two minutes, Nancy who is our main character will be dressed in modern teenage clothes during the dream section. We have chosen for her to wear modern clothes because we want it to seem like she is a normal teenager. She will have her hair tied up and will be wearing some make-up.  We are going to have her wearing a flowery modern vest top. Over this she will have a black and cream cardigen because some of our scenes will be done outside. She is also going to be wearing fashionable blue jeggings and black flat shoes.

At the end of our two minutes, she is going to wake up in bed therefore her costume will be different. She will have her hair down and it will be messy to show that she has been asleep. We will also have her make up smudged to indicate she was asleep and had been dreaming. Her outfit will simply be some night clothes. She will be wearing a plain black vest top and cream pyjama trousers. She will also have a white dressing gown on.

Findings about target audience

I have learnt that having a target audience is important when creating a media piece because you cannot make the piece suitable for all people. Whilst watching film openings in class I have seen that the movies have different genres which are suitable for different audiences. For example, i saw that in the horror openings we watched, the beginnings were dark and the fonts used were usually black or red. The way the horror film openings were set out made them feel quite scary and therefore it was obvious that they were suitable for an audience of young adults perhaps aged from 18 to 28.

 Planning to have a target audience also helps you to think about how to make the film suitable. Therefore, it is important to know your target audience so that you can think about what that age of people like and make the piece suitable and attractive to them. For our piece which is going to be a Thriller, I think our target audience will be for people aged 18 to 25. Therefore we will me aiming our film at young people who are probably still studying or just starting work. It is important to look at films in the same genre so that we can see who there target audience is and see how they attract their target audience. I feel that the certificate for our movie would be a 15 because the theme of the movie is quite scary, however not too violent and there will not be much swearing in out film. To attract this target audience we could make the video quite serious. We could also make it quite creepy and scary at points.

What I have learnt so far

For our preliminary task we were asked to film a 30 second piece using three different techniques. I was in a group with Sarah, Rani, Nancy and Melissa. During the task I have learnt a few skills and key terms whilst editing and presenting the video piece. In the task we had to include three different techniques. We firstly had to include a match on action shot. I have learnt that a match on action shot is when you film someone walking through a door and then have to get the correct timing of them coming out of the other side. After editing the match on action shot in our piece we felt it was quite successful as we edited it well and it was on time. Another shot we had to use was the shot reverse shot. I now know that the shot reverse shot is where one person is filmed and then the other person is filmed whilst they are speak to each other. We completed this and it worked fairly well, however it needed improvement because whilst editing we didn't cut it at the right points and there were mistakes.

Editing the video using Pinnacle was quite difficult, however I learnt how to do some techniques on the program. I realised how long it takes to edit even a short video which has made me understand more about timing when making a film. I found it was quite fiddly to use but once I had tried it a few times it became easier. We were able to cut the clips to the right times and also we cut some of the sounds out that we didnt need. Also, we added transitions to make the video flow better. We were able to add titles and credits onto the video. I think this preliminary task has been helpful and i have learnt some techniques and skills from it. From doing this task I have learnt how I can improve and make our next 2 minute video more successful.

Why planning and storyboading is important.

Before starting a task or creating a piece of media, planning and storyboarding is very important. Planning what you're going to do is important because it means that you can develop your ideas. Also having a storyboard is helpful because it means you have a rough idea already of what you are going to do and then you can begin to change and develop this further. Without planning or storyboarding, it would be difficult to complete a task to a good standard.

Why I chose Media

I decided I wanted to do Media for one of my A levels because I felt that I would enjoy studying different types of media and understanding it in more depth. I also liked the idea of creating and editing my own media. I think that Media will be a beneficial course and I will learn a lot through it.