BFI

Our Media class went on a trip to the British Film Institute on the south bank where we learnt more about our course from a media teacher named Tom. 

Makeshift Tripod

For some of our shots we wanted the camera to be incredibly low to the floor or surface, this was hard to achieve with the tripod as it could only go so small. Originally me and Katie had tried just holding my phone but we found that the footage was too shaky. However Ted suggested using one of the props which was a magnetic plastic building block, surprisingly it supported the phone perfectly so we've used it ever since.

Having the camera so low to the ground allowed us to vary our shot types and and some great high angle shots where Ted would reach towards the camera. changing the audiences perspective made the content of our film far more interesting it also gave us the  opportunity to show off more of our set.

Filming day 3

On our Third day of Filming we filmed shots 31 to 34 which take place at the very end of the opening after Elliot receives messages from milo about a possible UFO at which point he grabs his bag and helmet and rushed out of the door. The running shots we particularly hard to film as Katie's garage is not particularly wide and this meant Ted had very little space to pivot whilst in a full run - luckily he managed to remain upright 😊
The shot featured in this picture was also had to film as it required Katie to stand on a chair and rest the camera on a book shelf, it was definitely worth it though as we were able to capture Ted's hilarious expression as he wrestles with a helmet.

Filming Day 2

On our second day of filming we had to re-do all the footage we filmed on day one (shot 25-30) because we wanted to keep the quality consistent. We found it a lot easier filming on an iPhone as we could all watch it back together dude to the bigger screen. The iPhones camera also dealt with the dim lighting of the garage better as it was less warm toned than the camera which we preferred. 

Issues with filming an iPhone...
When we decided we wanted a texting sequence in our film we did not anticipate how difficult filming an iPhone would be. Because we did multiple takes for each shot we kept having to re set the time on the iPhone as otherwise its time would have differed in each shot, causing a continuity error. This slowed us down a lot. 

Camera change

Due to a lack of clarity on the schools camera we made the decision to use my iPhone which Miss has given us a camera mount for. Me and Katie are both happy with this and we are not worried about transferring any footage as we will be editing on an apple Mac.

Filming Day 1

On the first day of filming we met Ted our actor who was introduced to us by and our friend Catherine. We had planned to shoot the final seven shots but unfortunately did not achieve as much as we thought we would. The shots that we did manage to film were 25- 30, we also added some in that weren't originally in our storyboard. We made the decision to start with the last few shots as this is where the majority of the action is. After looking at 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. So The next time we film we will have to re do them on a better camera.

Polaroids

In my original design for the set I had really wanted some polaroids of supposed alien sightings or clues but it was very hard to make them look realistic. We took the photos on my polaroid camera, which is also used in the set, we shot all the photos at night with flash on sonny  detail cannot be made out. We took  pictures of street lamps, fences, mail boxes and alley ways. We were so pleased with them that we have decided to use them  for one of our titles,  'Produced and Edited by Katie Killeen'. We are  going to write it on in board maker so we can rub it out for the other shots so we don't have any continuity errors.

Setting up

Overall it took Me and Katie 12 hours to set up as we had to clean out and reorganise her garage and then we needed to cut out and stick up all of the photos for the wall. We also had to stick up all of the posters around the room, arrange the shelves and hang the fairy lights. One off the hardest things to do was to make sure that the map was straight and flat for this we had to ask a friend to help us, as the map is the cenerpice to the whole set it needed to be right so we took a lot of time hating it.

                                                    

This is a Vlog of me and Katie Organising the garage 

Inspiration

In order to give us inspiration Miss showed us the ICT help room upstairs its where all the computers fro around the school go to get fixed. The tangled wires and shelf upon shelf of electronics are what we want Elliot's Den to look like.

I have been researching what I want the map on the wall to look like here are some I have found online...

The Danish Girl

Review

The other day I watched Tom Hoopers film the Danish Girl the heart breaking story of Einar Wegener Eddie Redmayne who has one of the first sex change operations. The Film fellowship wife Gerda played by Alicia Vikanders  journey to acceptance. Never having watched one of Hoopers films before I was immediately struck by the beauty of each set and location.  

Music

The song we are going to be using in our opening is Holy Commotion from the pretenders new album when I first heard it I thought it would be perfect for UFO as unlike the bands older blues sound this new track features a more new wave vibe, due to the synths and beat. Elliot will be listening to the song through headphones so the will not be a copy wright issue.

Storyboard animation

This is a video of our story board to the music that we will be using in our film. Making this has allowed us to see how long we need to spend on each shot, it will also be good to look back on when we have finished to see how similar or different our final film is to this.

UFO Storyboard

Me and Katie spent almost four lessons creating our storyboard we wanted it to be as precise as possible so when we came to film we would know exactly what to do. Additionally we wanted to ensure we included a wide variety of camera shots, angles and movements. As we are doing our title sequence within our film when making our storyboard we had to be careful to balance the titles screen time with acting content as we wanted our opening to be interesting.

