Seasons Greetings

The blog is taking a brief holiday over the Christmas holidays so I can catch up on much needed sleep and forget all about the woes of filming and locating hunting.

Merry Christmas

Main Shoot (How we got this far I don't know)

Its a frosty Monday in school and while we capture the footage of our masterpiece "the Case" I thought now would be a good time to reflect on the weekends filming experience. Disaster loomed over us from the previous 3 weeks experience of the project and a general pessimistic mood swept the room but it was safe to say as we set up our scene that the four of us were ready for some quality takes. Sadly we had a limited budget and could only afford pizza to pay actors but I suppose it's a school media project.

Day 1 : The Office / The Murder

After setting up a messy table in the back room for "the Office" and creating some great low key lighting with a small lamp our mise en scene looked promising. Our actor was ready for the role of detective and the villain had not yet turned up due to the fact he wasn't needed for these scenes. We split up the filming fairly taking around 3 clips each and rotating roles throughout. The corridor scene was generally successful and we got a good group of angles to use for the first set of match on actions, where the Detective walks from the back room, down the corridor, opens the front door, looks out and puts the chain on.
We then proceeded to the second location, the office itself where we managed to get a really good master shot of the area and lots of good pans for the montage of his desk. When the killer arrived we proceeded to do the killing itself which took quite a few takes, but the lighting worked really well in the end. It created good suspense and we didn't blow any bulbs (yes!). Both actors looked really great for the parts and acted them out accordingly, making the whole film have a sense of finally coming together.
After a brief break for some Pizza Go-Go all parties concerned were much more the merrier for the filming experience, especially myself (I got a whole one to myself, who doesn't like sweetcorn on a pizza?). We looked after our actors which was greatly appreciated. We then proceeded to the garden scene at around 9:00pm (not too conveniant) where the villain was making his escape. We finally got to use the studio lighting which I had been aching to do from the start of the project. We got some brilliant shadows and quite high key lighting, yet retained the night time feel using some blue filters to give it an eerie moonlit glow. We only managed to get up to the gate before Daniel needed to leave so we thought it unfair to continue without him.
By this point in the day people were also starting to get a bit stressed with eachother due to being in my house for the past 7 hours without many breaks from filming and planning. However at the end of the day I got some good footage on my own camera for the video blog (which will be coming to a blog near you at the end of the project!). Day 1 was over and about midnight I attempted to watch Sin City but fell asleep so thought it best to rest up for Day 2. Feeling slightly more positive about the whole project in general I got a good nights sleep!

Day 2 : The Garden / The Alley / Re Shoot & Extra Angles

The day started off with a positive, I was in a good mood when the group arrived at my house having spent the majority of the morning asleep and done little to nothing all day! However, this positive feeling lasted less than an hour as we got calls from both of our actors saying they would not be able to get there until 6:30pm and that Simon needed to leave between 8 and 9pm. I was quite happy with a lot of the shots from Day 1 but the rest of the group seemed very disheartened and I did get quite annoyed at them.
When we proceeded to take some extra mise en scene shots our first pointless argument occured. Myself and Simon were debating what shot number a certain shot was and both got very aggravated about the matter. After this I felt a bit rubbish as I felt I was letting the group down a bit. I was very tired and started to get stressed with everyone. This led to a generally negative filming experience for most of Day 2. Also when my brother got to the house at 6:30pm he'd just had a bad day so was not in the mood for filming. He was very eager to get all the scenes done as fast as possible and this led to a lot of takes being rushed and having to be re done. However when we got into the garden again, everything started to look up.
With the villain in the mood for filming everyone seemed ready to get it all out of the way and over with by the end of the evening. We proceeded through the alley and got lots of great scenes for the film and I was very pleased with the overall shoot. There was a brief moment of despair when we thought we had broken a light but it turned out that it was only the bulb (Thank goodness) and we had a spare anyway.
When all was finally over and done with you could hear the excitement in our voices as we took the last shot, or rather relief! Although I'm certain we'll be back next weekend for another ridiculous set of takes and re shoots, I am glad to say we have a huge number of shots to edit in the time being and could have a rough version of the film by the end of this week!

