Filming, last death scene

After evaluating and acknowledging the difficulties we had in our previous filming session, we ensured this filming was of a high standard. We discussed what we had to do to set up the scene and show the fear of the character, directing the actor we gained some good footage. Sadly, I was not available to film today yet my group still worked cohesively without my presence. I feel this was because we planned our scenes effectively.

We now have all our footage for our montage of deaths and will now begin shooting our assembly hall scene. Planning for production has already been done for this scene, yet we need to check availability of the hall.

Evaluation of filming process

Above is a break down of the filming process so far, there are areas for improvement which we will ensure we improve for our next filming session. As a group we come up with one area which we felt went well and one recommendation.

• We worked effectively as a team which ensured when we come together, our filming was of a high standard.
• However, we need to plan our scenes more effectively, which will make the filming sessions quicker as we are working to a deadline.

Second day of filming

This shoot was continuing in the void filming our death scenes, we had planned today's session of filming to be the chair scene and Harry's death. The chair shot worked well, we filmed this from different angels and shot lengths so when we evaluate we can discuss and choose what worked most effectively. However, Harry's death did not go aswell as intended. I felt we did not plan this scene thoroughly so as a group we were confused and did not feel what we storyboarded worked.

To overcome this problem, we discussed what the shot was establishing and what the portrayal was. We re-planned this and now in a position where we can shoot the footage successfully.

10/11/2011

Today's filming session went really well, as a group we are really pleased with the outcome. We managed to shoot 3 scenes, one death scene, Jordan hanging, followed by a shot of his legs swinging. As stated on the previous post, we used a 'maximise your chances' board to set up the scene. Using the fake blood we had a scene of a female hand dragging down with blood everywhere, symbolising our emotional hooks and adhering to the genre, horror.

Setting up scene for shooting

As stated throughout my planning, one of our death scenes is a hanging. There was many safety precautions we had to consider when filming this. In the void, we set up creating a school environment with a mathematic square showing education. We had a ladder up to this, showing you have to try to succeed which is challenging our emotional hook. We chose an area where a light was glowing and this is where out hanging scene would take place. The light would glow on our actor who is playing Jordan to show the fear through facial expressions. We had a rope which we was using and hung this around a pole and then around his neck. The image on the left shows my group member, Jassiem, setting up this scene. 

As our film is orientated around our emotional hook success, we used this spray paint of 'maximise your chances' which immediately suggests our questions of how far would you go to get something you want? What would you do to succeed? It also questions the plot of our trailer being cheating.

Equipment needed for filming

To ensure we used our time for shooting effectively, we had a lesson on how to use a manual camera, working focus and how to use a Zoom Handy Recorder to record sound. This will ensure our trailer is a professional looking piece. With the manual focus, we learnt that we are able to focus on one specific object/person, whilst the background can be blurred, this works both ways and if we wanted to blur the protagonist, we could with the background in focus. We also learnt how to zoom and finalise our piece. 

With the Zoom Handy Recorder, we experimented with recorded from distances, and how close you had to be in order for the dialogue spoken to be clear. We will not be recording sound on the SLR camera as it would not be as effective as a Zoom Handy Recorder, so we had to ensure our sound was able to sync with film footage in perfect time. To do this successfully, we will have a loud noise at the start of each scene so it is made clear when putting footage together.

Build up to production

Tomorrow I will begin filming footage for my trailer. We are shooting our death scenes in the void so we will need fake blood. I experimented with fake blood bought from a joke shop but the effect this had on skin was not as successful as intended. Because of this, I made blood, using syrup and food colouring. Once mixed together, I added a tea bag to darken the mix to ensure it created a grotesque blood feel.

1st draft of screen play..

Today, I was introduced to a new source of software which will enhance my production. Celtx is a programme which helps write screenplays in order, depicting dialogue, action, transitions and other features. It also allows creation for a schedule of production, organization of storyboards and character biographys.This software is a quick process for a means of production.

Below is our first draft for our screen play, it has been deconstructed with edits made..

 

As a group we worked together to produce our first draft of our screen play, we worked with our story board and planning to produce this piece.

The outcome of our screen play left us to make decisions. We discussed our screen play with our teacher and as a group we felt there was little narrative order, we was not adhering to Todorov's theory, because of this, we decided we need to rearrange our scenes. Our trailer included many scenes which were shown before disruption, as it was only a trailer we felt we would lose and confuse our audience doing this. This lead to a second draft...

Celtx, 1st draft of screen play

 

We will begin filming in a matter of days so to ensure we have good practice, we story boarded our death scenes individually. These scenes will be the most important part of our trailer as they define the genre of the film. When planning we focused on facial expressions to enhance the story line, aswell as camera angels and positioning.