Filming Day 3

Both the alleyway scene and the kitchen scene are now successfuly filmed with appropriate lighting. Due to the practicing that we were able to do on our first attempt, the day ran fairly smoothly, especially with the kitchen scene, which we were able to repeat shot for shot with better lighting than our first attempt. There was an issue with one of our lights, but it transpired that one light was sufficient for both scenes.

The completing of the majority of our filming in one session has been a great success for us, and gives us a lot of work to do in terms of editing. We now only need the second murder scene, which I feel confident we can get done in one filming day, following the practice and experience that we have gained from our filming of these two scenes.

CM

Filming Day 2

Our aim was to film both the alleyway scene and the kitchen scene in this one session, however this proved more difficult than expected. Our first problem came in the fact that Harry, who was supposed to be playing the victim in the alleyway scene, was delayed in getting to our location. We also had issues with the lighting in the kitchen, as our light was running low on battery and was thus very dim, meaning that subsequently we had to discard the footage we had taken of that scene. We were also unable to film any of the alleyway scene due to the absence of Harry and the extremely wet weather.

Despite our coming away with little to no usable footage, the day was actually very useful in terms of really getting to grips with the filming process in terms of organisation and technology. It also provided an opportunity for planning in context with our locations, as we had not visited the locations together before.

CM

Editing - Lighting

Following our first day of filming, and having collected what we felt was sufficient footage to edit together the kitchen scene, we regrettably found that the lighting in the scene was far too low key and dim. It had appeared lighter on the camera screen on the day, and we were relatively inexperienced with lighting at the time. We attempted to rectify the issue using Final Cut effects to brighten the scene, or make the lighting more dramatic, however we were unsuccessful in this. As such, we will have to reshoot the scene, although this is not too great a problem, as it is undoubtedly our easiest location, and only requires one actor to film.

CM

Filming Day 1

We wanted to get ahead with some of the filming and so I decided to film the panning shots of the London skyline at the beginning of our film. This was our first major piece of filming and so I wanted to make sure that we had lots of different versions of the skyline to choose from when it came to the editing stage. I did experience some problems, such as the lighting due to the fact that we wanted it to be nightime, in order to work with our cross-fade into the alleyway scene.

Overall, this stage was successful for us as it allowed us to begin editing straight away, when we got back from the Christmas break. We are now underway with our filming and I am certainly excited to see what the rest of the film making process has in store for us.

MT

Filming Schedule

Location 1 - Shots of London, Buildings etc
Date: TBC
Actors Required: Not needed for this scene
Notes: We will need to take quite a few different shots in order to have a lot to draw from at the editing stage of the film. It will be easy to organise due to the fact that actors are not needed. Have to be careful when taking the panning shots of the London Skyline, because we can run the risk of panning too fast and or too slow. We will also have to try out different buildings to quite a wide variety of different locations when it comes to editing. Must also be nigh-time so will need to chose quite a clear night.

Location 2 - Alleyway
Date: 2nd - 5th Jan
Actors required: Protagonist and Antagonist 1 ( Michael & Harry)
Notes: This scene should also be relatively easy to film as the location is extremely close to my house. The two actors needed also live close to me, which will make it easier to organise. Lighting is key for this scene so it will be difficult to completely set a date as we are not sure what the lighting/weather will be like outside. We are hoping some time between 2nd - 5th of January.   


Location 3 - Car Park
Date: TBC
Actors Required: Protagonist and Antagonist 2 (Michael & Albert)
Notes: We are hoping to start the filming for this scene over the christmas break but realistically this might not happen due to timing constraints of the christmas break. We are both pretty busy this holiday and so will make sure that we perfect the previously mentioned locations.

MT

Casting

Protagonist:

Our friend, Michael Hajiontonis will be playing the protagonist in our opening sequence. He fits the criteria for our role perfectly. Due to the fact that the protagonist is saying the voice over throughout, he must have a wide range of different voices that he can do so we can try them out and find out which one sounds best. Michael is excellent at doing different voice impressions and so will be great in our short opening to a film. Michael lives close to me, which will certainly make the filming process easier as many of the locations we use are also near to my house. The protagonist should appear dangerous but not as a 'bad guy' and we feel that Michael will fit this role perfectly. Michael is in my drama class so I am well aware of his brilliant acting skills and this is why I would like to use him in our film.

Antagonist (A):

Albert Wayman Scarlett, will be playing the second antagonist in our short opening sequence. This antagonist is very confident within himself and is certainly high up on the so called, 'Criminal food chain' and after working with Albert in my drama class I am certain he can fit this role. Obviously I am not suggesting that Albert is over-confident, he is actually a very 'nice guy', but is a very good actor. Due to this, I know he will fit the role well. He will be dressed in a 'classy' suit and will need to be quite tall in order to highlight the authoritative presence that he holds. 

Antagonist (H):

Harry Wheeler, will be playing the second antagonist in our short opening scene (the alleyway scene). He is a somewhat arrogant who thinks he is high up in the, 'so called' criminal food chain and often has 'notions of grandeur' but nonetheless knows that this is not the case and this is shown by his nervousness in the alleyway scene. He is constantly looking behind himself towards the protagonist and  I think that Harry can fit this role perfectly. He is another member of my drama class (a talented bunch), and so I am confident that he can play the nervousness of this character in the right way to create the desired effect.

MT

Sound Practice

I have learnt many things from this sound practise that I didn't realise from before. The first thing I learnt was the importance of where the boom pole is in relation to actor on camera. The sound pole has to be close to the actor in order to hear and understand what he is saying but you obviously cannot have the sound pole in shot. I also experienced some problems with the micro-tracks, in relation to the sound that we heard. The sound was too quiet during our first test run and so I learnt to check the sound level before filming each shot. I realise now how frustrating it would be to get back after a whole day of filming to find out that the sound is too quiet. We also learnt to start recording before the scene starts as you often miss something and or as you can see from this video, someone is still in shot when the filming begins. This sound practise has been invaluable to us as it meant that we could get to grips with how to use the different equipment (lighting and sound) and mean that when we film our actual opening sequence, we hopefully shouldn't make any mistakes.




MT