Hasta luego for now compadres

Nick

Preliminary Task Evaluation

1. My group was myself, Simon, Aarti and Tanya. While me and Simon played the role of the two classmates in the film, Aarti and Tanya were in charge of filming, directing and sound. However on a couple of shots such as my entering the room, Simon filmed and for Simon's speaking shots I took the role of camera man. When we edited we took it in turns to do a few shots each to fairly distribute the task at hand.

2. To plan our shoot we made a rough script of the scene on paper. We then drew a diagram of the room and decided how many different shots we were going to use and where we would position the cameras. From this we established that we would have 4 linking shots of one character entering the room and 4 different angles of the conversation meaning we'd need to film it 4 times. Once we had done this we storyboarded the script into 16 individual frames and made notes on the dialogue, sound and timings of each shot as well as the shot type. We then made up a shooting script from this so as to make an easier filming process. We also planned all the cuts in advance so that when it came to editing it would be a lot easier to make the clips into one continuous scene.

3. We used a mini-DV camera and a mini boom mic on our shoot. There was no lighting as we filmed at daytime and only wanted natural light in our shoot. We used the mini boom mic with headphones for the speaking clips to check that the actors were speaking clearly throughout so as not to lose any important moments of conversation. To make sure we had steady shots we used a tripod which also greatly helped when doing the pan at the beginning of the clip. To edit we used Adobe Premier Pro, which allowed us to arrange the clips in a linear time line and cut and trim them to the right length. It has multiple editing lines which made it easy to edit our clip and also the source monitor so we could constantly refer to the original clip. We put in titles and a fade at the end using the editing tools on Premier.

4. During the planning process it was important that we thought about what the characters looked like. For instance I dyed my hair half way between planning and shooting so we had to re-do bits of the storyboard to fit the actors involved! We also planned in advance what clothes we would wear on the shoot. We did not need to worry too much about background noise or weather as we were indoors but to insure we were not interrupted while filming we put on a red light while filming to indicate to other students not to enter the room. This was useful as we didn't have to redo any shots due to distractions or extra noise. We also had to make sure we left room at the end of takes for editing purposes and also planned any action carefully so that we could match it between cuts.

5. I think in general our clip went very well. It runs smoothly without any noticeable continuity errors (there is one where the book is taken out of the bad where if watched a few times doesn't quite work). All the matches on action worked out really fantastically which was a great relief and these include when I open the door and walk through it, when I retrieve the book from the bag, and when Simon glances at the book over my shoulder. A couple of the beginning shots weren't too steady especially the pans which we would need to work on better next time. Although mine and Simon's acting talents may not be up there with the rest of Hollywood I think we spoke clearly throughout so the dialogue works very well which is useful as it is the main point of the clip. I would have liked to say no in a slightly more horrible voice and get the entering the room sequence even more smooth in hindsight but other than that I was genuinely very pleased with the whole task and how we worked as a group.

6. From this task I have revised shooting and editing techniques as well as learning the importance of matches on action and continuity. I have learnt how to use Adobe Premier Pro which is what we will be using for our final project and so hopefully next time the editing process will be even quicker. It is clear that due to a good plan, storyboard and shooting script we were able to film everything very easily and know exactly what to do which I will definitely take on board when filming a more difficult and more complicated clip. I think it will be useful to have practised all these techniques and methods so that I can have a really successful group project.

BLK feedback

Please keep up with your Stage 1 posting Nick - you need to show how the project is developing from your own perspective. What you have so far is fine, but try to avoid long-ish gaps between posts.

Please see the main blog posts for advice on how to proceed with your individual blog if you're not sure what you should be doing.

Your evaluation and continuity sequence link? What's going on?

Watchmen - Alan Moore 1986/Zack Snyder 2009

When I think through our Group Project, only one thing goes through my mind. That is that not only do I want people to think of Sin City, Blade Runner, and Film Noir when they watch our opening, but next March when the legend to be Watchmen invades our screen on 03/06/09, suddenly everyone will go "So that's what inspired them."

