Filming- Day 3

Yesterday's filming focused entirely on the beginning of our opening and introducing our main character. The shots we filmed were:
- Elliott entering the room
- Light switch and plug title

We weren't able to film much in the few hours we were together yesterday due to complications with the title shot. As we had 'Ted Russell as Elliot' on the light switch and 'In U.F.O' on the plug socket nearby, we needed a smooth, steady movement between the two; also, the shot needed to stabilise for 4 seconds on each title in order for our audience to be able to read the title. As we were using a handheld camera for this shot (in order to move freely across the titles), it was proven difficult to stay completely still on the titles. The shots were shaky and therefore had to be redone multiple times, taking up the majority of the time we had to film yesterday evening.

Filming- Day 2

Before filming, we highly underestimated the amount of time we would need to film our opening. We thought the majority would be able to be filmed on a Saturday, and finishing off the last few shows after school.

Today was the second day of filming, and we managed to complete 4 of our action shots for the end sequence. All of what we filmed today was not featured in our storyboard, and therefore anything we film after this will not correlate with the original shot number given.

Shots filmed today:
- Helmet money shot
- Backpack swing
- Taking the jacket off the chair
- Leaving the room and crushing the crisps 

Camera Change

During filming yesterday, Rachel and I decided we were no longer going to be filming on the school camera, but instead on an iPhone 6. Our reasoning for this decision was based on 2 factors; firstly, as the lighting in our set is not brilliant due to there only being one main light and a lamp in there, the camcorder was not picking up the details of set. Also, the lighting was a problem as the footage on the camera showed up as very yellow when filming from certain angles, and broke the continuity- an issue we didn't seem to have the phone. The second reason for changing to an iPhone was the quality of the footage when filming the texting scenes. The text messages are an integral part of the plot and must be legible, but we were finding them difficult to read from the camera. However, they were very clear when shot on the phone, but this did mean we had to change the phone used by the character, as we now needed this to film on.

Before making the final decision we re-filmed the shots we had taken, this time on an iPhone, and compared them- it is from these that we decided on shooting the entirety of the footage on a phone. Luckily we had only filmed two shots before deciding to change, so not too much needed re-filming.

Filming- Day 1

Yesterday myself, Rachel, Ted (our actor), and our friend Catherine spent the day filming. We had planned to shoot the final seven shots but unfortunately did not achieve as much as we had liked to, so have planned to meet up again tomorrow to film again. The shots that we did manage to film were 25- 30, but added some in that weren't originally in our storyboard. We decided to start with the last few shots as this is where the majority of the action is, as it is primarily a title sequence. Luckily we started with these shots as, after filming 25 and 26, we discovered that the camera we were using did not show screens particularly well, and both of these shots revolved around reading messages from a phone screen. 

Set Design

When brainstorming for ideas and plot lines for our coursework, myself and Rachel designed what we would ideally like our set to look like. Marked in red is where we have planned to place our titles as they trail around the room to different locations. 

Earlier today we spent the day setting up the garage, and the final set design looks very similar our initial design. The only main difference is the chair we used- we had planned to use a yellow inflatable camp chair, but swapped it for a black fold up chair as we found it was too low down to the floor.

Polaroids

For one of our titles, we have 'Produced + Edited by Katie Killeen' written on some polaroid pictures which are placed on the map. These photos are on the map for the entirety of the film opening, but are only shown as titles for one shot. We had to take these photos ourselves and used locations and objects which cannot be made out, in order for them to be realistic and look like they were taken at places of the alien sightings. We took a few pictures of street lamps (polaroid on the left of the photo), which printed out as blurs of light, making them unrecognisable as lights and somewhat passable as possible UFOs. My favourite photo is one of the scratched metal of a letterbox (polaroid on the right) as it reflects the flash and highlights the scratches, and has a blue tint to it.

Visit to the BFI

The British Film Institute on London's Southbank is a four screen cinema, used for film/ TV previews, industry workshops, and educational talks/ activities. Today, myself and the rest of the ECS AS media class took a visit here to attend a Film Openings talk, in order to help us achieve the highest grades on our coursework.

The day consisted of 3 sessions, each hosted by media and film teacher Tom Woodcock, and a Q&A session with actor and director Dexter Fletcher. Sessions 1 and 2 discussed the conventions film openings/ title sequences, with 1 focusing on macro conventions, and 2 on the micro conventions. The second half of the day was split into 2 halves- the first half was spent watching film openings directed by Fletcher and having the opportunity to speak with him. The last half was the 3rd of Tom's sessions, entitled 'Making Film Openings', which gave us an insight into what needs to be done for us to achieve the best possible results from the time and resources available to us.

Storyboard Animation

Below is the video made using the images from our storyboard. The purpose of making this video is to ensure that the planned scenes add up to the timing of roughly 2 minutes. Another reason for this animation is to plan the sounds that would be heard in the final piece, including music, and diegetic sound.

From our video, it is clear that our final piece will be of the correct time length. Also, the sounds of music, text alerts, and a UFO video clip have been added. The video clip heard is not the one we will be using in our final piece.

  

Choice of Sound

After creating our storyboard, we needed to decide on the sound that would be featured in our final film, in order to be able to add it to our starboard animation. 

Our main inspiration for the music used was the title sequence of 'Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging', when 'She's So Lovely' by Scouting for Girls is laid over the top of the scene where the main character runs along the high street of Brighton. The song is relevant to the film as it appeals to the audience, fits with the scenes it is played with, and uses lyrics that are related to the entire plot.

The song we have decided to use for our film opening is 'Holy Commotion' by The Pretenders. There were a variety of factors which influenced the decision to choose this song, the main one being that we both thought it fit well with the scenes. The song is upbeat and faced paced, but also has an element of the electronic, synthesised genre, which we both agreed worked better than pop or hiphop. Another reason for choosing this song is that the majority of it is instrumental, meaning there are only a few lyrics to match with the action.  

Other aspects of sound we needed to consider were the text alerts that are heard over the music, the video clip that is watched, and the dimming of the music whilst this clip is playing. The reason for having to quieten the song whilst the video plays is because we are not allowed to use non- diegetic sound, so will therefore have the song being played through headphones. When the character removes the headphones to watch the video, the music will become quieter but not silent, like it is still being heard by the character through the headphones, but the clip will overpower the music.