Week 12: Thats a Wrap!

This week we did our final day of filming. The scenes we were filming today only required Martin (Stuart) and Michael (Ben).

The first scene we had to shoot was a car scene between Stuart and Ben and required us to attach the camera to the side of the car and film while they were driving. It was very interesting learning how to use the tool and to see how car scenes can be shot.  I was very impressed with the audio quality as well as the actors ability to say their lines whilst driving and whilst we were not in the car to direct them.

The next and final scene was the grave yard scene. Michael (Ben) had to have real emotion in this scene as it was the burial of his beloved pet dog Stephie.  Michael did a fantastic job and we shot it from a few angles and really captured the sadness of the scene.

After looking at all of our footage before handing it in, I was really impressed and proud of our skills and how much we all learnt. We all worked together really well and it was an overall very fun, interesting and pleasant group assignment. I have learnt so much about how to use the cameras, lighting and how a film is created from beginning to end.

I can not wait to start my Screen Production 2 class next semester to learn the editing side of films.

Week 11: Shooting Begins

We picked up our gear at 10:30am Monday morning and went to our first location (My House). 

Due to the weather and location, some of the script needed to change in order to make it easier for us to portray our story in the location we had. 

We began shooting at around 11:30 and didn't finish until 3:30pm. It felt like such a long day but it was so much fun. It was my first real attempt at directing and I feel that I got the hang of it very quickly. 

Everyone was very patient and it was learning curb for both actors and us as a group.

We were all very tired but very happy with the days work and ere excited to finally have started shooting. 

We are shooting again Thursday night starting at 5pm. We again have had to change the script as we needed to film out side a pub but the few we enquired to had policies in place that prohibited us from filming there. So we therefore altered our script to allow us to film in a car park instead. 

Hopefully lighting wont be a huge issue. Fingers crossed. 

Week 10 - Script Read through

As we are getting closer and closer to our due date of our Location Production we decided to organise a meet and greet with all of our actors so we can read through the script and  answer any question the actors have.

We met on Tuesday for an hour and everyone was excited to be participating in the short film.

We did a read through and explain the emotions we want out of each scene and how we imagined it. We then decided on costumes, make up ensured the production schedule was suitable for everyone. 

The meeting went smoothly and I left feeling a lot more confident about our final production. The actors experience ranges from their first film to their 10th but they each seem very enthusiastic and very helpful. They have organised to meet in their own time to rehears their scenes with each other which is a great sign.

Lets hope the shooting goes as smoothly next week :)

Week 9: Script Breakdown

This week we learnt about the script breakdown and production scheduling. Ali decided to take on the task of marking up the script which she then passed on to me to fill out the script breakdown sheets and production schedule. We are yet to finalise our actors and locations and plan to have this done by the end of next week so we can begin to book equipment and gather our props and have script reading meetings. 

Week 8: Pre - Production

Our group and I realised it is getting close to production time and began looking for actors to fill our roles. We decided to place an ad on star-now to get most of our actors. We had difficulty because we have two older characters as well as a dog. However we were pleasantly surprised with the replies we got and then had to make decisions on who would suit best. We decided in once instance to go with the less experienced actor as they would be less demanding and more willing to please. As we are also learning we did not want an actor who saw us as amateurs and didn't take our production seriously. We have most of our actors now however we are still looking for our lead actor. 

Week 7: Shot List

This week my group and I worked on creating out shot list for our script. 

We decided that two of us wold work together and create a draft shot list and then let the other group members look over it and let us know if they were happy with it before it was submitted. Ali and I worked together on the shot list and step by step went through the script and visualised it in order to come up with the appropriate shots. It was tie consuming however once you got the hang of it, we could picture how we wanted our film to be. We tried to keep it clear and concise while still giving enough information to go off during the filming stage. 

Week 6 - Lighting

This week we were tested on using lights including the key light, fill light and background light. 

The Key light provides the main illumination to the subject and is generally situated on one side of the camera. the fill light is used to lift and shadows cast by the key light and provides illumination to the other side of the subject.

Finally the backlight is used to separate the subject from their background and is situated to one side of the subject, behind them and as close to them as possible without being in the shot. 

I found light to be very hard to balance especially in small areas and on certain surfaces that reflect the light.