So what is it? And why is it that I can safely bet most people reading this blog won't know what it is?

Watchmen is a comic book/graphic novel by esteemed writer Alan Moore and pencilled by artist Dave Gibbons. It was rated one of Time Magazine's 100 Best Novels and most comic book fans will tell you there is nothing that can challenge it. A single 12 part story arc set in a post-Vietnam America where Nixon is still president in 1985, where Nuclear War is on the brink and costumed heroes are banned. From the violent, vigilante detective Rorschach's first speech to the tremendous plot twists at the end the comic book world has not seen anything else of the sort. Heroes, with no powers, who have to fight for a better world. A genius with a plan to save humanity, a detective searching for the truth, a man who can move the very atoms inside him yet has nothing at all, an inventor longing for love. These characters are hardly the hero types, yet together it is up to them to stop something terrible from happening.

The reason this comic has inspired me in this project is through the character Rorschach (for a brief character analysis look at my group blog here). His concealing appearance, lack of morals, and general bad ass character make him such an amazing influence for both our protagonist and villain. He dresses like a film noir detective but rather than puzzling over problems will run into a building with a spray can and a lighter setting fire to policemen, or smashing a fellow prisoners head into a wall. He fights dirty, and that is why he wins. He understands the world far more than everyone else seems to simply because he sees its worst and lives to better that. I want to take all these aspects and use them to make our villain and hero have similar yet entirely different traits as we want part of our plot to be that at some time they may have been friends.

To finish off this brief review on how Watchmen has influenced our film opening I thought I'd leave you with the inspiration for our voice over, and the new trailer for Zack Snyder's 2009 film adaptation of this graphic masterpiece.

"Rorschach's Journal. October 12th, 1985. :



























Dog carcass in alley this morning, tire tread on burst stomach. This city is afraid of me. I have seen it's true face. The streets are extended gutters and the gutters are full of blood and when the drains finally scab over all the vermin will drown. The accumulated filth of all their sex and murder will foam up about their waists and all the whores and politicians will look up and shout "Save us!"...
...and I'll look down and whisper "no."
They had a choice, all of them. They could have followed in the footsteps of good men like my father, or president Truman. Decent men, who believed in a day's work for a day's pay. Instead they following the droppings of lechers and communists and didn't realize that the trail led over a precipice until it was too late. Don't tell me they didn't have a choice.
Now the whole world stands on the brink, staring down into bloody hell, all those liberals and intellectuals and smooth-talkers...and all of a sudden, nobody can think of anything to say."

Feelings about today's Location Reccy

Today myself and Simon went on a location reccy for our film opening, "The Streets Run Red". We initially set out to find an alleyway with some sort of high access so that we could get a master shot where we could zoom in from far away to establish the scene (once I have posted the final script and rough storyboard this will make a lot more sense). We thought an obvious place to search would be by car parks as these are often multi storey and so very high. We checked by the Quasar in Ponders End and the old car park by the old Enfield Town Library.

Starting early afternoon and finishing late evening, it was a very tiring day and I found it difficult to be patient as most of the locations we sought out were far from perfect. It took us a good hour to find our initial "Location 1" as named on the group blog. And even when we found this an hour of searching for an entrance to the car park ended up showing we would not be allowed to use this location. When we finally found "Location 3" and decided that after consulting with the group possibly we could change the script slightly as this location was perfect, I felt quite accomplished.

Today we also started our video documentary which we will be running throughout the course. We are taking digital stills and digital film of the entire process so that it will be easy for the examining board to see what we have been up to and also to make it more interactive for other students interested in the blog. From this so far I have learnt that we need to practice speaking in front of a camera and planning out what needs to be said as a lot of the video was hesitations and confusement!

All in all we had a successful reccy and it has only made me more excited about the upcoming project. I can't wait for the test shoot next week and finishing off the storyboards and scripting.

Now I'll leave you with a few of my favourite snaps from today;

Group coursework project

Leading up to our upcoming coursework on opening sequences Simon and myself have started doing some research. We will wait to post it on the group blog once created
but for now I'll leave you with a tasty sample of the title text so far!