Breakdown of storyboard:

1) establishing 1 shot of local area

2) establishing 2 shot of house

3) establishing shot 3 of garage

4) downwards tilt of inside garage

5) full shot of garage, Elliott opens the door and steps inside

6) close up of light switch showing 'Ted Russell as Elliott' 

7) tracking shot from behind Elliott following him further into the room

8) behind shot of Elliott sitting down

9) close up of biting some tape off

10) behind shot of Elliott putting tape on the table and picking up some paper 

11) close up of sticking paper up then a pan across to 'Created and Directed by Rachel Harrison' title

12) low angle shot of reaching for a packet of Space Raiders and opening them

13) close up of looking eating crisps and looking around, focuses on something

14)  eyeline match to polaroids reading 'Produced and Edited by Katie Killeen'

15) extreme close up of Elliott's eyes squinting to look closer

16) track of Elliott's finger following a string from the polaroids to 'Casting by Catherine Rochford'

17) full shot of entire garage showing Elliot stand and reach for shelf

18) money shot of Elliot taking book off shelf

19) Mid shot of bringing the book down, paint pot on shelf reads 'Location Manager: Anna Killeen'

20)  high angle, over-the-shoulder shot of opening to book to page saying 'Craft Services: Tim Harrison'

21) reach up to pen pot and takes pen

22) writes something spacey on Post-It note stuck on map

23) Elliott sits down and a selective focus is used to highlight laptop in the background

24) close up of laptop with 'Cinematography By Katie Killeen and Rachel Harrison' written in coding

25) phone next to laptop lights up from receiving a text

26) shot of phone showing text messages from a friend

27) low angle, reaction shot to these messages

28) SRS: back to phone showing a video which had been received 

29) full shot of room, Elliott moves across room in to grab a backpack 

30) picks phone up from table

31) shot of Elliott's feet running out the door and crushing a crisp as he leaves

Character

We know that are main character is Elliot but now we need to cast someone to play him, ideally we would like someone with some acting experience who won't be camera shy. Our character is the arcitypal nerd he spends his days obsessively tracking UFO sightings from his parents garage, we need someone who can play into the humour of the role as our film is a comedy. Elliott's costume will be relatively casual i.e. jeans and a top, thick rimed glasses and trainers.
Some examples of this type of character are Fogell from Superbad and Q from James Bond.

Initial ideas

Me and Katie have decided we want to film our coursework in her Garage this is a preliminary sketch I drew up of what I want the set to look like. It is going to help me to begin to gather the props we need, most of which we already own or plan to borrow.

The Imitation Game

Pitch

 All of the 7 groups in my media class had to do a 'dragons den' style pitch and present their idea for a 2 minute film opening to Miss Foster and the rest of the class. The aim was for the group to communicate their concept within the time frame of about 60 seconds, then with this rough idea the rest of the group would ask questions. The questions and suggestions put forward allowed the pitching group to further develop their ideas. Through the points raised many groups were able to strengthen their ideas by disregarding things that might not work. Miss Foster would then give the final judgement by labelling the pitch Red, Amber of Green. If the pitch was red it meant that it was a complete no and needed to be re thought or a new idea put forward, an amber meant the idea was good but still required development and a green meant a great idea and a go-ahead to film.

I found this whole process iceadibly useful as giving feedback allowed me to reflect on my own idea and how i could improve it. Many of the solutions that the group came up with together I could implement on my own project make it more successful. i feel my pitch benefited as my group was one of the last to present, as we had experienced other peoples we knew how to better convey our concept resulting in a more polished presentation. The classes constructive criticism was still very helpful and enabled us to progress from an amber to a green pitch.

The positive response we received when we told people our idea convinced us that we were on to a good thing. 

We decided to film our pitch so we could go back and listen to the comments made by Miss  and the class as they could help prove useful in the future. Also it will be interesting for us to have a record of the birth of our idea so at the end we can  look back and see how it has grown and evolved. 

Idea

A rough summary of our opening so far... 

Our story begins in a garage filled with space posters, stargazing equipment and nerdy memrobillia ect it is the den of a teenage boy named Elliot the main character of the film. Elliot dedicates every spare moment to his love of aliens and all things space, dominating a large portion of the wall is a map where he is tracking supposed alien sightings in his local area. These sightings are the crux of the film and all of the weird and wonderful things that happen to Elliot  and his best friend milo happen whilst in pursuit of them. Along the way they meet a girl named Suzie who plays Elliot's love interest. At the end of our opening it is Milo that texts elliot to alert him of a new siting, Elliot rushes out and the action starts...

If we were to make this whole film it would be a feel good/coming of age romantic comedy much like paper towns or Angus thongs and perfect snogging.  In order to capture the light hearted nature of these type of films me and Katie have to think about costume, mise en scene, sound, editing ect. Additionally we need to think of ways we can add humour and convey the feeling the rest of the film would have. 

The quirky 'Home made' vibe is something we also want to incorporate we are thinking doing this by having the titles within the film. For example we could make our own titles and spread them through the set then feature them that way rather than super imposed over the top later.

The Revenant

ReviewDirector Alejandro Gonzalez InarrituCinematography : Emanuael LubezkiBox office : 533 million USD

Revenant - a person who has returned, especially supposedly from the dead.

This film is carried by one sole protagonist Hug Glass an American pioneer, played by Leonardo DiCaprio throughout the course of the film we watch him STRUGGLE.  This film was all shouting natural light a directorial decision I appreciate as it gives the film a raw untouched wild quality, many scene are almost pics black with just a glimmer of firelight, it dosent matter though as it added to the tension.

1. 

   

   
   
   

                     

Prelim Outtakes

This is a video of outtakes - Enjoy😊

Mac 7 - Prelim

This is my final preliminary video It features my friends Kate and Catherine, we filmed it one day after school in Catherine's kitchen. Overall I feel it went well however it took longer than expected as Me and Katie had very limited camera and directing experience. Eventually we got the hang of the camera and the process sed up, what i have learned during this experience will be invaluable when it comes to making my film opening.

We included...

Shot reverse shot

180 degree rule

Mid shot

Close up

Match on action

For our dialogue we chose to use some song lyrics from  'Call Me Maybe' by Carly Rae Jepson. We also layered an instramental of the song over the top. 

Preliminary Story Board

This is our prelim story board we will use it as a guide when we film our preliminary. This story board allows us to plan each shot and its length. Having an order in which to film will make us far more time efficient and ensure we don't waste any of our actresses time. Because Me and Katie are the only two in our group we have decided to ask two friends to star in it as that way we can both practice our camera skills.