Ammendments To Casting

Since our test shoot, we have decided to make an ammendment to the cast, as James' performance on camera was not up to scratch, we have drafted in someone from the school Drama Department.

Alex, the new lead role, has partaken in Drama lessons at school since the young age of 10.He also has over 10 years of drama experience in extra curricula clubs both inside and outside school.

He is currently sitting his AS Drama Exam, and hopes to continue this specialist subject for at least another year and get a full A-Level in the subject. His current predicted grade is an A, which shows he has supreme acting abilities.

I have personally briefed alex on the task, and he seems perfectly comfortable with the role he will be playing. I have also shown him our groups rough edit and OCD symptons video, that we gained inspiration from.

He has agreed to the shooting time and we consider him a reliable and valued member of the team.

Practice Shoot Shot Log

Practice Shoot Capture List

Capture List

Music

The music that is featured in our sequence is from one of the tracks on the free play music website.
The track is called Abandoned Infirmary (click link for music sample). The track creates an eerie atmosphere and builds up suspense towards the end.
However, the track has been cut and copied across so it fits the desired time while watching the sequence. I have tried my best to edit out the cuts between tracks, and they are barely noticeable, but if you listen closely the track skips a bit in two or three places.

Final Rough Cut of Our Opening Sequence

Due to this only being a rough edit, there is no need for titles to be added.
However, the lack of title shots means that there a cuts that look really jumpy as they are supposed to be split by a title shot.
Our Thoughts

• We think that overall we made good progress however by doing our rough cut we have seen vital errors and mistakes and missing shots which we need to improve on in order to make our final sequence better
• We think both actors and actress worked well however some shots can still be improved
• We need to sort out missing shots and make sure they are included next time
• We need to look at finer details-eg OCD actor should have shirt tucked in at all times, shoes on at all times, same pen in each shot
• We like the music choice we have made at the start of the sequence
• We need to change the POV shot from the toaster to the fridge as its not a good shot
• Props need to checked through-pen, toast same colour, butter needs to be soft, 4 keys

Teacher Feedback

•  Like the shed door scene but need to think quite carefully about make up- need to look at fake blood- doesn't look realistic
• OCD- they would know when the news would be on therfore play the news as soon as radio turned on then music plays after when he goes to turn off the radio
• Calender shot-already have the 24th circled? do crosses?
• He needs to switch of the radio

Final Notes from Editing Week

Guys, while you left for Hollywood I went through out final practise shoot edited sequence and have noted down major elements we left out that makes our piece not make sense and flow properly. I also got feedback from ms dymioti:

Missing shot

1. Turning of the radio and looking at the shed then leaving- he doesn't actually turn of the radio it just stops after the news announcement
2. Shot of the camera leaving the shed and sliding across the floor
3. Need more CU of in shed -eyes-cut between each look
4. Polaroids!
5. Reaction shot of toast popping
6. CU of eyes looking at shed

Suggestions

1. Say news date at the start of the radio announcement- because he is OCD wouldn't he know exactly when the news would be on and let music play after as he walked to turn off the radio

Photos from practise shoot

Shed Scene

James' spraying the numbers on the shed

We used photos however we want to use polaroids for the final shoot

India setting up the camera

Spencer filming an outside shot

Just about to film one shot

James in our main location

James and Spencer attempting a point of view shot

India filming an over the shoulder shot

Kitchen location

Spencer filming and India on sound

James acting

Ciara filming and Spencer on sound

Setting up the camera

India with shoot board

Group Meeting-Editing Shoot

• ,Lots of mistakes
• Continuity errors
• Some good shots
• Need more reaction shots
• Broken continuity techniques
• Background sound
• Burnt toast then the next shot doesn't have burnt toast
• lots of takes-need to cut that down in order to save time

Time:1 hour

Things to remember

On the day we noted down some points to remember for the next shoot as this was a practise shoot so we were able to learn from it:

• Make Up Wipes
• Black out sheets
• Polaroids
• Cork Board
• Soft Butter
• Butter and Toast needs to be in fours
• No butter on knife before
• Loaf of bread
• Full fridge
• Tuck in shirt
• Pull up trousers

• Overall we soon realised on the shooting day that we needed more time to prepare costume and setting. The shed we were using was full therefore this took us time to clear out and empty. The costume choices were made that morning therfore it took us more time then expected.
• We have now planned that on the next shooting weekend we will all come the night before and prepare all costumes and settings. Therefore clean the kitchen compltely and get the shed prepared. This will allow us to start shooting as soon as we arrive and we will save time therfore we can spend that on making all shots accurate.

Shooting Day

Timeline

Storyboard

Here are some photos of our storyboard:

We began storyboarding a week before our shoot. We initially did a timeline which we used to then add further detail and it made us think about where we would place titles etc. We used different colours for different types of shot eg-yellow was close ups. This allowed us to see if we were using variation of shots as this criteriria would make our opening sequence exciting and interesting.

We split up the jobs of the storyboarding to make it quicker

-India and James did the drawings

-I did the writing underneath identifying each shot

-Spencer sorted out the order generally helped with all jobs

The process of storyboarding was very long however without doing this I don't think we would have a set idea of the opening sequence. It made us actually walk through our sequence and try and overcome problems

Costume

Costumes 

Girl number 3

• Clothing 
• Loose clothing, black or white long strap top; she needs to look vulnerable
• Look
• She should look slightly dirty, as if she has been trapped in this shed a while; in order to achieve this we could rub coal on her and her clothes. This will give the affect that she is dirty 
• We want her wrists (where the ropes have been tied) to look red and sore, this will suggest a struggle. In order to achieve this we will experiment with make up and only consider it when shooting if it looks realistic 
• Make up
• We want her look washed out. In order to achieve this we will ;
• use a lighter powder than our actress would usually use and no blusher. 
• We also will use a light-nude lipstick or lip colouring, we want it too appear that she has little or no make up on. 
• We want her eye make up to be much heavier however, we want her mascara and eyeliner smudged to look as if she has been crying
• Her eyes should be bloodshot, this will add to the idea she has been crying 

Charlie Smiles

• Clothing
• Smart clothing, plain black suit with white shirt and coloured tie. Everything should be really neat to reflect the neatness of his character (see picture of suit)
• Glasses
• Look
• incredibly neat, everything looks smart (top button done up, shirt tucked in, tie perfectly done up etc...)
• Hair slicked back with gel (see picture of Simon from Misfits)
• Nails should be clean 

Shooting Schedule

Props List

Shed

• Rope
• Tea towel for gag

• Polaroids
• Red paint for the numbers
• Wooden Chair
• Chains
• Cork Noticeboard; divided into 4, with 4 separate pictures on it, one of which being the girl in the shed at the moment. 
• Fake Blood

House

• Radio
• Calendar with dates circled
• Toast (bread)
• Butter
• Food for inside the fridge 
• Cutlery; a knife 
• A chopping board 
• Plastic See Though Bags
• Cups,plates etc
• Briefcase
• Keys